THE PRICE OF THE GODS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18140, 1 August 1924, Page 10

THE PRICE OF THE GODS.

MR RUDYARD KIPLING ON YOUTH. SPEECH TO RHODES SCHOLARS. (raoa oca otcx coavarovowrc.) LONDON, Juno 11. Mr Budyard Kipling was one of the speakers at tho annual banquet of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust. As usual, this was held at Oxford, and over 200 Rhodes Scholars from every part of the Empire and from America took. part. Viscount Milner presided, and among the guests were Viscount Grey of Fallodon, Mr L. S. Amery, Sir Joseph Cook, Sir "William Irvine, and Sir Edward Grigg. The chairman, in proposing the toast of "The Memory of the Founder," said their dinner celebrated the coming of age of the Rhodes Foundation. It would be twenty-one years next October since tho first Rhodes scholars, twelve in number, came into residence There were now something like 200 in residence. The total number who had come into residence sinco tho trust was founded was between 1100 and 1200, and that was an impressive result of Rhodes's munificence. He was a mat. of big ideas, and the greatest of his conceptions was this foundation, by which he hoped to give permanent vitality to the ideals by which he waß most animated throughout the British Empire and the whole of the British raco outside the Empire. He carried out that idea on an unequalled and hitherto unimngined scale. He thought in centuries, and they were only at the beginning of his great enterprise. But it was not too early to ask what fruit there was on the tree, whether in Oxford or in the various countries to which the scholars went his hopes with regard to them had been realised. As far as Qxford was concerned, he thought the scheme had worked out pretty much as Rhodes intended. He was firmly convinced that his scholars would gaia from their sojourn in that place not only learning, but the inspiration of its whole life and atmosphere, its great traditions, the countless famous names and stirring memories which were called up by its old walls and towers, its venerable antiquities, and its beauty. (Cheers.) It was Rhodes's wish' that his scholars should return to their own country whatever they had imbibed here from that city of learning and from their association with their British comrades. Whatever might be the history of the foundation in the past, it was as nothing to'what it might become. Two things were of paramount importance; one was that they should get the best men available to fill the scholarships in the future, and the other was that old scholars should retain their interest, in the foundation and make it a point of honour to do whatever • they could in their several countries to maintain its prestige, spirit, and influence. Rhodes wanted to see a confraternity of all the Rhodes scholars throughout, the world, and that was the vision of a fomantic dreamer whose dreams were apt to come true.

A Superfluous Toast. Mr Kipling proposedprospeiity totho Rhodes scholars. "On reflection, ho said, "shell reflection as such a dinner as tins induces —it strikes me that the toast I have to propose is more than usual superfluous. It is.too.easy. I hare to do for the next fow minutes is to wish you prosperity. A,ll you have to do for the next few years is to go «mt and get it. As, of, course, you will. Indeed, you cannot very well escape doing so. Your path has been smoothed for just that end. When Mr Rhodes was brooding over his scheme of the Scholarships he used to say, 'The game is to get them to knock' up against each other qua students." After they have done that for three years at Oxford, they'll never Torget it qua individuals.' Aocordindy, lie so arranged what he called his 'game' that each man, bringing with him that side of his head which belonged to the important land of his birth, was put in the way of getting another side to his head by men belonging to other not unimportant countries. It is an asset towards prosperity, even for those whose lot will be cast altogether in one land,.to get full and first-hand information about the men they will meet later. You know the formula better than I. The style of a man's play, plus the normal range of his vices, divided by the square of his work, and multiplied by the coefficient of his nationality, gives not only his potential resistance under breaking-strain, but indicates, within a few points, how far he may be trusted to pull off a losing game.

Proving Ground of Friendship. "This knowledge can only be acquired in the metciless intimacy of one's early days. After that., one has to guess at the worth of one's friends or enemies; but Youth, which, between ourselves, sometimes knows , aimost ag much about some things as it thinks it always does about everything, can apply its own tests on its own proving-grounds, and does not forget the results. Ehodes and Jameson, for example, did not draw together impersonally over the abstract idea of Imperial sendee. They had tried each other out long before, across the pokertables of tho Kimberley Club, beside the death-beds of friends, and among the sudden and desperate emergencies, of life on the diamond fields. So when their work began neither had to waste time in reading up the other's references. They simply fell into step side "by side, and there they remained till Death parted them. "May something like their experience be yours with your friends here and throughout all our world; for _you are exploring and assaying the mindf. of countries as well as of men. You have had samples of all the Englishspeaking teams to play with and against at leisure, in a cool grey atmosphere which gives full vnlue to all attitudes —even to the attitude of the youngest and most rampant reformer who comes up fresh and fresher each year. When the scholarships were first created, one was afraid that Mr lthodes's large «nd even-handed mixing up of unrelated opposites might infect weaker souls with the middle-aged failings of toleration, impartiality, or broad-mindedness. And you know, gentlemen, that when these symptoms break out on a young man it is a eure sign of early death, or—of a leaning towards practical politics. Fortunately, what one has seen and beard since then proves that one's fears were groundless. (Oheers.) Howling Provincialism.

"There is a certain night, among several, that I remember, not lona after the close of the wax, when a mac from Melbourne and a man from Montreal set themselves to ehow a couple of men from the South and the Middle West that the Constitution of the United States was not more than one hundred and fifty years out of date. ■At the same time, and in the same diggings, a man from California was explaining to a man from the Cape, with the help of some small hard apples, that no South African fruit was fit to be sold in the same market. as the Californian product. The ring wan kept by an ex-private of Balliol who, after. Laving eaten plum-an'd-apple jam

in the trenches for some years, was a bigoted anti-fruitanian. He assured me that none of them would be allowed to kill eanh other, because they all wanted whole on the river next day; but even with murder barred there was no trace of toleration till exhaustion set in. Then somebody made a remark which (I have had to edit it a little) ran substantially as follows:— 'Talking of natural resources, doesn't it strike you that what we've all got most of is howling Provincialism ?' (Laughter.) That would haive delighted Rhodes. It was just the sort of thing.that he himself would havy jerked'out, half aloud, at a Cabinet meeting, and expanded for minutes afterwards.. There must be other phrases also, perhaps even more direct, which hare equally emerged from the peace and qiiiet of such gatherings as the one which I attended. If tiiit be bo tou might do worse than use them ai> a pinch, later on, as passwords among your associates throughout the world.

Memory of Good Days. "I suggest this because, when you move up into the line, and the Gods ail things at a price are dealing you your places and your powers. you "may find it serviceable, for ends outside your own, to remind a frioiui on the far side of the world of some absurd situation or trivial event which parallels the crisis or the question then under your hands. And that man, in his. station, remembering when and how the plirase wa6 borne, may respond to all that it implies—also for ends not his own. : "None can foresee on what grounds, national or internatioria;. sour- of vua here may have-to make or honour such an appeal; .whether it will be for tangible help in "Vast material ventures or f;or'aid in things unseen; whether for a little sorely-ncedcd suspension of judgment in the Council of a Nation as self-engrossert as your, own; or, more searching still, for orderly farewells to be taken at some enforced parting of the ways. Any one of these issues may 6weep to you across earth in the future. It will be yours to meet it with sanity, humour, an-.l the sound heart that goes with a sense of proportion and the memory of good days shared together.

Out of tie Welter. "For you will be delivered to life in a world . where, at the worst, no horror is now incredible, no folly unthinkable, no adventure inconceivable. At the best, you will have to deal, and be dealt with by communities impatient of nature, idolatrous of mechanisms, and sick of self-love to the point, almost, of doubting their own perfections. The Gods, whom they lecture, alone know what these folk will do or think. And here, gentlemen, let me put before you the seductive possibility that Bomo of you may end. your days in refuges for the mentally afflicted—not because you will necessarily be any more insane than you are at present, but because you will have preached democracy to democracies resolute that never again shall their peace be troubled -by Demos. Yet, out of all this welter, you will arrive at prosperity, as youth, armour-plated by its own absorption in itself, has always arrived. "In truth, there is still but one means by which you can miss it, and that is, if you try to get the better of the Gods who sell everything at n price. They continue to_ be just Gods, arid should'you hold'back even "a fraction of the siim asked for your heart's desire, they will say nothing, but they will furnish you with a substitute that would deceive the elect—that will deceive even you until it is too late. So I would advise you to pay them in full, making a note that goods obtained for personal use cost rather more than those intended for the honour and advancement' of othersl "ity apology fof mentioning these sordid bonds is that I saw the man on whose dream you move pay the price that the Gods demanded of him for his heart's desire. And now T see sonie portion of-his reward. 'lt ' is your prosperity."