THE TYRANNY OF THE SPECIALIST.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 110, 1 February 1908, Page 13

THE TYRANNY OF THE SPECIALIST.

"In one region Ilown that I dread and dislike the tyranny of. tho specialist, and thai; and' ■ ' wntes 4Mr - A - rC - Benson; in i' ' s{no. Comhill. Magazine." .'Bl would rather hear the experience of a life-long sufferer on • the problem of pan), or of a faithful lover on , tho,mystery of lovo, or .of a poot on the nt'•;flience of;• natural .'beauty, " or ■ of an unselfish andhumblo saint bn.lthe.qiiestion of faith in . tbo unseen, than,the evidencp of the' most ... subtlo theologian or < metaphysician in the* '<■ _ world,'. > Specialists in Life.- .: . "Many of us, if we are specialists in' no- ; . thing else, are specialists in life;;we havo-ar- ... rived at a point of-,view j some 'particular as- • pect of things' has come" homo to us with special force; and'what really enriches tho •. hopo.and faitli of ,tho world "is tho experience :of candid and sii)cere'pe'rsons. : The specialist, has often had no time or opportunity to observe life; all he has observed is the thought , of., other /sccluded' 7 /persbns; persons'-. whoso • : view has ; been ;both narrow and conventional, ■: because thoy .have not' had the opportunity of ■ correcting'their 'traditional preconceptions by . life itself. ■ -. ...'' ■ :•, ■■■' "I call, with all the earnestness that I can muster, upon all speculative people, who ;haye.felt the, problems of life ;• weigh.heavily.upoVthem, not to bo. by tho disapproval}'of technical Btudents, but . to come forward and tell,us what conclusions they, hav^formed. 1 ,, The work of the.trained specialist is essentially, l in religion find philo- . Bophy, a negative '\rork. TII9 . poet and the idealist make and cast abroad,'the great vital . ideas which the specialist picks up and ana- . lyses.But we must-not stop at analysis; > wo want positive wpgress as well.' "Wo want peopjo.te tell us, candidly and ■imply; how. their own i soul grew, how .it 5 ease off conventional beliefs, how. it justified, itself in being hopeful or the reverse. There never,-was a' timo |when 'niore freedom of thought and expression was conceded to the • individual.i A man i 3 no longer socially bannod for being/ heretical, schismatic; or liberal-minded. 1 \v;ant people 1 to say frankly what ' real part r, spiritual agencies or .religious ideas have played in their. lives, . -whether such agencies arid ideas havo modi? • fied their conduct, or havo been modified by their inclinations and habits. I long to'know a thousand things ibout my fellow-men—how they bear pain, lioiv they , confront the pros-'-pect of dfiatli, the-hopes by which/they live, the_fears that overshadow them, the stuff,of their lives, the, influence of their'emotions. \. It has -long been thought/ and it' ■ is v still; thought by many. 'narrow precisians, indelicate and egotistical to do, this. And the reiult is that we can find in-,books all'tho things that :dp not ma'ttel-, while the thoughts that ire 6f deep and yjtfel interest: aro withheld. ■ "Such 1 books 1 as Montaigne'sV, 'Essays,' Rousseau's;'' Autobiography,' Mrs. Carlyle's 'Letters, 1 Mrs. 'Oliphant's 'Memoirs,' tho 'Autobiography' 'of- B. R. Haydon, to namo but a few books that como into my mind, aro tho sort, of books.that I crave for, because thoy aro books.in,which ono sees righti'into the heart and soul of another. Men can. confess to a book what they cannot confess to a friend.. Why should it bp necessary to veil , this essenco of; humanity in the.dreary melodrama, tbo trite incident of a novel or a

play? Things in life do not happen as they happen in novels or plays. Life and Mcndollsm. "If |ifp is a commonplace and pleasant sort of business there is nothing- particular to say or to think about it. : But for all thoso—and they aro many—who feel that life .misses, by some blind inovitablo movement, being the gracious and beautiful thing it, seems framed to bo, how can such as these hold their peace?' And how, except by facing it all, and looking patiently and bravely at it, can wo find a remedy for its soro sicknesses?, That; method lias been used, and used with success, in every-other kind of investigation, and wq niust investigate life too, evcinif it turn 3 . out to bo all a kind of Mendelism, moyod and swayed by absolutely fixed laws, which tako no account of what wo sorrowfully desire." ' . '