"IT IS WORTH WHILE."

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 772, 22 March 1910, Page 4

"IT IS WORTH WHILE."

WHY IS THERE PAIN AND SORROW? VIEWS OP SIR OLIVER LOME. Sir Oliver Lodgo writes on "The Responsibility of Authors" in the "Fortnightly Roview." "There are always plenty of faults to be found with any age, and it is part of tho function of a prophet or a poet to rebuke it," he says. "It is part of the function of u novelist, on the other lianu, 1" think, to represent it as it is, to encourage it by detecting gems of human feeling in commonplace surroundings, where else they would be lost to viewaye, and to warn it, not didactically, but by holding tho mirror up to nature and displaying nascent evils from which it should shrink. Literaturo a Real Creation, "A work of literature is a real work of creation. . Authors must often havo felt that their characters had a will of their own, that they would not always do what was expected of them, that they took tho bit between their teeth sometimes, that they were not puppets. Persons in a book or drama ought not to be puppets, and should not be 'put back in (he box'; nor must they be forcibly coerced by their creator to a predestined end independent of their character and conduct. "Coercion to a predestined end is bad art. If that statement is true, it is important. It affects the doctrine of predestination. A good work of art t.hrows light on many, problems of existence. ■ .For' instance, the old and fundamental question, 'Why is there any pain and sorrow in the world ?' can bo answered from this point of view. For it is a familiar fact that pain and sorrow are not kept out of a work-of art designed and. created by man. Why not? Why make trouble and pain. artificially, over and above what inevitably exists? Becausa they are felt to Ire necessary, becauso they serve a useful end; they rescue existence from insipidity, they furnish scope for the exercise of human functions—their endurance is-'-justified, and felt to be 'worth while."

Why is There' Imperfection? "'King Lear,' for instance, is a work of paiu and sorrow and beauty. To achieve the "beauty the paiu was necessary, and its' creator thought it worth wiiiie. Ho would liot have if otherwise, nor woiild we. So it is,in real life. Creation is 'good/ even :'v«ry good,' but not perfect. "Wo are still living amid imperfections; there is always room for improvement. Why is there any imperfection? Because • without it evolution and progress, of tho high kind which we are privileged .to take part ini could not go on. ... i , .

"Creation of free- and responsible beings,' who go: right not by compulsion, but, because they choose, who move forward not because they must, , but because they will, cannot be an- easy task—may .wo not venture to say that it must be a strenuous task?—even to Omnipotence.' livery worthy achievement demands certain conditions; and one of thoso conditions is ,toil and effort. The effort or' Creation is surely a real effort. Difliculty is a necessary sequel to the gift of Freedom. ■■■.■'■■:-.

"The construction of the physical universe, ■ the interlocking of atoms and ether that .we '•' study in' the material sciences,;is.:beautiful and wonderful in the extreme;..but: it is all a kind of intricate., and ■..high-grade machinery—perfectly obedient",, strictjyi under, control, never rebellious ...So, though/vastly beyond, and.' abovo. mechanism arranged by ,man,.it is not hopelessly and unthinkably of a different kind—saving always for the-. unthinkablo problem of existence itself. ' ■■' ■ ■"■■■'■■ : . •■

A Struggle—Joy, Too, \ . "But, with the introduction of life and mind'and will,-difficulties of.a'superlatively higher order begin. The possibility of things going wrong, not, through oversight, but through activo ' mutiny and rebellion, the possibility-of real vice can no longer bo ignored. Compulsion might be easy, but the introduction of compulsion would be a breaking of the rules 7-an , abandonment of. the problem. Tho state ; of the. world is, surely as good as it has been-possible- to ! - make \ it—given the conditions—and has infiinitely more promise in it for the future than any mechanically-perfect system could have attained; else it were blasphemy to say. that thero was ever'imperfection, else the struggle for. existence were a fiction and and a sham. ■'. .... , " "There "ismndoubtedly'a.struggle, but there'is also much joy—the joy of achievement sometimes,, tho joy of preparation always. Tho joy of achieved existenco manifests itself in beauty. Life is pressing forward amid-troubles afld . trials; pressing forward to realise itself, to blossom and bud like a briar among ruins, even amid hardship and % decay—because— because existence is worth its price. Existence; with freedom and anticipation of an infinite future, is .beyond measure a boon: the joy in'sheer existence'is conspicuous in nature, and literature makes tin's abundantly clear.

Price.'Must Be Paid. "But the price must bo paid; life is by no .means all sunshine and roses— disci'plino is essential, and errors and cruelty aro the necessary consequences of the gift of freedom. Nor is herself always in a benignant mood; hdr earthquakes and pestilences aro realities, before which life has to give way. Life holds its tenure of earth precariously! and were it not certain that, in spito of apparent extermination, it really porists, in some sense, amid other surroundings, the puzzle ,of sentient existence would be overwhelming.. ' ' , , ■ ' "Tho lesson taught us by works of art is , that • the ivliolo effort, tho groaning and travailing oflereation, is worth while." Seen in this light, the present pain and -sorrow-thus lend themselves to Optimism; Eow splendid must tho future of tho raco : be, if all this trouble. jitul all tho millions of years of preparation that science tells us.. of,'.were needed as its prelude. Each step is presumably essential, as it is in a good work of art. Nothing is there wasted—each word, each scene, each act tolls. So I assume it to be with real existence; each step, however painful it may be, is .an essential part of the whole. ' , "So an extraordinary responsibility belongs to the artists of the pen. They .represent tho truth of tho present age to itself and to the future; and not only do they represent it, they also prepare the way and to some extent determine what the future shall bo." . . . :