ORIGINAL SIN

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 89, 12 October 1923, Page 7

ORIGINAL SIN

THE LEGEND OF EVIL

KIPLING'S THEORY OF LYING

.VIRTUE OF INDEPENDENCE.

(UNITBD PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPIRIdHT.)

(AUSTBALIAN-NBW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION) LONDON, 10th October.

Amid familiar scenes, with undergrads. stripping oft one another's boots and socks during the installation and throwing them into the air, and other escapades, Mr. Itudyard Kipling was installed ag Lord Rec.tor of St. Andrew's University, in succession to Sir James Barrie. Those who received honorary degrees included Mr. Baldwin, who is Mr. Kipling's cousin. Mr. Kipling, in a witty address, based on Burns's lines on the glorious privilege- of being independent, said: "Independence means 'let every herring hang by its own head.' The desire for independence was one of the earliest human instincts. Not until man abandoned his family treo and associated himself with others on the flat for predatory or homicidal purposes did he sacrifice personal independence of action. Science tells us that man began life as a mon-key-like creature among the tree-tops. It is interesting to recall that .when speech was born the first use man made of his new power of expression was to tell a frigid, calculating lie. Conceive his pride when the first liar found that by mere word of mouth he could send his simpler companions shinning up trees in search of fruit he knew was not there. The snecess of his early lies showed man he was a miracle worker. . Can you blame him for thinking himself a god? He was only kept within bounds by the discovery that this art of lying was not confined to himself. Apparently the two first liars were of the opposite sex, married, and-Tfad numerous progeny." Mr. Kipling concluded by urging the under-graduates at all cost to remember that "the.one thing that stands outside belittlement, through all changes, is the guidance that drives a man to own to himself that no profit a man makes by concessions to public opinion can justify his disregard of that principle. Yourself is the only person you cannot possibly get ;iway from in this life, and maybe in another. It is worth a little pains and money to be good to oneself."