ART OF LIVING

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 143, 18 June 1937, Page 24

ART OF LIVING

UTILISING LEISURE

A W.E.A. LECTURE

"The acid test of a civilisation lies in the use that is made of leisure; and the correct use of leisure is not acquired instinctively, but must be gained by serious thought and practice," said Mr. L. F. de Berry in giving the first of a series of four lectures to the W.E.A. on "Man And His Leisure," on Tuesday night. The question of leisure occupied much attention today; in a sense the 40-hour we^i and the problem of unemployment had forced upon all administrators, as well as all social workers, and thinkers, the consideration of the use and abuse of leisure. / "Civilised man,", said the lecturer, "spends rather more than two-thirds of his waking life in obtaining the means to make life possible; he has only one-third left for living. As a consequence he is a shocking bungler in the art of life, and also through sheer lack of practice. He does not realise this, assuming that the knowledge how to live rightly is instinctive. This belief is a delusion. Savages may enjoy life instinctively, but not civilised man, for the reason that his. life is not instinctive but artificial. To enjoy it he must cultivate artificial tastes, and artificial tastes are acquired tastes; or he must use, in the most beautiful creative sense, those instincts with which he is endowed." .

A common idea was that leisure was always pleasant, but, as G. B. Shaw emphasised, there could be nothing worse than the endless holiday; an' everlasting state of having nothing to do and plenty of money to spend in doing it. . A short historical sketch of the development of leisure was given, tracing the progress from primitive man to the present day. It was shown tha,t leisure took its rise first where the conditions of soil and climate were favourable for the production of a surplus of the needs- and comforts of life. This surplus gave periods of rest and contemplatiqn. Ingenuity was stimu-r lated, which in turn produced invention. The part that religion played was sketched and the part played by Constantine, Theodosius, and Charlemagne outlined.

Leisure came about in these differing ways: getting others to work for one; the abundance of food gave time for resting; the co-operation of the family enabled some or all to enjoy leisure; agriculture and the discovery of the value and use of seeds gave much leisure in place of time spent previously in travelling; invention played a "great part; and finally the organisation of the community made leisure a part of the heritage of all men.

In' subsequent lectures the following will be discussed:—(a) How man has used his leisure —the development of art; (b) leisure and man's social life; (c) leisure today—its use and development; (d) leisure and work.