AMONG THE UTOPIAS

Evening Star, Issue 17328, 16 April 1920, Page 4

AMONG THE UTOPIAS

A fruitful field was 'opened up by the Rev. I. Sarginson in his lecture iii the Congregational Church. St. Clair, last evening, under the title 'Among the Utopias. Romance and Reality in Sociology.' Perhaps most of lis a';e more or less Utopians now, and it is interesting to have the old. as well as the more modern, classics in this line again brought before us under a winnowing process that represents an honest attempt to distinguish between wheat and chaff. The lecturer explained, however, that he proposed to reserve the critical process until he had given brief summaries of the best known imaginary commonwealths. He would then examine these in the light of what ho conceived to be the essential things in personality and the constant verdicts of human experience, which alone could decide between truth and-fiction in our enthusiastic fancies.

In his preliminary remarks Mr Sarginson said that the most real and traffic devastation of the war had been wrought m the territory of the soul, which it had almost swept clear of reverence. The most aggressive and portentous forces that threaten civilisation to-day were clearlv out against every kind of authority but that of their own crude will and anarchistic way. They jauntily cut themselves from the past as if they had nothing either to learn from it or revere in it. The class sympathy which Bolshevism had awakened in every part of the world, was one of the most sinister signs of the times._ Bolshevism was far more frankjy materialistic and despotic than Prussianism, which at least- had the redeeming feature of respect for brains. The old ideal of freedom and a man's right to his own soul was scorned by the new saviours of society. Force and {rightfulness, which, during the war, were regarded as n German monopoly, were now seen as the openly avowed weapons of the militant section of industrial reformers everywhere. Coming more immediately to'his subject, the lecturer remarked that though Sir Thomas More's 'Utopia' was published 4CO years ago, we had to go back 3.000 years at least to find the first thoughtful men of public spirit who were much exercised on the inequalities between rich and poor, and the oppression and wrong resulting therefrom. Even then great souls had studied the economic question, and even fastened upon land monopoly aa the parent of a whole catalogue of evils. The ancient Jewish legislation was truly marvellous for its rich humanity, and "for its penetration so near to the' heart of the social problem. The lecturer gave interesting sketches of the work of the Grecian lawgivers Lycurgus and'Solon, the former in Sparta and the latter in Attica. FTe also briefly described the main features of Plato's Republic. These stood absolutely for the supremacy of the State in every department of life, what we held to be the sacred rights of personality being completely subjected to the most tlforougligoing State control and regulation. Children wero chiefly regarded as a species of State'property, the weak to be got rid of m infancy. was an integral part of thg social fabric. They heard much of the Athenian Democracy, "but, with all her glory, Athens never knew -what democracv was. Attica, whose population never exceeded 100,000, had at least 350,000 slaves, so that the government was an aristocracy 'cf the free Greek citizens rather than a- democracy. More's Utopia wa3 shown to follow closely the main lines of_ the communism of the '"Republic," with one or two points of divergence. The writer was "plainly saturated with the Greek ideas. "I must freely own," said he, " that as long as there .is any property, and while money is the standard of all other things, I cannot think that a nation can be governed either justly or happily. ... I grow more favorable to Plato, and do not wonder that he resolved not to make any laws for such as would not submit to a community of all things ; for so wise a man could not but foresee that the setting all upon a level was the only way to make a nation happy, which cannot be obtained so long as there is property." Mr Sarginson Intimated that his next lecture a fortnight hence would deal with Morelly's ' Basiliade.' Fourier's ' Phalanstere,' "and Bellamy's 'Looking Backward.'