TO BE ONESELF.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 141, 31 May 1911, Page 11

TO BE ONESELF.

■’Never before wi;« the world so highly organised, or so mechanieailv perfect : and yet out of this aggregated lite there issues one new peril which threatens to rob ail these gains of half their glory. It is the peril of suppressed and undiscovered personality, the merging of the individual in the movement of the mass, the risk that in this vast organisation of efficiency, the thoughts of many hearts shall remain unrevealed. Here is this mighty movement of industrial and political life, with its huge aggregation of material forces, and of masses of men ; hut in this vast mechanism of the modern world where is the place for the individual soul?” So writes Professor Peabody, of Harvard University, in a recent number of the * Outlook.” and in so writing he has uttered the feelings of many who have seriously contemplated the complex system of modern life. The growth of machinery in every branch of labour, and the development of systems in which each worker is merely a pawn in the hand of the masterplayer. are lessening the need for individual effort on the part of the workers, and robbing them, slowly but surely, of all chance to develop a distinct personality. In all big organisations the thinking and initiative belong to the head, the hands are simply there to do as they are told, as deftly and accurately as possible, but still only at the suggestion of another. Professor Peabody ays: “I once stood by thc death-bed of a clerk in a vast establishment, and we talked together of the death that seemed approaching, and the man, looking up into my face, out of the sad story of a depersonalised and mechanical life, said, ‘Sir, I have been dead and buried for 20 years.’ ” Could anything be sadder than that hopeless acknowledgment of a lost entity ? And yet we all know men and women who are allowing themselves to be killed and buried beneath a weight of work. We see men calmly surrendering themselves to being mere shuttles in the machinery of their business. We see women —fewer, it must be happily admitted—becoming absorbed in their daily tasks to the exclusion of all that develops their deeper selves. The excuse given by both men and women is that it is their duty ; that they are paid to give all their time to their work. But there is no wage high enough to buy a human being, body and soul ; no work important that it demands the suppression of all identity. It is the duty and the pleasure of any man or woman of right principles to give his best efforts in return for the wage that is paid to him : lie spares no pains to perform his work to the very best of his ability, and gladl y gives this and thought, unmentioned in the contract, to the task on which he is engaged. But nobody, man or woman, has the right to voluntarily surrender the divine gift of a separate soul, which belongs to each and all of us. and no master has the right to expect such surrender.

It must be admitted that the surrender is seldom conscious in the beginning. The worker becomes absorbed in his work ; the effort of fitting in accurately with all the other pieces in. the machine exacts all his attention, and by degrees he has thought for nothing but keeping pace, till finally he loses power to think at all beyond his little groove. The one big safeguard against this modern evil is the possession of a hobby—something that calls for individual thought and effort. It matters little what the hobby may be. so long as it is sufficiently absorbing to fill the worker’s leisure hours, and carry him to other realms, w’here he can be a free agent, thinking and acting for himself. not merely part of a well-oiled machine. The more remote his hobby is from his daily work the better, for we know that change of occupation is as good as change of air; but the chief thing is tp have an interest in the pursuit of which he is an individual, not portion of a system. Sometimes a man, who is an ordinary clerk or mechanic in his daily work. becomes a recognised authority on the subject which he has made his hobby ; and such a man is to be envied, for he has more than preserved his personality—he has developed it, and got the best out of himself. Although modern life is daily drawing more women into the whirlpool of business, where they, too. form parts of the big machine, as yet the majority of our sex find their daily occupation in the home, where there should be less chance of becoming an automaton. But how- common it is. how piteously common, to find women losing their identity beneath the weight of household cares. We have all known clever, active girls, with a distinct talent for music or paint-

ing. or a decided taste for literature, let themselves become srnoth- | ered by the demands of their housel work. “I never hear you sing, now,” you say to a woman whose sweet voice has charmed many an ear in the past. •’No : I have no time to practice now : baby takes all my attention.” is the reply. And the foolish young mother does not see that by burying her talent she is doing herself an injury, and robbing her child iof a precious gift—the mother’s personality. A mother’s devotion is very sweet to behold, but devotion consists of more than feeding Jand dressing the baby. i Every woman who does not wish ;to degenerate into a household l drudge should devote at least half an hour a day—more if possible, but at' least half an hour—to some , interest quite outside her house- ' keeping tasks. Let it be music or ! singing, half an hour with the poets, or in the garden, or with her sketch-book, or wood-carving. Whatever it is, it should be somei thing of perpetual interest to her. iin w’hich she can see herself advancing day by day. and V’hich is I strong enough to take her mind right away from the realms of pots and pans. It will not mean neglect of her

home, this daily half-hour spent ’n the development of her finer self; she will go back to her tasks rts: ed and fitted to cope with them And, best of all, she will retam her own personality and self-respect, iand keep for her husband and children a sane and healthy wile i and mother, a friend and compan- ' ion, instead of a housemaid, nurse, and cook rolled into one.