PROBLEM OF POVERTY.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 370, 7 April 1876, Page 3

PROBLEM OF POVERTY.

Professor Macgregor's review of the * Problem of Poverty,' of which two chapters hav 1 now been published, is made to cover very wide ground. Friendly critics have indeed already hinted that the ground is so wide as to be almost beyond definition. Happily not left to grope altogether Professor tells us at the outset ( object is to direct attention to the social condition of the in order to bring into bolder relief the, advantages for dealing with the social problem which we happily possess. '1 he first part, then, is a relation of the evil of life: tir-t, a struggle of euch against a'l, "kill or be killed was the original rule of life —the sum of human duty"; secmd, competition arising of the earlier formula. " eat or be eaten," and civilization, " with her handmaidens, morality and religion," the motives of which are " wealth, knowledge,

and morality .... in the order stated;" thirdly, individual liberty of ac- I tion, and consequent responsibility; fourthly (hut here we speak with diffidence), the advent of conscience. To attempt a more detailed notice of the idea of the paper would he beyond our space or abilities. It would be to re-write—or at least re-cast. — the piper, to do what the editors should hav<; 'lone. Its diffuscness— or, rather, wane of all literary coherence —renders it, as it stands, fruitless for instruction, but it cannot be said to be equally innocent of being charged as being fruitless for of. fence. What is of interest, is the Professor's real view of the grand Problem of humanity—the existence of evil, of misery, of death. Has he conquered the Problem, or lias the problem conquered him? Also, What, is the Advent of conscience? To give an interim judgment, we say certainly the Problem has conquered the Professor, and that the Advent of conscience is evolved from his own bewilderment. Apparent success is his standard measurement for good ; apparent poverty is his standard of measurement for evil. Accepting the Darwinian theory of the evolution of man, with mental qualities become the object of ua'ural selection, in i the ante-social stage, from "the animal i without either in x-llect or conscience," we are told man became endowed, or possessed by acquisition, with articulate speech, and .thus " bridged the gulf that separates him from the animals." Having reached this stage of man's development into the era of humanity, the further evoUnion, traced by Tylor and Lubbock, is followed. In the January number of the 'Edinburgh ' (1872), page 112, we find ~ " Some parts of the work (Tylor's ' Primitive Culture'), moreover, such as >,Ue interesting chapters on language, and the art of counting, may probably be regarded as attempts to bridge over the gic'f which ■now separates the highest animal intellifjencrfrom the lowest and rudest forms of humanity. And again, in the «ame article, on page 113, "The attempt, indeed, to bridge over the gulf that separates animal from human intelligence by any analysis of the conscious elements that constitute the latter, or of the necessary products of these elements, appears to us the result of psychological confusion and mistake." Contrary to Mr. .fames G. Fitzgerald, in his wonderful article styled ' Darw ino- Theology,' Professor Maegregor considers man's body remained unchanged, being compensated for this defect by lus power of choosing suitable dress—ot course this must be only after he emerged from the ante-social stale by virtue of mental endowment. Mr. Fitzgerald, a staimchcr adherent of Darwinism, scorns the idea that el <thing was necessary to man, " even after the loss of the fur covering, in which his progenitors were doubtless attired," anymore than as a concession to an epoch of creation —the innovation of morality. Mr. Macgregor sees no beauty in past or present humanity— stylitui the " vast amorphous wims of humanity" "chips and sitavings," " heaped up refuse of nges." " Myriads of broken hearts and ruined lives, ca<t forth as'refuse to develop their brethren of some remote future into forms of strength and beauty!" is his keynote throughout. Competition thus evolved " the great principle of progress, though its Sphinx-like alternative, makes our humanity shudder, and sounds like-a libel on the Deity." Yet we are not left t-nlirely without hope, and there is a plan—"To reconcile the actual sfat<' of things with the law of God and the cnschriKje of man is utterly in.possible, except in one way, and that is to regard the mo at nature of man and the re(feneration of society is a half unfolded plan, some of whose outlines we can dimly (race, though we cannot compass the symmetry of its mighty curves." Again we are cheered—"Under the law of "competition, .Nature cannot be overreached. She will gain, if not by hisr (man's) life, then by his death, and at least his carcase will enrich the soil." In a hyperbole we are told we are (he coal which, being reduced to ashes, will consolidate iho upper tiers in the slowly rising temple of Humanity. With a slovenly carelessness as unpardonable as unintentional, the Deity is styled "Nature, red in tooth and claw," lor she is the worker perfecting the race, neglecting the single life in her care for the type, and having in view two incompatible ends - "The elevation of the race by competition (involving the ruthless crushing of the week), urid the possible salvation of all mankind. As the only means of serving both, of caring for the chips as well as for the statue, man was called in to cooperate with God, and thus, with the ad-

vent of consciewes a new dispensation began." In reference to flits advent of conscience we get a little—but very little —more light—" We hare seen tha.t the cosmieal'aspect of God's method for the discipline of the race has been conflict and competition, but a new dispensation begins with the advent of conscience." Our old fashioned idea of the advent of conscience was when n an at the first discovered he was naked. The Professor places it as following upon "conflict and competition," but when, we are not told: it must have been after man took upon him his Immunity in emerging from the antesocial state.

We cannot follow Mr. Macgregor further into the depths of his despondency, in his outbursts so strangely tinged with the history of personal struggle observed or experienced, such as—" How can we co-operate with God, and be euided by his plan ? It is impossible." However, " there is in every human being the germs at least of conscience." " Our vernier is conscience." " Our intellect seems to paralyse and benumb our conscience." There are a few beauties in these two papers. Yet we neglect them, the more readily as beauty is not studied by the editors of the ' New Zealand Magazine,' and the few gems of thought scattered here and there are sadly marred in the setting. We see in the 'Problem of Poverty ' the unbridled thought* of a large intellect bursting forth in impetuous torrent, under the fata' mistake that the world is composed of equally impetuous minds, the wild conflict and competition of which will result in the evolution of truth—in short, that a professorial board is a microcosm of humanity. Perhaps Mr. Macgregor hardly anticipated.the weight which must attach to what he publishes, or.he had been more careful. Perhaps he was misled, instead of awed, by the " vastness of the vistas which his own limited intellect can penetrate in his effort to re-think the great thought of Creation."

* ' Problem of Poverty,' by Duncan Macgregor * New Zealand Magazine,' numbers 1 and 2.