“ Leisure, Not Necessity ” As Mother Of Invention

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 274, 20 November 1935, Page 15

“ Leisure, Not Necessity ” As Mother Of Invention

Lord Raglan, who lias acquired a reputation for shattering illusions at British, Association mootings, shattered some moro at the recent conference. He “debunked" the savage, and insisted that ho was not really an ingenious person at all. “It is not that the savage learned' to do without clothes, but that we have learned to do with them," Lord Raglan pointed out. “The modern savage has a pedigree as Jong as our own, but ho remains a savage because he never invents or discovers' anything." Every invention the history of which is known has been in sonic centre of wealth, leisure and culture - contact. People who are engaged in‘the struggle for the bare necessities of life cannot afford time for experiment.’ “That necessity is the mother of invention is a complete fallacy," declared Lord Raglan. “Leisure, not necessity, as the mother oi invention. Any tendency on tho part of the savage to act in any way differently from his ancestors is regarded as treason calculated to bring ill-repute to tho whole community." It was dillicult to believe that people ot very low culture spent hours and hours rubbing two sticks together just to see what would happen and so discovered lire-making. The cradle was another alleged primitive invention. Savage mothers, accord mg to theory, had learned by experience that babies should bo rocked to sleep, and so devised simple macnines in, the form of cradles. “Hot only do most savage babies got on very well without being rocked, but our doctors havo now decided that rocking is detinitely harmful to babies," said Lord Raglan. Tho practico of rocking babies was derived from tho auciont custom 'of putting now-born babies in a boat, as illustrated by tho story of Moses in the bulrushes.