NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY Registered for transmission through the post as a newspaper. SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1924. A STERN PHILOSOPHY.

Northern Advocate, 2 August 1924, Page 4

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY Registered for transmission through the post as a newspaper. SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1924. A STERN PHILOSOPHY.

Mr Rudyard Kipling has never been one of the prophets who prophesy smooth things. His message always is that the world will call upon a man for his utmost power of effort, endurance, and sacrifice. It was this message that evidently formed the basis of n, brilliant speech delivered some weeks ago by Mr Kipling to the Rhodes Scholars in England, and his words were not the less impressive because he gave them a rather sombre colouring. He told his audience that the undergraduate of 1924 must go out into a world "where, at the worst, no horror .is now incredible, no folly unthinkable, no adventure inconceivable." These are bitter words, but it must be admitted that many horrors which would have been incredible in 1913, much folly which then would have seemed impossible, have ravaged the world. If we have not learned that the maintenance of the civilisation which the labours of many centuries have built up now needs the utmost efforts of all men of good will, then, indeed, the stern lessons of the last ten years have taught us nothing. But Mr Kipling fears that we have learnt little «nd forgotten little despite the war and the peace. "At the best," he warns young men, "you will have to deal and be dealt with by communities

impatient of Nature, idolatrous of mechanisms, and sick of self-love to the

point s ( i)!i...-: ..: ■ii.-iilitin- their own perfe-cti" .'" 1h • f"o 1 - tuifh enough in that t<> i:.i.'.kJ'\ mjml yet we mv.y ■i'Jllbt V.-1 /...-i '>' '■' 'P'" ,, •'•■'• i!' f , ' ''•'• anxious fcrj.<-r: ; f-io!) in v/inrh we lh>\ Arc we in !<•■. c with the despotism of machinery v> has us in its grip? Arc we not far from admiring ourselves excessively.' In every country there are seen rc-tless endeavours to bring about change, either to restore an older order or to invent o. new one which shall be utterly different from the present. Surely no one can be satisfied with the world to-day. But in spite of it all Mr Kipling seems to think that "somehow good will be the final goal of ill." He predicts a future of "democracies resolute that never again shall their peace be troubled by Demos." In some of his stories of the future he has imagined a federation of the world in which government is entrusted to a small band of experts,' whose simple commission is so to order life that nobody interferes with anybody else. But for all this visionary philosophy, Mr Kipling can be practical enough. One of our disabling infirmities, lie asserts, is "howling provincialism." Of course if there had been in Europe a pervading sense of the unity of Christendom, the war would never have been fought. If the vrorld had a general faith in the unity of civilisation some of the most dangerous problems of the peace would be solved. If even within the British Empire men and women thought of themselves as members of a common State, the world would be all the better. The growth of the spirit of individual nationality may well have been necessary to the development of the human race. It has certainly made contributions to

civilisation, in assuring prosperitv to great masses of people, in the development of the natural resources of the world, in fostering racial genius for politics, literature, art. and science. But there is something to be set on the other side. While national rivalries are vehement there can be no pence on the onrth. An excess of national, racial, local patriotism is the "howling provincialism" of Mr Kipling. The worst spirit is the perversion of the best. What, then, is Mr Kipling's remedy? The virtues which he preaches to youth are "sanity, humour, and the sound heart that goes with a sense of proportion." A Rhodes Scholar, fortunate in the opportunities of his youth, may find it easier than others to acquire a sense of proportion, for he must needs know cities and men ami very

different conditions of life before he comes to his work in the world. He is in a fair way to acquire some portion of that critical spirit which, though Mr Kipling does not mention it, seems to bo necessary to a sense of proportion. Mr Kipling, however, in spite of his sombre analysis of our age, has no doubt that to the young men of 1924 will conic "the power with the need." Dark and difficult though he sees the future, he believes in the unconquerable spirit of man. For in his philosophy "the gods sell everything at a price." That is, every man can win from Fate what he wants if he is willing to pay for it all thrtt he has, to the uttermost farthing. The text is a favourite with Mr Kipling. On it he wrote the strange and poignant story of the man who gave his eyes to save his people and was made a sad, lonelv It is not a creed which lends itsolf to hope of easv living or fosters self-satisfaction. But youth may well believe that, in its stark severity it is true, nnd the man who has no fear or doubt that he can obtain hi? heart's desire if he will "pay the price that the cfods demand" is likely enough to be justified in the event.