ANTIDOTE TO MATERIALISM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 2 April 1930, Page 6

ANTIDOTE TO MATERIALISM

APPRECIATION OF ART "Every age has its characteristics, and posterity, I fear, will say of us that we were a materialistic people, that we were distinguished by a desire for fast movement and noise, and that our reaction to the noble idealism and unequalled effort of the Great War was expressed in a raw, crude materialism," said Lord Moynihan, the famous surgeon, in an address recently. "To all such things as that some kind of antidote is necessary, something which will give a refuge and solace from the social miseries of our time. It is my confident belief and frequent personal experience that it is in the- contemplation, appreciation and enjoyment of art we can find certain things explained to us. Wo find not only relief from our social . miseries, but also a real contentment in life. That contentment docs not so much depend on material things as on that inward peace which we all seek in one way or another, and which frees us from "the more narrow limitations and hampering apprehensions of our material surroudings. If life is not to be a feast or a spectacle or a predicament, but it is to be a sacrament, it can only be because we indulge in what Keats called 'soul making,' and give ourselves the opportunity of allowing our souls to grow."