THE DOCTRINE OF COMFORT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13483, 6 July 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE DOCTRINE OF COMFORT.

A WARNING.

It has been my observation (says Captain Mark Sykes, in the Yorkshire Post) that over Western Europe there has been a great and considerable spread of certain doctrines, not political wholly, but rather ethical, of an altogether different type from those which were held by our forefathers. To say that they are new would be ridiculous' and false ; these doctrines which are beginning to gain foothold in Europe are of hoary and shameful antiquity. The tendency is to frankly avow that the attainment of physical comfort and general easement of all strife, either military, political, commercial, or religious, are the ultimate ends 'and objects of life, 'and' writings and speeches all! tend to the propagation and assimilation of these ideas. You will find indications of this subtle spirit peeping out at.the most unexpected moments. A man commits a brutal and premeditated murder; there is an instant outcry his helease. A man is stricken with a dire and agonising disease; his friends pray, perndsson to give him a painless and merciful death. A man fears some misfortune from vaccination, and'lie averts it from his children; a woman dreads the repetition of a mother's pain, and will not do her duty by the State , a man is filled with anxiety as to the future provision of his family, and he limits it to two; a man has tie choice of being a financier or a soldier, lie leaves the Army to go into the city, ilio stem doctrines of Luther and Calvin are watered down to suit modern requirements the doctrine of comfort—mental comfort— has even percolated into many of the' churches. I'ou-often hear now not "Do; not get drunk .because it is -a vile, disgusting sin,'.' but "Do not get drunk, because you waste money and get headaches. The advice of " be moderate in your pleasure ; and vices, because they will last longer; be moderate in your families, because thev will give you less anxiety ; do everything you do with caution," is being preached'ln ' a variety of ways' and in a variety of tones. You read it m the pseudo-Socialistic pamphlets with wu.ch the railway bookstalls arc clogged., you hear it from the lips of the medical quack, you see it. exposed in the mordant plays; 'of Mr. Bernard Shaw, you hear' your fel- ; low-men. say it in so many words. And , this is not new. This doctrine once grew! aud nourished in Imperial Rome, even as it does in London to-day. It is often well diguised, often beautiful, and frequently tempting; but, whatever be its shape, whatever be its cloak, it is equally fatal, and leads only to ruin and death, not necessarily to * acknowledged misery, but suicide certainly. The doctrine of comfort for yourself primarily, and those about you j i secondarily, this yearning for release from j strife, was pushed in the old Pagan world j to its farthest limit, till at last men slew themselves for very weariness, or adopted I Christianity in-its' most uncompromising j shape from sheer reaction. We have not j yet reached the depths of human despair, ] where human pleasure ends in physical j loathing and mental abhorrence; but some j Europeans are well on the road to it. | Now, suppose the hopes of the humani- ; tariaus and materialists are realised, sup-j pose these doctrines get a further hold over the masses of Europe, suppose all Europe agrees to live at peace, to limit . not only armaments, but production of all kinds. 'What then? We may indulge in a vision of that world, that Utopia of the flesh, comfort for all, nationalism dead in the arms of cosmopolitanism, industry flaccid and uninteresting, plays and holi- j days in quantity, plentiful food, varied,; cheap, and abundant, the population slow- j ly declining, religion a sensuous amuse- j limit, art florid, debased, stilted, gro-! lesque. or utterly false; poetry a per-' functor? and hollow ritual; crime a mental error of judgment; self-sacrifice -"a comic eccentricity; nothing worth anything, and suicide the -.only reasonable act when the first grev hair' is seen upon the temple. : Rome saw all this, and we can sec the be"innings of these things in Kurope— ; hopes, false ideals, and false art, cpi- i cureanism preached upon the housetops of j the palaces, and in the cellarage of the j vilest slums. But remember Europe is not j the. world, even Europe and America are. not the world, and though all modern | Christendom agree to certain things, agree \ to worship sloth, case, pleasure, and j physical comfort as its only gods, the last , word has not been said—there is still, .Asia j to take into consideration, and also Africa, j and neither Asia nor Africa will follow the lend of Europe on humanitarian or mate-J rialistic lines. Asia is too old, too wise, j and too experienced, Africa too young and too primitive. I do not believe in yellow j or black perils as political forces of the present day, bub I am certain they are tile historical forces of the future—that is, if Europe falls into a pagan relapse, and wilfully suffers her energies to decline. Asia may seem momentarily stagnant and dead, but her substantial and essential life is as enduring as the Pyramids ; Africa may seem sunken in the "depths of barbarism, but she is abundant and productive; and before these two mighty forces you cannot afford to rest in peace. Believe me, the tricks of what we call modern civilisation are not difficult, the building of steam--] ships, the making of cotton, the methods j of hygiene, arc almost within the reach of an anthropoid ape. The Japanese, the Turks, the Mongols, the negroes, and the Arabs can do these things as easily as you, and do them they will, either by command of their governors or at the instigation of our financiers, and when they do, beware the day if they find you' unready; take care that their 'residence is not the. mausoleum of European civilisation. My advice I („ you is— Socialists, Conservatives, or Radicals even as you wish, but above all be men, and crush and spurn all temptations to effeminacy and race suicide.-