THE WHIRLIGIG OF TIME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17145, 26 April 1919, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE WHIRLIGIG OF TIME.

DAYS OF VAST CHANGES.

B* MATAHOA. There have been some strange stirrings of the atmosphere of thought in the latter datfs ej our time. Maybe we are too now the rapidly-changing conditions of Wm days to appraise their influence ac.irately, but we cannot fail to note how marching has been the great war's criticism of our once-current views of life and how clear the way has suddenly become fa original adventures in human conduct. Soon the poace treaty's signing will announce the formal welcome of a new era. A guaranteed security will allow of our energy's diversion into other avenues than war, and our employment of tho new conditions for human benefit. Most obvious of all these new conditions is one that will readily lend itself to such ministry to modern need. It is the remarkable emphasis that the war itself has secured for the social aspect of life. It was recognised; long ago that man is, in the cumbrous dictum of science, a gregarious animal; tho solidarity f tho race, one of the beacon truths of modern social philosophy, was glimpsed by many an ancient seor; even medieval monasticism, with all its approval of anchorites, stught to set the solitary in fratornities. Society ie as old as man, doubtless. But organised society has developed with human progress, and it has remained for our age to accept most consciously am, deliberately the creed that it is not good lor man to dwell alone. A Socialised Outlook. Last century's altruism very word had to be added to our language less than a hundred years ago to label tho nascent social emotion that expressed itself in occasional anti-slavery campaigns and charitable philanthropies and child-labour reform—has become an accepted twen-tieth-century principle of corporate action. The sharing of gains in business, the dis-

tribution ot sorrow's incidence, and the democratization of the school are some of the most noteworthy applications of tho principle.

Our noting of these things need carry

with it no disparagement of our forefathers. Thore were great souls among them. Charity was a chief jewel of their virtues. Love itself was born in far-off Eden. But the loving-kindness of older days was characteristically an individual emotion. It iB becoming corporate and organised. It was a franc-tireur among impulses; it is to-day learning battalion drill.

Professor W. J. Ashley, of the University of Birmingham, has crystallised the change into arrestingly clear speech :— "The old spirit of charity, the old enthusiasm of humanity, is now guided and res-

trained by the thought of the social bond, by the thought of society as an organised body of interconnected relations. We are coming to feel more and more that our efforts fox the good 01 others are

more and other than a series of isolated contacts between ourselves and other individualscontacts whose effects depend solely on individual goodwill on the on>> side and individual receptivity on the other. We realise, with greater or less

clearness, that the lives of those we would fain help are bound up with—are, on all sides, conditioned and affected by—their antecedents and environment; that the

effect oi what we do h not simply a matter of individual will; that it is a matter also of social possibility." Days ol Opportunity.

I That socialising of the outlook trpoi ' human conduct was well advanced before , the war, but the war intensified the . change, made it a matter of more general , experience, and provided, by its chattering of the old order built upon a more individualistic envisaging of life, a wonderful opportunity for the new view's practical application. There need be no fear that the marshalling of ministries to the needy will entirely oust personal benevolence. Whatever may be accomplished by organised and systematic service of this port must leave a margin for private kindliness, and so the spirit of sympathy will find vocation still. But the evils attendant on almsgiving of the merely personal sort, so inadequate in. its scope, and so partial in its distributions, will be minimised; and the social service of the now era may well become more effective in ameliorating ills and remedying wrongs than the old, unconnected series of philanthropies and interests could be. One thing this organisation of benevolence may do that was hopelessly beyond the reach of the purely personal philanthropy. It can go to root causes of distress and disease; it >»n change environment as well as inspire separate souls; and this it may do by bringing the weight of a combined energy to bear through improved laws and regenerated customs. The Need for Knowledge. It must be an energy clisciplinec as well as united; and this implies intelligent appreciation and handling of the practical problems that society presents. Philan--1 thropy muet be mixed, like the famous : painter's colours, "with brains." Where life is, danger dogs the efforts of the I experimenter. An overdose of this potion j or that, a little slip of the knife here . • or there, and the best-intentioned deeds j 'of the would physician achieve murj der : Jekyll is transformed to Hyde, I though unconsenting. It is so with the 1 whole body politic. Its healing, its finest culture, its full efficiency, depend on skilled attention. No good corporate service can by rendered without a widespread citizen-knowledge of many things. \ We must all become, as far as may be, 1 sociologists. Better education waits on , clearer ideas in the adult community as to ! what- a school is and what it may do, and how its work may be done. 1m- ! proved conditions of every city's life tarry ! for the wise interest of its ratepayers. • Labour troubles, the characteristic grow- ' ing-pains of our age, will vex the world | , till men and women, toilet'-for and toil- , - ; ing, set themselves to stJdy symptoms 1 and use remedies in a scientific instead of ■ a quack war. !j Thin, cannot take thought for ' theinselves-that is the truth that this ' generation of unparalleled opportunity needs to have burned into lis soul. There I has long been a childish disparagement of | theory as compared witn piaclical affairs. . I It is the untutored impatience to " see i ' wheels go wound." and to discover whei lMer a 'new implement " outs any ice.' ' ■ But before any wheels can revolve or any ■ ' Ite be cut, brains must be busy. Necea- ' ; shy is the grandmother of Achievement— ' I Lv her intellectual son Invention. IV new a/e that the war lias ushered ' ,„ will bring the world great gams if only ' men and women of every class will give . ! their minds to serious study of themselves ', and their world. The ~.n.in f;«h- *'» , • ,„,: thine un!w i! he l.ilnl *."' m * ' and noble .■i.t.-rpr:**. ."id the **•>» **» 'S, We- at' Ihe th.vslu.hl will nt ~ enter unless it he h.v.'.b. witl.Ui by U.diLiduaL u.vu.e ui .is worth and way-. ■