THE SOCIAL INSTINCT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18641, 23 February 1924, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE SOCIAL INSTINCT.

You may ask:— s 5 , "Why should 1 I be bothered to make acquaintances? I have enough to do to look after my ,<ova affairs without looking into other people,"' remarks Arnold ! Bennett in a contemporary journal. s To which question there ; are two J answers. First, unless you are unusually situated you - have., not. enough >to ido in; looking after your own affairs. < A > vast number of ' mature and respectable' per-, sons; if not the majority, go*to' bed too. early simply because they,find , the evening tedious from lack of occupation. They can think of nothing else to do, and so they go to ; bed. A doctor 'in a large general »■ practice once told me that bis experience had taught . him that people slept too much. Indeed, •he said more. His phrase was:"They • sleep • - themselves stupid." And I am. convinced that this i 3 the "fact. ? ;

And the second answer is that there is no suggestion of . being "bothered" with acquaintances. You don't make acquaintances with a view to improving their welfare, but with a view to improving your own. Your scheme is, very properly, to get something out of them, not to give .them something. f . But all' that is by the , way. You make acquaintances in order to keep yourself alive. Millions of dead individuals Igo to and fro in the world, and do not suspect that they are dead. Nevertheless they are —because they are not) alive. And you make acquaintances in order that they may pull you out vt yourself, out of your self-complacency, out ,of your certainty that your views are the only, right views. . .. . i ; Nearly all friendless peoplel . , mean those . .who might have. friends but won't •are opinionated, - narrow-minded,' • disdainful, , in addition : to being half-blind and half-deaf. Social contact, the friction of contact, is needed to stimulate life and to sharpen sensations.