THE DEAN OF ST. PAUL’S.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20316, 26 January 1928, Page 10

THE DEAN OF ST. PAUL’S.

VIEWS ON VARIOUS TOPICS HOW TO READ BOOKS. (Feom Ottr Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 14. “ People should read what they like and not mix up several subjects at the same time. You cannot read with profit more than six hours a day. The advantage of reading a book is when you put it down and begin to think about it, which some people never do. The majority of people read much too fast. The proper speed to read a book is about that of reading aloud, and for that reason it is very valuable to read aloud.” A GENTLEMAN DEFINED. Dean Inge, at an Individualist luncheon : “ On the whole, I think it is not too harsh to say that the theory of collectivism in practice leads to the creation of a great army of parasites, and so we come to the paradox that while most socialism is really individualism run mad, so individualism, rightly understood, is, I won’t sav the time socialism, but the true social ethic. The general disillusionment of the Great War has led to greater slackness and self-indulgence. I can give no better motto than one of Mr Bernard Shaw’s remarks, much as he would object to being quoted here. Bernard Shaw defines as a gentleman on© who puts into common stock more than he takes out. That is what we must all try to do, because there are so many do the other thing. “ We owe an infinite debt for good and also for evil to our environment, and it is our duty to do what we can to improve the environment and the medium in which we live. But I maintain that the medium, society, or the State, or whatever you like to call it, is not an independent organic reality. It is not an organism, it is ohly an organisation, which is a very different thing. If it is an organism, it is an organism of an exceedingly low type.” RACIAL DECAY. ” Breed and National Life ” was discussed by the Oxford Luncheon Club, when Dean Inge remarked : “ There is not the smallest doubt that if the state of society favours a rapio increase in the children of slum dwellers and a decrease in the sons of professional men, it is a very serious thing for this country. What ’ importance ought to be attached to breed as compared with tradition and environment? Critics of eugenics who say that we want to establish the methods of the stud farm are simply prejudiced. Eugenics is a difficult science, only yet in a tentative stage. Those who studv the subject are the last to advocate legislation. That is not true to America, where they are verv fond of legislative experiments. They have already in some States introduced an exceedingly drastic eugenics measure of sterilising persons believed to be undesirable as parents. Over 6000 operations have been performed, chiefly in California.

“ The present preponderance in the birth rat© among the poorest classes over that among the professional classes is, however, a new and very grave danger. Until the last two generations there was no reason to think the birth rate in the more highly endowed classes was lower than that in the slums. Many people are up in arms at once if one assumed any natural superiority in the educated classes over the uneducated, but if there is anything at all in heredity one must believe that those who by their own energy and ability, have w'on some kind of success, are more likely to have distinguished children than those who have tailed in life. That is not omy a matter of theory. Careful tests have been made upon school children to try to find out whether the children of fairly successful professional men are better en dowed by Nature than those of hand workers. The results in all cases show that the former are undoubtedly superior. The difference is not very great, but i! certainly exists.

“ Without exalting my own class, I think you will all agree that there is no section of the community which is better endowed, physically, intellectually, and morally, than" the members of the learned professions. What we are doing is to take off the cream of each generation and throw it away. It is still a disputed question whether people ought to marry young. Many distinguished men are the sons of middle-aged people, but, on the other hand, Napier, the discoverer of logarithms, was the son of a bov of 16. The politicians will not help in solving the problem. They only realise that the unborn have no votes. We htive to realise that they have rights, and that the conditions of our people 100 years hence are just as important as those of to-day.”