"LIMANORA" : THE LATEST UTOPIA.

Otago Witness, Volume 12, Issue 2639, 12 October 1904, Page 73

"LIMANORA " : THE LATEST UTOPIA.

, -* * * ; (By X S. G-) • I

' AnoiJher. forecast of^human-destinies Has' lately Jira-ie its appearance, Tinder ,the enigmatical title of f'Limanora." /Kew Zea- \ • land is-- particularly .rich in thiis (branch of literattn.'*!. asnd^eriiaps there is no country '"■ in the world where a really vivid an'tieipa^ ! tkm of- the sensing race is more welcome. { ' We are a progressive and an experimental people, and we- have pufcaaost of our energies into social dvc-lopnient. Every new author of fheso Utopias', creates a fiesh heaven of hes own, and it might be an interesting task to compare the various ideals, of Butler, of Sir Julius Vogel, the-Rev. Mr Waison, and the unknown writer of '"Limanoxa," whom we may 'fairly assume from ! eorne indications in the book to. be a New Zealandei-, or at- least "a. colonial.. We ocr- \ tainly wish that- the book had been written ' in a more popiilar-manner, for in its present form it is more likely to repel than to at- j tract the average reader, who likes even instruction temps-red by a very large dose of amusement. But thosa who will take the trouble to dig in^tbe mine will find a great deal that is original and valuable. The ons feature that particularly distinguishes "Liiaaoora" from other Utopias is the emphasis laid on the idea of progress, j O,i-her dreamers of such dreams generally fix j our attention upftn some state of perfection, ' and then perform the showman's task of j explaining its excellencies in detail. But [ ■here' we find the "coming race" hovering j between past andi future, as far removed from twentieth-century mortals a« we are from animals, and yet never resting for a moment, but aspiring to far higher grades of existence. Our imagination is filled with suggestions of infinite possibilities and undreamt of development. In fact, we seem to see science unfolding the way to apractical realisation of heaven. "Linranora"' is to evolve into a region filled with beings exempt by the long process of ages from all base passions, all animal instincts and needs, and all fleshly infirmities, and with enormously expanded powers, traversing the atmosphere, acquainted with the spheres, and exploring, new worlds. We find them not only moulding, but actually creating, life, enjoying harmonies and miracles of beauty that wo are made to feel to asoend the capacities of ] imagination. In fact, the author in his j farthest outreach falls into a suggestive i vagueness, andi we hardly know where he j has carried us. In the being of the far-off ; future, the transient elements had been, -j atom by atom, sublimed away; he was i %4 _l£fc>X SBte®sL%s& SsLte j»ae^£J

energy ; his tissues diaphanous ; it was rathec-by what. he thought and felt than by ■what he. was Ijhairids pi^esc-nee was known. Only an inhabitant" ©i ihkr NeV World could ' b&ve taken, this outlook, for the Old World §tdll clings -to -its" past, and here we have an open and emphatic rejection of the past as only a trammelling clog. . '"The world is well quit of what ha<» been," was one of the sayings of this people. They had abolished all schools and universities as "hotbeds of convention, the worship of antiquity and retrogression." Their greatest lorror was atavism. Their standard and test of all morality was progress, and they, refused even to draw up a ceds of morals, because they -felt that such* a code .ought in the next- stage to be already antiquated. Evil was regarded- as the re- j bellio'n o€ the past against the. future. Even, j in religion they refused to formulate a j warship '% or a creed, for with extended. they" ross to higher and' higher conception of their Creator find of the ulti-> mate cdestiny of; their xaci>. Nobler and"; nobler ideal* were to b& discovered. "A - stationary heaven means a stagnant eivilisa- ■ tioß." '''Thar religion -was. the discovery' list God rai-h«ir:tha*iW^«rsihipvef ariy-fdea ; ; -of Ham.: .' . t . They: climbed on .and on, , : ne&rer and nearer to- the ultimate ideal of. ', the CosmSps- which i 3 God."- Here wei ' read .th^-message of the- N«w>-WarldV with < " its' .Boundless ' and limitless outlook; '1 and /tjis some spirit prompts the insist-enc^ j ' on tlie importance of the race.as compared i to the 'individual. , The question even of j personal immortality is made secondary to j ~th& one grand motive of developing pos^ i t-ority upward and onward towards some- " thing ,divine._ It is from the same motive that the sex 'question is treated, and there 4s so much candour and so little, emo- , 'tionalishi oh this point, that, whether we agrea or not with the author's conclusion, ,we must admit he has- made a useful contribution to the debated problem, of popu- ; lation. ' The propagation of life is to be directed for, the same purpose as all other actdons — i.e., regard for human advancement. ' A great deal of false sentiment is summarily disposed of, and the whole- matter is viewed from the standpomt%f science.' | The author is evidently not in favour of ! large families, and whether he is wrong or right his -observations are at least worth < considering. "The lower a living thing is .in. the scale 6t life the more prolific it- is. . '. . The higher the organisation, the less is the,en?rgy that 'can be spared for generation, and the metre capable, is the offspring, when-matured, of insuring its own survival. . .'-" . Civilisation -has not advanced far 1 when it acts by masses and needs masses to keep it going;". Ultimately thfe -whole quest-ion of sex and of the birthrate \s made to disappear in a manner tha.t is quite beyond the scope dS criticism, or argument. Here, as on many other points, we are treading on debatable ground. But taking thf book a* a whole it is a genuine in-spiration-in the great cause of progress which apipeals with such force to the typical New Zealander.