DIALOGUS PAEDAGOGICUS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3782, 7 September 1926, Page 26

DIALOGUS PAEDAGOGICUS.

F

R. Lawson.

HI. Tokeus: Morality I regard as decent living, conjugal fidelity, paying vour debts, abstaining from theft, and so on. Xenos: Then you regard it as immoral to cheat in business? Tokeus: Certainly; it would soon ruin say business if I cheated. Xenos: Then immorality is doing something that ruins business. Tokeus: Oh, no, I don’t mean that; immorality is wrong. Cheating in business would not be tolerated by the commercial community. Xenos: Then is cheating immoral because the community condemns it, or does the community condemn it because it is immoral? Tokeus: I don’t quite grasp what you mean; but we condemn immorality—you eee we have our standards to keep up—and that is why I am anxious about , this phase of my children’s education. Xenos: Yes, of course, I see. And I will be delighted to hear where you get your standards for the business morality you uphold. Tokeus: Well, I suppose they come out of the teaching of Christianity—though, as I said before, I am a practical man, not a theorist. Xenos: Yes, of course, and I am sure, as you get your standards from Christianity, that you also adopt the whole collection, such as “ turn the other cheek," “sell all that thou hast,” “love your enemies,” “ take no thought for the morrow.” Tokeus: Oh, hardly that. You see, those are all very well in a theoretical world, but for us practical men, we simply can’t afford to do that. We should be ruined. Besides, even those who expound these things never accept them as they are, but soften them down to a condition of digesti bility for plain men like me. Xenos: Ah, I see; any principle which causes loss of money to the practiser of it cannot be moral; but any principle, it moral, should be acted on when it entails no sacrifice. And I suppose you wish your children to. imbibe the same morality, B,l ?£ e y° u them to be successful. "Tokens: Well, let me be perfectly frank. The practical and successful man of the world cannot afford to try idealism until he has amassed wealth or competence. Once the struggle is over, he may turn idealist with safetv and gain credit for his philanthropic works. Further, I must, to be candid, tell you that we cannot wholly follow the Founder of Christianity. He had a higher nature. If I had that, 1 might act as He did. But I 1, la wife and family to struggle for: He never had, and consequently He couldn’t have been tempted as I have been. Further, I can without boasting, I have given time to public matters. I once read the New Testament right through, and I don’t remember that any of the principal people in it ever preached the duty of public spirit, or gave any exhibition of it. Thev were so concerned with the vision of your uranian world that they ceased to be citizens of this earthly one. Further, the Founder was not ignorant, as I am, and consequently my ignorance increases my predisposition to succumb to temptation. i ou see, 1 must live, and I have to use practical morality, and teach my children the same, or they will go under and become a burden on the State, and so your ideal morality of the invisible city would defeat its own ends by producing even more misery than at present exists. Further •till, your city in the clouds is the outcome of pessimism. You seem to 1 > hopeless about any progress that can bring satisfaction to the human race, and so you invoke supernatural agency to your aid. You desire God to interrupt the course of evolu. tion as being proved hopeless or valueless, and to thrust in upon us a readymade perfect city, which, as you admitted, never is nor will be on the earth. Still, we have our code of morals in the practical world. Some men, no doubt, w!.ile thinking as I have just described, still pander to so-called orthodox belief for the sake ©f business; but such men are usuallv held in contempt. This, then, is my plain morality—act decently, be honest, strict in Felations with women, pay twenty shillings in the pound, and provide for your wife hnd family bv the methods regarded as legitimate in the place where you live. Xenos: You have taken my breath away with your vehemence. Your exposition is •lear and forceful. Now, you certainly have given me some insight into what f ar education leads to, and that was what wanted to know. When I return to my own world. I shall relate that I found here in education a gospel of efficiency, that everybody tacitly or avowedly had

that in view, and that when the national religion was looked to for help, those teachings only were adopted that helped efficiency. Would Ibe right in saying that this efficiency, though not destitute of idealism, aimed mainly at economic success, individual and national? Tokeus: Yes, if everybody told the truth, as I have now in confidence told it to you. Xenos: Yet you all believe that the earth turns on its axis every day, and not that it turns some days and other days not. Tokeus: I do not see what you mean. Xenos: I mean that in regard to your religion, which is I believe national, j'ou seem to regard it as true on some occasions and not on others. No doubt this is a matter, not of expediency or compromise, but with some law underlying it that I do not perceive. Tokeus: Well, as I told you before, I am only a plain practical man, not a theorist. I wonder you asked ME about these things. Xenos: Well, do not be angry. I asked you just because you are practical and successful, what is Education in your land? and you are telling me, though I must confess it puzzles me. I suspect it puzzles your whole nation, particularly in the religious portion of it. Of course, you make religion the centre of all education? Tokeus: No, we do not. It is a very important thing, of course, and your delineation of the Good Life revealed it to me in a clearer light. Yet we cannot make it the centre of our education, because we cannot agree amongst ourselves as to what should be taught. Xenos: Why, I thought you were all agreed that Christianity should be taught? Tokeus: Yes, in a way, but some say it means one thing and some another, and some say “Believe this,” and others, “Believe that,” so in default of agreement we have to leave it out. Xenos: And I suppose now all scientific teachers will cease to teach anything about gravitation and relativity. Tokeus: No. Why should they? Xenos: Well, they can’t agree as to the complete proportion and significance of either. Tokeus: Ah! but that’s different; people don’t fight over science. They are seeking truth. Xenos: Then, those who fight over religion are not seeking truth. This is another enigma I shall have to propound to my co-planetarians—why do enlightened terrestrials who profess to seek and love the truth fail to agree on the truths of the greatest Teacher they have had amongst them ? Tokeus: Well, to come back to morality, you see man is a creature of instincts, and we have to contend with these, and build up our education upon them. For instance, we take up an instinct like acquisitiveness and encourage it. Xenos: But you would not encourage your children to acquire by any and every method. Tokeus: Oh, no; that would be immoral. By the way, I see you smiling and again asking, “Is it immoral because society condemns it, or does society condemn it because it is immoral?”

Xenos: Still, what was immoral 30 years ago might be moral to-day. For example, in the proportion of the parts of the body clothed to those nudated, or in the ethical standards concerning birth control.

Tokeus: Of course, why not? Society advances, and so I must have my children taught the best there is in society now I can’t go beyond that. Your uranian city would, I take it, have no objection to diminished clothing. Xenos: You have not seen the city; you must use the eye of the soul. But you say society is advancing. How can it advance if education gives to the rising generation only that which is in society already? This would mean a static condition, would it not, and an end would be reached? Tokeus: Well, 1 don’t see how our education can be ahead of our society. Xenos: Then how comes the advance? Tokeus: There are always a certain number of men of illumined minds who add to the world's knowledge, and these are the real benefactors of the world. Xenos: Bducation, then, is a provision for the young of the fruits of the labour of tho benefactors of the world. Tokeus: It appears so. Xenos: Well, I certainly understand that, and will report it on my return, except that, as I said before, it is a puzzle why all the young generation are not allowed to enjoy these fruits. However, I am grateful for your exposition. In return, let me mention to you a country named Erewhon. that I once visited—somewhere in these latitudes, for the morality of the inhabitants resembled the one you cultivate* except that their morality was exalted into a religion, at the head of which was the great goddess Ydgrun,—or Grun-dy, I forget which.—and she was a mighty goddess. She was a sort of embodiment of poblio

opinion,—consequently she changed her shape very often, but as the Erewhonians had never seen a true Idea or Form or Shape (such as one of those in my city) they were not aware of the change, nor were they aware they were worshipping themselves. If you will e>£use me for saying it, this is what you appear to be doing in your land, worshipping yourselves, your realm, your power, your traditions. Tokeus: Not altogether, good sir. There i 9 a morality of facts and a morality of ideals. We worship both. Xenos: Alas, my feeble intelligence! You reject my city. Yet you worship ideals as well as facts; —that is, you have two standards at the one time, a natural world and a supernatural world. Tokeus: Well, are there not two? Xenos: I had always thought of one God, one law, one universe, one truth, indivisible, incorruptible. Tokeus: There you go again. You don’t understand that our race, the English race, has very old traditions, and that the society vou see hero is an evolution, and that explains the whole case. Xenos: Ah. you enchant me,—you have already mentioned that word. Let me hear what this evolution is and what it has done for you, and no doubt I shall then unxierstand how there are two universes under orre God. how the truth can be a changed thing from ago to age, and how rational creatures who can understand truth in science and apply it, won’t accept it in religion and act upon it. and how a world of moral facts can foster practical success, and how. the world of moral ideals is fatal to success. Yes, let me hear about evolution and what it means, and how you teach it to your children. _ Tokeus: Well, I must read it up a little first. But don’t imagine we teach it to children. Xenos: Why not? Tokeus: It is too upsetting,—it upsets their religious beliefs. Xenos: Oh, marvellous! One truth upsets another 1 And you don’t teach religion because vou can’t agree on it, and yet you don’t teach evolution because it may upset the religion whjch you don’t teach. Marvellous. marvellous I I shall be very anxious to hear what you have to say about evolution.