MAN IS BECOMING MORE THE MASTER OF HIS FATE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19238, 27 November 1930, Page 8

MAN IS BECOMING MORE THE MASTER OF HIS FATE.

To-Day’s Signed Article

Specially Written For The “Star.” By Professor Arthur Thomson (Noted English Scientist).

Science has given man a succession of new worlds, to which he seeks to ad just himself and his thoughts. Thus Darwin’s voyage in the Beagle was a Columbus voyage, discovering a new world of life that has gradually evolved from very simple beginnings. Thus the early microscopists in the seventeenth century gave man a new world—the world of invisible life that accounts for so much of what is visible. Similarly, it is a new world to which modern physics and chemistry have introduced us—a world in which matter has been swallowed up by electricity, and all the different kinds of matter are known to consist of the same units in varying numbers, arrangements and movements.

QF RECENT YEARS the progress of biology in the wide sense has quickened man’s hopes of betterment, and has given him an arousing glimpse of possibilities in the way of life-control, death-control, healthcontrol, and birth-control. Some diseases have been almost conquered, as in the case of diphtheria and smallpox; others are being conquered, as in the case of diabetes and malaria; many could be stamped out if we cared keenly enough. We may look forward to the extermination, within a few centuries, of many of man’s microbic diseases, such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, smallpox, yellow fever, bubonic plague, malaria, sleeping sickness, syphilis; and many, even more optimistic, would add cancer to the list. New Era of Health. Whether the removal of these handicaps will improve man’s morals and induce him to “make his soul,” to use the old phrase, is another question. “When devil fell ill, the devil a saint would be; when the devil grew well, the devil a saint was he.” This is penetratingly true of man. Yet when men feel the tingle and thrill of exuberant vigour, such as animals show, they experience a new happiness, worth making efforts and sacrifices for; and there is reason for believing that as the idea of the controllability of life grows on men’s minds—not merely in reference to diseases, but in regard to positive health; and not for the present only, but for generations yet unborn—a new era will begin. Man is bound to become more intolerant of his handicaps and disabilities as he discovers that they can be got rid of. The days of fatalism and folded hands are over; even consumption is now spoken of as a curable disease. Mastering Our Fate. As regards his body, man is becoming more and more master of his fate; and this has opened up new possibilities of emancipating the mind. These are in great part corollaries of our increased knowledge of the subtle interdependence of mind and body. This remains a frontier problem for man’s intelligence, but it is certain that body and mind, nervous and mental, physical and psychical, are bound up together in the closest of linkages or correlations. A blot in the brain may darken all a man’s thoughts, a disturbance of eyesight or of digestion, of heart-beat or of kidney-filtering, may change our outlook on the world. OrTthe other hand, a merry heart is the life of the flesh, good news may drive away fatigue, and a sure hope may check a disease. Love Unions and Genius. Biology, in its increased disclosure of the unity of the organism, has made man’s life not only less puzzling, but more controlable, on its mental as well as on its bodily side. There is no immediate prospect of breeding genius, if we mean by genius not merely

mental faculty at a higher power, but an original and harmonious new pattern. Yet it is biologically probable that geniuses would be more frequent if there were more love-marriages among the highly gifted. In any case, there is a strong probability that in the future men will devote to arrangements for human parentage some of the care and thought now expended, often wisely, on domesticated animals and cultivated plants. One of the foundation-ideas of biology is that we must always look at the affairs of life from three sides—the organism or living creature, the functions or activities, and the environment or surroundings. These are the three sides of the prism by which we seek to analyse the light of life. In application to mankind they correspond as the French sociologist Leplay insisted, to Folk, Work, and Place—the three great realities of human life. The New Education. While opinions will continue to differ as to the best brain-stretching disciplines—whether mathematics or literature, classics or chemistry—there will, we believe, come to be unanimity in regard to the course of essential instruction. For there are three indispensibles towards which school instruction would be adjusted;— (1) Some understanding of the history of our race. (2) Some capacity for finding one’s way about intelligently in the outside world; and (3) Some grasp of the conditions of health and happiness. When these come nearer, our successors will marvel at our inertia. Always Upward. The modern outlook differs most markedly from that of two generations ago in being frankly evolutionary. In every domain the present is not only the child of the past, but the parent of the future. Alan is not finished; every child is something new, often for better, though often, alas, for xvorse. It is not a descent that we have behind us, but an ascent; and man will continue to climb. This evolution is going on. Who dare put bounds to its advance? Increasingly, as the partial character of science is understood, wise men will be slow to shut any doors of hope. ( Anglo-American N .S. —Copyright .)