ESSENTIAL NEED

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 11 April 1927, Page 2

ESSENTIAL NEED

MAN’S SELF-MASTERY. It is stated of the “History of Political Seiemu- from Plato to the Present,” I y the Rev. Robert H. Murray, Litt.D., that, “with a due sense of historical perspective the author analyses the main conceptions of the political philosophers of the past. There is no other iok available covering the same ground, and contained in such a short compass.” The following striking passage is from Dr Murray’s final chapter on “Recent Political Theory”':

“People require knowledge for the guidance of their political life just as much es their headers require enlightenment A brilliant American, Mr Lippmann, postulates the theory that the new ideal oar. be found in the idea of Mastery—an ever-increasing mastery founded on an ever-increasing knowledge of man over Nature, and equally—this is very important—over himsell.

'Let us imagine the vision that it would imply. On the material side we might see disease and suffering reduced to narrower and narrower limit; tho soil rendered productive to the utmost limits of its capacity ; the amenities of life in town and country made as sweet and wholeeome, and therefore as beautiful, as art and science can together accomplish; and above all. as William Morris imagined, the joie de vivre made as real in work as in recreation.

“On the moral side we might see the full and fearless mastery of mao- over himself ; the principle of religion, recognised and acted upon; the study of the human intellect, emotions, and instincts undertaken in order that their limitations might be guarded against, and their potentialities developed, and institutions adapted to the known needs of human nature, end not constructed to a priori principle. “Science—that is, exact and ordered knowledge in all departments, and not merely the subjects discussed at the meetings of the Royal Society—would be enthroned as the arbiter of affairs, and every problem would be approached upon a foundation of the best knowledge available. Cne has only to look at any aspect of life te realise how far such an ideal is from being conceived, much less realised; in fact, in many of the most important departments of life exact knowledge is regarded as an impertinence rather than a® an essential.”