Vol. 65 No. 4 APRIL 1960 Sixpence

Editorial

Notes of the Month

Percival Chubb

The Moral Crisis in America

Refugees and Research

On Re-reading Emerson

Conway Discussions

South Place News

Gustos

.1.11. II.

Dr. John G. Gill

DI-. W. E. Swinton

Richard Clements

Correspondence

Activities of Kindred Societies

Society's Other Activities

SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETYSUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS AT ELEVEN'O'CLOCK •

April 3—W. E. SWINTON, Ph.D., F.R.S.E. (Palaeontologist)

"The Phenomenon of Man" (by Pere Teilhard de Chardin)

Piano Solos by JOYCE LANGLEY

0 Hymn No. 136

April 10JOHN LEWIS, Ph.D. (Morley College) .•

Man Against Death: the Affirmation of Life

Soprano and Bass Duets by SIHRLEY DANGURPIELD and G. C. DowmAN

In Springtime -.. .. Ernest Newton

Still Wic die Nacht • 7. • -Carl Rohm

1-1Sirim NO'. 38April I7—No Meeting. „.. •

April 24—H. J. RTACKIIAM, aA. (Sec. The Ethical Union)

Too Problems: Youth and Age

Bass Solos by G. C. DowtAAN

0 M istress M ine.

Sweet Chance that Led my Steps AbroadHymn No. 227

May I—F. H. A. MICKLEWRIGHT, M.A., F.R.Hist.S.

Ethics of Urban Development

Roger Quiher

Michael flead

SOUTH PLACE SUNDAY CONCERTS, 69th SEASON

Concerts 6.30 p.m. (Doors open 6 p.m.) Admission 2s.

April 3—ALLEGRI STRING QUARTET

Haydn in G, Op. 77, No. 1; Beethoven in F, Op. 18, No. 1; Bratims inB flat major, Op. 67.

'April 10—AMICT STRING QUARTET. COLIN HORSLEY

Mozart in B flat, K 458; Dvorak in E flat, Op. 51. String Quartets. BrahmaPiano, Quintet.

April lt—No el:inOert.

April 24—VIRTUOSO ENSEMBLE• 'Mozart Horn Quintet. Howard Ferguson Octet. BrAhms'Piano Quintet.

The Objects of the Society are the study and dissemination of ethicsl principles7and the cultivation of a ratiohal religious sentiment.

Any person in sympathy with these objects is cordially invited to become aMember (minimum annual subscription is 12s. 6d.), or Associate (minimumannual subscription 7s. 6d.): Life membership. £13 2s. 6d. Associates are noteligible to vote or hold office. Enquiries should be made to the Registrar towhom subscriptions should be paid.

The Monthly Record is posted free to Members and Associates. The Annualcharge to subscribers is 8s. Matter for publication in .the- May issue should —..reach thc Editor, G. C. Dowman, Conway Hall, Red LiOn Square, W.C.I, by -April 5.

OfficersHon. Treasurer: E. J. FAIRHALL

lion. Registrar: Mrs. T. C. LINDSAY Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, W.C.I

Secreiary: 1. HIMON HYNID

TheMONTHLYRECORD

Vol. 65 No. 4 APRIL 1960 Sixpence

CO NT EN TSEDITORIAL . 3

NOTES BY Custos 5

PERCIVAL &rune (1860-1960) 8

THE MORAL CRISIS IN AMERICA, Dr. John G. Gill • 9

REFUGEES AND RESEARCH, W. E. Swinton .. • 12

ON RE-READING EMERSON, Richard Clements • 13

CONWAY DISCUSSIONS • 16

CORRESPONDENCE • 18

SOUTH PLACE NEWS .. 19

ACTIVITIES OF KINDRED SOCIETIES .. .. 19

SOCIETY'S OTHER ACTIVITIES • 19

The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society

EDITORIALTHE FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT of the Ethical Union Housing Association hasbeen issued; it makes good reading. As is well known, there is not sufficientaccommodation for old or lonely folk in this great metropolis. Here atBurnet House the Ethical Union are doing their part, at present a muchsmaller part than they would wish, to house ethical folk.

All the units at Burnet House are now in single occupation and it is theintention to undertake a further scheme as soon as there is evidence forthe need within the movement for additional occupation. Although therewas a small deficit this year, an appeal is being considered for annualsubscriptions "to balance the loss and to provide for additional amenities".

We are gratified to note that our Mr. Fairhall is thanked for "his keeninterest and ready assistance".

World Refugee- YearWe remind our readers that the Secretary is hoping to receive more

contributions for the World Refugee Year, closing date May 31. Our totalis mounting appreciably and proceeding towards the £150 mark.

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Nuclear MadnessIn the Sunday Dispatch of February 28 a leading article was published

dealing with Anthony Eden's new book, Full Circle. With balanced judgmentihe paper published in the next column an article, "Four Minute Madness"by Bertrand Russell.

Eden's substantial volume has created great interest and many wordshave been written about it. The Monthly Record need not add to the spateof words on the subject of Suez beeause of its political implications, but weshould like to comment on the article by the President of the RationalistPress Association, the man whom the Sunday Dispatch refers to as "one ofthe world's greatest thinkers"..

Bertrand Russell deals with a subject which has occupied his thoughtsduring the past few years—nuclear madness. "Fear," he writes, "has becomethe pivot on which our future is balanced.... Those clever men and womenwho govern our countries and rule our destinies have decided that fearis the supreme force that will keep us alive."

Those Four MinutesWhich according to some optimists might be five minutes. This will not

be long enough to consult Downing Street, the man in charge of a rocketmust decide for himself whether to press the button. He might make amistake! He might be overcome by the awful burden and get drunk, Fourminutes is not long to discover whether he is making a mistake. He mustact at once! But we who are now living in peaceful conditions, have thetime to judge the rights and wrongs of nuclear disarmament. Everyone shoulddwell on these things now. It is an ethical decision.

The Game of Prestige

Russell calls it "this silly shoolboy game of prestige". And he is right.If a death-dealing rocket is fired, where then is anyone's prestige? In theplace where lies the honour of an unsuccessful duellist—oblivion.

Peace Knowledge FoundationThere have been many peace movements, some of which have either

faded away 6r failed to make any impression on current thought. With thePeace Knowledge Foundation we sense a more dynamic approach to theproblem of peace. They are trying to get at the roots of the matter. Peaceis a problem which requires a most careful research and endless patience.

The Peace Knowledge Foundation has acquired a large detached mansionfor the purpose of setting up a peace college. Langthwaite House is twomiles from the centre of Lancaster and a quarter of a mile from the M6motor road, and it is being used as a school of social studies. The PeaceKnowledge Foundation wish to start with fifteen sttidents as an experiment,proposing to "hold conferences and provide refresher courses for socialscientists who wish to become more involved in peace promotion".

"Our AchMvement"

What they call theft achievement is the setting up of a peace collegeby the Peace Knowledge Foundation, meaning, actually, the achievementOf a division of labour for peace study. "Here a small group of personswill be working, not part-time but full-time and under circumstancesfavourable for outgrowing their 'amateur' status."

Non-resident tutors have agreed to help with their specialised knowledge.Many of these are lecturers in universities and graduates in social science.

The liaison officer, Harry Tones, would heartily welcome applicationsfrom suitable students for this worth-while work. He says they are not able

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to offer grants "as the students would have tO work first Later we hopeto develop a fibre-glass plant which would enable them to support themaselves by about four or five hours' work a day".

"Our Task"Their task is set out in their brochure:"Somewhere in this general survey of social problems may be found those

spheres of personal Or collective conflict which make for dissension onthe personal or international scale. Whether it is mental health, loneliness,psychosomatic illness or an outbreak of race prejudice, we may find weare dealing with similar problems but in a different context. We franklYconfess that, at the moment, we just don't know. Many questions rerhainto be answered.

"Is human nature the same everywhere? Are there superior and inferiorraces?- IS competition good? What are good morals? Is war natural toman? What do our social sciences have to offer towards the Solution' Cifthe problem of war? What present knowledge is relevant and what neWkinds of knowledge are needed for a rapid development Of a science ofpeace?"

The Research Director of the Foundation is Professor Theo. F. Lentz(formerly Professor of International Understanding, University of Washing-ton, St. Louis)..

Notes by CustosA WORD OF TRIBUTE should be paid to Mr. William Margrie, who died onJanuary 9 at the ripe old age of eighty‘two. Margrie was widely knownas "the Sage of Camberwell" and a South London character. He did a greatdeal by word and pen to advocate his twin gospel of evolution andrationalism as well as to make known the London that he loved. His-society, the London Explorers' Club, was an institution which did muohto spread a knowledge of unknown spots or Unusual London sights and'places. Margrie was a type which is unfortunately becoming rarer in astandardised age, the self-educated working man who has come to live inhis oWri highly charged and dynamic intellectual world. As might beexpected, he was a real character and a true individualist who alwaysdemanded for hintelf a freedom which he was ever willing to concede toothers. The influence of Morley College, of Shaw and Wells, had mouldedhim out of a chapel background into a complete rationalist who found inhis thinking no place for supernaturalism and who did not hesitate to sayso. His genial personality becathe little short of an institution in the Cam-berwell and Peckham which he loved so well. Rye Lane was for him thehub of the universe, whilst he once burst forth and asserted that, seeingit was not for. sale to American millionaires, Camberwell Green was a morebeautiful spot than Killarney': Perhaps the seal Of fame came when hisadmirers had his portrait painted, an excellent likeness which now hangsin the South London Art Gallery. An old friend is gone and he will besadly missed. Margrie was for. many years a supporter of his "church"whilst it still existed, the now defunct South London Ethical Society. Acharacter of this type could.only arise 6ut of the socialised individualismof the rationalist movement. We hope that his memory will still inspiremany to seek to cultivate their minds and to serve humanity with theloyalty of our old friend. He was a supremely happy man for he foundmeaning and purpose in life around him and sought to play his own part.within its many activities. Our age, with its increasing tendency to produce

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the unthinking and unknowing organisational man, would be all the betterif it could throw up a few more charaeters of whom Margrie was a type.We have sought many descriptions which. fitted him.. Perhaps the Scotsword "worthy" is the only one which will really fit somebody who, in someways, was like someone out of Dickens and who was yet so much at'llomein the London of today as he strolled down Rye Lane, his brain afire withmany a problem of life and mind. Goodbye, old friend, and thank youfor a life which, if it did not, bring in many pennies, was- yet one spentin a way of which the spender could be truly proud.

The Monkey TrialIn 1925 the State of Tennessee achieved a curious world-wide notoriety.

It iS situated in the midst of "the Bible Belt" and the illiterate farmingcommunity had passed a state law making it illegal for the theory of bio-logical'.evolution 'to be taught in the schools under their financial control.In due course a young schoolmaster broke the law and was indicted at atrial more reininiscent of a comic opera than a sober legal procedure. Butthe trial itself will always be. memorable for the tremendous duel betweenthe prosecuting attorney, William Jennings Bryan, and the defending lawyer,Clarence Darrow. .Bryan was a former Presidential candidate, a barn-storming. politician and a religious fundamentalist. Darrow was the exactopposite, knoWn the world over as "the attorney of the damned", liberaland agnostic, concerned with the freedom of the individual mind. In law,Bryan won, although he had to face a crushing intellectual and Moral defeatat Darrow's hands: "Do you ever .think about the things you do thinkabout, Mr. Bryan?" was one of' the less damaging questions which Darrowfired at him! The seqUel Was curious. Bryan died of a stroke at the closeof the trial; it was said that he was killed by his moral defeat; The Ten-nessee Supreme Court set,aside the conviction on technical grounds, so thelaw remained valid but proved unenforceable in practice.

Inherit the WindThis old battle of a generation ago is recalled by two American authors,

Jerome 'Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, who have related the story in aplay, Inherit the Wind, which has captured Broadway and is capturingLondon.. The authors have retold it to an America which has known thefull horror of McCarthyism, the trial of literate, and cultivated opinion atthe bar of illiterate hoodlums and mob hysteria. The story of the "Evolu-tion Trial" has been paralleled on every occasion when these elements havebeen allowed to overcome the expression of the free mind or informedopinion. Progress in modern times has only come about by the spreadof fresh knowledge, whether by its immediate discovery or by its diffusion.It is this diffusion of knowledge which the religious, moral or politicalauthoritarians of every age wish to circumscribe or prevent. The defenceof the schoolmaster by Clarence Darrow is the constant rebuke both to thedogmatic authoritarian or to the coward 'who pretends conformity for thesake of social peace. Inherit the Wind is a play which should be seen byall rationalists, ethicists or freethinkers. The symbols may have changed,but the true issue, the right to the freedom of the mind, is' as much amatter of concern in 1960 as it was in 1925. "The price of liberty is eternalvigilance" and Darrow's defence is symbolic of the type 'of vigilance onbehalf 'of freedom needed afresh in every age. '

New KnowledgeSince the close of the Middle Ages, far-reaching changes in the nature

and direction of civilisation have taken place almost invariably in termsof the discovery or diffusion of new knowledge. It seems more than Mob-6

able that by this means humanity has now reached the brink of anotherseries of changes in personal relationships. For •a considerable while, thepopulation question in one form or another has overshadowed the socialand economic life of mankind, more especially in the under-developedcountries. Progress towards solution has been delayed by the need for asafe, sure and simple form of contraceptive which could be used undervanous climatic conditions. A new oral contraceptive has now been pro-duced by scientists in the form of a flat white tablet to be taken by womenfor twenty days of each month. Women's bodies contain a chemical sub-stance which prevents further ovulation during pregnancy, and "The Pill",as it has come to be known, has the effect of administering this chemicalto the female body artificially whenever it is taken. Study was begun inPuerto Rico in 1956 and a series of laboratory and clinical observationspermitted the final claim that, after proper use, "a 100 per cent contra-ception may be expected". '

•Family PlanningAt the present moment the Birmingham Family Planning Association

are conducting a large-scale investigation with the help of volufiteers whichmay well permit for "The Pill" empirical claims concerning this country.Assuming the success of the Birmingham experiment, it is impossible toexaggerate its revolutionary effects, for it will mean that a simple meansof population control through contraception is at hand and that any riskof unwanted pregnancy has almost disappeared. So far as the undevelopedcountries are concerned, this diffusion of knowledge will enable them tomeet their problems of over-population with a certain sense of security.A-new point will be given to such approaches as that of the Indian Govern-ment, who have written a contraceptive policy into their constitution. Butit must also be remembered that conventional sexual ethics are largely con-ditioned by the fear of an undesired pregnancy and by the social pressurewhich utilises this . fear. At . root, the strict monogamy of conventionalethics is economic in source and• is able to maintain itself through fearsderived from economic .pressure. it seems likely that the use of "The Pill-will lead. on to a new sense of security in sex-practice. In this case, itis also likely that the diffusion of knowledge may well spell the end, so faras common practice is concerned, of some older limiting conventions insexual relationships. The time has come when Humanists generally mustface the new situation, seeking to evolve an ethic of sex based upon respon-sibility but taking into consideration the changing social attitudes towardssex relations in general which a far-reaching scientific discovery in therealm of contraception is now bound to bring about at the practical level.

•No Advertising ,

We see that the Archbishop of Canterbury has been addressing an assemblyof advertising managers and telling them that propaganda ?is one of theevils of the modern world". For once, we quite agree with Dr. Fisher.Perhaps his reading has included The Hidden Persuaders or he may evenhave come. across the excellent article, "The Religion of Advertising", inThe Rationalist Annual for 1960. But we are somewhat amused to find thearchbishop fulminating against propaganda. Day after day we noticeecclesiastical material in the press, sedulously fed to editors by the pub-licity agency of the Church of England. Again and again this materialis the crudest propaganda and the most blatant form of self-advertising.In many ways, however, this is only an up-to-date version of an age-oldChristian policy for the speeches in the early chapters of the Acts of theApostles show Peter as by no means behindhand when Christian propa-ganda tirades had to be uttered against Jews or Romans! Nor can we

7

forget the strong case made by Professor J. B. Bury, Joseph! McCabe andother historical writers thai the activities of the Christian Church have,on balance, made for evil rather than for the good of humanity. Indeed,there are some ground's for thinking that contemporary Christian propa-ganda of the sectarian, ecclesiastical type "is one of the evils of the modernworld". Dr. Fisher would do well to recall that the advertising managersmight have rounded on him with an Et tu, Brute! Propaganda is just asmuch propaganda when, it is used for selling to the public ecclesiasticalreligion 'or reactionary social and political views as when it is used forselling, detergents and similar products of mass production.

F. H. A. M.

Percival Chubb (186o- 196o)A LIVING LINK with the earliest days of the Ethical Societies in Britain andAmerica has been broken by the death of Percival Chubb on February 10,at the age of 99, in a nursing home in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. He wouldhave reached his century of life in June of this year. He had retired asLeader of the Ethical Society of St. Louis in 1932 (when Mr. J. HuttonHynd, now our Secretary, succeeded him as Leader).

Percival Chubb was born in Devonshire. While following a Civil Servicecareer in. London he made early and active association with liberal move-ments. In an autobiographical sketch, he tells of his gradual conversionfrom Christian orthodoxy; tThere was no apocalyptic moment. . . . I hadbegun to read heretical books. (notably Carlyle's Sartor Resartus), whichupset my orthodoxy. ... . Things went from bad to worse. Not only did Icome under the spell of Emerson and Whitman, but I read Huxley, Tyndall.Clifford, Hume, Spencer, Comte, hied on Sundays to hear Moncure Conwayat South Place, and attended innumerable lectures. . . . Then came myeffective education or culture through various organisations to which Ibrought a ferocious appetite—chief among them the FellowshiP of the NewLife, which I helped Thomas Davidson to set going, the Fabian Society,which grew out of it, and of which I was the first Secretary; and theAriStotelian Society, of which I was the youngest and callowest member.This meant association with all sorts of people, coevals and seniors, whowere my chief educators. They included Havelock Ellis, Graham Wallas,Sidney Webb, Bernard Shaw, William Morris (the kindest of men, whofortified me with introductions when I set out for America). . "

In Spiller's The Ethical Movement in Great Britain: A DocumentaryHistory, Percival Chubb appears as a member of the Committee of the firstEthical Society in Britain—around 1886. We read of his association in thisgreat enterprise with Bernard Bosanquet, J. H. Muirhead, J. S. Mackenzie.Ramsay MacDonald, Stanton Coit, and so many others. In 1899 he emigratedto the United States, and at once began to make his mark as a teacher, edu-cator, and lecturer. He was soon to be appointed an Associate Leader of theNew York Ethical Society, to serve under Dr. Felix Adler, the founder of thefirst Ethical Society in America, and of the Ethical Culture Schools in whichChubb was prominent as a teacher of English and promoter of festivalsand dramatic presentations. For a number of years he served as Presidentof the Drama League of America. As the author of several books and as aspeaker, Chubb was a perfectionist in matters of style and exposition. In1911 he assumed the leadership of the Ethical Society of St. Louis. Music.the drama, adult education, many cultural activities and social reforms,engaged his dynamic interest and infectious enthusiasm. After his retirementhe'became President of the American Ethical Union, 1934-39.8

To recall Percival Chubb's distinguished record of service and achievementis to turn to the intellectual and spiritual sources of the Ethical Movement;and although many changes have taken place within the near-century. ofChubb's life-time, it may be well to reflect that any deliberate dating of theprinciples and aims of the Movement may be dangerously delusive anddestruCtive, since the pioneers endeavoured to meet certain human needswhich appear to be pretty much the same yesterday, today, ind forever.Said Chubb: "We are committed to an unprecedented spiritual adventure.The outcome of it we cannot foretell. It implies a new faith—faith in the

leadership of man's ethical selfhood. With this compass we kt out for a newcontinent of experience and endeavour. It has had its explorers; they havehelped us to vision it, and we believe it holds a new promise for man."

L IL H.

The Moral Crisis in AmericaB Y

DR. JOHN G. GILL

ROBERT OPPENHEIMER, one of America's greatest scientists, and ironically,the man who did most to strengthen the nation's military position, washounded out of public service with scarcely any serious public protest.

In December 1959 Willard Uphaus, a 68-year-old religious educationworker, went to jail. He is to stay until he purges himself of contempt byhanding the Attorney-General of New Hampshire a list of those whoattended his summer camp. No crime has been committed or alleged, butthe camp was called "red". Uphaus refuses to expose innocent people toinjurious publicity and attacks. Some thirty-two other men and women areunder similar indictments. Included are officers of the National Associationfor the Advancement of Coloured People in various parts of the South.Our great newspapers and the public at large remain apathetic.

Against the blackout of popular thought on public issucs, the SovietSputnik affair stands out in brilliant relief. Rationally, it should astoundno one that a great people like the Russians, or the French, or the English,or the Americans, should have achieved an intellectual breakthrough. Butfrom the point of view of American smugness of the past decade, theSputnik could not exist: yet at twilight it was seen streaming overhead—clearly a Communist lie, or a stolen American invention.

The lack of thought which had been piling up silently, broke into a roarof frenzied talk. The Sputnik was false. In any case, America would shootoff a bigger and better one. The military establishment at Cape Canaveraltook off across the front page of every newspaper in a stream of fire andsmoke.

There followed what the Austrians called, "Die Sputternick". Waitersin.Paris, when they saw an American, would greet him: "Voulez-vous unepamplemousser Out of the shiny multi-million dollar, pointed, steel sky-scraper, popped a grapefruit that rolled along the ground.

Anybody, of course, can fail in a rocket experiment. The unimaginableintricacy of the many factors with which scientists must deal excuses almostanything. But it remains equally clear that no one but unmitigated idiots,or a cage of idiots, would again and again brag of what they were going todo when experience had shown that they probably could not deliver.

Many people realised with a shudder that, however out of touch withreality Canaveral appeared, the same military minds held the power of life

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and death over humanity. If in rocket experiments, they overbodsted whatthey could do, might they not be sold some cock-and-bull programme forwinning a war against Communism—the project on which they had set theirhearts? If they should precipate a war as they fired rockets, somethingbeside a harmless splutter would result.

What has happened to the American mind and the American conscience?This is the' moral crisis in America. What is its cause? What is the hopefor the future?

Dr. a Gill suggested three possible answers—First a Devil Impulse, theprimordial reaction of finding a scapegoat. He developed the reasoningwhich blames former. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He alsodeveldped the McCarthy line that the American Communist Party isresponsible.

He then presented an Economic Factor — to show how trusts and mono-polies have won dominance on the American scene, quoting a U.S. Govern-ment report* pointing out that three companies produce 90 per cent of allAmerican .cars. One, General Motors, turns out More than half the total.Besides being a main armarnent manufacturer, making chemicals, motors,rubber, diesel locomotives, buses, refrigerators, electric ranges, and earth-moving machinery, it controls an automobile finance company.

In the U.S. I per cent of the people own 30 per cent of all wealth. In1922 they had 61 per cent of all stocks and bonds, in 1929 70 per cent. In1953 this I per cent of the population had 90 per cent of all common stocks,and virtually all state, local and corporate bonds. The process continues atincreasing speed. An economist remarks: "Bigness was once the bad boyin the Sunday school.' Now it sits on the vestry."

A third explanation, beside the Devil Impulse and the Economic Factoris a Moral Reason. This is based on the conviction that "ideas move history".

Nothing is more important than what people think. Beliefs create empires,or tear them down. Faiths raise great cathedrals, or begin chipping awaytheir foundations before they are finished. Ideas erect a Parthenon, or sendrockets to the moon. They can transform earth into a paradise or turn it toa charred. cinder. According to this reasoning, we truly face a moral crisis.In spite of our boasting, as a country we are harassed by the sense of guiltand frustration. In its search for external devils and scapegoats as well asin attempts to find an economic excuse, America is running away from thereal problem, moral and spiritual failure.

To begin with, the American Revolution was not a war between Englandand America, no matter how often that nonsense is heard. The briefestglance at the debates which preceded and accompanied the contest will provethis point. The Revolution of 1775 continued and completed the BritishRevolution of 1642. Because popular forces won on one side of theAtlantic after defeat on the other the contest resulted in political separation.That was an incident.

The real issue was: Have the Colonists in Emigrating to the New Weirldlost their Rights as British Subjects? Pitt, Charles Fox, and Edmund-Burkeheld the rights to be intact. John Hancock, James Otis, Benjamin Franklin.Samuel and John Adams, American revolutionary leaders, believed thesame. Thomas Paine left England to become an officer on Washington'sstaff and chief propagandist for the Revolution. Most British officers inAmerica resigned rather than fight against traditional liberties. General SirWilliam Howe is, accused of not properly prosecuting the war because hewas in sympathy with the Colonies. The unpopularity of the Americancampaign forced the Crown to resort to hired mercenaries.

• Hearings before the Sub-Committee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Com-mittee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate. Hearing January 23, 24,15, 26, 1959.10

Thomas Paine wrote his understanding of the struggle in which he playedsuch a vital role. To'him, the war between England and her Colonies wasa minor matter which would not have interested him. But the strugglefor human rights against the tyrannies of the day would reverberate to theend of the earth. And he was right. The British Reform Bill of 1832 relatesthe outcome as surely as the American Constitution of forty years before.

Anierica, taking. its early inhabitants and the Revolution which gave itform, directly from a high point in the British struggle for liberty, stands forthe right of self-determination. She will not bare-facedly favour tyranny.Even when she publicly praises her diplomat for his part in overthrowing.the elected government of Guatemala, she clothes her action in verbiageabout preventing Communist dictatorship. When she violates the integrityof China by interfering in its civil war, she conceals her actions fromherself by pretending that the world ends just west of Taiwan—a feeble ruse,but it serves.

The Negro people in our South have been denied their rights for centuries.The struggle today is waged, not between the States, but in the minds of theSoutherners themselves. A large fraction of the people had convinced them-selves that the Negroes, too, were happy with things as they were. Nowthey must explain and at the same time deal with obvious signs of dis-content.

American history can be seen as a contest between two forces, the Com-monwealth and the frontier. America imbibed a strong potion of Britishliberation ideals. Millions who .tried and failed to make changes in Europe,found refuge in the west. Cromwellians, Whigs, Chartists, Irish patriots, andUtopian Socialists brought their hopes to the New World.

These people, with others from other lands diluted with ruffians andinhabiting the edge of wild forests and untamed prairies, on lands onlyrecently stolen from Indians. The rough demands of the times, the violenceof frontier life, the lawless egalitarianism of the Wild West, gave Americanliberty a character poorly consistent with the ancient traditions. This twistedLiberty was satirically described by a famous professor as the rule that"you do what you want to, and if you don't, they make you".

An Irish immigrant pictured equality in the new paradise: "In thiscountry, one man is as good as another, or for that matter very oftena good deal better."

America has never properly related "liberty under the law" and wild westfreedom. She believes in both. Here,.the national mind becomes schizophre-nic. America is tempted too strongly to use phrases about ordered liberty tojustify the licence of the frontiOr. 'As one of the wisest Americans put it:"The grand old dream of liberty for all, had become the stampede of hogsto a trough." Hogs would be happy under such circumstances, but Americansare not.

There was no pretence in the shock which Americans felt when Hitlerforces annihilated Lidice. Her indignation was deeply stirred. When the Nazisbegan unlimited bombing with the attack on Coventry, she reacted whole,heartedly. President Roosevelt spoke, for all Americans when he assuredyou of support to build a force to prevent such crimes.. Americans rejoiced at the turn of the tide, when together with you theywent over to the offensive, hardly noticing the moral loss. They took upsaturation bombing. When Dresden was levelled without military excuse,their minds were elsewhere. Then, at the close of the war, America com-mitted the most monstrous crimes in history—Hiroshima and Nagasaki.Her people have not yet faced that horror. They have lived in a dream eversince. When they let loose tons of napalm on the thatched villages of Koreawhere they suspected enemies were hiding, they were not really guilty. They

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were reacting mechanically like sleep-walkers. Their sense of human valueswas stunned. The moral crisis in the.United States is that they ought towake up, but.don't dare.

(Summary of a discourse delivered on February 14.)

Refugees and ResearchY

W. E. SWINTO N, Ph.D., F.R.S.E.

THE WORLD REFUGEE YEAR, which has just become generally known,is on its way out. It finishes on May 31. How far the Committee hasachieved its financial and other aims is perhaps not yet known, but allpraise should go to them for their effort, and to Tim Raison, who firstsuggested that idea in the pages of Crossbow in 1958. We shall hear ofwhat has been done to help the great horde of homeless and hopeless thatwars, insurrections and, mainly, man's inhumanity to man, have left inmany parts of the world.

It is good to think that in the recognition of the plight of the refugeecertainly no new problem—Britain held, until recently at least, a proudrecord. Much of it has now been told in the gossipy pages of FrancescaWilson's book They Came as Strangers. Starting with the Huguenots andgoing on to the political and other emigres of the French Revolution,' she'!deals with the various periods of Jewish refugees to Britain, and ends,most important of all, with the influxes of Czechs, Poles, Russians andGermans who fled from Hitler and the other wraths that have inflicted'themselves on a tortured Eurasia.

Yet there are earlier refugees than these, as Professor Trevor-Roper hasrecently reminded us. Samuel Hartlib, John Dury and Jan Komensky-(Comenius), for example. The first two came from the Baltic Sea region,the last from Bohemia. They shared a love for Bacon and became the.organisers of the new Baconian thought of the English Country Partyof the early seventeenth century. That party and the English scene owedmuch to them, as indeed had preceding ages to many a strange arrival.Many of these, of course, came and went, and perhaps the term refugeeis not intended to cover others than those who stayed.

The Huguenots came as a result of religious oppression and many of- them starved. This was largely due to the very mixed population thatsettled here, continuing to live and shed an influence as they had done athome. Among the humbler people many small industries were set up and'the lace-makers of Buckingham and elsewhere, and hundreds of weaversmade high-class silks and cloths. On the higher level, the fame of theHuguenot universities was soon to settle here too, and Cheam School wasfounded by an emigre at this time. Denis Papin in 1681 invented a pressurecooker and showed it to the Royal Society, of which he was a member.Desaguliers, another E.R.S., was a brilliant teacher of natural philosophyand was admired by Newton; Lewis Paul invented a machine for spinningwool and cotton by rollers that was later -improved by Arkwright. JohnDollond, a silk -weaver, abandoned his craft to study the sciences and madeimportant inventions in the telescope and the microscope and thus started2 -firm that -still bears his name. The Courtaulds are modern descendants4of ancient Huguenot spinners.

Those who fled the slaughter of the French Revolution were more tran-.sitory, going back as revolutions passed and as pardons poured upon theintellects that France sorely needed for its new regimes. In the pages of12

Miss Wilson's book are Voltaire, Rousseau and Chateaubriand. They hadtheir followers and their collecting places, and a vastly interesting thing itis to know today the homes and houses that echoed to their philosophiesand pleas. Italy, too, had its quota, including Mazzink who was wellbeloved, and Panizzi, who. became director and principal librarian of theBritish Museum and thus made some things easy for many other refugees.

One is naturally more interested in the later visitors and there areattractive stories of the family life of Karl Marx, of Engels and of PrinceKropotkin. How much does the Soviet Union owe to the facilities thatwere so freely placed at these poor temporary inhabitants of the Londonscene! And how many fresh refugees were to come from the Soviet andGerman machinations.

Chief among these in number and in sympathy must be the Poles. Gallantallies in the war, they were perhaps rather forgotten in the peace. Manyof them returned to their native land for. lack of opportunity here. Manyothers have been content with tasks far humbler than their native qualitiesand qualifications would lead one to expect. Worst hit are the lawyers, forforeign law is poor comfort and support for a refugee.

The Germans tob suit many of their finest brains here before the Hitlerterror struck them down, and this country has drawn greatly Upon them.In October 1958 there were thirty-two Fellows of the Royal Society, seven-teen Fellows of the British Academy and sixty-four Professors from-amongrefugees.

This concentration of foreign brains did !much to ensure bur scientificvictory in the war and, of course, denied 'equally "such knowledge to theenemy forces.

Medically qualified men, after some initial struggle with the professionin Britain, 'have helped considerably in the practice of .medicine. Morerecently the Hungarian refugees have come into the scene, some consider-ably to our national profit, others less happily so, according to these pages.

Looking at the picture as a whole, we learn that we owe much to foreignscience and culture, and that it has acted as a leaven and a stimulus to ourown. Our way of life has not always pleased our guests, and among themore recent ones disappointment and restiveness have raised problems. Butthe problems are not new and a wise experience based on the last fivehundred years has shown that the refugees can be absorbed and not merelymade at home.

It is something for a nation to know, as Britain surely does, that forall these years she has enjoyed a reputation for freedom and tolerance thatis matched by no other nation in the world, even if in point of numbersmore refugees have gone to France and the U.S.A.

(Swninary of a discourse delivered on February 21.)

On Re-Reading EmersonB Y

RICHARD CLEMENTS

Part TWO

IN VAN \VATIC BROOKS'S brilliant book, The Flowering of New England, thereis a striking chapter on the thoughts and feelings of the younger generationof 1840 in New England. He describes therein the influence of ThomasCarlyle upon the new school of American teachers and writeis—such menas Emerson, Thoreau, Lowell, Parker and Motley—and comments upon thepassionate interest which had been awakened in German thought and letters.

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He shows that in the religious sphere, the movement which became-knownas Transcendentalism was a reaction against both Trinitarianism andUnitarianism. But the revolt did not end there. The typical Fourth of Julyorations no longer pleased the ears of the younger men and women. Theshape of the economic, political and social order, representing a cold, calcu-lating, mercenary civilisation, led to much criticism and strengthened'. thedemand for reform. A host of new cults and movements sprang up all overthe country. Some were of an ephemeral character; but others, for examplethe Abolition movement and the Socialist movement, had come to stay andwere destined to change the climate of American opinion.

The eminent American critic points out that the German elements in theferment of the times reached New England by the medium of Carlyle; thesimple explanation of this curious fact being that, after the Scottish writerhad learned to read German in the years between 1819-21, he plunged intothe sea of Teutonic literature and later on emerged as translator andinterpreter of Goethe, Schiller, Novalis, Richter and other German authors.His early writings, particularly his essays in the Edinburgh Review,reflected the ideas and spirit of German idealism and awakened, on bothsides of the Atlantic, a fervent interest in the philosophy, letters and poetryof Germany. Thus it came about that Carlyle, "the perfect middleman forthis new movement of ideas", found in New England "his first large circleof readers", and also "a publisher for Sartor Resartus before the bookappeared in his own country".

Emerson had been attracted by Carlyles essay on Ebenezer Elliott, theCorn Law rhymer, and by others of the early writings published in theEdinburgh Review, and wrote in his journal of their author as "my Germanicnew-light writer". This was a good beginning and, as we know, the meetingwith Carlyle had been a happy one. The American visitor had perhaps goneto Craigenputtock in search of a master mind, a man who would throwlight on the doubts and riddles which had shattered his own ministry in. theChurch, and in so far as that was so he must have been disappointed, for onreligious matters Carlyle had i-eally nothing to teach him. They walked onthe hills together and talked of the immortality of the soul. "It was notCarlyle's fault that we talked on that topic," Emerson discreetly records,"for he had the natural disinclination of every nimble spirit to bruise itselfagainst walls, and did not like to place himself where no step can be taken".The rest of the conversation seems to have been couched in equally vagueterms.

But the visitor soon discovered beneath his host's rugged and austereappearance what Cabot called his "affectionate nature and nobility of soul".Emerson was made aware, too, of his friend's concern about "the conditionsof England question": the crowded, poverty-stricken plight of the towns,the squalid English pauperism of the times, "the selfish abdication by publicmen of all that public persons should perform", the rising tide of populardiscontent and the passionate demands for political, economic and socialreforms.

Carlyle, on his side, was no less favourably impressed by Emerson, andspoke of him to Lord Houghton in glowing terms. "That man came to seeme," he said. "I don't know what brought him, we kept him one night, andhe left us. I saw him go up the hill; I didn't go with him to see him descend.I preferred to see him mount and vanish like an angel."

The friendship between these two great men is explainable by their dis=similarity; they were drawn to each other by the attraction of opposites.Neither could have had much confidence in the ideas of the other. Emerson,who represented the noble traditions of the American Revolution, believedthat men were born free and equal, and that the bounds of civil and religious14

freedom must be extended to enable "the common man" to create a betterlife for himself in this world. Carlyle, on the contrary, held that wisdom inthese matters demanded that man be well governed by strong-banded rulers."Government should direct poor men what to do," he had told Emerson.These, as well as other divergencies of outlook, were no doubt apparent toboth men, but they seem never to have made much difference in the respectand affection they had for each other.• -A discerning student of the writings of these two men will find bothinstruction and pleasure in tracing the influence of the one upon the other.It is known, for examPle, that Carlyle's Heroes and Hero-Worship colouredEmerson's views when writing Representative Men; but the underlyingdifferences in both treatment and emphasis will not be.lost upon an attentivereader. Similarity is discernible in that both writers worshipped at the shrineof genius; difference emerges when we observe that for Carlyle greatness liesin Strength, the history of the world is to be read in the biography of greatmen, and his heroes are men such as Luther, Goethe, Cromwell and Frederickthe Great. While for Emerson greatness is seen in strength allied to goodnessand wisdom. He too admires great men of aff classes, especially those whostand for facts, thoughts and visions; and his heroes are such men as Plato,Shakespeare, Montaigne, Goethe, Michelangelo and Thoreau. In his ownwards: "Then he is a mon-arch, who gives a constitution to his• people; apontiff, who preaches the equality of souls, and releases his servants fromtheir barbarous homages; an emperor, who can spare his empire." By suchsubtle strokes, even when these two men treat of the character and workof the same historic personalities, are we enabled to see plainly the differencesin philosophic outlook of the two great writers.

It had seemed at one time, indeed, as if Carlyle might well become thevoice of the new outlook and spirit that was stirring into life in the churches,colleges and intellectual circles in the United States. Later on, however,as Carlyle laid increasing. stress upon his great man theory and when;as Van Wyck Brooks has so well said, "the splendid dreams of hisyouth were all but lost in the spoiled peasant's worship of lordship andpower", the seer and prophet of the new times was found in the personof Carlyle's friend—Ralph Waldo Emerson.

What then was there of permanent value in the teachings of the man?Has Transcendentalism, an off-shoot of German neo-idealism born on thesoil of New England, carried with it into decay and oblivion the ideas ofthe Sage of Concord? Has his life-long advocacy of reason, truth and beautyin man's individual and collective life to be written off as a failure? Theshort answer is that the virtual disappearance of Transcendentalism hastouched nothing that was vital and creative in the teachings of Emerson. Hewill, in the judgment of competent critics., continue ro serve and inspirethe young generation after generation. They could have no better teacher.

A paragraph there must be on the subject of Emerson's verses, thouiE.he declared he could not believe they were poems. Lord Morley, a no meancritic, went to the heart of the matter when, in an admirably terse phrase, hewrote of Emerson's poetry: "There is a certain naïveté, that recalls the un-varnished simplicity of the Italian painters before Raphael." This is thequality that charms the reader in such pieces as The Snow Storm, TheThrenody, The Humble Bee, The Informing Spirit, Muskeiaquid, ConcordHyMn, Terminus and Good-Bye. This choice:of examples must suffice here(it. is a personal one), the poems included being those that the writer hascome to know -and cherish. So, though there are many moving and beautifulthings in his poeiry, and some of the poems deserve to be better.known, wethink the judgment of both readers and critics to be right when they refusehim a place among the great poets.

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;It is to Emerson the essayist that people turn in our own day. Theyare right to do so. For he will surely live on account of the gems of thoughtthat adorn the pages of Nature, the Essays first and second series, EnglishTraits, Representative Men, The Conduct of Life and Society and Solitude.In this connection it is worth recording that it was no less an authoritythan Matthew Arnold who pronounced the essays to be "the most importantwork done in prose" in the nineteenth. century.

The character and quality of Emerson's writings have often been analysedand criticised, but this has never been better done than in the two followingjudgments. the first is by Herman Grimm, author of the well-known lives ofMichelangelo and Raphael, who, after reading the Essays, wrote that hefound in them "real thoughts—an individual language", whose vivid pageshe was never tired of reading. The second is. that of Lord Morley, whowrote of Emerson's prose: "He is tense, concentrated, and free from theimportant blunder of mistaking intellectual dawdling for meditation. Nor infine does his abruptness impede a true urbanity. The accent is homely andthe apparel plain, hut his bearing has a friendliness, a courtesy, a hospitablehumanity, which goes nearer to our hearts than either literary decorationor rhetorical unction. That modest and lenient fellow-feeling which gavesuch charm to his companionship breathes in his gravest writing, and preventsus from finding any page of it cold or hard or dry."

It remains to be said that among free-thinkers, humanists and ethicists,in spite of the fact that Emerson failed to develop his pantheistic intuitionsinto a consistent monism, he has always had his readers and admirers. Andwhen, some twenty-two years ago, Watts and Co. published in the Thinker'sLibrary a volume entitled A Candidate for Truth, consisting of passages fromEmerson's prose work, chosen and arranged by Mr. Gerald Bullett, it waspointed out that if one. refines Theism as Emerson had done, "it becomesscarcely distinguishable from idealistic humanism," and had little in commonwith popular Christian theology. Nothing that has happened since its publi-cation invalidates the general conclusions set out in that useful little work,which -remains to this very day a serviceable Emersonian anthology forhumanists,

Conway DiscussionsON FEBRUARY 2, Mr. A. D. Howell Smith opened a discussion on "TheFuture of the Ethical Movement". He said that Positivism, founded byAuguste Comte, was .the earliest attempt to build a purely humanist cult inthe face of growing alienation from Christianity and other supernaturalistfaiths. Comte was a philosopher who had shed his theism, but believed thatreligion was a social necessity. His rather grotesque structure of "Catholicismminus Christianity", as T. H. Huxley called it. has never been popular andtook practically no hold of England and the U.S.A.

Ralph Waldo Emerson sketched the first idea of an Ethical Movement,a Church founded on moral law, over a hundred years ago. His visioninspired Stanton Coit, a very prominent ethicistleader, who in- his youth wasintroduced to Emerson.

The first ethical society, the New York 'Society for Ethical Culture, wasfounded. by Dr. Felix Adler in 1876. Other American • ethical 'culturalsocieties quickly followed, at St.-Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston.A variety of able and enthusiastic men and women discoursed, Sunday bySunday, on themes of ethical interest. Their aim was to promote ethicalthinking and practice along purely humanist lines ignoring, though notdenying theism. Some, like Adler, taught a metaphysical substitute for God,the idea of "the spiritual manifold". Dr.. Adler. and his coadjutors were not16

content to be instructors. They strove to build up fellowships, in whichsymbolism and ceremonialism played some part. Reception of a child intothe community and marriage were given symbolical expression. Thepromoters of ethical culture wanted to adapt many of the consoling andinspiring features of the churches from which their members had brokenaway. Educational and philanthropic institutions have been marked featuresof the New York and other American ethical societies, which had large fundsbehind them. Adler was a deeply respected man in many wide areas ofAmerican society.

The Ethical Movement reached England a little later and within a genera-tion blossomed into a considerable number of societies, which have nearlyall disappeared.

The South Place Ethical Society had an independent origin and precededall the others. South Place Chapel was built in 1829 as a Unitarian chapelof which W. J. Fox, one of the greatest orators of his day, was the minister.Under his successor, Dr. Moncure Conway, South Place Chapel shed itsUnitarianism and became the centre of English Humanism.

In several countries of Europe, and even as far as Japan, ethical societieshave been started, but there is hardly any trace of them now. Nazism killedseveral. The South Place Ethical Society, of which Conway Hall is theheadquarters, still carries on. But the English Ethical Movement has becomevery attenuated. We still have able lecturers, though not all of these aremuch in sympathy with us. But where are our leaders? Who will kindle ourhearts?

The humanist trend of our movement seems to be increasingly awayfrom the idea of fellowships. We are becoming lecture societies. One hearsa discourse on some public issue followed by questions and discussion,and goes away. The Ethical Movement should increasingly foster thespirit of fellowship. Public questions should be aired and debated, but weall have private problems, and in our societies we Should find sympatheticcontact and guidance. The Marriage Council Bureau illustrates partly whatis desirable. We want to attract the young and encourage them to feel thatthey may be increasingly the builders of fellowship, in which the spirit ofkindliness and understanding, blossoming into love, will give us what theold churches professed to give and often did give.

A. D. H. S.Dr. Lewis opened the discussion on "Philosophy and Mental Health" on

February 16. He showed that philosophy has always sought to deliver menfrom those errors which are destructive of human happiness. Plato and theidealists seek to lift 'men's minds from the inadequacy of mere facts andopinions to the greater reality and rationality which lie behind the facts.The rationalists for •heir part have sought to free men from superstitionand fear, and from the delusions of transcendentalism and absorption inabstract and unreal conceptions on the other.

He then shoWed that some forms of rationalism go too far and mayresult in stripping men of any kind of philosophy of life—the results maywell be a sense of futility and meaningless in existence which leads topessimism, boredom and the frustration of effort:

It must in the long run, therefore, be the function of philosophy not onlyto save us from illusions, to teach us to transcend mere opinion by rationalthinking, but to find some credible and verifiable scheme of life. This mightwell be a philosophy of history and in the search for this, if we can freethe philosophy of Hegel from its idealism and absolutism, this philosophyin its Modern forth may afford us a working hypothesis which, if its truth isbut partial is yet "light to-live by".

J. L.17

CorrespondenceTo the Editor, The Monthly RecordEthics and Education

Dear Sir,There is, a limit,' even to polemical propaganda, and I think it was

exceeded by the opener on "Ethics and Education". Do our ,schools teachwhat they should? In the course of a rather wild attack on the religiousinstruction given in schools, and the Christianity on which it is admittedlybased, quotations were given from the best the opener could find on his side,consisting mainly of the rather surprising thesis that ethics could be taughtduring and/or by geography and history lessons, and other quotations fromthe worst to be found on the other side. This entirely unethical method wasmatched—almost—by the entire absence of what ethics should or could betaught through those same geography and history lessons. Hyde Parkand Tower Hill technique is hardly suitable for Conway Discussions. •

Yours truly,ROBERT H. CORRICK.

Reason and Emotion

Dear Sir,I feel bound to take up some points made by Custos in the February

Monthly Record. You speak of the Victorian approach to ethical issues:Now here is a clear point where I suggest you get involved in self contra-diction: "A simple trust in reason pure and simple".

Why the qualification? "Reason" is sufficiently explicit. A simple trust inreason does not ring true so you say "in an age which has learnt much fromthe dangerous potentialities of mass emotion". Then how are you goingto counter these dangerous potentialities—by giving up the trust in reason?

The fact is, as you well know, the vast majority of human beings areguided much more by their emotional feelings than by reason. Here is thedanger! When reason is thrown overboard that will be the end. I'm surprisedto have to labour the point.

"There is no such thing as a universal ethic of righteousness."Have you read Gurney Champion's remarkable book : The Eleven

Religions and their Proverbial Lore? He gives the universal moral consensusof the eleven Religions on the opening page of the Golden Rule in thewords of all these religions—with n scholarly preface. Unless, further, thereis this moral consensus how can there be any sure foundation of a peacefulsociety? Ethical "relativity" is a •very slippery doctrine.

Yours sincerely,R. J. JACKSON.

Blasphemy

Dear Sir,Whilst heartily endorsing the Editorial of the March issue in respect of

Blasphemy, the theologians may also be regarded as the only blasphemersby their presumptuous conception of a sentient anthropomorphic God whois so disgusted with His human creatures being carnal rather than spiritualas He intended, He therefore sacrificed His only begotten Son to appeaseHis insensate vengeance in respect of His ineptitude.

A. C. ALLEN,18

South Place NewsNominations for. General Committee

The Annual General Meeting will be held in Conway Hall on Wednesday.May 25. Nominations for the eight vacancies on the Committee shouldreach the Secretary by Sunday, April 24. Candidates having a minimumperiod of membership of twelve months must be nominated by two members.Forms may be obtained from the Secretary and .should be handed to theHon. Registrar, Mrs. T. C. Lindsay. on completion.

General CommitteeC. E. Barralet,* P. R. Crellin, Mrs. G. C. Dowman. A. Fenton.* Mrs. H.

Gamble,* Mrs. E. Alttnann-Gold,* Miss R. Halls, G. Nl. Hann,* Mrs. L.Hennion,'G. Hutchinson, T. Jack, F. E. Jones, J. W. Leslie,* Mrs. K. Males,Miss V. McLean,* F. H. A. Micklewright, Miss P. Snelling, Miss E. Stich,P. F. C. Sowter, B. 0. Warwick. F:1-1. W. Washbrook.

ObituaryThe Society suffered a grievous and unexpected loss when Mrs. Beatrice

Ball died recently. Many will remember her as a' daughter of Mr.'Groves,a prominent inember'of South Place Eihieal Society who died in 1923.

A gracious personality who was ever welcome at Our social functions atConway Hall, she will be sadly missed and we tender our Utmost sympathyto her son and daughter as well as to her brother and three sisters.

Activities of: Kindred SocietiesOrpington Humanist Group

April 10: Ramble, Keston, Holmwood Park, Downe, Cudham MeetOrpington War Memorial, 11 a.m. Leader-J. A. Hutcheon.

Sutton Humanist Group . . .Saturday, April 23, at 7.30 p.m. Red Cross House, 11 Park Hill, Car-

shalton Beeches. Richard Clements, 0.B.E., on "The Humanism of Shakes-' • 'peare-.

. Society's Other- Activities .Sunday Social •

Mrs. Rose Warwick gave another of her sparkling travel talks omFebruary21, when we were .allowed to share her experiences amongst the enchantingscenery of Jugoslavia. Starting at Bled, she and Mr. Warwick motoredthrough Jugoslavia calling at many iowns, including that town of manymosques and atrocious memory, Sarajevo, where the assassination whichsparked off the First World War was committed. The holiday ended witha cruise down .the Adriatic, visiting Dubrovnik en route.

A most enjoyable afternoon was had and everyone considered that manymore of such would not come amiss.

Retire at Annual General Meeting. -Vacancies on Committee-7 for 3 yearsand I for 2 ycars.

• •

19

Young HumanistsMeets on Mondays at 7.30 p.m.

April 4—"Socialism or Humanism"; introduced by W.. Mostyn of theSocialist Party of Great Britain.

„ 1 I--"Danilo Dolei and, his Work."„ 18—No Meeting in the Hall—but what about a ramble?,• 25—Anthony Hunt speaks on the work of the Council for Education

.in World Citizenship.Bulletin No. 3 which contains reports of previous meetings has been

issued and copies are available. It is well worth studying.

Thursday Evening Social •April 21, at 7 p.m. in the Library. Whist Drive, tea and socialintercourse.

The' Library, Conway HallThe Librarian will be in attendance on Sunday mornings.

Conway DiscussionsApril 5—"What is 'The.Balance of Nature'r The Importance of Ecology

in Human Affairs. Dr. Maurice Burton, F.R.S.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S.(Nature Correspondent, Illustrated London News, Daily Tele-graph.).

Brief social interval Light refreshments. Dr. Maurice Burton will b‘Guest of Honour.

Civic ['rideStately halls of Nature unspoilt by man's unseemly order;If not of Heaven's realm, at least, nearby its border..1, • •

Royal in title aad in mien sublime,

.Everlasting Nature, teaching men's thoughts to climb.,

All forms of beauty in scenes to every human taste;Plants almost wild; yet not allowed to waste;Avenues of trees aloft in' noble pride;Orient's arboreal miniatures growing just beside.

Beds of gaily coloured flowers to stimulate suburban wonder,Yet no one dares to pluck their stems asunder;And by the'lake (a bright fluorescent story),On its shining surface is reflected glory.

Let me tell of this, our Greater London's pride,Would you see beauty Where the murky lown's defied,Where every season's flowers make their debut?Cast care and toil aside and come to Kew!

G. C D.

Services available to members and associates'include: The Naming Cere-mony of Welcome to young children; the Solemnisation of Marriage;Memorial and Funeral Services.

For full particulars• of membership, meetings etc. apply to the Secretary,Conway Hall, W.C.I.

FarlsIgh Press Ltd. (T.U. all depts.), Beecttwood Abe, Wattord, Hero.