The Ethical Record Vol. 85 No. 9 OCTOBER 1980

• EDITORIAL Living Differently be numbered, but we are still its victim. In the USA there are at The next two years look like being least twenty-six ethical culture a major test of ideas and character societies. In the UK South Place both for South Place and for is unique. We cannot say we are Britain as a whole. It is character 'like' anybody because •there is no that counts. The dictionary defines other association like ours. . We it as "moral strength, backbone". lack a denomination. Interesting It is experience and ideas that give enough, •however, there are many us a sense of direction, and charac- churches moving in a South Place ter, the will to get there. direction and the air is full of re- thinking in all matters religious Somehow we have to cut through and philosophical. It is just possible the static ideas and material values that we may be further on than that govern conventional thinking we realise. in order to help the right people to The creation of a new climate locate each other regardless of out- of confidence will take some dated labels. It is a meeting of making, but without it the future minds productive of a doing of is nihilistic. And new climates, like deeds that we need, a meeting of charity, start at home. We don't those who have shown by their do so badly at South Place where lives that they are intent on life- tomorrow's ideas have always been asserting ends. heard today. The 'eighties will be Somehow, again, it has to come the test of that—and we shall have from the whole country and from to deliver. History deals merci- a movement in the widest sense. lessly with those who rest on their The day of London-dominion may laurels.

CONTENTS Coming at Conway Hall . 2 Self-Management: H. J. Blackham 3 Whatever Became of the Feminine Principle (2): Beata Bishop 5 From the New World: H. L. Mencken—T. F. Evans . 6 For the Record: The General Secretary 10 Francis Gallon and the Creative Genius (1): A. L. Vogeler 12 Religion and : G. N. Deodhekar . 14 South Place News 15

The views expressed in this journal are not necessarily those of the Society Microfilm and reprints available—details on request

PUBLISHED BY SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY CONWAY HALL, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON WC1R 4RL SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY

Appointed Lecturers: H. J. Blackham„Richard Clements OBE, Lord Brockway, T. F. Evans, W. H. Liddell, Harry Stopes-Roe. General Secretary: Peter Cadogan (tel. 01-242 8032) Lettings SecretarylHall Manager: Iris Mills (Tel. 01-242 8032) Hon. Registrar: John Brown Hon Treasurer: C. E. Barralet Acting Editor, "The Ethical Record": Peter Cadogan

COMING AT CONWAY HALL

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5: 11.00—Sunday Meeting. T. F. Evans on G. K. Chesterton. 6.00—Bridge. 6.30—Concert: Alberni String Quartet with Moray Welsh playing works by Haydn and Schubert. In aid of the Musicians' Benevolent Fund.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7: 7.00—Discussion, Cultivating Rationality, Jonathan Stopes-Roe. This is the theme for the month. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11: Ramble—see South Place News. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12: Sunday Meeting. .Harry Stopes-Roe on The Humanist Life-Stance. 3.00—Forum. Paul Ekins and Peter Cadogan on Can Ecology Have a Politics? 6.00—Bridge. 6.30—Concert: Jaye Consort of Violas playing works by Bach, Dowland, Jenkins, Purcell. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14: 7.00—Discussion, Humanist Rationality, Anthony Chapman. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18: 3.00—Country Dancing with Progressive League. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19: 11.00—Sunday Meeting. Peter Cadogan on Reverence for Life—Albert Schweitzer's Ethics. 3.00—Sunday Social with John White—see South Place News. 6.00—Bridge. 6.30—Concert: Coull Spring Quartet playing works by Haydn, Delius and Schubert. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21: 7.00—Discussion opened by Govind Deodhekar. SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26: 11.00—Sunday Meeting. Ardon Lyon on Logic and Life: Ought We to Be Logical? 3.00—Forum. 6.00—Bridge. 6.30— Concert : Guadagnini String Quartet playing works by Wolf, Schonberg and Beethoven. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28: 7.00—Discussion opened by Nicolas Walter. SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2: 11.00—Sunday Meeting. Peter Heales on Karl Popper and the Quest for Objectivity. 6.00—Bridge. 6.30—Concert: Quartet of London. NB—There will be a theatre visit during the month—ring 242.8032 for details. -. 2 Self-Management

BY

II. J. BLACKHAM

THERE are two alternatives to self-management, drift and self-indulgence. One may look on at the life one lives, and not like it and not do anything about it. There was the farm labOurer in that state who did in his younger days make one bid for the life of his dreams, walking 40 miles to Newmarket, and trailing back to lapse for the rest of his days into his passive resentment. There are various ways of self-indulgence, from buccaneering disregard of others to sloth, or to a romantic dethronement of reason in favour of will, a reckless preference for the unorganized and unbounded, making an ideal of the spontaneous, the uncontrollable. Alternatives for self-management have an analogy in current forms of political government: autocracy, people's democracy, political democracy. Autocracy in terms of self-management stands for imposed (self-imposed) rule from without, in conformity with an established external order. Plato, asking himself why one should not act unjustly if one could get awa9 with it, argued that the structure and functions of human personality and of society correspond, and correspond with a cosmic order, and that this harmony is the sole good, so that no violation of it can bring any gain. In the Semitic religions there is an omnipotent Ruler whose will is law. In Hindu philosophy, the self is identical with the principle of universal life, so that self-identity and fulfilment are attained only by non-attachment to the world and its vanities—the so-called Perennial Philosophy. In all these philosophies, there is a cosmically ordained order which cannot success- fully be defied, so that conformity with it gives a rule of life for securing all good. Darwin's theory of the biological evolution of species is more than a footnote to these assumptions; for it takes ove'r the text. An alternative form of self-surrender is to identify oneself with a group. In this respect, the Nazis offered the youth of Germany an alternative to the Communist Panty. There is the invitation, the organized opportunity, reinforced by conditioning and pressures and constraints. Contemporary forms of this group indentification have been political, but it is basically a religious phenomenon. Jung suggested that most people found it easier to seek a group identity than to establish a responsible independence.

Origins of Ethics Self-surrender in any form may be an independent personal decision. What is distinctive about self-management taken into one's own hands is the assumption that human life is a personal invention, not a cosmic order nor an historical destiny. We are left to the devices and desires of our own hearts. There have been notable attempts to cope with this situation in the history of ethics. Hobbes in Leviathan argued that the state of nature was a war of every man against every man, in •which human life is 'solitary, poor nasty, brutish and short'. Therefore, the State by enforcing a rule of law provided the basic order, a guarantee against one's neighbour which made it reasonable to treat him as oneself. For a time, ethical theory was a quest for the summum bonum or chief end of action, which would give one a rule of life. Recently, the American school of 'humanistic' psychologists (Rogers, Maslow) have posited 'self-actualization' as the normal goal of behaviour. If • 3 one is looking for a universal model, one is going back to the religious assumption of an ordained order. And if self-actualization is the goal, what is the self? The motion of self-determination is partly nonsense, partly a puzzle. It is nonsense if I think I really can determine what I am and how I live, since so much of that is unalterably given, genetically and socially. I have a cult- ural identity in growing up in a certain place at a certain time; I have a universal identity as a human being; and I have a personal identity in being the individual I am. These three identities, universal, corporate, and per- sonal, are interlocking spheres of being. Correspondingly, I am infinitely dependent, I am depended on, and I have a measure of independence, These identities and this interdependence are •the constituent characteristics of human reality; and respect for them is authentic self-respect. This structure of the self is involved in self-management and in what self-determination is possible. It represents the amount of truth there is in the Platonic or religious vieW.

Inventing the Self There is no difficulty in thinking of the self as an object to itself : I am palpably there for myself in my body and in my behaviour, and in my experience. I am being determined by all that I do, all that I feel, all that I think. This self-determination as a reflex of all my behaviour and experience, which goes on inescapably and continuously, is not deliberate. Almost, I am self-made in spite of myself. The puzzle is: if I form myself, how can I that is unformed form that self? Where does the superior self come from to do the job? An answer is that I may make deliberate decisions or choices, in which I follow a procedure: alternatives are formulated, required infor- mation is acquired, probable consequences are weighed, interests liable to be affected are considered 'impartially. The self that deliberates in this way is an instructed and disciplined self, universal and personal, not merely the empirical self. And one of the principal ways in which I do make up my mind deliberately is in forming my beliefs and my ideals, which are among the most formative influences in my life. Human life is a 'personal invention; but invention is akin to discovery, and in this case of the world, rather than the self. One experiences objects in the world, not as they are, but as they are for us, for use or enjoyment. Self-management here is not merely nor mainly control of behaviour, but the development and deployment of resources for eliciting more and most from the objects of experience. The sciences and the arts are models for this. The scientific is learning about the organization and 'behaviour of classes of objects, and multiplying knowledge by dividing the known. In the arts, the individual object, with ways of seeing and responding to it, is explored. Houdin has been admired as a painter 'because he experienced 'so little and the little was enough'. He was able to go on getting more out of what was there. To experience the self experiencing the world is the whole content of human living. There is scope in this for different styles, different forms of achievement, different adventures, different conclusions. But there is no conclusion as long as one lives, for it is life being lived. Experienced is turned to use, or consumed in enjoyment. Self-management chooses the objects pur- sued, and devises approaches.

(Summary of a lecture given on July 13) 4 Whatever Became of the Feminine Principle? (2)

BY BEATA BISHOP At least the Catholic Church has the Virgin Mary as its token woman, and, unlike the Protestant Churches, makes use of the emotional power of music, art and beautiful ritual that speaks to the heart. But the voice that ultimately defines the place of woman—and of the Feminine Principle —within the Church is that of St. Paul. And he was no friend of either. The Church's negation of the Feminine Principle meant that our society evolved without it, and contrary to it. The Yin values of feeling, harmony and intuitive knowledge only survived in art, poetry, music and architec- ture. And, for many centuries, in the cult of the Madonna, which had no theological or. doctrinal foundation, yet it inspired masterpieces throughout European art, music and poetry. But the. cult of the Madonna had a big drawback for women. It admonished them to follow the 'impossible ideal of virginity combined with motherhood—a mind-boggling demand. Yet quite logical if we remember that, unlike Hinduism and other Oriental religions, patriarchal Christianity has always shown an uneasy, schizoid attitude to the body and to sex; fascination combined with revulsion. And then, over 300 years ago, the French philosopher Descartes uttered his famous principle, "I think, therefore I am." Rationalism was born, and with it the first possibility of a truly scientific, objective approach to the world. Unfortunately Cartesianism, which is an admirable method of inquiry, became a total world view which separates man from Nature, thought from feelings, Logos from Eros. Following on, the triumph of rationalism, the rapid development of science, the worship of pure reason all proclaimed the Masculine Principle as the only valid one. Technology came, bringing along the Industrial Revolution, the conquest of Nature, the systematic exploitation of the Earth. Parallel with these dynamic developments, women became increasingly oppressed. Their lot reflected the total eclipse of the Feminine Principle. In a strongly materialistic and increasingly mechanistic •world they became an undervalued subject race, limited to domestic and minor social functions. But the ruling sex was also damaged. Men became imprisoned in their masculine polarity. More than ever, they lost touch with their feeling nature, instincts and intuition. They repressed their tenderness, caring, warmth, spontaneity, and all other qualities that weren't considered manly by the culture they had built. Which brings us up to the present. The average Western man today is all Yang, without a saving trace of Yin. He's a lonely, lopsided, suffering creature; fiercely competitive, because it's easier to clobber rivals than to face his inner desolation. He suffers from neuroses and psychosomatic illnesses, and his favourite boast is that he doesn't understand women; what he's really saying is that he's been orphaned by the Feminine Principle. And he's not much helped by women who are equally unhappy, either because they resent their limited existence, or because they've discovered their own submerged Yang qualities—energy, ambition, courage—and don't know how to handle them. put there's more- to this than individual unhappiness. We • live in a world where the unbalanced Masculine Principle is running amok.. Pick out any of the major problems we are facing today, from the arms race to the destruction.of the environment, and you'll find the same underlying sickness. A cold, unfeeling drive for achievement; constant innovation with .5 no thought for its social consequences; the deliberate bypassing of the personal elenient; increasing specialisation and analysis that leads to detailed knowledge of the parts and a total non-comprehension of the whole; total alienation and disrespect for life. From the fate of the whales to the destruction of the forests of Amazonia, from factory farming to the lunacy of nuclear power we find everywhere the fruits of the unbalanced Mascu- line Principle which has no guiding, controlling Yin wisdom at its side. How do we repair this situation? There's no way •back to the gentle, static world of matriarchies. We've been through the two opposite ends of the male-female polarity. Our last chance is to synthetize the two, bring together Yin and Yang, both as individuals and as a race. We must develop an androgynous inner nature that reconciles the opposites. If we don't succeed, we'll perish. A start has already been made. Developments in the alternative life- style movement show distinct Yin characteristics. Holistic medicines, for instance, treats the whole patient, body, mind and psyche, unlike orthodox medicine, which regards the patient as a faulty mechanism that needs repairing. The human potential movement helps people who want to work through their male-female polarity and find wholeness. Organic agriculture works with Nature, unlike mechanised agro-business which exploits and ruins the soil. I see the rising of Yin in ecology, which heals the wounds inflicted on the Earth by brutal technology; and in the non-sectarian spiritual quest for meaning that goes way beyond the dry rustlings of theology. Above all, scientists are beginning to admit that the materialistic view of the universe is no longer tenable, because we are dealing with an infinitely mysterious living organism, full of phenomena that defy rational thinking and logic. We're nowhere near a balance yet. The new initiatives are small, tenta- tive and unsupported by big battalions. But they carry a new energy. The Feminine Principle is moving back into our consciousness. The future depends on whether we can integrate it into ourselves as individuals and then make it bear on wider issues. Can we become whole, can we co- ordinate thinking and feeling, energy and tenderness, strength and love, dynamism and stillness, doing and being? It's as simple as that. But everything depends on it. (?) Beata Bishop 1980. (concluded).

From the New World: H. L. Mencken

BY T. F. EVANS EVERYBODY must.know that the year we are now in is that one of four in which one of the most important of decisions is taken; a decision that can alter the entire course of history. Not the history of one country alone but the history of the world. The decision is that taken by the people of the United States of America on a Tuesday in November when a new President is elected. It is a decision taken by the people because the USA is a democracy but the number of people who bother to vote is not always large. The rest of the world waits upon the decision with a mixture of emotions, but it •is impossible to be totally indifferent. This year, perhaps more than in many recent contests, we wait with something more than mere interest, perhaps with trepidation or apprehension because recent events in Iran and Afghanistan have shown the United States in the unusual 6 position of feeling vulnerable and threatened. From the middle of the last century when, after a terrible, civil war which might have proved wholly debilitating, the economic and political power of the United States has grown at an astonishing rate. The last quarter of the nineteenth century was known as the Golden Age in America and, when reasons are sought for the present inferiority of Great Britain when its economy is matched against that of other leading in- dustrial, nations, it may be recalled that, for instance, whereas in 1880, the steel production of Britain, Germany and the United States was more or less equal, at approximately one million tons each, by the eve of the outbreak of war in 1913, the figures were: Britain eight million tons, Germany seven- teen million tons and the United States thirty-one million tons. The effect of the two great wars in the twentieth century served but to increase American power so that, by the end of the second in 1945, the historian A. J. P. Taylor was able to write that President Roosevelt who, he contend- ed, alone among the great world leaders, knew what he was doing, "made United States the greatest power in the world at virtually no cost". After the war, there seemed no decline in American power and influence but, in the more recent past, the effects of the Vietnam war and, in a different way, of the Watergate scandal, have caused question marks to be written against the name of the great Republic and these stand despite the immense technical achievements of the space programmes and the moon landings. The dollar has been falling and the effect on the tourist trade, to take one apparently small consequence—but not an unimportant one—has weakened the position of the United States as the great power which, in wealth and influence had assumed the position that Britain occupied for so long before 1914. 1980 Centenary of Mencken's Birth If, to some extent, therefore, our thoughts have to be on ihe United States this year, there might be some value, if only that of originality in looking at the great •country, •hrough the sharp and perceptive eyes of one of her writers. By a coincidence, H. L. Mencken was born a hundred years ago this year. He has his place in American literature but it is an unusual one. He was a journalist. With few exceptions, his books were collections of newspaper articles but, in the words of Alistair Cooke, he was "a writer who more and more strikes me as the master craftsman of daily journalism in the twentieth century". For.over forty years, Mencken was a prolific and versatile writer on all kinds of topics. His work included regular literary and drama criticism but his great theme was the country and society in which he lived. As his name suggests, he was, as are so many Americans, of foreign stock. His forefathers came from Germany after the 1848 revolution and settled in the city of Baltimore in the state of Maryland, where they founded a pros: perous cigar business. Mencken himself was hardly ever seen without a cigar in his mouth but he did not go into the family business; he went into news- papers instead and remained there. He edited and wrote regularly for a number of papers and died in 1955, after suffering a series of strokes in the last seven years of his life. In his early days he was greatly influenced by Bernard Shaw and there is something of Shavian wit and exuberance in all his writing but he had no interest in purely literary writing and no wish to be a dramatist. Similarly, he did not share Shaw's Socialism. In later years, he moved from admiration of Slmw to condemnation, calling him the "Ulster Polonius", a term for which geographically at least, there seems little justification. He declared himself opposed to democracy and supporting the Germans in the first war, 7

he was not greatly worried by Hitler either, thinking him a clown rather than a menace and, when war came, settled down to watch the circus. He declared that he was perfectly consistent in his domestic politics as he had firmly opposed every single President during his lifetime. Throughout his entire writing career, he was a merciless critic of American life and society, of American smallness and pretensions •to greatness, of American vice and even more of American hypocrisy, of American foolishness and American stupidity. In an• essay entitled, "On Being an American", he asked himself, why, if he condemned the United States so witheringly, did he remain there. His answer, he said, was metaphysical and concerned with the nature of happi- ness. To reduce the thing to its elementals, he found the source of his happiness in being an American and in remaining in America. In spite of everything, to be threefold, he felt himself: well-fed, unhounded by sordid cares, at ease in Zion, full of a comfortable feeling of superiority to the masses of my fellow- men, and delicately and unceasingly amused according to my taste. He was at his height and his most influential during the nineteen-twenties. It was the period of the post-war euphoria, the time of even greater wealth and expansion than before the war, the time of jazz and bootleg liquor in the prohibition era, the time of the motor-car, strange religious cults such as that of Aimee Temple McPherson, the period of the Ku Klux Klan, the time of crime waves and sexual emancipation, the time of the rapidly developing cinema and, at the end of the decade, the years of the great depression.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee Mencken asserted that the business of getting a living in America, parti- cularly since the aftermath of war brought so much loot to the national strongbox was 'enormously easier •than in any other Christian land—so easy, in fact, that an educated and fore-handed man who 'fails at it must actually make deliberate efforts to that end". He found it easy to make a comfortable living and thus to live "at ease in Zion" a term which he often used ironically for the United States. Second, he feh superior to his fellow beings beeause: "the American people, taking one with another, constitute the most timorous, ignominious mob of serfs and goose-steppers ever gathered under one flag in Christendom since the end of the Middle Ages, and, they grow more timorous, more snivelling, more poltroonish, more ignominious every day. • In the realm of polities, 'he asked his readers to consider a campaign for the Presidency. "Would it be possible to imagine anYthing more uproariously idiotic— a deafening, nerve-racking battle to the death between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Harlequin and Signarelle—the unspeakable, with • fearful snorts, gradually swallowing the inconceivable". Finally, in Mencken's catalogue of reasons for being pleased to live in America was the fact that he found it continually amusing. Anti-democratic as he always considered himself, he took great pleasure in the fact that democracy as a form of government, whatever its faults, was always enter- taining. He never tired of the show and thought it worth every cent it cost. One of the things that amused him most of all was the American propensity to invent forms of religious belief and worship. He referred to some of the people responsible as: 8 "stupendous masters of theological imbecilities, contrivers of doctrines utterly preposterous, heirs to the Joseph Smith, Mother Eddy and John Alexander Dowie tradition—Billy Sunday, Aimee McPherson, and their like. These are the eminences of the American Sacred College. I delight in them. Their proceedings make me a happier American". Hardly any single episode in his life gave him greater pleasure than a series of events in 1925. The state of Tennessee in a fit of Fundamentalist zeal put on the statue book a law declaring that it was illegal to teach the doctrines of evolution in the state schools. A prosecution was brought against a young biology teacher called Scopes. For some days, the eyes of the nation were on a small town called Dayton when two eminent figures, an ex- Presidential candidate called William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and the famous criminal lawyer, Clarence Darrow for the defencee fought out a forensic battle that was half farce and half madness. Darrow won the argument bands down, leading Bryan to declare that man was not a mammal and being himself rebuked by •the judge for declaring that man was descended from the apes. If it were admitted that there could be scientific truth in his argument—but, of course, there was none—the correct word was 'ascended'. Mencken enjoyed himself hugely during the trial, writing brilliantly funny reports and, indeed, carrying on a perse- cution of the luckless Bryan who died in •the moment of triumph. The state won the case, as it was bound to do and he who Mencken always called 'the infidel Scopes' was fined, but the Appeal Court later quashed the decision on a technicality. Mencken reached his heights as a scourge of America in those days among the Fundamentalists •in 'the hills of Zion'. With the advent of the great depression, Roosevelt and the New Deal, he seemed to lose his way and his influence. Nevertheless, he spent much time revising what may be his greatest contribution to American literature, a monumental work on The American Language. As with all the best journalists, Mencken had a great respect for the language, the instrument of his craft and he delighted in the new raciness of American slang as in the staid formalities of earlier styles. He may not give the answers but he helps us to formulate the questions. What are the greatest contributions of America to civilisation? Have these been made in spite of some of the great weaknesses and idiocies that we derive from the other side of the Atlantic? As in all great countries, it is probably the contradictions that puzzle us most..America came into being as a land built on religious piety and the desire to find a freedom to worship that was denied in the Old World. From the Puritanism of, for example, Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, we now find that religion in America, apart from the lunatic fringe, is even more a badge of financial and social respectability than it is in this country. A country which rejected the monarchy and enshrined democracy and equality in the great sonorities of its constitution, seems more wedded than any other to the worship of money and it could well be that the British Royal Family is more popular in Washington than it is in Windsor. Finally, the influence of America for peace in the world, seems all too often to be used to support some of the most reactionary regimes and there is, in many lands, the kind of resent- ment of American power and influence that used to be directed against the worst features of British colonialism. We shall not be able to resolve these contradictions very quickly but they will come to our mind during the election year. It may be a help, therefore, as ,we move towards the great problems of government, religion and life in human society that arise in our thoughts, to read something of one who was a joker but who, as do all the best jokers, made jokes because the subjects in which he found the most humour were fundamentally the most serious and most important. For the Record

BY THE GENERAL SECRETARY

War) are our modern humanist prophets? Answer: We don't publicly acknowledge any. Result: We lack any commonly recognisable identity. Of course, we have people whose works we approve of in a general way, but what is our alternative to the Bible? That we have no effective reply to that question is a matter of great weakness to us. So can J put •the question to members and friends personally? If you had to choose four prophets of humanism, all belonging to the modem period (say since 1776) and all now dead, and who have all produced a literature that is now generally available—who would you choose? And if •you could also pick out up to eight humanist apostles as well, people not quite in •the same bracket as the Four, who would they be? I have chosen my Four and some of my Eight (rather more difficult because it raises probkms over who to leave out) but I will keep the names to myself at this stage! I have already put this question to some members orally and •the result is a most interesting discussion. Every choice is, of course, a statement about oneself! We may have the elements of a good meeting here; it is a personal matter (without being •too intimate) and we all like talking about ourselves . . Will you write or speak to me about this—and say whether you mind your name being mentioned •in connection with your'choice? There could be a very valuable upshot in this connection. Humanism needs to be interesting and therefore closely linked with indisputably original and creative people, the very best. This was true of Greek and Renaissance humanism and world history was made in consequence. We have that challenge to match.

THE EDITOR I very much regret to have to tell you that our Editor, Eric Willoughby, has resigned after some eight years of excellent service to the journal and the Society. The General Committee has asked me to be Acting Editor until a new appointment is made. I further regret to say that Eric has not resigned for the usual personal or professional reasons. He has been driven out by the militant malevolence of a small hate-mongering faction in the Society. He is their fourth victim—the others were Denis Campbell, Yvonne Awbery and Joan Sainsbury. When Joan quit the General Com- mittee in January of last year she wrote: "Since becoming a committee member I have been surprised and shocked by the rancour and unfriendliness displayed at .every meeting I attended. I have been tempted to resign many times." She then went on to name names. The people concerned operate by the methods of the poison-tongue and the poison-pen. They bend and break the rules and conventions of the Society in order to get their own way and eliminate anyone who impedes them. Their principal target, of course, is myself. They are destroying the Society from within. Even so they are very few. If you (and I mean you personally) want South Place to be true to its great past, then effective action, up to and including expulsion for unethical behaviour, is called for. It is all tragically familiar. There was a similar situation in the late 'sixties. It got so bad that the General Secretary, the Hall Manager and the Treasurer all resigned simultaneously in order to bring matters to a head. It worked. Two key officers were put out to I 0 grass and reconstruction began. If Eric's resignation helps •o bring the Society to its senses he will have performed a major service for us. For my own part I have been trying to get this matter put right for years but have never got enough emphatic support either from the Com- mittee or the membership—this is now indispensable. If you want me to do my job properly, then make it possible. We cannot function as a society of enemies, but only as a united, albeit argumentative, society of friends. I am sure that I speak on behalf of some 99 per cent of the membership when I say to the departing Editor: "Thank you, Eric, for all you have done". But we owe him and our Society more than that. What is impera- tive is that we get the message of his resignation and act on it. The disease of fatalism can be fatal. It threatens the whole of Britain as well as South Place. Can.we have done with it? THE SEASON OPENS Tom Evans opens, 5th October, on G. K. Chesterton — wit, critic, novelist, religious rebel and discerning friend of GBS (on whom Tom himself is a well-known authority). Harry Stopes-Roe follows on the 12th and will relate his view of the humanist life-stance to the substance of our court case about which I wrote at some length in the last issue of the Record. This has the makings of a controversial morning! Ardon Lyon, philosopher, will look at logic and life on the 26th. Some years ago I spoke on the life and works of Albert Schweitzer and since then I have made it my business to make a closer study of his critique of Christianity and his ethics—probably the most original and successful of the century and gaining ground all round us: my subject on the 19th. About Forums . . . We are sitting in •front of our 'boxes' watching great political parties tearing themselves to pieces and new political parties getting themselves born. The Ecology Party is gaining ground very rapidly indeed and its General Secretary will be with us on the 12th. His name is Paul Ekins and Mark Phillips will take the chair. I shall take a small part as a critic because we like, on principle, if a subject is political •to •have two sides presented. We do not, as a Society, sell any 'line'. Members and friends draw their own conclusions. Invite younger friends to come along especially—ecology is the cause of the young par excellence. The second Forum will be in the open air on October 26th. It takes place in Disarm- ament Week and we shall join CND and others in Trafalgar Square at 3.00 and then come back for Ica to talk about it. Tuesday Discussions will feature the theme "Cultivating Rationality" and Jonathan Stopes-Roe (son of our Appointed Lecturer) and who has just joined the Society will open on the 7th. The other speakers are Anthony Chapman, Govind Deodhekar and Nicolas Walter.

AROUND THE SOCIETY ID Dr Helen Rosenau has sent me a note about Beata Bishop's "timely article". She writes: "It is an over-simplification to see in Judaism only the masculine principle represented. In the opening of the Bible: "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.' Genesis 1, 2. Now the word Rusch, Spirit, has a feminine meaning, and the verbal form is feminene, ending in 'et', i.e. merachefet, for 'moved'. Figures like Mirjam, Deborah and Hannah should also not be forgotten and there are other instances of the power of feminity."

o Harford Thomas of The Guardian, who has spoken to us, wrote an interesting piece in his paper on September 3rd. It was about the nature of work. "What is work? Why do we do it? De we want to do it? Do we need to do it?" James Hemming took this on one Sunday morning a 11 couple of years ago. HT ends by commending the next Turning Point due to take place at the Hall on November 22nd from 10.0 am to 7.0 pm. It will be all about the nature of work. TP is the contemporary equivalent to Moncure Conway's great dream of a standing conference of liberal thinkers. No resolutions, no votes, no power-struggles—just ideas, good people and what they can do when they get together. Further details from Alison Pritchard, 9 New Road. Ironbridge, Telford, Shropshire, or from me.

EH think I have mentioned the Bertrand Russell Memorial Appeal before. It was launched at the initiative of Doris Russell and Lord Brockway and they asked me to take on the actual organisation. It •has been a modest and pleasant task. The bust, by Marcelle Quinton, will be installed and unveiled in Red Lion Square, almost certainly in late October. Camden Council is being very helpful and has also donated £500. We need about that much again to meet our target figure and all donors will get a personal invitation to the unveiling ceremony. So a few cheques will be welcome and so will you—on the Day. The speakers will be Dora, Fenner, Sir Alfred Ayer and your humble servant.

0 I see that in the last issue there was a rather droll omission. About the middle of page 12 I am seen to charge the AGM resolution with being "totally moral"! It should, of course, have read: "totally amoral".

0 Thought for the Month: "Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences; for there is no more worse torture than the tor- ture of the laws."—Francis Bacon. PETER CADOGAN

Francis Galton and the Creative Genius

BY ALBERT R. VOGELER WHEN as a high school student I first heard the name Francis Galton, he was identified as a Victorian scientist notable for his estimated childhood IQ of 200! I made a point of looking him up to see what great work eventually flowed from this phenomenal potential; and since then •he has been to me one of the most intriguing of Victorian personalities. I suggest that his life has kind of exemplary significance for humanists. Francis Galton was born in 1822, the youngest of the seven children of an affluent Birmingham banker. One of his grandfathers, the famous physician, poet, and inventor Dr Erasmus Darwin, was also a grandfather of Charles Darwin. The infant Francis could read simple texts before he was three; but despite his remarkable precosity he was unhappy at school. He did not take the medical degree for which he studied and received the BA from Trinity College, Cambridge, without distinction. The same year an inheritance from his father left him free to pursue his interests. In 1850 he undertook an ambitious journey of exploration along the edge of the Kalahari Desert, and upon his return from Africa was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographic Society and became a Fellow of the Royal Society. But, exhausted and ill, he never took up exploring again—a parallel to his cousin Charles' life after the voyage of the Beagle. He soon married Louisa Butler, whose family was distinguished in the Church, public schools, and Cambridge University; and their tranquil union lasted 44 years. 12 Galton's first book narrated his African travels; his second offered in- genious hard-won practical advice on travel, survival, health, and comfort in the wild. During the Crimean War he gave unpaid demonstration lectures at Aldershot on the arts of bivouacing and field survival to troops preparing to embark; but few attended. How many lives might •have been saved in that debacle of mismanagement, if Galton had been heeded? Meteorology interested Galton for much of the next decade; he virtually 'invented weather maps, which began to be published in The Times in April 1875. But no single interest ever occupied Galton fully, and he was always deepening his under- standing of some new large subject. After 1865 his most serious thought shifted gradually from physical nature to human nature. His inspiration seems to have been his cousin Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, which he profoundly admired. Turning to the study of human heredity, Galton eventually demonstrated, with the same kind of factual overkill that Darwin had employed in 'illu- strating natural selection, that mental traits, particularly talents, were heredi- tarily clustered in families—that nature, not nurture, chiefly accounts for the attainments of notable 'individuals. These he divided into two classes: the "eminent" (250 per million of population) and the "illustrious" (one per million). From his family pedigree charts—multifoliate genealogical trees—has grown a familiar theme of modern historiography: the concept of the self-perpetuating familial leadership elite, the "aristocracy of intel- lect." He was of course part of it. At the same time, Galton was investigating the principles of trans- mission of inherited traits, and for this purpose experimented with sweet peas, while Gregor Mendel, his exact contemporary, was using garden peas in cloistered isolation in Austria. The work led Galton into important new discoveries and techniques, of which two are famous: the invention of the "correlation coefficient" in statistics, and the study of twins as test subjects for distinguishing the significance of heredity and environment. So that the range of variation in what he termed "human faculty" might be better understood, Galton founded the new discipline of Anthropometry. To the measurement of human physical traits, eventtially at the Anthropometric Laboratory at the University of London, Galton soon added mental traits and abilities, eventually accumulating a vast catalogue of curious phenomena that had never been studied, and trying to interpret much of it. But his most practical investigation of 'human faculty was that of fingerprints. In the 'last fifteen years of his life Galton poured most of his energy into new work for which his studies of human faculty and heredity had prepared him: the founding and popularizing of Eugenics. It was an inevitable corollary of Darwin's triumphant demonstration of the workings of evolu- tion through natural selection—the competitive exclusion of the relatively unfit in the struggle for survival. With full understanding of his cousin's work, Galton wrote: "What Nature does blindly, slOwly and ruthlessly, man may do providentially, quickly, and kindly." The aim of Eugenics was nothing less than "to replace Natural Selection with a morally superior system of racial improvement." This implied a negative Eugenics dis- couragement of reproduction by the mentally and physically inferior; and it also implied a positive Eugenics—the encouragement of reproduction by the superior. And of course it required ways of defining and choosing these crucial qualities. Galton was well aware that, despite his own efforts, know- ledge of inheritance upon which to base eugenic decisions was far from adequate; and that society was Xtill far from ready to adopt eugenic policies at the government level. All this meant that Eugenics must depend upon long-term public education and must indefinitely remain voluntary.

(Summary of a lecture given on June 22nd (to.be concluded)) 13 Religion and Superstition

By G. N. DEODHEKAR

MY Oun defines religion as 'system of faith and worship: human recognition of super-human, controlling power and especially of a personal God. It also defines superstition as 'Credulity regarding the , irrational fear of the unknown or mysterious, misdirected reverence'. My subject is certain peculiar to India. However, since many people in the West think that what they believe is religion while what people in the East believe is superstition, I must point out that the belief in incarnation, virgin birth, resurrection, and the miracles of Lourdes, Fatima or whatever are as much superstition as anything believed in India. One superstition peculiar to India is that related to the . Unex- pectedly, a cow reduces its yield of milk or a child falls ill, The superstitious mind ascribes this to the Evil Eye and suspicion lands usually on someone with a piercing eyesight or inclined to gaze steadily at things. The owner of the eye may be perfectly innocent and kind and recognised as such but is unfortunately possessed of an eye which is evil! There is no witch-hunt fortunately, but much ingenuity to hide good things from the presence of the unfortunate person. A child, being especially vulnerable, is marked on the cheek with a black spot made with KAJAL (fine soot ground in wax). This is not a beauty spot but a blemish which it is thought will avert the Evil Eye which only affects the very best. Because of this, the concept flourishes in literature or film song: The highest compliment the lover can bestow on the beloved is that he dare not praise her for fear of the Evil Eye! flourished at one time, as in Europe but seen to be falling into disuse because no one is quite sure whether the is inauspicious when it crosses your path from right to left or from •left to right. One good still persists though. A crow persistently cawing away on a tree near your home is a harbinger of guests to come. Guests, incidentally, are not a calamity in the slow languid tempo of the tropical climate. The cutting of certain trees like the Peepul or the Baniyan causes fear. These trees sending down roots from their branches, can live for hundreds of years and so represent eternal life. Religious myths feature these trees and something akin to the poetical or emotional feeling of the conservation- ist is mixed with the religious and the superstitious. The semi-divine tree spirits are powerless against Muslim Wood-cutters, a clear demonstration to the superstitious that it is all only in their minds. The idea of to bring prosperity or fertility still lingers on and an odd case is reported once in a while. Strangely enough, large modern enterprises connected especially with rivers, such as bridges or dams are thought by the superstitious to need child-sacrifice for ensuring the success of the project. Vague rumours and fears persist. It is to be noted that even in modern European Christianity, the idea of sacrifice is not demolished- at the root as a stupid and cruel idea. The efficacy of sacrifice is conceded; only no further sacrifice is needed now that the son of God was himself sacrificed on the cross! It is never clear to me why resurrection is not regarded as 'cheating'. Possibly the largest area of superstition in India is connected with Future- Reading. Your future, it seems, can be read by the lines on your palms. It can also be read by.casting horoscopes, showing the positions of the planets in the Zodiac at the time of your birth. At any time in your life, the planets in good positions are struggling with those in bad ones to affect your fate, 14 inspite of the fact that they are not actually where they appear to be. And God is sitting in his abode co-ordinating the effects of these planet-wars with the lines on your palms! In the meanwhile, no one is bothered about reading the palms of dogs, mosquitos or snakes. All this extraordinary rigmarole is now fashionable in the West. Most magazines are busy spread- ing this superstition and increasing their sales by claiming to give the customer what he wants but also subtly telling him that he ought to want these predictions.

(Summary of a lecture given 1st June. Mr Deodhekar took the place of Lavanam who was unable to be present.)

South Place News The Editorship of the Ethical Record Eric Willoughby having resigned, the General Committee has now to appoint his successor and is hoping to find him or her within the mem- bership of the Society. Will any member interested please inform the General Secretary who will himself be the Acting Editor until the new appointment is made. Further details available from him. The office in- cludes ex-officio membership of the General Commitee and carries an honorarium. Ramble—October Saturday, I lth October, short autumn ramble through Old Highgate, Hampstead Heath and Kenwood, with a visit to the art exhibition in the recently restored Lauderdale FIouse, used by Samuel Pepys, Nell Gwynn and John Wesley. Meet 2.15 pm at the Whittington Memorial Stone on Highgate Hill near Archway (Northern Line) Underground Station. 14 Bus routes also pass or terminate at The Archway. Tea at Kenwood House, return by 210 bus to •Archway or walk on to South End Green, Hampstead, for buses: 24, 46, 187 and CI I . Social Sunday, October 19th, at 3.0 pm. John White: "A Celebration of Life and Humanity—in Poetry and Prose". Members who come are invited, if they so please, to contribute a short item (not more than three minutes).. John White is a well-known Humanist with a particular interest in literature and the spoken word. For many years he has devised programmes of poetry, prose and song and presented them at the Tower Theatre, for the British Council and elsewhere. He is the most convivial of men and we look forward to a very enjoyable afternoon. Country Dancing Jointly with the Progressive League, Saturday, October 18th, at 3.0 pm until 6.0 pm. It will all happen in the Library where Eda Collins will be the tutor. Everyone welcome. Bridge The Bridge Club meets each Sunday in October from 6.0 pm. Bridge practices alternate with prize-awarding partnership Drives. New members are welcome. Scrabble is also played on these same evenings and Mr and Mrs Love •have just presented the Society with a fine chess set which will be available as well. 15 South Place Ethical Society

FOUNDED in 1793, the Society is a progressive movement which today advo- cates an ethical humanism, the study and dissemination of ethical principles based on humanism, and the cultivation of a rational religious sentiment free from all theological dogma. We invite to membership all those who reject supernatural creeds and find themselves in sympathy with our views. At Conway Hall there are opportunities for participation in many kinds of cultural activities, including discussions, lectures, concerts, dances, rambles and socials. A comprehensive reference and lending library is available, and all Members and Associates receive the Society's journal, The Ethical Record, free. The Sunday Evening Chamber Music Concerts founded in 1887 have achieved international renown. Services available to members include Naming Ceremony of Welcome to Children, Memorial and Funeral Services. The Story of South Place, by S. K. Ratcliffe, is a history of the Society and its interesting development within liberal thought. Membership is by £1 enrolment fee and an annual Subscription. Minimum subscriptions are: Members, £2 p.a.; Life Members, £42 (Life membership is available only to members of at least one year's standing). It is of help to the Society's officers if members pay their subscriptions by Bankers' Order, and it is of further financial benefit to the Society if Deeds of Covenant are entered into. Members are urged to pay more than the minimum subscription whenever possible, as the present amount is not sufficient to cover the cost of this journal. A suitable form of bequest for those wishing to benefit the Society by their wills is to be found in the Annual Report.

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