Vol. 73, No. 7JULY/AUGUST 1968

CONTENTS Eurnmum..• 3 "ULYSSES": THE BOOK OF THE FILM . 5 by Ronald Mason THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF RELIGION . 8 by Dr. H. W. Turner JEREMY BENTFIAM .... 10 by Maurice Cranston, MA •••• • 11 by Richard Clements, aRE. BOOK REVIEW: Gown. FORMutEncs. 15 by Leslie Johnson WHO SAID THAT? 15 Rum THE SECRETARY 16 TO THE EDITOR . 17 PEOPLEOUT OF 11113NEWS 19 DO SOMETHINGNICE FOR SOMEONE 19 SOUTH PLACENaws. 20

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Conway Hall Humanist Centre Red Um Square, , Wel SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY

Omens: Secretary: Mr. H. G. Knight Hall Manager and Lettings Secretary: Miss E. Palmer Hon. Registrar: Miss E. Palmer Hon. Treasurer: Mr. W. Bynner Editor, "The Ethical Record": Miss Barbara Smoker Address: Conway Hall Humanist Centre, Red Lion Square, London, W.C.I (Tel.: CHAncery 8032)

SUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS, II a.rn. (Admission free) July 7—Lord SORENSEN Ivory Towers Soprano solos: Laura Carr.

July 14—J. STEWART COOK. BSc. Politics and Reality Cello and piano: Lilly Phillips and Fiona Cameron

July 21—Dr. JOHN LEWIS The Students' Revolt Piano: Joyce Langley

SUNDAY MORNING MEETINGS are then suspended until October 6

S.P.E.S. ANNUAL REUNION Sunday, September 29, 1968, 3 p.m. in the Large Hall at CONWAY HUMANIST CENTRE Programme of Music (3 p.m.) Speeches by leaders of Humanist organisations (3.30 P.m.) Guest of Honour: LORD WILLIS

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The Objects of the Society are the study and dissemination of ethical principles and the cultivation of a rational religious sentiment. Any person in sympathy with these objects is cordially invited to become a Member (minimum annual subscription 12s. 6d.). A membership application form will be found on the back cover. THE ETHICAL RECORD (Formerly 'The Monthly Record')

Vol. 73. No. 7 JULY/AUGUST 1968

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

EDITORIAL VIOLENCE never seems to be out of the headlines. The familiar back- ground of Vietnam, , , and the Middle East was Shattered by the less expected and more intimate tragedy of the senseless, cruel assassination of Robert Kennedy, almost eerily re-enacting •the death of his brother. An obvious major factor in the American assassinations, as also in some 100,000 'less publicised deaths by gunfire during the past few years in the U.S.A., is, as most commentators agree, the easy availability of guns in that country. Some of us think there are far too many laws altogether, but, if a nation were to have but a single piece of legislation, that surely ought to be the control of lethal weapons for, as Konrad Lorenz has pointed out, man, not being equipped by nature as a killer, lacks the instinctive inhibition that other animals have against killing members of their own species. The Students' Revolution The incidental violence that has marred sonic encounters in the students' revolution now sweeping the developed world is of a different kind —at least on the part of the revolutionaries —from calculated, armed violence, whether backed by the authority and resources of a large wealthy nation, or only by the twisted minds of assassins. it is true that in Paris some of the students were guilty of incendiarism, but even they set fire only to empty cars, for use as barricades, and to an empty and most symbolic stock exchange. Fire-raising is still deplorable, and hardly likely to win support for any cause, but it cannot be com- pared with violence against human beings— such as the extreme police brutality which, meeting the first wave of non-violent revolt, provoked the retaliation and incendiarism. One-and-a-half wrongs can never make a right, but it is clear which of the two parties, police or protesters, were guilty of the whole wrong and which of the half. And we cannot leave out of the reckoning an understanding of the causes behind the widespread unrest —causes which amount to a Cause. Mr. Anthony Wedgwood Benn put his finger on it in his Llandudno speech on the participation gap in our technological society. The 'Editorial in the June Ethical Record expressed a fear of the sort of decisions that the people as a whole would be likely to make if we really had the democracy that we have in theory: but the issues referred to were issues affecting the liberties of other people, of minorities. Popular discretion cannot yet be relied on where minority rights are concerned, but people's 'participation in decisions concerning their own living con- ditions is a different matter entirely, and a basic right that is now denied them. For instance, on the arbitrary decision of town councillors, 3 elected on an irrelevant party basis, people are moved compulsorily from old but friendly terrace houses to the isolated tops of towers — which, as architects admit, could achieve the same density of housing if placed, as it were, on their side. Insidious Violence One of the specific evils most consistently opposed by young protesters for some years is official violence of a quieter, more insidious kind: the researches that have been carried out during the past half century into "bigger and better" methods of genocide; particularly, and most insidiously of all, that of "B and C" (biological and chemical) warfare. Since the last •ar, Britain has been foremost in this field — mainly at the huge research establishment on Porton Down in Wiltshire. There, year after year, the C.N.D. and Committee of 100 have held demonstra- tions to try to lift the veil of secrecy, at the same time publishing and distributing pamphlets and leaflets on the subject; all, it seemed, to little avail, since the general press, radio •and TV remained silent on the subject. More than three years ahead of them, The Ethical Record was among the first publications to tell its readers about the infamous work beina done at Porton and the sale of certain Porton products to the U.S.A. for use in Vietnam. (See, for instance, "Off the Record" in our issue of . pages 16-17.) But our influence, of course, is minimal, and the national media of communication refused to defy the "D" notices that officially "advised" them against disseminating this information. People who had dared to stand outside the Porton fence holding placards about it were photographed from official film-vans, presum- ably for M.I.5 dossiers — but TV cameras remained conspicuous by their absence. There were plenty of soldiers, police, dogs, tanks. helicopters — but no newspaper reporters. The Responsibility of Knouing Suddenly, however. the Neil of secrecy has been lifted: possibly because of a governmental change of heart, but more likely because a TV film was being produced, willy-nilly, by a determined B.B.C. producer. The weekend before the film was due to be shown, a comparatively small, almost routine, demonstration outside the Porton germ centre was. amazingly, reported •n radio, on TV, and in the national papers, for all the world as if it were the first of its kind instead of one of a long line of similar demonstrations. At the same time, there was serious editorial comment in some papers. deploring the secrecy surrounding B and C weapons in general and the Porton research establishment in particular — a secrecy which could only have persisted with their co- operation! A letter from your Editor to The Sun. applaudina their demand for an end to the secrecy. appeared on their front page on June 11 — but with careful omission of reference to their past co-operation with the authorities, which had made the secrecy possible. The TV film itself, "A Plague on Your ", outdid any horror fiction, but with a quiet, chillina objectivity. It was sianificant that the experiments on doas, rabbits, monkeys, and other appealina animals, had to be filmed at a similar establishment in Sweden. because the authorities at Porton knew that this aspect of their dirty work would most upset the animal-loving British public. To make the film more 4 endurable, part of it showing a dog crazed with nerve gas was shown without the sound. Even so, the B.B.C. was besieged with telephone calls of complaint about the horror of the film. But should not the complaints have gone to the scientists that perpetrate such horror and the government that sanctions it (in our name) and pays for it (with our money), rather than to a medium of communication which, how- ever belatedly, allows the people to know what is going on? Perhaps most people would prefer to evade the responsibility of knowing. But surely that cannot apply to any member of an Ethical Society?

"Ulysses": The Book of the Film BY

RONALD MASON

AN EGREGIOUS lady councillor who had a hand in banning the film of Ulysses from public showing in my district said that she hadn't read the book and couldn't understand why anyone should want to. In assuming that not many more than 10 per cent of •us have read it, I apologise if 1 am wrong on the right side, but I thought it might be 'valuable to start from that assumption and give a kind of introductory picture of what I 'believe the book to be. It is Joyce's most important work, and anyone who values great and original art should be concerned to see that it is not misunderstood. There is less excuse •for misrepresenta- tion than there was about Lady Chatterley's Lover; that was !largely about sex, while Ulysses is only very incidentally about sex, being concerned with life and nearly everything that is comprehended by that word. It is a novel about one day in the life of a small group of people in ; and if you accept that as an effective description of it, and remark that it uses techniques of interior monologue and surrealist fantasy, then you may as well go and see the 'film instead of bothering to read the book, because that is the version of the book that the film has a very creditable shot at representing. If you want the rough story of the rather tenuous plot, the film gives it with reasonable accuracy, but the plot itself is the least important thing about any great novel. Joyce was born in 1882 in Dublin, which he more or less finally left in 1912 for Europe. Besides a book of short stories, Dubliners, • he had already written an autobiographical novel. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which centred round the intellectual and imaginative develop- ment of the hero Stephen Dedalus, the young Joyce-figure. •le devoted his energies for the next seven years, in Trieste, Zurich and Paris, to the composition of this one enormous novel. On its appearance in Paris in 1922, it instantly caught the imaginations of the cosmopolitan literary world. It was immediately banned in London and New York, and though the ban was lifted in America in 1933 and here three years later, the work took on a notoriety which has never been fully dispelled. Joyce's other enormous and original masterpiece, Finnegans Wake, published in 1939 (two years before his death) confused everybody so much that its attributes have often been read back, as it were, on to Ulysses, so that both books are enshrined in the minds of the populace as half obscene and half unintelligible. While there are obscurities in Ulysses, they do not becloud the general intelligibility of the work at all, and indeed many of the passages, or even most of them, are of a most lucid and vivid quality. There is admittedly a certain amount of "frankness", but it has been calculated that if you cut out five of the 742 pages, you could prescribe U/ysses as a Sunday School textbook.

5 The Book's Activity Let us now look at the theme and shape of the novel. It opens at 8 o'clock in the morning of Thursday, the 16th of June, 1904, and follows in precise and densely-packed detail the lives of a small and carefully particularised group of people in Dublin on that day until about 2 a.m. the next day. The .first main character we meet is Stephen Dedalus, a short time after we have left him in the previous novel. He is lodging uncomfortably with two companions in the Martello Tower at Sandycove, and we follow him to his morning's work as schoolmaster in Dalkey. Later in the day he walks alone into the city and is caught up in the density of the book's activity. But before this we are switched back to 8 a.m. at 7 Eccles Street where Leopold Bloom, an .1 rish.-..Hungarian Jew, is getting his wife, an overblown Irish-Spanish concert singer of indolent habit, her breakfast in bed. We now have before us the three chief characters of the action, and we are off upon a strange day-long peri- patetic adventure. During the whole length of this dizzying and exhaustive narrative we see into the minds of these three only, through interior monologues. The many other characters are presented externally. Stephen emerges as sceptical, intellectual, proud, allusive, self-destructive, uncompromising. ravaged by frustration and conscience, mourning his and embittered by his . estrangement from his father — a wayward genius nagging inside an untidy unprepossessing exterior, and seeing his own predicament in dramatic and tragic terms. Although he is Joyce himself, he remains a marginal figure. Bloom, on the other hand, is followed throughout the day in minutest detail. He is the ordinary, unintellectual, alert, humorous, sensual, kindly, tentative, inquisitive man in the street, gifted with unexpected tenderness and solici- tudes. His interior monologue is lively, discursive, amiable; if I may be paradoxical, dirty but decent. If Stephen is basically tragic, Bloom is basic- ally comic, but underneath his comic universality runs a mournful strain of loss. .He is preoccupied by his wife's infidelities, with which he has learned to live, and with the death ten years earlier of his baby son Rudy, with which he cannot live: he has an atavistic need for a son. When he meets Stephen in the brothel at the end of the day and helps him, he recognises in this casual acquaintance a son-substitute. Molly Bloom —lazy, self-centred, sensual, promiscuous, receptive, philo- sophical, compact of all femininity — exists during most of the book as an obsession in the voyaging mind of her husband and the genial gossip of the rest of Dublin; but her final monologue of 40 pages presents her more vividly than any other character in modern, or perhaps in any, literature. Universalities Then there is the fourth main character: the city of Dublin itself — pervasive, palpable, oppressive, with its authentic sights and sounds and smells. Through its crowded streets winds the Viceroy's procession, playing a central role in the spider's web of journeys. In uniquely particularised detail, Joyce re-created reality at a distance of a thousand miles and a dozen years. It was his own enormous obsession, and he has made it ours. Dublin comes to stand somehow for the Western world, geographically, historically and spiritually, and Joyce embodies the behaviour of human individuals in this setting in the archetypal myth of the journey, expressing his idea of spiritual progress as a journey not from A to B but, 1110Te ironically and fruitfully, from A to A. Looking for the greatest myth to illuminate the idea of the journey, Joyce used the Odyssey. Each of the chief characters has a prototype in Homer — Bloom being Odysseus. Molly Penelope, and Stephen Telemachus. So have many of the minor characters. Each section of the novel is a deliberate parallel to a liomeric passage and each is given a separate and appropriate literary style. Even if a reader 6 failed to realise that the book was in any way related to the Odyssey, it would still have a compulsive power as a highly charged poetic narrative of life and relationships in 20th-century Dublin; but the additional dimen- sion of this enormous ancient myth of Ulysses illuminates the almost boringly commonplace incidents of a commonplace day in a commonplace town, occurring to commonplace people, and enables us to identify our commonplace selves with the universalities of the. epic. Other literary undertones include iliamlet-like Stephen, bereft of a father and uncon- sciously seeking a substitute; and all wanderers, with whom Bloom is identified—particularly, after 'Ulysses, the Wandering Jew. Bloom is also given many of the attributes of Everyman, and in at least one passage is equated with Christ, while Molly represents Demeter, the Earth Goddess, and, in a sense, though it sounds ironical, the Virgin Mary. (Joyce is careful to let us know that Molly's birthday is the 8th of September — traditionally the birthday of the Virgin Mary; when Joyce names a date or place or name it is no mere coincidence.) The Coda Molly Bloom's 40-page soliloquy, rambling and revealing with not a single full-stop in it, is the coda to the day's exhausting activity. Lying in bed—as she seems to have been doing practically all day—she bares her heart to the reader as generously as she bares her body to her many lovers. The film, which concentrates on this part of the book, cuts out almost everything in it except sex— of which, admittedly, there is a great deal in the soliloquy. But it should be remembered that Molly also reveals an extraordinary capacity to accept and enjoy the whole of life's experience. She may be an indolent and greedy sensualist, but this goes with a large- ness of humanity which, Joyce suggests, the non-sensualists lack. Whereas Bloom is driven to his quest by the loss of his son, Molly accepts the loss with a moving stoicism, unembittered and resigned. The book closes with her celebrated affirmative, in which the tragedy of human life disappears in 'Molly's optimistic humanity. The optimism cannot be total, but Joyce sets it squarely at the end of this complex work, and puts it into the mouth of his representative woman, the creative and procreative principle. Proud and exiled, half-blind and deeply misrepre- sented, he yet clung both personally and in his art to the enduring symbols of family love and solidarity. It is significant that the 16th of June 1904, which he has immortalised in the calendar of literature, was the day James Joyce first walked out with Nora Barnacle in Dublin. The critic Anthony Burgess has perhaps conveyed as well as anyone the imaginative scope of this novel, its relevance and its compulsiveness: Beyond the city lies the whole of Western civilisation and 'Bloom's strength can be properly exhibited only in relation to that. 14 strikes through the book in many of its aspects —economics, politics, literature, architecture, music and the rest —trying to dwarf Bloom, shout him down, overawe him. But he comes through it all unscathed, the common man undiminished by the acts of uncommon men .... When we have read Joyce and absorbed even an iota of his substance, neither literature nor life can ever be quite the same again. We shall be finding an embarrassing joy in the common- place, seeing the most defiled city as a figure of heaven, and assuming, against all the odds, a hardly supportable optimism. iliere, then, is a novel of major imaginative importance. I hope that, unlike the lady councillor, you can now partly understand why anyone should want to read it. (Sumniary of a lecture given on March 24)

Decency is Indecency's Conspiracy of Silence. - BERNARD SHAW : The Revolutionist's Handbook

7 The Phenomenology of Religion By DR. H. W. TURNER

THE STUDY of religion under this title is not familiar in this country, though the Dutch, who developed it most, would know what is meant; it may best be explained against the background of the way religious studies have developed in 'Britain. These have been mainly Christian studies, biblical, historical and theological, with a high degree of scholarship, much of it very specialised, orientated vocationally towards the Christian ministry or teaching, and concentrated originally at Oxbridge, 'Durham, and King's College, London. The younger universities avoided this kind of study, but were slow to replace it •with the general history or science of religions that was developing on the Continent from the l870s. The first chair of Com- parative Religion appeared at Manchester in 1904, but development was slow; in fact, more attention was paid to studying religion in terms of other disciplines through the philosophy, psychology, and latterly sociology of religion. Possibly on account of this failure to develop in new ways, there has been a gradual extension of the classic pattern of Christian studies into some eleven of the younger universities, in Spite of the secular credo in certain of their founding documents. In place of any breakthrough to other forms of study of religion the classic Christian forms have staged a come-back. The new crop of post-war universities has generally avoided studying religion, except Kent, which has started a classic department of theology. Some do a little in the course of other studies (it is hard to avoid this, the facts being what they are!); Sussex has something in the course of area studies such as European and African studies, and Warwick in its history school. Keele maintained a one-man attempt at "historical theology without bias" for its !first nineteen years. as a minor ingredient in a general cultural course, but this fell between all possible stools and deserved the extinction that has overtaken it. Now Lancaster has begun a fair-sized department of religious studies, to include certain Christian studies alongside that of other religions, and it remains to be seen if this will set a new pattern, which has already been in operation in the new universities of tropical .Africa for up to twenty years. In 1966 Leicester commenced with a single appointment in "phenomenology and history of religion"; this is being interpreted to avoid the superficial survey courses of all religions known by the rather stupid term of "comparative religion", and also to avoid the practice of always studying religion in terms of other disciplines, before its own disciplines are developed. This would be like having courses in the philosophy or sociology of science in a university where there were no basic sciences. The emphasis is being placed on the phenomenology of religion, regarded as the scientific study of this broad range of human behaviour and conviction, with the history of the different religions, and certainly not excluding the Judaeo-Christian tradition, feeding in to this.

The Scientific Study of Religion The term "scientific study of religion" comes as a shock to many in our society who forget that even Christian theology has always claimed to be the scientific study of the data connected with Christian revelation. There can be a scientific study of anything human, provided that the methods are adapted to the task of identifying and elucidating the particular area of data concerned. The phenomenology of religion is therefore concerned with the systematic and appropriate study of all that vast range of data in human history that we label, in the first instance anyway, as primarily "religious-. The way a man votes and organises is primarily a concern for political science, and the way he produces and buys and sells a matter for economics; the ways in which men worship and, pray, sacrifice, erect sacred edifices, produce priests and saints, go on pilgrimages, create liturgies and theologies, these and a thousand other such activities are the data for the scientific study of religion. Notice that it is only the beliefs and practices associated with religion, not the divinity worshipped, that constitute a phenomenon; it is not the task of this kind of study to pronounce on validity or to adopt personal positions, although something of the "inside" view of the participant is also a scientific requirement if adequate access to the data and reliable interpretation or understanding are to be achieved. It was the lack of this vantage point that led Mr. Blackham to entitle his review of Mrs. Budd's study of the Humanist Societies. in Bryan Wilson's Patterns of Sectarianism, as "The Outsider's View- (see The Ethical Record, ). The science of phenomenology of religion endeavours to identify, classify, and form a typology of the various aspects of religions, for instance their sacred places and buildings; what is the religious function of a Hindu temple as compared with a Jewish synagogue or a Yoruba shrine? Can we identify what they have in common and account for the differences in terms of the beliefs or history of the different religious traditions, or if not in terms of religious factors, then perhaps at least partly in terms of non-religious factors of geography, psychology, society, etc.? The interpretations given must be satisfactory to the people most involved, so that a considerable degree of empathy and humility is required if wc are not to import foreign and irrelevant interpretations and so cease to be scientific. All this means is that religion should be studied in its own terms, like any other field, and should not be approached with the dogmatisms of the reductionists, who start by asserting that it is something else (and so should be handed over to sonie other discipline, usually their own) before they have approached it with the same kind of humility, patience, and flexibility that are required in other studies of things human. Religious Data Some who look only at the surface of the local scene may feel that there isn't very much to study by way of religious data, which seem to be drying up. But a closer acquaintance with what is going on all around us in Britain, not to mention more adequate knowledge of other cultures in other places, especially in the three continents of "Afericasia-, would show that religious data are still "thick on the ground" and not merely historical and archaic. Others might say that the subject seems to have been well thrashed out by now, and point to the massive collections of data about world religions made last .century in such compendiums as The Golden Bough or The Sacred Books of the East. In point of fact Frazer's work was more speculative than scientific, quite uncritical as to sources and innocent of any 'first-hand contact with the kind of people involved. In spite of much more sheer information and more scientific methods since his day, it is astonishing what large areas of ignorance or neglect there are in this field of study. The so-called primitive religions have never been systematically studied by the phenomenology and history of religions, for which the different approach of anthropology is no substitute, and our ignorance here, or indeed indifference to their existence, except as obstacles to be removed as soon as possible, is one reason for the failure of so many earnest schemes for the economic and social development of undeveloped peoples 'who still practise these religions. To take such a religion seriously, as something by which large and possibly increasing numbers of people live and die, and to try to understand its inner rationale and functioning is an excellent exercise for superior Westerners with their libellous labels of "superstition" and "mumbo-jumbo" for something they don't happen to know anything about. New Religious Movements Another vast field of study consists of what may be called the new religious movements that have arisen from the impact of the world religions, but especially from the combined impact of Christianity and the West in colonial situations, upon primitive peoples and their religions. Increasingly these form a new world-ranging phenomenon without close parallel in earlier history. They range from •the Maori prophets in New Zealand, new cults in Australia and Oceania, indigenous movements in the and the tribal peoples of India and both the Americas, to the vast array of prophetic or messianic movements and independent churches in Africa: the "new religions- of are allied but somewhat different developments. I recently traced no fewer than some hundred and sixty such religious move- ments in southern Biafra over the past forty years. .A few of these African movements are now establishing themselves among immigrants and students in Britain, and together with the increasing establishment of West Indian groups and of Islam, Hinduism, and the Sikh religion in our midst, this means that the world's religions are now operating in Britain and making this a religiously plural country, as it has not been before. The race issue that is claiming our attention, and all the many points of friction between immigrant groups and the British people, must be seen as the immigration not of coloured skins but of diverse cultures and the religions that underlie and shape them. -It is therefore of the utmost importance that understanding be built at this basic level if we are to deal fairly with Sikh turbans for bus conductors and all the other practical issues. And yet what expertise has Britain readily available on, say, the Sikh religion, which has no special centre of study in any of our universities and is a largely unknown quantity? This is only another of the many gaps in our knowledge that make Britain in this sense a very undeveloped country and that cry out to be filled by the appropriate studies in religion. There is then no shortage of materials, nor of important issues, needed to justify giving much greater attention to the kind of study of religion that is implied in these remarks. (Summary of a lecture given on March 31)

Jeremy Bentham BY MAURICE CRANSTON, M.A.

BENTHAM has hitherto been one of the most neglected of the eighteenth- century philosophers. Hs tome is a household word. He is universally acknowledged to be one of the founders of modern utilitarianism. His body is preserved in a curious mummified form in a little glass cabin at University College, London. -But hitherto there has been only one collected edition of his works, and that a notoriously bad one made by a young protege of his named Bowring —a knight, a general, a Christian (the author indeed of that famous Victorian hymn, In the Cross of Christ I Glory)—but not a utilitarian, not even a scholar. Moreover, Bowring cut out from .what he published anything that might offend Victorian sensibilities akin to his own. At last University College, .London, has started to publish a new collected edition of Bentham's work: and a team of scholars ably led by Professor James Burns is beginning to give us an image of •Bentham distinctly unlike that which emerges from what Bowring published —different, indeed, from the picture of Bentham to be found in the memoirs of John Stuart Mill, who knew Bentham only when Bentham was a very old man. Mill said that what was wrong with Bentham was that he had had "neither internal exper- ience nor external" and had lived a quiet eunuch's life on a private income 10 without ever growing up. One ,thing which emerges from the letters .of Bentham published in .1967 by Dr. Timothy. Sprigge is that Bentham, in hiS younger days at any •rate, was very like Mill himself.

A Reappraisal Recent research has shown that some of 'Bentham's supposedly most vulnerable opinions were not his opinions at all. For example, on the central utilitarian principle of the "greatest happiness of the greatest number", it has been shown that Bentham never believed that the happiness of some could be rightly increased at the expense of the unhappiness of others. The distribution of happiness meant as much to him as the amount of it. He noticed that the intensity of suffering or unhappiness greatly exceeded the magnitude of any positive pleasure or hapniness; thus the suffering of one man might well be greater than the accumulated happiness of a multitude. A policy which conferred happiness on a million at the expense of conferring suffering on one would not therefore be acceptable to Benthamite utilitarian- ism. It is worth noting that Bentham did not altogether care for the name "utilitarian"; he toyed with other possibilities, such as "cudaimonologist", which is perhaps quite a good word, and also "felicitist", which is 'surely a bad one, and then never found a name which really satisfied him. Another matter on which we have to revise our conceptions is Bentham's attitude to democracy. It has long been supposed that Bentham was con- verted to democratic ideas by James Mill in 1809. But there are papers at University College which show that Bentham was already a fully fledged democrat and reformist in 1790. In one paper dated that year Bentham recommends "universal admission to all who can read to the list of voters". 'Like Hobbes and Bertrand Russell, with both of whom he has much in common, 'Bentham lived to a •great age. fie also started early. Bentham went to Westminster School at the age of seven and to Oxford at eleven; he was a B:A. at sixteen, and at twenty had already resolved to devote himself to the science of jurisprudence and reform. Apparently what hred his zeal for reforming the law was a book he read at the age of eleven, the memoirs of Mrs. T. C. Phillips, a reformed prostitute, who was ruined by litigation. And Bentham was only 21 when he made a will directing that his body should not be buried but dissected by his friend, Dr. •Fordyce, so "that mankind may reap some small benefit in and by my decease". (Sutrunary of a lecture given on April 28)

Maxim Gorky By

RICHARD CLEMENTS, 0.B.E.

MAXIM GORKY'S birth centenary is now being celebrated in many countries, and thus affords an opportunity to p a y tribute to the life and work of this man of genius. 'For more than half a century he has fascinated the minds of readers in many lands, and, after the death of Tolstoy, he was for some three decades the foremost representative of Russian literature and culture. Today it is no exaggeration to say he is still one of the world's most popular authors. Childhood and Youth The background to the life of this talented man was the stormy, chaotic and brutal regime of Tzarist Russia. Gorky was born in the decade that opened with the reforms of 1861 and resulted in the dissolution of the old feudal order, thus preparing the way for a rapid expansion of capit- alism. The •reforms set in motion vast masses of human beings. in those years a new portent crept into the social order, i.e. the recruitment and

11 exploitation of huge armies of wage labourers employed on the building of railways, docks, mining plants, factories and mills. The new capitalist order brought in its train for the working masses savage exploitation, poverty, starvation, prostitution, disease and discontent. Such were the objective economic and social conditions. Maxim Gorky was born in the Volga-side city of Nfini-Novgorod (since re-named Gorky in his honour), in March 1868. His name at birth was Alexei Maxiomovich Peshkov; his father was a cabinet maker, and Varvara his mother, was the daughter of a dye-maker. The family existed in extreme poverty. Orphaned at an early age, Alexei was turned out on the world to earn his own living. He had no formal education, but taught himself to read and write, and from youth to the end of his life was a voracious reader. He secured for himself a strange variety of jobs —errand boy, a hawker of beverages, assistant icon-printer, worker on building sites, ship's cook, and barrister's clerk. This was an experience which gave him insight into the working and living conditions of the masses, and a warm-hearted sympathy with the men and women he afterwards wrote about in his sketches and short stories. It was one of his "universities". Ms studies were conducted not in lecture halls, but in the world of nature and man. And what a splendid education it was! Then, in 1891, Gorky set out to explore his native land. He travelled the rough way. His wanderings took him through the Ukraine, 'Bessarabia, the Crimea, and along the Caucasian sea-coast. PHe stayed for some time in Tiflis (now re-named Tbilisi), and there he became a member of a revo- lutionary group, another of his "universities-. One of his associates urged him to put in writing what he had seen and endured during his travels. Thus it came about that his first story, Makar Chandra, was published in the Tiflis newspaper Kavaz in September, 1892. It was signed by thc pen- name he adopted on becoming an author, "Maxim Gorky". The word, which means in Russian speech bitter, was perhaps •intended to convey that his writings would be about those with a bitter destiny. Tolstoy no doubt had in mind Gorky's working class parentage, as well as his desperate years of struggle for survival and self-education, when he so aptly said of Gorky "here was a true son of the people". Journalist and Author was in his early twenties when the first of his stories appeared in the columns of various provincial newspapers. This early work led to an acquaintance with Vladimir Koralenko, a Radical writer of great talent, who, at a crucial stage in Gorky's career, guided and criticised his work; Koralenko also helped him to secure a position as a journalist. Then, in 1895, Gorky left Nizhni-Novyorod and went to live in Samara, where he found employment as a professional journalist on the staff of the Samarskaya Gazeta. His versatility and skill as a feature writer were seen at their best in a series of articles he wrote on local themes. This was but one example of the long and hard apprenticeship he served to the craft of letters. He took another decisive step in his career as a writer when, in 1895, another of his best known short stories, , was published by the influential monthly Russkoe Bogatstvo. This enabled him to gain an entry as a guest writer to some of the leading Petersburg magazines; though he also continued to write for a number of provincial newspapers. Two years later he began his novel Foma Gordeyev, which later on appeared in the pages of Zhizn; other novels of his were also contributed to that magazine. In 1898 a two volume edition of his Essays and Stories appeared. Mention has already been made of the fact that he was also playing an active part in revolutionary circles. 'Before the nineteenth century closed he had become an outstanding leader in the Russian Socialist movement. 12 In taking up this stand for freedom and in defence of those who were oppressed. Gorky acted in the humanistic tradition of Russian classical literature. -He became a continuator of the work done by Belinsky, Cherny- shevsky and Dobrolyubov, revolutionary democrats and literary critics, who looked upon literature as a weapon in man's struggle to change the world. Hc was also a passionate admirer of the writings of his great contemporaries Gogol, Koralenko, Tolstoy and Chekhov. He never ceased urging the young writers of the to study the great Russian classics. In answers to his Soviet questioners in 1928, who asked him why he became a writer, he replied: To the question, why I began to write, I answer thus—from the pressure upon me of an exhausting poverty-stricken life, and also because I had accumulated such a load of impressions that I could not stop myself from writing. The first rcason impelled me to introduce into a poverty-stricken, wearisome life such products of the imagination as The Song of the Falcon, Legend of the Burning Heart, The Stormy Petrel. The second reason led me to writc stories of a more realistic character such as Twenty-Six Men and a Girl and The Odors. He added the following comments: From all this we may be fairly certain that in our literature we have not as yet had the sort of romantici

Romanticist or Realist Some of his critics have described the early writings of the young Gorky, especially his stories, fantasies, and sketches, as an expression of heroic romanticism. This in a sense is true. In his essay How I learned to Write he has written wisely on this whole subject. The following extracts from it indicate how he approached the work of both romantics and realists: In the struggle •for existence the instinct of self-preservation developed two mighty creative forces in men. These two forces are knowledge and imagination. The first is the ability to observe, compare and elucidate natural phenomena and the phenomena of social life; in other words, knowledge is ability to think. In essence, imagination is also thinking; it is thinking about the world, but it is mainly thinking in images, thinking in artistic form; one might say that imagination is the ability to attribute human qualities, even human intentions, to things and to the spontaneous phenomena of nature .... The basic trends or tendencies in literature are romanticism and realism. The truthful, unvarnished representation of people and their conditions of life is called realism. As for romanticism, several definitions have been given. but there is as yet no accurate and fully satisfactory formula which is accepted by all historians of literature. Within the romantic one must distinguish two sharply divergent tendencies: passive romanticism, which either attempts to reconcile people with reality by colouring it, or else attempts to divert people from reality and lure them to fruitless preoccupation with their own inner world. with thoughts about "the fatal riddle of life", about love and death, about problems which can never be solved by speculation and contemplation, but only by scientific research. Active romanticism, on the other hand, attempts to strengthen man's will to live. to rouse him fo rebellion against reality with all its tyranny. This is a striking statement by this protean man. Then, as he goes on to show, with regard to the classical masters of European literature, French and 'Russian alike, as with Balzac, Turgenyev, Tolstoy, Gogol, Leskov, Stendhal and Flaubert, "it is difficult to define with sufficient accuracy whether they are romantics or -realists. In great writers, realism and romanticism always seem to be merged". 13 'It is;significant that, in 1900, Gorky told Chekhov that his superb artistic•powers as a writer had destroyed the very idea of realism in literature. "No one can go further than you in that direction-, he added. It was a sapient judgment. For after the death of Tolstoy, Turgenyev, Dostoevsky, Goncharov and Chekhov, though there were able •writers, even those who stood out amongst them seemed bogged down in a gloomy naturalism. The so-called symbolist revival, even with Alexander Blok's achievements to aid it, was not taken seriously by a reading public attached to the realist tradition and convinced of the necessity for a social revolution in Russia. Into that spiritual void leapt Gorky with his original attitude to life, his revolutionary zeal, his faith in humanity's creative potentiality, and the fascinating new human types he introduced in his tales, sketches, articles and the series of novels which included such masterpieces as Foma Gortleyev (1900); Mother (1906)I; The Life of Matrei Kozheniyakin (1910); Tales of Italy (1911); Childhood—an autobiographical novel (1913); The Appren- ticeship (1915); Artanionovs (1925); and from 1926 to 1936 — the year in which he died —he worked on his magnum opus, The Life of Klim Samgin, which Boris Byalik has admirably described as "both a social and psycho- logical novel showing the formation of Samgin's character, and a chronicle recording a number of historical !facts and personalities. But both definitions fall short, because the novel and the chronicle are parts of a larger whole which could well be called an epopee".' It must be remembered that this list is illustrative only of his stupendous work as a novelist. A few sentences must be added to remind readers that Gorky was also a dramatist. He served the theatre as a playwright, and also by allowing adapters to exploit to the full the dramatic features of, his novels. For example, as early as 1901, the Committee on censorship which Men existed in Russia records some 30 applications about adaptations of his novel Foina Gordeyev for use in Petersburg and 'provincial theatres. His play had its premiere at the Art Theatre in October 1902: and another of his works, , also had its premiere in thc same place some two months later. In 1903-4 this latter work had an un- interrupted run of more than 500 nights in Berlin. Jt remains only to mention here Stanislavsky's admiration for Gorky's dramatic works.

The Humanist It is sometimes overlooked in the western world that Gorky was animated in all his works as a man, as an artist, as a revolutionary, as an advocate of the rights of subject peoples. and as a builder of a new way of life for the masses, by his Socialist Humanism. Yet this was the very breath of life to the legendary 'figure that participated in the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, who protested against the slaughter and outrages committed during the first world war, and who through the tumult of those years never ceased to he the conscience and •the voice of the 'Russian nation. This centenary tribute may !fittingly close with his own vision of the part literature had to play in the Humanist advance amidst the grim realities of modern life. "The purpose of literature," he wrote, "is to help man to know himself and support his striving after truth: to discover the good in people and to root out what is ignoble; to kindle shame, wrath, courage in their hearts; to help acquire a strength dedicated to lofty purpose and sanctify their lives with the holy spirit of beauty. (Summary of a lecture given on April 21)

1 Mother is perhaps Gorky's best known novel. It first appeared in English in the U.S.A. In the Soviet Union it has since appeared 202 times in 54 languages, giving a total printing of nearly seven million copies. Outside the U.S.S.R. it is known to have appeared 293 times in 44 languages. See "A Great Epopee"5oviet Literature Monthly, 3. 1968; p. 237. 14 - Book Review Gospel for Heretics The Martyrdom of Man, by Winwood Reade (The Humanist Library, Pem- berton Publishing Co. Ltd., in assoc. with Barrie & RockMT; 1968; 444pp.; hard cover 15s., paperback los. 6d.)

IF THERE Is anybody seriously interested in the history of mankind who has never read this book, here is the chance not only to remedy the omission but to acquire an excellently presented edition of it at a reasonable price. It has influenced men as diverse in outlook as H. G. Wells, Conan Doyle, and Winston Churchill ; yet, perhaps because orthodox minds have found it shocking, scant justice has been done to it by the accepted literary pundits. The Oxford Companion to English Literature, in the few lines it accords the author, merely says "The Martyrdom of Man contains his criticism of religious beliefs", while The Dictionary of National Biography comments briefly "In this work the author does not attempt to conceal his atheistical opinions". When the book first appeared—in 1872—the frankness of Reade's account of the suffering caused through the ages by fanaticism and superstition was far ahead of the time, but, despite urgent pressure from friends and publisher, the author refused to water down his views. Even his celebrated novelist uncle, Charles Reade, deemed it advisable to deprecate his nephew's "obnoxious opinions-. Those who share these opinions may perhaps draw some comfort from the fact that, while the Oxford Companion describes the uncle as "cantankerous and perverse", it makes no animadversion on the character of his nephew.

Prophet and Stylist In 1948 Watts & Co. reissued the book in The Thinker's Library, with an introduction by John M. Robertson. In the edition now under review this introduction is replaced by one from Michael Foot, who pays tribute to the author's "astonishing foresight" and to his fascinating, direct, and very readable style. As for the book itself, the arrangement of its subject matter is masterly. The sub-divisions (called "chapters" by the author, though "sections" might be more appropriate to their length) are only four in number: "War" "Religion" (the agencies that have contributed most to man's martyrdom), "Liberty" and "Intellect" (the agencies to which man looks for release). It is heartening to know that, even after sales of 150,000 copies over the years, demand continues for this "gospel for heretics", as Michael Foot calls it. It is to be hoped that this praiseworthy venture will be followed up in the Humanist Library series by the rescue from oblivion of the author's last work, The Outcast — a semi-autobiographical novel in which he describes the harsh experiences of a sceptic. LESLIE JOHNSON

Who Said That?

"Some others are eager to enlarge the conflict. They call upon us to supply American boys to do the job Asian boys should do. They ask us to take reckless action which might risk the lives of millions and engulf much of Asia, and certainly threaten the peace of the.entire world." (1,961) uostajor ;if uopufil :Jantsuy

15 From the Secretary (General Secretary's Verbal Report to the A.G.M.)

WHEN I took up my duties as General Secretary two years ago, three thoughts were uppermost in my mind: (I) Is there a real need and future for the Ethical Society? (2) If so, what is the image we need to present? (3) What activities and services should be provided for members and the community? The increase in membership from 358 in 1966 to 636 at the end of the last financial year, and now around the 700 mark, provides an affirmative answer to the first question. There is the further fact that people are becom- ing more conscious of the need for an ethical approach to personal life and social problems ; and as protest, confrontation and real violence extend, as we see in and the U.S.A.. so will the demand for personal and social ethics increase. As the only Ethical Society left in Britain, what image do we need to present? The General Committee has already decided to install an illumi- nated sign over the Theobalds Road entrance to Conway Hall, announcing "The Ethical Society". and underneath, in smaller letters, "Conway Hall Humanist Centre". I suggest wc should use the title The Ethical Society, as South Place is of local connotation and has little meaning today, and as a Society we should endeavour to speak with a national voice. But image is not only a matter of title, paint and decor, or even of policies; it demands warmth and friendliness, and somewhere where this can be expressed. As a first step, we should encourage members to use the library during the day. as somewhere where members can chat with their friends over a cup of tea. The facilities are here—let them be used. We should also explore the possibility of using the large room under the stage as a per- manent club-room, coffee-bar, .and informal meeting place, particularly for our younger members. The third question partially answers itself. Being members of an Ethical Society, we have an obligation, not only to live personal ethical lives, but also to make known our views on the vital ethical issues that are crowding in these days. What remains to be answered is how we can do it ; for any statements that we release to the press or other bodies must be based on informed and well-founded opinion. I therefore suggest that we seek the views of our members on specific ethical issues on which they are qualified to comment, and from these determine whether we have a statement worthy of issue. To do this I would need to send a questionnaire to each member seeking information on their profession, trade or interests, thus enabling them to be placed in groups according to their knowledge and experience. When a public or social ethical issue arises in their particular field, I would then be able to forward to the members in that group a draft statement for comment and return, and from the replies could determine whether a statement was justified and the form it should take. Having taken note over the past twelve months of the fields in which important ethical issues have arisen, I do not anticipate that I would have need to call upon any group more than two or three times a year. The task imposed upon mem- bers would not therefore be an onerous one. The main point is that if we are to carry out our role as "The Ethical Society", effectively and efficiently issuing statements with the Society's imprint upon them, these must be based upon informed opinion, and to ensure this we depend upon the co-operation of all our members. I would ask for one further contribution from members, and that is that we should each pledge ourselves to enrol one new member into the Society during the current year. Whether we like it or not, we must accept the fact

16 that today the validity of a case counts for very little unless it is backed by substantial numbers of people. We therefore need not only a sound ethical case, rationally argued, but also sufficient members behind it to pre- vent it from being ignored. We cannot and should not attempt to pursue those political issues that the B.H.A. is better equipped and more able to undertake, but we have an obligation to make our views known in the field in which, as an Ethical Society, we should be well qualified to speak. One more point ; the questionnaire will provide space for members to submit any views they may have on the Society, its functions, and the future activities and service it should undertake. This is an exercise the success of which depends on the co-operation of all members of the Society. I am sure I can count on that co-operation. H.G.K.

To the Editor Joseph McCabe d always find The Ethical Record well worth reading. There is much food for !thought in it, and 1 was particularly interested in the article on Joseph McCabe, and glad to see •his splendid services to Rationalism recalled. He was a very great man. I was surprised to find that he was born in Macclesfield. which is only a few miles from here. FRANK JONF..9 Stockport, Cheshire

Ethics and Morals should like to call attention to what seems to •be in danger of becoming a common error, in the otherwise excellent article by Mr. Stewart Cook in the May Ethical Record. He uses the terms "ethics" and "morals" as if they were synonymous, whereas they really have different meanings. If

- ethics" represents the higher aspirations of mankind, "morals" is the common standard of conduct as observed in practice. 1 think the failure to distinguish this difference in meaning can lead to some confusion in thought. W. BYNNER London, S.W.19 [The Oxford Dictionary defines "ethics" as "science of morals", which agrees with the definition given in my lecture-summary. If defines "morals" as "habits. esp. sexual conduct". I avoided using the word, although I used "moral" as an adjective. I cannot find in my summary the confusion which Mr. 13ynner attributes to STEWART CGOK1

Free Speech The National Secular Society congratulates the B.B.C. on giving the public access to first hand information in the television programme "Students in Revolt" and thanks the Home Secretary for making it possible for one of them, Daniel Cohn-Bendit to appear in the programme and discuss common problems there and elsewhere with his British colleagues. We deplore the illiberalism of those individuals and organisations which have no belief in our tradition of free speech or the ability of our young people to withstand overseas influences, and which are trying to make political capital out of a passing incident. DAVID TRIBE President. National Secular Society London. S.E.7 17 Methods of Protest After reading your mild, but pointed and warranted editorial rejoinder to Mr. Stewart Cook's curious conclusions on methods of protest in the May Ethical Record, I feel that the library at Conway Hall ought to contain, if it does not already, Alex Comfort's book Authority and Delin- quency in the Modern State. Instead of protesting against the upsurge of protesters, both students and others, Mr. Cook ought to thank them. The worm is turning at last against the complete reversal of the proper order of things by our so-called Labour government in constantly imposing its own will instead of fulfilling Me will of the people and in almost openly declaring that what the bankers want is more important than the general welfare. Mr. Cook's statement that the "other people" inconvenienced by demon- strations are not responsible for the objects of the protest is a denial of our individual and collective responsibility —the very essence of Humanism. Those who prefer to acquiesce in the rottenness of the Establishment and the injustices it perpetrates are the ones who are "inherently wrong to ignore the rights and feelings of other people". JOHN LesL ie London, W.11

In your not altogether unexpected editorial comment on my lecture of February 25, you contest my view that "we have no right to protest in ways which cause serious inconvenience, annoyance or offence to other people" on the grounds that "surely justifiable methods of protest must vary accord- ing to the urgency of the problem". !If this means that, when you are protesting on a matter which you consider "urgent", you are entitled to ignore other people altogether, I for one cannot agree. No doubt the thousands of dockers who recently left their important work to march through London jeering at coloured immigrants on the way regarded their solidarity with Enoch Powell as one of urgency..1 still think their behaviour was disgusting. But, anyway, is it not incontestably true !that all these "protests" and "demonstrations", whether 'violent or peaceful, and whether they cause public inconvenience or not, are just mass expressions of emotionalism which have no rational or intelligent basis? Usually, the predominant emotion involved is the ignoble one of hatred, whether it be of Americans in Vietnam, coloured immigrants, or British Cabinet Ministers. The one thing that is invariably absent from these manifestations of mass opinion is any appeal to rational considerations. The object is not to present a reasoned or objective case but to chant childish slogans and epithets. J. STEWART COOK Windsor, Berks.

Your Editorial in the May issue assumes that all young people, and particularly all students, agree with demonstrations which might deteriorate into hooliganism and acts of violence. The vast majority prefer to pursue their vocations and their studies, and either do not care to meddle in other people's affairs or are alienated by the excesses of some who are looking for a punch-up. The organisers of demonstrations who cannot effectively discipline their followers defeat their own ends. Only patient progressive endeavour, like evolution in nature, can lead us •o better standards of life and behaviour. L. CAMERMAN London, S.E.I7 fl certainly did not intend to give the impression that all young people are willing to demonstrate on behalf of others: most of them, like most people in other age groups, and like most of the liberals in Hitler's Germany. are un- fortunately -too apathetic to "care to meddle in other people's atiairs".— B.S.1 18 People out of the News

WHEN at last he was leaving Vietnam, General Westmorland paid a fare- well visit to the Prime Minister of Thailand, who made him the unintention- ally symbolic presentation of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant. A Greek artist, Minos Argyrakis, who, like a number of other Greek intellectuals, has recently come to Britain for the good of his health, suffered arrest and interrogation in because his Irish wife had been indiscreet enough to shout out, after a few drinks at a party, "Down with dictatorship!"; but he was released after explaining that she must of course have meant his dictatorship—the dictatorship of a husband. Dr. Billy Graham, whose source of information is the Bible, thinks the world is going to end within the next five years — but apparently made this discovery just too late to save his organisation from uneconomically taking a 21-year lease on a new building in North London. B.S.

Do Something Nice for Someone

KENNETH PATCHEN, in his Love and War poems, says "Put this book aside for a couple of hours and go out and do something nice for someone". A wonderful thought from a remarkable man, and I feel we should heed these words and start by doing something nice for members of the Society by visiting those that are confined to their homes or hospital through illness or infirmity. If you have experienced a long stay in home or hospital, you will know the pleasure of receiving a visitor, particularly if you have few friends or relatives. To make such a scheme practicable and not to throw too heavy a burden upon a few individuals, it is proposed to form visitors' groups on an area basis, with an organiser in each area to maintain a rota for visits. There should be six such groups in London: (I) central, (2) south-east, (3) south- west, (4) north-east, (5) north, and (6) north-west. At the present rate of known long-term illnesses or infirmities amongst members. the demand is not likely to be heavy. Later we may desire to extend this service to include hospital visits to long-stay patients in hospitals who are without friends or relatives, hut let us start by looking after our own. So if you would care to participate in this scheme drop me a line straight away so that we can start doing something nice for a member in need. To all those members who are confined to their homes or their beds and would like visits from members of the Society: please let me know. S.P.E.S. GENERAL SECRETARY

S.P.E.S. Development Fund How much do you value Ethical Humanism? Do you believe that its benefits and values should be made known to the many who, while strongly doubting the claims of orthodox religion, have not yet found a satisfying alternative? If so. help us to reach them and convince them of the value of a rational enquiring mind and of an ethical approach to life. This costs money. We therefore urge you to donate generously to our Development Fund for this purpose, sending your donation to the Hon. Treasurer at Conway Hall Humanist Centre.

19 South Place News New Members We are pleased to welcome the 'following new members in the Society : Mrs. La •Bouchardiere (Bexleyheath). Nigel Bruce (Edinburgh), G. F. Buries (Gravesend), A. 0. Dawson (Middlesbrough), T. Dodson (Peterborough). T. S. Emmott (E.7), V. Finkelstein (Tonbridge). P. W. Freeman (S.E.21), F. R. Griffin (Newcastle), D. B. 'Halpern (S.W.4), B. W. Hinckfuss (Chelmsford), Miss E. Holland (Ewell, Surrey). Miss E. M. Lewin (N.W.3), Prof. Julius Lewin (W.C.2), C. McLennan (Perth), Miss H. J. Manning (Great Waltham), E. W. Mason (N.W.10), R. E. ;Middlebrook (Chislehurst), D. B. Newton (Felpharn), D. P. Pattison (Kalamazoo. U.S.A.), L. •Rylance (Hyde, Ches.), E. A. Sullivan (Birmingham), P. A. J. Waddington (Birmingham), G. Waller (Norwich), R. H. Wheatley (Church Stretton). Obituary We regret to report the death of Mrs. Ethel M. Neville on May 7, in her 78th year. A long-standing member of the Society, she became a Life Member in 1951. As girls, she and hcr two sisters used to attend meetings and social gatherings at the South Place Chapel with their father, George Grove. We extend our sympathy to her daughter. Mrs. Joan Hames, and to the surviving sister, Miss V. Grove. We also have to report the death on May 28 of Mrs. N. Goldney, who joined the Society in 1940. S. K. Ratcliffe Our Sunday morning meeting on June 16, commemorating the centenary of S. K. Ratcliffe— for many years one of our regular Sunday lecturers, and author of The Story of South Place—was reported in The Guardian the following day, for S.K.R. had been one of their contributors for fifty years. The report included a 10-line quotation from the address by Mr. Richard Clements, a summary of which will appear as usual in a future issue of The Ethical Record. June Weddings The Conway ;Hall library provided an attractive setting on Saturday. June 15, for the marriages of Bruce William Hinckfuss to Helen Joy Manning and of Gordon Alan King to Hilary Haworth. Mr. H. G. Knight officiated at both weddings, in the presence of relatives and friends of 'the respective couples. Annual General Meeting More than fifty members attended the A.G.M., which was•held in the library on May 29, •preceded as usual by a social gathering with refreshments. Miss Rose Bush was elected chairman. The minutes of the 'previous A.G.M. were read in full, and the Annual Report (previously circulated to all members) was considered paragraph by paragraph. Since the number of nominations for the General Committee did not exceed the number of vacancies, the nominees were elected en hloc. Mr. H. J. Blackham. ;Mr. ;Richard Clements, Dr. John Lcwis and Lord Sorensen, were unani- mously re-elected as the Society's 'Appointed Lecturers. Messrs. Allfields were again appointed as the Society's auditors. The General Secretary then presented his verbal report, a summary of which appears elsewhere in this issue. Various suggestions made by him and by members attending the meeting were noted for consideration by the appropriate committees One matter which provoked considerable discussion was the introduction of Meditation classes as an activity of the Society and •the publication of a booklet, An Introduction to Ethical Meditation, written by H. G. Knight and published (a week or so before Me meeting) with the name and address of the Society on the cover. Asked whether he had obtained the prior approval of the General Committee for this publication, Mr. Knight said that he had told the Committee that he was preparing the booklet for publication, though he had not presented the content to them. He said that •the reason he had started the Meditation classes was to attract people from the unskilled working class who no longer accept the Christian religion yet have never shaken themselves free of its superstitions, and who would be helped by "thinking in depth" whereas our Sunday lectures would go right over their heads. Six of the people attending the meditation classes had joined the Society. Miss Smoker commented that we would probably make 60 new members, or even 600, if we also introduced fortune-telling, but that sort of thing was quite contrary to our traditions. She said that, as a member of the General Committee, she had certainly known that Mr. Knight was writing something on Meditation, but had been surprised when it appeared as an official publication of the Society. Whereas The Ethical Record always contained a disclaimer as to its not necessarily expressing the views of the Society, and even so was always on the Committee's agenda for dis- cussion, neither this booklet nor any of the leaflets Mr. Knight had been publishing in the name of the Society bore any such disclaimer or ever came up for Committee discussion. Dr. .Lovecy, who had already read the bookie: (with some dismay), suggested that before further circulation of it, some addition should be made to the cover, to remedy the impression that it is an official publication of the Society. Mr. Camerman agreed. Mr. Alexander asked whether, if he were to write a pamphlet on one of his own hobby-horses, the Society would allow it to appear as one of their official publications and pay for the printing of it. Mr. Flint commented that the word "Meditation- is inevitably associated in people's minds today with the Maharishi. •r. Truman, however, said that he would like to attend one of Mr. Knight's :Meditation classes before making up his mind about it, and two other members present approved of the classes being held. The meeting was then brought to a close. Development Fund We gratefully acknowledge the following further donations to the Society's Development Fund: K. C. Orr fl 10s. 6d., W. McGavin £1. D. M. Ronald £1, Mrs. M. Walsh £1, D. Molyneux 8s. 6d., E. G. Collison 7s. 6d., J. W. Blundell 2s. 6d. Hon. Treasurer The General Committee is seeking a successor to Mr. W. Bynner, who wishes to retire from office in December or January. The duties are estimated to require regular attendance at Conway Hall for an average of four hours per week, and involve book-keeping and taking charge of the Society's accounts. Some accountancy experience is therefore advantageous. Expenses are payable. Offers to undertake this necessary and important job would be greatly appreciated. Hymnbook Wanted A member, Mr. Roy Butt, 8 Goodwood Close, Furnace Green, Crawley, Sussex, is anxious to purchase a copy of our former hymnbook, Hymns of Modern Thought: Music and Words. with Supplement, published by South Place Ethical Society in 1912, and would be pleased to hear from anyone willing to sell him a copy. 21 Library Acquisitions We wish to record our thanks to -Mr. Richard Clements for five volumes of the Thinker's -Library which he has presented to the S.P.E.S. Other recent acquisitions include:- Humanism, -IA. J. Black ha m The Loss of Faith, Susan Budd That Gong-Infested Sea (poems). -Edward R. Grenda R.I. and Surveys, Maurice Hill The Secular Responsibility, Marghanita Laski Patterns of Sectarianism, Bryan F. Wilson (ed) Summer Sunday Outings S.P.E.S. Afternoon Ramble: Sunday, July 14 — Meet at Richmond Station at 2.30 p.m. Walk to the river and over bridge to Marble Hill Park, visit York House Gardens. continue to Eel Pie Island and Twickenham. Tea at Teddington. Return by opposite towpath (south bank). -Leader: Mr. R. Higgins. S.P.E.S. All-day Ramble: Sunday, August II — Meet at Charing Cross Station at 10.30 a.rn. for 10.40 train to Sevenoaks, arriving4 1.12 a.rn. (Cheap 'Day Return 8s.) Bring packed lunch. Walk to Ide Hill and Toys Hill. Tea at Sevenoaks. Distance approximately 10 miles. Leader: Mrs. Sophie -Randall (tel.: 830 2733). S.P.E.S. and Forest Group Joint Ramble: Sunday, September 1 — Meet at Chingford Station at 11.30 a.m. for a walk in Epping Forest and an open-air Talk by Mr. John Cunnington on "When half-Gods go, the Gods arrive" (Emerson). Bring packed lunch. Tea at 12 Maida Way, Chingford, by kind invitation of Miss Edwina Palmer. Kindred Organisations S.P.E.S. members are invited to the annual Garden Party of the Humanist Housing Association to be held at •Blackham -House, 35 Worple Road, Wimbledon, on Sunday, July 7, from 3 to 5.30 p.m. The annual policy conference of the B.H.A. is to take place at Loughborough University of Technology from July 26-28, with special sessions on the Campaign for Moral Education. Application forms available from 13 -Prince of Wales Terrace, W.8. The annual conference of the Rationalist Press Association is being revived, and will take place at the new Churchill College, Cambridge, during the weekend of September 6-8, on the general theme of "The Knowledge Explosion"; -the speakers so far promised being Nigel Calder, Prof. H. C. Longuet-Iliggins, Dr. Roger Manvell, and Dr. L. F. Thomas. The con- ference fee is £6 10s. Od, for the weekend. Humanist Holidays may still have a few double and shared rooms at their centres at Portrush, N. Ireland (seaside) and Edinburgh (for the Festival) and may have a few spare tickets for Festival events. Dates for both holidays are -31. Apply to Mrs. M. Mepham, 29 Fairview Road, Sutton, Surrey. The Progressive League are holding their Summer Conference at Pendley 'Manor, near Tring, Herts., from -18. The booking officer is -Dr. -Ernest Seeley, 38 Primrose Gardens, N:W.3. Summer Break As usual, there will be -no issue of The Ethical Record in August; the Sunday Concerts, Socials, Whist 'Drives, Country Dancing in the library, and Conway Discussions, are all suspended -until October; the Sunday Morning Meetings continue until July 21, then break until October. Our Annual Reunion —generally the highlight of the S.P.E.S. year—takes place on September 24 (see inside front cover). 22 COMMITTEES, 1968-69 Lists are being prepared of the membership of each of the Committees, and will be available on request from the General Secretary at Conway Hall. The convenors of each Committee are as follows: -

General Committee: H. G. Knight Executive: H. G. Knight Finance: Miss E. Palmer Bookstall: Miss E. Palmer Building and Decor: G. N. Salmon Chamber Music Library: G. Hutchinson Clements Memorial Prize: G. Hutchinson Concerts: G. Hutchinson House: Miss P. Snelling Lectures and Discussions: H. G. Knight Library: Mrs. M. Sinha Publicity: H. G. Knight Socials and Whist Drives: Miss R. Halls Rambles: Mrs. L. L. Booker Sunday Morning Music: G. C. Dowman

COMING AT CONWAY HALL Wednesday, July 3 7.30 p.m.—Central London Fabian Society: Brains Trust on "The Student Revolution" Thursday, July 4 7 p.m.—League for Democracy in Greece: Reports from inside Greece by Tony Ambatielos and others Sunday. July 7 I I a.m.—S.P.E.S. lecture* by Lord Sorensen 2.15 p.m. —Discussion of morning lecture Sunday, July 14 II a.m.—S.P.E.S. lecture* by J. Stewart Cook, B.Sc. 2.15 p.m. —Discussion of morning lecture Wednesday, July 17 7.30 p.m.—Central London Fabian Society: The Rt. Hon. George Brown, M.P., on "The Labour Government since 1964- Thursday, July 18 7 p.m.—London Natural Health Society: Dr. Douglas Gibson on "The Role of Naturism in the Promotion of Natural Health" Sunday, July 21 I I a.m.—S.P.E.S. lecture* by Dr. John Lewis 2.15 p.m. —Discussion of morning lecture Wednesday, 7.30 p.m.—Central London Fabian Society Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.—Blood Donor Sessions (N. London Blood Transfusion Centre). Please contact Miss Palmer at Conway Hall before- hand Wednesday, 7.30 p.m.—Central London Fabian Society Thursday, 7 p.m.—London Natural Health Society. Mr. W. Taylor will talk and answer questions on Natural Health Sunday, September 29 3 p.m. — S.P.E.S. Annual Reunion*

* See inside front cover for details 23 South Place Ethical Society

FOUNDED in 1793, the Society is a progressive movement which today advocates an ethical humanisnr 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 opporttmities 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 Asso- ciates 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 the Naming Ceremony of Welcome to Chil- dren, the Solemnisation of Marriage, and Memorial and Funeral Services.

The Story of South Place, by S. K. RatelifTe is a history of the Society and its interes- ting development within liberal thought.

Minimum subscriptions are: Members. 12s. 6d. pa.; Life Members, 13 2s. 6d. (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.

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM

To THE HON. REGISTRAR, SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY, CONWAY HALL HUMANIST CENTRE, RFD LION SQUARE, LONDON, W.C.1

Being in sympathy with the aims of South Place Ethical Society, I desire to become a

Member and enclose entitling me (according to the Rules of the Society) to membership for one year from the date of enrolment.

Nem (BLOCK LETTERS PLEASE)

ADDRESS

OCCUPATION (disclosure optional)

How DID You HEAR OF THE SOCIETY?

DATE SIGNATURE

The Ethical Record is posted free to members. The annual charge to subscribers is 8s. Matter for publication should reach the Editor, Miss Barbara Smoker, 6 Stanstead Grove, S.E.6, by the 5th of the preceding month.

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