• ' Vol. 62 No. 9 SEPTEMBER 1957 Sixpence

Notes of the Month Custos

S.P.E.S. Presents . . .

A Babel of Humanists Barbara Smoker

Ethical Sen-ices J. H. Lloyd

Religion and Private Life Archibald Robertson

Signs of Decadence? Percy G. Roy

The Mysticism of Richard Jefferies G. I. Bennett Conway Discussion Correspondence

South Place News Activities of Kindred Societies

Society's Other Activities SOUTH PLACE ETHICAL SOCIETY

CALENDAR OF EVENTS—OPENING THE 1957-58 SEASON ; ANNUAL REUNION SUNDAY ,A1 IERNOON, September 29, CONWAY HALL 3.00 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. Members and Friends meet informally in the Lobby 3.30 p.m. to 4.45 p.m. Meeting in Large Hall. Welcome to Guests -of Honour Mr. Donald G. Fincliam Honorary Secretary, English Positivist Committee Brief references--Centenary of the_ death of Auguste Comte, 1857 - Mr. Charles Kennedy Scott Director of Music, West Ethical Society - Bricf references—Centenary of the birth of Stanton Coit, 1857 Chairman—Mr. J. Hutton Hynd Programme of music Ducts and songs accompanied by JOYCE LANGLEY. II is hoped that FREDERIC JACKSON will be free to attend to play some pianoforte solos. 4.45 p.m. Tea will be served Informal Social Hour All members and friends of the Society are cordially invited. A special invitation is given to members and friends of kindred groups—the Ethical Union and associated Humanist Groups, Rationalist Press Association, National Secularist Society, and the Positivists.

CONWAY MEMORIAL LECTURE Thursday, October 3-7.30 p.m. in Conway Hall Mrs. Margaret Knight Department of Psychology, the University of Aberdeen: Author, Morals Without Religion "PHYSIQUE and PERSONALITY" Public Cordially Invited. Admission Free: Collection

SUNDAY MORNING MEETING—October 611-11 a.m. Mr. Archibald Robertson, MA.—"The Humanist Hope"

SOUTII PLACE SUNDAY CONCERTS, 67th SEASON COMMENCE ON OCTOBER 6, 1957.

CONWAY DISCUSSIONS Tuesday, October 8 at 7.15 p.m. in the Library. "Second Congress—International Humanist and Ethical Union—In Retrospect" Mr. H. J. Blackham—"What was said—and done" Dr. H. D. Jennings White—"What was not said—not done!" Miss Barbara Smoker—"Personal Impressions" Public Cordially Invited. Social Interval. Light Refreshments The Monthly Record is posted free to Members and Associa'es. The Annual charge to subscribers is 8s. Matter for publication in the October issue should reach the Editor, G..C. Dowman,. Conway Hall, Red Lion-Square, W.C.1.,..by , September 5. , • 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 is 12s. 6d.), or Associate (minimum annual subscription 7s. 6d.). Life membership £13 2s. 6d. Associates are not eligible to vote or hold office. Enquiries. should be made of the Registrar 'to whom subscriptions should be paid. •• . The MONTHLY RECORD

Vol. 62 No. 9 SEPTEMBER 1957 Sixpence

CONTENTS

NOTES OF THE MONTH, Custos 3 S.PE.S. PRESENTS . . 5. A BABEL OF HUMANISTS, Barbara Smoker ETHICAL SERVICES, J. Henry Lloyd .. 8 RELIGION AND PRIVATE LIFE, Archibald Robertson .. 10 SIGNS OF DECADENCE? Percy G. Roy .. 12 THE M YSTICISM OF RICHARD JEFFERIES, G. I. Bennett 14 CONWAY DISCUSSION 17

CORRESPONDENCE 17

ACTIVITIES OF K INDRED SOCIETIES 19 SOCIETY'S OTHER ACTIVITIES .. 20

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

Notes of the Month WHEN Mr. Dulles landed at London Airport for the disarmament dis- cussions, he was met by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who said come to lend a touch of comedy. He spoke truer than he knew. Howeverhe had tragic and menacing the world situation is, the heads of the Churches— bishops, archbishops, cardinals or the Pope himself—can always be counted on to butt in with some pronouncement which is comic in its ignorance or insolence. At the World Council of Churches held in New York the Bishop of Chicester (who, compared with his brethren on the bench, stands out as an honest man) called for a bold pronouncement against nuclear tests. The Archbishop of Canterbury opposed this with the portentous declaration (we quote The Times of August 2) "that the Council must be concerned not with what some described as the urgent concerns of the common people, but with Obedience •to the will of God". 3 Theism versus If someone had wanted to caricature the Church's position, could he have done better than that? It is not Dr. Fisher's first performance either. Some time ago, speaking on this subject of nuclear warfare, he was reported as saying that the hydrogen bomb did not really matter, as the most It could do was to transfer some million people to the next world, where they would all go anyway sooner or later. Now he draws a contrast between the concerns of the common people and the will of God. We might say that he has put in a nutshell, twice over, the difference between theism and humanism, but for the fact that it would be unfair to many theists. There are Christians—there are even bishops—who can express their belief in God and a future life without making fools of themselves by suggesting that the concerns of the common people are opposed to the will of God, or that the murder of a million of them is an over-rated crime.

Catholic Persecution The World Council of Churches, which is confined to Protestants, was further notable for some plain speaking on the treatment of Protestants in certain Catholic countries. A German bishop who had recently visited Colombia compared the persecution of Protestants there to the darkest side of the Middle Ages. An Argentine representative drew attention to the already notorious repression of Protestants in Spain. We regard these complaints as important not because we agree with Protestantism. but because such facts shciuld enlighten many who labour under the delusion that there is no religious persecution except behind the Iron Curtain. As a matter of fact a Protestant congregation would stand a greater chance of safety from interference in Moscow than in Madrid.

Protestants Forget Protestants, in so far as they are persecuted, are unhappily their own worst enemies. They have fallen too easily for the Catholic pretence that the Church never persecutes: that the stake and faggot are old, unhappy, far-off things to be blamed on the barbarous secular rules of a barbarous age; and that ancient history in any case should be forgotten for the sake of a common Christian front against Marxist materialism. The is what she was. Protestants who fall for her historical lies and her common Christian front have themselves to blame if they find them- selves in Madrid or Bogata and discover that they arc treated, not as Christian brethren, but as pestilent heretics to be repressed by that "secular arm" to whose injustice the Catholic Church never objects when it is on her side.

Punch and the A certain Mr. Charles Reid came to Conway Hall with the express purpose of making fun of the International Humanist and Ethical Union Congress, and the result was the appearance of an article, "All too Humanistic", in Punch. It is generally considered that the highest type of satire should be Punch. based on truth and, indeed, this is usually the case in the pages of We do not object to a little fun at our expense, but when the writer speaks of Flatearth• Fanshawe as though a belief in the Flatearth Theory was typical of Conway Hall it might evoke the rejoinder—over to you, Mr. Reid. Flatearth, says Mr. Reid, is "A great one for old times, old ways and tradition's patina". Could that be anything more unlike Conway Hall? "The delegates from places like Elmers End," also says Mr. Reid, "say 'priesterafr in a way that makes the word sound like 'defalcation' or 4 'malignant ulcer'.- Now why should he make this remark unless "priest- craft" conjured up these words in his own mind?. Is Punch written with the help of a supernatural agency, or are they themselves humanistic enough to write the very fine stuff which, so often appears therein?

If - Punch is "what it used to be" then indeed Conway Hall is on the map.

The Indian Rationalist The issue for May-June of- the Indian Rationalist introduces . a new editor. Mr. R. S. Yadara has succeeded Mr. S. Ramathan who was the founder of this attractive journal. He begins his duties•at a time when "the Communist Party has constitutionally come into power in the Kerala State-. Mr. Yadara claims that "he is not a Communist nor even pro-Com- munist-, yet on the whole he considers this a benevolent development. He does 'not share either the Communist phobia or the Communist mania that it has aroused in India. It is hoped that he will maintain this impartiality.

The New Archbishop With the enthusiasin that greeted Dr. William Godfrey, the new Arch- bishop of Westminster, on his arrival in London on February 3, it is difficult not to associate the circumstance with the arrival of Bill Haley, the uncrowned King of Rock and Roll. The hysteria included most of the unthinking elements which are inherent in both movements.

CUSTOS S.P.E.S. Presents . . . The 1957-58 season of South Place Ethical Society will open "officially"' on Sunday afternoon, September 29—a date which should take prominent place on our engagement calendars. Members and friends of the Society will meet at Conway Hall for the Annual Reunion. A very cordial invitation to join in the reunion is extended to members and friends of other Ethical Societies and kindred groups. The rallying of our forces for the new season, the meeting of old friends and the making of new—this is the main purpose behind this annual event. It has been agreed that it would add interest to the occasion to take informal notice of two not unrelated centenaries, com- memorating the death in 1857 of Auguste Comte, founder of the Positivist movement, and the birth in the same year of Stanton Coit, minister of South Place from 1888 to 1891, founder of the West London Ethical Society, and a prominent leader in the Ethical movement. As guests of honour, Mr. Donald G. Fincham, Honorary Secretary of the English Positivist Com- mittee, and a member of South Place, will make brief reference to Auguste Comte; and Mr. Charles Kennedy Scott, for so many years a member of the West London Ethical Society and its distinguished Director of Music, to Stanton Coit. Mr. J. Hutton Hynd will preside. Following the programme of speeches and music, refreshments will be served. ,A good margin of time will remain for the exchange of greetings among members and friends. The Conway Memorial Lecture will be delivered this year by Mrs. Margaret Knight—so well known as a broadcaster who is not afraid to raise controversy on religious topics, and as author of Illorals Without Religion. Mrs. Knight is a lecturer in the Department of Psychology in the University of Aberdeen; her choice of subject for the Conway Memorial Lecture of 1957. "Physique and Personality", will arouse widespread interest

5 and should bring a large audience to Conway Hall on Tuesday, October 3, at 7.30 p.m. The Sunday morning meetings will begin on October 6 at 11 o'clock. Mr. Archibald Robertson, M.A., will deliver the opening lecture of the season, on -The Humanist Hope". It is expected that a large audience of members and friends will be present to give an encouraging start to the Sunday morning assemblies. The South Place Sunday Evening Concerts will enter their 67th Season on Sunday, October 6. The opening meeting of Conway Discussions will be held in the Library on Tuesday, October 8, at 7.15 p.m. The Second World Congress of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. held at Conway Hall in July, will come under review—informally. Mr. H. J. Blackham, Secretary of the Ethical Union, will make a brief report of proceedings and resolutions; Dr. H. D. Jennings White, a member of the General Committee, S.P.E.S., will offer constructive criticisms; and Miss Barbara Smoker, also a member of the Society's General Committee, will give her personal impressions: There will be a social interval for light refreshments and conversation. The Syllabus of Conway Discussion, October-December, will be available soon. A Babel of Humanists

B Y BARBARA SMOKER THE SECOND five-yearly world congress of the International Humanist and Ethical Union was held at the end of July. This one took place in England, and not only in England but right on our own premises—in Conway Hall —so most of our active members were able to attend one or more of the public sessions, at least, without the trouble and expense of distant travel. The first congress took place in August 1952, when representatives of the British Ethical Union, the American Ethical Union, the American Humanist Association, the Radical Humanist Movement of India, the Humanist League of the Netherlands, the Humanist League of Belgium. and the Ethical Society of Vienna, met in Amsterdam under the presidency of Dr. Julian Huxley and formally instituted the I.H.E.U. Humanist groups in Germany. Norway, Japan and South Africa have since come in, while the French Humanist Federation is just on the brink. in addition to the official delegates from these eleven countries, over 300 individuals from twenty-one countries registered as participating members of the congress, and Conway Hall rather resembled the Tower of Babel—if a biblical simile is permitted in The Monthly Record! Some of the participants came from across the Atlantic; some from the Far East. One, who spoke little English, had come specially for the congress all the way from Japan at his own expense (money he had saved for his children's education) to urge the humanists of the world to put a stop to atomic tests and at all costs to prevent a repetition of Hiroshima. His own sister had been one of the victims. Generally at Conway Hall there is no more than a restrained murmur; sometimes it buzzes less restrainedly with commercial "lets", or with concerts, dances, and other social functions; but never before have I known it buzz so busily, so purposefully, so merrily, with the sort of activity for which it really stands. The venerable statues about the place seemed to be nodding their approval . . . The congress opened in the afternoon of Friday, July 26, with an informal jet-together and tea (including delicious pastries!) and a short address of 6 welcome to our overseas guests by Professor Morris Ginsberg, as president of the British Ethical Union. That evening the hall was full for the inaugural address by Lord Boyd Orr, president of the congress, who with a "reet" Scottish flavour dealt with the application of humanist principles to the world's contemporary problems, under the title "Mankind Now". Dr. Julian Huxley was in the chair. There were two other public meetings—Sunday morning, when Professor T. T. ten Have of Amsterdam spoke on "The Humanistic Venture in our Time", and Tuesday evening, when, with Dr. J. Bronowski and the Rt. Hon, John Strachey among the speakers, the hall was naturally filled to capacity. The Saturday morning session was to my mind the most important of the whole congress, and I make no apology for devoting most of this article to it. Delegates of each of the member organisations of the I.H.E.U. reported to the congress, each report being translated orally (by professional interpreters where necessary) into English. French and German. These reports evinced, with far ereater impact than the printed word, the social problems experienced in the various countries represented. In the , organised humanism declined between the wars as church membership did, but a number of new groups in provincial centres and London suburbs have been successfully launched by the Ethical Union in the past few years. British humanists arc largely concerned with counter- acting the influence of the churches, which is out of all proportion to church membership, and there is a continuous campaign to get humanism a fair hearing, especially with the B.B.C. In the United States of America, the role Of the ethical societies parallels that of the orthodox churches, with an active community fellowship and such provisions as wedding, funeral, and baby-naming ceremonies, and humanist Sunday schools. A major fighting issue of humanists in America at present is practices threatening the constitutional separation of church and state. In India. on the other hand, where the main preoccupation is still with economic problems, the humanist movement is largely political. Though it has none of the coherent organisation of its Western associates, the Radical Humanist Movement of India has considerable influence among the educated left-of-centre through its weekly paper, Tlze Radical Humanist. In Holland, the accent is on spiritual leadership of those who have broken with the churches, and on direct social work. In Belgium, the main struggle is against the influence of the Catholic Church; the Humanist League of Belgium has been instrumental in establishing secular ethics as an alternative to religious instruction in all state schools, and has been granted a half-hour programMe on the radio each week and on television each fortnight. In Germany, the humanist movement, dating from 1906 and now being re-established after its suppression under Hitler, is mainly devoted to liberal political pressure and to opposing the idea that supernatural religion is necessary for morality. In Austria, the Ethical Society of Vienna is still experiencing organisational difficulties due to the confiscation of their property by the Nazis, but with financial help from the American Ethical Union they are getting on their feet again and have resumed their educational projects. In Norway. though humanism is in fact more widespread than Christianity, this is not reflected in their comparative influence on legislation. Organised humanism there dates only from 1950, but already it is well established and has the support of the general press. It is working for the abolition of legal religious discrimination, for the introduction of a civil birth register, for the provision of non-religious ceremonies for occasions where ceremony is a natural demand, and for the introduction of secular ethics into the curricula of schools and universities. 7 In France the term "humanist- is adopted by almost everybody—there are even "Catholic humanists"—but even in the stricter sense accepted by the • I.H.E.U., humanists actually comprise about 45 per cent of the population. As in other European countries, humanists in France are fighting the increase of clericalism. In• Japan, where there is no strong theistic tradition, humanism is not thought of as an alternative to supernatural religion, but is a protest against feudalistic morality and totalitarian politics; whether fascist or Marxist. In South Africa, there is probably more opposition to humanism, and at the same time a greater need for social reform of a liberal character. . than in any other country represented at the congress. The chief target of humanist endeavour in South Africa is, of course, racial discrimination, but it is only. one of many problems confronting them. The Monday morning and evening and Tuesday morning of the congress were devoted to group discussions under the headings of Philosophy, Personal Life, Social Life, and Organisation, reports from each group being presented to the full congriess on the Wednesday morning, when they were further discussed, amended, and approved. After formal resolutions had been put to the vote in the afternoon, closing speeches were made. The final "blessing— was pronounced by the chairman of the I.H.E.U., Dr. J. P. van Praag, who said that, though we had of course not succeeded in solving all the problems we should have liked, we had certainly had a profitable interchange of ideas. The entertainment side of the congress included a memorable trip to Cambridge on the Sunday, with dinner in the dining-hall of King's College. and a grand dinner the previous evening in the House of Commons when Mrs. Margaret Knight was one of the after-dinner speakers. She mentioned Bradlaugh's ejection from the House for his atheistic views, and, recalling the storm that followed her humanist broadcasts in 1955 and the epithets hurled at her by some sections of the press at that time, she said that she was now speaking in that historic building as though she was a respectable woman! "It makes a nice change," she added. But perhaps the chief social aspect of the congress was simply the individual friendships that developed, especially those between people of different countries, and if some of these endure the congress has not yet really come to an end. Editorial note: The official proceedings of the congress, published by the will shortly be available at 5s. a copy. Ethical Services

B Y J. HENRY LLOYD

At THE A.G.M. of the South Place Society, I listened with great interest to a discussion about its Sunday morning meetings. As a -new boy", I did not venture to take part in this but I was fascinated by the variety of views held on the subject and after due meditation I offer some reflections on it, and have chosen a provocative title which I hope will bring out the more debatable aspects. The points at issue in the discussion, while relating specifically to the time of the Sunday meeting and the use of hymns thereat, really involved the whole conception of a meeting of members of an ethical society and the question how far this is designed to develop their understanding and pursuit of the convictions that bring them together. One may at once classify the 8 the questions of the time and place of meetings as mainly matters of expediency, to be judged as to what is likely to be convenient to the majority of the members concerned. That the choice of time is, in fact, complicated by the established claims of the Music Society to the evening does not alter this. It was in the question of hymn singing and still more in the doubt which one or two members expressed as to the need and value of the meetings that more fundamental issues appeared and it is these which I think call for deeper consideration of the question : Why do we meet together? At the outset, our thoughts about the matter are coloured by our rationalist reactions to the traditional associations of religion in the com- munity in which we live. In many of us, the rejection of the supernatural tends to become a root-and-branch repudiation of all the forms and ceremonies which are associated with religion, despite the simple human value some of them possess, e.g. those associated with birth, marriage and death. It should, however, be possible for a modern humanist to discriminate between these institutions and to find some elements in the forms of meet- ing which have come down to us and may strengthen us in our ethical and humanist convictions without in any way committing us to the supernatural associations which they may formerly have had. The term -service", like "worship", is inclined to evoke a contemptuous attitude from the ultra-rationalist, yet both are expressive of real human experiences. As one who listened in earlier days with great admiration to the challenging presentation of ethical religion by Stanton Coit, I remember with special appreciation his claim that "God" simply represented man's conception of the moral ideal. If, keeping our feet firmly on the earth, we interpret -the moral ideal" in terms of a future humanity living a higher and richer life, it seems to be equally rational for members of an ethical society to meet together to "serve" that ideal and to have an attitude to their shared pursuit of it which might be described as "worship" which simply means a noteworthy depth of respect and affection. It is only in the framework of our conception of our bond of union and purpose that we can determine the appropriate formal character of our meetings. If one regards the society merely as the medium for hearing interesting lectures or receiving The Monthly Record as a slight indirect contact with the ,organised Ethical movement, then it is clear that nothing is wanted but a room, a chairman and agreed rules of debate. It is only as one recognises a much deeper purpose in the society and one's membership of it, that the form and content of the Sunday meetings gains significance. The "communication" from one to another which is the essential part of the meeting can take the form of an address, which provides a common basis for our thoughts, and these may be further clarified and developed by a following discussion, but the meeting can also include other expressions of our common faith sung to music and the whole proceedings may be dignified and enriched by the hearing of some fine piece or literature or music or the contemplation of some work of plastic art. There is only one qualifica- tion one must apply to these latter features of an ethical meeting: they should be of a good standard or not attempted at all. Another important aspect of an ethical society meeting is that it should be expressive of a sense of community. This is difficult where the member- ship is scattered over a wide area and the headquarters are in the business centre of the city. To discuss the solution of this difficulty would take me too far from my central subject, but it is worth considering whether, while preserving the unique character of its widespread membership united by an idea, it could not also develop a substantial local membership which might have a more vivid sense of human comradeship through frequent contact in the flesh. It is this which is at the heart of any really adequate ethical service. 9 The essential purpose of such meetings is the inspiration of those who attend. Much depends on the speaker and his subject. If I may be allowed a critical but friendly comment on many of our meeting programmes it is that many of the topics lack active human interest, and the approach and language of our speakers is often too scholarly or scientific for the ordinary man or woman to digest. It is by their value as guidance in the everyday problems of personal and social life, especially in so far as they develop a broad outlook in international affairs and consciousness of our common humanity, that our meetings should be judged. South Place has the great advantage of its week-day discussion meetings and the further human contacts they provide, but it is in the Sunday meeting that the distinctive central purpose of an ethical society is revealed and it is in its potentiality for a rich community life, as and when it is able to attract a larger local membership, that its greatest hope lies. The British Ethical movement owes so much to the pioneering work of South Place, its unique religious history and distinguished leaders and speakers and its friendly headquarters that its friends are justly ambitious that its future shall be even greater than its past.

Religion and Private Life

B Y ARCHIBALD ROBERTSON

THE 'ATTEMP I" to claim Gilbert Murray as a Roman Catholic throws an interesting light on the way in which the Church's imposing total of 400. million believers is arrived at. According to the reliable account given by his son, Mr. Stephen Murray, to the New Statesman on June 29, Gilbert Murray was baptised a Catholic in infancy, but had not been brought up a Catholic and had never conformed to the Church. He was what his son calls a "reverent agnostic". That has always seemed to me a contradiction in terms. I can revere what I believe to exist. If I do not believe in God or in a spiritual world, or if (what comes to the same thing) I do not accept the evidence for them, I do not see how I can revere them. However, it is for reverent agnostics to account, if they can, for their mental gymnastics. Gilbert Murray anyway all through his life talked and wrote as if gods were myths. According to Mr. Stephen Murray his father in his last few years, and especially after the death of his wife, was "worried by the thought of death". That is intelligible. He had never been a militant atheist; and it is well known that he dabbled in psychical research. Unless we assimilate and make our own the dictum of Epicurus—"When we are, death is not come, and when death is come, we are not"—the uncertainty of what death may be is apt to haunt us, especially as we draw near to it and our faculties weaken. Gilbert Murray got to know the local Catholic priest and had talks with him, but was never "under instruction", let alone converted. His daughter. Mrs. Arnold Toynbee, is a Catholic and of course would have liked to see her father a convert. In his last illness, when he was unconscious or at best semi-conscious, she asked him, "when for a moment he seemed to be coming to", whether he would like a blessing from the priest. The sick man said "Yes", and Father Crozier was sent for and gave a blessing. Then, after a whispered conversation which Mrs. Toynbee did not overhear, the priest applied oil to the patient's forehead and so administered extreme unction. Gilbert Murray, as his son points out, "was not in any condition to distinguish between a blessing and a sacrament". He outlived the ceremony 10 five weeks and never again in his short spells of consciousness referred to the priest or the blessing. Neither Mrs. Toynbee nor Father Crozier claimed conversion; and Gilbert Murray by his own desire was cremated, which as everybody knows is forbidden by the Catholic faith. This did not prevent the millionaire press, in which Catholics (as the late Joseph McCabe pointed out) hold many key positions, from circulating the story that he died a Catholic. The incident illustrates the ethical gulf which must separate those who regard our inmost convictions as our private affair from those who regard them as the affair of a personal God and his earthly representatives, the Catholic hierarchy. To those who hold that religion is a private matter, pestering a semi-conscious patient about it is an act of impertinence and inconsideration. But to a Catholic priest religion is never a private matter. He believes firmly and truly (if he doesn't, he shouldn't be a priest) that doing the right magic at the right time may make a difference between a human being spending eternity in the beatific vision of God or in ineffable and endless torture administered by devils as immortal as himself. It is the sacred duty of a priest, therefore, at no matter what cost in earthly incon- venience to administer sacraments to the dying, and if they cannot be completed, to trust God to take the will for the deed. Humanity demands that the dying be made as comfortable as possible and left in peace. Catholicism demands that they be pestered about their souls until they consent to the necessary magic. Here is an ethical gulf which is, 1 think, unbridgable. The same gulf appears when it is a question of marriage between a Catholic and a non-Catholic. To humanists the decision of two young people to join their lives is their private affair. If they are our friends, we wish them joy, but it is none of our business whether they decide to have children or not, or if they have children, what they do about educating them—though as citizens we are interested in the best education of all children born in the community. But to the Catholic Church marriage is no more a private matter than is religion. Marriage is a sacrament—the way ordained by God for bringing new souls into the world; and it is of infinite importance that new souls should be brought up in the Catholic faith and assured, by the right magic done at the right time, of an eternity of bliss instead of (as someone irreverently put it) an eternity of blister. With marriages of non-Catholics the Church cannot interfere. But if a Catholic (man or woman) marries a non-Catholic (woman or man) the Church requires the signed consent of the non-Catholic partner that children of the marriage shall be brought up in the Catholic faith. The Catholic partner further promises to do all in his or her power to induce the other party to become a Catholic. It may be imagined that young people in love (in which happy condition everything else in the world is apt to take second place) will readily put their names to a scrap of paper as the price of happiness. But they will not be allowed to get away with it so. The priest will be always at the elbow of the Catholic husband or wife to see that the line is toed, that new souls are duly brought into the world, that no wicked birth control is practised, that the new souls are sent to Catholic schools—and of course intermittently to ask how the non-Catholic wife or husband's conversion is getting on. In this way the Church adds to its members and keeps up that imposing total of 400 millions. Lapses are not counted. Once baptised or received into the Church, you are a Catholic for life for statistical purposes, even if you turn Humanist and are spiritually anathema. Statistically it was irrelevant whether Gilbert Murray died a Catholic or not. He had been baptised one and always counted in the total. But to save him from the devil's bonfire, that impertinent mummery at the death-bed was holy charity. II Signs of Decadence ? B Y PERCY G ROY THE DAILY DOSE OF DOPE The spiritual and emotional corruption of mankind is being done through two media, dope and shock. Until the last century, the main dope had been religion; nowadays, apart from a few cranks and frustrated neurotics, in this country people generally are merely on nodding terms with the god of their nursing days. Un- fortunately the well-known law of inertia holds good for the mental climate of an age; mental laziness and the heavy hand of tradition permit religion still to flicker on and to speak in the name of the majority of the nation. The boredom of the English Sunday leads people to waste their money on booze and to addle and befuddle their brains until they find pleasure in rousing the whole district with their bawling. The noisier the jollier, is the motto for what goes under the name of "modern music"; there is nothing left of music, but a lot of rhythm that sets the feet a-tapping, with blarins brass and ear-splitting percussion, emulating the uproar of the jungles. It is a mental anaesthetic of the first order, to blunt and brutalise the sense of music. Where are the good old days of the solitary organ-grinder! Nowadays whole bands of drummers and trumpeters of sorts roam the streets in con- certed efforts to fray our maltreated nerves even more still! This "popular" music for muscle reflexes, a combination of dope and shock treatment, has grown so much the general addiction of our time that the B.B.C. wallahs are obviously running short of time and money: they have decided to curtail, therefore, the Third Programme, which has been the only existing concession to the more refined tastes of the educated and saner sections of the community. Yet, in a capitalist society broadcasting. too, is primarily not meant for refinement and education of the masses, but to make money (part of which is spent in prizes for competitive answers to silly, because unnecessary, questions). Therefore, like the "popular" press, they appeal to and cater for the lowest instincts of the herd. The current issue of Musical Times publishes a pertinent letter (whose author, to go by his name, is an Asian) in which our popular radio features earn such adjectives as "deprecation, elephantine archness, mastodonic coy- ness"; the writer gives us this appropriate warning: "Drug addiction, as we know, demands ever more and more massive doses for its satisfaction. And so it comes about that that process of mass-besotment, that is summed up under the general (and utterly meaningless) heading "democracy", has to be administered in ever bigger and grosser doses; hence the truncation of a programme that still demands an adult intelligence to listen to it, so that the time hitherto spent thereon may be added for still further bourrage de crane . . ." Our popular press has a similarly low level and is less concerned with the coverage of news than with sensational and near-pornographic tripe.* On Sundays, there is one single paper left which an intelligent person can read; the rest go to any lengths in excluding anything of proper news value,. however important. They offer nothing but dope and the public seem to lap it up with the greatest of gusto. The most devastating of dope nowadays is no longer religion, but COM- • As a Party paper, the Daily Herald, as we know it, is a misfit: the militant Labour man or trade unionist does not find in it what he expects from a political paper. "Voyeurs", beauty queens, Royalty fans and the like, however, cannot be expected to keep a paper supposed to be under Labour influence. In addition, its reports are shrouded and clouded in.adolescent verbiage of an Edwardian vintage. 12 petitive sports (to which the "popular" papers open-their columns lavishly): they are a moneyed gamble and are very helpful in detracting people from important problems of the nation. The result is that sports fans do not bother about rising prices for coal or bread or fares, so long as their favourite team (or the National Eleven) is victorious. Miss Prudden, President Eisenhower's physical fitness expert, warned America's youth that there was not enough emphasis on running, jumping, games, in short gymnastics which built endurance. The Russians, she told them, were spending huge amounts for physical education, not on sports but on gymnastics, because they want a strong nation. This is one thing, sport quite another. The day after the atom-bomb on Hiroshima had opened a new page of history and introduced our present era, I happened to be among the workers of a car factory: there was not one who mentioned the great event. They all discussed the boxing bout of the night before. Dope addicts arc averse to action and decision* and this is the explana- tion why outside their brand of dope they generally adopt the "couldn't-care- less" attitude. They care no longer for church and religion, yet they cannot be mustered in the ranks of humanism and progress either; it doesn't help to win the test match and that's that.

MASSED SHOCK TREATMENT From time to time the authorities bemoan the appalling increase in crime and youth delinquency; however, just as in the infamous Italian Montesi scandal the real culprit must not be indicted. It obviously stands to reason that a generation pampered with crime stories, battle films (with all sorts of horror films thrown in) nnd violence galore on radio and television can no longer believe in the sanctity of life. Thriller writers vie with-each other to find the "Perfect Crime" and their readers try to go one better. Toddlers wear martial hats and uniforms and are happiest when emulating what they have watched on the screen: shooting, killing, with the whole gamut of human bestiality and depravity. Lunacy is rampant; every day in my work I meet the lunatic fringe: superficially quite normal people who nevertheless are suffering from various sorts of persecution mania; everywhere they feel to be "shadowed", their post is continuously tampered with, their telephone calls tapped, and even in their sleep they are being subject to torment through devilish devices of radiation or radar emitted from Scotland Yard [sic]. They are the sad results of our sadistic shock treatment, human wrecks gone mad from modern "entertainment". However, there is money in this cultivation of depravity and therefore it would be impossible to ban it; besides, we are not in favour of regimentation of adults and if they see fit to torture their war-frayed nerves until they go entirely "nuts", we cannot do more than appeal to common sense. What, however, can and ought to be done is to protect the rising generation. If it is possible to refuse admission to those under-sixteen to sexy films, it is even more important to keep them away from the showings of crime, horror and violence in film, radio and television. Not only had these sadistic trends to be expurgated from children's programmes, but if parents fail to protect their children from watching such depraved stuff, this should be made an indictable offence.

Hence the great attraction of football pools where they may drcam of earning easy money without productive work. 13 The Mysticism of Richard jefferies BY G. L BENNETT iN "The Prose of Richard Jefferies" I made an incidental reference to the mysticism of this writer. There are hints of that mysticism in a few of his later works, but its only full and intense expression is in The Story of My Heart—that impassioned book of the spirit composed in Jefferies' spring- time as a writer. It is a work in which the Wiltshire naturalist manifests an extraordinary, almost psychopathic, longing for perfection; in which he pursues the quest, through every gallery open to him, for an enlargement of what he calls soul-life. Prayer of a particular sort plays a considerable part in this. Although it is quickly apparent to the reader that Jefferies' use of these words—soul and prayer—is in no sense orthodox but peculiar to his own needs, we have, somewhat oddly, to await an explanation of them until the very last pages of the book. And there we are informed that "one of the greatest difficulties I have encountered is the lack of words to express ideas" (as though from many a halting page we didn't know, by then!). "By the word soul or psyche I mean that inner consciousness which aspires. By prayer I do not mean a request for anything preferred to a deity; I mean intense soul-emotion, intense soul-aspiration . . . (But) these definitions are deficient and I must leave my book as a whole to give its own meaning to its words." The truth is that from early youth—probably from boyhood—prayer for Jefferies meant a kind of pagan rapture, a sensuous delight in and worship of the earth and the things of the earth. Many are the passages in the Story where he describes his powerful feelings of ecstasy, his inexpres- sible elation, in the presence of nature. Climbing up through "a perfect amphitheatre of green hills", he has told how he would find a spot where he was "utterly alone with the sun and the earth-. "Lying down on the grass", he writes, "I spoke in my soul to the earth, the sun, the air, and the distant sea far beyond sight. I thought of the earth's firmness—I felt it bear me up; through the grassy couch there came an influence as if I could feel the great earth speaking to me .. . I was breathing full of existence. I was aware of the grass blades, the flowers, the leaves on hawthorn and tree. I seemed to live more largely through them, as if each were a pore through which I drank. The grasshoppers called and leaped, the greenfinches sang, the blackbirds happily fluted, all the air hummed with life. I was plunged deep in existence, and with all that existence I prayed . . ." Thus by absorption in nature does he enjoy communion with her. With a temperament so delicately poised as his, this sort of mystical oneness with elemental things was, in his earlier days at least, a necessity of living. It was a pagan enchantment, which in the Story extends to the thought of his very death when, he says, he desires cremation in the open air on the summit of the hills. because "that is the natural interment of man—of man whose thought at least has been among the immortals: interment in the elements". (Actually. Jefferies was not cremated but buried.) It is an uncommon and, some have felt, an unnatural desire—this passion to increase the fullness of soul-life, to know and feel more than one mind and heart are capable of knowing and feeling, with which The Story of My Heart is suffused. Jefferies had transports of spirit akin in some way to those of the religious mystics. But whereas most of them are ascetics who have found the road to transcendent heights by wilfully neglecting—nay, even scourging—the despised body, Jefferies, on the other hand, exults in physical well-being, because through it pulses radiance and gladness on 14 which, for him, the soul's life so greatly depends. "I believe it to be a sacred duty, incumbent upon every one, man and woman, to add to and encourage their physical life, by exercise, and in every manner", he writes. "Those who stunt their physical life are most certainly stunting their souls." And because, according to him, the soul is made higher by gazing on beauty, every form of beauty is to be accepted joyfully and without reservation. It was never as an intellectual but always as a man of the country that Jefferies wrote. Thought for him does not lie much in books; it "dwells by the stream and sea, by the hill and in the woodland, in the sunlight and free wind". Those who have read such of his essays as Meadow Thoughts and The Pageant of Summer know just how much was the inspiration he derived from these things; and perhaps his writing there gains from being free of the transcendental vision that struggles for expression in the Story. For Jefferies everything is "so full of unexplained meaning", so much a cause for wonder, so pregnant with exciting possibilities, that he feels "always on the margin of life illimitable". There are, he thinks, rich valleys of potential thought beyond the valleys of actual thought, vast regions of truth as yet unentered and unknown. He seeks—more, he believes in— "an existence as superior (to the ordinary human life we know) as my mind is to the dead chalk cliff". But, we may ask, is it legitimate to endeavour to see beyond this mortal realm and material reality? Can we ever hope to understand anything that lies outside the bourne of human life and experience? Ah, what paradox is there here! As if we could ever hope to understand! And yet the desire to know more than it is given to us to know is strong in some. It is strong in Jefferies. If he could, he would have the omniscience of a God; he would possess the power, the insight, to penetrate the very heart and essence of the universe and all that is. We have Most of us, I daresay, felt the same way at some time or other. Oh, to break loose of every earthly prejudice and human limitation and see more than mortal eye has yet seen! But, while admitting the likelihood that there are oceans of truth on which we have never put to sail, we perforce resign ourselves to knowing such of reality as we shall perhaps ever know and making the best of that. This is where, I feel, Jefferies stretches out his hands at the insubstantial, and strains his whole being to draw aside the veil, without success. We may like the—as I think—impersonal ardour of his inquiring and original mind, so different from the type of mind that entertains the naively commonplace notion of a heaven for the soul to rest in and a fount of everlasting joy to drink deeply at, lying beyond and behind the drapings of externality. But to express conviction, as he does, that there is "a vast immensity of thought, of existence, and of other things, beyond even immortal existence" is to speak unmeaningfully. Moreover, it is to admit by implication that you do not begin to envisage what you predicate, with more confidence than knowledge, is really there all the time. And then we come upon something else. In more than one place Jefferies, swept along on the full tide of his mysticism, says he "cannot understand time". Such is his thinking, here, that he imagines that the whole of history can be encompassed in the mind in this living, pulsating moment. The past flows into and becomes the present, and the present sweeps over and merges with the future: Now—this fleeting instant—this pin-point of time—is eternity, and eternity is now. But, as with all mystical feeling, this is a highly subjective experience, and like all experiences of the kind it has no external validity. To suppose that it has such validity is tantamount to saying that what exists as a thought—for you or for me—exists in fact, and it may be urged as an ultimate criticism of Jefferies' thinking that he tends (like all •Mystics) to objectify an intensely 'subjective experience—to 15 set it down as though all could at least partly understand it and enter into it. I do not disguise' my view that, in some ways, Jefferies is an artless writer—but with what gifted artlessness does hb write! In that state of high nervous feeling in which the pages of the Story are cast together, he throws himself against the walls of inevitable human limitation with so passionate a force that it almost seems that they will be breached to reveal a vista, magnificent and infinitely expansive, beyond. Almost, but not quite. The Story of My Heart is its author's only attempt to take the citadel of absolute knowledge by .storm. He knows that he cannot do it at all unless in the great heat of ecstatic emotion. In later works intensity of feel- ing is to produce some wonderful pages, incandescent in places still; but a mellowing wisdom now gently penetrates them; a calmer, more meditative spirit presides; and there are moments of sad, sweet pensiveness, with all illusions shed. Perhaps 'greater experience, and thoughtful reflection on that experience, have, helped to bring about the change. But long illness has undoubtedly affected him, for it has deprived him of his old freedom to wander as he list in field and woodland and valley. What do we get in the later, writings? No abandonment, certainly, of the religious heresy voiced so unequivocally in the Story that deity, immortality, and the substantive life of the soul are illusions; that "reason and knowledge and experience tend to disprove all three". I have, indeed. come across so many indications of his unbelief in quite late essays that it reduces to small importance the, allegations—even if •true—as to his,dying a Christian, on which I have commented elsewhere.* But the high hopes, and visions of the ideal, inspired at least in part by the mysticism we have here been considering—they have almost gone. Nature in the Louvre, an essay written not very long after The Story of My Heart, eloses.with the words: "Though I cannot name the ideal good, it seems to me that it will be in some way closely associated with the ideal beauty of nature." And yet he has realised that although the beauty of nature "fills the mind with rapture" it is .Thut for a while", for it is borne in on him that everything lovely in nature is "wholly careless and indifferent to our fate". There is a craving in the heart and soul that not even a beautiful act of pure unselfish- ness can really satisfy. This is a forerunner of what now becomes (in spite of alternations in mood) a deepening disenchantment. In Hours of Spring we read: "The heart from the moment of its first beat instinctively longs for the beautiful; the means we possess to gratify it are limited. We are always trying to find the statue in the rude block. Out of the vast block of the earth the mind endeavours to carve itself loveliness, nobility, and grandeur. We strive for the right and the true: it is circumstance that thrusts wrong upon us." And in the last of his essays, My Old Village, we are cut by the pathos of his cry that too many memories crowd the beloved haunts of our boyhood, and "the happiest days become the saddest afterwards; let us never go back lest we too die". Such lines as these are a melancholy but significant- contrast to those in the Story, so full-charged with mystical fervour that they see the ideal made real and would wing us, if they could, into a thrilling and breath-taking realm unknown. Personally, I do not regret that lefferies expressed any one of those earlier sentiments, for they bequeathed us a unique book heroically conceived and inspired. But I think the ultimate trend of his thought away from the fevered spirit of the Story is nevertheless right, even if it is at the same time a mute acceptance of failure to burst open the gates of infinity with the lever of mysticism. * "Richard Jefferies"Last Words ", The Freethinker, 30.11.56. 16 Conway Discussion On Tuesday, December 4, Mr. Ashton Burall spoke on "Humanism and the Arts-. He said it was difficult to express ideas of humanism and the arts in ordinary language as one was dealing with intangibles. He himself thought that humanism was not a programme but a way of life. Attempts to describe art in the past had equally been unsatisfactory. Clive Bell merely talked of significant form, and to Tolstoi art was just copying life. The real significance of art however lay in the form of mental activity. It was a universal factor in life, deeply ingrained in all people and part of their lives. Humanism however was not universal; but the recognition of an affinity with certain forms of art was the understanding which was the business of humanism. Thus humanism and art could be linked, because humanism was a liberal culture, and an attitude of mind. Its roots lay in the un- conscious and had developed through the centuries, and had exerted influence through philosophers, poets, writers, painters and composers. Some people thought of humanism as anti-religious, but Mr. Burall was of the opinion it was an emerging form of a new religion. It was bound by certain values, and had a liberal cultural tradition, as well as certain emotional attitudes. Art attempted to establish coherence and order and had a universal organising function. It was a mistake to think it could always be expressed in terms of words, as art was the use of symbols, and its significance was appreciated through other faculties than the rational one. In the same way humanism did not just appeal to rational faculties. It was necessary to get at the fabric of the mind not reached by reason, and this could be, done through art. As art represented certain ideals, so it could interpret humanist values, and was required to do so. Thus one of the approaches to humanism could be made through art. L. L. B. Correspondence

To the Editor, The Monthly Record The Curse of the Long Memory Dear Sir, I cannot help thinking that Mr. Archibald Robertson is unduly harsh on those statesmen who were in power from 1914 to 1939. I wonder whether, had he been in power (even dictatorial power) during those years, he would have done any better, even with the wisdom after the event that he has now. Of course, a different policy would have produced different results, but what those results would have been we can only surmise. Events seem to have a habit of happening not entirely according to expectations. Yours faithfully, W. R. SCOTT Not God, but Man Dear Sir, I hesitate to criticise such a learned and interesting writer as Mr. Archibald Robertson. However, I cannot see the logic of his statement in "Not God, but Man", in the July Monthly Record, that "if God is the judge of right and wrong he cannot be the author of evil . . ." As a humanist myself I am no apologist for Christian beliefs, but am interested to try to discover what some of them actually are, and I have 17 understood some Christians to explain that God puts evils for us to show our right will in surmounting them, just as a sports' master puts obstacles to judge his athletes in an obstacle race. To my mind they damn their case far more in their instruction that God is so jealous that we must never question faith. Yours faithfully, MARJORIE MEPHAM (Mrs.)

Esperanto Dear Sir, After attending many truly international congresses where only Esperanto was used (with thirty to forty nationalities present from East and West) it was an interesting experience to attend our recent "international" congress of I.H.E.U. ("International" because someone remarked to me: "Anglo- American International, surely!").

Of the twenty - one nationalities represented at the congress, seventeen had fewer representatives than we Esperantists. who all the time, or part of the time, totalled eighteen. Japanese, French, Dutch, German, British, we Esperantists were in complete rapport through our common neutral inter- national language. One lady from the U.S.A. came out from one of the meetings when a translation was being made and remarked that her experience was proving the case for an international language. Unfortunately, my German friends had to sit through long speeches in English (which wcre not always translated and of which they had not received translations in German: perhaps they will receive them of course!). Quite obviously the translations by paid interpreters was not a completely satisfactory method and must have been .only partial. Let us hope that the international ethical organisations will be "rationalist" enough soon to accept Esperanto as one, at least, of the official languages for their congresses and international communications thus lining up with U.N.E.S.C.O. and the American . Since U.N.E.S.C.O. is now using Esperanto and since there is, apparently, an affinity between U.N., U.N.E.S.C.O., and the Ethical movement (now to seek consultative ;status: which the Esperanto movement already has) it must be obvious that in the shrinking world described by Lloyd Boyd Orr, Esperanto must .eventually play its part in the Ethical movement. Yours sincerely, JOHN LESLIE

.Arehaeology and the Bible Dear Sir, In my address on this subject I made a regrettable slip which I hasten to correet. I said that the Mortimer family derived their surname from the Dead Sea. It is true that Marlowe in his Edward 11 makes one of the Mortimers refer to "That Dead Sea whereof we got the name of Mortimer". But I am afraid he and I are wrong! The family came, I find, from the Norman manor of Mortimer-en-Brai, which was so named before the 'Crusades and before any of them could have gone near the Dead Sea. My main argument, however, is unaffected. Yours faithfully, • ARCHIBA L D ROBERTSON

18 South Place News

Correction On page 5 of the Monthly Record for August please read: "The streets are remnants of the days when it was desirable that a team could be turned there and then". Sunday Social On July 21, Dr. Henry Neumann, Leader of the Brooklyn Ethical Society, gave us an amusing as well as informative talk on the Ethical movement in the U.S.A. Dr. Neumann, on his first visit to this country, was in London for the I.H.E.U. Congress, and Mr. Hutton Hynd, in the chair, told us that the trip was a birthday present from the Brooklyn Ethical Society to their Leader. In the course of his talk, Dr. Neumann emphasised the importance that fellowship plays in the lives of the American people and told us how his society meets that need by organising Sunday morning meetings for the adult members, Sunday schools for the children, and classes and social activities for the young people. We were glad of this opportunity of meeting Dr. Neumann and his two daughters, who accompanied him on his trip. C. K. J. D. Activities of Kindred Societies International Congress By invitation of the French Rddration the Thirty-Second Congress of Freethinkers will be held at the Salle Saulnier, 7 rue Saulnier, Montmartre (not far from the Boulevard Montmartre going towards rue Maubeuge), from Friday, September 6, to Tuesday, September 10. The main subject of discussion will be "Population, Religion and ". Bertrand Russell is the President of Honour and will send a message on the theme, on which he feels strongly. There is a distinguished list of names, from several countries, of those who have accepted membership. The members will be received at 4 p.m. on Friday. At 7 p.m. there will be a public meeting. On Monday evening, a dinner and on Tuesday morning there will be a tour of Paris with a coach tour in the afternoon. The sessions devoted to the discussions will be Saturday, 2.30 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Sunday and Monday, 9 till 1 and 3.30 to 7 p.m. Orpington Humanist Group Sunday, September 8—Sherry's Restaurant, Orpington, 7 p.m., W. A. Gethin, ORE., B.Sc.: "Esperanto, the International Language." Sunday, September 22—Ramble to Kevington and Crockenhill. Assemble Anglesea Arms, 11 a.m. Leader will meet visitors at Orpington Station. Train leaves Victoria 10.4 a.m. Sunday, July 14, Mr. F. E. Lamond, a member of the Progressive League and a research worker on the staff of the Economist, spoke of his experiences in Scandinavia. He had found the people of all three countries, but especially the Danes, hospitable, friendly and without many of the inhibitions which beset the English and which are themselves the outcome of many of the tenets of Christianity. Excepting small pockets of devout people, particularly in the more inaccessible regions, Mr. Lamond found that religion, even the state religion in Sweden, played a very small part in the lives of the people, 19 Sutton Humanist Group Sunday, September 14—Myosotis Hall, 332 Carshalton Road, at 7.15 p.m. G. Pearson, Y.E.O.: "Youth Employment Service".

Society's Other•Activities Rambles Sunday, September 15, visit to Woburn Abbey, home of the Dukes of Bedford. Train 10.47 a.m. Euston, or 11.18 Watford Junction, to Leighton Buzzard, thence by special bus for seven mile drive through Woburn Park. Combined rail and road fares: Euston 10s. 6d. Watford Junction 8s.6d. Admission to Park and Abbey: adults 2s. 6d., "Children is. It is advisable to book at station in advance. Saturday, September 15, Visit to Keats House, Keats Grove. Meet outside Hampstead Underground Station (Northern Line) 2.30 p.m. Leader : Miss E. Stich. Friday Discussion Group (for persons under 35 years of age) September 27 at 7.30 p.m., Mr. S. F. Robertson will speak on Wagner's Ring with gramophone illustrations.

RESERVE THIS DATE!

48th CONWAY MEMORIAL LECTURE

Margaret Knight

(Aberdeen University)

ON "PHYSIQUE AND PERSONALITY"

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, at 7.30 p.m.

Farieigh Press Ltd. (T.U. all delfts.), Beechwood Rise, Watford, Hens.