A Misguided Prophet

BOOKS OF THE DAY By R. F. HARROD THE " first "• morality of Mr. Heard's trinity* vras that based on anthropomorphic cosmologies of the kind of which the

Christian theology is held to be typical. The " second " morality, like the second French Empire, never existed ; it is that morality which would be appropriate, if only any could be, to a mechanistic cosmology. The " third " is the morality which we must endeavour to build upon that cos- mology of the future, towards which the most recent findings of scientific enquiry appear to Mr. Heard to point. We must make haste with the building, for otherwise civilisation will " collapse " and humanity be " liquidated."

Mr. Heard is a regular railer ; he portrays our decadence and impending doom in terms that are exciting and forceful If not always very pointed. The cause of our troubles is an irrational and-obsolete adherence to a mechanistic cosmology. The National Socialists appear to agree with him. One may doubt whether the decline shown in our present age is as great as Mr. Heard would have us believe and whether he points to the true cause. The international anarchy is perhaps the most menacing feature. A more humdrum explanation of this is that it is the inevitable outcome of a situation in which there are a few Great Powers, no one of which is strong enough to keep the others in order, but each of which is too strong to be kept in order easily by the remainder. For systems of police and justice to work easily, the collective authority of the community must be overwhelmingly superior to the individual. This • condition is absent in the international sphere. If this explanation is right the flaw is technical rather

than cosmological.. For the rest Mr., Heard's picture of present distress may well be thought a trifle exaggerated and even hysterical.

,Now..,we, may readily agree with Mr. Heard that modern thought has failed to, provide sanctions for morality to take the Risme of heaven and hell. There is indeed a point of view that sanctions are irrelevant and even inimical to true morality, that goodness must be loved for its own sake and its.own sake only. Mr. Heard treats this point of view with open contempt. He does not think that " ethics " can survive without sanctions. He may be right. Yet is that not tantamount to saying that no true morality, third or other, can exist at all among Men ? He fulminates against many scientists for the aspersions upon humanity which he finds implicit in their doctrines, but are any of their aspersions in fact so far reaching as this ?

; He takes the mechanistic cosmology of classical physics, together with Darwinian natural seleCtiOn and. Freudian psychology, for his target. But in many places he falls into

the crudest popular fallacies with regard to the import of these doctrines. He suggests that Darwinism implicit:y exhort/ men to be violent and cruel and lord it over the world, and that FieUdian psychOlogy is a battle-cry for the unlimited encouragement and ruthless satisfaction of all sexual appetites.

Now it is quite true that many simple men have supposed these doctrines to flow as corollaries from the scientific speculations in question. That has been an unfortunate by-product, not without its dangers. But what are we to say when Mr. Heard, presenting himself, as he does, to his readers as a man of learning and deep thought, openly endorses such travesties of these scientific speculations for the sake of his argument ? He is entitled to deplore certain scientific doctrines because and in so far as they give rise to such misconceptions. But when he presents those miscon- ceptions as legitimate corollaries, it 'is necessary to say, reader, here is no safe guide.

But apart. from these travesties, Mr. Heard seems to fall

*The Third Morality. By Gerald Heard: 10s. 6d.)

into grave confusions. The more grandiose claims of physicists embodied in the doctrine of mechanical deter- minism have seemed to some, though by no means to all,

thinkers inimical to the survival of morality. But Mr. Heard does not distinguish this from the more general doctrine of philosophical determinism—" necessitarianism "—which long preceded mechanistic physics and would probably survive its relegation to limbo.

When he lumps the doctrines of natural selection and of Freudian psychology together with mechanistic physics, one is tempted to believe that his real hostility is directed not against mechanistic theories but against all attempts to discover uniformities in nature. But here he is on very bad ground. For unless some uniformities can legitimately be assumed to exist, all rational action becomes impossible.

Take the case of Freud, the future of whose doctrines is still in doubt. Only a fool would behave or govern on the assumption that men are never actuated by forces of the operation of which they are unaware. If the system of thought initiated by Freud proves ultimately successful in classifying and explaining the mode of operation of these forces, we shall be immensely better able to direct ourselves and others more wisely and effectively. An increase of our knowledge of uniformities here as elsewhere would enlarge the scope and increase the effectiveness of our morality.

The developments on which Mr. Heard relies to build hits new cosmology and his new morality may be briefly mentioned. There is the new physics. But unfortunately the time is not yet ripe to interpret its cosmological significance. Mr. Heard foresees the victory of a neo-Lamarckianism in biology. Of this one may legitimately be sceptical. In psychology he adduces telepathy, clairvoyance and even possibly prevision. If we depend on these to save us from the ruin engendered by immorality or a-morality, our position is precarious indeed.

Mr. Heard frankly admits with due modesty that his new moral system is but a slender raft hastily tied together. His plea is that he is working against time. He writes :

" Our whole and comprehensive activity and purpose in life is thus a continuous psychological development. Every stage must and can be a co-ordinated extension of awareness until the individual apprehends himself clearly as one with all the life around him and as a continuing stream of growth which expands until it loses the limits of individuality."

And again :

" The general aim is the individual's realisation of his unity with all life and being : his realisation that the universe is alive and that every creature, himself included, is part of that life."

There is much in this vein. There are also more practical admonitions. " Instead of lust, develop tenderness : that is the general ruling of the third morality on the subject of sexual appetite." " Suicide should never be attempted but on the considered advice of other moralists." " Diet, then, should avoid a high-protein intake... . Vitamin research favours a varied diet in which fresh vegetables take a large place."

Mr. Heard makes it plain that he is a refined and civilised man. He recommends, above all, meditation, self-knowledge and compassion. His general precepts, if vague and nebulous, are at worst probably harmless. But there arc others about in _the world of, today who have used arguments no looser in texture than his and polysyllables no more imposing to win followers for creeds harsh and cruel and wicked. Let poets and mystics charm and soothe us ; let dreamers dream

dreams. But if the appeal is to reason and the names of great scientists are to be invoked, let us cling tenaciously to lucidity and precision.