Changing Course
THIS book has the sub-title "A Log-book of H. M. Tomlinson," and there are ships on the jacket, but it is more of philosophy than of the sea. The first half is admittedly a journal of a voyage in a tramp steamer through the Mediterranean while Italy invades Abyssinia, and the whole world is on the edge of war' but nautical matters are little touched upon. It is a lament for the old ways of life and thought, and an indictment against the new. And what better place than the Mediterranean for such a lament? Everywhere the past is visible beneath the modern facade of armed port officials, electric trams, and noise. Mr. Tomlinson and his young son search for glimpses of the ancient world beyond the screeching wheels of modern life which they deplore so much. It is easy to sympathise ; the past appears very peaceful and desirable, so much more suitable for meditation, and things of the spirit than the rush of our mechanised existence. Scientific progress has far outrun our spiritual development; we can do almost anything nowadays except discover what we ought to do. The world is out of control, and there is no time to see where we are going. We alter course so rapidly that the compass has no chance to settle, and show in what direction we are heading ; we can only see the confusion of events in our wake, and know that we have not kept straight.
The second half of the book is a collection of essays written during the war ; like the journal, they are delightful to read, and the theme is much the same : the loss of spiritual purpose in a glut of scientific achievement. It is true, of course. Can a world be sane that en- gages in self-destruction? Mr. Tomlinson makes it very clear that it is not, but I doubt that he does much good by yearning for the simpler ways of the past. The knowledge man has acquired cannot be buried again unless we and our records are all destroyed. Or are we to understand the secrets of electricity, internal combustion engines, radio, and not use them? And was the past any better? History is a record of stupidity and wars ; the only virtue of bygone centuries is that events moved more slowly, and this gave more time for man to think and more time, perhaps, for reason to step in before stupidity had reached such lengths.
I enjoyed this book ; it is full of fine thinking and convincing evidence of the cause of the mess that the world is in. But I wish that Mr. Tomlinson could point to a way out ahead instead of dream- ing of a retreat by the way we have come. The earth cannot be reversed and made to revolve backwards ; that is one of the few things that science has not yet achieved. In one or two of the essays, Mr. Tomlinson sees just a glimmer of hope in the awakening of the "ordinary fellow" to an awareness of the ills of the world. He places his faith in the "ordinary fellow" to find the road back to sanity ; but the snag is that in taking up the leading role he loses his status as an "ordinary fellow," and may well lose his virtues also. If power corrupted old leaders, will the ilew fare
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