THE VOICE OF UNDER THIRTY [To the Editor of Tim
SPECTATOR.]
Sto,—The recent series of articles by men and women under thirty appears to me to indicate more than anything else how necessary it is for an older generation to take a more robust line and give them the lead they are so clearly demanding.
The main problem that confronts young people today is uncertainty regarding the ultimate aim of life. Material comfort appears to hold the least disputed place, and any attempt to displace this preoccupation is characterised as " dope."
Nevertheless the questions that confront us are moral questions ultimately, as they always were and always will be, whatever the structure of society may be, and, until it is recog- nised that the moral character of man determines the degree of his ability to correspond with the things that decide his highest destiny, no great progress is likely to be made towards securing his true happiness.
Our lack of comprehension on this point seems principally due to the lack of certainty so commonly felt nowadays in the reality of the spiritual life and in any future after death. In a curious way the clergy appear to be baffled by the fact that the old ideology no longer finds general acceptance and to suppose that it follows that what it was intended to convey has also lost its validity for most men. It appears to be left to laymen like Mr. J. W. Dunne and Mr. Ouspensky to think out a form of presenting the conception of eternity in a way comprehensible to the modern mind, while the clergy seem more and more to concentrate upon humanitarianism.
It is unfortunate that the Archbishops' Recall to Religion was not preceded by an effort by the Church to think out the presentation of these fundamental questions, so that the recall should be to something more calculated to awaken a response. The article written by the young beneficed clergyman appears to recognise this, and he and men like him should be made to feel that they have the support of the laity who recognise that the work to which they have dedicated their lives is the most
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