THE VOICE OF UNDER THIRTY
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—As an " under thirty " who feels keenly the fact that both the natural world and civilisation, or the world of man's making, are supremely oblivious of the individual, I envy those men (and, I hope, women) who will at least have a human and sympathetic audience in your readers.
The world as it is, what we hope it may become, our ideals and our hopes—there is certainly scope enough for different opinions—can we hope for anything more than these ? Or must we be content with the bleak and inhuman outlook of a science and a world view which says that our petty individual values and desires are born of obscure physico-chemical reactions in our bodies and will result in nothing but disillusion when tested against reality, that is, inaction. Is there some true standard of values outside the individual, nation, or herd ? Momentary flashes of beauty make us hope, our restless resentment against a mechanical civilisation make us passionately cling to straws of mysticism. " There is an ideal standard somewhere. . . . I cannot find it "—this seems to sum up the quandary many of us are in today. Man's civilisation seems often worse than nature's struggle and
cruelty—where can we look for a faith ?—Yours, &c., J. M.
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