WHAT IS INDIVIDUALISM ? 205 



WHAT IS INDIVIDUALISM? 



Br M. IIANDFIELD-JONES, M. D.* 



SCIENTIFICALLY considered, individualism is the higher 

 evolution of the atom or unit ; viewed from a social stand- 

 point, it is a process of intellectual development by which a 

 man is marked out from his fellows. Individualism implies con- 

 centration of thought, tenacity of purpose, and a strong sense of 

 self-reliance. It is the religion of the strong man, the master 

 principle of his whole existence. Of this an old writer says : " As 

 every machine has its mainspring, every animal body its heart, 

 and the whole natural universe its sun, so, amid all the multi- 

 plied and intricate movements of our individual and social life, 

 there must be one master principle one all-regulating, all-im- 

 pelling spring of action. If this be wrong, then, however fair 

 and promising to ignorant observers, all is wrong. Human life 

 should resemble a well-constructed drama. There may be variety, 

 there may be episodes, but unity of action is indispensable, and 

 all that is not in keeping, so as to swell the interest of the grand 

 catastrophe, should be struck out as incompatible with all sound 

 and wholesome criticism." If we seek a perfect exponent of this 

 grand principle, we find it in the person of the Christus that di- 

 vine and human figure which men in all ages and in every 

 clime have loved to contemplate. In him every power and every 

 thought were developed and concentrated on one aim ; he clung 

 to the set purpose of his life with a tenacity which has never 

 been rivaled ; strong and reliant, he held the truth of his own 

 teachings in the teeth of an opposing world. 



The great enemy to individualism is laziness, and those who 

 know anything of human frailties will, I am sure, bear me out 

 when I say that "mental" laziness is far more common and far 

 more difficult to overcome than that of the body. It is so much 

 easier to accept dogmatic teaching, and to shift the responsibility 

 of our views on to others, rather than to concentrate our thoughts 

 and work out the lessons of our own observations; it is much 

 more pleasant to butterfly from theory to theory than to seek 

 truth with patient tenacity : why trouble ourselves to learn self- 

 reliance, when natural indolence protests against the sacrifice ? 

 It is easier to imitate than to originate ; plagiarism and mimicry 

 are such prominent features in our lives, that their presence 

 might almost be quoted as an argument in favor of our evolution 

 in past ages from simian ancestry. How plausible are the ex- 



* From an address On Individualism in its Relation to Medicine, delivered at St. 

 Mary's Ilospital Medical School, London, October 1, 1S90. 



