302 EVOLUTION AND MANKIND. 



of ihe gratification of a craving- for excitement, a succession of 

 evanescent amusements and futile or merely trivial 0'Ccui>ations, 

 matters nothing to them, even under the appalling conditions ot 

 the present world war, when the fate df civilisation hangs in the 

 balance. They 'forget that they were brjrn into a world that was 

 made habitable for them by their forefathers, that they have 

 inherited the priceless literature and liberty from past ages, and 

 that it is their duty to hand on this fair inheritance, not merely as 

 it was given to them, Ijut unsullied, beautified and amplified. Well 

 may the question be asked in the futare of the devotees of "good 

 times " — You received much : What have you given and added in 

 return? Individual, family and civic responsibility to oneself 

 and to others, together with the necessity for creative effort, need 

 impressing and deepening among the present generation. 



Granted that some amusement is reciuired. let it be not only 

 physical but some mental relaxation, replacing the gross, material- 

 istic, almost sensual amusements of the present day, which appeal 

 largely to the animal instincts, and are advertised with a w^ealth 

 of inappropriate and exaggerated language, that in itself is 

 degrading. The value of quiet, too, is hardly understood in this 

 age of noise and unrest. But it is essential that the solidarity <)*f 

 human life should be realised. Longfellow voiced similar thought,-* 

 many years ago in his " Psalm of Life." 



Lives of great men all remind us 



We can make our lives sublime, 

 -And departing, leave behind us 



Footprints on the sands of Time. 



Let us then be up and doing. 



With a heart for any fate. 

 Still achieving, still pursuing. 



Learn to labour and to wait- 



.\gain. in Nature, it has been shown that brains not bulk, 

 mind not muscle. ha\e succeeded in establishing dominance over 

 the less adaptable races. The immense, physically over-developed, 

 inadaptable animals died out ; the more adaptable or responsive 

 to their environment survived. The inevitable bond of cause 

 and effect is fundamental, and Nature cannot be cheated. 



Li present-day human affairs there is far too much import- 

 ance attached to the opinions of numbers, whether educated i>r 

 otherwise matters not. In many decisions of national importance 

 the counting of heads is the usual procedure, instead of consider- 

 ing the brain power. Modern systems of education appear 

 largely to have failed in the uplifting of the masses, and high- 

 sounding formulae replace simple statements and truths ; argu- 

 ments not facts are desired ; words, not deeds, and external 

 appearances instead cil realities. Ability for constructive action 

 is usually inversely proportional to the ability to make eloquent 

 speeches, largely consisting of specious jilatitudes. 



In the past our rulers have been trained on a casual and 

 disjointed scheme of education, the centre of which was the 



