THE PURSUIT OF IDEALS. 17 



it is a standing object lesson as to how we should use this freedom 

 of will. 



For the past few months I have been studying the works of 

 Ruskin, and what that great man wrote from fifty to sixty years 

 ago is so startlingly true in these times as it was then, that I 

 beg all of you to take up your Ruskin once again. 



For unselfishness and as a true model for Village Recon- 

 struction, let us follow Ruskin on Trees, in Modern Painters, 

 Vol. 5, p. 35. Many of you may have read it. The desire 

 of each leaf is to do no harm to his neighbour, and yet attain 

 its object in seeking light and air. So it should be where human 

 beings are congregated, as in a village. Why are branches not 

 straight in form ? Simply because of their efforts in bending 

 this way and that so as not to interfere with their neighbour. 

 The tree is so unselfish that when collision with a neighbour is 

 inevitable, the branch and leaves die die sooner than be 

 selfish. 



Ten minutes in a hammock chair under a tree will teach a 

 man the rule of life. When man plants two trees too close to 

 each other they do not quarrel, but develop on their outer 

 sides and die off on the inner sides rather than interfere with 

 each other. 



Each leaf drinking in from the air is in close co-operation 

 with the root by separate " silver cords," and while the leaf 

 feeds the root, the root feeds the leaf. Man cuts the tree down 

 and makes a pigstye out of the resulting boards, without a single 

 thought as to the tree and as to how it grew and who made it 

 grow. 



Then as to Discipline. Our boys who are serving have dis- 

 cipline, but we have next to none. No amelioration of social 

 conditions can be made without discipline from top to bottom. 

 The discipline of the "have-nots" or the "getters" needs to 

 be of a higher order than that required by the " haves " or the 

 " givers." The wish to " get " is not discipline, nor is vindictive- 

 ness. The ideal is based on Justice. Is it fair ? Is it just ? 

 is surely the sole test. That test rests on unselfishness and 

 discipline. 



The finest example of discipline is to be found in rooks. Rooks 

 were on the earth long before man. If there were no birds on 

 the earth, in three years there would be no human beings. The 

 insects would have taken command and consumed everything 

 green, and man would die of starvation after he had tried to 

 exist on fish. Man thinks he can control rooks by organised 

 shoots the rook laughs, for he has always regulated his numbers 

 according to available food, for centuries before guns were invented. 

 Over a series of years the numbers of rooks are no more and no 

 less whether man shoots them or not. 



