THE STRAIN OF MODERN CIVILISATION 469 



these panaceas as being of the nature of quack remedies, because I do not 

 think that they really deal with the facts inherent in the situation. We are 

 asked if Soviet Russia can change human nature. Frankly, I doubt if it 

 can, because I think the change must come from within and not from 

 without. 



And if we are given time, and given freedom from paralysing fear — Fear, 

 the Arch-Enemy — we can reduce these strains of modern life by effecting 

 a better adjustment in ourselves to the rapidly changing conditions of our 

 times, reducing the pace at which we live, and achieving control. Given 

 time to meet, and to know each other better, we can pool our various national 

 traits. In the last analysis we are mostly good fellows with similar needs 

 and probably with similar destinies. 



It may be noticed that I have not attempted that most difficult of all 

 considerations in regard to the patient — a prognosis. In this connection, 

 I can only re-state my faith in the individual and in the enormous potenti- 

 alities of the human spirit. Individual, did I say ? After all, is it not a 

 handful of individuals that guides the vast moral experiment now proceed- 

 ing in the East of Europe, another handful that drills humanity in the 

 centre and one individual alone who balances himself dramatically, as on a 

 tight-rope, before the breathless crowd in the South ? 



And even here at home, who knows how much turns upon whether a 

 prime minister's pipe is clean or foul, or if the head of the Foreign Office 

 has had a sufficiency of sleep — so essential in the young, and especially in 

 the young who possesses great gifts ? 



If doctors had political colour, like lawyers, it must needs be Liberal, 

 and — I speak entirely without prejudice— I think a re-birth of that spirit 

 in British politico-social life would be one of the best medicines that our 

 strained lives could have administered to them. 



When Browning makes Paracelsus say : ' Make no more giants, God, but 

 elevate the race at once,' he seemed to subscribe to the element of charla- 

 tanry with which tradition debits that romantic figure. As I have already 

 said, I do not think the cure will come that way. I believe that only ' man 

 can elect the universal man.' But I have faith that the human heart is 

 ' made of penetrable stuff.' I do not think that ' damned custom ' has 

 ' braz'd it so, That it is is proof and bulwark against sense,' though at 

 this moment a morbid Hamlet, were he looking on, would doubtless take 

 that view. 



I think, rather, that there are still enough people, ' whose blood and 

 judgment are so well commingled That they are not a pipe for Fortune's 

 finger To sound what stop she please,' — enough of these sturdy folk to 

 check the disease and to re-establish health. The treatment is the treat- 

 ment of the individual by the individual. Any physician who can inspire 

 ' Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom and Endurance ' will help to hasten and 

 ensure the cure. Any physician who cannot prescribe such remedies 

 obstructs the cure and should stand aside. 



Is it permissible, in an assembly of scientists, to end on a transcendental 

 note ? If so, I would remind myself that the spirit of man, though often 

 needing comfort and reassurance, and perhaps never more than now, is 

 still the dominant factor in all the experiences that it meets, be those 

 experiences in the bodily, mental and spiritual health of the individual 

 or of the race. 



' The Lords of life, . . . 

 I saw them pass, 

 In their own guise, . . . 

 Portly and grim, . . . 



