(c) 1945, Times NewspapersDoc ref: TLS-1945-1013             Date: October 13, 1945

482 THE TI~ES LITERARY SUPP~EMENT SATURDAY OC'(OBER " p . 1945

FINAL SCORE .. A splendid first novel .•. the prose bas the vigour and originality of the best new American \\'l'iting. ,. .JOliN DETJEMA.N' in the Daily Herald.

~~ .. An important book."

~ PETER QUENNELL in the Dnily Mail.

. •• A strikingly "shrewd and wide-awake piece of work." ~ NORMAN ~OLLINS in the Sunday Times.

.. M,. Beck has pulled oif a cleve, !~~ and though tf ul performance, in ",hieb he brings a striking power of insight to his study of the cult of hero worship of our day ... . a ~~ pointed and arrt'!8ting'taJe."

Th~ Times Lituary Sltppif'llfcnt .

"The work of a very 8eriou6 noveli!'t with a respect for his calling and for his predecessors." HENRY REED ill (J bro/ideasl tulk.

.• An ullilsual theme handled with courage and ~kill mllkc~ this hook well worth readiJl~ . . , \V"TTell Beck is a writcr worth watching," JOHN IIAMPSON 9s, nd

If. H. lIT t,,·tf,YIU"

THE ENGLISH TEACHER ,. :'Iofr. Nl:raYl1n' s novels haV4: CI jlujl.~ IH'C uli Ir f" 54·i llation. Tht'Y arc eXI'j'Jl,:on :1I :v WI, I1 wdUml, alit! portray wiLh ~rl'at skill an d SI' lis iti\ '('IW"S the wav of Jifll whirh hil S l'OIl W to pii!l!l 'ill India liS a 1'\,,;.,,1t of ~l {'i' llturv.lmU a·h"lf of Hriti~h rlll, \ thi'rl:. ·' MAI.CO I.M

)1t:Ct.a:HlOI~": in Time (wd 1'ide. .• A dl'li ghtflll portrait." !'£TF.R

IJn:~I'il!:LI , in the Duily A/(Iil,

"A very tl'.mark<lblc pici:e of work, He .. e·s dist inct ion."

NORM ,\N COLLLN 15 ,

., H l\ is deli ciolls, lhi~ unheroic hero of The En~lish TCllchcr. . . Into the pleRsallt hUUHu\ "'eakn('~scs and fuJli l!s Mr. Narayan sees dearly." I.IONEI. U .UJ:: in the Obserl:er.

., A quidly intinll.tle picture of modern Ind ian life .... 'This novel IllIs ICtllperate id{~ali~m, sly humour, amI stroll:::: infusion of' dultlll ." iUIIII/:/U!iJler ClIIlrJillli. 8s. 6J. lie,

* .I.'nol,1 Ltnn1-

.. ,:~;:T:::~~:~£::Cd~:Eh;S I theme tha t he call not fail to

\~ intercst othcrs .. , . His arguments (~ alO use and stimulate aDd, evcn ~~ when fiercc, have all inward good ~

humour." Tile Times Literary ~ S"pplement :!1II1 imp. lUlls/rlllt,d. 15s. lid

(\ lletu'y II '{fr, 'en ! ENGLAND IS A VILLAGE

.. \Ve would put it among the: brst of all country Looks . . , It should he r('ad by c\cryone \\110 loves England and '\ants to know sOlne· ! th ing of the soul of England ..

The Fithl 4(h imp. ]lIustreJJed, lOs. 6d, uet ~

(October 26.) ~

ARIEL FRUSTRATED (eoll/ilwed)

profit the appetites in which they traffic, In between, and distinct from thOle who mUit always feed where the ftock is pastured, is an amorphous body of well intentioned, compassionate, semi~rational men and women, standing aloof from the Church, who al'e persuaded that the frustrated Ariel in evt:ry Caliban is merely the victim of a physical ~nvironment. This they arc determined a t almost any cost to ameliorate. It would sur· prise them, no doubt, to be informed that the sol icitude of some of them was. in fact, indis­

. tinguishable from contempt for the essential character of human life. Among these materialist.s are the planners, the inventors, the production experts, scientific managers and administrators, who still uphold, morc or less, the old order. but in whose hands are the means, acquired a lmost overnight, of altering for good or HI the fundamental basis of society. ' .

It is reasonable to ask for the credentials of t>hose who are in a pQsition to exercise such powers. Some, convinced pragmatists, may be animated by the sj·mple desire to ensure what they d~m to be the good life for all men of good will. But the use of the word good as a

. term of va lue compels acceptance of the ideas and of the subtlet ies. of inflection acquired in

. the course of centuries. Russia was largely an illiterate nation at the end of the war in 1918. In' a stngle generation she has achieved a technical efficiency astonishing in itself and of the utmost consequence to the rest of the world. But her highly competeD't mass· produced experts are still no more than superficially literate, and it remains to be seen to what extent her spiritual resources are sufficient to make her as wise a nation as she is powerful. Unlike learning in the old sense, scientific techn iques are without· pedigree, having a bearing on some of the functions of man but not upon his nature as a whole. No technical skills, however numerous or pro­ductive, arc a substitute for the Joss of spiritual truth.

We have learned what a fragile, vulnerable thing is civilization, and what devotion is needed to defend our heritage o( grace. A narrow margin divides tota l disrespect for hUman life and the assertion of its demands in purely material terms. The 3'bolitionists' attack on slavery was provoked. not only by the physical suffering it inflicted, but by its subjection of their fellow·men , and thus them· selves, to unforgivable indignity. Their cam· paicn , by inference, challenged the right of any sectioni'll in terest 10 impose its will on the innocent and defenceless. Inversely, the attempt to sa ti sfy, from whatever motives. m:-ln's creature nceds by imposing a plan of production which acts as a restraint on the human spirit, results in a kind of bondage not less insutferable because it is new.

We need not u nde rrate the impOrlancc of bread and raiment , or the extensions of function made possible by modern apparatus: we admit that the old lessons of fortitude, of pity , of ennobling grief were in the past enforced with scant regard to the hardship and deprivation that were too often the common lot. But merely to follow the drift of atomic experi­ment and production on the plea of follo w· ing th e argument where it leads is neither Christian humility nor sound politics, It will leave us defenceless against the encroach­ments of a scientific and mechanical jungle which , on the grounds offered , we can have nO object in taming and are powerless to culti· vate. It is insufficient for technology to claim impartiality . The technologist who seeks to describe a home in terms of thermal insula· tion is impartial in all conscience. But he is none the less the agent of calamity. because those who employ his skill, who should know better, have themselves lost the sense of value -that is. indeed, the basis of the very faculty of judgment. We are all sensi'ble of the iUs and difficulties that beset LIS. Solutions arc hard come by, a nd error is excusable. What is indefensible is the coercion of people osten· sibly for their own good-the kind of out· rage, that is, perpetrated by our enemies­merely because it is convenient to deal with them in bulk rather than as individuals, and because. since the tr iumph of secularism, the sole business of the State is to satisfy the needs of the bod y and let the soul starve . The State is apt 10 seek to appease Ihe heart's hunge r, not -by greater liberty of access 10 green pastures, but by increased .. direction." Instead of diversity and opportunity we are made content with standardization and equality; in exchange for the inalienable right of free choice we are offered .. secu· rity "-" the common moth." wrote Ben Jonson, .. that eats on wits and arts, and Ihat destroys them both." The shortage economy with its real need of shelter, which, indeed, existed before the present emergency, is to be solved by the erection of standardized habit· able boxes from which is excluded every si ngle quality capable of fostering a dignified and fruitful huma n life- from which aseptic efficiency has banished all beauty, gentle· ness and mystery. If man is consistently treated as species he will cease before 10ng to be anything clse.

No greater disse rvice can be rendered to a serious purpose than its over·statement. Yet how much of what was considered hideously Cantastic only a few years ago has since come

to pass, and what greater evils may we not expect if nothing is done to rediscover the fundamental b3$is of behaviour? Though Ger· many and Japan have fallen, our world stands On the 'brink of a catastrophe that the corttrol of the atomic bomb will merely cbange. Jt is self·evident that it is useless to attempt to fill the void only with prescriptions for a more scientific production and panaceas for a more up·to·date social stratification.

We ha ve all earned a share of the blame for the forfeiture of self· respect by the insistence that something should be done by somebody else about some· thing or other. whereas it is open to all of us 10 reaffirm what Yeats proclaimed-that "faith is the highest achievement of the human in­teUccl," and the 0011' sanction of value. The further so.called conquest of nature and the liberation of atomic energy-these things alone will not save us. Without that control, which is the automatic "'Creation of faith, the machines become' the engines of destruction, which is (he same thing as say· ing that their energy is dissipated. A constant endeavour to see that the lessons of the past shall not be forgotten and that the complacency which tolerated a scientific cynicism and brutality undre.,mt of among savages is never repeated must not overlook (he fact that it is out of the petty evils of casuislry,..improvisation and deceit that great evils grow. The untainted passion, we must all' admit, of the scientist is among the loveliest attributes of the human spirit; 'but the result of his work is a very different matter. The decision whe ther to put into production the atomic bomb, as im· proved by impartial science, will be a decision oC State. It will be based upon the advice of scientists, part of whose responsibility must be to possess accurate csl.imates of the results achieved by their fellow~scjentists in foreign countries. There is no sign that although the scientists can destroy us they can, as scientists. save themselves. There is, in fact, no indication tha-t, as scientists, they can even entertain the conviction that it is their business to ~ead a movement having as hs aim the survival of man.

We would do well, therefore, to look for leadership, not to the impartial scientists, specialists, technicians, or to politicians im· partial except towards demagogic approval, but to those whose distinction lies in their faculty to respond to a natural and moral dis· pensation superior and external to themselves. Thus it is possible for us all to be leaders, at least to the extent of contributing to the expression of a vigorous and decisive public opmion. T his is the true democracy. It is only if, through carelessness, ignorance or impartia lity we turn our 'backs on all that man has so laboriously learned to respecl as the essential needs of our humanity that we need fear for man.

INDIAN AFFAIRS OXFORD PAMPHLETS ON INDIAN

AFFAIRS: No.2, The Position of Women, by Lakshmi N. Menon; No. 21, Nutrition, by W. R. A ykroyd; No. 22, Racial Ele· ments in the Population, by B. S. Guha; No. 23. Soi l Erosion, by Sir Harold Glover; No. 24. The Meaning of Dominion Status, by S. M. Bose; No. 25, Winning the Peace, by F. L. Bra yoe; No, 26, Siam, by Sir Josiah Crosby; No . 27. Broadcasting. by Seth Druequer. Oxford University Press, Indian Branch. London: Milford. 9d. each.

These eight pamphlets full y sustain the standard rcached in previous issues of this useful series, the aim of which is to examine in compact compass the various problems, political, economic and social, which conCront modern India. Mrs. Menon deals in some detail with "India's biggest minority "-the women, and shows that in spite of the dis· advantages of seclusion and restricted rights their influence within their own sphere is all· powerful. She is optimistic about the prospects of their successful adap tation to a wider life. Dr. Guha, Anthropologist to the Zoological Survey of India, has given a workman like survey of modern conclusions about the origin of Indian races. His equation of the principal elements with the stocks known to Western ethnologists explodes many so-called "mysteries." The well-known dietary expert , Dr. Aykroyd, is on the whole optimistic of the prospects of solvi ng the problems of Indian nutrition, given determination and a scientific approach. Sir Harold Glover treats of the widespread evil of soi l·erosion, which is among the most pressing: of the difficulties wh ich a regenerated ag riculture must face . Mr. Bose interprets Dominion stat us as seen by Indians. arguing that his country has nearly attained to this level, and that world·tendencies are against the older concepti'on of "complete independence." rather favouring international groupings. Brigadier Brayne pleads for an ordered attempt to utilize demobilized soldiers as an instrument fo r rege nerating ru ral life in India. Sir Josiah Crosby deals with Siam as an example of an independent Asiatic state, indicating its importance as an element in a future South·East Asia constellation. The late Mr. Drucqu'er explores the immense prospects which lie ahead of broadcasting in India as a n instrument of mass·education. Its purely entertainment function he rates less highl y. except as a medium Cor conveying instruction attractively.

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