THE TIME OF WAR.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12537, 7 May 1915, Page 3

THE TIME OF WAR.

Why k it- Uiav we an! living more finely in lime of win ilian in lime of peace? We are .1 united nation. thousands and hundreds of thousands of men and women .spend their energies in thinking of and working for other people. There may be a liavour of humour about the many committees with which the land is covered, but they stand a.s evidence, of a sincerity ol' purpose, of a devoted service to the common need. That, is a gicyt tiling. Serviie is poured out in abundance, courage i.s high and splendid men join the colours in millions, and compete for the honour of the earliest chance, of death or mutilation. On all hands tho»e who in peace lived 10 "themselves now pour out their lives and their substance as a sacrifice to the nation in her need. Truly now we live in the nation more and in our little selve:; less than in the times of peace. - Probably tile number of people who doubt that our present way of life is better than that ol a year ago is negligible.' Vet what of the inference? Is it better to have war than to have peace? Is the opinion of Nietzsche true thai good war hallows any cause? Put- the question another way. In it possible to live as finely in time of peace as in time of war? Possible, ■ yes. but more difficult. For the response, of service, courage, and sacrifice called forth by war depends on ;t simple I'acl. War forces us to face the realities of life, and facing those realities we must live bigly or not at all. In oeacc we do not face realities.

One of the chief passions of life is the passion for forgetting. Everything that is unpleasant in ourselves —our little mealinesses, our little vices, our basenesses —we turn away from and forget. All that k unpleasant in our social lives—prostitution, slumdom. underpayment, disease and slow starvation —we turn a way and forget. Those who would bring u& to "conviction of sin" we rail fools and cranks. Those who would force us to see social injustices we call anarchist, socialist, infidel, and any other name expressing our strong disapprobation. A large part of the energy of man's life if> spent- in putting aside that which it. k painful to remember, and with the rest of the energy., a home, a little comfortable individual life (which enter® into strictly limited social relations, and lias the edges of all roughness, smoothed, by "art," by music, bv human friendship), is built up. In peace we live little lives, and forget big realities. War forces us to face realities. It breaks up the little refuge of our selfish homes, it renders insecure our means of living, it sweeps out of all meaning the little fragments of "art." of "music," of "society,' with which we surround ourselves. And facing realities we accept the greater way of life. The capacity for love, for service, for courage, for sacrifice that was. in us. shows out in a fine way of living. We live in the nation and in mankind and not in our lesser personalities.

If we are to live finely in peace, we must- learn of our own will to face realities in peace as we are compelled by force of circumstances to face them in war. We must learn to "live dangerously'*" in Tooting and Rloomsburv as- wo live dangerously in Inlanders and France. If we are to face realities in peace we must make up our minds what we are. There are only two main possibilities. Man is either an animal purely material or a spiritual being using a physical mechanism for physical experience. If he is purely material then the Kernhardi school are.right-, the supreme arbiter is force, the only law between states is that of force and moral law only valid in the state because backed up by force. Ii a man is primarily spiritual then the supreme arbiter is the law that rules the unfolding spirit, moral, mental, and super-physi?aJ law; physical laws being always the instrument- by which the subtler and super-physical here find expression. AVhat is the truth? Is the evolution of matter of form, the chief thing, or i> the unfolding of consciousness'! Choose and li\e according to your choice. But if you believe man to be spirit, if you accept the Theosophical teaching that that spirit is immortal, ever unfolding, ever becoming greater, then live according to that belief. Face life with all its horrors, in peace, o{ your own will, as in war you are forced to face it- by circumstances. Live facing notonly the greatness and joy but also the

littleness and the pain. I'm aside tin' 100 asy faculty o! forgetting, lac.' life and remenber. ))r l. hadkn crKNf.