FANATICISM.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 44, 8 March 1937, Page 4

FANATICISM.

" Fanatioism involves an undue simplifioation of life," says Lord Tweedsmuir. "Every false doctrine, every fanatioism, depends npon a mechanioal instead of an organie conception of the worldThO revolutionary who believes that all antecedent history oan ba neglected, that the slate can be sponged clean, and that he can write upOn it what he pleases, is as much a vietim of the simpliflcation fallacy as the Covdnanting divine who believed that, when he excommunicated a man or a sect, his act was promptly ratified by the Recording Angel. Let us make no mistake about fanaticism. It is a very powerful thing, and its power comes from its narrowness. It does not suffer from a divided mind. Again and again in human history there have come times when the immediate problem seemed simple, and when latitude o£ mind meant wdakness of mind. There is only a certain quantity of spiritual force in any man, and i£ it is spread over too broad a surface the stream will beeome shallow and langfuid. Fanaticism has done great things in history, but these things have almost invariably been destructiye — necessary de^taictipn, perhaps, but .gtill destruotion," .