THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1907. THE REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8986, 22 November 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1907. THE REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM.

"Am I my brother's keeper?" ris a text that has exercised' the intellect of theologians and the sophistry of moralists for centuries. If the arguments that have been, used, pro, and con were collated in a single work the book would require a steam derrick to lift it. As a general thing, however, the world is Content to go on its own course ignoring its brother, who is left to his own devices, because average humanity has quite enough to do to look after itself without perpetually pausing to stay the .hand of the weak or wilful. Whether if ris in the main is desirable or the reverse we do not propose to discuss; in many instances it may be desirable. But if the generality of mankind is to bereave itself of the ordinary comforts of life because of its weaker brethren whoi cannot be checked in their wanton courses in one direction or another without removing all possibilities of excesses at the expense of the mederate section of the community, then the generality of mankind will vote life a bore. The tendency of philanthropists, nevertheless, is in this direction, and measures of restrietion are becoming more and more pronounced—in this country at any rate; so that wherever there is danger to the weakling the strongmust, if he will not do so voluntarily, be forced to give up his innocent deSires as a protective measure for his brother who does not possess equal powers of self-subjugation. We have had many examples of this in our recent legislative enactments, and more are likely to be brought forward. By and bye our legislators ~ who do not comprise all the highest intellectuality in the land—will endeavour to make us so good that we shall feel the angelic wings sprouting, and a phase of evolution such as Darwin or Haekel never imagined will take place in this dominion. All this is apropos of past social legislation, and that which seems likely to come about in the near future. It is also apropos of the extra-judicial strictures passed a few days ago upon the kine-

tographic pictures illustrating the splendid work of Rolf Boldrewood entitled "Robbery Under Arms." A weak-minded boy, alleged to have been inspired by the pictorial display, got a revolver and attempted to stick up a man and a woman. The woman slapped the boy's face, and the man knocked the weapon out of his hand, and no more harm was done. The boy was brought before Mr Justice Denniston, who launched a philippic against such books, and the exhibition of such pictures. They ought not to be permitted, in the opinion of the judge, because they might hava a bad effect upon the youth of the country. This is attempting to carry to excess the programme of the; moral reformers of humanity; but the world is not ripe for the moral ad absurdrm.

"The New Zealand Herald," the most sober daily paper in the dominion, deals with this subject in a column editorial, and pertinently remarks in connection therewith—"Are we to banish 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Huckleberry Finn' from our children'd world, and burn all the other stories of adventure in which they take such keen delight, and which, so far as we know, never did harm to anyone, though it is quite conceivable that under totaliyabnormal conditions they might? . . . Shakespere, Chaucer, Scott—must they all be Bowdlerisea? What a drab, unnatural world the world of literature would soon become if books like 'Robbery Under Arms' were to be banished as immoral in their tendency! If we were to purify our libraries on the strict lines laid down by Mr Justice Denniston there would not be either in the historic or fiction department much worth reading left." We entirely agree with our contemporary. It is carrying the "brother's keeper" theory "beyond the beyonds'.' of reason.