TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21229, 27 September 1940, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Defence of the Heart It is the citizen’s duty in time of war—unless he has been entrusted with some definite and dangerous task—to protect his body from injury; for an injured body is an inconvenience to the rest of the community, says the Times, London. It is his duty also to protect his mind; for a mind disordered by rumour or diseased by propaganda is a source of infection to others. He should equip himself with a kind of mental gas-mask, a filter of healthy scepticism through which he can safely breathe in the miasma of lies and half-truths that hangs above the marsh of war. In body and mind most of us have by now learnt to protect ourselves; we are ready to troop obediently down to the shelter in the small hours, we turn a deaf ear to unconfirmed reports. So far, so good. But a human being is not a twist of two strands, he is a plait of three; and the worst clanger that he has to face in war-time is not the maiming of the body nor even the warping of the mind but the slow, insidious blunting of the heart. Against this menace we cannot be too- constantly on our guard. A slight toughening of the sensibilities is unavoidable, and indeed necessary, if we are to retain our reason in the face of the mounting horror and villainy which now surround us. But it is 1 fatally easy to let this toughening process go too far.