Chapter 4 of 4

Britain's Place in the Great Plan · 4

And so you begin to realise that in this Nation you will have to begin to reorganise it into the great functions; and that, I think, is what Sir Michael means when he speaks about these three things which sustained the harmonious life of Christendom; he calls them the Priesthood, the Empire, and the University. For “Priesthood” I would like to substitute the Spiritual and Intellectual Teachers of the Nation. The word “Priest” I have no objection to, but it is as true of science as it is true of religion - except in the sense that in religion it is used for dealing with the greater verities of human life and emotions and mentality, leading those onwards along a spiritual path, while in science the Priest of science is the Interpreter of Nature here, the Nature which surrounds us with its countless phenomena. And I submit you must have the class from which you can take your Priest, or, if you prefer it, the class which is the Teacher of the Nation in every line of thought and life. It would include the scientist and the doctor, the philosopher and the metaphysician, the whole of the learned men, the thinkers, and the artists of the Nation, who come under this great head; for they are really the educators of the people, and not only the teachers of the schools, of the colleges, and of the universities. And this [96] class is necessary for the Nation’s advance and prosperity. It does not need great wealth; it needs great knowledge and wisdom. And their duty is helping others to share in that which their intellect has discovered and formulated to the world and thus enlightened it. Intellect illuminated by the Spirit is the guide of the spiritual life of the people, and without that spiritual life no civilisation will endure; for material ideals alone can never uplift a Nation to an enduring life; you must have the ideal of the spiritual before you, and that means the One-ness of the Whole.

And just as you must have your educative class, so you must have your Statesmen and your Legislature and your Army and your Navy and your Police - although I hope the functions of the three last will become very much lighter as the duties of the Teachers are more fully and more justly discharged. And on that I venture to differ from a very eminent man when he said it was not the job of the teachers of religion to interfere in the other departments of life, like labour, industry, the relations of mercantile bodies, politics, and the rest. There is no department of human life into which religion should not enter and spiritualise that department. The great duty of the teaching class in all its phases, whether of science or of religion, was, and is, to spiritualise each department. Of politics, so that they may be the politics of noble and upright men, and no excuses be made for political expedients to cover falsity, or perjury, or wrong. To spiritualise all mercantile relationships, so that a merchant should not do in his mercantile capacity what he would not do to his friend or to his brother. To [97] spiritualise labour, so that the man who produces may fill his vocation in the Nation, and realise that to labour honourably, truthfully, well, is as spiritual a vocation as that of any priest or minister of religion can be. Only in that way shall we learn either the Law of Brotherhood or the Law of Sacrifice; for every vocation in a Nation is honourable, provided it is honourably done and carried out uprightly and righteously.

Now, what signs are there in our world of today in this direction? There is certainly a tendency towards Union. You will remember I spoke of Union as on the threshold - in the higher sense I was then thinking of it; and that tendency is everywhere manifest. And if you are going to deal with those two great powers, Capital and Labour, thousands struggling for victory, you will find this principle is coming in on both sides - unions of workmen and unions of capitalists. With regard to the former, I should like to make one remark. You must all realise that in the great struggles of the day it is not the question of wage which is really at the root of the struggle of Labour. Of that for which labour is working, wage is only the symbol. What they are working for is a higher human life, so that they may know, so that they may share, some of those things which to you and to me are the commonplaces of life, but in which they have no share today. It is not human life simply to labour, and to sleep in order to labour again. Human life is something grander, and nobler, and greater than that. It is Art as much as Toil, for it has Beauty as its manifestation. It has hope of the future in Knowledge and in Wisdom. It [98] has delight in the present by all the ennobling enjoyments that Art and that Culture make possible for man. And so I would say that every man in a Nation has that life as a right, no matter what the avocation his hands or his brain may lead him to follow. And in the Trade Union that is felt very deeply. And one point I would venture to recall, that I mentioned last week, the idea that the most skilled mechanic is not to work his best, because if he does a weaker and less-skilled workman will not be able to get a decent living. Men of great ability and skill and energy will not produce what they can, and can easily, do - not because they want to limit production, but because they feel the weak man is their brother. And so they will not outrace him, because brothers must stand side by side. And in that recognition there is a splendour of spiritual insight which is hidden entirely by the form in which that desire clothes itself in putting itself forth to the world. When I said lately in this hall that the axiom of the present civilisation was that the best man should WIN, but that the axiom of the future was that the best man should SERVE, the whole hall rang with plaudits. That is a fundamental truth, and with whatever clumsiness in endeavouring to reach it the rule to which I alluded has been carried out, there is in it that Law of Brotherhood, as recognised, not unfortunately in the whole Nation, but within a single unit. It is the germ of the better realisation that strength is meant for service and not for going faster or better than another man - the realisation of the great Law of Brotherhood. You would not outrace your brother. That is the thought [99] that underlies what I called a mischievous expression, because it enfeebles the Nation; and that is eminently wrong.

But all these things are passing, and will be grown out of. What it is desirable now to recognise is that you must go onward into a life in which the motive is a common motive, and in which work is for the common good; in which we want to help each other, and not to trample each other down. That is the Union into which we must inevitably pass. It is the next stage in evolution, and if it is not accepted willingly, then it will come by destruction, for that which is against Nature cannot endure.

Now of Great Britain, I ask: What is her place in the Plan? Great Britain has a possibility before her, and a power of accomplishing that possibility, which are not so great in any other Nation in the world. I will tell you exactly what I mean. When I was here in 1919 it was just in the crash of the Russian Revolution, and I ventured to say to a great body of Trade Unionists and working men that Britain was the one country in the world, I believed, where by training and self-discipline and the power of combination in the unions, and the learning in the unions of discipline, there was good hope that this tremendous transformation might be made without revolution or violence. Things are not as hopeful today as they were then; and largely because the sense of duty, and of discipline and loyalty to leaders is lacking; these things have broken down very much amongst those who were the most splendid examples of them a few years ago; and [100] that because a class is taking the place of the Nation and the power of the class - what they are pleased to call the dictation of the proletariat - is striving to compel the Nation. There is no class, autocratic or democratic or proletariat or monarchic, that has the right to dictate to the Nation and say what it should do. It is not because they are many that they have the right to kill Liberty. Not because they are strong and can starve the Nation into submission have they the right to tyrannise. I protested against it when employers tried to starve the workmen into breaking unionism; and I protest against it as much today, when the strong by numbers try to starve the country, because they are engaged in quarrels with their employers. I believe it is possible that these dangers can be overcome, and I want to put to you as my last point that the tendencies everywhere are not only towards Union within the Nation, but of Union of larger and larger Nations as we go on in evolution. In the past those larger Unions have always been made by military force, by power, by trampling on the weaker Nations and incorporating them with the stronger by annexation of other peoples’ countries. That they call annexation rather than robbery, because it is a prettier word and covers over what really has occurred. They have been made by aggressive war, which is murder on a vaster scale, which is the outcome of hatred, and therefore destructive and demoralising; and by diplomacy, which is too often only a many-syllabled word for untruth and intrigue.

Now Britain has the opportunity to make a mighty Empire - Empire I call it for a moment, for its name [101] has been Empire hitherto; and the great point which was decided by the Maker of the Plan in the last war was, that two Empires, symbolising two great principles, should be flung together in the clash of war. And the one principle was the principle of autocracy and military power, and there was a splendid, highly organised army to rule the world by the imposition of power. And the other principle was a loosely knit kind of Empire, with, as the other side called it, “a contemptible little army”, very small, a thing to be walked over by the great military power, and the loosely knit Empire was to be rent in pieces in the clash of war. But to the world’s wonder it went the other way, and that loosely knit Empire became more and more closely knit together as the war went on, and grew stronger and stronger, and learned to organise power for war, and took many steps onward which now they are trying to undo. They nationalised the railways because they wanted to carry their soldiers, their munitions, and their supplies of every sort; and now it is said that State management does not pay, because all that was done free, without payment. The soldiers paid nothing, and the State paid nothing for them; and then they say State management is so very expensive. But you organised for war, because without it you would have perished; and as you organised for war, cannot you organise for peace in order that your people shall be happy? If you organised for war against soldiers, cannot you organise against poverty and ignorance and misery, and turn the whole power of the State in order that the nation shall be happy and prosperous and contented? The [102] same ability which organised for war can organise for peace. The same sacrifice that organised for war can also organise for peace. Britain’s opportunity is hers, because all round the world there are Free Nations that have sprung from her, that you call the Self-Governing Dominions, and other lands that have been acquired largely by the help of their own people, and which you call Dependencies or Colonies; they, all that huge possibility of all those varied Nations, not only of white people but of coloured, not only of western Nations but of eastern, not only of Europe but of Asia, are awaiting federation. Think what it means if, for the first time in the world, a Power as strong as you admittedly are today, instead of relying on strength, tries to seek for and to do justice. Instead of trying who can arm the most, try who can serve the best. Instead of trying to tyrannise over others, open to them the gates of Freedom, and say to all the Nations that make up this great Empire: “Come and form with us not an Empire, but a great Commonwealth of Free Nations; not a white Commonwealth, but a Commonwealth into which men of every race, of every colour, of every ancestry, of every creed, of every tradition and custom, shall come willingly as free members.” Ah! If Britain can do that, then she will do her part in the Great Plan. That is her place; that is her opportunity. No other Nation with dominions so widespread and so varied can build up that mighty Commonwealth of Brotherhood, of all the races of every faith, of every colour, of every line of thought. Have you the strength to do it? I believe you have. Have you the love to do it? I hope you have. [103]

That is your place in the Plan; take it or leave it. It is your decision, your right to say what you will do. But if you can do it, if you will do it, if you will encourage Freedom and not try to hold her back, if you will welcome her everywhere where your power extends; if you will help, strengthen, inspire, lead, but let the Nations take their Freedom and be your brothers and not your subjects - then you will do more than make a great Federation, then you will do more than build a mighty Commonwealth; you will build a Model, which the world shall copy; you will build a Temple, which shall become the model for the Temple of Humanity; within your own power you will make Freedom extend everywhere over your Dominions, and thus set an example that other Nations shall follow; for you will never reach true Internationalism until the Nations have recognised their Brotherhood, and have willingly joined together in bonds of Love, of Amity, and of Freedom. [104]

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