Social idealism / by R. Dimsdale Stocker.

  • Stocker, R. Dimsdale (Richard Dimsdale), 1877-1935
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Social idealism / by R. Dimsdale Stocker. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/262 (page 6)
    Perhaps the initial difficulty that presents itself to us is, to discover precisely wherein the religious impulse of this age especially lies. At the outset, it seems almost easier to say where it is not, than to affirm its presence in any one direction. Our life to-day is inconceivably complex and many-sided—so extraordinarily so, indeed, that unless we are prepared to interpret it under its widest and most comprehensive aspect, we must inevitably miss its deepest significance and import. Nothing is easier than to be misled in this respect by a superficial generalisation of existing conditions. Nothing, at first sight, seems easier than to challenge or call in question the spirit of the time. For side by side with the decay of structures which have hitherto stood as the guardians of morality and religion, we have the growth of forces which, unless they can be utilised and diverted to social ends, must speedily bring destruction in their train. As it is, much is made, from time to time, of the wane of the older religious sanctions. In the newspapers and elsewhere we are constantly