ere; and to the surface of the revolving, whizzing globe
a multitude of living things desperately clinging, and these living
things, in the midst of cataclysmic danger, and between the twin enigmas
of birth and death, quarrelling and hating and calling themselves kings
and queens and millionaires and beautiful women and aristocrats and
geniuses and lackeys and superior persons! Perhaps the highest value of
astronomy is that it renders more vivid the ironical significance of
such a vision, and thus brings home to us the truth that in spite of all
the differences which we have invented, mankind is a fellowship of
brothers, overshadowed by insoluble and fearful mysteries, and dependent
upon mutual goodwill and trust for the happiness it may hope to achieve.
* * * Let us remember that Christmas is, among other things, the winter
solstice, and that the bottom has not yet been knocked out of the winter
solstice, nor is likely to be in the immediate future!

* * * * *

It is a curious fact that the one faith which really does flourish and
wax in these days should be faith in the idea of social justice. For
social justice simply means the putting into practice of goodwill and
the recognition of the brotherhood of mankind. Formerly, people were
enthusiastic and altruistic for a theological idea, for a national idea,
for a political idea. You could see men on the rack for the sake of a
dogma; you could see men of a great nation fitting out regiments and
ruining themselves and going forth to save a small nation from
destruction. You could see men giving their lives to the aggrandisement
of an empire. And the men who did these things had the best brains and
the quickest wits and the warmest hearts of their time. But today,
whenever you meet a first-class man who is both enthusiastic and
altruistic, you may be sure that his pet scheme is neither theological,
military nor political; you may be sure that he has got into his head
the notion that some class of persons

John Holland Rose (1855-1942) was an influential English historian who wrote a famous biography of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and also wrote a history of Europe, entitled The Development of the European Nations. Rose was the basis for C. P. Snows fictional character M. H. L. Gay (see Years of Hope: Cambridge, Colonial Administrator in the South Seas, and Cricket by Philip Snow.)

Robert Grant may refer to: