A personal view by Kenneth Clark
*
'We are so much accustomed to the humanitarian outlook that we forget how little it counted in earlier ages of civilisation. Ask any decent person in England or America what he thinks matters most in human conduct-five to one his answer will be "kindness." It's not a word that would have crossed the lips of any of the earlier heroes of this series.'
In this the final programme, Sir Kenneth Clark shows how the heroic materialism of the past hundred' years has been linked with an equally remarkable increase in humanitarianism. The achievement of engineers and scientists has been matched by that of the great reformers. Sir Kenneth Clark 's thoughts on the period in which we are now living take him from the English industrial landscape of the nineteenth century to the skyscrapers of contemporary New York, the world of the radio telescope and the exploration of space.
Shown on Sunday
The narrative of this programme will be printed in 'The Listener' of May 22
A book of the series will be published later in the year by BBC Publications and John Murray
See page 30
(Colour)