The Hon. HAROLD NICOLSON , C.M.G., :
' Revelation versus Experience '
IN investigating the actual nature of the now spirit in literature, Mr. Nicolson considers this evening one of the main characteristics of the modem age : tho insistence on ' experience ' as opposed to ' revelation.' The literature of the nineteenth century was based on revelation, as opposed to personal experience. The War, however, with its cataclysmal effect on individuals, led to a questioning and re-examining of all existing theories about human psychology. The growth of the scientific outlook —psycho-analysis and relativity—showed that nothing is what it seems : there are no fixed rules of human behaviour. Thus authors began to fall back on their own personal experiences as the only thing of which they could be certain. This period of doubting is, however, drawing to an end, and next week Mr. Nicolson will describe the lines upon which younger writers are seeking a positive formula.