Sketcher.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 404, 4 February 1904, Page 7

Sketcher.

; ;'A$ OLD mil: a /g *HP t —*n °l<3 e»w, truly, and for -V acgiS generations counted one of those * most sage saws' which were deaf to Sir Toby Belch. But is it bo P • No { we hold it to be one of our grandmother i' bogeysi one of those venerable bat decrepid proverbial fallacies which It is the business of honest men to traverse and expose. It is surprising—or ought to be—how readily we echo and re-echo the voices of traditional prejudices; how tamely we accept the co-called' wisdom of our forefathers,' just as at one time we accepted their history and believed in their philosophy. But what is the use of living in the latter years of the nineteenth century, of being ' the heirs of the ages,' if we are to be bound by the views and opinions at men who were so much less fortunately situated P No doubt their lights served well enough for the time; but surely those which we have the privilege of burning are a good deal more powerful. At all events, lam not inclined to accept their. * obiter dicta' with so much satisfaction as I accept Mr Augustine Birrell's; or to*endorse their haphazard utterances because tbey are cast in the mould of Proverbial Philosophy, After all, is it so very hard a thing to construct a proverb P When . Antisthenes was asked what learning was most necessary for the conduct of life, he wisely answered, 'To unlearn that which was nought.' Let us begin by unlearning our old saws. 'Familiarity breeds contempt.' Stuff and nonsense! It does nothing of the kind. If it were true, what would become of our human friendships P Surely it is not the case that the longer we know our friends the less we value them; that the more frankly they unbosom themselves to us the less we esteem them. Why, it is only by the touchstone of experience and the long assay of time that we can prove their finer qualities, and come to discover in them that specially beautiful thing—whether it be veracity, or honour, or kindly wisdom—which gives them their hold upon our affections. You cannot tell all the good that is in a man until you have had time to know him thoroughly. Carlyle tells us that every day he learned more and more to admire that 'transparent soul,' John Sterling. Lord Brooke daily discovered some fresh reason, we may be sure, for loving Sir Philip Sidney. 'When he descended down the mount, his personage seemed most divine.' Falkland, as Clarendon tell us, was£by no means beholden to nature for its recommendation into the world,' but then no man sooner or more disappointed this general and customary prejudice. The longer men knew him, the more profoundly they came to appreciate his nobler qualities. For at first a certain reserve and reticence prevent us from ascertaining what there is in our friend of best and truest; it is not until we stand side-by-side and hand-in-hand that each discovers the helpfulness of tbe other. The truth is, familiarity sweetens friendship—seasons, strengthens, and confirms it. Fo<c to know a man, as in justice to him he ought to be known, we must see him in many aspects, and under varying; conditions—in spring and Bummer and winter; in the morning of life, its noon, and the hush ot its eventide. We must see him alone and in company, at home and abroad, in shadow as in sunshine. 'Tie due to him and to yourself that you should spare no pains to complete your knowledge of him; as he, on his part, should spare no pains to arrive at a full understanding of you. The mean and shabby assertion, that no man is a hero to his valet, is a kind of corollary to this old saw. A good many so-called heroes are anything but heroic, and how can their valets put into them that they have not of themselves P But tbe true hero is as much a hero to his valet as to any body else—if his valst have a man's soul and not a flunkey's. I cannot fiiad that those who know. Gustavus Adolphus, or Cromwell, or Milton, or Wellington, the most intimately, entertained a less feeling of admiration than that acknowledged by the world at large. JDr. Johnson's familiarity with Boswell bred no contempt in the latter's little tender worshipping soul. A really great man is seen to most advantage when seen from the nearest point of view. One does not want to study him through a telescope, as if he were a planet remote from mortal ken. I grant that Napoleon to his valets, the Bemusats,' et omne hoc genus,' appeared no hero; but that was because, in spite of the Iron crown and the" imperial purple, he was but a kind of shoddy here after all! In Byron's ' Corsair' occurs a passage which has always seemed to me very characteristic of the poet. That' man of i loneliness ahd mystery,' the Corsair, perceiving his bar quel all ready to sail, hurries 'towards the shore; 'he bounds, 'he flies until his footsteps reach the j verge where ends the cliff, begins the beach,' and then he checks his speed, and resumes ' his wonted statelier step,' that he may not expose himself, disturbed by haste, to vulgar view! There is a hero for you afraid of being seen, like Hamlet,' scant o' breath!' As if Nelson, on the Hard at Portsmouth, would have * checked his speed' and stepped solemnly into his barge, lest his Jack tars should have failed in obedience towards a hero who could use his legs I Bnt Byron, as we know, acted on thispritciple, starving on a biscuit and toda-water in publie, and making a hearty dinner afterwards in private. Tbe world, however, has little sympathy to spare for stage heroes. They who ascend to mountain tops must expect to fiad 'the loftiest peaks most wrapped in cloud and enow,' but then they are not compelled to remain there. 'Let them come down again into the valleys, where dwell the sons of men: it will be happier for them and for us. They will be relieved from the burden ot their solitude; and we, as we know them better, shall love them better. Familiarity, instead of breeding contempt, will increase our affectionate esteem and swell our gratitude, by removing the prejudices and misconceptions which originate in distance. If a man live in the clouds, apart from vulgar view, he must expect that our notions of him will .be vague, shadowy, imperfect, and probably mistaken. Tosumnp: whatever there is in us of good report will not be dimished by familiarity. The more friendly we show ourselves to our fellows, the more tenderly will they be disposed to judge us.—D.A.