THOUGHTS OF LEADERS

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14833, 26 November 1913, Page 13

THOUGHTS OF LEADERS

(fBOJI OUK OWS CORREfIPOXDEN'T.) October 17. THE ALLURING TIPSTEE. Lord Newton. tho anti-tipeter legislator:—"l do not look upon betting as a sin. In the past I have betted; I have won; I have lost; and I havq been welshed. Sometimes there is an advantage in betting. "When I "was a boy I used to test a boy's credulity by asking him if he would back his opinion, and sometimes wo found that a boy who would take his dying oath about a thing would not bet about it, and co in this way we tested his truth. Tho practice of betting has spread through all classes of society, and tho many thousands invested in betting is enormously larger than it was eomo time ago. Seeing what is written in tho snorting papers one would suppose that my object h not only to destroy racing, but to reduce the English working man to a condition of servitude. Tipsters' advertisements are not only a fraud, but an insult to one's commonsense. Is it possible to conceive that there are in existence philanthropic beings desirous of giving power to accjiiire wealth beyond the dreams of avarice to tbeir fellow creatures? Is it conceivable that tho people who send out those ridiculous circulars aro sending "anything but the most absurd and ridiculous rubbish. I do not accuse l>ookmakers of being frauds, because they do not stand in the same category as tipsters, but I do look upon bookmakers' circulars as an insult to my common-sense. They aro an invitation to mc to enrich myself at the bookmakers' expense. I may be .simple, but when a person sends mc circulars of that kind I do not put a charitable construction on tho action. The credulous and foolish are quite canablo of makinc fools of themselves without being incited to do so."

THE SORROWS OF THE POET.

Professor Henry Newbolt:—"lt seems to be a national characteristic that wo should have among us a large body of men who like their poetry to be commonsense versified—in other words, undiluted prose in rhyme. They think the poefc'3 highest function is to provide members of Parliament with tags for quotation, with epigrammatic sententiousness. They suspect us if we do not write in metres they know, and they immediately assume that our lives are not what tnev should be. Horace is to be our model, and in Horatian modes wa are to render current matters, and then they will -welcome us. Next, there is tho dreadful man who waits till a poet is off the stage of this life before ho buys his works. He will give us no encouragement till we aro dead, and our booke have, by a natural process of selection, reached the higher shelves. He seems unable to realise that there may be men actually living upon whom the Muse has put her linger of magic. Finally, tho antiquarian bothers us as much as anybody. His interests are gsod in themselves, but they have nothing t6 do with appreciating poetry. Great numbers of passages in poets' works

are unintelugible to us -without reference books, but that makes no difference to tho pectic value wo got out of those works. They are not relevant to the tiling we receive from the poem— to tho poetry in the poem. A poet is not meant to be a breeder of ieoinotes." LIBERAL EDUCATION. Dean Inge, of St. Paul's:—A liberal education must be disinterested ar.d havo no tilterior beyond itself. Here we como into conflict \vitl; tho new school of Pragmatists, who that every thought has a practical end, and that tho test of truth is that it work?. I maintain, on the contrary, that there is a tree spirit of disinterestedness to be found, and that there are people who worship the noble ideals of truth and beauty without any thought to their own advantage. Liberal education brings happiness to those who put happiness out of thrir thoughts in following: its course. The tendency to-day is to think that a man has the ris*ht to proclaim any folly if ho believes in it. I would commend to you a definition of true wisdom as to the knowledge of the principles or value- of things—not, of cour.se, of merchandise, but the kno\rl«3go of life and all that it contains. Tho essence of a liberal education is a true standard of value, and -whatever the Pragmatists may say, I believe that there is such a tluna: as truth, goodness, and beauty,-and" that these can l>o valued for themselves." ' THE SALE OF ADVOWSONS. Tho Bishop of Lircoln, in his presidential address at tho Lincoln Diocesan Conference:—'"The problem of patronage does not seem less difficult as th© years go b>-. Ido not refer to tho sale of advowsons, except to say that in my opinion the salo of advovrsone is a ehame, and a scandal, and ought by law to be prohibited. It is » relic of the old bad days, but what I wa.3 thinking of was the new difficulty caused by the growing demand for land and tho tendency to divide and disperse old estates. It is obvious that, iv this way some livings -will bo found in the hands of patrons who care little for tho spiritual needs of a locality, while other livings are likely to find their dishonoured way into tho markets. It is time that tho Church made a decided stand in tho matter, and that our laymen insist on putting a stop to these scandals. lam a defender of private patrorago when in the hands of persons really interested in a locality. It is worthy of consideration whetlier it would "not be a good ' tiling to constitute a Diocesan Board of Patronage, which could hold livings handed to it and make appointments."