"SERMONS IN STONES."

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 587, 16 August 1909, Page 6

"SERMONS IN STONES."

THE BEDDON COLUMN. \ WHAT WILJ, THE FUTURE SAT }..","■ ■ " '(Br •%") ';.'■. V i; ' : .' '".■■•,■ ; Not until the end of the year will, the , ;' statue that.is to, finish the. Scddon niouu- . ment 6ver thn gravo in Bolton Street Come-' tory, and symboliso the glorjes of humanism or Imperialism, of democracy or autocracy, . of tho annual surplus or the perennial debt, take up its various parable. In the mean? time, is there no symbolism, no suggestion, in the more stone pillar? May it not bcWto ono who can spare timo to lid in the sun and see tho palo shaft against tho blue sky—more interesting than it will bo again ■ at any time within the century? The suiromo fascination of a monument to the distinguished dead comes only after it has begun to show signs of failing to.perform ite function. It is tho crumbling atone, . tho -'■'.■ corroded braes, the broken statue, the decayed inscription, that speak most feelingly • of tha world-old desire to give an earthly immortality to the mighty or tho well-be-loycd. If tho dead is still famous, every ••■ , . crack that time has mads in his monument is a mouth to utter confirmation of his greatness, If but little else, on the other hand, remains'to \(x>d him in mind, thereis an exquisite pathos in the faithful, though faltering, protest which the materials, while • , any shape is left them, still make againgt ■'■ fprgctfufness. ffew Zealand ia too young., for this monumental eloquence, hut perhaps, : in truly, antipodean fashion, the seeker or meanings may welcome, in the absence of a' memorial that has lost its perfection, the occasion offered by one that has its perfection yet to come. , The questions to be asked of the 6eddon column, standing there with its scaffolding '. still about it, are thus naturally directed to tbo future. 'How'iong will it stand? HVhat will it mean W'coming generations? Will they need any such reminder' of the figure that once, towered, so hugely in the ftew Zealand eceno? And what, in their larger. „. view, their many-timee-rcadjusted estimate, ".;' will be bis place and worth? Tho questions' : come readily, but the answers linger.j' o- Iti"" i can only bo surmised that reinforced concrete sheathed in Coromandcl granite may • withstand earthquakes and the slow fingers / of cold, heat, and moisture until the Muee of History has quite made up her mind about Richard Seddon. ■-.'•■ Tho monument, like all ite kind, is partly an attempt to influence, that stern Udy'g judgment, but to that extent it it labour lost, for she is increasingly deaf to such suggestions. , In part, also, jt .is an attempt tj provide against the seeming injustice or flippancy of posthumous. fame. Sir' Thomas Browne, though his phrases were of a recondite beauty, spoke tbo half-coi)6cipus apprehenßion of all the devisers of memorials —when he complained that "the iniquity of 1 oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, and deals with the memory of men without distinction to moritjof perpetuity." .. One might suppose that the monument to ■ the leader of the'newest democracy, which' he had taught to pride itself upon the setr' .'■ .ting of a series of brilliant examples to <;he : 'world, should be. something eo stnkingly ori-: ginal-that it; would remjndno one of an. older past. Instead, it is a column, and how.\ many conturies hack the first column was initiated from a tree tnink, or from a nia^s• ' ( >; j of rock loft standing in a quarry Bupport > the strata above, is a question thst admits'; only ■■'•a wide sohitioti," i The capital of. this' .'■■ ■ particular column is a modification of %<s • ' Ooriuthian, an;order-, which, though young . in the history of architecture, and latest ot the ■ Greek . orders, is hoary with • antiquity/ ,UntniEtworthy> tradition makes it tho in- - ; volition of one GaDimachus,' brQnsHs?WQrl?er, of Corinth, but it , seems rather to have been developed by the Greeks from some of the ■• ■ works Qf.Jodg-preceding,builders in. Assyria ■ ' . and influence, ran-through all Gothipifti;ch.iteqture,..(the English ■'•.■. ' fho ■iPnrljamdnttryiLibrsl'y bpild- '] ing arp.ijji exanipje),'and it camp into jts owil, ;again. ffjth ,!the/,'Re.hnia??jico,-(v; If .\ ■■ ~:' there ' is' to-day a prcviviUng ' archw'. '.''.. teotural style,,;,,it,i:-lß.."the.«ifo:aissance, •:'. Its forpis; which \'".'ain ndspta|iions pf the .cksiiipai tq.bfipftiin sll.ovdr tfla : . f . meroatitilo portjon pf -this city,,' The n,i(?Bt pdmired among thorn, the Cor'mtWan'capital, ages after mingling \yitl) "tjie Rlpjy that was ... GrecoG^'the. 'grandeur, thaVWas'lionje'," (l^coT - • ntesthe VYellingtpn Tpwn Hall and the new Union Banl?,'and hag.suggested the scantier \ lilies: of the; cepital of tlis Seddon , cplujnn.' And the, design that-is. simplißed' here was i tirpi olahprated froni stones Aat were piled . ,and graven tQ minißtpr totho pomp of As-:. syriah kings and Egyptian Pharaohs.; ■;..":',' And we call thjea new country) .iSocrates and' Alcibiadea, it m.ust be admitted, could •not run down to Piraeus "per electric oar,". - . ■" but.'our tramway.poles are,ornamented with •-.-.. ,cast r irpn,' foliage adapted fronj the. Greek' . ■ ■ Acanthus.' ■ The merp;materials of every ejt are more, as paint; some less, fjs tho gretiV artistic' form'sV'. .'■■ iiaye such ft of' adapting , themselves to • . now surroundings and varying nf»d.s that may alttipet say that,they live, that , they are! immortal, Thfep most shriek:-': ''. ingly mddo.rn of ,all ; buildings,, tho slc.Vr ■ ' 6prap*rs.of'Ainerjca, arogeiiwally designed,-;., as to. tho exterior, the ancient scheme of■'•'■.•'.'-'■ ,t)ie pillar. The.hasp is, perliaps, four stories> : high, the shaft twenty, and the'capital fix, '/' but ihe ; whole thing is still B mero variatiqij. ; though immensely; magnified, of. a form that .' is as old as aroliiteofmro. Sponsor was right:'. . ( "That which is firrne doth flit and Oea away, , And , tliat' js flitting ,doth abide and. stay." •■' ' '•- : From pillars of'architecturo to .-':,■ State is aneasy transition. Plato may have ; known some prototype of Seddo.h, Ho knew,".!■' at any rate,* of- the liability. br ; a democracy .; ■ to become a despotism, and most of his poli-r ".'. tical reflections, may be illustrajed with ; modern instance's. 'Is not'tbo architecture of State much like tho, architodiuro ,of. bui]d-, '. mgs? 'Phe materials — stemes., in-.tho ; ono sort,, men inthc-other—are always now, but; i the forms, however varied and new..Bamed, .are cssentialij permanent. ; '■ statesmen alike are.pencils in the hand of tho age, Perhaps tho lapt historian towhotn v ' the now name on the pedestal of the.:] still unfinished monument is decipherable' will;' treat of Seddon. pi the 1 , same, cjjapter'wit.h.. / .A^fcibißocs.',■■,■;;.;[;"■■ : : '^.■•V; , ' , '.'j. : .,\'< r ' '?;-,".,,, ■'■ ■