LIFE'S BEST THINGS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 788, 11 April 1910, Page 3

LIFE'S BEST THINGS.

WANTED, MEN V/ITH A LONG 1 VIEW. LESSONS PROM HISTORY. Mr. Norman W. Do. Witt (lias a suggestivo article in tlio "University Magazine".(Canada) on "The' Educated Layman." "Tho last few years and the last few weeks -liavo been iilled with dazzling achievement," ho says. "Tilings upon which, men have -expended their energies and wracked their ingenuities in vain for centuries have lately been brought to pass, and have not ceased to arouse our astonishment.. The uttermost part of our hemisphere has at Jast been trodden by human feet, and <ho secrets of tho cheerless North are being published to tho world. The horseless vehicle, which had baffled inventors over sinco tho power of steam was first applied to transportation, is now flitting about the earth in town and country, over lull and dale, both where tbo verdure flourishes and where the deserts sleep beneath tho'sun. This is too much to assimilate in a short ■time. What Airships Can't Do. "Yet it is safe to say that our .troubles will still be with us. Airships will not ameliorate poverty, and sin, heal the sick or lighten the buidens of the heavy-laden. To-morrow morning the factory whistles will blow as before, and reluctant labour drag his weary limbs to work. The hungry will still hunger, and criminals still commit crime. Tho drunkard will return to his drink, the liar to. his lies, and fools to their folly. The problem of preserving the public health, of saving men's souls for .this world as well as far the next, and making their labours fruitful for thonisnlves and for their fellows, is tho, same as before. Tho troubles of society persist alike whether man walks upon the earth or rides tho winds, whether he takes bis tedious way - through the mud in • a . stage coach, or darts along paved streets at perilous speeds. The Chief Things. "Peoplo cry out for the useful education, and there is no doubt of the need. The first necessity of-a man is to have house, clothes; and food. Until these aro provided there is no time for other things. But these are not j;ho chief things. Is not the life more than meat and the body more than raiment? What is most necessary for each -.will loom large in his own eye, but tho very things that are first necessary, are not so important. Wo need houses more than.poetry; wo can get along withoutpoetry but 'twere better to bo a. poet than a carpenter. We need cooks more than books, but. 'twere better to write one good book than to. make good cakes for a lifetime .. < ' ' .-; .

"Wo caunot prosper without capitalists,'but to-live-modestly and open tho eyes of other men to better thoughts wqro. better thau:to. gather incredibio sums under one name. In a word, our country (Canada) is in soro need all tho time of railways, canals, ships, factories, mines, and harvests, and all tho men, great and small,, that direct or 'operate those enterprises; but when Timo comes in later days to pass judgment upon our deeds, ho will ask for nono of these, but will say: 'Who has taught your' people , better ways cf living? Who has taught them'better ways of thinking? Who has led them into better. . forms of government?■'W'he'rq :aro■■ your, teachers • arid 'your preachers, .your poets and ' historians, your sculptors, artists, and novelists? Who wero your reformers /and your statesmen?' In that day the first shall bo last, and the last shall be first. - Lesson of Sparta. . "Wo must not all.give ourselves to the making of money. Wo shall all perish, if we all do that. No nation can afford'to'force or allow all its citizens to follow ono line of life. The Sparrans of old had a good stock of men"to build upon, but they all became soldiers.' Today there is nothing left of Sparta but tho ground on which she stood. She was wiped out by the warfare for which she lived; she vanquished her enemies but destroyed herself. Visit the site of her greatness and you find no noblo ruin Jto delight the eye, no. broken statuo to tell of perished skill, and no works of utility to increase-the ease of life. "Search our libraries and you will find no poets-from Sparta, uo philosopher, not even an historian to record her own futile victories. Search licr records as preserved by other races and you find a dearth of statesmen and patriots ■ whose plans wero illuminated by personal meanness and narrow racialism. What, then, became of poet and artist, philosopher and statesman? Wero no babes them royal born by right divine? Without doubt; but air better things were crushed out because there was but one thing held in honour among them. A nation cannot afford to follow ono path.of lifo alone. In Sparta there was 110 vision, and the people perished. , • Got Vision. "Wo must have men in all walks of life" who have been trained in those things that givo. a man the long view over the. course that tho human race has traversed in arriving whero it is. Every man who gets into . public life without this long view is a menace to our-prosperity, and to the future of our country. Any man who enters public life out of professional or mercantile life, if he did not get his vision hefbro he entered that life, is not likely to acquire it. Men are not born with it; it is not obtained by willingness to have it; it is. non-transferable. You can acquire it only by patient study at a certain time of life. It comes only to those who will to have it, only to those

.who diligently seek it, and yet it comes only during- leisure. A busy man is taken up with small matters. Busy people have-no vision. Vision is the child of leisure."