ON PILGRIMAGES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1014, 2 January 1911, Page 6

ON PILGRIMAGES.

~ ANCIENT AND MODERN. AGAINST "FRIGID PHILOSOPHY." (By J.Q.X.) ■ If wo who are now planning our summer'holidays had been born a few hundred-, years ago or a few thousand miles away,; wo should not bo inquiring about the jnost comfortable hotels, the most picturesque camping grounds, or the most delightful steamer excursions. We should be trying, to. ascertain what shrine, what eacred stream or mountain, .would : be mostTefficacious' for the health not of our bodies only, but of our ,souls. Instead of to'urists, .we; should .be pilgrims! In6t«ad.;.of a pastiniCj we. should have a vocation. : So A far as our own race is concerned, : the great age'.of the pilgrims is past. 'Hindus still 'flock in their millions to wash";'in ;tho' sacred • Ganges. Moslems ■ repair, to Mecca, in'such' numbers as to railways, across tho desert payable.' ißut it is not to bo thought that pit"grimages.to the Holy SepuicHre will. ever, again; be a sufficient cause to' move all Christendom to war. ' ■ J • "And yet. the pilgrim idea is'not dead. It is';6v<n perha'ps regaining, under new . forms; something of its old. power. The Protestant Reformation, the Puritan Revolution, the philosophy of the eighteenth ceintiiry suppressed, but, could not de- : Etroy,; the ancient, feeling that there aro places'. where the sanctity, the .wisdom, >and the heroism of the immortal dead ■have-given virtue to certain clods and stones'; It -was ostensibly to satisfy a "reasonable curiosity" that Johnson and Boswell set out for . the' Hebrides, but. ,the tour, ; at its' cUmax, became a pilgrimage. . i . "When we had landed upon the ". 6acred'place which, as . long, as I can remember,'.l;had.- thought,..on • with'i veneration, Dr. Johnson and I cordi- . ally embraced. We had, long tallied ' of-yWtffig^J^lmWll,."'.'?;^ l ;'; - ! •-■ ; Boswell goes' on to quote from Johnion's "Journey,"-the famous passage beginning, : • "We .NVe're 'now 'treading that , illus-. ■ • trious island, which was .once tho luminary of the Caledonian regions, • whence, savage clans and roving bar:;barians 'derived the'benefits 'of kiiow- ' ledge 'and'-' the . blessings "of . religion." ' . ''Had' our tour" produced nothing else I but this; sublime. passage," says, Boswell,' ".Ike world must havo -acknowledged; that it'« ttas not made- in vain." - :The principal reason why the passage in question made '•sjjdcep. an impression,- on.4Uo minds, of '• Eir Joseph Banks (the "respectable president of the Royal Society"), Monboddo ; (that learned lord), Boswell himself; 'and' their contemporaries, must-have been that . in it a deep instinctive. feeling surges ' up - in' protest; against; tho: conventional thought of the time.' Thus": _ • v. : :-"Far.'from me,- and- from" iy friends,' • be; such frigid philosophy-,as may con- , .' duct-us indifferept and unmoved , ; any. grouiid. whiclL.'has'-been'. dignified'' '. by msdok;''bHix^;'to y 'tfi'tn& "'Tluit ' man is littlo to. be envied whoso patriotism would not gain forcc-upon the ; plain of., Marathon, ; or,. .whoso I'.- ;piety would not 'grow warmer among the ruins of lona.'' .- »

VI doubt not that those who visit lona, to-day find more commodious lodging t-hap the'.large barn' ( with ;its;-'good .hay where Johnson, Boswell/'and 'the" chief 'of the M'Lcans, passed' the. night. , They, were pioneers 'of modern' ' pilgrimage. ' Tho ; "frigid philosophy" from which they,were baray escaping troubles nobody nowadays, and ■ every - traveller . who . can give his journey some savour, of pilgrimage,-openly or secretly, is glad to do ..so.'.' . V' And. what a value it gives to an exoirflf l donJi How comparatively, poor .a, thing,: would,.bo Mr. Bclloc's "Path to.'Bjnp;, y, if it were, merely..ji' narrative of . a'walk-, ing.tour in .France,;- Switzerland, and Italy.''-For my. own humble part, -I-re-' call oftener than any other of my-many solitary walks in England,;-that pilgrimage I-made, one Easter:,time,to Strajford-. on-Avon. Beginning with-a; few: surreptitious: miles by . train, (for ...while, I-.;knew that your.true pilgrimage must'be done, afoot, I had but-a . day. for the endeavour), I tramped from breakfast time .till , after , dark , along brows "of- Cotswold' and : down through ancient. Chipping Campden to where -the "m'oon-touched. river whispered .in rhyme beside the church that holds' that honoured . dust.' Every. rnilo of the road, every hill and i.tree seemed -to gain- something ,from ".the- , circumstance that I saw it on my" way to ' Shakespeare's - shrine. ;Of course,-; I knew very, well,that piib imay-learn'more of Shakespeare by reading the plate than' by going ,to Stratford, and yet' I nfoke .bold to say that the event would, fjive , repaid-a far more'toilsome;or more costlv journey. I cannot make it a theme for description,! but to, 'sit in;the .church'looking at the bust and to .stand in'tho birth-, room, not listening to the guide, were of' the things that are very well worth while. • Literary pilgrimages:havo -largely taken the place of tho old ones. ' Uir- . fortunately they mostly"ack the. sociable aspect; of-their predecessors. ;We'do not "ride in a jolly crowd, like Chaucer's Can-' terbury pilgrims, when we visit the grave of Wordsworth or Stevenson. This difference should bo a subject-for plentiful speculation. It seems that on a religious journey- people keep each' other in countenance, but on a literary journey they would .put: ehcli other out - of countenance. Tho Japanese have a spccial system, of co-operativo pilgrimages. People, who arc not well off form clubs and pay in regular subscriptions. When the funds permit one of the members chosen by lot goes off to pray at some selected 6hrine and to seo tho cherry trees in blossom, pie proccss.is repeated until all have enjoyed the-consummation-of this happy blend of religion,: holiday,' and social duty.

; In England and all old countries almost every walk may 1 be a pilgrimage. For tho longer outings there is choice ■of battlefields, birth-places,, castles, ab r beys. But to those who know their «mntryside or city tho hands of tho past reach out along every lane and highway. Here, in this "land without a past," it is different. But if we allow ourselves to complain we must also acknowledge the compensations. There is a , certain wild, . nameless charm in forests and rivers that : are unmarked by .human agencies,* and have never, furnished backgrounds for history or material for poetry.' And • this charm is denied to the lands of pilgrimage. . '■ I will finish with, a little poem which is fuUof tho spirif of the pilgrimages of our own time. It is named '"Yattendon," and tho author is Mr. Henry. Kewbolt: "Among the woods and.tillage That fringe the topmost downs, . 'All lonely lies the village, For off from seas and towns.. Yet when her own folk slumbered I heard within her street Murmur: of men unnumbered And march of myriad feet. For alb she lies so lonely, Far off from towns and seas, The village holds not only. - The roofs beneath her trees: Whilo Life is sweet and tragic, ' And Death is veiled and dumb, Hither, by singer's magic, The pilgrim world must come. ■. Messrs. Harcourt and Co., land agents, advertise in (this issue particulars of country property for sale. . New novelties for 1911 are the subject of a special annonhcementMn this .issue by Messrs. 0. Smith, Ltd.,' Cuba Street.' Particulars of. a farm for sale aro advertised in this issue by Messrs. J. Harris and Sons,-. Marton. ; •. The New Zealand loan and Mercantile Agency Co. will, hold a stock 6ale at Pahautanui on Monday, January 9. The Central Agricultural and Pastoral Association, Waipukurau, will hold its ' first annual show on the Waipukurau. Racing Club's grounds, on ;■ Wednesday, February . I.' Entries close. on January IS. Schedules may be had on application i: to the secretary. ■ . The Wellington 6ns Company' advise that , their'offices'and yard will be closed to-day,' Monday. . Messrs. Abraham and Williams v;ill hold a stock sale at Pahautnnui on Monday, January 9,