AIR ANYTHING AND MR NOTHING

Evening Star, Issue 19658, 10 September 1927, Page 2

AIR ANYTHING AND MR NOTHING

Recently wo saw a story of a man who went into a registry office to get a marriage certificate, “What is your religion?” asked tho Registrar. “ Anything you like,” was the response. “’No,” retorted the Registrar, “ it must be what you like.” “Well, Just put mo down the religion that’s going.” “No, that won’t do; you must be specific.” “Well, then, I’m nothing,” responded tho candidate for marriage. We ,are reminded of Mr Pickwick. He told Snodgrass that it is always best to do what the crowd does. “ But suppose there are two crowds?” suggested Mr Snodgrass. Pickwick promptly replied; “ Shout with the largest.” And both stories recall an earlier one. In Buuyau’s ‘ Holy War ’ there is a certain character, .Mr Anything by name, who acts somewhat similarly. “ Mr Anything became a brisk man in the broil, because ho • had been true to none. He had for his malapertness one of his legs broken, and ho who did it wished it had been his neck.” Extremes meet. A common principle binds together the marriage candidate who was prepared to write himself clown religiously as Mr Nothing and Bnnyan’s Mr Anything. That common principle is the lack of purpose in life, which Mr Pickwick’s advice to Snodgrass also illustrates. And the fate which overtook Mr Anything is suggestive of what happens to such in actual life. Let us consider. * * * * In a book published some time ago by one of our acutest thinkers wo read the sense of purpose is disappearing out of this huge civilisation of ours. It might be truer to say "that men in general are not animated by any high or worthy one. Nevertheless, it is a fact that the Messrs Any things and Nothings do crowd about the doorways of existence. Take, for instance, the industrial world. What crowds there are there who have no definite end in view. They have possibly never learnt a trade of any sort. They are just men with hands who can do nothing particular and hardly anything in general, Wo know the proverb about people being Jack of all trades and master of none. We call the sailor the handy man because he is equal to • any job that offers; but lie is this because he lias made good in ono particular line or profession.' But the number of tho Mr Anythings in tho industrial world is at once pathetic and tragic. Grime statistics in America reveal that from 70 to 90 per cent, of the prisoners know no trade. Hence ono of tho main planks of the Elmira system is technical education. The Jews used to require that every boy should he taught a trade of some kind. Says the Talmud: “Learning, no matter of what kind, if unaccompanied by a trade, ends in nothing and leads to sin.” Provision ought to bo made in our educational system whereby this should be secured for the pupils. The technical association deserves support if on no other ground than this: that it is erecting one of the surest barriers against crime. A young criminal of nineteen who had served a sentence in other prisons told the superintendent of tho Elmira Reformatory, with tears in his eyes, “ If I had been taught a trade, either in my first or second imprisonment, I would never have known a third conviction for crime.” These Mr Anythings or Mr Nothings in the industrial world are the problem of the politician and the despair of the philanthropist. For their own safety, as well as that of society, they ought to be taught to do something definite with their hands or head before they are turned loose to increase the ranks of the incapables of the community. , * * * * But it is not in the industrial world only that we find these Air Anythings and Mr Nothings, Everyone must be struck by the numbers of young men and young women who just drift with tire current. They have no definite aim in life unless it be to secure a soft billet. But the only soft billet in this world is the grave. Yet nothing is more surprising than the nonchalant readiness with which youths throw up a billet when it gets a bit exacting cr encroaches too much on their . testes and pleasures. So they drift about from ono thing to another, and end usually in the ranks of tho unemployed and unemployable. A well-known circus proprietor is on record as saying that “ Australians would make tho best circus performers in the world if they would take pains. . . . You aro inclined to take things easy, you know—a little bit slack.” That applies to this dominion as well as Australia. Dr Mason, the educational expert, who paid us a visit of inspection not long ago, assessing the mentality of New Zealand children, says that “ they are easily beaten by Chinese. This is not to say their mentality is less, only lacking application. Experienced teachers say it is only with the greatest' difficulty they can be kept to their work.” This is not exactly a peculiar experience, but it is more marked among us than in older countries. So 1 it comes about that when our youths leave school they leave it often without decision of character, without any definite aim or purpose in life. Or, if they do start with ono, they are ready to abandon .it. when it demands hardness and self-denial. .* * * * This partly accounts for what is often noticed in the educational world. One is surprised to see how those who have taken distinguished places in the classrooms of the school or the college are frequently not heard of in after life; while, on the other hand, the steady, quiet, persistent plodders draw to tho front and head the column of advance. Petrarch was not far out when he said “ he who discerns is conquered by him who wills.” A wellknown writer tells us he has been indulging lately in the exhilarating sport of bowling. He has not yet achieved great success, but he has learnt a thing or two. One of these is that in rolling a bowl direction is of far more importance than velocity. Dr F. was recently bowling with him. The doctor bad rheumatism in his feet, and could Only hobble about. He had to stand still when ho sent his bowls along the green, but they'generally made their way close to the kitty. In tho next alley was Michael Muscle. He could give a swift run, with a graceful delivery, precluded by all the genuflexions that distinguish the bowler’s craft. Bub the bowls somehow did not got there. They flashed their way through “just as a bullet will make a smooth round hole in a .window pane, jrhilo a stone

thrown by an urchin will smash: it to fragments.” So it set him thinking how the steady, slow-going boys, who make no fuss and win no particular applause, but who know just what they want, and go steadily for it, finally are found in the front; while those who made a big splash at school or college often arrive nowhere. “It was because these fellows lacked a clear, definite, steady aim. They plunged through their work for the moment, but they had no thought beyond the nioment. They were rockets, brilliant and beautiful; they came down—sticks. I shall think of this the next time I am fortunate enough to have a touch of rheumatism, and I shall go to the bowling alley to make the record of the evening.” Well, perhaps. Anyhow, if we make the bowling alley co-exteu-sivo with the moral world it - bolds equally. Somebody says patience, perseverance, and sweet oil will get a snail to Jerusalem. Anyway, it will leave Messrs Anything and Nothing far in the rear. As Sir William Watson sings of a great man: But ho preserved from chance control The fortress of his 'stablisht soul lu all things sought to see the whole, Brooked no disguise, And fixed his heart upon the goal, Not on the prize. That is the only way to any success worth the name. : * $ * * Of the Mr Anythings or Mr Nothings in the religious sphere we need hardly say much. In Victor Hugo’s ‘ Ninetythree ’ there is a conversation between La Vieuville and Bois Bertholot: “ Do you believe in God, Chevalier ? ” “Yes, no, sometimes.” We suppose that is the experience of everybody who has taken life seriously. > There are times and tempers in •which one or other of these moods of faith beset us all. The danger is that we allow life to become so frivolous and shallow as to" drift about with the popular current, shout with the biggest crowds, float like dead fishes with the stream. So we arrive at the condition of Mr Nothing, who interviewed the Registrar, or of the Mr Anything whom Bunyan portrays for us. In the fate that, befell bin we have, perhaps, Bunyan’s verdict of the effect upon character of this kind of life. “He had one of his legs broken, and he who did it wished it had been his neck.” This tacking about among religious creeds, without any serious effort to anchor in any, cripples the life and makes progress impossible. “When wo lay ourselves out to flirt with all views wo fritter away our capacity for sincere and fruitful attachment to any. An impression must be persistent before it can bo the mainspring of unselfish action. If our faith changes all its perceptions into phantoms at' intervals, and holds its new perceptions with the latent suspicion that they may Ultimately come to share the same fate as the old, we shall never be found like the Master taking up a cross” for any man or cause. We shall ultimately incur the contempt even of the crowds for which we shouted. In one of Napoleon’s campaigns a spy was caught and pardoned, but when he offered to turn traitor and give information regarding tho movements of his own army Napoleon had him shot. As for their future, Dante’s vision of the ‘ Anti-Hell of the Neutrals ’ may be profitably pondered. Heaven and hell alike reject them, since they openly sided with neither. And over the; gateway that conducts to the place of confinement is the inscription: “All hope abandon ye who enter here.”