PUBLIC OPINION.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 April 1927, Page 3

PUBLIC OPINION.

I A SOLDIER ON MARRIAGE. " Prince Albert said to Colonel j)upiat when the latter told him he was going to he married, ‘You are about to I be an honest man.’ A man who is not | married cannot know his faults. A I mail’s wife is his faithful lookingglass. She will tell him his faults. Some men who have sisters may know themselves, but it is rare ; therefore i say to you (as I bare said before) —- .Marry! Till a man is married lie is a selfish fellow, however be may wisii not to be so. Remember that by marrying you arc r.o longer free for quixotic ex; - Pio us. You are bound to consider \o; better half. Nothing is more selli-li than a married man seeking adventures which his wife cannot partake in. To one aged and having! gone through much trouble, it seems that to marry in this way is the best thing a man should do, and it is one which I recommend all my friends to do. You say. ' Why do not you follow your own advice!-'’ I reply, • Because I know myself sufficiently to know 1 could make no woman happy.’ ”—General Gordon in a letter to a friend. THE BEST KIND OF ART. ” 'lucre is a kind of art which only comes into being because of the pleasure which the artist lias got from other works of art. In producing It he tries to revive or prolong that pleasure. That is imitative art. which Unworld forgets. Again, there is art. more original, which tries to prolong in expression some pleasures of real life. And there is art which tries to gtv<\ the same kind of pleasure to the audience or spectators. To both posterity is sometimes indulgent, sometimes contemptuous. It reserves its respect for the art which, whatever its subject may be. is the result of a desire neither to give pleasure, nor to experience it. neither to edify nor to instruct, but only to express in terms of beauty.”— The late .Mr. Glutton Brock in “Essays on Literature and Life.” “ONCE UPON A TIME.” “ The fairytale lias preserved a middle region of imagination or fancy (as wo will) that has been common, in time or mood, to all humanity. Whatever the picturesque accidentals of race, climate and period, the inherited form is the same beneath the external variety. It is a world of wonderful . happenings that is always at hand. - wonderful because neither heroic awe , nor respectful obligations are concern- j ed : at hand, because familiarity is tie- , prived of its appearance. Into such < agreeable regions of simple and con- , crete idea we are borne by a tradi- , tional phrase that is equivalent in ’ every language; the potty magic ol (

• Once Unon a Time ’ may still free Ihe willing for 11 random enterprise of pleasure without consequence.”—A writer in the “ Times Literary Supplement.”

THE RELIGION OF “ MORE THAN SELF.”

“ "Whenever a man discovers something greater than himself, and in sclflorgetting services gives his life to if. there religion has struck in its roots. There is such a thing as tho 1 religion of science,’ where men at all costs and hazards live for the love ol truth. Knowing, as I do. some churchmen, formally religious hut really undevoteii to anything greater than themselves, and some scientists formally irreligious hut devoted with all their hearts to the love of light, f have no doubt what the judgment of the .Most High would he. He who faithfully serves the Ahne-than-Self lias, in so far, found religion. So there is a religion of art in which men give their lives to beauty as Ghiberti spent laborious years upon the bronze lienors of the Moroniine Baptistery that Alichelangelo called the Gates of Paradise ; and there is a religion of human service where men count others better than themselves and live for the sake of generations yet tinhorn. The Over-Soul appears to men in many different lorms and claims allegiance.”—l)r Fosdick. in “ Adventurous Religion.” “A LEAGUE OF RELIGIONS." “A League of Religions does not imply the equality of worth of tho constituent units But it does imply common aims, and co-operation in securing them. All religions have the same aim in furthering righteousness, in establishing justice and promoting gentleness, in advancing the cause of peace and brotherhood. All the religions strive to make their followers nobler, saner, wiser, more loving, better. Here is a great task they have all in eo'mrmm. To ‘emphasise this common end is to bring the peoples of the earth together. To emphasise the paints of difference is to divide and set people against each other. While the various religions stress some special aspect of God’ truth, and the various..seels within each religion help to extend and enrich its content, the peace of the world depends upon a recognition that the beauty of truth illustrated by every religion is not competitive (but eoulederate. Pho Garden of God lias a variety of blossoms, and though one may prefer roses, lie would he unwise to deir loveliness to the lily.”—-Rev. J. T.vcsul Davies in a preface to “A League of Religions.” THE ART AND SCIENCE OF WAITING. “Wailing requires more energy than action itself. In order to wait well one must be eager to do, and, at the same time, possess the power to curb that eagerness. There is a tremendous expenditure, here of emotion —in tho wide ends of that word. Those modern instruments which record the ‘flaw’ or emotion reveal the fact that not doing trilbies tlie deeiis of character more than doing. In. other words, waiting is more than a ‘game’ ; it is an art and. a science, a discipline of body and mind which very few ever acquire.”—The medical correspondent of the “Times’ Trade and Engineering Supplement.”

THE SIGN OF THE TIMES. “The promulgation of the terms of a new and permissive Book of Common Prayer to supplement, not to supplant, the forms included in the Act of 1662, is an event of the highest possible importance to the Established Church and of great signficance as a sign ol our times. It bears witness alike to the sense at last that men are really not to he coerced all to follow one pattern in their religions rites, and to the need for adapting the language of our devotion to modern sentiment and modern knowledge. The concession tiiat variety is repaired is especially welcome to us whose fathers in the faith suffered, and suffered deeply, rather than submit ti a. prelatieally imposed uniformity i’their way of worship. Times change, and bishops, it is evident change, with them, and now the whole Anglican Episcopate join in recommending alternative forms for the use of the faith ful.’’ The •‘Christian World.” THE BRITISH “MENACE.” “There can he little doubt that our rapidly-growing strength in modern cruisers has alarmed the American naval authorities, who have l>een industriously engaged in alarming the Amei'jica.n people and in preparing plans for meeting and overwhelming British ‘menace.’ There can be less doubt that with her enormous material

resources, and boundless wealth, America, if she chose, could heat every nation on earth to a frazzle, Britain included, in the development of naval power. It is in every way our national interest, as it is a universal interest, that we should cry off that- hopeless and disastrous race before it begins. The American naval men have issued the warning; the American President has offered us the peaceful (and the cheap) alternative. There may be differences of opinion as to the best means of making his plan practicable; there should lie no difference of opinion among men of sense and good-will as to the necessity of trying to make it practicable.”—“Daily News.”