MONOTONY.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 July 1927, Page 1

MONOTONY.

Unity is saneness. When it lias gone out and taken counsel of variety, it returns to us as a union ot the two. Rut it is not in itself union: it is monotony. And here wo pause; for monotony seems to he another name for tedium. But there are two monotonies. When we do a thing for the second time we are apt to do it with less energy Ilian before. When we do it several times we put less of ourselves into it each time. Disgusted with that, we call in variety to help us out. Wo seel; relaxation after the monotone of work, recreation after the sameness of routine; but the relaxation that a sensible man seeks is another kind of work, even if it is only a game that he works at. .Monotony comes 1o those wlio either do not work or do not play hard—to the composer who has i'et his mere technique make the running for the moment, or the player who has rested on his laurels. That: is the monotony—a not “bucking up".—that wo are really afraid of, when everything seems the same because nothing is distinctive or characteristic. But the unity which is monotonous Is adi lie re nt ail’air. It is the woodman driving the axe into the same place every time, because that is the only way of felling the tree, and he means to do it. It is not, on the whole, the way of the practical, labour-saving, inventive West, hut of the contemplative East, which thinks in large spaces and times, and despises our mushroom growths, and which Ivies nearer than wo do to Nature. And monotony is the way to nature .too.—A. If. FoxStrnngwnys in “ The Observer.”