THE ALLEGED VIRTURS OF SILENCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1928, Page 3

THE ALLEGED VIRTURS OF SILENCE.

Kor sumo obscure mi w| n proverbial philosophy and rellective h.ni combined to set silence on a pedestal, like patience on a monument, smiling, no! at grief, hut with complacent sell, satisfaction. “Silence is golden, is a handy club with which to smite alike the indiscreet chatterer and the inconvenient interrupter of yoiithtul veins’ “still waters mn deep’’ has given iniinv a man a reputation Tor wisdom which lie lias maintained by the simple process of not opening >’-i s month. Silence may be either golden or pinch-heck, and you cannot tel, which till it is broken. The mountain in labour which brought lorth a mouse has often been paralleled by most impressive silences which were absolutely barren. Maeterlinck, indeed. assures us that souls are ueig >- ed in silence as gold and silver are weighed in pure water; hut he guards himself by saying Unit be does not rely. ,• to passive silence, which is only the reflection of sleep, of death, or non-existence. But the value of the other, the active silence, cannot be gauged till it has expressed itself m word or act. and then its activity may amount to nothing.-The “Clasgow Herald.’’