PUBLIC OPINION.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 June 1928, Page 1

PUBLIC OPINION.

DAY-DREAMING. “ Like most other pleasant things in this world, there are disadvantages attached to day-dreaming; and not the least of theso is the fact that by frequent indulgence m it one tends to lose entirely the power to act at all. The mind gets so easily into the habit of dissipating down this particular channel the energy derived from emotion that it does so at length automatically, and the urge to act is never felt at all. The world is filled with people suffering from the noblest aspirations ; they mean so well to mankind that merely to talk to them is to be uplifted. But their conduct is strangely ineffective. They join each and every society for the betterment of the world, but they rarely attend the meetings, and the world remains much as it was. For they themselves live in a world of dreams, where to wish for a thing is to have it; but in this world their wishes are still-born, for they never emerge as action at all. Never waste your emotions, then. If you are conscious, however momentarily, of an urge to do good in the world, put it. into effect at once.”—Dr. Harold Dearden in the “Daily Chronicle. ’ ON BEING ALIVE. “ If there is any living man who can say, in the face of the living world around him, that ho does not believe in the irresistible, enabling, marvellous certainty of Life, lie can be left to bis own devices,” writes Mr. Bobert Kenble, the novelist, in probably the last article lie ever wrote, which appears in the “Atlantic Monthly.” “It does not in the least matter that Life is inexplicable and incomprehensible. The act is that, the more a man is alive, the" more he knows that lie’s alive. The more he thinks and' reads, the more lie is struck by the achievements of Life on the earth. The higher he lifts his head and the clearer he looks out on things as they are, the more is he conscious of the miraculous powers within him. The baby in the cradle always has seemed to those standing by to be in the possession of wonderful possibilites possibly an Alexander the Great or a .Julius C£o- - But what of the baby in the cradle to-day? It actually is possible that be may, ultimately, be conversing with intelligences in the stars, or passing through the door that Einstein has pushed ajar.”

THE GENIUS OF CHAPLIN. “ Mr Chaplin has the great gift,” writes Mr St. John Ervine in the “ Observer,” “of arousing in those who see him acting an affection which is unshakable. On more than one occasion I have attempted, without much success, to explain why this man of genius Has stepped into the regard of millions of the most diverse persons. Yet, when all the explanations are offered, the mystery remains.

Nobody knows why everybody holds that small, sensitive, solitary figure in such high esteem. He is the symbol of all our vague and, perhaps, impotent desires. . We, toof'long to be heroic and dashing and to win the lovely girl from the big, handsome fellow, by some astounding feat of strength and skill. We, too, long to break out and to upset authority, and to east the powerful people into ridiculous positions. When the fight is lost, when the lovely girl lias been captured by some other person, when the heroic act is performed by a rival, when the sensational feat turns into a ludicrous failure and instead of applause there is derision, the little man shrugs his shoulders, turns his hack on his trouble, and, slapping his leg with his cane, shuffles off on his solitary journev, in search of the satisfaction that he never will receive. And, watching him, we discover that we are looking at ourselves.”