THE DAILY MESSAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 October 1928, Page 1

THE DAILY MESSAGE

THE LAUGHTER OF A LITTLE CHILD. Music is the very pinnacle of human achievement in the world of art. Yet there is no mvisie in the world like the laughter of a 1 title child. Every note as it sounds is like some ethereal finger rustling magically over the deep chords of our being, finding it own. harmonics in our souls. Every cadence is like some beautiful whisper in our ears, telling us that the laughter of a little child is the imperishable symbol of the ultimate good of all Nature’s children. Life sometimes kills the laugh ot her grown-up children all too soon. Many of us have lost our laugh somewhere in the dark folds of Liie. Life, could not take from us anything half so precious. 'Life itself is not hard to surrender when Life has robbed us of our laugh. Laughing helps us wonderfully on our little daily journeys, and on our journey through life. “ A merry heart goes all the day; your sad tires in a mile,” says Shakespeare.. So let us treasure our laugh: it is a precious possession. Laughing lightens our burdens—shortens our journey—sweetens our tempers—strengthens our powers. If we have lost it, Jet us find it again. But if we go out after our lost laugh we need to be sure that we get hack the laugh we have losWthe laugh of the little child—who once was ourselves. Do not let us come hack with .the laugh of the cynic, which curses the man who finds it and chills the hearts of those who hear it. Such is the laugh of Mepliistoplieles, who, when he. sees Faust .yielding, sends out his triumphant, sardonic, mirthless Ha ! Ha ! That is the laugh of the lost soul. Better never to find your laugh than to find the laugh of the cynic, which blights and withers. Find your old laugh—with the music in it. 'lt levels things it promotes understanding;’ it cements friendship; it is power. —il. PRESTON STANLEY.