RANDOM REMARKS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 201, 21 October 1909, Page 5

RANDOM REMARKS.

Ours is » fanny world. This trite remark is usually followed by the statement that peculiarities attach not to the world bat to the people in it. With this view 1 beg to differ. Maokind is commonly understandable, and may be divided into types, the existence of bright exceptions only serving to prove tbe role. Such an exception is i»y friend Brown. 1 may here remark that Brown does not agree with me regarding tbe world. To him the human element means nothing tot enigma, while the terrestrial, according tc Brown, is as an open book, which he who theorises may read at pleasure. On the eminent authority of Clement Wragge, and other noted scientists, the earth is hot a unit among myriads of similar stems afloat in space. Obviously space is somewhat extensive, but mere sirs never I daunts my friend, who ha< a highly ingenious method of adapting himself to circumstances. The method consists of imagining a new set of circumstances to suit any knotty problem with which he may be confronted. The solution is then easy.

The near approach of tbe planet Mars to the earth was an incident which fed Brown's imagination, and gave him infinite pleasure to theorise upon. His cogitations led him to the belief that the scientific world had made a tremendous blunder in estimating th? distance which separates the terrestrial bodies. He excused the seentists for falling into the error, by inferring that nobody but a Brown could have discovered it. His theory is that the distances between the planets have been enormously exaggerated. Scientists have been computing distances according to earthly conditions, but as atmospheric changes may be accountable for anything as distance increases Brown feels convinced that Mars, and Mercury, Venus, and all the other constellations, visible and invisible, are almost within kicking distance of us. My friend's attitude of mind has made me extremely uneasy, not on his account but on my own. Without the recent improvements in aviation Brown's conjectures on the subject woold not matter. As things ore he is living in a state of simmering excitement, and has switched his attention for the time being on to airships.

His intention is obvious. Hp mrans to purchase, construct, or steal an airship of some description, and explore *pace. Armed with a theory and a prismatic compass Brown is just the sort of man to set a course for Mars, and sos»r into the infinite. With Brown theory becomes fact after a short time; with his friends it becomes nightmare. Imagining as* he does that a trip to a sister planet is merely a matter of a few days he is the sort of man who would start with a few days food supplies, a footwarmer, and a friend, and expect to return with nothing more than a sharpened appetite, and an increased self satisfaction. As I remaaked my uneasiness does not altogether concern Brown himself. Its chief centre lies in the friend. Brown would expect me to accompany him. He would take possession of me more completely than the land agent did the Paemako settler. I should beg to be excused, but trifles like that would not deter J3 row r. He would think out his scheme, and having included me in his itinerary nothing on earth would sidetrack him. Therefore, I tremble and subscribe with melancholy to the remark that a | little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and an imagination is criminal.