THE ELECTION.
To tho Editor. Sir,—Ou tho five of an election it is good to remember Thomas Carlyle and some of his words on elections generally in his “Fast and Present”—that book which contains his entertaining and interesting history of old “Abbot Samson.” Elections were to Thomas Carlyle “the most important social feat a body of men can do. i.e., to winnow out the man that is to govern them.” “The one important social feat. Given the men a People choose, the People itself, in its exact worth and worthlessness, is given. . . . The grand summary of a man’s spiritual condition, which brings out all his herohood and insight, or all his tlunkeyhood and horneyed dimness, is this question put to him, ‘What man dost thou honour.” . . . So too of a People: for a People too, every People, speaks its choice.” Thus Thomas Carlyle, whose works are still studied (all honour to our University Senate for decreeing this) by University students of Now Zealand, but perhaps by few others of us nowadays. —I am, etc., G.F.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OTMAIL19191217.2.16.1
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Otaki Mail, 17 December 1919, Page 3
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175THE ELECTION. Otaki Mail, 17 December 1919, Page 3
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