PAYING THE PRICE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2815, 26 February 1908, Page 73

PAYING THE PRICE.

It is only things that we don't want ■which life offers to us " dirt cheap." The things that we truly long for in life as well- as in the shop windows are usually dear. ■ More frequently still too dear for our' purse, which, is, perhaps, one- reason, .why we dio so truly long for them.

But our morals are better in buying at sales than in bargaining with life, which, after' all, does not' say much for us;'indeed, it is the conspicuous immortality of our dealing with the huckster Circumstance which has recently struck me so forcibly. We are willing to take all we can get of pleasure, advancement, reputation, popularity, all the many-colonired glittering goods which the huckster Circumstance sells for his inexorable master, Time. But, after we have beaten him down to his lowest limit, we don't want ,to piay the price. "We may be- as honest ] as the day in commercial morality, pay our personal or household account! with a promptness absolutely disconcerting to cur tradesman — -who -would probably much, 'prefer our 1 remaining less punctual in payment and less Tigid in expenditure, — and ,yet in our relations with life may assume- the- sole of shameless swindlers. v ' " livery man has his price," said a great cynic' So every ■ pleasure and every possession' has its ethical price, and it is because we do not or cannot realise this that we rage against the inequalities and unfairness of Kfe. If the rich paid the ethical price of their riches, fulfilled the responsibilities?-,, performed the kindnesses, shared the blessings and carried out the duties that should be the price of "their wealth, no one would grudge them their riches, — there' would be no talk .of Socialism. It is because the rich people are usually as loth to pay the price •of their wealth as ' you and 1 I to pay .the price of our happiness that riches are hateful and Socialism is rampant. For everything that we > gain there is something that we must lose : if we receive witb one hand we must relinquish with the other* It is when we try to possess the shadow as well as the substance that we lose both. Life is -an inexorable creditor : we must pay ihim every penny that we owe, and the longer the debt runs, the mote interest te added unto it, until the original debt itself is hidden, and perhaps even forgotten under the cent, per cent, accumulations of interest. The irresponsible pleasures, of childhood are the treasures we must relinquish for the keen, delights of youth. One joy for another, but not both together. The freedom of girlhood" is the price to be paid for the duties and dignities of wifehood : the sovereignty of i the bride for the selfless devotion of the mother. So the years close roundjis, and always Circumstance- is beside us offering her. wares; .the- freedom of the girl, j the position of the wife, the joy of the mother'; and for each there is the price to j nay. Let the shield glitter as it will in the sun, it must have its reverse side, dark j in the shadow; let the roses be wine red or waxen white, they must be set about ;with thorns. Into each life some rain must fall, Some days be dark »nd dreary. If we could but make up our minds to surrender as willingly as we receive eagerly, we should fare better, be happier, \ more noble, more contented. But 'how- ! ever much we gain, we never want to lose anything; we do not even bring onr , Common sense to bear upon our attitude to life, its purchases, and payments. What we lose in tightheartedness^we gain in sympathy, what we gain in experience we fese in simplicity, what we lose in innocence- we gain in charity. Always the balance » kept, however bur tears may fall; always, we must pay the price, howeves unwittingly,, for life is inexorable and forces, us to be> honest whether we will of not. Soar is it of any, avail to plead the "seduction of those lovely manjr-hued 'wares of pleasure, passionr, <ar ajnbitdan with whichr Circumstance tempted vta to 'run int6 debEj. ~o*' {^"inge*"- either our •nonesC tenQrance~ or * excfeßarit ' intention, Whatever debt we-oW ±& Kfe. w-fm»t , pay the price to- the uttermost rarfmng, j With- oar- accomplishments as with: onr emotioiiß^^. with 'our education and; cnftuxß as with our ethical advance, we must pay the price for every good thing tbabwe gam. Even though we- may have worked . fwjnestly-and unsparingly, for it, tffiafc fa i tot the end of the matter: it is only tltej

material part of tie transaction. Behind it lies tthe spiritual gain and loesi thud the keener and truer the ear for music, the greater the pain, in the too delicately detected discords. Where the Robust <sen& of the ordinary indiviaual IS joyously gratified by & band performance, an orchestral faumber ? a touching solo, a vocal trio the maestro will suffer a thousand pangs of absolute pain or delj.cate discomfort in the imperfections his finely trained musical sense enables him to discover. He is paying the price of his own gifts or achievements.

The fuller and richer the sense of colour, the greater and ' more satisfying that pageant of tEe year which Nature offers to us. But There is always the "but," always the price to pay, and the appreciation of joys of colour which Nature unceasingly and unsparingly offers us by sea and shore, by sun-steeped plain and the solemn remoteness of the everlasting hills, is paid for by the jarring discords of our own creation that greet us on every side in town and city. For every house beautiful within and without, in harmony or in contrast, how many there are where colour is either "an affront, a pain, or a mere negation. For every woman who has chosen the 6hade of her gown and the scheme of iber hat wisely and well, how many there are who are mere caricatures of what they might be. All these things, as well, as, perhaps, living with wall papers- that you hale, and pictures that you despise, and carpets or curtains that you vrould secretly like to burn, are the price to- be paid by those who worship

colour. And it must be remembered that in whatever direction we are educated to the point of capable criticism, we must pay the price of our pleasure every day as it were in cash payments. Therefore our only hope of striking a satisfactory balance between what we gain and the price we pay for it^is. never to appreciate what we gain at its highest "value and what we pay at its lowest. If. we live on a hilltop, yre need not grumble at the price of panting up to it, "even if we> are stout and stiff, for we cannot get something for - nothing. If we choose the easy indolence of the valley, then let its ease console us for its drifting mists and narrow horizoa-; by the eternal sea, pay cheerfully the toll of troubled 1 nights set to the thunderous war of the surf; inland, set the spirit free to sun itself in the freedom of boundless solitude and silence. The little house will be limited, and the big house lonely, the house without a garden lack charm, and! the house with too large a garden spell hard work, for everything has its price, and it is "in paying ibe price cheerfully, sensibly, and courageously that we show ourselves women, not whimperers. Yet all the same I admit it is. these little "cash payments' 1 which life exacts from, us that tax the purse of moral Courage. Since, however, they are inevitable, the wise thing to do ie, so far as we can, to count the cost of our plans and decisions before we make them. Try to .realise what existing; pleasures, or benefits, or conditions we are willing to give up in order to grasp- the new desire of life, which— far oft— stones through. \ rosecoloured nrisfc.

If, however 1 , "weiiare made our "bargain Irrevoteably> and found it a, bad bargain, w« shall* probably- find-, on honest investigation, either that it might have beea worse, or thai there are gome advantages about fb -which we; shall -■ first have to maka tk j>h» bnslnes* of our- fives v> develop, fca «ay- case ife j* n* good trying to escape tie prica of the bargain. . Good or baa we have fo abide by* it, either y$ have paid fpr |£, cst we use paying 1 fox ii, and fi>r o&r own vajsp we ahaJi he Ms? if wj| tak#. £$ faartT tn« mrsffl of »$

old ooater song, % rambling but cheerful melody, having for its chorusr— Those will be always most 'appy As takes all their ups with their downs. It may be that with the best intentions in the world we go through life making bad bargains, and if so wo may be pretty sure that ?■ fair share of the blame lies with ourselves. Perhaps we have been drifting round at sales and oumbering ourselves with rubbish we did not really want — second-hand love, flashy friendships, cheap popularity, social shams, — all becaiise they were bargains. What we want to do is to look life fairly and squarely in the face, find out what we really want from it, and, counting the cost beforehand, make our bargain with Circumstance, and "pay the price" womanfully.