THE NEW JEREMIAH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 18 August 1909, Page 78

THE NEW JEREMIAH.

MR KIPLING'S WARNINGS.

(By H. Hamilton Fyfe, in the Bailj

When the children of Jndah heard Jere* miah lifting up his voice and warning them of the wrath to come they no doubt shrugged their shoulders and said to one another, with a contemptuous eider glance at the prophet, "At it again ! >4 Cassandra we know was regarded as & bore too, and so have been many others endowed with the prophetic* gift, whose predictions were derided as lunatic nonsense, the froth of an over-heated imagination. They rannot conceive of anything

happening to alter the state of thing; around them. "Change and decay in aJ around we see," they sing at church ; bm they do not see anything of the kind. Ai the mere suggestion that change am decay are possible they raise indignant ox amused protests against' " alarmisi exaggeration." » Everything will reman as it is always — that is what they really believe. Among such "comfortable moles," a* Matthew Arnold oaJled them, the men lion of 3£r Sapling's name is now th< signal for a shrugging of shoulders an<i a chorus of half-annoyed, half-disdainful " Ohs." "He used to be rather eood," thej say, "but he's never amusing now — al ways telling us we're coming to grief. Suppose he's developed a bad digestion. Awful place India for that, you know.' : The idea that Mr Kipling's warnings have any seriousness never esters their impervious heads. His new poem, which was published recently by the Momine Post, show* that such critickm is making his despair. In the series of jeremiads he has issued during tine last •eight years he hen never quite co sadly given up hope, neyei lashed so bitterly the tendencies which he sees driving Britain headlong to destruction. The poem consists of some 60 lines of concentrated virulence and contempt. Here is Carlyle's passionate scorn of mobrule put into swinging, biting verse. The poet tells of a people who • Ascribed sU dbrndnion to man in bis factions conferring, A,*ri have given to numbers ihe Nttjne of the Wisdom unerring. This people "chose thesneelves prophets and priests of minute understanding," and this is how they fashioned their laws: They said: ""Who has i*4e in the soul? Who has envied his neighbour? I*et him arise and control both that man and his l*bour." They said: " Who is eaten by cloth? Whose unthrift has destroyed Mm? He shall devy a tribute from all because none have employed him." They miA: "Who has toiled? Who hath. striven, and gathered possession? Icet him be spoiled. He h«thi given full proof of transgression." t••, • • p -They r»n panting in haste to lay waste and embitter for ever The wellsprings of Wisdom and Strength, which are Faith and Endeavour. They nosed out ejwi digged up and dragged forth and exposed' to derision All doctrine of purpose and worth and restraint and provision : And it ce&eed, and God granted them all tihings for which they had; striven, And the heart of «, beast in the place of » man's heart was given. ... Then, when destruction is come upon them, There was no need of a steed nor ~- lance to pursue them; It vu decreed their own deed, and not chance, srhoitJd undo them. The tares ihey had laughingly sown were ripe to the reaping,' The trust they had learned to disown was' removed from- their keeping. The caters of other men's breads the exempted from hardship, The excuaers of impotence fled, abdicatirg tbeii wardship. "For the hate they hod taught through the State brough the S-faate no defender, And it passed from the roll of the nations in headlong surrender. Here we have no new note in Mr Kipling's poetry, but only a natural development of the theme which has haunted him for a number of years. We first beard it in the noble stanzas of " Recessional " after the 1897 Jubilee. Instead of adding his voice to the chorus oi self-satisfaction which was filling the air, ha astonished the nation with a solemn, beautiful prayer for humility. j If, drunk with sight of power, we loose Wild tongues that have not Thee, in awe. j Suoh boastings as the Gentiles use, Or leaser breeds without the Law — !Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, lisst we forget — lest we forget! The South African war began, and the poet's forebodings were justified. Then fee wrote — this was in 1901 — " The Islanders," a stirring call to England to awake from her lethargy With pitiless bail of stinging jphrases he strove to goad ius countrymen Into a realisation of the rusks of their torpor and frivolity. He flung $ gibe at the "flannelled fools", and " muddied oafs " who thought cricket' and football more important than defend-! ing their country. did the worshippers at the shrine of Sport escape i Will tie rabbit war with your foemen— the f r«d deer horn them for hire? Tour kept cock-pheasant keep you?— fc* U master of many a shire. The message of "The lelanders" was plain to Tead. For a. moment it thrilled the country. Theo football and cricket «uid shooting and the other old concerns '

s ' and amusements resumed their supremacy, 1 and all went on as before, t ' About this time Mr Kipling also wrote t' "The Dykes," which told in wonderful i lilting veree of a people who neglected t the walls which kept the sea out of their t Irnd. With vivid image he described l their terroz at- the storm which j threatened to overwhelm them, and their i remorse too late at their neglect: 5 Now we can only wait till the clay, wait and apportion our sh?.nie. i These -are the dykes <rar fathers left, but we \ would not look ho tie same. \ Time and again were we warned of the s dykes, time and again we delayed: Now, it may fall, we have slain our sons as J out fathers ue have betrayed. ! In "The Lesson*' he sang a more cbeer- ] ful strain. He saw a ray of hope in the > j blow that our pride and self-satisfaction , ' received from the Boars : - We have spent two hundred million pounds ( to prove the fact once more, [ That horses are quicker than men afoot, since i two and two make four: And horses have four legs, and men have two legs, and two into four goes twice, ! s And noUurg over except our lesson — sand v-ery ; 5 ( cheap at the price. i ■ l Hho effects of the lesson Mr Kipling i 1 haped to see upon all the " oWe, un- " challenged old things that stifle and over- 1 ' lie us." From his latest utterances he ■ seems to have come to the conclusion ', that our lesson has not done us any last- : ing good after all. The Man v whom he ' looked for in "Things and the Man" j (1904) has not appeared. Mr Kipling has < '• a-11 Carlyle's *>elief in the Hero, in the 1 one strong individual soul that shapes the \ I destiny of a people. Thrones, Powers, Dominions block the view ' s With episodes* and underlings The meek Historian deems them true, | Nor heeds the sone that Clio sings— The simple central Truth tibat stings j The mob t( boo, the'priest to ban: Things never yet created things — j 'Once on a tiru'a there was a man. : But the Hero has not arisen. Instead, ? w© have rules "of minute understanding," j i " forsworn in party-feud"; and "the; 1 cross between -canker and blight which has j { settled on England" (as Mr Kipling wrot* j s last year) has evidently in his view be- ( come more dangerous "n its extent. There is no Reformer To be his Nation's sacrifice, To turn the judgment from has T*ce. We are slipping down th© broad, easy decline which will lead to our extinction J as a great Power with an influence to exert on the fide of the angels, with a civilising tradition to plant all the world over. That is the burden of Mr Kipling's ' cry. | j How many people tiiiiik of him as a \ ! Jeremiah warning us of the slippery place ' in which we stand? Veiy law. Warno- \ I sies are short in these busy, bustling J J days. - The connection between h J .s vari- j • ous " lamentations "is forgotten. What ; shall we say of them? Are they the re- | ' suit of indigestion, physical or mental! Or do they express in i\ iaged words the thoughts and forebodings which are pass- \ ing through the wisest minds in England j and throughout the Empire to-day? No j one who has come into contact with these minds can doubt that Kipling has put into these poems of exhoration just what • they have been feeling. He is a true poet, j who cannot be content to fashion dainty ; trifles while he sees his country heading, ' as he believes, for the rocks. He has a ; i message to deliver, and he may not hold I his peace. "HARSH GIBBERISH." Mr Winston Churchill appears to have been greatly annoyed by Mr Kipling's ' poem. Speaking at f Liberal Club meetj ing Mr Churchill said: "A constitutional iesue overshadows all the other issues ol j the Budget — whether the House of Com- | mons is or is not to continue to enjoy as it has enjoyed for 250 years the supreme power "in matters of finance. There is the wail of the wealthy wastrel, j the dismal dirge of the dilapidated duke, ' and the cause of the substantial citizen, j Then there is the harsb gibberish of Mr j ' Rudyard Kipling, who is astonished when he is invited to pay for the Dreadnoughts ■ for which he j-elled. Tlve great poet oi , reality, when confronted with any issue so concrete as tine arrival of the tax- j collector, can find no words to express j his opinion" "except words which predict ! th* headlong surrender of this country (to any invaidier, however small. Mr Kipling ought to be grateful because the Government gave him an opportunity of \ writing $> poem. I could not imagine i anything more useful than Mr Kipling's '. ; poem in deterring amateur poets from plunging into bad poetry."