PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 85

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

IN PRAISE OF LITERATURE.

Last week my Chat was of a literary turn, and this a-eek I open with what might be Tegaxded as a continuation, for I am giving two or three extracts in praise of literature, particularly light literature that has become classical. I am afraid that we are becoming too mat-ter-of-fact. "Let there be plenty of imaginative literature, ami let its range be- not too narrow to 6tretch from Dante to the elder Dumas. The world of imagination is not the world

of abstraction and nonentity, as some conceive, but a world formed out of chaos by . a sense of the beauty that is in man and' the earth on which he dwells. I* is the realm of Might-be, our haven of refuge from the shortcomings and disillusions of life. It is, to quote Spenser, who knew it well, 'tihe world's sweet inn from care and wearisome turmoil.' "— J. R. Lowell. "I said there 1 was a literary art before Shakeepeare — a*n art more simple, , more childlike, and therefore .all the more adapted for young minds, but also are art. most vigorous and pure in point of style — thoroughly fitted to give its readers the first elements of taste, wihich must lie at the root of even the most complex aesthetics.

"The old fairy tale, the leger*ds and ballade. *he old chronicles of feudal war and ohivalry, the earlier moralities and mysteries — these must bo the roots of any literary education."— Charles Kingsley. "Imagination ia a pilgrim on the earth, and her horn*» is in heaven." — John Ruskin. "The highest wisdom— that of ethics — eeeme closely affiliated with poetio truth. A prosaic moral is injurious to virtue by making it rewdsive. The momonfc goorfiKSP becomes tedious and un ideal in a work of art it is not real goodness; the would-bo artist, though a very 6ain>t, has mistaicon his -form of expression. On the other hand.

extreme beauty and power in a poem or picture always carry a moral — they ara inseparable from a certain ethical standard — while vice suggests a depravity." — C. E. S tec! man. "The costly charm of the ancient tragedy, and indeed of all old literature, is tha<t the persons 'speak simply — speak as person^ who have great good 6ense without knowing it. Our admiration of the antique is not admiration of * the old, "but of the natural.

The Greeks are nor reflective, but perfect in tiheir senses and in their health, with the finest, physical organisation in the world. ' Adults acted with the simplicity and grace* of children," — R. W. Emereon. "I found that my godson had very much turned his studies for about a 'ftvelvenaonth

past into the lives and adventures of Don Bellianis of Greece, Guy of Warwick, the Seven Champions, and other historians of that age. "I could not but observe the satisfaction, the father took in the forwardness of his •on; and that these diversions might turn

to some profit, I found the boy had made remarks which might be of service to him during the course of his whole life. Be would tell you the mismanagements of John Hickatnrift, find fault with the passionate temper in Bevis of Southampton, and loved Saint tieorg© for being the champion of England ; and by this means had his thoughts insensibly moulded into the notions of discretion, virtue, and honour." — Joseph Addison. THE BIDDENIVEN MAIDEN'S FESTT-

Many of my readers saw in the Christchurch Exhibition, held in 1906-7, a series of pictures in the British Court illustrating some old' English customs. One of these quaint customs is descrSbed' in a recent educational paper. "In the long ago, when the battle of Hastings was raging," there lived in the little village of Biddenden a couple to whom were Ibor-n twins, Eliza and Mary. They became famous throughout the country for their acts of charity. When Eliza died, Mary said that as she was bora with her sister, she would die with her also, and in six hours she quietly passed away too. When' the joint will was read, it was found that the acres they had, worth tl jn £40 a year, but much_ more now, were left to provide bread and cheese for the poor of the parish -and cakes for strangers' on one day of the year— the latter for the day only, presumably. The day chosen was Easter Sunday, and during the 800 odd years the custom has been kept up, and the memory of the benevolent twins kept green. The cakes are stamped with the imiDression of these Biddenden maidi?, aaid there is a great rush for these interesting souvenirs. Pretty and quaint, isn't it?

ARE GIRLS BETTER ESSAYWRITERS THAN BOYS?

They axe, says a Home critic, but be is referring to boys and girls taught separately and by teachers ~c£ their own sex. And these are the reasons he 'gives — he is a mere man -.—". — " (1) Girls are better, taught than boys — 'their teachers are more partaking ; (2) the unhealthy devotion to games and amusements is not so prevalent; (3) the girl* has naturally, until spoilt by society, a more exact and ordinary mind than a boy ; (4) she is" more conscientious j (5) in girls' schools there is a tradition of work — in the boys' schools a tradition of play ; (6) the garl is constantly practised in written, work, and is kept much better informed than, thfl .boy on current events." I ought to have said, perhaps, that the boys and girls belo»«i to what we call secondary schools. Is this critic's estimate true of our Dominion?