“ET TU BRUTE!”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1046, 9 August 1930, Page 8

“ET TU BRUTE!”

THE QUIET CORNER.

(Written /or THE SUN by the REV. C. W. 'CHANDLER.) “ \WD you. Brutus!” These three words which heralded, the death of Caesar have become, -for all time, the plaintive cry of unrequited friendship. -Ingratitude more strong than traitors' bonds quite vanquished him: then burst his mighty heart.” Ingratitude, just like a serpent’s sting, poisons the well-spring of love and affection, and turns the kindliest hearts to steel. -Thank you ” arc almost the first words we learn to say, and yet they are the easiest forgotten. The average social worker knows only too well how few there are, of those who come for succour, who ever return to say -Thank, you ” and because of this, theirs is a thankless business. And yet what more dare we expect, remembering that only one of those lepers, out of the ten who were healed, returned to thank the Carpenter, “and he was a Samaritan.” s For all that, the ungrateful ones are the principal sufferers. All thoughts, whether of love or ingratitude, like boomerangs, return to the sender, and nothing chokes the avenue of supply quicker than the dead leaves of forgotten favours. As ancient philosophers tried to reduce the world to one primal, common substance, such as air, earth, fire or water, so ingratitude might be cited as the father of all personal failure, and the principal disrupter of hearts and of homes. NEXT WEEK: “GRASPING A NETTLE.”