THE "SIMPLE LIFE" 2000 YEARS AGO

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 105, 24 April 1908, Page 4

THE "SIMPLE LIFE" 2000 YEARS AGO

TKEASIKES FKUM A KUJiIUSU 11KA1\ ANCIENT INVITATION*. SaUME WONDERFUL FOUND IN EGYPTturned from Egyptj has given a iepie tentative of the Daily Mai' details of the wonderful papyri, which, with Dr. Hunt, lie recently discovered in the rubbish mounds at Oxyrhyiiciius. These papyri form a veritable library which rudely shocks those who fondlv pride themselves on the twentiethcentury advance along Die path of progress. One of tliese MSS-, of which J)r. tli'enIfell supplies the date as the second century runs: ('haeremon invites you to diin* with , him at the table of the Lord Serapis in the Serapem to-morrow, which is the loth of the month, at nine o'clock {about three o'clock in the afternoon), lletwan that and the present-day invitation" there is little dill'creiice, except that perhaps 1,800 years ago the host used no unnecessary words. Here is another translation ot' a missive which might have been found any time these eighteen hundred years, * singularly direct invitation to ii wedding;— TTerais invites von to dim- with her at the marriage of her children in her house to-morrow, which is ihe ; sth, at nine o'clock (3 p.m.). So that tlie common custom of wedding* at the residency 0 f the bride is discovered to be otherwise than up In date, hut the " wedding breakfast " in the Nubian desert, was a dinner. l»ut these extraordinary finds contain nothing quite so remarkable as U,e irrefutable evidence that the Simple Life movement was advocated 2000 years ago. and that to-day its disciples'are only reflecting tbe sentiment of one of Pindar's odes, which, at the hands of DrS. Oenfell and Hunt, is now laid bare. This MP. ja }l poem written for the people of Ocos. which was celebrated as the home of athletes and poets. The central idea of the poem is the virtue of tic mntcntinent with a simple life lik.-* that ot the fVan- in their roc';'.* i-lnnd. Th<- payni- tran-lated I'm* me to-da run-:

\ erily. thougli I live on a rock. ] am known for in Jlellenic coiite.-ls, and known tor somv display of the Mu-o'- art: verilv. tiH». my a<-re> bear r, measure of liacchus's litV-giving cure in extreiii'ty. I have not. horses nor nor share in the pa<tnrage of kin"; but neither would Meiampns leav:hi- fntherhmd t#» lord it in Argos. 'T'lie ' ilv and comrades of a man's home and hi- kin>men are dear aiid bring content"icnl. In happines- remote front foo. i-h men | prai-c the wi-c lord En\;ui tin-, who wln-n hi- fellows were eager l'lll-ed to 111 fe (ir lake the -c\etllll -hare of a hundred cities along v\ith t!i-

-on, of Pa-iphae. and he '-pak,- |o tiiein a prophecy: "Then •-hall I. in puisii'i of wealth and thru-ling aside into u'lei' neglect the decree of the ble-sed one- t»f our country, have el-evvlierc in great po--e—inn V How would tlii- Im-

-eeii re I o mi''! Dwell not. in \ heart, on the cypres- grove, dwell not in the pa--l lire of Ida! To little is given, a mere -limb of oak. but I have no lut. : I rouble oj- -1 l ife.*'