THE DISLOCATION OF HUMILITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 August 1916, Page 6

THE DISLOCATION OF HUMILITY.

To the Editor. • Sir, —The greatest evil from which religion and civilisation suffer to-day is that, under the influence of Germanmade religion, men have transferred "humility" from the region of the "will," where it should be, to the region of tlie ''intellect," where it should not he. The writer in to-day's News who heads his letter with the -legend. "Christian Humility," is suffering badly from this disease; he is really proud with the pride that apes humility, while the humility which he apes is not Christian but Satanic. Men should have clear convictions on religion, on patriotism, on vital things, and so do justice to their God-like reason. Into this region humility must never be allowed' an entrance; for a man without firm convictions is not a man at all, but a. sport for every wind tlhat blows. Men may doubt and be humble only about their efforts to realise their convictions, and thus keep humility at home in the region of the "will." A man, for example, who doubts about the existence of heaven is not a humble man, but an ignorant one, A man who, believing in heaven, is afraid of his own power to reach it, is a really humble man; 'he keeps humility in its own sphere. In this respect your second correspondent, "Another Irishman," hits nearer the mark. His convictions, his intellectual grasps are rigtht; he has no doubts or .fears about them; he doubts only that we in far New Zealand can contribute very much to the speedy realisation of these convictions. That is to say, his doubts are not in the intellect where they should not be, hut in the will, where they should be. He is just the opposito of your first correspondent. Now, a man who realises the justice of the cause and the weakness of this own efforts, will strive to strengthen his poor, weak will; and, therefore, I would urge "Another Irishman" to take heart of greace—"nil desperandum"—to do what is in 'his power, his little bit, as they say, small though it may be, in the high and holy cause of the Fatherland. Let him be encouraged by the word's spoken by Sir James Carroll in Dublin last week—that it is the free dominions of the Empire that will give freedom to Ireland. Let him join with his fellow countrymen all the world over, and, with their millions of loyal English friends in a long pull, a strong pull, a pull all together, instead of letting his praiseworthy liumility resolve itself into that degrading cowardice which urges him to leave the entire work in the hands of Asquith, Gebrge and Redmond. No nation was ever -built except by the united labor of its sons, and this is why I am ashamed of the advice of "Another Irishman," cowardly, but not humble. Your correspondent who thinks that the words "English Huns" and the phrase "The English are Huns" are synonomous, does not know the use of words. My critics must not attach their own absurd interpretations to my words, thu9 making a, man of straw to tumble about at their pleasure. Such foolish pleasure makes them supremely ridiculous. If I have to point out this folly, they must uot accuse me of undue severity; this would make them contemptible as well as ridiculous. When I say that "German vandals" destroyed treasures of art, learning and religion in Louvain, I am very far from meaning that all or any largo portion of the German are vandals. Similarly, when I say that it was "English Huns" who reduced to ashes the finest street in all the world, I do not mean that all the English or any great proportion of them arc Huns. I have far too much respect for the great majority of English people who have, all the world over, as well as in England, joined hands with the Irish people in a united effort to right the wrongs of Ireland. My words referred to the ex-hero of Egypt and his bloodthirsty men whose Hunnism is now being, exposed before the -Dublin Commission, and whose swift and speedy degradation and punishment will restore to England the honoir they have cost her. —I am, etc., IP. J. POWER. Hawera, August 25.