PRINCIPLE OF PERMANENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 September 1939, Page 6

PRINCIPLE OF PERMANENCE

NATURE FOREVER RENEWS.

In times of grave public anxiety, after the tempest and destruction of universal war, after the expectation'of further destruction and tempest, it is of high value to consider permanence, or what maySbc calledt the “Permanency of Impermanence,” writes Mr Hilaire Belloc. It is not only a consolation, but a strength; a strength through the contemplation of a great reality and a steadfast truth. For though you may not affirm of any one thing in the mortal world that it is permanent yet you may affirm of Permanency itself that it is permanent. You may repeat to yourself with confidence that lhe principle of permanence underlies all vicissitude. So when wo say to ourselves, “When shall wo see again the immemorial hills, the deep woods, and the quiet rivers undisturbed? When shall we again know Europe?” we are not asking a question in vain. There is a restoration, and lost things return. The earth upon which these human changes pass with such consuming violence has in itself a rhythm which endures and thoroughly belittles the accidents of excess. The sowing and the harvest, the new green and then the fall of leaves, the rising of a generation, its passing and its renewal and out beyond all these the solemn circling of the Heavens —those are a foundation for the mind. Not that even these are eternal, but that they are in tune with the Eternal and a promise thereof.