APOLOGIA NENINIS PRO LITERA SUA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5136, 21 September 1895, Page 3

APOLOGIA NENINIS PRO LITERA SUA.

" This is true taste, and whoso likes it . not ' "Is llockhead, toxcoml, puppy, fool, » and sot." From " The Man of Taste," 1 Temp: Queen Anno, ! Sib,—lf you will allow me a fow . words I will promise not to trouble you again. j I fear I am rash in pitting my "bucolic" self against a Latin scholar; i thanks to him I understand now tho meaning of Neao, though I am vory much in the dark as to what A. Church- . man means. I hope the derivation ho : gives of" Nemo" is a printor's error; [ otherwiso I fear " A Churchman " hai ; not read correctly the young friend's ; writing from which ho copied it. My youngest lad tells mo that "Mirabilo Dictu," with a big D (as "A Churchman" writes it) means "Great Scott!" I am not in > position to contradict him. Has this learned Churchman ever heard of a non s&jiiitur? If he will read over again, for the hundredth time, tlio first paragraph of his own letter (but indeed he knows it by heart) he will find a good eiamplc of one, The point of his remarks may be mathematically defined as "that which has no parts and no magnitude." " A Churchman " says I am " bucolic," This is very sovore: hut nhy not" scorbutic," or "lymphatic ?" Does he know that tlio meaning of "bucolic" is "jiastoral f" Have I unintentionally written a Pastoral Letter ? I cannot imagiuc a more peaceful and harmless word than sober-minded." Ido not believe that St Paul would have written to Titus " Young men likewise eihort to bo " ' bucolic-.' " He wrote " soberminded," i.e. "discreet," (sophroncin.) Perhaps lie thought there was a difference : he was a yery (air G reek scholar; "A Churchman" has now corrected him As a rule" bucolic" is not, synonymoui with " sober." My excessive bashfulness, Sir, made mo adopt a iiom de plume. It is not very apparent why " Nemo " should be a more objectionable signature than" A Churchman." I suppose " aliquis" would have been still worse. I left" stultus" available, as woll as n largo assortment of useful and ornamoutnl adjectives not necessarily beginning with a big D. What is his grievance P As regards a great part of his letter, I feel that I cannot answer what is unintelligible. I cannot wrestle with mist and moonshine. The club of Hercules could not brain a brainless ghost. As to his misrepresentations of what I wrote, 1 will only remind him that it is much easier to he critical than to bo accurate; and that to beg a question is not to answer it. As to "irreligious" instruction, Mr l'orke says " That plank isnot straight." I say in reply, "It must bo either straight or crooked; is it crooked ?" " A Churchman" answers me by saying "It is not heart of totara." The auswer is not strictly logical, If "A Churchman " will turn to Webster's Dictionary, he will find the word "mi-christianize" in its proper place. His own feelings towards "Nemo" will tell him there is such a word as " unchristian;" and "un-christianly" is used by Aliltoa at anyrate. " A Churchman " may havo heard of Milton, perhaps; perhaps, indeed, ho is the man who said that" Paradiso Lost" was not written by Milton, but by another man of the same name. Whilst" A Churchman " has Webster in his hand, ho might as well look out the word "hybrid;" he could not havo used a word more absurdly inappropriate to his context. I may also remark that in " bucolic," society wo do not speak of "Queen's English," as though thero were" Bishop's English," and " Churchman's English," and " Pigeon English," in addit ion. We speak of" The Queen's English;" it is true we do not all speak or write it. As a striking oiample of "A Churchman's" English as distinguished from the Queen's, everyone mustadmiro the following elegant extract" Sober- " minded seems to mo to mean bucolic"minded and to indicate a mental con- . ut ditiun in ut narrow groove of unvarying "mointony on a low level, and tho " views ot persons so minded to be of "corresponding mediocrity." Sir, this is piling up the agony. " Hero is a nice derangement of epitaphs." A bucolic mind, with an indicator, (probably a I weathercock) a mental condition, a 1 a narrow groove, anunYnrying monotony, 1 a low lovel, views of persons so minded, ' corresponding mediocrity! and all these because I said that I and some others 1 wero sober-minded. j It is nonsense to talk about insulting 1 Mr Yorke. Mr Yorke wrote a letter in tho Church Kulcndar, and I replied I to it without any discourtesy, in these 1 columns. Mr Yorke wrote what he '' thought tit. I have no doubt he accords ' the same liberty to thoso who differ ' from him. I thought lie cast an unmerited slur on the teachers, and I 1 so; and as a member of the Pro- ' testant Church of England I sneered at ' the modern ritualistic priest. I There is no affinity whatever between ! teaching religiouand teaching arithmetic ' and history; there cannot be two opinions about arithmetic and mathematics, I for tho argument must be all on one 1 side; as to history, that comes mainly • under the head ot works of fiction. ■ I deny, Sir, that a clergyman stands on a higher platform than a layman, 1 except when lie is in the pulpit. He is j entitled to speak with a certain authority ' as an" ambassador for Christ." If he J is a good man he will be loved and ; respected. Put he is not a " lord over God's heritage"; nor is lie one whit a ' better man because he is a clergyman, i any more than because he is six feet in height, or so many inches round tho ■ chest or stomach. "To whom wo gave 1 "place by subjection, no, not for an 1 "hour," as the Apostle puts it. ' I feel,Sir,likethe American preacher, ' who in the lioat of extempore preaching was wont to lapse into faulty English. Immediately after one such lapse, he ■ stopped suddenly, and said:—"l am " aware that my education is deficient; " I regret that I did not have tho advan • " tage of good schools when I was a "boy; if 1 had been more fortunate I " should now have been preaching to a " more intelligent- congregation." '■ The primitive weapon used by Sam ! son on one occasion was very effective, but"AChurehman" mustromemberthat , it was Samson who wielded it. . | My critic had better doff Saul's ' armour, and go back to his sling and stone, and then take his final " shy " at NEMO. 1 16th Septomber, 1895. P.S.—I am not in any way entitled to demand space in your columns for this letter, and shall, therefore, be obliged by your inserting it as an Aim. My absence from Mastertonhas delayed my answer.