The Catholic Editor

New Zealand Tablet, 8 November 1906, Page 22

The Catholic Editor

-, We have said /elsewhere in .this issue- that a- religious, paper, for "popular -perusal ,mustsever> be-ari effort— and never,, by; the necessities of the "case,- a' - perfectly successful one— to •, compromise among a'v thousand incompatible tastes. „,vFhe sledge-hammer .'-critic stops ,Ms ;. paper' .with .a mebaphorical~~club:-and anmnmetaphorical /, /great 'big D,'"- would realise thjs.u:i.pretlJj& fully— and sorrowfully-^,* he ,;triejd: his :;hand/iatJ'.editmg'? just., for ,- one,, -week, an<L:had;.the luck tok^geWhome sane... in, mind. and. _. : iu one. , ; piece at.; the ! close- : oL^bis experience. . t.The ,man who .s.tops.jthertpaper.^.-say^rithe Boston : •, S.H. Review, ' • because- ■ itj does'^not > always ~ say just what, he wants.- it- to.- -say,,' 'is .-about as sensible as the -man who. Jails- out .with; o his fiends -J'b'eU cause he, ) fin'dsjithey >i: have;jopinions.iof stheir5 their own ..h These 1 is.^adverse er-itieism- and^ adverse. criticism;t:The critife.ism, ,-hpwe,ver f . adverse, cWhich c: lisvfrl.endjy^ and helpfuiihs ever; . w.elcomed.^ by the --Catholic , newspaper/ cThatv which i? .:fair bu.t urikin-d^is- , accepied^vith.^resp^eotj bui? with 4' .out thanks..,'. And ...thai .whichv is.rJieitber^ufair,.-i-.Tior friendly nor helpful .is -received : in ,a- chastened spirit; but ,/without either or » 'D'Alemr bert r if ,we- jpaistake npj;, dealt u wilfc cri.ticisjcrt; upon some such, -principie ; as^thji&./ .-• n . IV . - •.;.uii~lo.?.iJ .r.^uioz*' ' God,' says Sterne, • tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.' God does better still : He tempers the shorn lamb to the- wind ; and Boreas may then rage and

blow till he slits, his,, bellows. In ,the.. .same way - pered - to- stilt ~the- unaccustomed -hand."-" The 'handTis" tempered to the wood, and, ge.ts\aj last' the • horns ' or callosities .of thq£« soii^f So it is "with the' knotted 'club that^falls upo^i the shoulders of the 'religious editor. vVhen 'lHTdoes'Spt'^rush hear^oivspiriK (and it sometimes does), ib produces at 'last those m'et^phx»ri(sal fl !;Txoi:u| I ''''--or;*lj^ 'render, liim < mofe°o^less s iii'sensil)Je I^p blister ;ancl'" : Dlbw. 'Tile' lamb "its c tempered '— Su i k \ye 'shWcT not P like'' to '" aver J that; his- 'tenlpc\- ''- u '4's r 'invknabiy lam^l^b: r Conductors of"'religious "Jouriials h'aVe^'learne&^tne' art '" of ' K turning the other chco'c till it isJEull of corns, 'or black' and blue. But there aie" times when a r: whifi r , of*Dß«nn? Swift's^ ' saeya indignatio ' enters their , souls'' through unguarded ' chinks. rt ; Anrl " .then ? %v&? "th« ! mildest mannered editdV;- (byiHg /driven' li s'[ it') hasten k.n*own' 1 tear around 'in' a, manner ' hardly; suggesfiive" of .pecorinc Passive ' Resistance. 'l\)? v ' -.- -.v • i ti . t ,'