SERMONS IN STONES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7829, 23 June 1909, Page 4

SERMONS IN STONES.

SHAKESPEARE AND THE ASHBURTON BOROUGH COUNCIL.

(Contributed.) It would seem that, the immortal bard-philosQpher of Stratford-on-Avon was not less a ' prophet than, a poet, for to all intents and purposes he might easily have been thinking of the works of the Borough Council of Ashburton when, m "As You Like It," he made the Duke say: "Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel m his head; . And thus our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues m trees, books m the running brooks,. Sermons m stones, and good m everything." No one will deny that adversity is sometimes a good thing—provided always that it overtakes other people and not themselves—but methinks there are still a few poor benighted souls whose stunted vision does not j admit of their recognising the music, the light, the joy and the beneficence attaching to everyone and everything that they come m contact with m life. ' More especially is this the case m respect of cyclists, as will be shewn later. Surely this is not as it should be; for did' not that sun of wisdom, Solomon, write m his Book of Proverbs: "Where there is no vision the people perish." Alas and alack, it would seem ;hat there is no higher vision m Ashburton, else the burgesses of this fair borough would rise up and praise them whom they have elevated to the seats of the mighty m Havelock street west. Perhaps—let it be but whispered—the kindly intentions and high-flown thoughts of these our city fathers are not grasped; 'tis possible that the councillors themselves, like Thomas Bracken and so many others of noble mind and lesser deed, are misunderstood. "Not understood. We gather false impressions, And hug them closer as the years go by, Till virtues often seem to us transgressions ; And thus men rise and fall, and live and die, Not understood. The thought is a sad one, but, m justice to His Worship and company;, it should be recorded —virtues so often seem transgressions, and to so many. But perhaps some hurried reader is askin<r. "Yes, but what has all this to do with the Immortal William's connection with the Council?" The answer is simple: he who runs may read. Either the poor councillors are sadly misunderstood, or they are taking Shakespeare's gospel of the use of stones to heart rather too literally— for what do we find ? Year m and year not, m season and out of season, the authorities, with strict and honourable impartiality, have scattered over the roads throughout the town, big "sermons" (sometimes small ones), jagged "sermons" (occasionally smooth ones), long "sermons," pointed "sermons," short "sermons," sharp "sermons" — and sometimes not "sermons" at all, but uncompromisingly big, bold, bulky boulders, real intellectual feasts or imaginative stimulants, which make the poor misguided cyclists who have not yet gained the Elysian fiields which shelter Shakespeare (poet), Davis (Mayor), Davison, Wood, Nicoll, Stewart and others of lesser ilk and girth— make, I say, these poor illiterate young persons bitter, blasphemous and bilious, instead of uplifting them to higher levels and loftier thoughts. Who could have forseen suc}i a ghastly result of honest, natient effort, directed by lofty Shakesnerian thought? However, as Goethe says, "It is really the errors of the man that make him lovable," and the writer, a being of the earth earthy and not of the stones Shakesperian, is inclined to join with the erring cyclist, and cry with him: "For what we receive the Lord make us truly thankful, but—if it be m the nature of stones let them come through a stone crusher, rather than direct from the riverbed, minus screens." And with the cyclist—and his name is legion—your contributor would, as m duty bound, ever pray, not on.ly for the stone-crusher, or the broken metal, but also for the continued peace and felicity of those set m authority over him. Let us all be charitable, and say with the old English bard, "God bless the squire and his relations, And keep us all m our proper stations."