GREAT MOMENTS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 109, 10 May 1941, Page 2 (Supplement)

GREAT MOMENTS

conveys a sense of the supreme height of human joy. But of course it has another note, that of irony. ] fere is Shakespeare's tragic irony at work, the irony that one sees also in 'Macbeth'' when Duncan comes to the castle with its pleasant seat and sweet air, where his host and hostess have already decreed his death. We know what is going to happen to Othello. Within a little while the assault on his love begins. and in the end. when he hears that Is go is only wounded, he cries: I am not sorry neither; I'd have thee live; For, in my sense. 'tis happiness to die. The wheel has come full circle. Because of his grief, Othello takes hi? own life. We all have high moments in our lives, moments of (for us) supreme achievement, or some other kind of felicity, or indeed with any material achievement: they may be produced by what has been described as the weather in the soul, by some extraordinary ecstasy of contentment of spirit. For the moment one either rides life triumphantly or is at entire peace with it. These are persona! peaks in life. What moved the Abyssinian chieftain was the recovery of his country; it was a communal moment, when the interests of the individual were lost in the achievement of the community. Because the individual shares in a collective joy, this emotion is unselfish. There have been countless such moments, when defeat was turned into victorv. and dawn came after a long night of

the task to be done, aid hJi can look after itself. In an» business of life, if We ij£**} to the possibility that at 80011**' time our work may be strength of our arm wilr?* I * , ened. Even if our w«J* £$ to be undone, who can ultima-e balance may be? said of Nelson that *"»>« ous death was that of «??« the hour of victory it J* said that the death ofVv* defeat is equally gloriou£ ** We have heard lately of «*. against oads n the Pass «* pylae. In dying 6 atrfife twenty-four centuries ag?rS? and his spartans and tSS «?*" not affect the campaign hS?' They only delayed the pfe l vance a few days. But their countrymen and L 1 ever since a -jperb examSe J» sacrifice whifli is itselfa H** victory. Captain Scott *£*?! m the race to the SouthpLJ* perished on his return buthSM means much more to tie ife that of the victor, andJK 8 measure the influence of neroic end on the sDirit «T^ We see the victoryTlfe ■is true light, not as th e *> struggle, but as the long armistice If vtzhT*** then, we should not be inV^L 1 to win now. If Ave wereil? 8 now, we should have fought* vain. The greatest SJ« come wuh victory, and SS mar victory more wisely feX our evDcric-nce. Last 'hew.,r.-.r Q lost the ptJc? fi? must win both. Wor

agony. "I have waited for this moment for 13 years," said the captive Charles Neufeld. beside himself with joy, when he greeted Kitchener after the battle of Omdurman, and he spoke not only for himself, but for all those who had suffered in that filthy hell of tyranny. The memorial service to Gordon that Kitchener held in the ruins of Khartoum on the morrow of his victory was a moment when the profoundest depths of collective emotion were sounded. There were greater moments during the iast war. What were the feelings of those British troops who. on the last morning of the war. November 11, arrived at Mons, where, for the British Army, the four-year battle had begun" and heard the carillons play "Tipperary"? Never in the history of the world had there been such widespread and deep relief as on that Armistice Da;-. Men felt that the greatest of ail victories had been won. and that a new era was opening before mankind. We know now how fraught with tragic irony was that joy. and some of us have thought of the words of the sorrowful English king who wished that one might read the book of fate: O. :f this wcie seen. Thi happiest yotitrj. viewing his prtcress through. penis past, what crosses to er.sje. Wc;::ri shut the book, and s.t h:m doan and d:e. This, of course, is the attitude of despair, and not to be countenanced by brave mem The task -at hand is