TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12976, 2 December 1907, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Mr Edw-ard Cooper, a Religion student of seme not« of

in the child mind, advances Belgravia. the rather startling con-

tontioii that in England compulsory religion* teaching is the exclusive possession of what are known as tho lower classes. The number of children among tho English tipper classes who receivo absolutely no religious training is said to bo almost incredible. Mr Cooper declares that numbers of children just entering "double figures" havo never read a passage in the Bible, say perfunctory prayers without having the slightest notion of their meaning, and go to church twice a month to bo bored by the service. Two young people of Mr Cooper's acquaintance finish the day's quarrels in their prayers. "God forgive Frances," says one, "for pushing mo into the fountain to-day, when. I was standing on the edge, and then dating to say that I felled in." "God forgive Morjorio," is tho. answer, "for daring to say that I pushed her into tho fountain, when she truthfully knows she felled in her own self." "Good night, and God bless you, Lady Marjoric," says Frances, proudly. "Don't dare to say 'God bless youi' to mc, Lady Frances," is tho indignant answer, and then tho nurse pacifies them and tells them not to call each other names. Mr Cooper has something to say of the repulsive practice of inviting visitors upstairs to see the children go to bed, and hear thorn say their prayers—a practice which is said to be quite common in England. To a child like Frances or 'Marjorie this affords immense satisfaction- "I know an eleven-year-old lady, who, on such an occasion, will settle down to enjoy herself like an actress in tho crack scone of a play. All such friends as are present come into her supplications, the suppliant keeping half an eye on each person to see how she takes it then a Jorig list of her mother's 'young men' and her own, which flier acquaintances being chiefly military) gives you the impression that she is going straight through tho Army List." If one had to teach 'this child tho rudiments of religion, ono would start by forbidding her to 6ay prayers for three montlis, so that she might forget her mockery. Mr Cooper suggests that in each London parish a curate be taken from slum-work to attend to tho souls'of neglected rich children. But the best method of teaching these children, is by literature. "You can buy ordinary Sunday-school literature by tho cab-load at any Church bookseller's shop in the kingdom; but no literary person seems to think it worth while to tako up a pen and como to tho rescue of those other children. It is ludiorous to suppose that the samo writings servo for both; the 'Family Herald' and Thackeray's novels aro not interchangeable literature among their elders." Wo should be surprised to find that people who allowed their children to be brought up in this fashion read much of Thackeray.

Professor Dowden, writing

The in the "Atlantic Monthly" Square of "Elizabethan PsycholSoul. ogy," finds an interesting

explanation of Regan's protest in "King Lear," that all other joys "Whioh the most precious square of

sense possesses," fall short of her felicity in a father's love. The "spacious sphere of sense" is ono reading, adopted with a very decided loss to euphony. Now, Professor Dowdcn shows that this princess of old Britain only bet-rayed a too prophetic acquaintance with the works of Spenser. The reference is to tho architecture of the House of Temperance, where Alma dwells, as 6ct forth in the second book of the Fairie Queen. And the architecture of that mystic house •must necessarily include a square. Elizabethans were happy in tho conviction that they not only might carry a healthy mind in a healthy body, but that evory body might possess, three souls. Spenser believed with Bartholomew Anglicus that the. "vegetive soul" is like .a triangle, the "sensible soul" like "to a quadrangle, square, and four-cornered," while tho rational or immortal soul is figured in the symbolism of eternity as a circle. So he Wrote of Alma's %a_tle. amongst other abstrusities: —

"The frame thereof seemed partly circulnre And part triangulare: O worko divine! And 'twixt them both a quadrate was the base, Proportioned equally by seven and nine."

That his contemporaries loved such philosophy seems proved, and its reputation still blossomed high in 1644, when Sir Kenelm Digby published a pamphlet urging that this*stanza alone might have proved him "among the mast famous men that ever have liecn in any age." Perhaps it hardly recommends the effect of sweet philosophy

to find Regan so well read and 30 apt in quotation, unless we can supple this was a crafty addition by which to beguile her too philosophical parent, wlio really seemed any.thi.ng hut asensible soul. It dulls the compliment for Spenser, too, that a citation from him should be awarded only to one of tho villains in the play- B>rt otherwise Shakespeare, the hater of professions, is very agreeably consistent 111 making his Regan n.,>to the ugliest ideal morality known to his day (it not to hera) before proceeding to actions not at all "upon the square.'

(Most colonials know Tlie Most that Bio Janeiro is Progressive situated on one of the City. finest harbours in tho world, but few are aware of tho size and splendour of the city itself. Travelling Homewards from New Zealand 0110 lands at Bio after a lather dreary passage of about three weeks, which probably heightens the enthusiasm felt for the delights ot this fairest of cities. Its natural beauty is incomparable. A great bay, fifty miles 'in circumference, strewn with islands and guarded by high picturesque mountains forms a perfect) haven, which could hold all the fleets of tho world. Tho vegetation everywhere is luxuriant, and tho pictiiresquo flat-roofed houses situated on hills and in cool valleys aro half-hidden by tall palms and' brilliant-flowered shrubs and creepers. There is room in tho great plains of fcan Christavao, which is already tho most populated section of tho city, for twenty million people .without tho necessity of slums or tenements. Of all the hills that lie near the city Coreovudo (the hunchback), rising 30' M feet from tho edge of the harbour, is the most picturesque. Ono can reach the summit in a steam cog railway, whoso roadbed contains grades as Bteep as 3S per cent. But leaving all that might bo said of the beauty of Rio Janiero, one learns )a great deal that is astonishing about tho progress and development of tho city itself. Water power from a river fifty miles distant is being used to make this the first great electric city of the Southern Hemisphere. Tho water supply is brought from the same distance. Four years ago the President of tho Ilepublio mado great plans for improving tho couimerciai conditions of tho Capital, and has carried them out with remarkable rapidity. Ia eighteen 'months the Avonida Central, a street bOOO feet in length and 200 feet wide, was built—paved, lighted, planted with shade trees, and the new buildings occupied. In this street is tho new Municipal Theatre—as large and as magnificent as the Opera House of Paris—the National Library, National School of Fine Arts and the Monroe Palace, whero the Pan-Ameri-can Conference was held last year. At one end of tho Avenida* is a. with* boulevard, which follows the shore line for four miles j at the other end begins tho great dock system. To complete the contract a stone quay, 10,660 feet in length, with warehouses and all apparatus for handling oargo, is being erected, with a deep channel alongside. (Meanwhilo streets are being widened in all directions, and new ones built, the most important paved with asphalt blocks, and the sewerage system has been brought up to date. About 130 miles of tramway now operated chiefly by mule traction, have beon taken over by an electric company, and mules like the ciohbledi narrow streeta one sees still in Bio Janiero, will soon havo no place thero. Ono eulogist goes so far as to call Bio tho most progressive city in the world.