OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18261, 20 December 1924, Page 16

OBITER DICTA.

(.By K.)

Some people disliko Anniversary Day, because they cannot bear to hear the pilgrims extolled. Not that anyone greatly dislikes hearing praise of those "who have passed away; but no praise of times past is nowadays thought sincere which docs not rest upon tho disparagement of times present and those who dwell therein. Nobody could bo blamed, therefore —since nobody likes to sco himself disparaged for failing to grow enthusiastic over Archbishop Julius's Anniversary Day sermon. The pilgrims, he' said, built the tunnel, and we have don© nothing to it except fill it with smoke. Tho pilgrims built tho Provincial Council Chamber, and wo liavo merely built a tram shelter. If wo ask for a reward for tho trees and gardens and lawns which wo have planted, his Grace is ready "with a penny, but on turning it over wo find that the obverse of it contains a notification ill at wo havo lost our character, so that the pilgrims wiu this hole too. One would feel discouraged were it not that overy age has heard the same story about itself. Nor is it probable that the custom of mourning the good old days and the grand old men and women will over be abandoned. Tho day will come, therefore, when somebody will praiso tho heroic ago of 1924, and our shades will bo as astonished as, no doubt, tho shades of the pilgrims must be.

In the meantime Dean Inge continues to wain the people of lingland that civilisation is a failure. When last heard of ho was goitig further back than the pilgrims. Skulls belonging to a race which lived 2000 years ago, he told a Manchester audienoe, seemed to indicate a higher physical and mental endowment than ours, and even the Neanderthal man, by his large brain cavities, was probably not much behind ourselves in natural ability. Besides, tho Greeks were handsomer than we are. Tho Dean has often seemed inhuman in his unwillingness to admit virtue in anything, but ho has his weak snot, and on© is glad of it. "Although," he declared, "there was plenty of talent there was a great dearth to-day of firstrate men, except perhaps among natural scientists. The silliest superstitions ■ still persisted —necromancy, ghosts, spooks, miraculous cures—ail most deplorable sigtus of the intellectual condition of every class." Here the I>ean reveals himself as the victim of the strangest superstition of all—the belief that Science is on the right track. He will not believe in ghosts, but he takes Science's word for it that the electron has been weighed, measured,, and timed. When 1 Science can impose on Dean Inge, it must obviously bo able to impose on anybody.

This is perhaps a convenient, pltee for iho printing of a passage* for tie Christmas reading of those good people who havo been so industrious during the past year in warning tho public that it is Lost. It is James Martiueju} on tho i-ynic and pessimist:—

"The harmony ti,e jrrejt «c»aes ! him in hw hunt lor little discords there. Ho is blind to tho august balance o- - nature, in Ins pwccupoUon with son# crc .v' liicr snow ot detect. He miss* tho cosnorts tensive march of acv»r.cin? punxve, btciuso while ho himself u in i*. ho has found haltinp roenvoer that aeeina to lag behind Ho picks hole? in tho universal order- hj« winds Ihroush his trucks as a detective'tmd makes jorandnls of all that is not t<> Jji, mind: trusts nothing that he cannot ee»ana he. seea chip fly tho exetnlional th« dubious, the iarsh. Tu» glory of the'aid. > night ho-ivorta affect,* fcini not", for thinking of a shattered planet or the unin&tbitabU moon. He makes more of IK* flood which sweeps tho crop sway, than of tho perpetual river that feeds it year hy year. For hua tia purplo bloom upon tho hills, weerinj: iineufe tho youcg sneen woods, does but drtsa stony doeert with deceitful beauty; *ad in the new birth of summer, hf> canact victj himself to the exuberance cf jlad tijaUact for wonder why insects tfosc und nettle* stinp. Nothin; is «o fair, njihinc *o fog. ix)3ini?, »3 to beguils him into faitV and hope." Tho attack made on "The Press** i tho "Outlook" induced roe to bay » t copy of the Dunedin weekly, and ai. though it affected me in very much xh» samo way as tho "Athenwum'' affected Morris Finshury, tho investment was profitable enough. For I found in it a correspondent discussing the Presbyterian Assembly's resolution concerning dancing, and describing it, with si boldness one can but envy, as "a singularly feeble and valueless utterance." Ho knows what hois writing about:

First of all, -we must h»7e a definition at dancing. Tho mover of the original motion, Mr i\ Jones, in a peaking to his motion, rtM that he was not against national dancifig and solo dancing, and. his statement appealed to meet with tho approval of the House. TWe is not to bo wondered at seeing tktf for tho entertainment of this Terr AaauaM; national dances and nolo dances *ere provided —Maori national danoes on the Friday ovening and eok> dancao at tho Sooitish concert on evening. The teaching of Scripture on tho subject must bo co»Uem. And you will not find in Scripture any hihilion of dancing. Is the Church to ttf "Thou shalt not danoo" when (he WojdofGtrf docs not say so? In ii. Samuel vi. 14, oeHttd that "David danced before tho Lord witk $U his might.", In Psalm cilix., 3, we hat* "Praise Him in the dance"; Psalm cL, L "Praiso Him with tbo timbrel and daso*. See also Jeremiah xxxi., 4, and Luke viL, 33. Consider especially Lubo xr., 25, »hen» si the exquisite story of tho prodigal W Christ represents tho returning' prodipl ta weloomed "with mufiio and dancing." / 0t this the kindly father heartily a3proT«€,fc(| the soured elder brother etetoed to fljt approve.

The answer, of course, »s tho corswpondent anticipates, will bo that dancing referred to in the Bible WM solo dancing, and that thoro J<» intermingling of the soxes. Since titfW aro people who believo that the woman of Revelation signifies. gytld currency, and that it was really fea&Bade at Cana, it ought to bo easy towt up as a working hypothesis that thfc© is no warrant in the Bible for anjiihjg rasher than a aword dance.