NOT ALL LIARS

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30937, 18 December 1965, Page 5

NOT ALL LIARS

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ISpecially written for "The Press” by ARNOLD WALL.J ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER, 17881860, is generally called the pessimist philosopher. I won’t deny him this label nor try here to describe his philosophy. But I will put one of his sayings in my window and comment on it.

This is what he says; “There is only one mendacious creature in the world—man. Every other is true and genuine for it shows itself as it is and expresses itself just as it is!”

Now this statement I stoutly deny. Certain creatures, so far from showing themselves as they are have been, as it were, specially constructed to deceive. How else would so many weak and defenceless creatures manage to live at all in a world so richly supplied with hungry enemies? Take, for instance, the stick insect. Its whole life is one long lie. Instead of declaring its identity it simply says, “I am not an insect, not edible, I am a twig. I’m no use to you, Mr Bird, you can leave me alone, pass me by.” It is hard to imagine a higher degree of mendacity than this. In a higher or lower degree all the weaker half of the animal world use what we now call “camouflage.” Is not the question rather hard Whether to punish or reward That practical successful liar That nature fans so much admire Who. by some super-subtle trick. Makes himself out to be a stick. Whose life, entire from end to end. On a rank swindle must depend) Should we award the rogue a prize For such bamboozling of our eyes Or damn him for a brazen cheat? Well, would it not be fair to treat Him Just as Hollywood would do That hero of chamelon hue. Who, in exchange for sums so vast As to make Croesus stand aghast His very self and substance sells Pretending to be someone else? —From “The Pioneers.”

Chaffinch

VO possible doubt about the etymology of “chaffinch” and not much about its pronunciation either. Apparently because it often haunts the farmyard its name derives from “chaff” but as in late Latin It was called “furfurarta" from “furfur,” broawn, there may be some other reason than that. Its Latin name is “fringilla coelebs,” the bachelor, because, it is said, the cocks form a sort of bachelor club in the off-breeding season and live apart from the hens. He has the alternative name “spink.” In standard southern English “chaff” has a long “a” while in “chaffinch” the “a” is shortened as in “chat,” but in New Zealand the bird is generally called the “chahfinich” with a long “a" which sounds very odd to the English ear. Introduced here in the early days, the chaffinch spread quickly all over the country. It has, however, changed or rather extended its residential habit for in Europe it is a lowland bird frequenting hedgerows, orchards and the like. It has seemed to me most interesting to see and hear the chaffinch high up in the gloomy forests of the western ranges, anything less like its old habitat could hardly be imagined. In another way, too It has had to accommodate itself to a new environment. The nest of this bird is a wonderful work of art decorated with moss and lichen, most skilfully woven twigs and even cobwebs. In this country it is never quite so artistically made simply for want of the necessary materials. There is no lack of suitable nesting sites in general, but occasionally the chaffinch is faced with a shortage. I have seen a nest built in the hole in a post into which the railhead had been inserted in its time. The chaffinch’s song is cheery but monotonous and he is a very pugnacious bird whose appetite for conflict is taken advantage of by East End London bird-fanciers to catch him (or so it was in my early days). The method is too elaborate to be described here. Both “Chaffinch" and the forms “Chiffinch" and “Spink” or “Pink” are in use as surnames. “New Zealander” ■READING Sir Michael Sad--IVleth’s Trollope,” 1927, I was surprised to learn that Trollope had written a book with this title. But the book was never published. It was written in 1855 and was intended to rival Carlyle’s fierce criticisms of his age in his “Latter-day Pamphlets.” Here Trotlope set himself up as a reformer. He tong quarrelled with Carlyle. He does not mention “the New Zealander” in his Autobiography and possibly he regretted having tried to publish it It is, of course, not a novel but a sort of latter-day pamphlet and exactly what was in it I suppose we shall never know. He offered it to Longmans whose reader reported that the author’s object was “to show how England could be saved from the ruin that now threatens her.” This ha had done in “such a loose illogical and rhapsodical way” that Longmans was advised not to publish it Now Sadleir, commenting on this episode, refers to Macaulay’s famous prophecy of “the New Zealander standing on the ruins of London Bridge.” This was a misquotation. What Macaulay wrote was “some traveller from New Zealand” and he wrote that in his essay on Von Ranke in 1840, the year in which New Zealand became a British Colony. Apparently, once a misquotation like this has been made it continues to be made by later writers just as a weed will maintain itself in your garden against the competition of your chosen plants. I have drawn attention to this error before when raising the question when “New Zealander” ceased to mean a Maori ** and came to be used as we use it now.

For obviously If Macaulay had written “a NeW Zealander” in 1840 he would have meant a Maori. Heinly Trollope's generation lost nothing by the suppression of Ms “Naw Zealander” and It was his last attempt to figure as a reformer.