ON THE SANDHILLS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 776, 28 March 1910, Page 8

ON THE SANDHILLS.

' MONTAIONE AT LYALL BAY. ■'j:-"/vv THE GOLDEN AGE; -^ ';-;'."'•' ; .;(By J.QX) ' . Just ai we werj .•tarting for Lyall 'Bay, and in the usual: imminent danger of- missing the' tram, I looked round' the room for a book. .Thore, was no ;time to- think, and : |I : pocketed a volumb ':. 0f..-.-; Montaigne.; ISeated in the tram, I bethought me :of ia; saying of a certain doctor■: of medi-. icine, to whom I often pay the tribute .'/of.'a\grateful thought because he'brought me long ago into the high com'.pany of Chaucer, Spenser, - : and; Sir ■Thomas Browne. He was wont to say, ithis wise physician, that the test of a' (good book was'whether one could read jit out; of doors. Ho made his; meaning \clear by telling of his own reading of the-"Faerie Qu'eene" in full, view of a .golden sunset over.the sea. ..The sunset and the verses enriched each other. ''And so, while the tram roared along JLambton Quay I,asked myself how Mon'taigne 5 would stand',the. test of wave-beats-and sand and sunshine.

i What had ho to .sayfor himself ?,-.'., "Reader, ioe ?here ; ;a;. well-meaniri!} booked It doth at the first entrance forewarne thee, that,in contriving the, ./same 1 have proposed,unto ; my selfe no -iother than a familiar and private end; X haver no respect or; consideration:, at. all, either to-thy v service ' or t° m ? 'glory: my forces are" not ,capable of any such desseigne." •■"..-.- "-,'-. , Anda little further on (it was Flono s - translation): "Had my intention -beene to forestal and purchase "the 'world s opinion and favour, I:.: would: Burely T have adorned myselfe more quaintly, oi ■ kept a more grave and s'olemne march. V Aid so;you : very well might;(l. was inclined to' say),, if , you had thought your private familiarities we're to be tested by the grave and solemn march >©f Pacific rollers. - Settled, an, hour later, upon a comVfortable slope'.if the sandhills, with the isea in front,' most brilliant audi most (blue, 'breaking .and creaming into . iwhite - foam—not a house in sight, only. sky and sea, rocks, grass, and. sand— I forgot Montaigne.' It-was! watching the bathers that brought him to".mind "'again;"-'They-.were boysi and - young ttnen, all clad in reasonable compliance .with, the by-law.' Some were in; the. •water] but -more were running or jing or playing on the beach. A few who apparently thought that an> absolute observance 'of the by-law was not (required"in the nooks;and recesses of 'the sandhills, were basking there in:thesun. All of them were obviously : and gloriously enjoying themselves, and,; it was'" good to' watch them. It was like a glimpse of classic.Greece. I loved to see: the. quick, free 'movements of .their;, brown limbs ; out there -on ' the level ■ :sands.' It .-is only at such -times that one sees-how :• truly 'graceful is the ' -figure of • the 'ordinary-healthy-youth.- The younger, iboys, 'with their swagger: of ' friendly and nonchalant defiance "of. everybody land everything,' their freedom, from self- - 'consciousness,. seemed most at - home 'between the sandhills waves. ■ Why (I asked myself) should they .not 'be always, thus? '■-:",'. ."'■.■" "And then'l picked, up Montaigne, and. resumed:my interrupted reading.- -...-■' "I desire therein"—he was still talking preface-wise, about his. book—"to, be 'delineated in mine\owh genuine,, simple, . and ordinary, fashion,; without. contenHioivart, or"'study; for it is myselfeX por.rtray. My imoerfections shall,therein:. ,I>3.".reg^J'tpj.the'life, -and my naturall ?vSo' -; fane-forth ; as j .olikenKfreTcnco hdth permitted me. For.ii.,..i3».Tfo:'tuiie had be'e'ne to;have lived'' . & '.long..those nati6i)si..which i yet' are said ;to - liv.o:-'under :: the:' Sweet.. liberty ;of Nature's first and uncprruptedi/lawes, \1 : assure' thee, I would most willingly '.have .pourtrayed .nryselfe fully' and naked.",.;..'./:;-'.-', '"'; ; ' ':":";■"'.

.;.;. I looked,again at,the sportive youths, ■':!' • and : murmured,.-'' The: sweet liberty • of; -'.■:' Nature's first and-'.uncorrupted.'lawes." V .'■■ Then >I • remembered that description ;,-.' of just: sucb/a "sweet'liberty"-' which .';.'•.-"' Shakespeare' m>:."The Tempest'';'; has ;: .-paraphrased from this same .Montaigne. ; '■: .Gonzalo,' the honest' old'.courtier;.tries •;'to amuse .the shipwrecked . King: of ,;; 'Naples,' by telling .him what' he 'would ..-.do if/'he'-hadthe task of; colonising tho . ■ island.- I'need hot quote the passage.' ; - Those who wish can find it in Act. 114. ; : Scene• 1,; and' every edition "for issue. . -in schools" supplies' the -Montaigne 'original.;; By J good fortune, this was ; easily found in the volume I had with. :••.., me oh.the sandhills',,-.but''; I'. noticed' ; that,',closely. -, as ;Shakespeare .followed' ;•'':. the very 'words, of; Florio's translation, v-.ihe omitted one 'feature of the"; "happy ' ;;".. 'condition", of that .'nation 'without traffic . > ;or_. magistracy;'; riches, ; ; or --'poverty,-' : "„ Arithmetic or agriculture.; .He did' not : ~.-... mention that they had ' "no ' apparell' ', .but ;• natnrall." Yet; Montaigne must: .; [have thought this a chief part of their' .felicity, for.at the end of.the • essay,; ■-.'■."after discoursing of many things; v-he'' :.••'■: 'jeturns to' it in this brief postscript:' ; 'j-They weare no kinde of breeches nor :, ; Sosen." Their 'foriginall naturalitie". ;: seemed to him not only to excel' the. pictures' wherewith poetic 'license had , embellished the golden'age,- hut'also,, the toffciest political ideals of ; Plato ' ..- and Lycurgus. ■i•. - ; ;;.' It'was his pleasant flrusion. that these' -< people really existed in his own time. ■ .. He locates them "in those parts where ':. landed.-aid surnamed' ~:.; , An_tartike France."- - The supposed .discovene of so infinit and ■ vast "'a ';.;■ «ountne" was to be,disproved .in those' V-.. after years when- Tasman and -Cook ;, ..Sound that Australia'and New-Zealand were far removed from -. that' South . Amencan island which had long been :.- thought to form with them one great .continent Yet I like'to think that it •:."'• was somewhere, in" these latitudes that .; Montaigne supposed his happy savages -'•!?' Eve , ™«f ianocent- lives. ■ The men- : : toon of Vfllegaignon's discovery sets ; farm talking of the the '.'.-..-■ fabled Atlantis and other "strange al- -, teratioM" which;.waters .have wrought •:-. m thehabitations of the'earth... ' :. . Looking up from the! printed page-I' , glance at the-places .behind'Maranui' : where :the sand-drifts have .piled them- ;;:. Belves high against tho solid hills, and , : I read (as if Montaigne, sitting by me .; -had noticed the same thing and'were ■; butqnotmg, after his manner, a.paral- ;■':."-. lei instance):—"ln Medoc alongst the ," .sea-coast, my brother, the Lord of ', Arsacke, may see a towne of his buried ,;:;, under the sands, which the sea casteth ";-. up before it. The tops of some buiTd- . ;: ara yrf to be discerned. . His ;-'V-. : Rents and Demaines have beene changed !'.-.into barren.pastures.!': , . °. iK-.- -Coming again to the description of % -::-'JH? ™ nocent anarchists, I read that rt is vene rare, to: see a sicke body f :; amongst them," and that there "is no' :'\ one ' shaking- witb- the palsie; tooth-! I- lesse,_with eies dropping, or crooked and stooping through age." ' I ask myself: Would it not be well if these youths, now playing on the sands, ■and all the rest of us, were habitually as little encumbered with clothing as they are-, at-this moment? Wouklnot :, such exposure to wind and sunshine, :-.... even on Lambton Quay, make for ;•;. health and vigour? Would not our -. natural and proper vanity, deprived of all aid of tailoring, express itself. in .more shapely and muscular limbs, more I" erect and graceful carriage? And after ;V; ■:'.*■ generation or two, would it not be i rare indeed to see a sick body amongst ; as? Would not a' drastic' sumptuary '.law, taking example from the light 5- covering, of the surf-bathers,' do more ft: for our eugenical future .than all our (hospitals, .military drills, and medical i inspectkmß?.

Thus I mused, while the waves-curled and-fell with their ancient music, careless, whether'they broke' upon the shores of Medoc, or Antartike France, or Lyall Bay. And, of course, we bathed, with strict, regard for tke,-.by-law, .and • went home Afjefivards' I consulted the curious book of Mr. Jacob Feis, on "Shakespeare and Montaigne," and .while not agreeing with all his interpretations (for the man who goes to Shakespeare with his head full'of a theory is sure to make discoveries as illusory as Villegaignon's), I had to adztiit that the. poet's use of the words of the essayist.was.not,so much plagiarism 'as.' ; controversy, .and' that with 'MontaigheVai'-.mtt'J.Gbhzalo,'the latter .end ;of the tale forgot the beginning. It needs but a little examination to find •Montaigne's picture of natural commuuism self-contradictory and unreal. Even his idealised savages were cannibals and polygamists, and his only defence of. such, customs is that they were not singular. .-:■ •..,. .<■=■ • „■ ..'lf Society,is.founded upon clothes, ( it is idle to think of suddenly pulling away even so illogical "a base!. We cannot— ahd"perh'aps we should not—hope to see Sir Joseph Ward and Mr. Massey debating the next Loan Bill clad in nothing but skin-tights. ', ..But ;the "EssayeV of"Michael, Lorl of Montaigne"'are good'reading among the sandhills. ■•■■;