THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 42, 13 November 1941, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments —Reflections

It is better to give than to lend and it costs about the same.—Sir Philip Gibbs.

“Clean air is one of the first requisites in making our towns once again desirable places in which to live, jnstea’d of places from which to fly”— Professor C. H. Reilly, 0.8. E.

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But, like the seafaring men on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them reach your destiny.—Carl Schurz.

“Because it so well illustrates the difference between theory and practice we are particularly fond of the story about the young man who once thought he knew a lot about child education. As a young student of child behaviour he would frequently deliver a lecture called ‘Ten Commandments for Parents.’ He married and became a father. The title of the lecture was altered to ‘Ten Hints for Parents.’ Another child arrived. The lecture became ‘Some Suggestions for Parents.’ A third child was born. The lecturer —so the story goes —stopped lecturing.”—“Advance.”

“What is this mind of man, which must function either in release or in conflict and defence? It is a vital thinking organ; a piece of thinking tissue, and not a neurological superstructure: like every functioning organ, it works in terms of time, space aud rhythm. When it is working in regular rhpthm, thinking is confident; when in irregular rhythm, thinking is in terms of Anxiety punctuated by Apathy. Mind functions in the same fashion as any other organ —say, the lungs, the heart or the liver. In health, it acts in unison with the whole organism: all the organs work in rhythm; the mind works in confidence, and the nervous system other than the mind maintains that regular control —that compromise between acceleration and retardation which results in a steady pulse, even breathing, an easy digestion and confident thinking. There are glorious moments when the mind is tuned up to an extra effort.”—Dr. Murdo MacKenzie in “The Human Mind.”

“Much is being said about a new world order to take the place of the old world order when the war is at an end. If that new order is not already on its way before the war is over, we may look for it in vain. A new world order cannot be worked out at some given moment and reduced to writing at a conference table. It is not a matter of parchments and of seals. That was one of the mistaken beliefs at the end of the last war. A new world order to be worthy of the name is something that is born, not made. It is something that lives and breathes; something that needs to be developed in the minds and the hearts of men; something that touches the human soul. It expresses itself iu goodwill and in mutual aid. It is the application in all human relations, of the principle of helpfulness and of service. It is based not on fear, on greed, and on hate, but on mutual trust and the noblest qualities of the human heart and mind. It seeks neither to divide nor to destroy. Its aim is brotherhood, its method cooperation.”—Mr. Mackenzie King. Prime Minister of Canada,

“Events are imperceptibly taking place as a result of which a general situation has developed which may give us an opportunity for a political counter-offensive before much more time has passed. For that we ought to get ready now. There is a great danger that the part which political warfare can play may be under-estimated. I foresee terrible and frightful times facing the nations of Europe in the next few months. There may be equally perplexing situations in which the balance may be turned without a very large margin of safety, and where political warfare may play a decisive part. There are tens of millions of Fifth Columnists now on our side who are available in Europe, and the position of Hitler may be very easily turned into a liability. He is not getting any troops from them, and he has exhausted all the loot he captured. He cannot use them to any large extent for production so long as we keep our grip on the raw materials, and they have open to them methods of canny non-co-operation, sabotage and other methods of unarmed warfare which the Gestapo cannot prevent, and which will surround them with a most terrible and murderous enemy.”—Mr. Lees-Smith, M.P.. in the House of Commons.

“The first corn was beginning to sway and fall before the reaper-binder; and a visitor from a decidedly non-rural area, who has a fine taste in views if little knowledge of the whims and laws of the earth, stood admiring. ‘I would love this outlook from my windows year after year,’ he said. ‘lt seems good corn-growing land,’ he added sagely; ‘and I suppose you’ll be growing another crop like it on this field next year?’ Emphatically no, I told him. So against nature is that kind of repetition for short-date grain that it has partially ruined much prairie land in America, Australia and Russia. Many farm leases in wiser England contain a clause expressly ruling out two grain crops in succession. The soil is not like a quarry or a mine, merely to be dug in and stuff taken away from it. It is seen to be much more like our own body, to be fed and kept clean if we want results from it—consistent results over years. It can once and for all render us free men, more independent of chancy overseas speculations liable to be cut off any time for any one of a score of reasons. It alone will give the ‘protective’ fresh foods—milk, vegetables, etc.—to build a people with ; but to do that, it is also essential, for the soil’s sake, to have a rotation; and that means a turn for corn and sugar beet and other roots. We can’t have it all our own way, but have to work in with the soil’s plan if we want reciprocity.”—“AV.J.B.”, in the “Birmingham Post.” # $ 0 Ths Cheerful Heart. O give me the heart that is cheerful and gay, And the face that the smiles of good humour illume, The converse that sparkles with wit all the day, And at eve can enlighten the moments of gloom. —Anon.