Notes and Comments

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 18, 7 March 1939, Page 3

Notes and Comments

A GREATER BROTHERHOOD

"Perhaps no year since the coming of Christ has loomed so darkly upon its predecessor as 1939 looms above 1938," said the Poet Laureate, Mr John Masefield, in a recent broadcast. "What is to come is still unsure, but all who look out upon 1939 know that it threatens a great blackness and bleakness upon the soul of man, all over the world. Against that darkness we have little visible comfort. When we come to look for comfort, there is little to be found in guns, or aeroplanes, or a wealth so uncertain that many have none, and few can count on any over to-mor-row. Such comfort as these things give exists only by virtue of that measure of brotherhood enforced by fear. There is another brotherhood. The rallying cry of the old English sailors as they hove at the bar or on the tackle was 'One and All.' I do not mean the massing of a flock of sheep round its most dangerous member in some joint imbecility in the presence of supposed danger. I mean the discovery of the importance of each soul among us, by reason of the beauty of her gift, so* ujjlike the gift of any other soul. The discovery leads to the real brotherhood, and to the source whence all brotherhood and power proceed. Nothing Iso great can be attained without will and effort. Where all are brothers, all are strong and enduring; and therefore mighty. Where all are well-taught, many are wise and some illuminated. Where -the soul with her gifts is the standard of riches, a nation is wealthy and her future sure. In all such brotherhood men have within them and about them a power unshakeable and unbeatable, whose light may shine for

centuries."