VAGARIES OF HYSTERIA.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 91, 30 March 1911, Page 4

VAGARIES OF HYSTERIA.

[ An article in the “Telegraph” en- • titled “Vive la Raison” would more appropriately be called “Vive la Folie.” In a state of silly excitement over Dr. Truby King’s lecture, and by way of relieving its feelings presumably, it says “It would not ' be a bad thing to raise a cheering | Hurrah for Dr. Truby King if only i for one of his utterances.” Now we ■ are quite prepared co accord Dr. i Truby King the full complement of , honour due to him for his capable I efforts to improve the human race, ! but we can hardly produce sufficient i hysterical emotion to respond to ■ the call for “a cheering hurrah.” [The event has passed and the lec- , turer has disappeared and the incident doesn’t appeal to us. Besides ■ the call for a “cheering Hurrah.” j one given for some stirring event. ; Because Dr. Truby ning “was good ; enough, and wise enough” to ob- ■ serve a fact that is palpable to- any ' man with brain's, does not call for ; the occasion of a cheering hurrah. i That the educational welfare of ■ children is often made of more im- * portance than their physical wel- ! fare is easy of recognition, but to that recognition of the ■ fact by Dr. Truby King “is a glorious hetrodoxy”—as the “Telei graph” states—is absurd and can ; only be reconciled with the vagaries of hysteria. But let us be just. The “Telegraph” cautiously adds, “it needs to be taken with discrimina tion.” Quite so! But is it the “glorious heterodoxy” that is to be f discriminated, or the handling of

the facts embodied in the “glorious heterodoxy I The “Telegraph” dors not appear to be very clear on the point, for : t goes on to say that it is “open to question whether our efforts at mental training are not commenced at too early an age.” It may be so, but it seems possible that lack of mental training at later periods pf life accounts for muc>i ineptitude. However, as the “Telegraph*’ pathetically remarks: “This is a peculiar world.” Quod erat demonstrandum.