“Mind the Curve.”

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3400, 30 July 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

“Mind the Curve.”

When the cable tram car in the old days swung round the corners the gripman called to the passengers. “Mind the curve!” The motorise finds signs on the highway warning him that danger is just ahead. It he is enjoying the delight of motoring through England’s leafy lanes we will see here and there a notice bearing the legend: “ Concealed road. Sunken ships are dangerous in channels, and their graves are marked by a flag. The traffic signals in great cities all aim at the safe crossing of dangerous intersections. Safety zones are available where risk is greatest. The motto, “Safety first,” is that which prompts to the provision °f nil such defences. They are visible and material realities, but they are also symbols of the unseen dangers and unseen safeguards with which every traveller through this world should be familiar. We begin the journey in utter ignorance. We have not passed this way heretofore, and not long after we have stepped out on the road we find ourselves at the dangerous corner of adolescence. In its earlier and later phases it extends, roughly speaking, from twelve to twenty-one. That is the period marked by the awakening of new possibilities, and therefore of new perils. The physical change is little short of an upheaval, and keeps step with mental moral, and spiritual evolution in most momentous fashion. FeeLngs, ambitions, thoughts, and ideals crowd the young mind. The world was just created yesterday. This is the dawn of the first morning: all things are possible; those of us who passed through this golden age more years ago than we care to count know well its perils. It is marked by susceptibility to influence and by the formation of habits almost certain to become permanent. During the early part of adolescence the power of heredity makes itself universally felt. The largest number of commitments for crime are said to belong to this stage, and it is easily understood that then also the greatest spiritual awakenings take place. The tides of the soul flow deep and strong, and sudden ebbings are common. There are vacillations from fevterheat to coldness, and from enthusiasm to apathy. It used to be said t&at the determining period was the first seven years. Psychologists now declare adolescence to be the determinant of destiny. Another of life’s dangerous corners is marriage. Many a fatal blunder is made here. Everyone knows of hasty marriages, too-early marriages, thoughtless marriages, and every conceivable kind of misfit. Dr Johnson thought the Lord Chancellor could choose happier mates for men and women than they themselves could select; but the proposal to confer such authority upon any Chief Justice would not get ten votes in the whole of New Zealand. We prefer to choose •ur own wives and husbands, and even tie make our own mistakes. We feel tkat the important privilege of selecting a life partner is absolutely untransferable. If marriage is not invariably a complete success, the same may be said of all human undertakings. If it is a failure it is our own do : ng. Unthinking persons too indolent to draw distinctions or incapable of doing so, call marriage a gamble. What they should say is that matrimony is a risk. The school boy learning his lesson said to his father: “ What is this big word, * m-a-t-ri-nt-o-n-y ’? ” “My boy,” said the the father, “it isn’t a word—it’s a sentence.” Marriage is a world-with-•ut-end bargain, and should not be entered upon lightly or unadvisedly, without adequate consideration of its purpose and duties. One of the dangers attaching to it is that men and women, swept on by the urge of romantic affection, pay no heed to the dictates of prudence. There may be disparity of years, tempers, tastes, and outlook upon life. A young lad sees a girl in a ballroom, thinks her an angel, marries her in haste, and finds that there are varieties of angels. Some marry for money, some for social status, and here and there a woman, like Jane Welsh Carlyle, is attracted by genius. What crashes have taken place at Marriage Corner? What tragedies have resulted from what we mildly call unfortunate marriages ! “As the husband is the wife is; thou art mated with a clown, And the grossness of his nature will have weight to drag thee down.’ The cynic laughs at the idea that marriages are made in heaven, and declares that many of them are made in the other place which incidentally has one point »f affinity with Gretna Green. The responsibility for marriage Tes with •the parties themselves. It is the most solemn of adventures, and shapes life for good or evil, happiness or woe. The risk is too great to be taken without most earnest thought. It is riot so generally known as it should be that one of the most dangerous corners to negotfate Is middle life. When a man has settled down, found his groove, served his apprenticeship to the world’s work, as someone says, and “lost the early fevers

LIFE’S DANGEROUS CORNERS. / FROM ADOLESCENCE TO OLD AGE LIFE IMPOSES RESPONSIBILITIES. WATCHFULNESS IS EVER AN ESSENTIAL.

of the blood,” he has escaped some dangers, but only to be confronted by others. He has made a happy marriage, is blessed with chi.dren, prospers in business, and occupies a pew in church. All’s well, he feels, and most of us think h.m safely booked for the Celestial City. for human frai.ty. A surprising nurriber oi men collapse during the middle years. The era of struggle kept them morally straight; when they found themselves in quiet waters a change came over them. Observant students Oi life have noted its features to be what the Germans call “ Weltgeist,” the spirit of the world. They grow utilitarian and materialistic. At the stage when the arteries harden moral fibre is apt to shrink. At this period men begin to worship, as Stevenson did “ the twin god of Comfort and Re-spectab-lity.” They were better men when they were climbing. It may be urged that at this corner many men become useful and esteemed as civic and Christian councilors and wise administrators of altruistic enterprices. That is undeniable and gratifying; but the fact remains that this also is the period of disillusionment. We are apt to jeffcison idea ism. We believe in what we see and feel, and slip into the temper which seeks sensuous and sensual gratification. “ Hence the indisputable fact that the worst places j)f debauch in London are kept up not by foolish youths, but by insatiable well-fed men _ of ripe middle age.” Cases quoted illustrating the perils of this period are Faust Henry VIII., Lord Bacon, King David, and men of like passions. Hisiory and biography abound with proofs of the pathetic fact that danger lurks even when we seem safest. When we relax and ship the oars Niagara is not far away. We all have our dangerous years. Life is not a nest, but an arena; the world is not a playground, but a battlefield. “Charge, Chester, charge ! On, Stanley, on ! ” The man with spiritual" resources is the best equipped for the struggle. The forces of good are stronger than those of evil and every man who puts on the armour of righteousness has the universe on his side. That is a wonderfully inspiring truth, but the generations that are past send down through all the centuries the wanrng of the old-time gripman: “ Mind the curve ! ”