THE NONCONFORMER

Maoriland Worker, Volume 10, Issue 422, 9 April 1919, Page 5

THE NONCONFORMER

By \VA3/riJK CREIG. All progress depends on the x reasonable man. Thus Guoi's , ? Bei-na I Shaw —a most unreasonable Irishuu who bus marie L'aiue and a fortune England by snening aL England a her institution:-;. The unrcasonal man is a nonconforiner. lie refill to believe that whatever is. i.s rig! lie insists on men getting out of t vui.y and grooves of their falhort; a grandfathers. He helps the woi along. Yet ihe nonconformer is n appreciated. (I myself am still po and unknown (o fame.) He is c spisert and rejected of men. 3 makes people, uncomfortable by va ing doubts in their minds—which a bundles of inherited beliefs and pi judicots born of education and enviro men , . Vran a.mongst noncunforme themselves ■ those v.-hose blood ru x,ana vithin ;;rf: frequency rlv.bt extremist , ;, ;;.bcl anarchists by the col blooded, Gtisniatistc! au W'-n who their cause mon : : harm tlra.ll good ':■>:, .liven names not complimentary. Dante, ths immortal Italian nowent, in spirit, through the regio of Hell, with the great Latin lord song, Virgil. Dante saw a group creatures shaped like men poor a ject-looking Avraiths, the shadows shades. He asked Virgil who tin were. Virgil made reply that th were the conforniers of the world creatures -who had sought the line least resistance, who had gone throuc life seeking on other end but the own peace and quiet; who had doi nothing bad and nothing goo< damned neutrals—people whose sou had withered for want of exercisi human beings who had never real lived nor exercised the high prerog, tive of Man. After some such c: planation as this, here given in bom spun prose, Virgil said, with sublin scorn: "Talk not of them, but loc and pass them by!" * * i: * Most men and nearly every woms are eonformers. They are maehin made and live by rules laid dow for them. They take the world i they find it; they adopt the nam religion, politics, and outlook on li: of their fathers. They never devia , a hairsbreadth from the straight an narrow path laid down for them r their progenitors, masters, and pa: tors. To do so would be Sin. The go through life like a flock of shee; following the bell-wether whithers* ever he leads them along the well-d< fined ruts of precedent and praetic They are the great staple of humar ity, and live as by instinct, like tto bee and the ant. =l! * tf * The noneonformer. on the othc hand, is a born rebel. Ho will ik accept life as he finds it. He does nc believe that whatever v;, is right. H believes that whatever is, is wrou; He is no believer in. divine rights c divine sanctions here below. 13 laughs at precedents, and perpetual! demands of the social and moral 'pc lice that they shall show their waj rants. He keeps on asking the evei lasting "Why?" until his neighboi get exasperated and tear him t pieces or put him in prison. But eve this does not abate the nuisance c nonconformity, for the seed has bee sown, and disciples who own no alk fiance save to the divine fire witbi their souls, spring up on all sides an force mankind onwards in their ow iespite, and obey the great law c progress, that moves in and throug ill thins- like o precis cf tii *■ * i> * . The noneonformer preserves th svorld from dry-rot. He is the salt c :he earth. He is filled with the etc jire to'stamp his character on his ag( xi leave his mark upon history. H ;ays: "My life'tihall be a challenge lot a, tru.ee." 3lc leuigha at the race!' ilacid, sheep-like folk who Jouiig comfortably in the easy chairs of lif< ,vith folded hanujs over their well iiled stomachs, softly murmuring 'Grant us peace in our time, goo :;: ifi l> * All the great men of the past hay been nonconfonners. Jesus, the Car pen (.ex , of Nazareth, was a lion con I former. He would not live the ortho do;c life of a Jew. It was too meai and dirty for him. He despised th Pharisees, who hated him because h revealed their inmost thoughts am the rottenness of their hearts. Hi made light of the sanctity of the Sab bath, and shocked the '■unco quid" o his time by consorting with the out casts and the poor, the publicans am the sinners. His life, judged by th' standards of His day and ours, was i ghastly failure. His name' was s byword and a reproach. ' But for tw< thousand years it has had the pro foundest influence on history and ii still more potent than any name oi earth. Such is the cumulative force of nonconformity. * :;; :•.: * Socrates, too, was a nonconformer He was a heathen philosopher whe had never heard of baptism, regen oration or the vicarious atonement and had never dreamed of the mill en nium. But he believed in the divint power of right, and led a noble life He was true to the light within him At the risk of his life he never failec to say what he believed to be true He was courteous alike to rich anr poor, virtuous and vicious. lit sought neither fame nor wealth, bill went about talking to all who woulc listen to 3iis divine wisdom. He wat a true noneonformer. He put the eonformers to shame, and the conformers put him to death. He died like a man, leaving behind him a name that will live for ever. The names of his enemies are forgotten. ;■: Si * >;: If a man has any character at all he is bound to be a noneonformer Nonconformity does not make foi advancement. The man who will nol conform, who will not be starched and ironed into the conventional type of humanity, is kept down by his "superiors" who conform to the standards of the times and .achieve success by doing nothing unorthodox rather than by merit or force of character. "Sale" men. compromisers, trimmer:'., lawyers. t?oliticians, placehunters and parsons—the blackcoatecl gentry generally—are all conformers. Even srhen they play ai being reformers they show the conformity in their blood. For The reward of nonconformity is failure and contumely and disgrace and death, and these are not the rewards sought cor .by the .conformor. He loves his life here on earth too well to risk it Cor the immortal life won by the nr-.y-