NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11854, 4 January 1902, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

tnE trial of 60 Polish schoolboys at Thorn, '- :J Prussia, " for belonging to a secret society, iS fiie sole object of which is to promote th* .'< sWdy ot Polish literature and history," v-": his called forth a good deal of comment:' ... in the journals of Franco and England, and goes far to show, as the Manchester :, ■; Guardian says, that the Polish question is by no means ? quantite : negligeable; in - ; . Continental European politics. : The use. v of the Polish language is strictly -forbidden; in the schools of the Prussian-Polish pro-1 vinces, and the secret society to which the j boys belonged \ is no doubt one of-thai-•■ organisations used by the Poles to promote'. . ">; the study of ~ their language and history .out of school hours. The Guardian re-» marks that the trial shows "how very low, the Prussian Government ; can stoop in its attempts to crash out the national aspira- [\ tions of its. Polish subjects." ' It says. :."',•; further: —"The prosecution of the schoolboys of Thorn will in all probability en-; courage the < studies which seem so ob« noxious to the Government. It is strange, that the Prussian Ministry still fails, to - realise ;> the unwisdom of its anti-Polish crusade. All its attempts to Germanise the Polish provinces, by settling Germancolonists there at vast expense and by ,_ i l prohibiting the use of the Polish language,,; have admittedly failed, and the Poles, jwhose racial sentiments were no more dsai-j ; gerous to their Prussian rulers than the Welsh national movement is to this coun.4 try, are bemg taught against thc-ii will to . . dislike and distrust Prussia." The Govern.; aient at Berlin, says the Independents., , , Beige (Brussels), is "pursuing its Prussia- . cation campaign with a vigour and persist*, ency worthy of a better cause. We can-,, ''; /,, not protest too vehemently againsit this ; attitude of the Prussian Government to-; Ward the inhabitants of its annexed fPolish ? as being quite as unjust and . dangerous as that adopted by the Government at St. Petersburg toward Finland and 'f-Mk the Polish provinces which are part of, , Russia. It ought to" be perfectly evidehh % to Berlin that this policy can have no other | effect "than that of intensifying the antiGerman feeling and v increasing the - desire \ for German Govern- •" 1 mental journals, such as the Vossische Zei-< v A ; :: tung (Berlin), the Frankfurter Zeitung, and' tlfS the Hamburger Nackrichten, in the brief references 1 they make to the Polish ques- \ - g tion, justify the course of the Government! on . the ground ; that the Poles * are rebels,', V and that their aspirations for a revival of ... Polish literature and the study of Polish '-.;'; history are dangerous to the peace of the. . ' Empire. Some of the more liberal journals, however, see danger rather in the op- ".;' ; pressive measures which have been taken against the Poles. The conservative Welf. am Montag (Berlin), whose 'editor, iierr, ■■% von Gerlach, is a close connection of thej present Prussian Minister for Finance, re- " ; ferring to the trial of the schoolboys, says i "The bankruptcy of the anti-Polish policy •-", of to-day is manifest; Polonism has not " become weaker, but stronger. From the ; ; , dignity which marked the bearing of the J : accused in the trial at Thorn, we can infer | . that the maturing' generation of educated; * Poles will be a very, grave enemy if it- be' *'•'. treated as an enemy." '*■-'■■ ■■-- .'."."."' : - '" : .-> ; '■- ''■'■■■.-■■'■: ■ : 'r'^iifi That the aquiline nose is requisite to"a' -i :; full development of the human voice is the remarkable assertion of Dr. Louia Robin- "' son, as reported by A, H. Gourand in" -\ Popular Science. Says Mr. Gourana: — -'-. ,' His (Dr. Robinson's) contention is that, " ,- through the long night of unrecorded time " \ during ■■ which primitive man was slowly '■■'■ and painfully progressing towards civilisation, the voice was the • only rational 3 means oi exercising influence. Oratorical * ability and a sonorous voice thus became ■> of exceeding importance to the aspiring :& and ambitious, and th ultimate formation ■ i ; of an aquiline-nosed race would . become the necessary result; of the better assured ; ;„4 survival of such favourably-endowed individuals. Thus the long-nosed would tend || to become masterful, ■ to form, first, an aris- ' tocracy, and ultimately so leaven a people as to ensure then dominance, as was the. ; case with the Romans." Dv/; Robinson cites r the North American Indian, the Maoris, '-,- and the Bantu negroes, among whom are ' the (celebrated Zulus, as instances ■ of largenosed warlike and oratorical peoples. Im. '*■ further support of hits theory he adduces ; ; the fact* that an examination of the skulls ' in the British Museum shows that the .' hollow sounding-chamber in the upper jaw- \ bone, known as the autrim, is , plainly of Ifff greater capacity in snubby-nosed peoples than 1 in the skulls of such large-nosed races ;* as the North American aborigine and the m Maori. This larger development of the ;;j| sounding-chamber supplies a measure of the resonance afforded : by the passages of » § large nose, and thus, for oratorical pur- .■ poses, a nose voice is better than a cheek-. -• bone VQi.ce. '"':'.-'-■--! ''■'■;•,. ~i? ■ "•■'■'• -.': '3-'/"^--.:'!"■:;■:'■;■''■^. ! ■".'-: ',}■-■ '"- :: VS'BpsThe conjunction of the words "plain liv- _" ing and high thinking," is no mere attempt at a taking phrase, we are told by a writer ■; ■' in the Lancet, but has a sound physiological basis. He reminds us that De -. Quincy war. assured on medical authority, that a man could be drunk upon beef steak, and that food mayl produce great mental torpor. He goes or) to say—"K s. i is the empty stomach that b«sc suits a'full ; head and ideas that flow out V.freely before . j retire with the entry of substantial repast.'. ; j Oliver Wendell Holmes, wMi that cliarm- -J ing blend, of wit and scientific knowledge ' /■'-:■'■-" '■.' "-■' AH '" {■■ ;; ;' ; .' : - :1 I|| ! '■■■•;■ ■ lasiii

' miiiiw w inn m iim« &hat gave the distinction to his writings, fcas discoursed upon this very point. He talks. of the '. bulbous-headed fellows steaming as they writ©/ and shows how to meet tho demands of thought ■■ and, imagination. ! .; The brain must have more than its share of the circulating blood. There '• must ;be no/ rival in the full liver or the actively digesting glands of the gastric mucous membrane. -■ Do riot eat heavily, then, if you are soon to think hard. Either your ideas or your ; dinner will be neglected and lie a sorry weight upon your head, or your epigastrium. ; The poor half-starved ; poet is familiar to ; everyone. We . may : mitigate our pity by .reflecting that in: many cases he would have been no poet if he had riot starved. .Enough fuel to sustain the fire of life is necessary for work, but heap on the coal arid you will deaden the overburdened flame. The ' great thinkers, * ; the , great workers in any direction but v purely physical one. have for the most part been abstemious: men. If not naturally of small appetite they have exercised constant re-■'■'[-.straint, grudging from tho play of higher • functions every.'moment and every energy spent upon the; animal activities of their '.'. nature. Habit soon helps the fine effort of such people, and it becomes natural for ! them to eat less, to drink less, ■-. and to I sleep- less than their fellows. Thus, in a long life, of intellectual . activity , many scores of .-hours 'are utilised for the main purpose which in the case of other men are . squandered. upon the dinner table or in the mere nothingness of sleep or idling." The author believes that Carlyle was justi- .: fied in his definition jof genius as " a capacity : for work.'.' Every great man, no I matter how brilliant his natural gifts, j sooner or later has worked with constancy • and devotion; in the will and the power : to work geniuo asserted itself. Heavy cannonading has been heard south-'. .. ward of the Frankfort-Tafelkop *' line of blockhouses. * Land in the Transvaal 50 Wiles from Johannesberg is selling at £50 . an acre. .;.;••.'A;' writer in. the Neue ; Preie Presse, a leading Austrian newspaper, declares that Great: Britain's exertions in the Transvaal have strengthened her • position, and that historical and racial ties unite the . colonies to the Mother Country in a stronger :; •bond of union than any written constitution. The Queen's health renders it doubtful ''whether Her Majesty will be able to attend -r the ripening'of Parliament. The King has decided to donate an anonymous gift of '£200,000 to the establishment of' a sana- '.. torium for consumptives. It is said that the Prince of Wales will visit India in November to attend the proclamation of the King as Emperor of India. Lord Rosebery, in a'. preface to his Chesterfield speech, which has been published in pamphlet form, says that the national policy ■ which he outlined has met with general approval, but that is nob enough. Political opinion must be organised and political energy; must work and entrench on behalf of tiat policy, otherwise the wave of approval with which it has been met will be lost,' in space. Mr. John Redmond, the leader of , the Irish■■■ Nationalists, [■ advises lord Rosebeiy to lead his ragged regiment ; ;;; of Imperialists to the Unionists' camp, leaving the Radicals to act with the Irish. :■■ He also declares that if the Government attempt a policy of coercion in Ireland the last vestige of landlordism ' will -be swept away. The revolt in Venezuela has, the President" announces, been crushed. Documents, which have come into the possession of the Times'. Paris correspondent, show that in 1900 > Russia had agreed to support the Dowager Empress on condition that the ■ - Boxer movement was directed against the foreigners, and that Russia obtained a free hand in Manchuria. ' This explains Russia's -,' withdrawal from Pekin , and her proceedings . since the '■ siege. * ",