ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12523, 16 March 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

ST. PATRICK.

To-mobkow will be St. Patrick's Day, when every son of old Ireland will be a-weariug of the green. ' It is true that those prying historians,- who seem never to be happy unless they are upsetting popular notions, tell us that St. Patrick was not an Irishman, but that ; he' was '.born in England. However, • whatever the paltry facts may be, the truth is. that it is impossible for the majority of mankind to think of St. Patrick as anything but an Irishman, and an Irishman he will remain. Of course such invincible, prejudice may be annoying to superior persons, but the best thing they can do is to grin and bear it, for so it will continue to the end of time. Thfe history of Ireland without St. Patrick would be about as bad as the play of " Hamlet" minus the Prince of Denmark. Not long ago a few very clever people were foolish enough to declare that Ireland's great- saint was not an historical personage at all, but the same historians have knocked the stuffing out of this mythical theory. ' It is true: that there is a lot we don't know about St. Patrick, but there are some things that we do know, and they are all to the good man's credit. Ha was born about 387 A.D., of Christian parents, at Bannavern Taberniae, a village identified by tradition with Kilpatrick, in j Dumbartonshire, but of which we only know for certain that it was situated in a part of the Roman province of Britain that was exposed to the incursions of the Scots. He was already ordained deacon when in his sixteenth year he was carried captive to Ireland, and he was there for six years employed in tending sheep. Restored to his.native country by escape in a pagan vessel, he was led by a divine call in 414 A.D., to form the design of evangelising the land of his captivity. . Having taken | priest's orders, he sailed for Ireland, where he laboured for many years, and was consecrated bishop in his 46th year. He probably died in 458 A.D., and his festival falls on March 17, as all the world knows. Such is the history in brief of the Apostle of Ireland. The enthusiastic way in which -sons of Ireland all the world over honour the festival of St. Patrick is a creditto them, and when they cease to keep his memory green they will cease to deserve the name of Irishmen.

St. PATRICK AND THE SNAKES. Everyone : except historians and naturalists are perfectly well aware that it was St. Patrick who hunted ; the . snakes; out of Ireland.: Irishmen know that snakes are nasty disagreeable creatures, and they naturally attribute the welcome absence of the beastly things to the exertions of their patron saint, who - takes a special interest in Ireland's welfare; ; This state of ; mind is sensible enough" for the ordinary i man; but the naturalist, like the historian, is far from, ; being an ordinary man. He comes along and upsets things.by telling us that fhere ; never ; ' were many snakes in Ireland. He knows so much about it that one would think he had been there and was personally acquainted with : St; Patrick and the Ireland =of the sth century. This is what the 20th century -?naturalist says: -—"Ireland and Britain long ago were one land; then they were separated by. the sea; then reunited for a brief period; and, finally, the sea parted them once more. The distribution of animals : shows that the - Emerald Isle was cut off from England before this country ; was severed from the Continent. Mammalia and reptiles travelled westward, and thus :it is found" that while Germany lias 90 species of mammalia, Britain has only 40 and Ireland only 212; and, while Belgium haso23 .species of reptiles and' am.-' Cphibiait Britain has 13 and Ireland only 4. When Ireland was last elevated an isthmus connected; the two countries, but, as Professor Jukes-Browne 'says, -,:,'.the isthmus was submerged again before more than four of the Continental species of reptiles had crossed Jh sufficient numbers to form a permanent settlement. v Serpents come rather late in the .order ', of reptilian development, and they were tod late to get across what is now St. George's Channel and the Irish Sea." "' WHAT IS BEAUTY?

: In his interesting sermon at All Saints' Church .Sunday morning the Rev. H. L. Snow put a number of posers to his hearers. Why, he asked, is progress a-going, forward and riot going backwards? ■'. What is right, and why is right right? : Why is beauty beauty? And he might have added What is -beauty ,;. Mr., Snow showed his good sense in riot attempting to answer these questions, and I am afraid if the congregation struggled with them for the rest of their lives they would not be much nearer a solution. Yet, however inadequate our theories may be, we' have a practical knowledge of right and wrong, of what is progress and beauty, which is sufficient -for workaday purposes. Some people tell us, for instance, that there is no. such thing as beauty for its own sake im the universe;; but that the beautiful in nature is but -, a. sort of accidental secondary .consideration. Its existence in living nature has been explained by the fact that its c cultivation has been found to pay. The 'beautiful lines and colours of birds and plants have proved "of .advantage in the struggle .for existence, and therefore they ; have been developed.; That is the beginning and end of the utilitarian theory of the beautiful, .and as far as it goes it is probably true enough, but it does not go far enough. Beauty has a higher moral significance, and has exercised an immeasurable influence for good or evil on the minds of men. Pascal pointed out quite truly that an inch or two more less on Cleopatra's nose might have • altered the whole history of the world. V Nature displays a prodigality of beauty far be- • yond the limits of utility. A recent writer says: " Admitting, as far as the facts warrant, that nature has made good,, economic rise of beauty for the maintenance and vic-' tory , of' life, does this utility of it account for all nature's superabundant beauty? Or, must we find some love of it for its- own sweet aakeuear to nature's heart? 'What other account of it can you give?' said a botanist, when asked a question about the violets. Utility, accounts for some beauty, • but . not for the perfection of beauty in nature. This is revelation of i the Intelligence that thinks and loves it to the' mind in us, which may perceive it and delight in it." The writer referred to sums up the matter thus: "Of all beauty in the natural and moral worlds, on earth and in the heavens, we may say as our last word ot interpretation of it, and our highest wisdom, as a child said when gazing into the beauty oi an evening sky, Mother, I know what makes it so; God gets beneath it, and shines through it. -•' . . :•:• LUCKY DAYS. : ,

I wonder if either the Tsar or the Mikado is the happy! possessor of a lucky day, because such a possession often comes in very useful *in times of war. Sunday next (March ' 20) deserves to be remembered as "Napoleons lucky day. ' The belief in the : special luck, bad or good, attaching to cer-. tain days of the week Is as old as we hills. Some great men have believed that particular days of the month were specially propitious to them. Napoleon's day (as I have already mentioned) was March 20 Cromwell's was September 3 ; the great Emperor, • Charles V. saw his star in the ascendent on February 24; and so with others. But the belief in specially lucky days of the week has been much more general than that m cer- ' tain days of the month. The mighty and ■ the humble, the civilised and the barbarous, : ,have alike shared in this belief. Louis j XTTT. of France set store by Friday, and when he lay dying on a Thursday vainly longed for a few more hours of life, which might have brought him to his lucky Friday. Pope Sixtus V. had a speciali regard for ' Wednesday. ' Other great men have liked oi ~ feared this or that day. Many numbler j people share the same feeling, and probably every day oi the week has its votaries, kven Friday, which is much more associated in the popular mind with ill-luck than with good fortune, js a lucky day to some good , folk. , , . , The' General, < i