AUTHORS AND THEIR VIEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18368, 7 April 1923, Page 6 (Supplement)

AUTHORS AND THEIR VIEWS.

ON TRUTH. , " Truth .is the. only real reformer, the only genuine philanthropist, the best life insurance policy and the best newspaper policy. Truth is the best literature, and make 3 the most interesting story. Pasteur was not labouring with a view to benefit the. race: he was hunting for the truth about germs; in so doing he untJbversd a truth that has saved millions of live stock and human beings. Physicians no longer, seek to ' do good' to their patients; they try to find out the truth about their patients, for they know that only the truth can do them good. The human race is waking up to realise that what it needs is not philanthropy, or sacrifice, not rebellion, not heroes and leaders and reformers; all it needs is to quit lying and to do away with/all organised, ancient, and honourable falsehoods. Trust,. competition, government ownership, or this or that, is not the cure for the ills of business. The real remedy is plain, old fashioned honesty an.d square dealing."—" Truth," Frank Crane, D.D. IS PUNISHMENT WORTH WHILE. "For a hundred years or so there is a fact about humanity that has been trying to find lodgment in the consciousness of civilisation. It is the fact that punishment never does any good. To cure crime by helpfulness and not by vengeance lias been , always supposed to be extravagant for individuals and an impossibility for governments. Though the western world has professedly been 1 Christian' for. a thousand years and over, it has never got to the point where it believed that Jesus meant what he said. Viewing the matter with calm scientific intelligence we get right back to the truth. He initiated, to wit),'that two cruelties do not make one kindness, and that the only possible way to wipe out the harm of evil is to do good to the evil-doer. When society hangs a man it 'is merely gratifying its lust.for vengeance. 1 In a hundred years from now, our barbarous, ignorant system of gaols, penitentiaries, and gallows will be relegated to the limbo of the stocks, the wheel and the rack; in their stead we shall have' schools for the healing of perverted wills and emotions. It is a curious fact, but absolutely indisputable, that, in the history of law, crimes have diminished in proportion ' as punishments have been made milder. The fundamental cure of crime is the ethical education of the youth."—" Christmas And the Year Round," Frank Crane, D.D. ON CHARM. " The discovery that we ponsess charm is as it were the birthday present which old Father Time presents to a man and a woman on their forty-fifth birthday. Many young people like to believe that they are charming, when, in reality, their attraction is . merely the attraction of youth and health, of pretty ankles, a classical profile, or the elegant way in which' fashionable clothes hang upon their fashionably • shaped bodies. But nobody can with truth preen themselves on their charm until their < allurement which belongs,' primarily, to - sex, has waned, or become recognisably indistinct. If we are popular at forty-five, then we ; must indeed possess an attractive personality. For to be really and truly charming must be for what we are, not for what we look. Charm is surely a unique charm of the mind; otherwise, why not call it by its proper name —a name which infers something entirely different from any mental or moral virtue, and' is shared by the animals also." Some. Confessions, Kicnard King. WORE" AND' EDUCATION. "Work does not become a romance until you are working on your own and for yourself. A profit, ; however small, is far more thrilling - than a big _ salary. And boys should be educated with that end in view. .It . would • inspire them far more than the picture of prosperity in a frock .coat,' and • the ability to 'put on a top hat on a rainy day without the slightest • financial qualm. If parents only, realised' this, there would not be so many young men about, who, having been through Eton and. Harrow, and later on the univejsities, when all is over are worth exactly eighteen, shillings a week in the world; of labour, which they must enter to fight their way upward. In most cases the higher education is only really valuable as a hobby and hobbies are the happiness of middle age. — Some Confessions," Richard King. ■ - : CHAMPAGNE. ■' Nothing,is more revealing of a man's character than a glass of champagne too much. It loosens the tongue of the weak manthe ordinary man; breaks down his reserve and prods him on to talk carelessly and boastfully; to prove his importance at whatever, cost. But with the strong man the effect is quite the contrary, he grows more guarded with ■ every glass—the result, perhaps, of breeding, of wisdom gained by , experience. At any rate 1 1 in vino Veritas ' does not work with him."" The Kingmakers," Burton E. Stevenson. ' - LOVE. \ '* It's breakfast; that's the test of love. Most' people break over it like boiled eggs."Philip Gibbs. .