NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22540, 3 October 1936, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS

COMPLACENT PARASITES Referring to tho groat nml growing army of those who arc unable or unwilling to stand on their own foot, but depend upon others for their support, a London surgeon, writing in the Lancet, says: Chivalry, the instinct to help the helpless, is one of man's noblest attributes, but chivalry called upon repeatedly and to excess is dulled, and demanded as a right and used unthanked is turned to resentment. We admire the strong man lighting against adversity and holding out a hand to I his brother who is fainting in the j .struggle; but we can only pity him who j is condemned to battle for his family and dependants, bis shoulders bowed and his movements hampered by a cluster of complacent parasites. RUGBY A MAKER OF MEN "I am more than ever ooin ineed that Rugby football has a very definite place in making men,"' said Mr. 11. Pearson, headmaster of Tettonhall College, in his annual report. "Rugby is a searching test of character, for there is in life ample scope lor unselfishness, honest work, and loyal service* toothers, as there is, too, in life, ample scope for meanness, cowardice and shirking. Honey Rugby football can bo made a real part of one's education, for the purpose of both is to make I men." Mr. Pearson also referred to the j training and study citizenship for | senior boys, aimed at sending out men I with minds trained to think for themselves, able, to adjust their views in a rapidly changing world, and yet strong enough in character lo stand true to j their principles. BODILY- DISCIPLINE | The free peoples are in distinct peril I of running to seed for lack of any j clear and purposeful conception of the ! ends of life, says the London Observer j in comment on Britain's poor showing I at the Olympic Games. This matter of | bodily training is an instance. Bolj slievist arid Fascist Governments may I deprive their subjects of many privileges that wo cherish and enjoy, but they do, at any rate, concentrate on the object of bringing men and women to physical perfection. That is to the average human being no small recompense ifor the absence of political rights that so often and so easily become abstract and futile. They insist, moreover, that the individual shall preserve and develop the heritage that ho possesses in his own bono and muscle and keep it an efficient asset of the community to whom ho owes the duties of membership. Unless democratic States can show themselves possessed of a corporate will on such questions and take steps to maintain their own human quality from the physical foundation upward, they arc bound to go the way of the earthen pots among the iron ones. The "liberty" that expresses itself in mooning and slouching will be their undoing. No society can keep its place in the world unless discipline elicits the full value of all its organs. MODERN VULGARITIES We see instances of modern vulgarity everywhere, and it always takes the second-rate for the first-rate, and gets its values upside down, writes Mr. Maurice L. .Jacks, headmaster of Mill Hill School, in the London Star. We see it in ribbon-development and the unrestricted destruction of our countryside, the convenience of a house on the main road (with all services, h. and e. in every bedroom) being considered more valuable than a green field or the child's life which would have been saved if the house had been placed further back. We see it in the houses themselves, with their meretricious exteriors biding the doors which don't fit, and their curtains keeping out the sunlight. We see it oven in their names, which are not only misleading, but misspelt—"Kozikot" is a double offence against truth, and therefore doubly vulgar. Wo see it in many of our films and plays and modern novels, with their constant appeal to that which is just a little nasty, their sly suggestions that we should he amused at what should shame us, their turning the limelight on the second or third-rate, their covert winks and digs-in-the-ribs, and their indecent laughter. We hear it in our music—music which is little but noise, inanities of song beaten out in inanities of rhythm, mere sound and fury signifying nothing. Such are a few of our vulgarities: the list might be extended indefinitely. Are they not all of them violations of good tasteP Do they not represent a topsy-turvy-do m of all values? GREATNESS OF HUMAN SPIRIT There are many who are haunted by what .!. may perhaps call the illusion of man's smallness. They say: " How incredible that out; who is hardly a speck upon the surface of one of the smallest planets, a negligible piece of this vast mysterious universe—how inconceivable that he should be the image of (iod, the Creator; that he should be in any sense the special care and interest of the Mind behind phenomena," says Dr. W. R. Inge, writing in The Modern Churchman, Indeed, if Ave were thinking of man's body that would be so. But we are not thinking of man's I body; we are thinking of him as mind and spirit; and the illusion of smallness consists in thinking that that which is confined for a time in a small space is necessarily itself small in ! worth. Who is it that has discovered j tho vnstncsß and the mystery of the ! universe? It is man. So far as wo | know, nowhere else in " this vast scheme of things " is there any knowledge of liow great and how intricate and how mysterious that scheme is. We should celebrato not the littleness of man, hilt bis greatness. For it is man wJio has developed the science which tells him what the universe is like. And can we still say, in spite of the psychologists, or some of them, that man is free and man is spirit? I assert that we can. The truth of our freedom rests upon an experience which is as authentic and as undeniable as any upon which science itself is based. Wo cannot deny that we feel and know ourselves to be free. Wo cannot contradict that which is the very essence of our personality. No one can disprove this, which is so primal in our experience. Nay, wo can think of tho development of man, his progress in the world, as tho growth of his freedom both as individual and as race. He acquires, as lie proceeds, power over nature, power over his environment; and we may hope that, before he bas finished his course, lie will acquire power over himself.