NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23146, 19 September 1938, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

THE NAZI WAY OF IT "When we cast a comprehensive glance over tho world to-day and see other peoples at grips with grave economic, social and political crises, when we seo this world Calling itself democratic, stigmatising our regime as authoritarian and dictatorial, wo can well reply that here (in Germany) we govern and one obeys," Dr. Goebbcls, German Propaganda Minister, in a recent speech at Dessau. "And when envious foreigners complain and pretend there is no more right to criticise with us, we reply: thero is right to criticise, only it is not subordinates that criticise their superiors, but the chiefs who criticiso their subordinates." SHERLOCK HOLMES' IDENTITY A correspondent to the London press has discovered that the public library of a certain provincial town in Britain has filed "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" among the biographies. When one considers the letters that have been addressed to Mr. Holmes at 2218 Baker Street, and the research into his life carried out by authors of repute, says tho Christian Science Monitor, ono cannot deny that there is a body of opinion that would apparently favour the library's decision. It might appear dogmatic, therefore, to assert roundly that that decision is a mistake. It is more courteous merely to point out that the weight of evidence inclines in that direction. In spite of this, however, there may bo others who prefer to keep an open mind, and, to toy with the possibility of a witness, arriving as unexpectedly as Hamlet, to declare: *'Alas, poor Sherlock! I knew him well"; and they may cite in their defence Mr. Holmes' dictum that: "It is a capital mistake to theorise beforo you have all the evidence."

TRUE SELF-LOVE History proves that those men nncl women nro accounted greatest who brush aside the concealing veil of fear, selfishness, and hates, thereby revealing their own, and our own, higher selfhood in unselfishness, goodness, writes Miss Linden E. Jones in the Christian Science Monitor. They indicate wisdom's way that right is might, with tongue, pen and example. They work to encourage affection and honour in families, local and civil improvement, social and world betterment. They give utterance to ideas which liberate from intolerance and greed. Is it not clear that such men and women have always found the highest happiness in finding the nobility of their true selfhood, and living it? Instead of looking to some distant Utopia to satisfy their hearts' desir.es, if men would truly love themselves, by loving truthfulness, temperance, patience, justice, lovingkindness, they would bo more than conquerors of the evils which beset them. Artist, writer, musician, parent, or student, all know that whatever hinders the expression of their highest selfhood must be mastered, if greater works are to be accomplished.

FISHERMAN AND ANGLER The titles "fisherman" and "angler" are used so laxly, so indiscriminately, that their difference has been lost and the terms are synonymous, writes Mr. Patrick Chalmers in his book, "The Angler's England." A precisian, however, knows that fisherman or fisher is, correctly speaking, as much a professional as St. Peter. He wears a blue jersey, ear-rings and sea-boots. He is robust, his complexion is Cornish and matches mahogany. He goes down to the sea in trawlers and in boats with brown lug-sails. By a little licence a fisherman may also mean a gillie or a waterkceper. On the Thames and, 110 doubt, elsewhere, a fisherman, sometimes qualified as "professional." is the fellow who, never fishing himself, takes you out fishing. His jolly race is dying out. not for want of fish, but for want of clients. An angler is, of course, the opposite to a fisherman. He is the man who catches lish for his amusement by means of a rod of any kind, except what is called a big-game rod, a tunnyrod or a tarpon-rod. For the taking of big-game fish is neither fishing nor angling. The exactly correct name for it has yet to be invented.

BUSINESS OF RELIGION "The business of religion is to challenge materialism without any hesitation whatsoever; without fenr or trembling—knowing that if there is Anything in the spiritual life at all it has to triumph over matter in every shape and form and over nature, and to reveal the spiritual life through nature and natural processes," said Sir James Baillie, Vice-Chancellor of Leeds University, in an address to students. "Do not run away from what materialism has to give. The power of man over tho forces of naturo is a magnificent illustration of the power of man's mind; but spirit is not the equal of matter. The spirit must triumph over matter, and it is the function of the preacher, it is the aim of the religious mind to establish by experience as well as by reasoning the priority of spirit in .the world over matter and nature. Materialism cannot give those things which make a man's life worth while—tho sense of the eternal, serenity of tho spirit, tho hope which issues in immortality—and the first word remains the last: What will it profit the spirit of man if ho owns all tho riches in the world and literally loses his spiritual value or his soul? If there is nothing moro in human life than what materialism has to offer, human life is literally not worth while. Let us not bo afraid of knowledge. The fear of knowledge is the last folly of man and tho final end of all wisdom. Knowledge is tho supremo expression of the human spirit which we dare not dispense with or despise in any shape or form, but knowledge itself is one of the supreme mysteries of life. Because of that it. is impossible and unintelligible without faith. It has no aim unless in terms of faith in a power beyond tho process of the human mind which is orderly in its procedure, stable in its purpose and. calculable in its will. Just as materialism can give no hope, knowledge by itself does not pretend to give faith becausuo it depends upon it; pursues it. The business of Christianity is not to create a particular civilisation, but any civilisation which makes Christianity impossible may be regarded as itself not worth while."