ROUNDS CORNERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 931, 3 January 1890, Page 17

ROUNDS CORNERS.

THE HIGHER LIFE. Lord Onslow delivered himself right fluently the other day upon the higher culture of women, and the duties which colonial gotten wealth owes to the colonies it was gotten in. The theory he propounded is thoroughly sound. Wealth is accumulating in the colonies at a great rate ; there must be developed a leisure class, so termed, although the hardest of all work is too much leisure ; but if the leisure is properly applied a lot of wholesome work may be evolved out of it. But it is as I gently hinted last week. No work no holiday; all leisure weariness of the mind, and body as well; a life that clogs and is destitute, quite, of wholesome seasoning, which means, of course, that life is unsavory, and that is about the worst tbat can be said of life, for unsavory life, with nothing seasonable in it, is subject to putrefaction, and becomes offensive to all about it, breeding, as it does, the plagues of Egypt or worse. Wealth is a capital thing, and leisure is just lovely when one spells ‘upand doing,’ and the other ‘turning everything to the best amount.’ . Hut if both are devoted to the mere fripperies of existence, a little of the taking scientific; a little of the lightly artistic, a lot of sensuousness, a heap of laziness; keeping the social ball rolling and flapping about very close to the earth’s surface on small wings ; ah me, if nothing better than this is accomplished, wealth and leisure wont do much, and may not by any means be designated accessories to the higher life. LEAVENING. Art is a good thing, and so is science and wealth and leisure, but they are nothing if they don’t stir the mass of the people and keep it fermenting. That is what the churches are trying to do all the time, but they don’t succeed much, for the ferment set up is a very little thing. Christ was right when he declared he brought not peace but the sword, for there is no peace in. progress, and he was the incarnation of progress striving to lead the people out of bad old ways into new good ones. .And there are many on the earth at this day trying to do likewise, their aim, the welfare of the masses, to rescue the people from material as well as spiritual degradation, and bringing themunder the strong influence of a vital consciousness of self. Dut

( these Christs are in the poorer ranks of life, mostly. Out of poverty spring the higher vir- , tuJ s > afl 4 no higher, that I know of, than are 1 recofylnij such glorious manifestation in the slums 0# gretvv cities, through the various benevolent and rriigtous institutions. But nearly all who are engaged in the work are poor. They who have wealth and leisure at their command are not in the army of these samts* at least, not many of them.

THE GOOD OF IT. All the good their wealth and leisure do is circulating the one and building up artificially with the other, necessitating a constant inflow of wealth. ’Tia the life of a butterfly £ only silk is in demand and must be supplied. And so, in an indirect way, wealth and leisure do benefit the masses, and holds up to them a higher kind of life, imperfect, it is true, but which, when pursued, does occasionally divert the larger minds, the more perfect intelligences,, j Into paths leading to a higher life that combines, I all that is really superior in human nature.. Mere frivolities are passed by for the substantial and truly progressive. But sensuousness, the. commoner product, of the possession o£ what is termed life’s good things, claims it» millions of votaries. To lie softly and live idly is so pleasant and nice, and so are bred the diseases of higher civilisation that bring about mental decay and physical degeneration. Are not these things written in the books of the higher civilisation of the age, and of the higher civilisation of past ages? Read for thyself, oh. student of life, aud pause and consider whether there is any escape from the evils that are bred so prolifically from wealth and leisure. It is a festering carcase,, Some of it sinks Into the soil and fertilises, but more passes in deleterious gases, breeding disease. HIS LORDSHIP’S POINT. Right yon are, my Lord, ‘right as a trivet/ in your estimate of the conduct of those colonial degenerates who deliberately elect to sink their own individuality in the teeming millions of the Mother Country, and muddle away their means there in the gutters and sewers rather than stand out in bold relief in the country of their adoption, or peradventure, birth, and sow their wealth on wholesome soil where it would bring forth abundantly, and nourish and sustain in the highest of all work, the develop - ment of a young nation. Well might you wonder, Lord Onslow, that men and women, nurtured at colonial breasts, could turn from them ungraciously and ungratefully. But unhappily there is damning proof oi this in every direction. __ . ' - BEAL PROGRESS. The best of all evidence of real progress has been abundantly apparent during the recent holiday season in the social life of the masses. It is the season, above all others, that tempts and panders to sensuality. According to the old law, that was in full force until quite recently, Christmas was not kept except in the very vortex of gluttony and drunkenness. Its the interests of the medical fraternity and drug stores, people went far out of their usual way to eat and drink and to be * royal ’ at Christmas time, and bilious and gouty afterwards, was considered the quite correct line of conduct. But that’s all changed now; there is no ‘ royalty ’ at alt, and not much overfeeding, and if plum-pud-dings are stilt to the fore they are, thanxs to our * Elise’s ’ recipes, of such a character that they would scorn to disagree with anyone. There is no howling and disorder nowadays at Christmas time. Look at Wellington streets on Christmas Eve, crowded but astonishingly decorous. Not a. drunkard to be seen, no bad language or horse play, the product of bad beer and worse whiskey. Temperance is in the ascendent, temperance in all things ; and who is to take credit for this ? Not wealth and leisure, but temperance reformers and the Salvation Army, and Friendly' Societies, and the virtue evolved out of poverty. The masses are moving onward, aye, and upward, too! A PITIFUL TALE OF THE SEA. That bottle found re the missing County of Carnarvon has a genuine ring about it. And from it it would rather seem that the good ship has met the fate of so many others, and her stout crew have passed through the mermaids’ bowers on the deep sea-bottom. ‘Decks swept clean, may sink at any minute,’ was the pitiful cry of the three survivors when the bottle was freighted and launched. ‘ God rest thee, ancient mariners,’ and assoil thy souls, for thou didst battle the storm bravely, and met thy fate manfully. Still there is romance of the sea in guise of the sternest reality. As to the authenticity of the bottle find, that can soon be ascertained by comparing the names given with those on the articles, a record of which must be at Lloyd’s. HE TOLD THE TRUTH. After the day’s trout fishing. Enter George, radiant with the fish-basket: ‘ Well, I have got back my love, and— ’ * Oh, it is you George, dear. lam glad to see you back. It was so dull with you away that I took up the Bible to pass the time, and was reading the Book of Revelation as you came in. That is a wonderful book. And, just think, it says, 1 All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.” Have you caught anything?” ‘No, Mary,’, he answered sadly, ‘ I did not—catch —anything ; but I thought, as I went out to catch fish, you might be disappointed, and so I bought a couple of brace of the finest trout you ever saw at the fishmonger’s.’—(A Quotation.) Asmodeus.