SOLITARY SOULS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19198, 14 June 1924, Page 10

SOLITARY SOULS.

Solitary souls arc those who go through life ever accompanied by a feeling of alone-ness. This sensation consists of a vague involuntary shrinking from contact with the generality of men and women. It engenders a love of seclusion and solitude. Many natures arc so attuned that they are out of harmony with the mode of existence of those around them. The daily doings of their nearest and dearest may strike discordant notes. It naturally follows that the inability to enter wholeheartedly into the pleasures and activities of those amongst whom their lot is cast, is bound to re-act on the individuals thus constituted. It must of necessity throw them back on their own resources. And with the enforced realisation of the lack of understanding—for it amounts to that —between them and their fellowcreatures, come a tendency to withdraw into a world whore the crowd may not follow. And this world invariably resolves itself into a self-created realm of thoughts, dreams, and imaginings. There, no one may trespass: only those to whom the gates are opened may pass the barrier. It is a portable possession that all such natures eternally carry. They take it to cities, and view the jostling crowds from their own peculiar vantag'a-point: it goes with them to rural retreats, and gives them companionship in waste places. And instead of the “loneliness” from which the superficial think all solitary souls must suffer, their lives are full to overflowing. For with that unerring instinct with which such personalities are endowed, there is instant, invariable recognition of affinity, whenever two such chance to meet. Then a friendship of such depth and tenderness is formed, that it endures while life lasts. In enjoyment of such bliss, how should a solitary soul feel lonely? In books they find exquisite happiness. An hour with “Mrs Nickleby” gives them more pleasure than a matinee. Wellknown characters in fiction they regard as personal friends. In reading poetry they find expression for those thoughts they keep locked within their breast. With Mother Earth they hold com munion: for them the lark trills beyond the clouds: the bubbling brook whispers secrets, and the sea, in all its moods, is their never-failing friend. For this reason they do not need people: unless they can enjoy the: society of the few they truly love, anti with whom they are in perfect accord, they prefer to be alone. Some outlet, however, these .natures must have. Thus it usually happens that in some branch of the arts, the solitary soul endeavours to portray that dreamworld in which it dwells.