PASSING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26659, 3 January 1948, Page 8

PASSING NOTES

Greet the unseen with a cheer.— Browning: “Asolando.” Within the volume of the new year, mysterious Time, what secrets hast thou hid? Dost thou already know the world-wide Fate now hanging undecided—is this writ? And in thy book the daily humdrum tasks, the little things that make up weal or woe, the debit balance weighed against the credit, the disappointment at the broken hopes; anticipation ripening to success; the petty animosities; the fine, strong hand of friendship: and the love, the births, the deaths; as many ups and downs as in the life of one who works a lift! Hast thou no spiritual, radar ray to shoot ahead and tell us of the track, the varied track throughout the coming year? Is all decreed and dp we merely turn the daily page, automata of Fate, to read what is already written there? Or art thou just as ignorant as we, turning each leaf a blank, and day by day, writing our drama as we act it out? Mysterious Time, thou shouldst foresee all these. For thee the future and the past are one __the present turns to past even as we name it. Thou shouldst know all. But no! thou art a myth—there is no time—only eternity—no time, save in the passage of our thoughts, save in the birth, maturing, and decay of all we are. So let the year come on Good action is nobler than the loveliest wish. There’s nothing certain but uncertainty, the fluctuations and the ebb and flow—each year confirms the years that went before. But one thing solid stands ’mid chance and change—a cheerful heart—so front the coming year with faith and Sursum corda—hearts on high.

Hope springs eternal. Pope: “ Essay on Man." Everything worth saying about the New Year has already been uttered m prose or verse a thousand times, it can all be summed up in one word— Hope. So here follows nothing new, except that it is new to my readers: The earth lias swung another lap Around the flying sun,And now winds up quite cheerfully A most eventful run. We rejoiced that comet missed us Bv a million miles or more— We’Ve had enough of fighting here Without a cosmic war. Upon this little terrene speck ‘Mid doubtful peace and shock We mortals had our rationed share From Fortune’s varied stock. But after what we thought was loss Turned later to a gain— The summer’s warmth is sweeter For the winter’s chill and rain. Now, swung into another lap, Ranging the vast unknown, Trusting there is a Guide whose thoughts Are wiser than our own— Who steers us through the skies and knows Beginning, end. and whole— Our planet’s pilgrimage—and ours, The orbit of the soul. Come cloud or shine, come good or ill. We’ll Start off with a cheer, Hoping the old, undying Hope A Happy, Bright New Year!

There is a tide in the affairs of men. Shakespeare: "Julius Caesar.”

It is probable that no one receives wider information about world affairs than his Holiness the Pope, and therefore, quite apart from his religious authority, anything he may say about internatiorial problems merits the closest attention. In his Christmas broadcast he said that a dark cloud was gathering over us, and he uttered a warning against that insincerity which prevented the establishment of the true family of mankind, citing as a recent example the failure of the Foreign Ministers’ meeting. But even graver than that grave'statement was his dictum that the turning point in world destiny had been reached “ and the gravity of the crisis is unquestionable.” The 1 happy world of 1948 is at present only a wish-world, and as it embodies clashing wishes, the happy issue cannot be attained without either some synthesis of the opposing wishes or some modification on either side. It is hardly necessary to say what the two opposing wish-forces are. The Pope does not say—he knows his hearers know what he means in declaring ;hat “ he is a traitor who gives a vote to a party denying God ” To deny God seems as foolish as to deny the existence of the universe or to assert that it could have made itself. But that is only the beginning of evils. Deny God, and all bonds of responsibility are loosed. There remains only man’s authority then; and what devils godless men in authority can be, the late war taught us only too bitterly.

I have, alas, only one illusion left, and that is the Archbishop of Canterbury.—Sydney. Smith: "Sayings.”

■ The Archbishop of Canterbury had no statement to make—so saith the cable. Small wonder; for he must have been stricken into speechlessness on finding himself the author of “The Socialist Sixth of the World ” in an edition of 3000 copies translated into Czech and appearing in Czechoslovakia. The archbishop does not like the sociological views of his dean, Dr Hewlett, and was at some pains recently to explain mainly to Americans (who do not understand these things) that though he was Archbishop he could not control his dean —except in a purely religious capacity—and that appointment and dismissal were not his to make. One may be allowed to wonder whether the archbishop’s mental vocabulary when he received the dean’s apology contained any naughty words hovering near the speech centre that controls the vocal chords—or whether he saw the humour of it and laughed deep, deep down in the cerebal centre where laughter originates. Profanity is a relief to. a layman in such circumstances—there ought to be a safety valve for the clergy. One Father O’Flynn, according to song, seems to have exercised that right even to incurring the frown of his bishop, it would be useless for the archbishop to broadcast to the Czechs, for their kind new masters there are so deeply concerned for their social and intellectual welfare that they could never allow these innocent people to learn that an archbishop denied all their Marx-sent doctrines.

That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat.—Shakespeare: "Hamlet.” There is now much goodwill towards China and the Chinese. Mark Twain once wrote: “A disorderly Chinaman is rare, and a lazy one does not exist.” JBret Harte’s “Heathen Chinee” was humorous, but unfair. At the present time China is convulsed with civil war, the impact of Communism, the growth of a new spirit, and the introduction of democratic elections according to the pattern set by Dr Sun Yat Sen. But new ideas cannot at once disrupt and dislodge old customs, especially in a country where custom itself has so long dominated social life. An incident in Sydney throws light on the difficulties that western democracy must confront in China. A Chinese girl of 19 was to marry an Australian, but her father protested on the ground that he had promised her when aged only five to a Canton man, according to Chinese law. He said “Chinese do not break promises.” The magistrate, however, gave permission for the marriage to go on, and it did go on. In China, as in ancient Rome, there exists “patria potestas,” the father’s power; but this does not exist in British Dominions. Further, in China religion has been commonly a family affair,but Christianity while not denying this, emphasises the individual soul. British law, too, cannot hold a young woman to keep a marriage promise made by her father when she was a child. In this incident one can, as it were, see into the heart of Chinese society. It may take a century or more for western ideas to be naturalised in China. A republic there is at present, despite the recent election, little more than a name from the western point of view. Entry into a new modern house does not immediately modernise the inheritors of immemorial custom. China is China still. Civis.