PASSING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26980, 15 January 1949, Page 3

PASSING NOTES

Both a great and a good man.—Macaulay: "Life of Johnson.” There is a proposal to reconstruct or remove Dr Johnson’s statue from Fleet Street, as it is ugly and represents him as resembling a negro. Were I consulted (which seems improbable), I should employ the printer’s character — “ stet,” let it stand. Johnson was ugly —just look at Sir Joshua Reynolds’s portrait of him—thick lips, thick nose, heavy jowl, and no very marked vivacity or intensity. Yet, remember Socrates, an ugly little snub-nosed man, and his friend and pupil said of him that he was like those ugly figures depicted on the cover of statuaries’ boxes—but open the box, and there, the dazzling figure of a divinity, the work of Phidias or Praxiteles. Johnson was like that. A huge, ugly, scrofulous man, grunting, and convulsively gesticulating—and yet when clearer seen and better known, a kindly, generous man as well as a literary genius. Do you remember the verses* the sacred verses, which he wrote on the death of his humble friend, Levett, the apothecary? In misery’s darkest cavern known His loving care was ever nigh, Where hopeless anguish poured the groan And lonely want retired to die. And the letter he wrote to Lord Chesterfield, proud and dignified, declining' patronage The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary and cannot impart it; till I am known and do not want it. ’Twere pity to remove his statue, so again, stet! The maintenance of classical education is essential to the maintenance of the continuity of English literature. T. S. Eliot; Presidential Address. I have to thank a correspondent, “ D.C.L.”, for several articles lauding classical culture. A reader unacquainted with the nature of classical education will probably undervalue it when he sees so much attention being devoted to studies which appear to have little bearing on the life of our times. Yet in Western Europe to-day the classical tradition is a common bond even amid the uncertainty and comparative dissension prevailing. The recent meeting of the Classical Association and the Hellenic and Roman societies is given extended notice in The Times, of London. Hellas, as Greece was called, gave birth to the idea and the exposition of humane culture. It was taken up and organised by Rome, and eventually became to some extent at least blended with the spiritual teaching that had its fountainhead in Judaea. The articles sent., me by “ D.C.L.” stress the contribution from classical thinkers as a concept of “jus,” or human rights, and the great principle that men are more important than States—a truth never understood by the despots of the East. Western Europe is now confronted with doctrines which have no kinship with those of the humane classical tradition. Thus there are good presentday reasons for keeping alive the spirit of the classics. Speaking recently at his old school, Harrow, Mr Churchill said, “ It will be a great tragedy if we should cast the classics aside.” Varium et mutabile semper. (Varied and mutable always.)—Vergil, describing Woman. From Melbourne comes news that the liner Orcades must have its kitchen reconstructed because the expensive machine dish-washers left hundreds of cups still marked with bright waterproof lipstick. Vergil, when using “mutabile” about.woman, might as truly have used “immutabile,” for the use of cosmetics goes back beyond memory. If you ever visit the British Museum see the lovely alabaster boxes which contained unguents about the year 3500 B.C. in Egypt. Eye-witnesses of the opening of Tutankhamen’s tomb say the cosmetics found there were still fragrant, and that particular Pharaoh was buried about 1500 B.C. From the Old Testament we know that Jezebel “ painted her face,” and there are references to painting of the eyes, so I suppose this included lip-painting. Ben Jonson, in “ Drink to Me Only ” wrote: Or leave a kiss within the cup And I’ll not ask for wine. The Orient Shipping Company will wish that this is all that ladies would leave within the cup. But all in vain! Even goddesses, according to Homer, practised “ touching-up,” for he relates of Hera when she would charm Zeus she repairs behind the golden doors and Here first she bathes; and round her body pours Soft oils of fragrance and ambrosial showers. Men don’t understand it. Why will a beautiful young woman put vermilion colouring on her already attractive lips? I have seen some of whom Shakespeare’s line is true, “ Diana’s lips are not more rubious,” yet they will add. It is a great mystery. The Orcades, that great liner, will have to be supplied with a new kitchen, because my lady will insist on painting the lily, or rather her lip, and leaving the impress on the cup. A mystery never to be solved!

Thinketh He dwelleth in the cold, cold moon.— Browning: Caliban upon Setebos. Those intrepid spirits meditating a trip to the moon which is promised within 10 years should learn that artificial language invented by two Frenchmen in the seventeenth century, which would enable all earthdwellers to converse with one another and with denizens of the moon—‘if there are any,” says Comenius, who spoke of it. The ancient humorist who flew up to Luna on wings got from a vulture and an eagle, when perched up there did not find that distance lent enchantment to the view—rather, it lent illusion, for he said the earth was much smaller than the moon. The earth-dwellers in their cities looked to him like swarms of ants—a motley and manifold spectacle. The confusion on the earth as he looked down appeared unto him as a number of companies of singers, each company intent on its own tune, abandoning all harmony, and striving mainly to out-bawl its neighbours—a discord, saith he, that makes up the life of men. The earth was a playhouse full of ridiculous spectacles, among the most ridiculous the quarrelling about boundary lines. When the flier was leaving to go higher up to the courts of Heaven, the Moon (called Selene by him) spoke saying, “Tell Zeus I’m tired of the speculations of philosophers, some saying I’m inhabited, some that I hang over the sea like a mirror and that my light is stolen and illegitimate.” The assembly of the gods cried “ Burn them, annihilate them,” and Zeus said, “It shall be so, but as this is the festival season, I’ll give them four months’ truce.” Then they took away the flier’s wings and sent Hermes to carry him down to the earth. Civis merely presents the old satirist of the philosophers, wondering what he would say of modern science-prophets.

Foresight may be vain. —Burns: “To a Mouse.” The Gallup poll which failed badly in the American Presidential election is now being regarded as a complete failure. It shared the fate of the backer in the old song, “Without the other horse. I’d reckoned: two ran, and mine was second.” Yet on the whole the Gallup method is sound, and would give the correct 'result in most cases. It is the method of sampling, long known to psychologists- What Dr Gallup did was to send his men to gel samples of opinion—“ Trumdn or Dewey ” —from people in various professions and business, various social strata, and of various voting ages. Actual experiments made years ago by psychologists in sampling beans, where white beans were mixed with black, gave an accurate result in an overwhelming majority of cases—i.e-, what the sample showed was true for the whole heap, so many of each. But sampling inanimate objects is different from sampling sentient beings like electors. Had all the electors voted, the Gallup sample would have proved correct. But the poll was a comparatively small one, and Mr Truman’s majority was smaller than that of previous Presidents for many years back. A prophecy often works its own success. Spread a story that the price of any commodity will soon rise,

and that there will be a shortage—people will buy and create the shortage. Per contra, the confident prophecies of Dewey’s success by many journalists may have worked to keep thousands of his supporters away from the poll. One swallow does not make a summer, and one failure does not altogether discredit sampling. Civis.