PASSING NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27040, 26 March 1949, Page 4

PASSING NOTES

It is always in season for old men to learn.—Aeschylus: Agamemnon. Floods of advice for centuries have been discharged upon the youth of al l countries, but most of it is like that West Asian river which spreads out over swamps and sand and never reaches the ocean. Nobody advises the old, probably because they are regarded as past redemption, or enclosed like a case-moth in a spiritual integument of their own weaving. The power to learn, at its height about 16 to 20, decreases very slowly till 50. and indeed the decrease is caused by disuse rather than by decay of ability to learn. Hearken to the deliverance of that most attractive of psychologists. William James, to wit: Keep the faculty of effort alive by a little gratuitous exercise every day. And remember that “ exercise ” here means the exertion of one's will power to retain or recapture old delights, and further to move on into new fields, keeping active.

This grey spirit yearning in desire To follow knowledge like a sinking stai, Beyond the utmost bounds of human thought.

In Dunedin a few years ago I called on a septuagenarian and found him listening to records of conventional French. How far he succeeded in “ parley-vous-ing ”* I don’t know except that he was able to, appreciate the terminal point in a debate between two French cabbies, —i.e.—give my compliments to mademoiselle, votre mere. I could name a sexagenarian at present taking lessons on the piano accordion. Cicero tells us that Cato began to learn Greek at 80. Mr Gladstone, over 75. on the way to Denmark studied Danish. Fair lady or gentle sir. keep your mind alive. Fellows of the Royal Society have lives longer than the average—they are always, like Ulysses, yearning in desire. So take up your old music again or your old books, and make an effort to follow the main lines of modern thought—anything rather than stagnation!

Simia, quam similis nobis! The ape how like us! —Ennius, 180 B.C

It seems that some students when dissecting a Hindu’s body in Calcutta discovered an ape's muscle, which in the ape subserves the purpose of climbing and handling. The discovery, it is said, is expected to throw more light on Darwin’s theoi’y. It is still within living memory how any announcement of this nature to have' aroused fierce controversy and much quoting of texts. Our putative ancestor, one “ probably arboreal,” did not advance very far in his upward spiritual climb. There came a point where something new emerged or was added by the Unknown Power that originated all life. Nowadays there is very little worrying over our atavistic antecedents; the present world and its next phase—these are the things that occupy our minds. In general it is hard to imagine that anyone believes we are all just a result of the remorseless grind of natural selection. There came a point, faintly adumbrated in the ape. when mind appeared in man. Mina then no longer tamely accepted the grind of nature, but began to dominate the dominator, so much so that everywhere civilised man hits out vigorously against his environment instead of feebly succumbing to it. Environment does much but human intellect, courage, and will, do more. What still lies in the. upthrusting powers of old Dame Nature is hidden; but clearly we can at certain points and to a certain degree be masters of our fates. So a fig for the ape muscle! Man is now a man, and every day he leaves the ape further behind. It is not now muscle or intelligence man has to acquire, but the will and the knowledge how to live morally in harmony with all earth dwellers. Man is not what he was—he is what he aspires to be.

The Logos runs through the whole Universe.—Zeno, the Stoic.

To my correspondent. “Perplexed,” I say your questions are too controversial to be discussed here, even were I competent to treat theological problems. I will essay only one question, and that from a secular point of view —i.e., your query about “In the beginning was the word.” I take it you want to get some information about the Word, or as it was called in Greek, the Logos. When this word first began to be used in a wider sense. I don’t know —somewhere about 500 BC, I fancy, when it was used in the sense of a divine or universal word or truth which caused all things to come to being—which seems to mean universal nature or God. About 200 years later the Stoics took up the doctrine as the centre of their system. Some time ago after reading every scrap in the Stoica Fragmenta about this Logos or divine word, I came to the conclusion that the Stoics were not quite sure whether the whole universe was an impersonal deity—so that this meant materialism or pantheism—or whether, since they recognised the Logos as a creative intelligence running through all things, they also had a personal view of deity including providence and the “ spiritus mundi,” or soul of the world. As man had intelligence, this must have existed in the nature of the universe. I suppose the writer of the fourth Gospel was familiar with this doctrine. What he did was to announce something that would have made the Stoics gasp—to them it would have been foolishness. He said the Logos was God and the Logos was made flesh and dwelt among us. But, “Perplexed,” you should consult a theologian, for there are aspects of this subject which need a special exegete for their exposition. No religious controversy for me!

We know that it is the last time. —1 John 2:18.

It is astonishing how prophecies of the end of the world crop up and cause sensation and even panic amongst the superstitious. The latest propheev comes from Germany, apparently from the visions or hallucinations of an astrologer. The amusing feature in the fear of the end is that “ country folk were making their wills.” This is playing for safety in case the destruction should be only partial. It is something like the practice in ancient Rome where, though the people were hard-headed and militaristic, no general entered on a campaign without first offering a sort of dumpling to the sacred chickens which were kept in a cage. If the chickens refused to eat. the omens were considered unfavourable; and consequently when a favourable omen was badly wanted, the chickens were starved for several days before the auspices were taken. Superstition will never die. There always has been and there always will be an unknown world or worlds beyond the reach of human knowledge. It may be a world quite different from our imaginings, as we necessarily imagine from what we know. Still, one would have thought that Germany with its long tradition of education would have by this time become immune to the baseless vaticinations of charlatans. The cable message says the excitement centres were in the rural districts of Bavaria. Alas for human credulity! Perhaps some of the anticipating legatees will learn from the wijl what their expectations are worth. Meantime the earth, as Artemus Ward says. “ goes on revolving on its own axle-tree.” The end is not yet.

I can tell thee where that saying was born.—Twelfth Night. The interest in tracking down quotations to their source is so great that one can even fancy it is a vestigial survival of the hunting instinct in primitive man. There has been some correspondence about “ I expect to pass through this world but once. And any good therefore that I can do . . . let me do it now. ... I shall not pass this way again. The sentiment is old, but the expression of it in its accepted form is pretty certainly from the American Quaker, Stephen Grellet (1773-1855). In Penn’s “ Enchiridion, Some Fruits of Solitude” (1673), of which I have a copy, there is this reflection, “To come but once into the world, and trifle away our enjoyment of it, and of ourselves in it, is lamentable indeed.” The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius has something like it: “ Remember, no man can lose another life than that which he now loses. The present is the same for all; what we now lose or win is just the flying moment,” Another point —some time ago I said that “Aut viam inveniam aut faciam ” (I shall make a way or find one), was the motto of Captain Makege of Limerick. Since

then I find that the phrase is attributed to Hannibal in crossing the Alps, where Livy says he used vinegar to soften the rocks blocking his way.' If Hannibal used the phrase, it cannot have been in the Latin form, for being a Carthaginian he would naturally use the Phoenician tongue. There is also a poem, “On Fort Sumter,” by an anonymous American: It was a noble Roman In Rome’s imperial day, Who heard a coward croaker Before the battle say, “ They’re safe in such a fortress. There is no way to shake it.” “ On, on! ” exclaimed the hero, I’ll find a way, or make it.” Obviously this refers to some story in Roman history. Civis.

DDT and BHC, another bug-killer, saved 60.000,000 extra pounds of steaks, ribs, roasts and other eatable beef in Kansas last year. Each head of cattle in the State was sprayed twice during the summer. The result was an average 50 pounds more meat and bone, according to the American Association of Economic Entomologists.