DO YOU BELIEVE IN FATE

Otago Witness, Issue 1822, 22 October 1886, Page 31

DO YOU BELIEVE IN FATE

To your question, Alice, do I believe in Fate — that all that happens to us in life is planned out, and from which there is no escape — my answer is No ; not to such extent. The experience of life teaches very plainly that many things happen to us over which we have no control. Like a wave flowing over us from behind, we are overwhelmed and cannot ward off the blow ; but if we go far enough back we can trace the cause of the event. There is throughout the whole of nature a seed time and harvest occuiTing and reoccurring — we are constantly sowing and reaping. To-day we gather the flowers and thorns of seeds sown which maybe we have forgotten all about. But that does not alter the fact in the least — from the age of free action our lives are pretty much in our own hands, and, dear girl, let no theory mislead you. Do not entertain the erroneous idea that, do what you may, it will all end the same. Shakespeare says "There is a divinity that shapes our ends rough hew them as we may," and this shaping process is, perhaps, the part over which we cannot preside — after we have rough hewn our life. But if, instead of the clumsy, unshapely thing, we had shaped our ends as we went on — a little trimming to-day, a little polishing to-morrow — now with an infinite patience, clipping with a fine chisel some delicate leaf, tomorrow, with a quick, sharp stroke, breaking off an unsightly edge. As the beautiful structure grew into a perfect piece of workmanship there would be small need for those strokes from an artist hand to " shape our ends." In this shaping of our ends after our own clumsy rough-hewing we may see that which we call Fate, and which strikes blow on blow, and hurts us so. All that remains to us, then, is not to shrink, but to fall in with the forces at work and help the master hand. Seventeen you say you are. You have so much, so much, 'of the future to be as you will make it. Let no one persuade you you have nothing to do with it — no free will, for you have, and this is what makes each step so important. If through mistake or selfsacrifice — good nature, generous impulse — call it what you will, you take a wrong, unwise, misguided course, the outcome is just as bitter as theugh you had deliberately planned the evil. Harvest time takes no heed why the seed was sown. It was sown, and thistles yield thistles, and corn corn ; and the only consolation a tired heart can find when sitting wearily by the wayside of a barren track ia — I did not Jcnoto ! Fate, if it is Fate, is very pitiless. In ignorance, in self-sacrifice, or wilfulness it matters not, if you take the way into the valley the darkness is as dense as though you meant to go there.

You say that my answer will decide yon. Then let it be to believe in sowing and reaping. Fill your hands with hope, faith, courage, patience, and • love, and with a song on your lips and light in your eyes scatter as you go in the firm assurance that a good harvest time will come. The world hath need of you — need of all the youth and truth that it can get to sweeten it and strengthen it, and although it is old and purblind, it is a good world still, and repays to the full all that is lent to it. A little faith will win as much of trust, a little gentleness as much of love. To your question about husbands I say, Be true to yourself. Let no mistaken impulse of an undisciplined heart lead you astray. For no one's sake marry a man you do not love — not for' father, or mother, or lover's sake. Nothing but sorrow and. bitterness can come, of a loveless marriage. Sooner or later the tide 'of suffering will set in, and a whole life is spent in one long effort to keep above the waves. So then, dear girl, you will know when you love a man dearer than your own life, and love the best that is in him as your own soul — that if there is a fate in it he is fatejl for youj otherwise not. It may be an easy way to get rid of the responsibility to say "it was my fate " when it means "it is my sorrow." Marriage should mean 'union. If it is not union it is a miserable bondage — an unnatural, unlovely mockery which no high power could, consistent with truth, have ordained ; therefore it'is folly to blame Fate for what is done amiss. To young girls I have said before, and say again now. Wait till you are quite sure. Don't with light and careless hand throw away your sweet girlhood. Spring only comes once in life's season—keep it as long as you can. In answer to your query can I recommend anything to whiten the hands. I do not think if the hands are 'not naturally white, that you can make them so, and I have no faith in cosmetics. Try bathing them in oatmeal and milk, and rubbing rosewater upon them at night. This can do no harm, and if you are not Satisfied with the experiment in a few weeks write and let me know, and I will procure one of the many receipts advertised, but which you will be wiser to leave alone. •V