THINGS AND THOUGHTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2734, 8 August 1906, Page 74

THINGS AND THOUGHTS.

By John Christii,

—Good Sense and Pine Sense.— 1

Good sense asks and answers the question: la this Uiing reasonably right in itself and in this place? And fine sense decides « whether x a -^ given thing or act is, in itself, creditable to the moral- consciousness of its possessor, . and whether it is duly touched ariih . consideration for the rights and sensibilities of other people, Good, sense implies judicious m» telligence, fine sense, sensibility and sympathy ; and when harmonised in mail or woman, they constitute the lady or gentleman.

— A Wise Statesman.—

" Do not carry me on your shoulders—* do not huzza, me, but give me your affeo tion and admiration as individual men. That will do you good and be good, for me, and will endure as a bond between us as long as I deserve your confidence. But the acclamation of the . world as * crowd is a bubble on the breaking wave of a mobbish mood, and bursts almost as soon as it i 8 born. Let us have none of itr." So said the wise statesman, in a talk with himself, and with the multitudes .that m ere lining the vistas of his imagination.

—What He Wants, and What He Needs.—*

Is it not a fact that your supreme egoisti hates every other egoist,, because, like tho Turk, he will bear no brother near his throne? He wants to be lord paramount of the universe ; but what lite needs is a steady course of pathological treatment fov a deep-seated mental disease.

— One of Life's Anomalies.—

There are natures so curiously constituted that they can stand neither, kindness nor good' fortune ; under the constant influence of either or both of which, vncy develop weakness and selfishness. Unfortunately, - many, who would be spiritually bettered by both experience little of/ either in their journey through life.

— A Qualifying Consideration. —

Life is the crowning jest of the universe, and those who know how to enjoy it, live and die with smiles on their faces. At tbe same time it may be well to remember that a facial radiance compounded of a smile and a smirk is prevailingly characteristic of imbeciles and fools; and also of certain persons who merely never have any trouble with their digestions, and bavo no souls to trouble them. Thus the divinely genial nature has no monopoly of that light in the face which proves wisdom, and yet is not always a pr"oof of it ; and even Milton is not altogether and absolutely accurate when he says : — Smiles from reason flow, to brutes denied, And are of love the food.

—Parable for Genius.—

The relation of the commonplace, carpincr critic to a genius when he first appears is that of a yelping village cur to a soaring eagle. Yet in the fact that no eagle condescends to scream, "Kennel up, cur,*' there is surely a fine parable for genuises with' respect to commonplace and carping critics.

—Literary Litter. -i

Tons upon tons of the -stuff thai go&j by "the name of literature is of no mow permanent interest or value than the com' mon current talk of the day. Still, be it remembered, though this talk may b« trivial and transient in itself, it has, in^ no mean measure, a humanising effect : and it may be so also with the literary froth and foambells of the moment. Thig hfe-vrever^ does aot entitle th,at frotli to tlj»

name of literature ; and, generally, workers in that line, when they take themselves seriously as aspirants and achievers, are to literature what crawling snails and croaking toads would be to the walls and floors of an ivory temple. Perhaps society will by-and-bye discover a way to keep these curious creatures in their proper places; which, of course, it will when it discovers how to keep their literary litter out of print. — Immortality. — There are people who admit that, though life is, relatively, only a moment for its units, it is eternal In* itself. A man has his day, but the race is for ever: this is their argument. But may it not be that " man, too, is individually eternal in a sense not yet intellectually realisable by himself. Though he may be, so to speak, only a bubble on the ocean, yet if that ocean is eternal, why may he not be so, too, seeing that the bubble is oi the same essence as the jcean? And where is the strangeness in his failure now to establish the certitude of his immortality, seeing that, in its present phase, his consciousness ii circumscribed by mortal conditions? The butterfly in its larval covering, growing and working towards the sunshine, has no knowledge of the sunshine itself. However, it may, latently, have the feel of it, and so it may be with mortal man and immortal life. o -