THINGS AND THOUGHTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 86

THINGS AND THOUGHTS.

Bt John Christie. j ]

—The Ishmaelism of Genius. — In connection with genius there is a fact which is not generally thought of, and yet it seems to account, in Large measure, for the world's attitude towards it. Might not genius be defined as a vivid new spiritual or intellectual force which is strange, or opposed, or alien to things as they are in xhe world? Whether it is aggressive or una^gressive, it is by nature a rebuker of convention within the sphere of its activity; wherefore those who live by, or for, or in sympathy with convention naturally oppose genius. They regard it as an Ishmael, and it is an Ishmael too in a sense; but though they may be right in opposing it to the extent of constraining it to justify itself, they are altogether wrong in circumscribing the freedom which is necessary to it in this connection. Here the world uses many instruments, 6uch as active animosity, I calumny, neglect, denial of opportunity ; j and whatsoever it does in this way is I tainted with malignity, cowardice, and hatred of ideal excellence. Still every new prince of the powers of the air should cultivate the suavity which is calculated to mollify these simple, foolish, and stupid people —the surviving barbarians of a disappearing epoch. —Imagination. — The imagination of man is a wonderful thing. Has tt not peopled tbe waste

spaces of the universe with God? But has it done this in the sense of creating what did not previously exist, or in the sense of projecting itself beyond itself? Or is its function, in the matter merely that of tbe dewdrop, which, small in itself, reflects, mirror-wise, immeasurable 6paces of sky? — Wisdom in Youth and Folly in Age. — Wise young women, who consciously or unconsciously wish to make a business cf marriage begin by marrying old men, who, if they do not die in the right course of Nature, may be gently worried to death. Then the youthful widows will be free to make another experiment, or to retain their recovered freedom, which must be much sweetened by the recollection of the restraints and limitations of their wedded lives. In every way they are gainers. Is, then, the fact that comparatively few young women marry old men a proof that there are comparatively few wise young women in the world ; and is the old man who succeeds in persuading a young woman to become his wife justified in believing that he is marrying a Minerva? Poor girl — she newis wisdom to make up for her husband's lack of it. — Enemies of the People. — Truly great things in art or literature cannot be immediately successful — that is. in so far as their success depends upon, popular approval or acceptance. The reason is that the bulk of the people have neither a native nor an acquired talent for the perception! and appreciation of a consummate intellectual or artist n achievement. They may have this by-and-bye, after centuries of constantly improving education, but at present they are without it. What now is needed is that they should be intellectually levelled up to that standard ; and those who pander to crude popular taste are at once *he enemies of that purpose and of the people. —The Pest of Poetets.— Everybody writes, or tries to write, or thinks he can write verse; but few read poetry, and still fewer write it. Those who think they can, but cannot, are the greatest nuisances in the world; those who read ;t; t wisely must, in virtuTe of that fact, be amongst the gracious and wise of the earth ; and those who write it by the gift of Nature, the grace of God, and in virtue of reverent effort and achievement in the high realm of art aTe of necessity the choice and master spirits of their race. What a pity that the mere versemakers and the would-be makers of mere verse do not instead devote themselves to the study of the poetry that is thus produced ; if they did, how much they would gain in all that is becoming in men, and what a Telief it would be to other men to cease to be inflicted with the affliction of the versemaker. Then, indeed,, the imbecile would cease from troubling and the weary be at rest. But is it not hopeless to hope for such a time? It is probable that Horace merely repeated what bad been repeated millions of times before hi 6 time when he said : Verse is the trade of every living wight, And every desperate blockhead dares to write. And that the disease is inveterate, and perhaps ineradicable, is there not melancholy proof in the fact that every parish and road district has its dozens of poetets and versemakers, yet all the lands, of the earth contain only a few thousand readers of poetry, and the whole world only a handful of poets? If poetets. practised the craft only for the sake of the better knowledge it enabled them to acquire of the inner meanings and finer relationships of words, it would be well enough, especially if they kept the knowledge of their doing so to themselves, and constantly, from time to time, buried all their verses, or had them, at last, buried or burnt vrith their own bodies. But that would be conduct worthy of the wisest and best ; and is not the inveterate maker of mere verses one of the poorest of creatures — a thing which, like the mosquilo, may serve some purpose in the inscrutable providence of Gcd, yet is also, like the mosquito, a sad afflicter of the sons of men. Perhaps the purpose is that men must learn to bear with ail things — even mosquitos and versemakers j or devise means for their elimination from the world's economy, as they devise means for the eradication of insects from the skins of sheep and cattle. —Anticipation. — TheTe is sometimes as much pleasure in the anticipation of a pleasure as there is in the pleasure it6elf. The lover who visits his. sweetheart, and finds her in conference with another admirer, will admit this, especially if there is a touch of jealousy in his composition ; and what lover is entirely without it? Did not James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, describe every lover when he said of himself: Like Alexander I will reign, For I will reign alone; My soul did ever more disdain A rival near its throne ; He either fears his fate too much, Or his deserts are small, Who dares not put it to the touch, To win or lose it all? O summer nights, on the banks of starry waves ! O youth, youth ! —Selfish Emotion.— Very emotional people are, as a rule, very selfish people. They are seldom capable of thinking themselves in the wrong, and will always, if allowed, gratify their own feelings at the expense of the feelings of others, and even at the expense of the lives of those they profess to love — th© egoists ! "I hate you, I hate you; you cruel man! If I had only been allowed to speak to her just once and to kiss her!" What tides of emotion surged in the poor woman's heart ! Her daughter was on the verge of death, and she herself was too feeble and too old to help in any way. Supreme seclusion, isolation undisturbed except by those who came and went as softly as air, and knew exactly what to do and not to do for the patient — these were absolutely indispens-

able to the right treatment of the daughter's case ; and -'fiose were the words which the mother addressed to the doctor, who would not permit his patient's prospects of recovery jo be prejudiced by a disturbing and <femonstrative, and therefore for the jme being a pernicious, personality. And where was the mother's love? Love does not seek its own gratification, but the welfare of its object. This mother thought she had much love ; but had she any? She had emotion, but was it not 1 , in its essence, miserable selfishness? Here is an opposite instance. A ship on the high seas has caught fire, and is supposed to be in imminent danger of destruction. It is full of immigrants, all feverishly and foolishly excited about the event. Their behaviour is dangerous to all and to each other, and a nuisance to thoee who are responsible for the ship's safety. One mother, with her six children, says : — " Come here into this corner, my dearies. We only make things worse by being about ; I shall sit down, and do you sit and stand about me. We shall say nothing, but pray — pray in. jut hearts." What have we here? No effusive emotionalism, surely, and surely no selfishness i_ but surely much love and much wisdom. But were not the emotionalised people rushing hither and thither about the decks, selfish after the manner of the feeble old mother who cursed the doctor because he would not allow her to jeopardise her own daughter's life by her disturbing presence? Yes, it is too often true that your very emotional person is also a very selfish person.