THE COSY CORNER CLUB.

Otago Witness, Issue 3149, 22 July 1914, Page 65

THE COSY CORNER CLUB.

The request of Seventh New Zealander has met witn a very • ready response. The day after it appeared a note reached me from Lex offering to send him the reports of the club meetings in the future, an offer which is cure to result in pleasure for both of them. An offer also came from Nancy, who confesses that she is not yet a member of the club, though she had godcL intentions in that direction at the beginning of the session. I am sorry, Nancy, that you have been forestalled by Lex in your kind offer, but I hope yon will make an entrance into the pleasant comradeship of our club as soon as possible. The papers for the rest of the session should have no difficulty for you. For your benefit and the benefit of others who, like you, may have missed seeing the syllabus at the beginning, I am giving the programme of the latter half of the session. Alpha sends one of her interesting letters discussing some of the points in last week’s papers. She and Shasta seem quite at odds on the subject of Wordsworth. Perhaps Shasta will have more to say in support of her views, unless Alpha’s eloquence has caused her to revise them. Dear Elizabeth,—l think that the meeting generally upheld the application of Wordsworth’s lines to our own times. I much appreciate Elsie’s paper; it just conveys my own sense, of the amount of misdirected energy in most people’s lives—particularly women’s; the needless rush and hurry, the needless work, the importance attached to trivial things, and the consequent loss of many of the best things of life. I agree with her about the barrenness as regards the best results of our school system as it commonly works. Pupils learn to pass examinations, not for the good of learning; they rush feverishly from one thing to another, and neither learn things thoroughly nor acquire a love of good reading. I like Lex’s paper very much also. Shasta I am generally in accord with; but this time I think she misses the point of Wordsworth’s complaint, and is under a wrong impression of his character and teaching. He did not mean that we should shut ourselves out from human interests, but that we should not be worldly, not absorbed by the material. We all know what is meant by a “worldly” man or woman, and that the title does not convey praise. The worldly person values his fellow creatures as they serve his ends. Most of us have known some who will turn the cold shoulder on the old friend who falls into poverty, or whom they climb above in the social scale. Now, they do this because “the' world is too much with them”: they place wealth, success, social standing before friendship and human charity. We know again that the “unworldly” person is the one most full of human kindness —one who values you for what you are, not for what you have, —and who, without any cant about it, really feels that all mankind are brothers. Wordsworth was no sour ascetic or Pharisee. He is the poet of humanity as truly as the poet of Nature. Just think of all his poems showing the deepest sy,~- v '«+-hir

with the lives of humble men and women — “Michael,” “The Leechgatherer,” “Simon Lee,” and a hundred more. Think of his poems on childhood, of his keen sympathy with the animal world. His great poem “The Excursion,” though it contains much reflection—prosing, we must own, —is full of stories of humble lives, told with truth and pathos. Then he was not only sympathetic to the sadness of life; he entered into its innocent mirth—see the lines telling of his pleasure in seeing a rustic dance: “They dance not for me, but mine is their glee: Thus pleasure is spread through the earth in stray gifts, to be claimed by whoever shall find”—and many touches throughout his works. Few people have loved the world as Wordsworth loved it. Shasta says, “Wordsworth wrote much that was unworthy of his genius.” But it was unworthy an expression only, never in feeling. And his common defect of tameness comes from just an opposite cause from the one to which Shasta attributes it. He thought that all human careers were fit subjects for poetry, and that common language sufficed for its expression. I could say very much more, but must stop.—Yours truly 7, ALPHA. Dear Elizabeth, —Mark Twain’s epitome, “Smell Italy and die” still holds good, and the microbe-laden, health-destroying air so affected this poor traveller that he took overlong to recover, and couldn’t appear to tell his little tale. I regret it There were good things in Italy; some great and grand enough to rise superior to its overwhelming drawback. “But shoved be’ind me.” The echo still haunts me, though. Did no one else pay a call on it, and, uttering a single clear ha! hear it caught lip by the echo and sent back in a long rollicking peal of laughter that forced everyone to join in willynilly ? The last meeting suggests an old rhyme to me: Hurrah, for the days of yore! When it took three days to get to York, And those in a hurry had to walk! 0 bother the days of yore. And this: The good of other days let others state — - I think it lucky I was born so late. Kind regards from TAFFY. As you see, Taffy, Seventh- New Zealander is already supplied with a correspondent, and it had to be a case of “first come, first served.” 1 was afraid you would be lodging an objection when I saw what had happened in the comment to your letter. I have no desire to see Taffy in any guise hut his - own; but accidents will happen sometimes, even in a newspaper office. MUSIC. August 12—Papers to be in by August 1. We all know the opinion of'Shakespeare as to the man with no music in his soul. I should bs loth to think of any of our members as fit only for “treasons, stratagems, and spoils,” so shall expect a large array of papers on this subject. Music in some form or another appeals to nearly everyone, but probably the views of the unmusical on the subject will also make interesting reading. A SKETCH OF ANY HUMOROUS OR PHILOSOPHICAL CHARACTER IN SOME WORK OF FICTION. September 16.—Papers to be in by September 5. Most novelists delight in drawing characters such as these. Sam Weller may be quoted as an example combining the two characteristics, but there are many possessing one or the other; and most of us have our favourites among them, and may like to introduce them to our friends. MY GARDEN OR MY BOOKSHELF. October 14.—Papers to be in by October 3. These two subjects need no comment. There will be, I think, many members who will find it hard to decide between the two; but the choice must be made. I fear me there will not he room for both.