THE COSY CORNER CLUB.

Otago Witness, Issue 3249, 21 June 1916, Page 63

THE COSY CORNER CLUB.

Too late for last week's meeting comes a paper from " Hope," who has been, so sho enys, one of oar silent members for a lon™ time. I g've her paper here, at the samo time extending her a very hearty welconvo indeed, and hoping with her that she may be prvsent at many of this year's meeting 3. Dear Elizabeth,—The sea. or the hills? Here is someone who wants to say " Boih." What it is she to do? Perhaps, wiih your kind permission, if she is brief, she may be allowed to touch on nnc aspect of each which appeals to her. I love ell hills—little hills, big hills, and, most of all, mountains. My ideal location would have all of these, with the mountains on the far horizon, and the sea near enough for me to sec- it always, and go often to hear its voice mere clearly. To me- th-a hills suggest aspiration, be they lulls or mountains. " I will lift mine eyes to the hills, from whence cemeth mine help." And surely, apart em any other help, good it is for us to lift our eyes to the hills, where beauty of form and colour and tint, of light and shade, of cloud and sunlight and moonshine, is e\er to he seen by seeing eyes. I liiio.v a lange of mountains on a western horizon. Many a picture of them have I in my mind —blue or snowy-white against a blue skyline, crowned with glorious gold and. crimson sunsets; pearl-grey and mist-en-shrouded en a rainy day. lying calm and seirue in the moonlight ; and the one I lovo perhaps best of all—their snows flushed with delicate pink at sunrise'. And ever "Yon hazy ridges to my eyes Present a glorious scale, Climbing suffused with sunny air, To stop no record hath toid where! And tempting Fancy to ascend And with immortal spirits blend. "Rooted here I stand and gazeOn those bright steps thai heavenwards raiso Their practicable wayg. Come- forth . . . and look abroad And see to what fair countries ye are bound." Then the ocean : "And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me." The sea, too, I have loved in many aspects —in clear or cloudy weather, in sunshine and by moonlight. How wonderful is the effect of moonlight on the sea, with the stars shining down from a clear blue sky! But t-o me an even greater pleasure is to stand by the sea to watch the waves rolling in from a far, far distance, and "to hear the mighty waters booming evermore." I cannot put it into language, but there is something so soulsatisfying in that sound. Is it, perhaps, "an echo of that immortal sea " which brought us hither? And as wave after wave rolls in from the horizon to the pebbles at one's fe-et-one feels that here is a suggestion of a power vast enough and purifying enough to cleanse away all the error and sorrow and

sin of all the world. Only last night I found my idea of " immensity " in connection with the sea expressed for me in poetry (by Byron), mid I cannot do better than close with his words : " Then glorious mirror . . . , . . . boundless, endless and sublime J The imago of Eternity." hope. We have also to welcome- a new member—m, at least, a, pi">?pcotive one, in Lady Arbutlmot,' who writes to say how very much sho has enjoved the papers on " The Hills and the Sea." "I have enjoyed ench and every one; have read them all, "and will read Ihem all again. And what pleased ma most was seeing so often the quotation from Longfellow, ' If thou art worn,' etc. It is a favourite one of mv many favourites of Longfellows." The rules of the Cosy Comer Club are very simple, Lady Arbutlmot. All you have to do is to send in a paper for any of the meetings, signed by your nom de plume, but giving your real name and address for my own reference. You must observe tha journalistic rule of writing on one side of the paper only. That is all, except that thertj is an unwritten rule of good friendship that pervades the whole club, and unites in the most wonderful way all these pen friends, most of whom have never met "each other personally. I hope you wiii write in tho future, and "I don't expect I shall find much to criticise! T have sent on the letter that you enclosed; but. another time please put it in a stamped envelope. Third meetinsr, Juiv 12. Papers to be in by July 1. WOMEN "WRITERS. Since the days when Fanny Burney wrote her first novel in secret, with fear and trembling, the number of women writers has grown apace. Many, especially those of tha" eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, had extremely interesting personalities, and members might care to read up something

<bout their lives and works, and pass on the results of their researches to their fellowmembers.