THE GARLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3265, 11 October 1916, Page 49

THE GARLAND.

FOR THE QUIET HOUR. Xo. 163. By Duncan Wright, Dunedin. "EXCELSIOR!" Father! I will not ask for wealth or fame, Tho' once they would have joyed my carnal sense; I shudder not to hear a hated name, Wanting all wealth, myself my sole defence. But give me, Lord, eyes to behold the truth; A seeing sense that knows eternal right; A heart with pity filled, and gentlest truth;'' A manly faith that makes all darkness light. Give me the power to labour for mankind; Make me the mouth of such as cannot speak; Eyes let me be to groping men and blind; A conscience to the base, and to the weak Let mc be hands and feet; and to the foolish mind; And lead still further on such as Thy kingdom seek. Onco again I read, and feel somewhat 'enamoured with, the suggestive wellknown phrase, " Hitch your waggon to a star/' and quite frankly confess that 1 do not quite grasp its full significance. Did Emerson (who was no dreamer) mean that we should follow high ideals in a world that is rough, rugged, and unsympathetic? Did he mean that, and nothing more? Or did he rather suggest high ideals carried into and translated out in the activities and struggles of real life? Have you any formulated theory on this pragmatic point? Of this we may rest assured : that the man who wobbles is nearly as bad as the waster or the shirker —both lose the crown. The only man who deserves or wins the nimbus is the man who firmly sets his teeth and says to himself and to the whole world, "I will," and the only man who shall certainly reach the goal. Pope declares: Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow; The rest is all but leather or prunella.

In a lovely valley not for from Dunedin's throbbing centre I often hear the song of the lark as he rises towards the blue sky. Higher and yet higher he rises, and louder clearer is his note. And there, just at your feet is the laughing, merry, rippling stream of water, clear and cool." dancing to the sea. And all around you are the towering bush-clad, undulating hills and vale, with the blue vault above —these were the surroundings of the sweet rocalist as lie warbled all the day long without a care. There are the materials for an idyll if you have sufficient imagination and Parnassus favours you. Cowper sings: His are the mountains, and the valleys His And the resplendent rivers. His to enjoy With a propriety that none can feel, But who, with filial confidence inspire, Can lift to heav'n an unpreaumptuous eye, And smiling say: "My Father made them all." And Browning sang : Above, birds fly in merry flocks, the lark Soars up and up, shivering for very joy. Now for a moment turn to the right. There vou see three Chinese, each with hoe and a mighty patience, plodding among the furrows. No idle moments. With eves on the ground, did they see. did they hear the song of the lark' and the music of the streamlet? Who can tell? Does not this sentence remind you of the Muck Rake in Bunyan's immortal allegorv ?

". \ . And after those things had been digested by Christiana and her company, the Interpreter takes them apart a<min, and had them first into a room wliere was a man that could look no way but downwards, with a muck rake in his hand ; there stood also one over his head with 'a celestial Crown in hi; hand, and proffered him that Crown for his muck rake; but the man did neither look up nor regard, but rake to himself the .straws, the small sticks, and dust of tho floor

"Then said Christiana, I persuade myself that I know somewhat the meaning of this, for this is the figure of a man in this world; is it not, good sir? " Thou hast said right, said lie, and this muck rake doth show his carnal mind. And whereas thou seest him rather give heed to rake up straws and sticks and tho dust of the floor than do what he says that calls to him from above, with the celestial Crown in his hand ; ii is to show that heaven is but a fable to some, and that things here are counted the only tilings substantial. Now, whereas it was also showed thee that the man could look no way but downwards, it is to let thee know that earthly things, when they are with power upon "men's minds, quite carry their hearts sit.iv from God.

" Then said Christiana, Oh! deliver mi I from the muck rake."

How many of us, or, rather, how few of us (including the writer of The Garland), have realised our high ideals? Alns! too often the path has been strewn with broken vows ana humiliating failures. How far do you agree with the following, sentences?

"Every true life should be a perpetual climbing upward. We should put our faults under our feet, and make them steps on which to lift ourselves daily a little higher. . , . We never in this world get to a point where we may regard ourselves as having reached life's goal, as having attained the loftiest height within our reach; there are alwaya other rounds of the ladder to climb."

"The road is too rough.'' I said, "It is uphill all the way ; Xo flowers, but thorns instead; And the skies overhead are grey. But One took my hand at the entrance dun And sweet is the road that I walk with Him. "The cross is too great," I cried, "More than the back can bear; So rough, and heavy, and wide, And nobody by to care; But One stooped softly and touched my hand; 'I know. I care. And I understand. 1 " Then why do we fret and sigh ? Cross bearers all we go; But the road ends by and by In the dearest placo we know; And every step in the journey we May take in the Lord's own company. Fred. E. Ellis writes: " Men who have deserted their trua path for false realities have their moments of reflection. In their soul's serious moments they keenly regret their depar* tine from the true path of life." "EXCELSIOR!" Stopford Brooke strikes a higher note and is more in keeping with to day's motto : " A man cannot aim too high; a man's best comrades are those mighty creatures far 'above himself—Justice! Truth! Righteousness ! If we live habitually in contact with that which we know to be best, wo cannot yield to meaner things." Such sentences' find a ready echo in the soul of most men, whether they be men of creed or no creed. The man concerning whom we may be most solicitous is the calculating cold cynic—the man who sneers at things that are noble, pure, and l gracious, and needlessly wounds and lacerates the sensibilities and the conscience of devout souls who greatly love what is sacred, pure, and ennobling. ARNOLD OF RUGBY looked at the boys in his school and asked: "Is this"a Christian school?" And, like the ringing stroke on the anvil bv the brawny arm of the blacksmith, he said:—"lt is not necessary that thia should bo a school of three 'hundred, Or one hundred, or of fifty boys; but it id necessary that it should be a school of Christian gentlemen." Wholesome reading is it not? Nothing namby-pamby about that sort of talk? Greek, grit, and grace, make, a good teaan. To man or maiden who is in perplexity —who has come to the parting of the way's and is in danger of missing the goal—let the words of "Adelaide A. Proctor bring hope and real good cheer: —

Rise! if th« Past detains you, Her sunshine and storms forget; No chains so unworthy to hold you As those of a vain regret; Sad or bright, she is lifeless ever, Cast her phantom arms avray, For look back, save to learn the lesson Of a nobler strife To-day. " We are building for eternity, but over the hand of the Child of God and guiding his choice is God's hand and God's power. Our character-building need never be weak if -wo remember that our Maker and Builder is God."

The following may also be accepted as sound philosophy:- " This world started long ages baioro we were born, and may endure countless centuries after wo aro dead. It cannot be expected to shape its course to please us. On the other hand, Ave may (and should) improve our tiny corner in it( tremendous life a little before we pass on, and it is surely wise to decide, with tnl poet: —

My life is a brief, brief thing, I'm here for a little space, And while I stay, I would like if I may, To brighten and better the place,

And as most of us belong to what It called the common as distinguished from the cultured people, John Buskin's bold clarion note should be taken to heart: "A man is not educated in any senso whatever because he can read Latin or write English, or can behave in a drawing room. ... He is only educated if°he is happy, busy, beneficent, and effective in the world."