THE SKETCHED.

Otago Witness, Issue 3574, 12 September 1922, Page 59

THE SKETCHED.

WHY SPARTA IS THE BEST PLACE TO LIVE IN. HOW TO BE USEFUL AND HAPPY' FROM SI XT if TO NINETY. “I am no ascetic, but any doctor in England will tell you that the average Englishman eats and chinks a great deal more than is good lor him. It is melancholy to think how many professing Christians have the edge and keenness of their intellectual and spiritual life blunted by the luxurious aind senseless tableabundance in which they habitually indulge. I am quite sure that water from the spring and barley-bread would be a great deal better for their souls and for their bodies, too, in the case of many people that tall themselves Christians. Sparta, after all is the best place for a man to live in, next to Jerusalem.” —Dr Alexander M'Laren. A Useful Book. — Dr George Jackson writes in the Manchester Guardian a ‘‘Lay Sermon to the Elderly.” .‘‘l wrote in this column some time ago on preaching to the middle-aged,” le says. “I have before me now —and ha\e been waiting some weeks for the opportunity to call attention to it—a new book, which may be described as a kind of lay sermon to the elderly. The title is 'now to be Useful and Happy from Sixty to Ninety;’ the writer is Dr \. Lapthorn Smith, a Harley Street doctor; the publisher is Mr John Lane ; and the price live shillings. “Dr Smith is probably mote at home with the lancet and the stethoscope than the pen. and this may account for the formlessness and disorder of several of his chapters. The book badly needs reediting, and one or two things, it is to be feared, will only make mirth for the Philistines had better have been left out altogether. The index, too, is perhaps the worst example of a difficult art which l remember to have seen. But, after all, these are but superficial faults and I hasten to say that Dr Smith has given us a book of real interest and value and of sound good sense. For men and women who have reached, or are nearing, their sixtieth birthday, it would not be easy to suggest a more profitable investment than the purchase and study of this little volume are likely- to prove. There is much in it, of course, which it would be out of place to refer to in a- column like this, but it may be of interest to summarise a few of its counsels to the elderly. Beware of Oy er-eating.—-“The burden of Dr Smith’s book, as indeed its title suggests, is that, so far from a man being ‘too old’ at forty or sixty, many of his best years ought still to be in front of him after the sixtieth milestone has been passed. And such, he declares yvould be the case, at least much more frequently than it is, if only we would be yvise in time. One of the great dangers of the sixty-to-ninety period Dr Smith says, is over-eating. Most of us put more fuel oil the fire than it is able to consume. Three meals a day—this is one of his axioms for the man over sixty —are better than four, but two are better than three. This is a subject which few modern preachers are bold enough to tackle. We keep onv pulpit thunder for the sin of drunkenness and are silent about the sin of gluttony ; but I remember some plain yvords on the matter in one of Dr M-'La-ren’s greatsermons in Union Chapel, Manchester.” These yvords are quoted at the head ojf this article. Drinking and Smoking.— “After this, as might be expected, Dr Smith has little good to say of alcohol in any form. Never drink it, he says, ‘except at meals, nor before 0 p.m., and always well diluted with water.’ But on this I need not dwell. The surprise of the book for many readers will be its strong and persistent condemnation of the smoking habit. Dr Smith does not indeed advise any man to change life-long habits at sixty, but he regards an ounce of tobacco a week as the limit of safety for everybody. “Durmg the. war, he says, doctors like himself who knew the danger of the excessive use of cigarettes in the trenches kept silence; he thinks that now it is their duty to speak out. Tobacco, lie says, is a poison which kills, not directly, but indirectly, by its action on the heart: "Everybody’s heart is not only strong enough to do its ordinary work, but it also has a reserve power of 25 or 50 per cent. Excessive smoking kills this reserve power, so that an ordinary- severe illness from which a non-smoker yvould quickly recover prostrates tiie heavy smoker who, having no reserve power n his heart succumbs to heart failure.’ Ys far as Dr Smith’s records go, the great majority of those who live to be ‘useful ami happy from sixty to ninety’ are both non-smokers and total abstainers. - Keep Active.— “Again great emphasis is laid on the importance of keeping in harness—not necessarily the old harness —after the sixty limit has been reached. Every man should have some definite task to which to put his hand when he gets up in the morning. One of Dr Smith’s chapters is entitled “Activity the Keynote to Long Life.’ ‘Whoever you are or whatever you do—don’t stop working.’ If yon have not a business when you are sixty, either get one or get a hobby. One of the best hobbies is to help those over sixty., but who are less fortunate than yourself. Help them to pet another job when they are turned out by the cruel “too old at sixty’’ rule.’ Dr Smith says he has known men who voluntarily or compulsorily ‘retired’ at sixty strong and well hut who. within a. year have gone all to pieces, simply through having nothing to do : ‘rust and dry-rot got into their machinery, and the wheels would not go round.’

Religion and Old Age.— “I have left myself only two or three lines in which to refer to Dr Smith’s frank and frequent allusions to religion and its relation to a happy old age. ‘Between sixty and ninety, he says, ‘religion becomes more precious than ever.’ Jiany. of my over-a-hundred-vears-old correspondents have mentioned this fact as contributing to their reaching an advanced age that they were brought m by pious parents in the fear and love of God.’ Their simple philosophy of life may be summed up thus: ‘They lived very simply, went to bed and got up early, went to Church every Sunday, and were at peace with God and man.’ ‘ln fact,’ says Dr Smith, ‘their lives were just the ideal iives which any doctor would sketch out tor anyone who consulted him as to the best wav to reach a hundred years of age.’ ” A COLLEGE CRUSADE AGAINST MORAL LAXITY. A most significant warning against the moral laxity of the day is sounded by the presidents of three great universities in their baccalaureate addresses to the graduating classes of 1922, and their - words, fraught with the weight of authority, furnish food for thought, not only to the young men who are about to go out into the world, but as well to those who are now in the world, and, perhaps, affected by its looseness. From Vale, Harvard, and Princeton comes the cry for moral redemption. The president of each draws a “true bill” against modern tendencies, and adds to an already long bill of particulars. As listed by President James Rowland Angell, of Yale, the outstanding faults of modern society against which he would warn his graduates are selfish business exploitation, condoned violations of the law, the cynical view- of marriage, and the constant barrage oil traditional religion. As a matter of course, however, and on the principle that “unto whom much is given, of him much shall be required,” the college graduate is naturally expected to possess all the basic virtues a-nd to have them more highly developed than less favoured youth. Foremost among these are placed the inevitable demand for downright integrity, honesty, and reliability, upon which rests the whole structure of our social and economic organisation. This is a claim] says President- Angell, which the college* graduate will gladly recognise and nianfuliy strive to meet if he is compounded of the right stuff. But the great strain put upon the character of the educated young man, says the Yale head, as he is quoted in the New York Tribune, is found in the changing moral and religious standards of the time, and particularly because of the rapidity and violence of these changes. He holds that: “It can hardly be doubted, for example, that in the United States at least the violation of law has never been so general nor so widely condoned as at present. This is a fact which strikes at the very heart of our system of government, and the young man entering upon his active career must decide whether he. too, will condone such disregard of law or whether he will set his face firmly against this course. The effect upon his own character of the decision which he makes, as well as upon the community in which he lives, is of the most critical importance. “Again there is a widespread belief that the relations of the sexes have undergone material relaxation in recent years, that marriage is daily less of a sacrament and more of a transient adjustment in the lives nf those directly concerned. The university and the community have a right to demand that the educated man should not merely drift with the current of the set in which his lot may chance to be cast, but that he should look thoughtfully and earnestly at these issues, and others like them, and stand courageously for those ideals and practices commending themselves to his judgment as most likely to promote a sound and wholesome society. “Fina-llv, there is the inner sanctuary of the educated man’s religon, his philosophy of life. Traditional religion is tinder heavy fire. Many prosperous and worldly-minded individuals find it possible to disregard it altogether as intrinsically inconvenient. Others of a more intellectual cast- regard it as a remnant of the superstition of primitive man. and. as such, beyond the serious consideration of the educated. Still more serious, clamant defendants of particular religious views proclaim a fatal clash with ' the teachings of science and attempt- to compel the young student to choose between the denial of scientific evidence and the acceptance of true religion. “These are difficulties of no mean order. And yet the world ha-s the right to expect that the educated young man will come through these troubles with a saving faith in the primordial place of righteousness and love in' the world and a reverence for the spiritual significance of personality. which, after all, lies close to the heart of all religion and especially to Christianity-. Certain it is that no' man who sees life whole, as the educated man may be expected to do, can disregard religious experience as one of the majestic and enduring forces in human life.” The great need of the day, says President John Grier Tibben. of Princeton University, as he is quoted in the same paper, is “the spirit of idealism which always differentiates a man from the crowd, and which is the measure of moral and spiritual stature. In its highest form, therefore, idealism is founded on the recognition that the world needs the heln of the strong men and on the resolution to give that help to the best of one’s ability.” As to ‘the need for pure purpose, President Hibben say s : “We are all aware of the fact that there is something wrong with the world. The most casual observation reveals this, and the problem of evil, always present, always mysterious, presents itself to-day in its most acute and appalling forms. The misery, the suffering, the hopelessness nf many entire nations and races bring to

us all, if we seriously reflect upon such things, a shock of disillusion, anxious questionings, disturbing doubts, grave concern. “The burden of a troubled world rests upon us. We naturally put the question which every age in the history of mankind has asked: ‘ Why does evil exist, why should such things be?’ But while we must fail, as all who have gone before us have failed, to discover a satisfactory solution to this baffling problem, there is another question we can answer which is far more pressing—namely: ‘What are we going to do about it?’ We cannot explain the evil in the world, but we can resolve to fight it. “To follow the ideal which we set- for ourselves requires a spirit of adventure, a spirit which compels one to undertake a task in which there is no assurance of success and no promise of reward, only the consciousness of loyalty to the cause which one must follow because of the law of his own nature. If we disobey that law, we do ourselves a mortal hurt. The world is naturally expecting great things of your generation. In vour day there is much to be done. We of an older age look upon you eagerly and wistfully as the hope of the world. The flame of idealism burns within your hearts to day perhaps blit dimly, but nevertheless it is there; it is a flame and it has a kindling power, its light must be given to a darkening world-. There is a universal cry about us, wrung from anxious hearts, ‘ when' will the new dav of better tilings come to the earth?’ That question your generation must answer.” At Harvard, President A. Lawrence Lowell charged, the graduating class to think clearly, generously, and conscientiously, to select a moral standard and stick to. .it for the betterment of the world. Ultimately, ho says, as he is quoted in the Tribune, “mankind is led by those whose thinking is clear, _ conscientious, and generous, and never in its history has the world been more in need of such thinking than it is now.” But the problems are not those of our own land alone, believes President Lowell, for all the nations look to America to lead them out of their moral quagmire. But he warns : “With power comes opportunity, and with opportunity responsibility. Our own right hand may yet teach us terrible things. Our power is likelv to grow still -greater in the world, and what do we want our nation to become? Shall we be satisfied with material wealth and comfort. or do we desire a higher destiny ? In the ancient world there were two peoples, both eommerial, both prosperous, both powerful in their day. and both at last conquered by the Romans. One of them, the Greeks, led the way for all later European peoples in art, in literature, in philosophy, and in science. The other, the Carthaginians, have left nothin." and all we know of them comes from° the histories of their,coaquerors. A nation is what its people make It.” HUMAN LINK IN LANDOWNING. By Thk Duke or Rutland, in the Weekly Despatch. England. which was formerly considered changeless, is now changing hands. It is a peaceful revolution, more thorough than any warlike one. Just because it is bloodless, it has bitten deeper into the English countryside than ever old the Wars of the Roses. I am not prepared to argue whether the change is good for England or not. vu must remember that though England is conservative, she is equally adaptable. This adaptability may equally manifest itself in our changing countryside. But, without venturing on prophecy, it is possible to envisage the future m certain particulars. It is also easy to see that many old landmarks of our countryside are 'likelv to disappear, while something more material is substituted in their place. I ain prepared to admit that some of i these new landlords are most anxious to do their duties to their tenants. It is not- their fault that the tenants do not always understand their well-meant efforts to be friendly. Nor are the tenants to blame, for our old landlords had no need to make anv such efforts. It was a matter of “father to son.” Land was m the blood a*’d the landlord moved around, ms estates in the most natural manner possible. —Born to it. — There is a good deal in “being born to a task. It grows into one’s marrow, so that what would otherwise be a boresome task becomes a real joy. It is not every man who can feel a genuine interest 'in a village cricket match, or can honestly enjoy taking the chair at a concert in some neighbouring parish hall. Our old land owning families have, however, been doing simple things such as these for centuries, and I think that hngland is t.he better for it. I fancy that some of the new landlords will find an estate much harder to “run” than a factory. It requires a tremendous amount of time and energy. If the new owners of England can really keep their tenants happy, and are prepared to live among them, then 1 for one shall genuinely rejoice. It is not, however, an -easy thing to say good-bye to old friends who have lived* for generations on the family estates; when you have known people since the cradle it gives you a much closer interest in them. Nor is it easy to part with something which you had hoped to hand down to your eldest son. It is all the harder when your son had been an apt pupil and was thoroughly keen to do his duty for the family tenants. This sort of thing, however, has been going on recently all over England. It is much more widespread than is commonly believed, and it is completely altering England. I hasten to add that I am not concerned to discuss “for better or for worse.” —Tasks for the New Men. — It was useless for our old landowners to hold on in hopes that taxation would one

day fall. To have done so would have meant that, before long there would have been no inheritance for one’s son. Death duties are practically making the succession worthless. - England’s new owners can, of course, face the financial obligations of landowning, but- these are only a small part of the problem. Sentiment and association are closely entwined with land, and both these factors have not grown with the speed which marked the Biblical gourd of a night. Finding the right pars-on for a village, for instance, is an important matter from the village point of view. Possibly the nearest church is six miles across the dales. It is therefore necessary to fix on the man “par excellence” for that village. Now. our new landlords are mostly from big towns, and- these sort of details will appear to them petty and absurd. Yet country life depends on just such apparent trifles. Whether an industrial magnate will be content to spend hours discussing the question of a future “parson’’ with a local farmer is a problem beyond my calculation ; but I do know that you cannot deal with an English countryside on the mass production scale. —Fate of the Old Owners.— Whatever its virtues, Lie new ownership will necessarily he lacking in that personal link which was so characteristic of the" old. Whatever the faults of the old order, it was rich in the human note, but it suffered from, the fatal defect that its Treasury notes were not equally well developed ! What will happen to our old landlords? No one can tell. Life is going to be very different for their sons; that, at least, is certain. In the old days these men were able to do a tremendous amount of what I may call uncovenanted service. They were not concerned with tile nicely balanced system of give and take, and I am certain that the presence of such men meant much to England. The Army, philanthropy, social service, public life provided many openings for useful service, but in future these men will not be able to give their time and service for nothing. They will—certainly many of them will harm to—embark in the professions or in the commercial pursuits which give our new landlords the wherewithal. There is a piquant possibility that- our grandchildren may succeed so well in commerce that they will be able to buy back the English countryside which they had loved long since and lost awhile.