THE POINT OF VIEW.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 259, 5 December 1914, Page 7

THE POINT OF VIEW.

Two men looked out from prison bars; Tlio one saw mud; the other, stars. You see, it all depends on the point of view. There is the right and the - wrong poiut about the war, just as there is about everything else. What a good thing it would be if everyone could realise the incalculable benefit of looking up towards the stars,in this crisis, iustead of down, at the mud about their feet, Wiiat a lot of:, anguish of spirit and mental. suffering-, niiglit thus be avoided.' :-; /: .^'/' :: .">■.'*■■; .:■: V v.'" ■ We read, th'e other day, of a man who willed, and accomplished the destruction of his own life because he had allowed .thfe war to get on his nerves, to such an extent that;|fthe : shadow of it overwhelmed him in the end. He had looked oVer-long, from the windows of his mind, at 'the terrible, pictures of misery and want and sin and suffering for which it was. respond sible, until finally the black phantoms that he had conjured up became' so appalling that he sought refuge by the only road ho knew —oblivion. Perhaps we shall hear more stories with the same sequel before it is all over-—it is quite likely,, unless the .righ't point-of vieiy is adopted. , ~;■ First • of : all, it must ..be recognised that the war is imposing , a fearful strain/on what we,'for want of a better word, call our nerves. . This 'fact .once recognised, the next niust ■,be that., we must spare tuem all we can-by Refusing to harrow our souls with, the awful side of it all, but must traiii ■ ourselvesto a healthy optimism —whiqh,,i after' aIL :is only another name foro must choose the sane and sensible point of view. ; If we do not, our health • of mind and body must suffer (for. the one is closely bound up with the other) and our usefulness must be inevitably impaired. We must think of ■ for there will be need of the practical' sympathies, - and usefulness, and : {brains of every one of us before the Terror departs from the" world,-,..'. * A mother, who dreads that any day may bring the- news that her only son has fallen in battle, may doubt the existence of any star in her sky. Never : theless, it is there, and; the fact ( that he has gone forth,. vindicating his; inanhood>and his courage, is one. And even if the battle-field claims him-—well, it is better to die nobly than to live ignobly, any time. The story of a brave deed is immortal —-after hundreds of yeafs one feels the uplift of it in.one's own life. A passionate feeling 'to be like those noble ones of history, sweeps over us, and here is the opportunity'for ea'eh one, in his or her own' sphere, to train themselves to brave thinking and brave doing. . , . - ;

- The war has unveiled more than'one shining point of light to which we may. look for courage and strength. These* are the lessons which already taught, and the still greater Oittfs that it will teach when the noise of the cannon shall be no more, and a f white peace shall wave its i: the world* We nave leSHt the awfulnels'S'' or war as we could. rieSer have pictured it otherwise—war sti'ippetC of all its -glittering trappmgs-^grim^|grisly f.pitiless —war as- it was wagged before. For -to such a' dreadful pitch of; perfection have the engines; of destruc-; ,'tion been brought that, where men were] once killed in-ones and tWds, they now fall in dozens and scores. Peace, when it comes, will be appreciated as it never was before! People who were discontented, peevish, swallowed up in a sea of imaginary wrongs and ; injustices,J have learnt .how very„much worse things may be, with a real, tangible menace at their doors?; A woman remarked- to the writer recently: "When the war is over, and I have my boy back with change places with the Queen." Yet, when the world was at peace and her

family was intact, she did not count herself a particularly happy or lucky woman. She wasn't, either, although she ought to have been. She w r as continually counting up the things she wanted anc\ hadn't got, and never balancing the ledger on the other side. But she has learnt, a new system of bookkeexnng now, and she is going to be a, sweeter, better, braver woman than ever she was before, no matter What the .fortunes of war bring. „■- We have .all been taught, in one way or another, by. .the, war, courage, .self--' sacrifice; 'resdurc'efuiness, - thrift. ' It is only .too true that in. the ante-bellum seem, curiously, a very : long time, back—that the world appeared in danger of forgetting these qualities. All that we c.ouid read and •see, particularly -m the older countries of the. world, tended that way. So r cial was rife; - industrial disputes loomed large, and the generation seemed characterised by a spirit of unrest and discontent. The finer qualities that :,make : ., heroes of mfen ' let it be addec£ 'heroines of in danger of being trodden underfoot. is clanged' Men see clearly in**the fa&e of deatlij it is then that .shams and .humbugs; fade away like mists of the: .morning when the sun climbs over the mountains; v The nation is finding its soul in %he-hour of battle, and, jctear of all' clogging cant/and chimeras and self delusions, it is getting room to expand and grow. The battlefield will not binder its/development— quite the contrary. The nation will emerge and bettered, and generations yet unborn shall feel its benefits. Is this thought not a very bright star?