ERRING AND DOUBTING

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3750, 1 May 1936, Page 10

ERRING AND DOUBTING

“ It may be necessary for man today to jettison old ideals and cherished predilections (and prejudices), even as he must perforce jettison a dismal quantum of his wealth in the public interest,” writes the Hon. A. J' MeGregor in the Cornhill Magazine. “On two matters he still retains his hold—his soul and the future. But is not, of necessity, the master of his soul; in the old jingle. If is followed by the modest but not insignificant and—which is able to transport us sturdily and hopefully, buoyantly and triumphantly, perhaps, into a new or unexplored world of possibilities and adventure. “ Nature has her own pharmacopoeia; nor should we lightly assume that her resources are exhausted, her drugs only efficacious in the cosmic sphere. Ever and anon, too, a Prospero emerges on the human scene with power to still the troubled waters. In short, the final word need not be But. And may yet appear as lord of the ascendant, with remedies for distress and a tonic for man’s soul. “It may be quite useful at times to reverse our traditional way of putting things—something like this: Caesar was an epileptic and he was a compelling personality; times are hard, and Nature’s divining-rod may presently indicate new water springs. “ Democracy sometimes muddles things; but, if the occasion require it, electors can revise text-book maxims, silence ‘big noises,’ discourage feverish land-slides to right or left. And may finally broadcast, with regard to Man, Lotze’s sage and stimulating observation that ' erring, doubt, and improving, he learns to know his destiny and his powers.’”