Judicious Levity

Taranaki Daily News, 18 December 1929, Page 8 (Supplement)

Judicious Levity

(By

Octogeranium)

With all respect to my friend the cook, I venture the opinion that the best sauce for a Christmas dinner is what Robert Louis Stevenson called "a little judicious levity.” In mid-Victorian days it was fashionable to think that habitual melancholy made people interesting. When Byron’s poetry was popular, it was regarded, as a mark of distinction to carry a pale face and a look of unutterable misery. There are still a few whose health is not good and whose brain is not robust, who affect this poetic gloom.' Of course it is silly. "A merry heart doe th good like'a medicine,” says the Hebrew proverb. “A joyous heart spins the hemp,” says the lovely Serbian proverb. • And we of the Saxon say, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” It is certain that deep down laughter—laughter with roots in it —is excellent as a curative and a tonic. “A merry heart goes all the way, Your sad heart tires at a mile.” / "I live,” writes Sterne, “I live in a constant endeavour to fence against the infirmities of ill-health and other evils by mirth. I am persuaded that every time a man smiles, but much more when he laughs, he adds something to this fragment of ‘ life,” from which it would seem, that one of the secrets of long life, is to cultivate a cheerful frame of mind. As for Christmas, it was always a season rich in mirth-provoking matter. “ ’Tis meSry in the hall '.. Where beards wag all.” We can picture the, scene when at the supreme moment of the festive evening our swarthy-visaged ancestors joined in the fun, their long beards rising and falling like the undulating waves of the sea. It was no crime then,.nor is it now, to join the merrymakers. If such jovialities be condemned by the “unco guid,” we would recall the Spanish counsel: “He who looks demurely trust not with your money.” Much less, therefore, with your morals. Some are painfully punctilious on the subject, as a certain rhymester complained: Quaint George Herbert says: "One mouth doth nothing without another.” What does the good man mean? He cannot refer to the telephone, for it had not been invented in his day. We hazard, the guess that it has some reference to what takes place “under the mistletoe bough”; at least, that is our guess, and it gives the saying piquancy and flavour. But I am not an authority on the subject, having enjoyed only a limited experience. On the further difficult and delicate question, "Who shall kiss whom?” I am not .competent to speak, and leave that to be settled by experts. As to the line "Minister wadna do it,” there seems no reason why, when it is merry in the hall, the minister should be present only as a spectator. Proverbs, however, give the cloth credit for

much more than jovial inclinations. Thus it is satirically remarked: “What was food th® friar never loved?” Herein he resembles a certain “Grey Friar.” ■ "After supper of heaven I dream, / But that is fat pullet and clotted cream j’ Myself, by denial, I mortify With a dainty bit of warden pic.” The reasoning of the holy man, by. which he seeks to justify his ways, is perhaps more ingenious and sophistical than convincing. “And why I’m so plump the reason I’ll • tell, ; ~ ' 1 '/ Who leads a good life is bound to live well”, . Very clever, Sir Friar, but it will hardly do. However, so long as we are true and clean in our fun, whether we be folk of the pulpit or the pew, the pathway of innocent mirth will cast no mire upon us. The golden word is moderation. "Better a wee fire to warm us than a meiekle fire to burn us” is shrewdly said north of the Tweed. The English saying, though different in form, means the same thing, "Little sticks kindle a fire, but great ones put it out.” "Too much is stark nought.” If we are wise we shall not pursue pleasure for its own sake, but for higher ends, and we shall pursue it in. measure. Otherwise there is no answering for the consequences. It is surprising how big a fool the smallest man can make of himself, if he lets himself go. When a man drinks his head off, there is no telling where his legs may carry him. “When the wine is in, th® wit is out.” , < ~ "When weary wi eatin’ and drinkin’ We’ll rise up and dance till we dee,” would seem to mark a fool’s stage of merriment. Therefore, to makq an end, for Christmas and other times, the rule is, "Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” And so,-gentle reader, fare ye well. , ■