LARRIKINISM.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3961, 8 February 1882, Page 2

LARRIKINISM.

• -iJfo the EDITOR.Sir, — I think that neither Mr. Drake nor " Cuivis" have really touched the heart of the matter, in their letters on tin's subject. That a 'change is neected' is v evident, but neither Secularism por Sunday-schools will prevent youths "from becoming larrikins. Secularism is no univorsal panacea for all -ills; lieither is_the good-humoured raillery of " GpTv^R l^ jthe way out of the difficulty. There 'is u ohly one remedy — that is, Extra-* dition ! England has one great outlet for her larrjkins — the sea; France, the army in Algeria'; America, the Far West. So we mufet export our Taranaki boys, and. when dear Bill has been removed from dear ! 'Airy, .and has seen Calcutta or London, or ! evdn Sydney and Melbourne, he will cease i!o {hinie-ihat the snn, moon, and stars were only made to lighfc up ,his exploits -on the "Ejevon Line;"' life <vJll- settle down somewhere as, a worthy .citizen, and we can fill hisplftce'with larrikins -froni other towns, who will become steady enough when taken away from their .dear .Billies and 'Arrys, and are no longer within the gentle influences of their mothers') jam cupboarVls. But the letter of ''Cuivis," with the " sting in its tail," throws \lown a big liter,-, aryi gauntlet when it affirms that thtrfhreij stages in national 'destruction are — Ist, RcligioiiSiD^cline ; 2nd, Moral Decline ; and 3rd, National Death. This is assuming that nations, millions of men, the vast majority, in fact — including the teeming populations of China, Thibet, part of India, Japan, Burmah, &c, who are Buddhists (and consequentlyjiaye no religion of the supernatural) -~afe ( declining 'in morality, ..'ancV hastening to, destruction. Let us consider if the facts of past history bear out the conclusions argued front this premiss. When "Cuivis" points to Greece and Rome $s examples of depf ruction following religious' decline, be raises, ..something like an intcl)cctual' ''mist. What Greece ? Which' Rome ? Greece of the days of Troy ? of Alcibiades ? or of Alexander ? Rome, of the Kings ? of the Republic ? of the Empire ? or the Popedom ? . These nations have histories of such portentious length, and of such titanic change, that correspondent's letter could discuss so huge' a subject. I will only say>that, when Rome held the temporal, sceptre of .the, world, her temples were -' thronged • -with'- pious, ignorant worshippers of the " multitudes ' of deities" , called' Polytheism, the rites of such religion defaced -with vile immorality, but the brains of Rome, the intellect of her greatest and wisest wag Agnostic or Atheistic ; the heart of Cajsar' was lifted above the priestly omen. Rome's decline and fall came in Christian days. Nineveh is one of the nations quoted by " Cuivis" as an example to us, yet I cannot find sufficient warranty for such an assertion. When a wandering prophet proceeded to hold a series oil revivals in Nineveh', the religious spirit was so easily excited that tho whole city, Vust as it was, was at once converted, and the King issued an order saying " Let man and bcast r be covered withlsackeloth" (Jonah jl., v. -^8) in token of their sense of^sin and abasement. :i Ik'tberea 'fanner in New -Plymouth who, being under religious conviction, would go to the* expense rffi n-fsackfeloth suit for his best prize bull ? and much less for his store cows? So I contend that these people were very religious (too much so f or ppor^sulk} 7 Jonah), yet theu\destruc- . tion was close at hand. ' ' ' The mistake that I 'fCuivis I . makes is in assuming that religion and morality are irseparable — jihat is cjuite a modern' idea.; not "even a distinctly Christian idea, riot even a distinctly Protestant idea, for ,it is beyond all these. There is too much in even the most refined Protestantism of the, notion that one may injure Smith or Brown, and then that by kneeling down and telling God that you are sorry, that quite wipes o.T all scores with Smith and Brown. Pure morality has no such spiritual Bankruptcy Court in which the soul can be whitewashed and make a fresh start. Morality says that being good 'and doing good arc better than believing in any mystery, and that the true way to be happy is to try and make others so. There is nothing in this of that luxurious effeminacy which is the true source of all national Decline and Fall. — I am, &c, Lex.