WRONG VIEWS OF LIFE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13904, 15 May 1909, Page 3

WRONG VIEWS OF LIFE.

Tho "giddy pleasures of the eye are ui high authority, tt appeal irresistibly to girls, anu it it. oiiiv necessary to visit .tne gallery ol a theatre when a costume piuy pure and simple is being produced to realise now true this in general is. The level of intellect, or ratiier lulormation, which takes delight .111 the gorgeous scenery and high-sounding dialogue ol popular melodrama is much the same. The further anything is lrom reason and nature the stronger the appeal it .makes; but the mischief is that u it seriously mistaken lor the real thing. J he range ol ideas circulating 111 the minds ol people like these is naturally mitner wide nor .exalted. Wealth seems all in all, and even wealth is only valuable tor the most superhcial ami vulgar pleasures it can procure. To live in a line house, wear expensive clothes, and lounge through hie m idleness and !oll\, is taken to be the height of human felicity; and a late which confers these advantages on some and withholds them from others who appear at least equally deserving is regarded as altogether unreasoiia Die and unjust. To procure even a momentary participation 111 such pleasures, anient • and reckless temperaments are sometimes content to pay the heaviest price m honcstv and respectability. Dissatisfaction with their lot is not, of course, confined to people 111 narrow circumstances; but the discontent ol those who earn a meagre livelihood by employment 111 the masing or retailing of articles of luxury for others, is apt to be peculiarly bitter. The distant association with wealth which their situation ahords Keens them brooding on the inequalities of fortune, and selfpit v and envy take possession ol then souls. In Australia, it is true, tin position of shop and factory girls is lai supierior to that of their sisters 111 tne world, and the idle and extravagant rich sir far' less in evidence ; but as people 111 their situation usually judge only by what come directly under their notice, the relation of the extremes m diilerent countries to each other is not often taken into account, A rational discontent is not altogether without its uses in a world altogether without its terial progress lias been, and will continue to be, worked out hy the co-ope-ation of the most antagonistic forces. There is a discontent which has been called divine, and a rational discontent is one of the forces which impel people to better their condition 111 life. -Hut the sullen discontent of ignoraue.; ami petulence is entirely harmful, and the influence of envy, in-degrading chara, r is nu-ai'.-uuibie. The evil is to a large extent one of iiznoranee. and something could be done to abate it, Now. that a compet - tion in systems of public, education- ha*, come into existence, almost • comparable with that, which has arisen m Europe in - the building or -Dread-, noughts. v ~rb«m ■fome government mav one of these, -days include, in its state school curriculum >.n elementary course of, social and- political economy. Chidren are taught a considerable number 'offacts l*itthev are not sufficiently ' encouraged to thud.. Tt ought not to he very difficult to interestsenior .boys and girls of . ordm-

ary intelligence in the nature and reason of the phenomena about them,' and io encourage them to form some more or less rational theory of life and conduct. They would not .advance very far at school, of course, but many of them would acquire a habit that would last for life of trying to get beneath the surface of things and see the realities which underlie the appearances. History rannbt be understood by anyone until he gets some idea of the philosophy of it ,and life should be studied in the same way. It cannot be seen in anything like its true perspective by those' who have never acquired the habit of trying to understand the connection and the relative values of things; and it is doubtful if the. elements of a more useful science could be instilled into the minds of children.