THE HASTE OF MODERN LIFE.

Waipawa Mail, Volume IX, Issue 881, 16 January 1886, Page 4

THE HASTE OF MODERN LIFE.

Does it never seem to any of us that that we are in too much of a hurry in all that we do ? That those of us who are mixed up in trade of life make too much effort to become rich ? That wo value speed more than comfort or honor or safety ? That we try to pack more into three score ■lars and ten if we live so long than our did ? It is true that wc can travel and over greater distances, but can see more or learn more or as much lien, asTjiey did while so doing? When we outstrip another vessel on the way to Otago, or New South Wales, a feeling arises in our minds of gratification at excelling even in such a small matter : when we travel on one of our own railways twenty or twenty-five miles an hour we only wish it were safe and practicable to run a two hours journey into one. When Abraham however wanted to send a message to Lot he despatched a man on horseback who would not average more the twenty miles an hour for any distance. Both the patriarchs lived longer and died richer than any of us will, and very likely after all, they both knew quite as much about the New Star in the Andromeda Nebula as the best of us.* We always want to get at the end of. everything, whether it be a game of billiards we are playing, our prayers we are reciting, a book we are reading, or a letter we are writing. Time becomes to us a policeman telling us to move on. It may have been always so, but not with the increased and increasimg ratio as with us. Modern civilization as the thing is called is not unlike the dance of the dervish which goes on increasing in speed until the performer falls from exhaustion. Men say they have to make hay while the sun shines ; but the sun for them ever shines, and they make hay by night as well as l>}' day. Leisure is a word the present generation does not appear to understand, and men are expected to be so fully employed that they have no time to think whence they came or whither they are hastening. There arc no resting places in life unless men become sick, and then the activity of the body becomes transferred to the speculations of the brain. One great reason why alcohol is so largely in use among men of active minds is that it procures forgetfulness : and enables the active and troubled brain to obtain sloe}). Hurry and alcohol combined produce what we call heart disease. The body becomes its u.vn avenger. A life of haste and excitement shortens in most cases its duration. Enfeebled and excitable temperaments arc passed on to children, who transmit again the inheritance of haste and susceptibility. We all fear being run over, ami are in such great haste that wo cannot even notice those who have fallen by the way, much loss stop to aid them iu rising again to their feet. Haste begets callousness and selfishness, what our fathers called hardness of heart. Wc have no objection to give a dole to a charitable purpose, provided some other than ourselves administer the relief. We would aid the widow and the fatherless in their sorrow and distress—but we must do it by proxy. Life is too short, and time is too valuable for us to visit them in their tribulation, and so wc organise for the purpose what are called charitable institutions. The kindly word and glance arc lacking; too often the destitute is allowed to <lio alone with food untasted by hie side. Philosophers and politicians regard these things as advances in knowledge and strides in improvement, but there is .another side to the picture altogether.

One result of this haste is that life has „ becomes more difficult. The dunce and s the dullard have fallen on to evil days. tl The student is looked upon as a fool I unless he transmutes his learning’ into gold ; and tl e monk even is regarded hy many as a drone unless lie founds a shrine in the neighbourhood wheicof the money changer and those who surround him can c find employment. Hence comes the saying that the rich get richer while the pool get poorer. The battle after all is to the strong, and the race to the swift. r Enterprise gets put in among the virtues p when it should too often be classed under r the heads of sins of the most crimson hue. s As riches nourish power and purchase r privilege, administrative Government becomes abused ; revolution honeycombs j the State: the bases of society become ~ overthrown and as in France in the last . century the whole country is watered with >» blood. In such conditions, as may he expected, tie faith and virtues of the people suffer. The moral senses becomes first abraded, and then worn down, or worn away. The barrier between right and wrong gets jumped over so often that it becomes with runny hut level with that of the world. First the right becomes a L matter of debate, and then confounded with the wrong as the passions begin to play upon the rules of morals. With fresh passions to satisfy, come fresh doubts sor solution ; cupidity propounds difficulties as well as the lust of the flesh ; and so only too many of us go from bad to worse wrtfitlut thinking who rc we are going until length dawns upon us j that the whole generation wants to go into retreat.