‘COMMENTS OF BAGSHOT."

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5245, 11 April 1908, Page 6 (Supplement)

‘COMMENTS OF BAGSHOT."

JAMES DOUGLAS' THOUGHTS* DECIDEDLY WORTH READING. 1 have been reading (writes .1 nines Douglua in " Al.A.i’.) " The Comtnonts ut Bagshot," by Mr J. A. Spender, the distinguished editor of the " Westminster Guzotto." I like wise maxims, and JJagshot’s maxims are full of the wisest wisdom. There is one maxim which is worth at least u thousand pounds. "Be rich among the poor rather than poor among the rich." Null that up above your lied, good reader, and look ut il every morning and every night. It contains thu secret of hupplnuss for the modern soul. There are few wito have the pluck to practise what it preaches. Ours is the ago of snobs. Nobody Is content, to seem what he is, or less thun he is. Everybody is living up to somebody else’s income Tile disease of gentility which Tlutckoruy and Carlyle satirised was a mild and innocuous uuiludy compared to the disease of smartness, which is eating out our hearts. We are all smart to-day. WOMAN'S FAULT. We ail live and die lieyond our means. I am no misogynist, but I think the roof of the mischief is in the woman rather than in the man. Envy is the master vice of femininity, because it is the vice of idleness. The man who works hard lias no time to be envious. The modern woman is devoured by a frenzied idleness. She finds no outlet for her ambition, save in society, and she trios to -express herself by outstripping her friends in display. She is frantically jealous of the woman who lives in a larger house in a smarter district, who inis smarter furniture in her rooms, who wears smarter clothes, and who -gives smarter dinners. Shu goads her husband into ostentations far beyond his income. Ilis pride forbids him lo rebel. He struggles against the furies of debt. Hu grows permanently old. If he is lucky, he dies. Bill lie is often driven into embezzlement. Nearly every bankruptcy bus u spun-drift woman in the background. THE MAN WITH A GRIEVANCE. Another priceless motto . "Never display a wound—except to a physician." Bagshot’s advice is worth thinking about. If is bad enough to have a grievance, but il is worse to exhibit it. The more real the grievance the more carefully it ought to be conemt-lod. II may seem cynical to say that your friends never give you Hie iM.-nelil of the doubt, but it is true. I (mutt it nature is a queer thing, and its qweeres'l trail is its eagerness to believe the worst about other people. Test it for yourself. Are you not strangely uplifted by the misfortune of others? When a friend fails in business, do not regard his failure us u kind of tribute to your rivals and competitors in the ruce for the prizes of life. When a man drops oaf of tho running you feel i that there is a little larger urea of chance for .sou, and even while you condole with him .sou are -glowing with a horrible exultation. If is easier to be mean Ilian lo be magnanimous. When you are tempted to talk about a grievance, try lo put yourself in tho place of the man you select as a confidant. Construct his {mint of view, and see yourself ns a plunder, begging for a verdict in your own favor, imagine the working of bis cold, judicious mind calmly discounting all your arguments and icily allowing lor all your prejudices. Conceive the contempt that Is Ihe seamy side of pity, and Hie derision Hint is tin? background of sympathy Steel your heart and keep your counsel lx ill your grievance by forgetting it. To forgot a wrong is liettcr than to avenge il. A grievance is a grief that is incurable. NEVER EXPLAIN ! When you put yourself in a false position, nevi-r fry to explain. Grin and bear if. Do not llsli lor com passion. Do not seek io right yourself in the. opinions of your friends. The more yon wriggle, the. more firmly will the honk be lixod in your 111-Kill.' II is fulni lo brood over a wrong. I remember how once I blundered into doing a good lurn lo some friends. 1 was warned Unit my action would be ascribed to self interest. I laughed at- He- warning. 1 was recklessly, needlessl.v good-na-tured. I purred with conscious virtue, und uwuilod my reward of grill Rude mid recognition. " You are a fool !" said my Bngsliof. "Do you suppose tlie.x will .believe you are disinterested ? The.\ are little, narrow, suspicious beings, and I hey will read themselves in I o you." My Bagshot was right. I got no I banks, but I soon heal'd a soft rustle of innuendo and insinuation inconceiv able, monslrolls, incredible, maddening. I leavens! how I kicked against il ! I longed for ad ion. Iml in (lie direst stresses ad ion »;. u crude and clumsy resource. I am sure ilia I is why men commit mueder. They rage mind Hies cunnoi storm, und in sheet fur.v ol despair 1 ha.\ t 1 rive 1 o reach il by buttering down the barriers of Ihe flesh. Well, I learned my lesson. I saw ihe slow, cold smile of disbelief Hint reflected I In- vulgar though! i« the mind of tin- human animalcule If was quite invulnerable. for there is nothing so secure us Ihe meanness of Hu? mean. I realised lira I there is no cure for mid rust and no panacea lor miscomprehension. I lorhore lo ding myself aignind human mil are I told my Bug-shot that In* was rigid I 1 litew my KTiyvitii*'" «»•*» ■ 1 'l'll ■ li-.ill.iv niv wound.