THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. SATURDAY, 23rd JUNE, 1934. CREDULITY UNLIMITED.

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3483, 23 June 1934, Page 6

THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. SATURDAY, 23rd JUNE, 1934. CREDULITY UNLIMITED.

IT began in the garden of Eden, where the lady ungallantly named by Milton " our credulous mother " fell an easy prey to the tempter. Since that far-off unhappy day credulity has been found in all lands and in every grade of society. It wate very pardonable in the dark ages ere observation and experiment had come into fashion. What is now known as carbonic acid gas deep down in a cave was then a basilisk waiting to slay those who ventured into his den. Superstition reigned. Men believed without evidence, believed what tradition had taught or authority had announced. Perhaps some of us are not beyond that stage. There are people who believe persons called tipsters, are ready to take the word of a cheap-Jack auctioneer who offers a gold watch for fifteen shillings, or flock to some mysterious person who for a consideration undertakes to tell their fortune. The credulous are a great company. They are ready to drink in as gospel what some stranger standing on a soap box tells them. The more startling the announcements, the wilder the promises, the more comprehensive the panaceas the more readily are they swallowed. They are told that bankers and experts of all sorts are fools or rogues, and if the public would only believe that and vote accordingly the world would soon be set to rights. In the sacred sphere .of religion credulity is equally rife. The Founder of Christianity rebuked the men of his generation for seeking signs and wonders, something that would make them stare and gape. In our day some earnest propagandists of the faith roll on the floor and ascribe it to inspiration. The Principal of a college in a far-away century, in spite of all his weight of learning, once advised farmers to keep quiet before they began to reap their corn else they would find the ears empty. On the other hand there are people living to-day who would buy hair restorer from a bald-headed man. Credulity is expensive. Its root cause is ignorance coupled with an indisposition to think for oneself. It is in its most exaggerated and irrational form the will to believe. Two writers in the sixteenth century penned the famous saying: " The people wish to be deceived; let them be deceived." In more modern form the same weakness would be described as a craving for the spectacular, for fireworks, for startling, sudden overpowering occurrence., and performances, for thunder out of a clear sky and bolts from the blue. This is the tribe that clamours for swift changes and revolutions for sudden, magical strokes of statesmanship and a millennium while you wait. The man who promises to bring about such glorious and miraculous transformations is the man for their money. If on the way to this Promised Land he wrecks a bank or two the mishap can easily be ascribed to vested interests and other undesirable influences. It is highly significant that two names each of one syllable have been applied to those credulous souls. Every one of them is a dupe and a gull. The dictionary says that a dupe is a foolish bird easily caught and a gull is a person easily cheated. Any kind of bait will do. Usually these persons are of an excitable and h'ghly emotional temperament, are carried awtey by enthusiasm and catch every, new intellectual or moiral epidemic that comes along. Most of us have some little shred of superstition in our make-up, but we know it, laugh at it. and see that it does us no harm. When Scott was in Rome he proposed to leave on a Friday, and a friend reminded him of his superstition that Friday was unlucky. With his fine heairty laugh Scott answered >• "Sup?

erstiticn is very picturesque and I make it at times stand me in great .stead; but I never allow it to interfere with interest or convenience." Credulity has no such safeguard. It insists on going all the way—swept on by a flood of emotion it wrecks not of consequences. ;What can be done? Mark Twain Complained that while everybody was complaining about the weather nothing was being done about it. Credulity is not a personal matter. It does not stop with the individual, but has serious repercussions in family, social, political and moral affairs. In the days of wooden ships a sailor was caught boring a hole in the hull just above his own bed. His defence was thajt when the sea got in it would wet nobody but himself. A credulous person is a menace. Is it possible to educate him to drive some sense into his head?. Will a reading of history help him? It niighlt, but he belongs to a class that has no patience with history or study of any sort. It is too slow, too dull, cannot give a thrill, and Henry Ford calls it "bunk." In all likelihood, and seeing that gulls will neither read nor think, it may be possible to accomplish something by means of ridicule. Ask a credulous person what he would say if you told him the moon was just a green cheese. He who is proof against all othelr forces is -generally susceptible to ridicule. Nothing scares him so much as the fear of becoming ridiculous. It means losing the credit of being sensible and risking the danger of being classed as hare-brained or cracked or "a little touched." Point out to him that a dead fish goes with the stream, but it needs a living fish to sw*m against it. Dead leaves are blown about by every wind, but a tree is planted by the rivers of water. This man Whom Bunyan calls Simple is the prey of every charlatan. There is not' in him spirit enough to be critical of anything. W]hen a cry arose that some supreme soul had appeared on the horizon the Master of men said " Go not out." Retire into yourself, consult with your own common sense, remain your own, prove all things. Be on your guard against becoming "tame in earth's paddock as her prize." ' Unlimited credulity is at the opposite pole faom intellectual hospitality. Be your own. Without independence of judgment no man is truly British—or even human.