THE INFLUENCE OF POETRY ON LIFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1801, 22 January 1884, Page 3

THE INFL UENCE OF POETR Y ON LIFE.

The following letter appealed in the Pall Mall (Ja/ctto, the w liter stating that he had at uvtd at th fi conclusions therein evprosed fiom bittei e\peiienee, and he belies ed a laige nnijoiity of woiLing men would endoihc them :—: — A woiking man holds in your columns that " an ineicase of poetic susceptibility 13 a real gam,"' but is it? To the vast majoiity of woikingnicn at least, Tbclie\e that an mci ease of poetic snsceptdjdity means an increase of emotion that cannot lead to action, simply brc.iu-e their whole energy i« spent m keeping theinsehes and families ali\e and deci-nt— and you ti uly said that emotion of this Kind is maddening. Your woiUin« man thinks, weic it only possible that some of the outcasts of London could be got to see some of the beauties of nituie they would be impiovcd — weie it oidy possible ! But the skeleton on which ate supplied the beauties of natuic is too literally visible to these people to allow them to observe the beauties. Siuely the less of p >etic susceptibility these people have the better. I, too, am conscious of try j poetic susceptibilities moie by tne pain they have caused me than the pleasure. I cultivated them too much in my youth for my own peace of mind. When the struggle for existence commenced at twenty-one, my too tender lieait ached for the men among whom I stood many a bitter morning at faetoiy gates seeking employment. I knew too well that the dmneis of their wives and families depended on their success, and I felt that I, who only had myself to pt ovule for, had no right to employment till these men had it. This made the slink away out amongst them, till hunger, who does not caie much tor poetry, made me as fierce in the struggle as the others. To be out of work with poetic susceptibility means more suffering, useless suffering, therefoie maddening. I know a foreman who, being young and emotional, suffered terribly when he had to dismiss forty or tifty men. He used to cany their notices in his pocket, and sneak about like a murderer till the painful business could be put off no longer. His sufferings merely maddened him, and no one was the better for his madness. Bitter expeiience will teacli him to keep his emotions in the background — because the pleasures they may bring him sink into nothingness beside the suifeung. Men out ot woik, too, have to get haidened. There is no use in mci eased susceptibility when it has to face a hungiy family and nothing to give to the family to eat. The beautiful crystals of the snowflakes, or the goigeons traceiy of the fiost on their windows ought not to mean anything more to them than increased snivel iug, If they have deeper meanings, so, too, must the hunger and cold of their children— that is, maddening emotions. One Sunday night I was crossing the high level bridge at Newcastle, after taking a friend home from chapel. Looking down over at the north end into the slums below I saw two women fighting. A cottage, sorrounded by ruins, some fifty feet below, had a little square in front, formed by the dead end of a slum ; a street lamp hard by made objects clearly visible. Some twenty or thirty men women and children were theie looking on, aud ever and anon combatants and crowd went into the cottage or den, to emerge again in a few minutes to have another instalment of the fight. I have often seen dogs fight, but for savagery, inarticulate rage and desire to do each other mischief, this fight of two women on the banks of the Tyne, after evening service in the churches and chapels, beat all dogs, hyaenas, tigers. The friend I had just parted from was a person of keenest poetical susceptibilities, too innocent and tender-hearted for this world ! and not for all I was possessed of would I that she had had the glimpse into hell that I had. I am afraid your poetic working man would have shed more unavailing tears there. You pertinently ask, " If a man has no ideal to live for and die for, no great and sustaining hope for the amelioration of the average lot of the common man, is all this increase of susceptibility really a gain ?" To the average working man, who must drudge all his life for bare living, Buch an ideal and such a hope is not possible. Were it so, his life would be one long and useless emotion, maddening him. When one is afflicted with such ideals and hopes, be wants a wife who can share them and sustain them in him. She must be sensitive and refined. Under our social conditions the workmen must choose their wives from their class j few

there are in that class who are" cultured and sensitive enough for the idealist. And what man would ask such an one to have her sensitive soul harrowed up by the sights and sufferings that wonld inevitably await her were she to become an inhabitant' of the only residence possible to the wording man ? The average wife, duller and h ippier, li\es comp'Uali\ely contented ; but the emotional woiUnian and his emotional wife had better never have been born. Therefore I bay to the ordinary working man, all this incicasc of poctio susceptibility is not really ,i gam, either to themselves or others.

Sales ok Suortiiorxs in Irelynd — During the year appioaching a close (says the liibh F.uinois' Gazette) 201 pedigree shorthorns were sold m li eland, the total Mm icaiised loi winch was 49867 15s 6d, aud the average £33 18s 2{d. Of the number sold 198 were bulls, which ietched £67.39 OS 6d, beingana\eiageof £34259 d, and 93 were cows and heifeis, which made £3107 10s, or an average of £33 Ss 3-j;d. In 18S2 the number of shorthorns sold in Ireland was 238, which bi ought £SlO3 7s 6d, or an average of £3± 0s 11 [d ; and in 1881. 370 animals weie sold for £9331 12s, average C 25 4s4 r d. Last year the avoiage for bulls was £33 2s B{d, and tor cows aud heiteis, £32 ISs !)/(!. The average for bulls tins year was thu? about £1 less pel head than last year, while for female shoi thorns the aveiage was about 10s pur head more. In 1881 the average of bulls was £28 14s 9|d, and for cows and heiteis, €22 13* 2d. Nmo>- \h Fair-Tk\dl LkAiun;. — At a confeienee held in the looms of the National Fair-Trade League, London, a paper was read by Mr \Vilham James lldirn, of the fir'n of Han is Biotl>eis, corn merchants, on ' Eng land's Position m respect to her Food Supplies,' He remaiked that tlie League piopo^ed that we should now adopt a dill'oient policy from that in.uigui.itcd in 184(5 when the Corn Laws weie repealed, and should place a moderate pumanent duty oi tlie iinpoit of wheat fiOiii all foioign countries, giving to our own colo'iies tlie advantage of bending it fice. Obseiving that this v\as a compiehensne policy, and one which might piopeily beaiguod out, he said th it to the Canadians thii was a nutter of the most vital imnoitance, seeing that l>y the opjmng up of thu Gieat Fai West they would be enabled to compete inoic successfully with their piosperous neighbour. While leady to admit that the union of the empue was a gieat political and social object, yet the proposxl for the imposition of n perm went duty on wheat, which had most powerful advocates, was one ulriih he had decided not to endoise, If tax were placed on Amciican wheat coming to this country the haun it A\ould do to the Amei icans must be far greater than the bent fit it would confei on the English agiicultuiist. fie not believe that while nations continued to bs burdened by national debts and standing atmies duties on impoits could he entnely abolished ; but he could see the effect which the Fail -Tiade policy would ha\e on the piompt reduction of such duties m favour of our inanufactuieis and woiKing men; and while he advocated the permanent piotection of Buti&h labour by not allowing it to be placed at any disadvantage with In bou i abioad, he thought it must be a piim.iry object to en com age lecipiocal tiade with eveiy countiy. The power to impose a tax on foieign giain would be such a poweihil lever for obtaining lecipiocity, that lie was of opinion that we should never iind it necessaiy to put it into foice, and that, in his opinion, was a good reason against its penyani ii'-y ; but he could easily conceive that thcie might be other wa\s in which the Home Government could give gteat advantages to the colonies by assisting their development in every possible way. Ho moved ' That our giowing dependence for food upon foreign pioduction. without O)i responding return in tiade, is fraught with danger to the nation.' The discussion on the motion was continued by seveial speakers, and ultimately adjourned.