A NATION OF FOOLS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 95, 20 February 1875, Page 7

A NATION OF FOOLS.

— 1 1 . ._■ . (To the Editor of the ITew Zealand Tablet.) Sib, — I am very fond of taking a quiet -walk after supper and sitting down under the canopy of Nature, and, must I say, indulging in a quiet whiff. For years have I enjoyed myself in those wild haunts I love on many a summer's eve in this manner. Possessing none of the ideality of poetism, my musings usually revert to com* monplace things, and the every-day life of a common bushman, for lam a " hewer of wood and a drawer of water." This evening, however, feeling more pensive than usual I changed my familiar bower, lest the the children might come to seek me as is their wont, and annoy me with their accustomed childish gossip about the ex* cellence of neighbor Wilson's horses, Thomson's sheep, and Mac* Alisdrum's dogs. I have said I felt pensive, and somehow or other, as if forced by some supernatural power which I could not war against, 1 felt unusually inclined to follow the hidden phantom even into the in* nermost recesses of my own mind and Bee if it would turn out to be " A dream of the future," or another " Vision of Mirza," or some species of sentimentality surpassing Bosseau. Well, I found myself secreted between some teak trees, on a >>ill overlooking % rich valley, and felt a secret pleasure in thinking that, though many a-big round tear and drop of my sweat had fallen there, I assisted in making it what it now is. The contrast was striking, some fifteen years ago of a clear evening like the present you may perceive the smoke arising from the ill-shaped log huts hid beneath the tall primeval forest trees, where to-day beautiful homesteads surrounded by nice plantations and well cultivated gardens greeted the eyes. Yet, although the prospect before me was one of the moat pleasing, it was not that which attracted most attention in the present state of my mind, so I turned to contemplate the vanities of human life, even while everything around seemed to impress me with a belief in its reality. Yet, real as it is, there could be no doubt but a large section of the people who enjoy it, and they by no means the least educated, were fools. " Look," thought I, "to England ; see how they denounce one of their ablest statesmen as an infatuated fool and an insane maniac ! " I even fancied myself like Griffin's " Traveller " secreted in the jury room, listening to a number of would-be wits and punsters deriding the " miserable converts to the old idolatry," and asking one another if even Goldsmith's Sir Richard Mordaunt waaas great a fool as as either of th» noble converts. Strange ! mighty strange ! Is it not ? Even th» great ' Times ' itself, the prince of newspapers, of which it has been said "If the ' Times ' said one thing and the Bible another, 99 out of 100 " (Englishmen of course), " would believe the former," joins in the chorus. Not content with saying that the Marquis of Ripon is a fool, they most empathically declare that he has always been one. The only inference which any sane man, that is, a man who is not a downright fool or weak minded imbecile can draw from the facts are these : — I will put them into syllogisms in order to make them clearly understood for the benefit of your logical contemporaries, taking care to express fully the major and minor premises as well as the logical deductions. Now my first syllogism is this, taking it for granted that the Marquis is and was a fool it can be expressed thus : The Marquis of Eipon was a fool ; the Whigs made the Mar* guis a Cabinet Minister; therefore the Whigs were fools. Again, The Marquis is a fool, the English sent him to represent them at the Congress of Geneva ; therefore the English are fools. Again, horror of horrors' ! worst of all, the Marquis is a fool ; the enlightened Free and Accepted Masons of England made the Marquis Grand Master, therefore the Freemasons of England are fools. It sickened me, I lost my wits, my head became dizzy. A few hours before I was ready to say " England with all thy faults I love thee still." I am a true British subject, I admire England, for there under the genial influence of wisdom, the arts and science* attain their highest perfection, and literature its warmest support, freedom, peace, and industry, their full value. How fortunate that I should awaken as from a dream and find 'twas all the empty vaunting of a self -confessing nation of fools plunged into an unfathomable abyss of apish theories and immaterial philosophy deluded with human monkeys. — Yours, &c. A Mattek-of-Fact Old Bubhxak.