Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 52, 14 October 1892, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Of coarse Father O'Flynn baa seat tickets for his concert to oar " Oivie " and his wife. Is not that ft chief part of his Reverence's duty— 41 Coaxing tbe crazy ones 7" Not that we have the •lightest acquaintance of any kind with Mrs " Civis," or tbe least suspicion as to tbat lady's identity— bat wt may reasonably judge of her by the choice she has made of a husband. We should say. therefore, tbat Mrs " Civis " also needed a good deal of coaxing. And it flatters ns highly to hear that our " Oivis " intends to avail himself of the tickets sent him, partly that be may make the personal acquaintance of the editor of the Tablet. As for ourselves, we have met, in our day, with so many queer fish, that one more or less cannot make much difference to us— even though he be of tha Bort that occasionally talks like a whale. The revelation of " Civis' " identity will, no doubt, be an event of immense importance. Something, meantime, in our " Civis' " notes gives as cause for distress. Is it possible thit we have so far failed in receptivity ? to borrow a term from the philosophy of the period as best adapted to bj lofty a budjeet. Has oar long sad careful study of " Paeßing Notes," indeed* failed to convey to us some faint infection of " literary grace ? " Where " Christian charity " is concerned, or perhaps any kind of charity, even Pagan, it is another matter. That we hardly expected to t»ke in from such a fountain. In fact, at times it has been hard not to draw thence the direct contrary. Bat " literary grace,"— why, the study of " Passing Notes " should have been as improving to up, as, for instance, that of a book of elegant extracts. We fear, then, we have little to derive from personal communication, "sweet" or otherwise, with the accomplished writer, and that, notwithstanding his flattering claim of relationship, we mast be content to remain a " chip " of quite a different block. Still, let as be consoled. We have, at least, learned to recognise, when we come across it, what " sarkasm " means. We have not Btudied oar " Civis " altogether in vain. And our " (Jivis" will make us a speech on the occasion. We already feel our jaws relaxing in a grin. Hut when our "Civis" buttons up his pocket, and tells as he will contribute a suggestion, we are reminded of an old lady with whom we were once acquainted, " Love is easy carried," she was wont to Bay, when any one sent her that sentiment in a letter or by word of mouth, as sometimes happened. Tbat suggestion, made by oar " Civis," hardly deserves to weigh, more heavily.— 1 * Tbat we should all strive for a re-union of Christendom on the basis of a community of church debts." " Not for Joseph," who would be the only one to pay — and, verily, why not, since he alone has that which is worth paying for? Much, however, that is said in jest is meant in earnest, and really there U a grain or two of sound sense in oar " Civis' " forecast of his speech. Even his allusions to tbe Bruce election and the doctrine of indulgences are not without their merits. They bespeak an uneasy conscience — and is not that also a part of Father O'Flynn's duty — »' Checking th' nnasy oneß ?" It ia well, too, for a man to acknowledge his deserts. Bat we shall not chuck him out. Oh dear, no. On tbe contrary, we shall be duly grateful to any one who reminds as of a battle still to be fought and a debt to be paid— though not, we admit, by a re-nnion of Christendom. Father O'Flynn, again, we may safely promise, will never compare oar " Civis " to pitch. There is an article more to the point. Treacle and Bulphur, for example, such as, by way of a mixture of the agreeable and the corrective, Mrs Squeers was accustomed to force upon her young charges. Finally, if oar " Civis " betraj s some faults of bearing with respect to the Irish brogue, let us not lay the matter too harshly to his account. We shall not exactly say it may be explained by a bee in his bonnet — but, as we have seen, he — not to speak of Madame — is among those with whom Father O'Flynn feels himself called upon to deal coaxiogly. It is creditable to our common hnmanity that oar " Civis " shows a disposition to be docile and responsive.

A DOCILE PATIBNT.

THB DEATH OE TENNYSON.

A Gbiat and noble career hai terminated in the death of Lord Tennyson, which occurred, at the age of 83, on Thursday, the 6th inst. To review the life of the poet and hii works, would be a task; for which, even could we pretend totho necessary qualifications, we have neither opportanity, time, nor space. Onr notice mut, therefore 1 ! be confined to the few remarks, without which, at least, we should ihow disrespect towards a memory worthy of honour. It is not much to claim to have baen always among the admirers of the great poet. Everyone possessed of even a little literary judgment or taste, mut necessarily make such a olaim. Not that we were prepared to receive as perfect everything written by him— for indeed, he wrote a good deal that was trivial and worthless, and which itwonld have been better, for hjs fame's sake, to withhold from publication. Bat in thii ht was not singular. There are not many English poets of whom aj much may not be said— and, in particular his predecessor as Laureate, that is, Wordsworth, to whose fall standing it may be questionable he ever attained, had been in this respect a notable traogressor. But, 41m, like Wordsworth, by even a few of his better verses, he more tbaa atoned for all his short comings. What a wealth of poetry, for example, is contained in that one short poem that begins with the lines. " Break, break, break, On thy cold grey stones, O Sea." Even Dante, the master par excellence of condensation and suggestion, has hardly given us in a more condensed form, anything containing so wide a view of life. The hard, inexorable, world goes on with its sport, is business, its natural successions, heedless, and as it must seem, in mockery, of the heart that aches, and will ever ache, for —the touch of a vanished hand, And the sound of a voice that is still." The lines contain in abounding richness the very essenoe of poetry. A beautiful picture, a musical expressioo, a deep thought, all is there. None but genius of the highest order could have given us this— and Tennyson has given as much besides, flowing from aa equal source' The influence of Tennyson on the generations with whom he was contemporary, may be looked upon on the whole as salntary. Something it possessed of the unevenness that distinguishes the influeoee of all non-Catholic writers— but, on the whole, it tended to create or prolong a reverence for Christian truth. As his body is carried to the grave, therefore, we may bow our he ids in acknowledgment of a career that has left behind it a monument, — monumentnw oerepareH' nius— honourable to the man himself, and useful to the generations to come.

AM EVIL SUCCESSION.

But who is to succeed Tennyson m Poet Laureate ? Swioburn, they say. And what a difference ii tbere I The one has left no verse behind him tLat can call a blush to the purest cheek. The other hag carted the English language with verses fraught with the filthiest and moat revolting lnst. The one has given us King Arthur, the May Queen* the Gardener's Daughter— purity personified ia the legendary hero, as in the spotless maid and matron of our common day. The other has given us—well, let us take the Borghese hermaphrodite as the type an d possibly the culmination of unspeakable suggestion. Wnen, some few years age, there appeared a volume of rondeaus bearing this poet's name, and in which were verses on a little dead boy that were almost heartbreaking in their beauty and pathos, we ooold hardly believe that the authorship was the same, and we felt inclined to resent its being so. But wa recollected that the lore of offspring i* common to man and beast. Victor Hugo, for example, in one of hit woYks, describes the cry of a woman, desperate for the lives of her children, as identical with that of a she-wolf, and traces the samenesi in the feeling. We could not desire that a man should be shnt out from feeliaoq that gain sympathy and pity for the beast. But ia tbii the man who is to wear the crown that Tennyson has left vacant f Hit ambi* tion to succeed the Laureate had been for some time asserted. Although his sympathy for tbe red revolution abroad had been tor yean proclaimed, he did not scruple to ory out scurrilonsly against liberty at home. In this, however, there was nothiug inconsistent. The red revolutionist is no lover of liberty, bnt a tryant disguising himself

Oder its prostituted name. If at home Mr Swinborn be a high Tory, while abroad he is a Radical of tbe Radicals, his spirit may still be one. Bat, whatever may be the political significance of Mr Swinburns appointment— if it has any-its moral effect cannot fail to be dtaastrous. To the poet, whose lofty, well-beloved theme was purity, will succeed one who, to quote tbe words in which King Arthur denounces the false woman— r0 ,.. .„ , " Stirs the pulse With devil's leaps, and poisons half tbe young."

AX XmrVABXHT SUGGESTION.

There is a great deal of talk going on at present about the planet Mars, and all kinds of people, learned and unlearned, wise and foolish, are speculating aa to what sort of a world it forms, and whether it is inhabited. We do not know much about the planet Man, and all we can gather from what the newspapers publish about it seems to be confusion, possibly the worse state of mind a man can be in. CUiut emergit veritas ea errore qucm em confvsione. All we know it that, if what they ssy is true, there must be a good deal of water there. Indeed, the whole concern would appear to be > species of Venice on a larg , scale. But if the grass and foliage are red, as somebody also asserts, the more water there is the better, for the glare must be very trying to the eyei. What touches us more nearly than these speculative publications about Mars, since, for our own part we should be glad to come at last to a peaceable end in the world to which we are aooostomed, is a Tery disagreeable paper that was read toe other day at a meeting of tht British Association in Edinburgh. It treated of the ice age, and discussed the various ways in which that epoch might have been prodoced. But the mischief of it is, the concisions were that the sun is possibly liable to changes of a •tartlmg nature, and which must be attended by very unpleasant consequences to all those who are dependent on his beams, as all of M are, except, perhaps, the moon-strnck. The rejuvenescence of suns we are told, is quite ao established fact. The pwsibi lities, indeed, we aw told, are almost unlimited, and, on the other hand, the decrepitude of the aun it quite as likely a contingency. It is all a matter of chance, therefore—we hare not even Hobwn's choice in the matter— as to whether we are to be frozen or broiled, and we are coolly informed that an event of the kind " may be nearer at hand than geologists or laymen have previously inspected." Inhabitants, then, there may be in Man, or there may not b«, but an uninhabited Earth is the sureestlon that seems of most importance to us.

AN UXWBLCOMI nsrroß.

Thb arrival, by the Monowai from San Francisco, of an agent interested in the establishment among us of a type-setting machine, with whose aid the work of five men can be done by one man, or, perhaps, a boy, reminds ns once more of a very pressing question. The ftnerftl theory of economise is, we know, that by the use of machinery labour is set free and made available for other undertakings-which there is no difficulty in finding for it. We doubt the, truth of this and, besides the ordinary conclusions to be derived from reasoning in support of our doubt, we can point to the great armies of the unemployed. But. even if it were so, would there be still no evil in the change? L 9 t us, for example, take the agricultural machines, of which so many are now in use. Everyone knows that by their means the work of the farm can be done by infinitely fewer hands than those necessary at an earlier time. What, then, has be come of the faim labourers ? They have been provided for perhaps in the manufacture of the machinery— that is, a population leading the wholesome life of the country, and scattered under many masters has been collected together in a smoky and unwholesome towo, where their very lites depend upon the capacity of one man— or it may be on his whim, as we have lately seen to be the case at Homestead —in the fatal results of the enmity of Manager Friok against unionism. Meantime, the argument certainly does not apply to the particular case of the typographers in these colonies, whose method of earning their bread is now threatened. The machines are to be made in America and imported here, so that, even if it were possible to transform at a moment's notice men bred to one trade into skilled, or even unskilled, workmen in another, co prstence could be made of thus providing for the mechanics discharged. However, the future is plain enough. Our Yankee friend will necessarily proceed and prosper, with more or less speed, in his enterprise. The capitalist w 11 see mone, in it, and there will bs the stock arguments for the consolation of the worktngman. Meantime, as we have said, an additional reminder is given of the absolute necessity that presses for the settlement of a question that is revolutionising the world, and which so iar, sophistry has done nothing to make less urgent.