Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 22 February 1917, Page 34

Notes

The Late Monsignor O'Leary We gladly publish the first instalment of subscribers to the memorial - to the late "Very Rev. Monsignor O'Leary. We understand that it is the desire of the committee who have the matter in hand to raise amongst the late Monsignor's parishioners and his numerous friends throughout the Dominion a sufficient sum of money which will enable them to erect a suitable but simple monument over his" grave in the Lawrence Cemetery' and to invest the surplus money, which they hope -will lbe ; considerable. The interest from' this investment will be used ; to pay for the education, in Holy Cross College,- Mosgiel, of a deserving student for the priesthood. -They are convinced that this is ' the best.monument they could raise to a great;and. good 'priest.;"-:;.;":.;""''' .. '"'-' x ' : ■ ' ' '" , *

U.K. .Chesterton -.- ,~ -■-■ —, : , Speaking recently of this man of genius, John B. ' Kennedy isays: ' G. K. Chesterton, is not yet a professed.. Catholic, and when the writer "made bold to ask him to confirm or deny the rumor of reception into the ■; Church', he politely declined to discuss the matter. But v . were>• he a communicant, Mr. Chesterton could, hardly. be more serviceable - to' the Church. ' Some day the; ; '. world will receive his confession ; of faith. It may be ;a* posthumous . monograph; -. it .• may be \ a brilliant r book; ' but I am quite sure that its central substance wjll be 'Credo," , and its final-apostrophe will be the* triprayer of Pater- Noster y/Ave y Maria, . and Gloria, a ■ .child's penance.' .. i ;.■, \-->- '. ( The Humor of Saints w - * ' .' ■;-, _ \ Saints are not.': usually *>credited .with the "gift ; of , humor, yet they are the most "cheerful of men.C- St. ■ Joseph -of Cupertino, -in view.;- of his ;. worldly ■'■:incompetence, named himself-(he didn't wait for the other ;to do so) . '.Brother Ass.' St. ■;Teresa's; letters and recorded conversations reveal- a : born wit. St. Thomas : Aquinas j made excellent ; 'limericks.' Blessed Giles .-..; dispelled an unbeliever's- doubtsv on the -doctrine of free : wijl by playing a fiddle s and dancing round the room. The winning St. Philip Neri was well-known J . for his practical jokes, as witness his ordering a con- '" ceited penitent to' carry Philip's - favorite .cat on a cushion behind its master through the streets of Home. St..Bernard, the great contemplative and foremost man . of his age,' could- appreciate a joke. ' Oh, Father \ Abbot,' said his attendant, ' why do you not admire . the scenery of the lake 'My son, I was saying my prayers.' ' But I can admire the : lakes and the hills and say my. prayers, at the "same time.' ' Come,' the Saint replied, ' I will make you an offer. If you can say one Pater Noster without distraction you shall have my mule.' The man commenced: 'Pater Noster, qui es in coelis, sanctificetur-and the. saddle, too, Father -Abbot V ''No, my son, nothing!' / • Modern Poetry A modern school of poets have daringly tried to justify the maxim of one of their leaders : '.Our aim is natural speech, the language as spoken,' in accordance with which they would write nothing they might not actually say in lifeunder emotion Mr. Waugh says of S them in The New Poetry: ' To such a manifesto there is one preliminary reply. It is indeed true that the artificer may put whatever he sees into his melting pot, but it by no means follows that he will get a work of art out of his mould. It may be arguable that the poet should shovel the language of the mining-camp into his lyric, but it is more than doubtful whether poetry will emerge. Force may emerge, vigor may emerge, an impressive and vital kind of rhetoric may . take form from the composition ; but poetry is some- : thing more than these. Poetry must possess beauty; beauty, is the essence of its being;. and it has never been "'the general experience that the language of the common crowd possesses .either beauty or authority.' y-~ A Desecrated Shrine ;> ; , v Mr. Edmund Gosse having been invited by M. Briand to visit Rheims, tells us that at first sight he i was. agreeably surprised ; the beautiful outline was not ; changed; it was still there, the monument of monuments. . On a nearer examination he found that there - was a difference, the living monument had become a ; corpse:—'There it is before us, colossal and superb, ; but we rub our eyes. What, we ask ourselves, can be ; s the cause of the dimness, this immaterial look,'for the'Cathedral is "pinnacled" indeed, but, as Shelley would ? say, "in the immense inane." . c After some moments ' '* of reflection the cause of this cobwebbed effect flashes ; across the mind. _ In its pristine state the sculptured , detail of the great West front, with its traceries and its , pierced galleries, its tiers on tiers of triumphant saints ] „ and : angels, was sharply drawn everywhere, with a profusion of : lines ; all pure\" and clear. Now, no salient i part has been removed, but the sculptured detajrl ; has

k been - chipped and calcined, broken and stained,' so' that;:'; ■; all the exquisite harmony of the lines is suppressed, 'rveiled, made inexact and ineffective . .. .':it is not .--j precisely a ruin, but it is like some delicate object of art that rough children have been playing with.' ' ■ '1