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New Zealand Tablet, 14 April 1921, Page 26

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•r— —— ♦ An Irish Motto,. ». , In current Irish the usual way of expressing “For the honor of God and the glory of Ireland” is Ar son De aqus nr son, Eireann. Our esteemed correspondent, C. O L., points out that while this is quite correct and unimpeachable, the motto of the Four Masters is more beautiful, as it is also more nearly a literal rendering of the Latin motto of the Jesuits: Ad Major tin Dei glorinm is literally Do chum gloire De; and adding to this the words agus onova net h-Eireann , we get the motto of the Four Masters: Do chum gloire De agus onora na h-Eireann. Eileen . Duggan’s “Poems” It was no easy task to persuade Miss Duggan to jillow us to publish her Poems, for she was the only critic who was at all hard on them. For that reason we are all the more delighted that they have been welcomed by a chorus of praise such as is rarely the good fortune of a first volume by a young poet. Critics in The Dominion, The Otago Daily Times, The New Zealand Times, The Christchurch Press, The Otago Witness, The Maoriland Worker, and The Grey River Argus vied with one another in paying tribute to her genius. In Australia, Catholic weeklies, from. Sydney to Perth, proclaimed her a poet of a very high rank and endorsed every word that we said in the preface to the Ittle volume which has done such honor to the Tablet Office. The other day in Wellington a friend of ours told us that a certain cultured critic who is y no means inclined to go out of his way to praise things Catholic or Celtic assured him that he considered Eileen Duggan’s Poems a real “find.” ' Slender as it is we doubt if a more important contribution to poetry has been published under the Southern Cross during the years of the twentieth century. Influence of Religion Whatever may be the illusions of our people there is little doubt that a European visitor must be struck with the general lack of culture and politeness of the inhabitants of the Dominion— from the Maoris. The of pleasure, the tendency towards selfindulgence in mild or extreme forms," the‘ thousand and one little trifles that betray want of consideration or others, impress observers who have witnessed better things in older lands. We have no doubt at : all that these faults have their origin 1 in the schools that teach the children that religion,. is a matter of indifference. Christianity is the royal seed of good breeding. .Christian, education teaches children to follow]» Christ who was the personification of Newman’s ideal of a gentleman. Schools that are, like our New Zealand institutions, anti-Christian, breed a generation that will tolerate even in a Prime Minister a gesture that betrays the corner-boy. We have already quoted I Balfour s eloquent) tribute to , the $ gentleness . and courtesy of the peasants of Ireland, and to it we add a word from Colendge on the influence of religion on manners: You may depend upon it, religion is, in its essence, the most ? gentlemanly thing in the world. It will alone gentilise, t if unmixed . with cant: and I know !i nothing else that will, yalone.” -Wool /rpchbio«

Meekness, humility, charity, chastity are the roots 5 of gentleness. o They are the fruits of religious training, just as their opposite vices are the fruits of ' schools that banish God. ’ - Journalese rL , 5 One evening in the days gone down the dusty 1 street we heard the most brilliant of modern Irish journalists (now,- alas! under the daisies in green Glasnevin) reprove a fellow journalist with the words : “That is not journalese!” What he -meant was that something had been done , that was not in keeping with the noble aims that most Irish journalists still retain in a world of Cablegrams and day-lies. But the usual meaning of journalese is the jargon that passes with the mob for English prose in the vast number of daily papers. We know that when one has to write with unfailing regularity, to keep “copy” supplied when demanded by the printer, whether one is well or ill, in good. or. bad spirits, writing tends tej become hack work, and only those who are extremely careful can maintain a standard of , good English prose of which they need not bo ashamed. We know also that there are many who have never learned that there :is s any prose but'.journalese and that they are quite satisfied with their awful productions. In a lecture before his Cambridge students, as a warning • against the perils of literary . jargon, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch turned into journalese Hamlet’s famous soliloquy on suicide, and gave them this: “To be or the contrary Whether the former or the latter be preferable would seem to admit of difference of opinion the answer in the present case being of an affirmative or a negative character according as to whether one elects on the one hand to mentally suffer the disfavor of fortune, albeit in an extreme degree, or on the other' to boldly envisage adverse conditions in the prospect «of eventually bringing them to a conclusion. The condition of sleep is similar to, if not indistinguishable from that of death; and with the addition of finality, the former might be considered identical with the latter so that in this connection, with regard to sleep (it might be argued that could the addition bo effected, a termination . would be put. to the endurance off a multitude of inconveniences, not to mention a number of downright evils incidental to our fallen humanity, and thus a consummation achieved of a most ."ratifying nature.” ' b Wo suspect that there are not a few who actually woulci nola that this journalese paraphrase is superior •m. 6 , or^ Readers of a certain morning paper, which has vastly improved in every respect during the past twelve months, ought to have no- difficulty in recognising how true to life Sir Arthur Quiller-Conch’s - clever skit is. The origin of journalese is to be sought m the minds of journalists who Use it. People ought to write as they think, but it is well known that our . day-he. men .are not supposed to think at all : con- ; sidering what they give us it is charitable to believe . that they are unable to think. When von meet stated’,’ instead of “said,” or read that a -certain:.thing Transpired” you are in the land of journalese. Split-infinitives, useless words, padding and’ tautology . are hail-marks- of the jargon. : \ .