NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 1, 5 January 1922, Page 26

NOTES

Evening Memories” ; We have come to the end of the Story of Ireland. Mr. Sullivan’s beautiful book has brought us from the pagan era in Ireland down to the Fenian rising. Looking around us for a work that would bring our history right up to date, Mr. William O’Brien’s Evening Memories , which was published a year ago, came into our hands, and when we read it we decided that it was just what we wanted. The author’s public life of half a century enables him to speak with the authority of an eye-witness of the events of the land war of the eighties, of the Parnell crisis, and of the Home Rule campaign of the years that Mr. O’Brien generously gave us permission to use his book as a serial for the Tablet , and once more, ourselves and all our readers are under, a debt of grattude to this great and gifted Irish patriot whose wisdom has been singularly justified, by the records of the past five years. Evening Memories is the work of a writer of wonderful charm and knowledge, and every page of it 'has that vivid actuality that marks the writing of'a man who has lived and acted in the events and scenes of which he writes. The following extracts from reviews are a voucher for the real value of the serial which we now offer to our readers:

“The story of one who, with all the characteristics of a political gladiator, has devoted a long life unselfishly and unremittingly in the pursuit of an ideal is necessarily good reading. *. . . For more than a generation the autobiographer has been a protagonist in the history of his country. He was one of the few who were very close to Parnell in the early and greatest strength of the Irish Party. That one of his ability and experience should in the evening of his days and in the maturity of his judgment, himself recount frankly and fully the story of his most daring activities is indeed a valuable contribution to the story of his time. At no point is there reason to question Mr. O’Brien’s sense of proportion in regard to his own part in Irish politics. The events which have chiefly impressed his memory ‘and form the scheme of his books were all of consequence.” The Times Literary Supplement. “The book is of permanent value for the additional light it throws on the period of Irish history which saw the overthrow of landlordism, and we propose -to deal with it in detail in a future issue. As a preliminary note it may be said that these Evening Memories form a volume of enthralling interest to the reader. It is not necessary to agree with all Mr. O’Brien’s judgments to be convinced of the fine sincerity of the writer in his devotion to his country, . . The task of William O’Brien’s generation was well and bravely done. Had it not been so the work men are carrying out in this generation would have been impossible. In that great work none of Parnell’s lieutenants did so much as Mr. William O’Brien. He never lacked through the struggle in courage, determination, and enthusiasm, and his place in its history will always be a foremost one. . . The Parnell of whom so many and fantastic and absurd pictures have been drawn is truly shown in this book of Mr. O’Brien’s. . . We shall return with pleasure to this book, which we commend to all who, loving Ireland, would know her modern history.” —Young Ireland (the organ of “Sinn Fein”). “Here we have the history of the Irish, question for the past forty years from the pen of its most eloquent writer and speaker. . .- After a stormy life Mr. O’Brien is now enjoying an evening of peace and rest. His tribute to his wife is a model of feeling and taste expressed in language so beautiful and eloquent that we know no parallel to it in recent literature. For that alone the book is worth reading.”— The Liverpool Daily Post.

■ * “I believe that there is more of the truth about Parnell truer realisation of the man—to be found here than in any other, record.”— Stephen Gwynn, in ' The Observer . Are Critics for the Clergy Wanted? To this question the average clergyman will without hesitation and with emphasis say no, and he may add that the trouble is that there are too many critics already. Persons who have been trained in the ways of the schoolmen would perhaps distinguish and say: “Critics as they exist are not wanted critics as they ought to be are.” If there is considerable need for the extermination of the sort of critic who in splendid contempt for the advice of the Gospels converts cirticism into back-biting, perhaps there may be room for critics who in the spirit of the word would honestly and charitably say what ought to be said, not to others, but to the person most concerned. As all the clergy in New Zealand, without a single exception, at all times, preach ‘ “eloquent and learned discourses,” and as not one of them has ever been too long-winded, too prosy, ever said the same thing more than five times in the same sermon, or ever taken an hour to say what might be said better in five minutes, the following, extract does not apply to them. Hence, with a sense of perfect safety we quote it: THE CLERGY’S NEED OF CRITICS. Preachers need “Foolometers” to tell them what is in the public mind concerning themselves, we are told, just as much as Lord Palmerston thought he needed one when he was Prime Minister and found the cares of state heavy on his hands. That British statesman once expressed a wish for a “foolometer” who would mingle with the common people and report back to him what they thought of the Prime Minister’s writings and utterances, and thus warn him against mistakes. Today, however, every public man has his “foolometer,” or register of popular opinion, in the daily® press. Not -so with the bishops and clergy, laments The Churchmdn (Episcopal), which believes they would do well to employ such a searcher for lay opinion, “for if there is any body of public servants who are kept in the dark as to their real merits in the eyes of other men, and even of their parishioners, it is the clergy.” Few people, we are told, ever tell a minister, with “journalistic frankness, ”„what is the matter with him. The trouble, as The 'Churchman- sees it, is that — '•* “Clergymen are, as a whole, very autocratic. Their autocracy takes the form of wanting to do the job alone, - and not taking counsel. Especially not taking criticism. We wonder how many rectors, after they have been in a new parish for a year, call together some of their parishioners, or go to them singly, with some such question as this: ‘ Now, we have .been together long enough for you to know me and my methods. Row do you think I could do the job better.? How could my preaching become of more help How could I administer the parish more effectively ? I shall not promise to follow your advice, but I want to know how things look to,you.’ “Every rector gets those questions answered without putting them—we hear the objection. But does he ? Has he an accurately recording foolometer ? Does he really know .all the if he only mould n’t s there are being whispered in the parish? He should humbly want to know them. • They would shock him if he did know them. “We are not thinking of the sparingly successful ministries nor of the dead failures. We even have in mind the rectors who are so deeply beloved by their parishioners, A dexterous foolometer could learn a good deal which might lastingly benefit even the much beloved rectors. They have queer ways about them which are spoken of in a whisper in the sacristy, the choir room, and on the sidewalk after church. The foolometer ought to be within hearing when a parishioner says: ‘He seems to be preaching just one idea all this

year. : I know the minute he announces his text -what he is going to say/ or, / I wish he would. teach us something about Christianity. His sermons are just topical essay s,’“We are firmly of the opinion th£t the clergy need a foolometer more than Lord Palmerston needed one.”