Speaking recently on the recently formed League of Youth, the Director of Education (Mr. McRae) said the old type of boy made a hobby of collecting birds' eggs. Today boys are being taught to preserve and conserve our native flora and fauna. There was never a hint, when I was a boy, That the joy of the wilds might bring man joy; Never a thought that a wild thing slain Might wake in the slayer pain for pain. We were savages all, with the hunter's thrill In the lure of the chase and the lust of the kill; And the bud on the bough, and the bird in the nest Were beautiful things to be possessed. But a worthier thing comes now to the earth, Since pity in minds of the young has birth. 'Tis the glorious gift, that wisdom brings, Of knowing and loving all lovely things: Of loving and sharing with all the boon Of the glad free things that may teach us soon The gift of living, as glad and free, As bird and blossom in Arcady. "Oh, youth is heedless," the elders say, "Youth is callous and cruel in play," Say they, fogetting that all youth heeds Comes down through lauding of elders' deeds. But the law of savage -- of fang and claw Gives was in the end to a worthier law; And man, emerging from ways uncouth, Sees visions anew in the League of Youth.
"Den" |
Copyright © Perry Middlemiss 2005 |