The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1902-01-01

space and Things

... ... .ma ILLUSIONS of Tma wl
Space and Things
And the Lama was % holy man ana
had meditated much, and was nearing
the end when we lose all illusions and
meet the hereafter face TO face. Is it so?
Are Time and space and Things" H.
lusions2 II is diHeHit to say We have
a way of saying "tlr all time" but the
very idea Of time means a beginning.
else how do we count time. We have a
starting point ARBITRARILY fixed We OF
the present age count it from the birth
of Christ and are told we are four
years wrong, probably more perhaps
less. No registers survive. The Ro-
mans counted from the foundation of
The city which there were no anthem
tic documents to Dr1ve. The Greeks
counted by Olympiads, periods of four
years ana the original Olympiad was
lost in myths. The French Il The time
of their graat revolution thought they
could start new era, but a dozen
years saw the last Of their innovation
both Of years and of nonths.
And space, may not that be illusion
too? Space after all means limits. We
run it into our little notches as we do
time into our even Centuries, years.
hours, minutes and seconds We know
length, breadth, and thickness bpt
When scientific man comes along and
tells us Of fourth dimension we are
lost and yet there is mathematicaIIv
proved a fourth dimension. But since
space has dimension it may be thu
sion. Advance further and life and
Things are Illusions.
What have we to do with illusions in
our little lives. We are but tinv mites
in a very poor cheese Of the inimitable
universe, an tmperceptible fragment of
the finite term Of eternity. After all
1t is not wen to dwell upon our little-
ness. No doubt there are ants which
take great pride in their personal
appearance and there are mites which
consider themselves far above the com-
mon run of their fellow mites. We
must live in our Illusions. We must
take our time" chopped short as we
hnd it, we accept our Things" as real
and enjoy them as long as the power
OF enjoyment lasts, and as for Space, "
why need we trouble our heads? We
are on a little globe of small girth, and
it takes us weary time, even with all
our boosted skill to crawl around it,
Why should we trouble our heads about
globes far greater than ours, or
bother about anything but the pre-
sent. All these may be as the Lama
says Illusions"
To us who live and do not mediate
the New Year means something ana Sas
done for thousands of years since man
found by observation that there was
yearly cycle. He Numbered over it.
but in time he got it right Though the
year is really a very small fraction of
time, an indnitesimal pulsation in the
heart beat of eternity it is something to
us. Being finite, we must have some
thing finite to count our little lives by,
how could we couud them else? We
would be lost in the abysmal depths of
even finite time
Turn from the gloomy picture to the
bright one. New Year means new hopes,
new aspirations, the closing of a little
book Of life and the opening of another
New Year in many countries is the
real annual winter feast. To the
French New Year has far greater
significance than Christmas, and the
French, and the French "Etrennes" is
direct descendent of the Roman
"Strenae," gifts given at that time.
But what ever may have been done in
the past, whatever may be done in the
future, it is in the present that we
live, and # is the present that we have
20 do with.
Looking al our immediate past we
have much to be thankful for Looking
at our present we have more to be
thankful for and our hopes for the flu
ture are most to be thankful for We
have no year Of disaster to look back
upon We have no dire calamity to
fight in our midst at present, and our
future is bright Could a community
start New Year under better auspices
than We are starting on this day? We
have, it is true, MANY things which are
like peas in a shoe and worry us, but we
need not on this suspicious occasion
name them-every one knows them, and
they carry their own unhappiness in ,
their own bosoms, But for the general
community the prospect is good. The .
year 1902 while II may not bring enor-
nous wealth promises to give abundant
work solid returns for capital invested
and will carry the Territory on that
wind Of prosperity which the fore |
thought, skill, courage and energy of a I
few men have enabled it to wing it's
sails TO-. There have been those, and
there are those who would back the
sails, but they viii not be backed, and,
knowing this the Star wishes its read
ers,
A HAPPY NEW YEAR,