The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-11-01

ootVnOu ON tue NfRer.
The wisdom OF age becomes inevitably
the wisdom OF the ages. In certain
early and intermediate stages Of tho
culture OF human society all knowledge
subsists IN the mumblings OF the tooth
less sage recounting the experiences Of
that life which for him has then become
hut memory. Thus arise the proverbs
Of race. the proverbs Of all races
singularly alike. In n culture so allen
as that Of the negroes on the Niger.
blacks whose names are wholly unfa-
millar 10 US with the single exception
OF the Ashantee people. We ind yct
one more instance OF the monotony Of
human experience. an outlook on life
with which we can hnd ourselves In
basic sympathy.
Tho record Of this snonic wisdom
from the Niger fills one OF the six
several volumes in which NoHrucorE w
| THOMAS has recorded the result OF
his official observations as Government
anthropologtst In the AnthropoloOicul
Report on the Ibo-spedktno Peoples Of
Nigeria. London: Harrisons)
The proverb Is inherently word Of
mouth literature, II Is crystallized ex-
perience delivered IN council without re-
course or contravention. Much OF our
earliest written record OF literature Is
gnomic. but the proverbs are not COM
posed with the pen or the stylus or
whatever the pick may have been with
which our most primitive authors in
scribed their opinions upon the walls Of
their residential caverns. Solomon.
Lemuel. Agur the son OF Jakeh, Hpsiod.
are not the composers OF the proverbs
which bear their names: they are merely
collectors as were Haywood and Ray.
The material existed in the stores Of
common learning. they did no more than
gather II and establish II in, "a Il were.
a canon. tertus reccptus.
The proverbs exist in the store "
common learning. even more they are
that store Of learning Each statement
Of this nature Is final, not to he con-
troverted Against II argument fails.
for argument is the weapon Of doubt
} ing, progressive youth; tho provorb rs
the voice OF age and authority, even =
! II lacks the preface Of also sprnch
Zdrdthustrd II IL compulsive as tho
word Of the patriarch which he has
learned from the patriarchs when he
was young and hot of blood and that
patriarch from one yet older in a chain
which depends from the mists. Wisdom
one knows tho better he knows what
lie does know. there is less room for
exception, there can he no debate. with
wider culture knowledge Is less positive,
: II shrinks from the expression Of opin-
ion in tho form OF infallibility. A
, Laplace II content TO state his sober
| decision as to the universe In the form
, OF a Nebular Hypothesis and to array
r all the objections which ne could imag-
| Inc and which he has not been able TO
) meet. Even the law OF gravitation may
be debated.
. But a proverb 10 tho statement OF
I positive law, It admits OF no exception.
II Is tho produce OF primitive mind. It
Is the fruit Of conservatism and the seed
) OF the reactionary. with It's unim-
: peachable force OF direct statement 4.
, reflects the experience of a common
> past. It STILES all impulse toward in
vestigation and toward advancement.
Z The Works and Days" COMFORTS with
= the intelligence OF the Boeotians whom
Hesiod addressed Mr.. Martin Farquhar
$ Topper knew the class OF our own kind
I to whom he directed his "Proverbial
Philosophy" each we'll distinguished by
= the fact that the mister cl.ngs in small
. shred OF middle class responsibility u
= would dispute a proverb is a disturber
:, OF the peace OF things as they are per-
n haps even a genius. certainly a most
- lnconven!ent sort OF person.
Y The people OF the Niger are savages.
e They have blood feuds. They buy their
= wives. as many apiece as they can
$ afford They are held 10 worship
/. Mumbo-Jumbo, certainly they have
o fetishes in the forest depths, They dc
- not speak, for the tones which they en-
70 ploy in conversation are essential to
3 the meaning OF the words. the record of
o their speech is on n diatonic scale with
sharps and flats. and II has called for
= no little ingenuity on the part of Mr.
@ Thomas to devise modifers whereby the
p vocabulary may be set in roman type
@ Their view Of life must be narrow
8 hemmed in physically by the steamlng
= barrier of the Jungle which surrounds
q them. morally by the paucity of the OBJ
= jects about which they may have
= ideas, by the poverty Of their experience
= upon which reason may be based. Al
!. together AT the bottom OF the scale
It whereof we consider ourselves the sum.
: nit, race little above the frankly ami
= NAL. we find that they as well as we
8 are under the domination OF tile provcrt
IS as the expression OF the fixed idea, the
i axiom Of llfe--and this Is undeniably q
j. livery happy frame Of common mini