THE UNACCUSTOMED EARS OF EUROPE

I


When, as a child, I learned the Westminster Catechism by heart I found
the Ten Commandments easy to remember. There was something
straightforward in these prohibitions. Once started in the right
direction one could hardly stray from the path. But I stumbled over the
question, in regard to certain Commandments, "What are the reasons
annexed?"

That a commandment should be committed to memory seemed just. I was
prepared to submit to the severest tests of verbal accuracy. But that
there should be "reasons annexed," and that these also should be
remembered, seemed to my youthful understanding a grievance. It made the
path of the obedient hard. To this day there is a haziness about the
"reasons" that contrasts with the sharp outlines of the commandments.

I fancy that news-gatherers have the same experience. They are diligent
in collecting items of news and reporting them to the world, but it is a
real hardship to them to have to give any rational account of these bits
of fact. They tell what is done in different parts of the world, but
they forget to mention "the moving why they did it." The consequence is
that, in this age of instantaneous communication, we know what is going
on in other countries, but it seems very irrational. The rational
elements have been lost in the process of transmission.