“MONOTONY.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3348, 14 October 1911, Page 3

“MONOTONY.”

A XOTHIXG-TO-DO COMPLAINT. If monotony seems, in itself, to he a minor evil, it is responsible for many major ones. It is a feminine rather than a masculine complaint. Even those whose lives are narrow and circumscribed, seem to feel it less than do women under the same conditions. How many of the follies and crimes of women are due to a desire to escape from monotony it would be difficult to say. Extravagance, undoubtedly, may often be traced to this source. Who are the hordes of women who spend most of their days gazing into shop windows but those who find time hanging heavy on their hands? A new frock is an event, a new hat is a mild excitement. Divorce cases would become fewer and fewer if monotony could be banished from life. The predisposing causes, as often as not, are simply idleness, ennui, and boredom. In most cases monotony is a matter of mind, of allowing oneself to be dominated by circumstances and environment, of looking outside for something that should be discovered within. That is why women suffer so much more acutely than men from this evil. They are more sensitive, and, therefore, more readily influenced by their surroundings. Generally speaking, their mental outlook is narrower. Often they become women of one .idea. They think that some particular thing is necessary for their happiness. This failing them, they lose interest in life. They have never been taught to “think imperially.” It is difficult for their minds to soar further than their nextdoor neighbor. Women of the middle and upper-middle classes are most sul>ject to this feeling of monotony. Those in the highest and lowest classes are kept too busy to be afflicted by it. The great antidote to monotony is work —hard, engrossing, interesting work. People noth hobbies rarely suffer from .boredom. The person who can say: “My mind to me a, kingdom is,” could not, under any conceivable circumstances, find life monotonous, for life is a reflex of the mind. Imagination is another factor in dispelling monotony. It enables its possessor to remove herself far from her surroundings. The woman who would be happy must cultivate her imagination as well as her intellect. But it must be cultivated in the right way, for the same power that can raise one to the heights of ecstacy can also plunge one into the most profound despair. It requires no psychic gifts to prophesy that monotony will become less and less of a bugbear to women as the days goon. A French philosopher not long ago discussed the type of woman who is to rule in the future. She is to be intellectual, courageous, and enterprising. “The woman,” he says, “who used to be slow and languid has become energetic. She is no longer a doll.” Such a woman rarely suffers from boredom. The days are- too short to encompass- her many activities. Furthermore, she will ‘ keep young to the end 1 . Monotony is ageing. Tragedies and griefs have fewer powers to impair beauty than have long drawnout days of emptiness and weariness. “The great source of pleasure is variety,” said Dr Johnson, and lie was right, for the power to give life variety, when -external means ate lacking, indicates the possession of many -desirable qualities of character and intellect.