Amplification Writing VI

 He who follows two hares catches neither

The simple meaning of this expression is that if anyone chases to hares together, they will not be able to catch any of them. But if they pursue only on hare at a given time they will certainly be able to catch it.But this statement has many connotations. It suggests that we should concentrate on only one thing at a time. If we select only one thing for our attention to be paid to and put in our best effort to do it, we must be successful in doing it sooner or later. But if we choose several things for us to do together or simultaneously, we cannot pay our full attention to them and, as a result, nothing will be done. If we have more than one goal to achieve together, there is every possibility that neither or none of them will be achieved. Human capability is limited. If we do many things together, we cannot do them properly. Therefore, we should set a specific goal for us to achieve in a particular period of time. After fixing that definite goal we should work whole-heartedly and to the best of our ability to achieve it. After one goal is achieved successfully, we should fix a second goal and then a third. Thus we should set one goal after another and achieve all the goals one after another. One success will thus lead us to another success. If we do too many things together, nothing will be done well-maybe some of them will be done badly, while some of them will not be done at all. So it is unwise to undertake several things together. If we aim at two birds together, perhaps neither of them will be killed but if we aim at one bird, it will surely be easier for us to kill it.

 Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter

This poetic statement distinguishes between real life and art. Here 'heard melodies' refers to the music which is perceived by the auditory sense or the sense of hearing. In other words, this music represents reality. On the other hand, 'unheard melodies' refers to the music which is not perceived by the sense of hearing but realised by imagination. This kind of music here represents the world of art or imagination. By saying that unheard melodies are sweeter than heard melodies the poet actually asserts the superiority of the imagination over reality. The pleasures of the senses may be great but those of the imagination are certainly greater. The unheard music is far sweeter than the music heard by the mortal ears. If we listen to a song sung by a real singer in a real situation, the song may be pleasing to our ears and we may enjoy and appreciate it temporarily. As this music is transient in nature, it must come to an end. On the other hand, if we see a picture of that singer with a flute in hand and imagine him or with our ears. But we can imagine hearing a song for an indefinite period of time. This song will never come to an end and we can enjoy forever beter way in our special power to create and enjoy things in a better way than our physical senses can. The music heard in imagination can surpass the music heard in reality. The permanent world of art and imagination is thus superior to the transient world of reality.

Honesty is the best policy

We may accomplish things in two ways - honestly and dishonestly. If we become honest in our actions, we will be praised. If we become dishonest, we will be cursed. It is a moral question whether one will be honest or not. Being honest means following a just procedure to perform a job without taking any benefit for personal interest. It is very easy to be dishonest. But its consequence may be disastrous in one's life. If one's dishonesty is revealed to others, he will lose their trust. They will not respect him any more. In this situation he will feel uneasy and uncomfortable. He will find himself debased as a human being, hated by others. In course of time, his own respect for himself will perish and he will hate himself. Life will be unbearable for him, unworthy of living. So by being dishonest one only demeans and harms oneself. On the other hand, if one is honest he will always find peace in mind. Others will rely and confide on him which will help him to rise upwards in life. At home and office, everywhere, honesty is commended. Honesty at home may create a pleasant living atmosphere which has a positive impact on the children's mind. Honesty in office will be appreciated by the authorities, who will reward the honest person with better position and remuneration. Dishonesty may bring some undue benefits for a person temporarily but in the long run he becomes a loser. Dishonesty is a temptation which one must resist with moral power. If there is opportunity of being dishonest he must avoid it for greater gain in life. Honesty takes one to heaven but dishonesty takes one to hell. Dishonesty is never right while honesty is welcome. In all cases honesty is the best policy.

 If winter comes, can spring be far behind

We always observe in nature that winter is immediately followed by spring. It is literally true that we can definitely expect the arrival of spring just after the winter season. The second part of the expression bad period of rhetorical question which implies that spring cannot stay away far when we have winter in our cycle of nature. But this expression is a has a figurative meaning too. Winter here stands for a time. It stands for all kinds of sorrows, suffering, cruelty, injudet time evils. On the other hand, spring repsy enote of pime. It stands for joy and happiness. There is obviously a note of optimism in the Expression. It suggests that if human beings experience a period of sorrows and sufferings, they should tolerate it with patience. We should believe that our sorrows and sufferings will not last very long As in nature winter is followed by spring, in our practical life also sorrows will be followed by joy. If darkness comes, then light will not be far behind. The dark night is always followed by a light day. If ignorance and cruelty reign, then knowledge and love will soon follow. If sorrows, cares and anxieties assail us now, happiness and peace are sure to embrace us soon. If the present time is bad and hard for us, we should not at all lose hope. Instead of feeling dejected and disappointed, we should be optimistic. We should always believe that we have a golden future awaiting us. As nature springs into new life after winter's torpor, an ideal regeneration also can take us out from the mire of degradation.

Amplification

It is useless to cry over spilt milk

Many pleasant and unpleasant incidents happen in human life. We always become happy with a pleasant incident and unhappy with an unpleasant one. Some unpleasant incidents take place accidentally. They are neither intended nor expected. It may be due to carelessness or any situational complication. But people can scarcely take it easy. They often sharply react to it. The reaction may come as crying or shouting though it is of no effect. Crying or shouting will not reverse the outcome. That is why the proverb: 'It is useless to cry over spilt milk'. The milk that has been spilled over a mug cannot be collected again for consumption. It is gone and wasted. It is an obviously loss but crying over the spilt milk will not help to recover the loss. We must have the mind to bear the loss. The shock of the loss should not affect our mental composure. Moreover, spilling of a small amount of milk is not any great loss even in monetary terms. Therefore grief for not be grepe ny, we is It is not as or the loss of Spitting of is not also compared with the lost a relative of friendship. Spilling of a bit of milk is a funny thing. It is better to offsume the milk still remaining in the mug and rub the trace of spilt milk with a smile here should rather take care that it does not of spilt again in future. There should not be any row over a trifle. If anybody nents over a small loss, he will surely collapse in a loss of massive seale. He must realise that what is past is past for ever and it is useless in lamenting over a past event which has gone entirely beyond human control.

Knowledge is power

It is true that knowledge is power. The human civilization is a proof of this saying. In the beginning of the appearance of life on earth, human beings and other animals lived in the same natural conditions, were subject to the same inimical or benign forces of nature. All animals, including humans, had to face the same troubles, received the same advantages. But in course of time, many species of animals have perished in the struggle. And though many have survived till today, some of them are on the point of extinction. On the other hand, human beings have not only survived a very long struggle with nature, but have been able to build a civilization. No other animals have done it. This is because human beings could acquire knowledge as time passed, and could put their knowledge to immediate use, and use for further and further progress and development. As a result, a big civilization, with all its infinite paraphernalia, has been built. But knowledge as power can be used for bad things as well. The weapons of war that man created with his knowledge were used in the two World Wars, for destroying life and property to an extent which was inconceivable ever before.

In the early civilizations of the world, the people having knowledge virtually ruled a state, though kings or generals of army were apparently the rulers. Great kings, barons, brave knights, and the ruling princes very often could not even read and write. They had to appoint priests as their ministers. Most often, the power was nominally in their hands, but the real power was wielded by the learned and clever priests.

Human beings are comparatively weak. They are unlike the horse, nor fly like the bird. A man is no match for an elephant, a bear or a tiger. Yet men have subjugated all these physically stronger animals only by virtue of the power of knowledge.

Make hay while the sun shines

Literally, 'hay' refers to grass which is cut and dried in the sun and used as cattle food. Obviously, the favourable condition for making hay is the sunshine. It cannot be made in the wet or rainy weather But metaphorically, making hay is to make good use of chances or opportunities. "Make hay while the sun shines" is a wise saying which suggests that we should make good use of an opportunity whenever it comes and as long as it lasts. Sunshine may be short- lived. It may not last for a long time. At any time the weather may turn cloudy or rainy. Then we will lose the chance of making hay. Therefore, we should not miss the opportunity of making hay while the sun shines. As long as the sun shines, we should make the best use of it. In other fields of life also we should make the best use of our opportunities. We should remember that opportunities are usually very rare; they do not visit us frequently. Therefore, whenever an opportunity comes, we should try our best to avail ourselves of it. We should not let any opportunity go away with the belief that many other opportunities will soon come. If we do that, we may have to suffer later. We should always utilise our present favourable conditions to perform any activity of our life. We do not know how long the condition will continue to be favourable. The favourable condition may any time be unfavourable. Therefore, instead of waiting for one chance after another, we should make the best use of our present chance.

Necessity is the mother of invention

If we want to know why something is invented, we have to look at the necessity of it. Without necessity nothing is invented. In various phases of civilisation a good many things have been invented because all those were desired by human beings. We needed comforts of living, so technology of concrete building has been developed and conditioner. oven and heater have been invented. We wanted to conquer darkness. so electric light has come into existence. We fan, air wanted to cover our body, so various kinds of fabrics and cloths with thousands of fashions from numerous brands have come about. For our eating, various kinds of cuisine have emerged in different cultures all over the world. Foods are prepared through baking, frying and to prepare them many tools adeloped. We wanted to cure our diseases, so various modes of deatment and various kinds of medicines have been use modes of freesity, no invention, we had necessity of things in past, so we got them as a resechodistest efforts of the inventors, me go beentists and technologists. We need things in the present time and so newer things are being invented. We now have computer and internet for performing official and personal jobs. We have the machines of radio, television and satellite and their programmes for our entertainment. We have land phones and cell phones for speedy communication. We have ships, coaches, trains and aeroplanes for travelling. All these are the wonderful gifts of modern science and technology to make our life comfortable and easy. In future also new things will be invented depending on the nature of necessity. Human necessity knows no bounds. So the inventions will also continue on a par with the demands felt by human beings. Undoubtedly, necessity is the mother of invention.

Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war 

We are prone to thinking of victory only in terms of war, but we often forget that peace has also her victories. Victories of war and victories of peace are of different types, though. They need to be compared or discussed side by side, so that we can have a proper appraisal of both.

We talk of victories of war mainly because we have, within us, a tendency towards hero worship. We invest the war heroes with a rich glamour of imagination. We adore the heroes like Alexander the Great of Greece, Napoleon Bonaparte of France, and Genghis Khan of Mongolia, and many others. Their victories dazzle our eyes, and there seems nothing so glorious as them. But actually what pictures of victories of war do we get. The pictures are of lands laid waste, of leaving behind cities burnt down and looted, thousands lying dead, thousands wounded and maimed, thousands making the air heavy with cries from intolerable pains. They tell the horrifying tale a trail of death and desolation. In ancient times, people were mercilessly put to sword, and those who survived were enslaved. The unbridled cruelty of the conquerors found satisfaction in the endless havoc-destruction of life and property and nature. The victory was won at a terrible cost of blood of the beauties of nature and of civilisation. The war of the modern immess mean more horrifying modern weapons of war are many times more destructive an horrifying than the wars of the ancient times, war involves enormand bloodshed, huge loss of lives, and inconceivable devastation and ruin But still we call them victories of war. In our mind, war, is rounded With a psychopathic romance. The victories of war are so-called. We look at them with a diseased vision.

On the other hand, the victories of peace are the real victories The history of the progress of man from barbarism to civilization is a history of real achievement during peace time. All kinds of art painting, music, sculpture and architecture and poetry and drama owe their birth, growth and nourishment to peace. The inventions and discoveries of science occur not in the hot war cries, but during the tranquil time of peace. Philosophy also grows not in the hot atmosphere of war, but in the peaceful atmosphere of peace. The achievements of great men great scientists, scholars, statesmen, inventors, social reformers, philosophers, and artists occur during peacetime.

The victories of war bring glory, or shall we say, so-called glory to a particular nation and for a particular time, but the victories of peace are a real glory for the humanity at large, and they last for all time to come.

So the saying "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war" seems to me to be inexact. It undervalues the achievements of peace. The real appraisal of the matter should rather be that peace hath her victories more beneficial than those of war. But if we are to respect the proverb we can say, "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war." 

The old order changeth yielding place to new

This line occurs in the poem "Morte d' Arthur" by Alfred Tennyson, a great Victorian poet of England. The poem deals with the last moments of king Arthur's life. Just before his death, king Arthur says to Bedivere:

The old order changeth yielding place to new, And God fulfils Himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

The first line of the quotation has become as forceful as a proverb. It means that change is the law of the universe. Nothing in the universe remains fixed for all time. Billions and billions of galaxies in the universe are moving at a terrific speed, with all its stars and planets. They never remain static. A star is constantly moving; it is constantly changing its place, but a new star appears in the place left vacant by it. This process of change is going on constantly in the universe. This provision of constant change is made by God. He fulfils his purpose through change.

Time is constantly moving, changing things. What remained yesterday as something does not remain the same thing today. There must have taken place some changes in that. The sun that seems to repeat the same thing every day its rising in the east and setting in the west. But actually, it does not rise and set in the same places in space. Constant changes are taking place in the sun itself, the change is not visible to the short sight of living beings like the humans.

As God wills, He causes these changes. Perhaps He wants to fulfil His purpose through change. If things remained in the same conditions, they would have rotten. Even in customs for mankind, if one custom is allowed to remain unchanged, it will corrupt things that are related to it. Perhaps God wills that they should undergo change so that things may be better for us. Human civilization is going forward through changes. Things would have rotten if they had not changed with the passage of time; civilization would have come to a standstill if there were no changes. Change is the sign of progress.

[The above interpretation is from the viewpoint of the poet who wrote the line. But we may not agree with him fully; we may have our reservations. Some of us may think that God intended that some things should change, and some other things should remain unchanged. So, things should be according as God has decreed.]

We live in deeds, not in years

The saying "We Live in Deeds, Not in Years", means that real longevity does not mean the number of years one lives, rather it means the amount of deeds that one has done during the time he has lived, though it may be a relatively short time.

Human life is meant for doing good to others, to the creatures of God. Doing good to them involves doing good things. It does not mean, essentially, to live a long time of inaction. The value of living a long time without doing any good towards others, and towards the other creatures of God, is zero. The value of living depends on the amount of good work one has done. From that point of view, it may be said that a man who has lived eighty years without doing any good work means a life of no value. He has made no contribution towards the welfare of mankind, no contribution towards the betterment of God's creation. It means his life has zero value. On the other hand, if a man has lived only forty years, but has done a lot of good works and has made a substantial contribution towards the welfare of all, has lived a better life, a more valuable life. Though his life may be shorter than the one who has lived 80 years in terms of time, he has lived a more valuable life in terms of welfare work. In terms of value, he may be considered to have lived a longer life.

All human beings should bear this fact in mind. Every human being should try to live a life of value and worth in terms of amelioration or betterment of God's creation. He should take care that he does not live a meaningless life. He should try to live up to the motto: "We live in deeds, not in years."