Songs of an Airman

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Excerpt from Songs of an Airman: With a MemoirThese are the brief facts of Geoffrey Wall's life, and it might be enough to let his verses speak for themselves without further introduction, were it not that the author himself was from an educational point of View an interest ing human document. He came from England to an Australian public school, a small, lean, brown nipper, full of imagination and Of the sense of romance derived from contact with old and beautiful things such as we have not here in Australia. He found himself in a school society which had been working out the problem Of recon ciling the English public school ideals to the needs of a very democratic community. In this aristo-democratic atmosphere Geoffrey Wall found himself at home, but in the development Of his character Australia itself had no small share, and his home, one must believe, a greater one than either college or country. But weighing in¿uences is a task better left alone. He says himself of his educa tion in writing to his father: Yet again I ought to thank you for an education which has not qualified me for a single thing, but has left me capable of qualifying for almost anything. The main thing about education is not the facts one learns, but the whole mental outlook. As far as facts are concerned I know hardly anything, Little Latin and less Greek, as Ben Jonson remarked, more literature than I thought, and a little psychology. There are, I think, the materials for quite a sound education if I ever get a chance to take it up again (and by the time this war is over I shall be comparatively old and grey). One does feel the advantage of a little savoir in mixing with all sorts of people, and I think it makes me more adaptable.He was not one of those boys who delight the hearts Of schoolmasters by passing examinations easily, except in subjects which he liked. He was, perhaps an argument, as Macaulay was, against the stupidity of compulsory sub jects. But he was one Of that happily increasing class Of boy that combines mechanical ability with literary taste. At seventeen he built a motor-car himself, in which he had the temerity to start for a country tour, and though he never shone at cricket or football or rowing, he had his measure Of success at long-distance running, in which his indomitable courage told. I spoke of his temerity he says himself in a letter: It seems almost impossible that a mere contraption of wire and wood should get the better Of intellect. That is what I always felt with a car or a motor-bike. In a tight corner I always said to my self, 'you're a man - man, this thing is but iron and wood, ' and I always got out again all right.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.