участие в городских и международных конкурсах
Поздравляем Дарью Хирину - призера международного конкурса эссэ, проводимого Санкт-Петербургским Домом Дружбы и международной федерацией Роберта Бернса 2014г.
Essay by Khirina Daria (11.09.1998), Saint-Petersburg, school № 254 for Robert Burns World Federation Essay Competition 2014
“An Honest Man’s the Noblest work of God”.
Robert Burns, the most celebrated of all Scottish poets, always stood for liberty, justice and honesty. Honesty became one of the most prominent themes in his poetry. For example, in the poem “A Man's a Man for A' That” we read:
The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men for a' that.
"The Cotter's Saturday Night" also raises the problem of poverty and honesty. The poem is a description of the daily routine of the farm worker with all its years of hardships and moments of happiness. In the farmer’s character Burns reveals the “soul of Scotland”. The lowly farm worker is depicted as the ideal Scot whose soul is cleared by worries for his family, crop failure, and sickness. What makes his life joyful, despite all the hardship, is his honesty and hence his closeness to God. The gathering concludes with family worship: songs are sung and Scripture is read. The domestic celebration of religion within the context of traditional life is noble and good.
From Scenes like these, old SCOTIA'S grandeur springs,
That makes her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad:
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings,
'An honest man's the noblest work of GOD.'
This last line, quoted from Alexander Pope’s “Essay on Man”, shows that for these two poets honesty is not only a direct reflection of our inner character, but also a way to show our faith.
Burn’s great popularity with the Scots lies in his ability to depict with loving accuracy the life of his fellow rural Scots, as he did in "The Cotter's Saturday Night." His use of dialect brought a stimulating, much-needed freshness and raciness into English poetry, but Burns's greatness extended far beyond the boarders of Scotland. His poems are written about Scots, but they apply to a multitude of universal problems which seem absolutely up-to-date nowadays.
One of these moral problems is the value of honesty.
In the modern world of today everything moves fast. Almost all of us
feel a part of this rat race towards success, fame or money. Lost in all that, we seem to forget the morals and values that are the very basis of our existence. The reasons people are less than truthful are many, they do it because they lack the courage to say what they think, they do it because they are comfortable in their pretensions, and they do it because they are insecure.
What is easier? To tell honestly that you did something wrong and probably be punished for that or to tell lies and get out of the situation without any negative consequences? The answer is clear, but still why do so many people choose to tell the truth? It's easy to say because society expects it, or because history has presented its heroes as examples of truthfulness.
No, I believe the reason why people try to be honest is that individually you become better for it. Every single human is a part of nature, created by God. In His idea of our world everything was perfect. Unfortunately, we have disrupted people’s unity with nature and therefore have broken the links between a human and God.
Nevertheless the idea of perfection is still inside us and it doesn’t leave us alone when we do something wrong. When we lie, we go through life with a small part of our conscience feeling guilty. This small guilt grows and grows, causing misery. It is like a disease. To be cured, we should remember that initially we all tend to be a part of God’s creation. Christ said that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. If Christ is Truth, then it follows that lying is moving away from Him.
Being honest has many benefits. In the Bible it is repeated many times that ‘honest people are blessed’ (Psalm 112). Besides, people respect and trust you as they are sure you won’t betray them. Truthfulness is partly the thing you owe to others, but mainly it’s the thing you owe to yourself. When a person stops being honest, he stops being the noblest work of God. As W. Shakespeare wrote, “Honesty is the best policy. If I lose my honour, I lose myself.”