LECTURES AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 550, 14 October 1871, Page 2

LECTURES AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

Perhaps we should be glad to learn that this fine building, which has cost so much in its erection, and which now remains a monument of departed greatness, and raises its noble front in protest against the wrongs of Auckland, is being utilised

in the cause of literature and science. A series of lectures has been instituted, and for so far has been attended with great success. But there is a. peculiar .feature in these leciures to which we regret wo cannot lend our countenance, aud are compelled by a sense of public duty to draw attention to the clanger that may be brewing in our midst. When we say that the lecturer and the audience consist exclusively of ladies, and that our noble sex is excluded with a rigour rivalling the policy of the ancient nation of Amawe have unveiled but half tho peril, j.ut there is an effort made to surround the proceedings with the proi'ouiidest mystery, that is ominous of danger to public safety. At the lecture yesterday afternoon, liis Lordship the Bishop of Auckland rode up to the door and claimed admittance, but was gently yet (irmly refused. • ."'• ow, Dr. Cowie is one of the m ..st harmless of men, and if precepts were being inculcated within such as could not with safety be committed to Ins ears, we fear they are of suoii ■ revolutionary character as to demand -.ie interference of the guardians of social order. At the meeting yesterday, wideii was held in the large ball-room, the audien;*e numbered about a hundred.

As i very large proportion of these were voting aud pretty, we might almost Crust "their' dear kind little heirts thai they will not tolerate anything absolutely d< St met ire of US, for they cannot help ii dug u--. say what the lecturers may. i.vi is they will possibly, by and by, become our wires, it is impossible to >*j what dangerous principles they uiaj imbibe .-r.in these hleusiman mys leries. or in what

form these

principles may evolve themselves dur'nig some of those inevitable storms that disturb the serenity of domestic life. At tiie lecture which was delivered at the same place a fortnight since, the subject discussed was " J he Ma a aud the Mb.ikey." Where a secret is entrusted to a hundred ladies, it is, perhaps, not to be wondered at that we have obtained a digest of the fair lecturer's arguments. W c learn that she established conclusively that man is related to the monkey, but that woman is not. _md the princip 1 argument adduced was that the arms and lower limbs of the lords of creation being rugged and hirsute, after the fashion of the inferior animal i'a question, conclusively established the relationship. Kow we hold that such principles are revolutionary. If it is admitted that ladies are of our own flesh and flood, and they continue by our side, we have |no objection to take our stand.among the .'qnadiumaea., and even perch on trees. But separated from then* ne shall never be; and to admit that, because nature neglected to give the finishing polish to our faces aud our limbs, but left there the marks of rugged strength, we therefore behmg to a different and inferior race. To that we shall never consent. Never ! never! never! We have a vivid consciousness of the disadvantages under which we labour by the side of ladies. Our beard is a deformity, and- we-: garden! them when they set their faces against it. We bemoan as much as they tan the rough and shaggy hide that clothes our arms, and shoulders., and our rugged chest, and would give worlds could we couvert.it to the smoothness and' the fairness of alabaster, and the softness of velvet; but then our hearts throb fondly when those rugged arms hug the darlings to our manly bosom. Ami tp say that we are monkeys! We are overcome with emotion, but that is overcome with alarm —nay, horror, that so dangerous principles should be instilled into the minds of the lovely objects of our adoration, who should be the partners of our joys and sorrows. Last evening the lecture was on " The Stars." We shouldn't wonder if the teaching is intended to reverse the obit doctrines of Koslem tiieolof>y, and man is represented as faking the place of the lovely houris of Oriental poesy, and excluded i\,v ever from the gates of paradise We learn that he hand of authority has been exercised in excluding the new j school of philosophers from (iovernrnoni ! House, hot indeed because of tlie pestilent doctrines enunciated, but because the fair philosophers in re- ; tiring cannot withhold their bauds from : the flowers blooming in tlie grounds; attached. Put we cannot expect, that tlie j new light is to be thus arbitrarily j 'quenched, and we .--hall keep our readers j aware of the further, doings of tho fair | enquirers. ... - - j