LECTURE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1090, 31 March 1911, Page 6

LECTURE.

t, . STEVENSON AND HIS WRITINGS. A very interesting lecture was delivered by the Key. J. Gibsou Smith at St. Andrew's Hall, Wellington Terrace, last evening. The lecturer selected "Robert Louis Stevenson" as his subject, and, fur well over an hour, lield the undivided attention of a comparatively large audience. Ho began by tracing tho life of the famous author while vol a boy at school, | and later liis career at the Edinburgh University. Stevenson's wanderings In France, Germany, and Italy in search of health were dwelt upon as being the means of his acquiring a deep knowledge of men and human nature which he afterwards turned to such good account in bis novels. The lecturer then briefly and eloquently described the serics_qf events which led Stevenson to adopt literature as a profession. After a review of the author's first wonderful success, "Treasure Island," the reverend gentleman showed how each succeeding novel had excelled its predecessor in the reality of its situations and the depth of its character studies, until one of his best novels, "Calrina," was published. The gifted Scotchman's life in Samoa, where lie resided until his deat.li, and his excursions amongst "Tho Summer Isles of Tvden" were also briefly dwelt upon. Tn the lecturer's opinion Robert Louis Stevenson was one of the master? of English pro=o. and certainly our last great writer. In diction ho was unsurpassed. The proceeds o[ tho lecturo were in aid of tho I'rosbytcriaii i'oung Mcn'a Bible Class Camp.