MR BRIGHT'S LECTURE.

Evening Star, Issue 4302, 9 December 1876, Page 4

MR BRIGHT'S LECTURE.

The well-known essayist, Mr Charles Bright, who has revisited Dunedin after an absence of some months, delivered a lecture at the Temperance Hall last evening on “A Race of Barbarians ; or, Our Noble Selves.” Mr R. Stout, presided, and there were upwards of 150 persons present. Mr Bright, who was heartily received, commenced by stating that celebrated travellers in uncivilised parts of the world had yet discovered traces of civilisation in the heart of the wildest countries—such as Arabia and portions of the interior of Africa. Nowhere could men be found among whom civilising influence was inactive, and many barbarians surpassed us in generosity and truthfulness. No doubt they were revengeful by nature, but that attitude was not confined ; to savages, and they should not on that account be refused admission into civilisation. The savage got his living in the excitment of the chase, and would as soon think of tomahawking his friend as of trying to get the better of him in a bargain ; he would rather give away his horse than sell it and the buyer also ; his wife was divorced by a summary process; and he never dreamed of the tax gatherer, nor was troubled about tomorrow’s bill. The barbarians to whom the lecture specially referred, lived in the full blaze of enlightenment, and considered themselves superior to all who preceded them. The happiness of the greatest number was what they sought, but the greatest number was “ number one.” He asked them not to be too curious as to where these people resided ; it was sufficient to know that they were tolerably scattered over our planet. The state of society was one of complete and perpetual war—war over trifles—the precedence of one of their great men, or the possession of a few miles of planet surface. They fought individually, and for one man to rise was for another to be pulled down. That, however, was called the spirit of competition, and was almost worshipped; life was compared to a race, and “devil take the hindmost.” How those poor “ hindmost ” had suffered! The martyrs of earth—poets, prophets, philosophers, artists, thinkers, and teachers — struggled on, bleeding and footsore, to death; but in after ages they were worshipped as heroes. A great part of the time of the “ barbarians ” was engaged in trying to discover how to grasp the greatest share of the bounties of earth, and these were regarded as sensible barbarians. “Look for the main chance, and do not trouble your head about what does not concern you,” was the advice of a rich man. Business was the end and aim of life, and nothing was favorably regarded that dad not bring in money. The poor people were told to be happy and contented, and that to repine was irreligious. A good rector counselled his poor parishioner thus : “ Trust in Providence, my good man, and be satisfied with the lot Providence has given you.” “Sol should be,” replied the man, “if it were a lot, but it is only a little.” In concluding, the lecturer said society was ruled by Mrs Grundy, and v henever a step was proposed to be taken, what that mythical lady would say was taken into consideration. He admonished his hearers to acquire faith in the permanency of the world and its continual progress, faith in their own immortality, and a never-ending interest in thi* world’s advancement. It is by the words and the works of the thinkers that humanity will be raised out of barbarism into civilisation, to "a wider sphere of social harmony and genuine godliness.—(Loud applause.) The proceedings closed with the customary votes of thanks, the chairman intimating that a committee would be formed to superintend a fresh course of lectures to be given by Mr Bright in this town.