THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1880. A GREAT MORAL LESSON.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2104, 20 November 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1880. A GREAT MORAL LESSON.

One of the favourite subjects for discourse by preachers is the littleness of human affairs. All flesh is grass and all honours are vain and empty. The peasant and the king are constructed on the same principles; the only difference consists in the fact that, for a few fleeting years, the body of the one is less pampered than the other; the one does not wear the crown that the other one does on occasions: men do not bow down before the one as they do before the other. But both finally pass to their long home under very similar circumstances, and, when the whole is summed up by the amount of solid happiness they have each derived from their days on earth, the balance is just as likely to be in favor of the peasant as in that of the king. Such are the doctrines enunciated by the preacher, and men and women listen, their good sense quite agrees with the propositions laid down, and they pass out of the church to pursue the empty bubble of political fame or social distinction, or whatever their particular vanity may he, with unabated ardor. But in the world, if they are reminded of what they have lately heard, they declare it is the metier of every preacher to dwell on the emptiness of worldly renown, and so they drop the subject as quietly as possible. Any external evidence, therefore, that may clinch the moral alluded to with unmistakable force should be a welcome addition to what can be said on the subject. Such external evidence was provided yesterday by the crowd that assembled in Auckland to witness tbe arrival of our new Governor. The town was in gala costume, and people flocked in from the country to see and welcome the representative of the Queen. Sir Arthur Gordon not only personifies Her Majesty in this colony, but he has extended jurisdiction over the British possessions in the South Pacific. Ha is consequently a magnate of considerable dimensions. But Sir Arthur Gordon did not put in an appearance, and consequently the crowds wore momentarily disappointed. But only for a moment. Ample compensation was afforded, the Press Association correspondent informs us, by the arrival of Cole’s Circus, which paraded the town, and completely obliterated all thoughts of the now Governor. His titles and his glories vanished before the attractions of a brass hand and a cavalcade half a mile in length. The lessons is a very sharp one to the powers that ho, and certainly the most eloquent orator never more clearly demonstrated the critical description of popularity caused by the mere tenure of power. Viewed, however, in another light, the Auckland crowd may have been more consistent than would at first appear probable. They may have come to the con-

elusion that, after all, much instruction might he combined with amusement i in watching Mr. Cole’s show; and; that, although they had come to air their i loyalty, it would bo a pity to lose an opportunity of gaining much solid good. For surely a moralist must find much to reflect on in the motley assemblage forming a circus procession. There is the lesson of the triumph of mind over matter. Why should the elephants and the bisons, and the largest ape that ever was tamed, allow themselves quietly to bo led in triumph and gaped upon by the loungers in the street. Why does not the elephant put his foot down firmly and refuse to be made a tool of ? Why does not the bison toss the circus manager over his own caravan ? Why does not the ape tell his first cousin, the beast tamer, that he is as good a man as he is ? It is simply a matter of mind. The gigantic intellects of the circus proprietor and the beast-tamer are too much for the brute force of their victims, and the latter succumb to the preponderance of brain power. It is somewhat hard on the beasts perhaps, particularly on the ape, who must feel all that he has lost by the fact that his ancestors have not deviated into the paths of civilisation, and that free schools were not in vogue in his part of the country when he was a youth. But the lesson is there, and to those who complain of the costliness of our educational system it must be a valuable one. The deceptiveness of appearances would be another lesson to be learnt by the sight-seers. It is not every man who walks the streets in puritanical costume who is an amiable, honest and moral individual, as on the other hand, a love for dress or colour or anything in the same line does not necessarily indicate a lapse from the paths of rectitude. It might at first be thought that the spotted horse, common to all circuses—“ the immoral spotted horse,” as Artemus Ward calls him—was a beast whose character would not bear comparison with his more sober coloured brethren. But, after all, what animal is more amenable to reason, more reliable, more honest than this same fashionably coloured creature p The gallantry with which he bears the somewhat lightly clad damsel who skips about on his back as if he were the floor of a dancing saloon, is a lesson to thousands of equine hypocrites who hide under their sober coats characters the reverse of what might be expected. There are the lessons, too, taught by the human participators in the triumph. Is the clown always in such a state of jocose excitement ? How does he behave himself in the bosom of his family ? Is ho domestic or is he too much given to turning double somersaults through the window, and making for the nearest public-house ? Is the master of the ring indeed the polished gentleman that he is wont to appear, or does he carry too far into private life that playful habit of touching up with a whip those who may happen to disagree with him? But our space forbids us to dwell on the lessons which may be drawn from a circus when seen from a philosophical point of view. They are very numerous and valuable, and those who came to see the Governor at Auckland, and were satisfied with Mr. Cole’s procession, were perhaps, after all, not so volatile as might superficially appear.