MODERN FANATICISM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5505, 18 November 1878, Page 3

MODERN FANATICISM.

(From the Saturday-Jlcimo.) It is sometimes strangely asserted that the present age is destitute of enthusiasm. As compared with the last century such an estimate of our own is not only untrue but conspicuously the reverse of the truth. It is an age full of enthusiasm, literary, scientific, commercial, moral, and philanthropic. We may see this “ in the railway, in the steamship, in the thoughts that shake mankind." Nor can it be truly affirmed, except with considerable modifications and reserves, that ours is an age deficient in religious enthusiasm, though as as a rale it may lake different shapes from those prevalent in the primitive or medieval Church. We do not expect to see Peter the Hermit preaching a crusade, or Sfi. Anthony bidding his disciples escape from the social circle into the solitude of the Egyptian Laura. Yet the Evangelical, the Tractarian, and the Ritualist movements in England, and the Free Kirk exodus in Scotland, to say nothing of the Ultramontane, Old Catholic, and other exhibitions of religious fervor or fanaticism on the Continent, might suffice to remind us that there is often a tolerably close similarity between the very forms of ancient and modem religious enthusiasm. Curiously enough, two startling examples of what will bo generally considered the wildest fanaticism have just been reported within a few days of each other, one occurring in Italy and one in England. We will take first that which concerns us most nearly. Our readers have heard before now of Mrs. Girling, and may perhaps recollect Mr. Auboron Herbert’s characteristically chivalrous patronage of sectaries professing what to him even more than to ordinary Christians must appear an unintelligible superstition. But they had very likely imagined that the whole affair was but a nine days’ wonder and bad long ago collapsed. Mrs. Girling, however—or Mother Girling, as wo believe she prefers to bo called —made her appearance last Saturday in the Police Court at Lymington under circumstances sufficiently indicative of the prolonged vitality alike of her superstition and her sect. It appears that the Shakers, who have been “settled in tho parish of Hordle for tho last seven years, have just been ejected, on account of tho nonpayment of a debt of £ls, from a field they had occupied since their eviction from Hew Forest Lodge in 1874, and arc in great distress. Their tents and part of their furniture have been seized ; their beds have been saturated with rain, and they have no better accommodation than “ a certain highway, called Vags Lane," in which the remnant of their goods was deposited by tho sheriff’s officer who removed them from tho field, Mrs. Girling complained of their tents being retained, and wo can quite accept her assurance that " it wrs not at all comfortable in the road,” and that she was not anxious to remain there. Moreover tho xetontion by tho community of the'slender amount of furniture still l/n their hands, which is housed, or

rather left houseless, in this unpleasantly airy situation, seems to be disputed. A Mr. Isaac Batho, who had been a prominent member of tho sect, but has seceded from it, has applied to the police for some of the property which, ho says, belongs to him. Sirs. Girling|s answer, if its accuracy may be credited, is certainly very complete. She not only states that Mr, Batho brought very little with him when he joined them, but that he was one of tho “ twelve founders” who drew up Jk code of rules binding on all members of the community, himself included, and to which all of them had in fact subscribed. Airiong these rules the following occurs : On entering the community every person must willingly give up to M, A. Girling, the accepted stewardess of God, all they possess, gold, silver, goods, and all clothing (except what they stand iu), without the expectation of ever having them again,aud when once they are given up no article of any kind is to be again asked for, nor yet allowed to be taken off the place Without M. A Girling’s permission. Mrs. Girling came to the police court attended by Brother Osborne, ouo of her elders. She pleaded not guilty, but did not dispute tho correctness of Inspector White’s statement that her furniture occupied each side of the roadway for a distance of a hundred yards, and caused a serious obstruction to the traffic. Her contention was that they had nowhere else to go, and “ those who put us there will have to remove us, and find a place for us.” The Chairman thereupon told her that if she would remove the things, the proceedings against her would be at an end, when the following dialogue ensued: — “ Mrs. Girling replied that they were trying to remove the goods, but that they had no place to take them to. She did not put them in tho road, and was not the cause of their being put there. They were turned out of the field, but their tents were retained. They were not like a party of four or five people that could be taken in anywhere else. She admitted that the things were in the road, bub she did not want them to be put there, for it was not at all comfortable in the road ; she was much more comfortable where she was before. “The Chairman said if Mrs. Girling-would undertake that the things would be removed by that day week, the proceedings should bo adjourned till next Saturday. If the things were not removed by that time, the magistrates would have no alternative but to put the law in force against her, tho same as against travelling vagrants who might ‘pitch’ by the sides of the road. “ Mrs. Girling said, if she made such a promise as this she must be quite certain that she had somewhere to go to. She did not plead any desire to be in the road, for it was very uncomfortable to be as they were. They had never heard a single complaint as to obstruction, an'‘Las to the circumstances named by the Superiui'indent, she knew nothing about them. Mr. White was there when they were turned out, and he saw the whole transaction. “In answer to a question by the Chairman, “ Mrs. Girling said she would do her best to remove the obstruction by next week, but if she was unable to get a place what was -she to do ? She had no desire to be In the road, aud they ought not to have been pub out of their own place. “ Mrs. Girling was asked if she would undertake to attend again next Saturday withouta fresh summons being issued. She replied that she would attend if it was the will of the Lord that she should do so. That was all she could say about it.” It is clear from this little interchange of sentiments that Mrs. Girling and her associates understand the promise that the Saints shall inherit the earth in a sense to which the holders of landed property are not unlikely to demur. By what means their moveable effects and food are acquired we have no reliable information beyond what is conveyed by tho rule just now quoted ; but the strangers who attend their Sunday services are said to have contributed liberally. It may be" inferred, however, from Mrs. Giriing’s replies# to the Chairman of the Court that the .Shakers hold | themselves .to possess vested right to such localities or buildings as they may see fit to occupy, and that those who take forcible steps to eject them, on whatever grounds, incur thereby the obligation of providing them with a new home. We do not know whether the. custom of dancing in public iu the simple costume of our first parents before the fall still prevails among them, but even the most long-suffering of landowners might not unreasonably object, as Mr. Auberon Herbert did object, if our memory serves ns—to allow their fields to be used for kind of alfresco entertainment. There is as little reason to doubt the sincerity of these people as that of the “ Peculiar People,” who let their children die before their eyes rather than trust to an arm of flesh by permitting the profane application of medical remedies for their cure, though Mr. Batho’s defection proves that the endurance does not always equal the intensity of their faith. If it be said that the wildest of medriaval sects could hardly excel their irrationality, there is still a certain method about it. Mrs. Girling herself is described as a spare, shrewd, sharp-featured woman, with nothing feminine about her look or manner, aud she is supposed to exert a mesmeric influence over her followers. We have seen* that they are strictly bound by rule to place all their property under her exclusive control. By another rule no doctrine is allowed inconsistent with her teaching, which is declared to be “in strict harmony with Apostolical order and the Gospels of Christs.” There is also a rule making her decision final on all questions, temporal or spiritual. Marriage is absolutely prohibited, and we may presume therefore Jthat the Second Advent is believed to be at hand. Meanwhile the community of goods gives to the whole system a distinctly socialistic character. , , . .

Any pity I have for the Shakers (says “ Atlas” in the World) is wholly free from eve.y tinge of illusion or romance. I found them the other day in their New Forest refuge quite as vulgar and even more absurd than I expected. A number of girls, coarse of featureand red of hand., arrayed in white dresses, and spending their time principally in “ doing” each other’s hair, are invariably spoken of by Mrs. Girling as “ the young ladies.” That elderly prophetess herself is unrefined in voice and speech, and wears, under her straw hafc, long screws of grey hair in those most objectionable ringlets that were called Anylaiscs by the French in the inelegant days when they formed the characteristic coiffure of the British female.