MORAL EPIDEMICS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 472, 17 May 1890, Page 5

MORAL EPIDEMICS.

MR GULLIVER’S LAST SUNDAY NIGHT ADDRESS. Auck and, May 12. There was a large ateudance at the Temperance Hall last night to hear the Rev. E. H. Gulliver’s lecture on “Moral Epidemics.” The lecturer said that all were familiar with the fact that epidemics had been of frequent occurrence in the history of the world ; but although thus familiar, there were few who realised how numerous and fatal they had really been. The most fatal on record was the Black Death, which appeared in Europe in 1348. It began in China, where, in the year 1333 and following years, severe earthquakes caused deep clefts and fissures in the earth from which deleterious gases arose. Great atmospheric disturbances followed, and old writers tell us of a dense and stinking mist which spread ovor Italy and other parts of Europe. The Black Death apparently reached Constantinople from the East, and thence spread all over Europe. It produced horrible “ breakings out ” and affected the respiration. This disease thus spreading through the world caused the most frightful mortality. It is recorded that in the East, including China, about 36 millions perished. It is said that 60,000 died in Florence, 100,000 in Vienna, 50,000 in Paris, 100,000 in London, 51,000 in Norwich. Vessels were found adrift in the Mediterranean with all their crews dead. Some villages lost all their inhabitants. In Italy one half of the people d'ed, while taking the whole of Europe it is said that not less than one-fourth, or 25 millions, perished in this terrible epidemic. This, was followed by a very serious deterioration of the morals of the people, who, seeing death on all sides of them, and being thus driven as it were into-a corner, became reckless and desDerabe. They.seem, in many cases, to have thrown off all restraint and to have been determined to secure what brief excitement or enjoyment could be had while life lasted. But, beside this, there was a distinct growth of bigotry and superstition. It was then that the Order of the Flagel hints appeared, clad in lugubrious garb and carrying crosses. They went about armed with scourges with wire tips, and baited here and there as they went to scourge themselves. At the same time the Jews were accused of having poisoned the wells and thus causing the B.ack Death. In one place 2,000 Jews were burnt on this charge, and in another 12,000 of them were cruelly killed. The balance of work and wages was completely upset, because there were not enough men left to do the ordinary agricultural and other work. Thus we see self-control lost, superstition baking the place of reason and resulting in untold cruelty;so that this was not merely a physical epidemic, bub resulted in a terrible moral epidemic also. In 1374, at Aix-la-Chapelle, there originated the strange epidemic known as “ St. Vitus’ dance,” which spread through France, Germany and the Netherlands. In 1787, at Hodden Bridge, in Lancashire, an epidemic of convulsions was started by the action of a girl, who pub a mouse down the dross of another girl. About a century ago, in a Methodist chapel at Redruth, a man called out loudly, “ What shall I do to bo saved ?” and then went into violent convulsions. The contagion spread through the congregation, and outside, until some 4,000 people were similarly affected. In the Shetland Islands a similar curious epidemic occurred. A woman was seized with an epileptic tit in church, and by sympathy, a number of others suffered in the same way, until it became quite a common occurrence for these seizures to happen among the women in the churches. One old Scotch minister cured the disorder in his congregation by giving out that cold water was a sure cute for it, and that be had assistance ready to dip the sufferers in a lake close by. In France in 1727 arose a similar epidemic ; the sufferers were known as Convulsion a ires, and the phenomena arose out of the miracles which were said to be witnessed at the tomb of the Deacon Paris. Most extraordinary accounts are given of the symptoms of this disorder. Now, these cases are all similar in character, but there are others no less rema-. kable on record, and which differ greatly, as, for instance, tho “Child Pilgrimages.” In 1212 there lived in Vendome, in France, a boy named Stephen, who fancied himself a favourite of Heaven, and who gathered round him about 30,000 boys and girls, and inspired them with the idea of recovering the Holy Land from the Saracens. They made their way as far as Marseilles, singing as they went, and proclaiming that the sea would open a passage for them as it did for the Israelites. Two merchants of Marseilles provided seven vessels, on which they embarked. Two of these were wrecked, and five reached Alexandria, where the wretched children were sold into slavery. A similar movement occurred at the same time in Germany, where 7,000 children started on a similar expedition. These are instances of moral epidemics, attended always with most unfortunate results,for they were akin to lunacy,and their leading feature was the exaggeration of the emotional side of human nature, thus destroying ihe healthy balance. I have been led to make these remarks because during the last few weeks we' have ha.d a sort of mild moral epidemic here in Auckland. I do' nob for ope qiomept question the motives of the promoters, but there is a point at which protest becomes a duty. A few clays ago there was an outcry at the proposal to establish a fellmongery close to the Western Springs. At once public opinion asserted itself and the idea was dropped. This was simply a physical matter, and surely in moral matters it is equally our duty to protest vyheri obvious danger appears, and'the danger is that “• madness lies that Way.” Whatever God’s intentions in the' matter of His service may be, it cannot, be that we should approach Him through the gates of a Lunatic Asylum. We know that we cannot overstrain the emotional element of our nature with impunity. I say that all these movements have this dangerous tendency to overstrain the emotional nature, that the natural reaction is inevitable and doos not tend to the service of God. We are placed here with a threefold character —physical, intellectual, and emotional — and these elements must be' developed equally and kept side by side to promote and preserve the harmony on which the music of our lives depends.