DAVID CHRISTIE MURRAY.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 477, 4 June 1890, Page 3

DAVID CHRISTIE MURRAY.

LECTURE LAST EVENING,

OPINIONS ON NOVELISTS,

Auckland, May 29. Mr David Christie Murray delivered his second lecture in Auckland last evening in the City Hall, its title being “ Leaves from a Novelist’s Notebook.” There was a very good attendance, even better than that which listened to Mr Murray's first lecture. As before, be kept bis audience thoroughly j interestedduringthetwohoursof thelecture, at one time by the fine feeling displayed, at another by the amusing stories told in the lecturer’s humorous manner. Mr Murray began by referring to some statements made by James Payn, the novelist, a few years ago in an article which he wrote for one of the magazines, in which he expressed a wish that the clever Jack of every ordinary British family might be bred upas a novelist. The knowledge given in that training might be useful to him in the future. But the lecturer felt grave doubts as to the value of the suggestion, and anger with Mr Payn for so belittling his own profession and so misbehaving to his own art and brethren. Howover fib Jack might be for various professions, and however capable he might be for learning certain superficial knowledge of novel making, yet he must have in him, to become a good novelist, that inborn native spark, the almost divine gift of sympathy with and understanding of his fellow man, or all his superficial training would bo In vain, lb would be curious and instructive to notice that in spite of the cry of cynicism made against many of the great masters, no real cynic has yet reached the public heart. People used to call Thackeray a cynic, but they had now gob over that. Balzac was called a cynic, and Gustave Dore’s well - known picture, in which he was caricatured as such, at first quite hit the public fancy. But any careful reader has but to give attention to his be3t characters to see how untrue the charge of cynicism is, and to find so profound a belief in the heights and depths of human nature that the charge cannot be sustained. The secret of his retaining for so long the public favour, and of the growth of that favour, is that he had a great, warm, living heart beneath the slight mask of cynicism. Lytton, who was a very unlovable man, said one wise thing (perhaps borrowed like many other of his > sayings) when he spoke of the genius and the child having two things in common, the power to wonder and to observe. But genius has to pay for its ivondermenb and delight in its own fashion. Every man of genius has a skeleton in his cupboard—the dread thought that the man of modern letters must turn every hope, every joy, every emotion of the heart into copy. This curse is like that of Mi-fas, bub unlike the latter, the man of genius only turns what he touches into copy, nob gold. But the recompensing influence for this trouble and horror comes when he thinks that he may leave the world a little better than he found it, and with that faint hope he was encouraged to struggle on. Turning to the making of a novelist, Mr Murray said it was a fact that the best impulses and most lasting wore gob out of a man’s childhood, and he could point to the biographies of many authors to show that in their old age they almost always go back to the time and the scenes of their infancy. He himself was born in the heart of mid-England, in that Black Country where the trees weep ink, and the canals smell foul and are smeared over with oils, where there is a continual shuddering clank in the air, where machines take in iron and belch forth nails, take in wire and spit out pins on cards, where the sky is lurid all night and all clay with the signs of toil, and where it is labour, labour, labour, ever and always. He treasured the impressions of his boyhood spent in that country, and though he might speak of some of the shortcomings of the people, he loved them with all their faults and he could not picture to himself a finer or braver race of people. They might appear sulky or inhospitable to the casual careless stranger, but they were the soul of hospitality to a man who met them as friends. Mr Murray then proceeded to give several humorous sketches of individuals he remembered in his youth, and kept his audience bubbling with laughter at his account of the poet of the place, the literary society, the local Thespian amateurs, the nouveau riche and others, in all of which his rich dialect was particularly effective. As a storyteller, mimic, and sketcher of character, Mr Murray would be hard to excel, and his audience expressed their appreciation by loud applause. Bub the world of pathos was just as open to the novelist as the world of humour, and he must touch on it. Ho should like to say one word about pathos.. It is remarkable to notice that simplicity and veracity in art are just as absolutely convincing as they are in common life. Over-expression in common life causes doubt, and the same holds good of over-expression in an author. In this connection he would take a passage from Dickens and one from Thackeray for purposes of comparison. He admired and loved Dickens as his master, but he must have a growl at him. Mr Murray then gave the speech of Hugh, the groom, in “Barnaby Rudge,” when on the scaffold about bo die, and compared it with the touching simplicity and naturalness of George Warrington in “ Pendennis,” when, after all the others have gone and he is left alone, he finds the roses and the Bible. Dickens pub into the mouth of the groom the words of an educated orator, but Warrington’s simple words as given by Thackeray wore in their simplicity | infinitely wise and noble, and character-1 istic of the truthful high-minded Christian y English gentlemau. Il In returning to the subject of humour, !; the. lecturer said he must lay down! as an axiom that it is generally | cruel. Lamb was an example of a man who could be humorous without hurting anyone’s feelings ; bub, as a rule, others were rather unkind in their fun. They took advantage of a contemporary weakness in ethers and touched it with a needle. He was acquainted with many humorists, as Lee, H. J. Byron and others, and he looked babk to the loss of many of them with heartfelt sorrow ; but in their humorous moments they never' spayed their friends. For a time Mr Murray again'kept his audience amused with the witticisms of some and the unconscious humour of others of his acquaintances. The lecturer proceeded to refer to the field for the novelist that exists in London and Paris, He said that he often longed to get back to his dear London, though he could not live in it always on account of its effect on his health. But the thoughts of the wonderful and terrible dramas being enacted there every night had a strong fascination. Seeing that wonderful life, thinking of it, and thinking how soon all must leave, one cannot but feel how small one is, and egotism is soon driven out. After the recitation of a short poem describing the feelings of a man in London as he thinks of his childhood’s home, Mr Murray recited with great dramatic power his poem, “ The Diamond Ring,” which was

received with breathless interest. In closing hisieeburehesaidit was with very great pride and pleasure that he saw at what a rate , New Zealand and the rest of the’colonies were rising to a true conception of art and literature. Solomon did not know everything, and when he spoke of there being no end bo the making of books he could never havo had in his mind any thought of the making of books that goes on at the present day. The Anglo-Saxon race is proud of its making of notable books, and every day there are additions made to the noble legacy of our forefathers. Nor is English literature yet anything like what it will be, for when the United States, the Australian colonies, and Canada have formed and added their tributary streams, we may expect a sea of glory of which no ; one in the old days could dream. Mr Murray was greeted with great applause as j he left the 3tage. To-morrow evening the eloquent lecturer will again occupy the City Hall, and will speak on “Looking at War; or Experiences of a Special Correspondent.” "The lecture will be under the patronage of the Savage Club. Mr Murray will recite his doem, “ The Story of Mr King.”