THE MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4320, 4 November 1882, Page 2

THE MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star.) Sir,—Will you permit in your columns "■ a few remarks on the President's address to the T.M.I.A. No more scathing satire could be written on 19th century civilisa* tion than to point out this as the outcome and product of it. It may seem ungracious to criticise when the need of improvement is so plainly and strikingly apparent, bat how they are going to improve each other and rigidly exclude religion does not appear very clear. Sir, it seems to my simple way of thinking, the public have a right to object to the use of a Government for the purpose of propagating Frea Thought opinions. It is neither fair nor manly to use the nation's property for the purpose of subverting the religion of its people. The President, in his speech, with a sublime unconsciousness, does not see his arguments cut his own throat. One would have thought, with the example of America" with its teeming millions before him, and its magnificent cities, in less than two centuries, and with Australia, where the kangaroo roamed undisputed master, grand „ cities have arisen in one generation, it was a lesson there was no mistake about. Still we are told by the authority whom the President quotes, and he of course believes it or he would not have it in his address, that it took the Egyptians ages to gather their learning and civilisation together/that M ', from savagedom to civilisation it (fbok '■ untold ages. What shade of freethoaght . is this. Darwinism, Deatonism, or Murrayism, Would it surprise the President of the T.M.I.A. to learn that there never was a time when savagedom shone in Egypt; that history furnishes no clue to the savage state, but every kind of evidence is of exactly the contrary nature. The further we go back the proofs are overwhelming and convincing:. they were better J^m f with better heads, and more capacious brain power than their degenerate descendants. Sir, on this occasion I will not trespass any further on your valuable space by producing the remarks of that distinguished anatomist, Professor Owen, on ancient Egyptian skulls. There can be no real improvement where there- is no religion.—l ami &c., G. A. EeddisH. "