LECTURE BY CHARLES BRIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 122, 1 June 1885, Page 4

LECTURE BY CHARLES BRIGHT.

At the close of Mr Blight's lecture last ni^ht, the Chairman (Mr W. Cooper) announced tho intended issue of a woekly Freethought r-ewspaper under the editorship of "lvo," and stated that tho »xperif. inent would be carried on for at least thr.e months.

Mr Charles Bright, tho popular Freethought lecturer, delivered last evening in tho Opera Houso.before a largo audionce.tho first of a series of eight lectures, its title being " Vanity Fair ; or, tho Nearer the Church the Further from God." Mr W. Cooper presided. Mr Bright began by expressing the satisfaction ho felt in being privileged to resume his acquaintance with the Auckland public. It was tho fourth series of lecture- that ho had to deliver hero, and things had considerably changed from tho timo of his liret advent, when the bravery of the late Rev. Samuel Edger in taking the chair at his lectures provoked deeply tho bile of the orthodox. The Frccthought propaganda had made great strides in advance since then, and in spite of the cry '• Persecute him I prevent him!" knowledge was spreading on all sides. His lecture that evening had been partly suggested by a visit ho had paid to the exhibition termed the Oriental Fair, which bad been going on In the Choral Hall, and a very fair exhibition of its kind too. The scenic effects wero the dresses of tho young ladies rendered them very pretty to look upon ; the Maypole dance of the cl ildren was very picturesquo, and Jorloy'i. raxworks, albeit imateurish, were decidedly creditable _ As i competitive amateur theatrical exhibition it had been a giea. success, although hardly fair to tho lessees of the regular places of amusimont, who went to great exponse and had to pay Heavily for tho privilege of c..teri>" . fui the dramatic tastes of tl c people, lb was not the thing itself that I c found fault with, but tho pitiful hypocrisy that lurked behind it. Tho people who bad been running and taking part in these theatrical poiformanees were just those who decried and denounced tho legitimate drama. Tho young ladies who had promoted the ruflk-s would shudder at tho bare idea of selling racing sweep tickets, or of countenancing betting upon a racecourse, and the gymnastic exhibition in another place would have been voted low. If this sort of tiling wero carried on a Httlo further, we should be having biggor breaktowns upon " the rock ol ages," and a tableaux rivaiit of tho Bleeping beauty, '•safe in tho aims of Jesus." We -hould be having public-houses carried jn by tho Church Temperance Society, and the proceeds of the beer irinking therein devoted to the propagation of tbe "Holy Spirit." Tho lecturer went _n to trace tho evolution of religious ideas, md in doing so he pronounced a warm julogium upon Victor Hugo.