DUNEDIN PROGRESSIVE SOCIETY.

Evening Star, Issue 12902, 27 August 1906, Page 6

DUNEDIN PROGRESSIVE SOCIETY.

At last night's meeting of the above society the platform -was filled by Miss Browning (of the Theosophical Society), •who delivered a lecture on "The Disciplined Life' to a large audience. The speaker treated her subject from a theosophical standpoint. There were threeplanes of our nature which we should take m hand and subject to proper discipline. These were our corporeal or bodily nature, our emotional nature, and our mental nature. According to the lecturer, the body was merely a " great coat" or instrument through which the ego worked. It was necessary to take care of this body, as ib had certain necessary work to perform, and the, better the condition it was in the better would it be able to perform its work. The lecturer dealt briefly with the question of diet in connection with bodily discipline, and with the various ways "of controlling our emotions. Moderation in all things, in work and in play, in exercise and in rest, was emphasised throughout the address. The final piano of our nature which we must subject to discipline was the mental plane. Various methods of accomplishing this were discussed, and great stress was laid on the difficult,art of concentration. Concentration, said the lecturer, was one of the most difficult habits to acquire in this world. Yet it was essential to deep and studious thinking and as a mental discipline, and the habit could be acquired by long, perhaps even laborious, practice. At the close of the address many questions were asked and criticisms indulged in by a keenly appreciative audience, to which the lecturer replied. Mr D.' Dawson (president of the society) occupied the chair.