Feilding Art Lecture

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 1423, 19 June 1936, Page 3

Feilding Art Lecture

GREEK SCULPTURE '‘An Introduction to Greek Sculpture,” was the title of the talk delivered by Mr C. H. Sayers M.A., at the weekly gathering of the Feilding branch of the W.E.A. on Tuseday night. Speaking of tho Athenian ideals, Mr Sayers quoted the following example of their high and sound ideals: “Our government is not copied from those of our neighbours. We are an example to them Tather than they to us. Our constitution is named a democracy, because it is in tho hands not of the few but of the many. But our laws secure equal justice for all their private disputes and our public opinion welcomes and honours talent in every branch of achievement, not for any sectional reason but on grounds of excellence alone. And as we give freo play to all in our public life, so wo carry the same spirit into our daily relations with one another. We have no black looks or angry words for our neighbour if ho enjoys himself in his own way, and wo abstain from tho little acts of churlishness which, though they leave no mark, yet cause annoyance to who so notes them. Open and friendly in our private intercourse, in our public acts we keep strictly within the control of the law. We acknowledge the restraint of reverence. We are obedient to thoso in authority, and to the laws, more especially to those which offer protection to the oppressed, and those unwritten ordinances whose transgression brings admitted shame. Yet ours is no workaday city only. No other provides so many recreations for the spirit—games and sacrifices all tho year round, and beauty in our public buildings to cheer the heart and delight the eye day by day. We are lovers of beauty without extravagance, and lovers of wisdom without unmanliness. Wealth to us is not mere means for display, but for opportunity for achievement; and poverty we think is no disgraco to acknowledge, but a real degradation to make no effort to overcome. Early Greeks believed in cultivating the body, and gymnasiums,’ athletic games, military exercises, were popular with them. They encouraged sport of an athletic nature wholeheartedly, for tho express purpose of cultivating healthy bodies. Their efforts for improvement of tho human body were not confined to the physical side alone. Through music, poetry, and mathematics they trained the minds. Music was written with the object of establishing self-control and temperance in the minds of those who heard it.”

Air: A. J. Humphreys occupied the chair and announced that the usual weekly W.E.A. lecture would bo held next Tuesday evening. Air Sayers was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his interesting lecture and this was carried by acclamation.