“MERE MAN.”

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 22

“MERE MAN.”

A LECTUKE BY SAKAH GKAND. "Madame” Sarah Grand as a lecturer made an excellent impression upon a very large and critical audience the other day at St. George’s Hall. There was more than a "sprinkling” of men present, and much of the applause came from them. This is not surprising, for the lecturer was by no means severe upon “mere man,’’ and when she spoke of all that man had in his power to become, the men who listened ought to have been proud to be the possessors of so much latent perfection.

"How to treat this theme troubles me,” she said at the outset; "the subject is such an agitating thing. I should" liked to be helped to keep my countenance; Man that is born of a woman must be more than a huge joke.” It is probable that the subtle humour of that assertion was lost upon the majority of the audience. It is the lecturer's opinion that-it is impossible to take man seriously from every point of view. However, there is no need to do so, she said, as man does it so well for himself! The explanation of the tit of the lecture is interesting. At a dinner given to some literary ladies by a wellknown club Sarah Grand was one of the

guests, and she was asked to propose the toast of “mere man." It was to follow one of "sovereign woman." The puzzle was how to do it. It was difficult to think of anything complimentary enough ! In church men acknowledge that they are miserable sinners, but once outside they would go to law with any one who said they were. Women are complex creatures. If women are complex, then men must be so too. There must be more in man than his "mereness.” We are told to look at life broadly. It is easy to generalise, but there is no discrimination, no nourishment in this “bravura of the brain.” Truth is necessary; it is the road to peace. The attitude of women to men is complex. Sometimes she speaks of him as a brute; again, she feels towards him quite the opposite. The lecturer explained that she had not originated the name “mere man/' Man himself dubbed himself “mere man,” and, when he so describes himself, ask him what he wants? JNg man does it for nothing, for, “since the time he swung himself from a bough in his primeval forest, and for the first time stood on his two legs, ha ha 3 never assumed that tone for nothing; and it was necessary to be careful of him in that mood. It was often when in this mood that the sceptre was held out to woman. , “Mere man” has his faults, but ' sovereign woman” is a rasping kind of creature. The lecturer was careful to explain that she did not assume that all tne misery in the world had been created by men. Personally, she said, “men had been good and kind and-helpful to her, when women have onlv held her bonnet pins!”

The "blockhead majority” is not composed of men, then. For a woman to have a good father is to he born an heiress, and a good husband is the prize ot life. The memory of a good father prevents a woman’s view of man from being ever distorted; and if a woman has a good husband the only fault is that she gets too wrapped up in the small circle of home. The lecturer also -warned her hearers against loss of faith. Those who lose it, sne said, have lost one wing, and never soar again.learned, amongst many other useul things, that man’s attitude towards woman has many moods—there is a militaij mood—a condescending kindness not unmixed with contempt, grovelling ami a slave to women. There are social and to n b« al In ° of i S also ‘ Sometimes he forgets to be grandiose, and he is a roliable f a,ui excellent comrade. .In this Of man, we learned, there are four

points of view—worst and best and destiny. Between worst L j ori 6U» are infinite gradations, and an\,H? a b es| 6ays might be true. One’s'm? 8 °a» "wobble"—men's little faults ar«f lmotl < ine ones—gossip, for instance I? that most of it emanates from don clubs. ne bon. This is a stale accusation whirl, i. it half a truth only. When drawingroom and|boudoir tea tabled th ° Men are often as garrulous as vL They talk and fuss about cooking men ; they forget that it was a woman up the first school of cookery. ■ 0 s®t May we not be allowed to ask X « Was it not to silence “mere man" bv ping savoury morsels into his mouth? o ®’ We are by no means sure,that “whim men are theorising and poetising IS woman she was thinking. Wo ‘ desire to be rough on “sovereign JI 9 ™ but the great fault of the liajor them is that they never 7 , 01 Those who have thought pated themselves, and, up to a point, developed the best that is 11 but how to use that “best” to the SsXi ° ot “ « ™*S! conservatism prevailed. especially £ England. She was gagged; a woman nX be ever so good, but a man does not vS her goodness aiU ® The worst of ff mere man” i s the R r ishness to bis prejudices, and to his newt SfPff* so that he may get his ideas S made. He is a slaVe to the phS maker, also. Then he is terribly swaved by his lower nature. He seems K ashamed to own that he has a biff 09 The best of him is that he knows afe himself, but from woman he conceals his faults, but expects her 9 u the same to be occupied in his refn™ tion The following almost the hard knocks received by “mere in the course of the lecture. maiL “It is not the / courage with which man faces -death' which evokes Sarah GranX respect for him, but for the ‘ courage with which he faces life.' The courage of men m face of life’s difficulties raises one’s enthusiasm. It is his moral corn * which when lie displays it, is the glof? of Mere Man/ •• It is satisfactory to know that the leoturer thinks tnat man is progressing as well as woman. The watchwords now says—“ Progress, Love, Learn, Teach, ’ but so backward are the majority “ at „ a new thought lias to fight for its life, but the idea is growing that people must be good to be worthy of admiration," and that—“moral worth is becoming more and more the final tests of genius. Happiness is a thing, in onrselves and is the outcome of devotion to something outside ourselves." Ihe above is a brief and ineomplets summary of Sarah Grand's famous lecture. It was unaccompanied by pose or affectation of any kind, and tlie opinion expressed by the majority of those who heard it was that as a lecturer, both in manner and matter, she left the novelist miles behind. There ivas not a word sftered which the most fastidious could object.