THE CHOIR INVISIBLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2317, 28 July 1898, Page 9

THE CHOIR INVISIBLE.

The hall of St. Andrew's Cnurch was again cro7^ded on the 18th, when another of the course of lectures under the auspices of ths St. Andrew's Literary Institute was delivered by the Rev. Dr Waddell, who took up for consideration the character o? Amy Falcon >r as drawn by James Lane Allen, the bluo-gr.ass Kentuckyian, in his work "Tbe Choir Invisible." Surprise had, Dr VVaddell said, been expressed at his haviDg chosen Hut boole for the pnrpose of study — it seemed to many to be so slight, and not a few were wondering how in the world he wan going to get four lectures out of ib. Bigness was, however, not greatness, or else a, mountain would be ft naoro important thing than a. man. There wa3 "no promenade, no band of muaic, no nothing " iv the book — no sex problem, no whirling rhetoric about the rights atid wrongs of woman, no tragedy to goose- fl-jsh you or make your hair ttand out like quills upon the fretful porcupine. That was the reason why

he chose the work. It seemed to him that tlifl time had coiie fov insisting that pure air was batter- than foul air, no matter how beautifully coloured the latber nvght be. Life was too shorfc and valuable bo waste over books that no critical log-rolling could keep from their destined goal of the rag- bag of oblivion. To Amy Falconer, who seemed the slightest and Ihinuesfc of tho slighb group of characters in "The Choir Invisible," the lecturer applied the test recently suggested by the Spectator as thvit wh'oh critics of a work should apply — What wai the idea that the creator of a given work had in hss arind when ho gave it forth ? What are the means which the arLisfc has clioafn for the ezpeession of his idea ? Is it worth expi-essiog — and if not, why not ? Is the form of expression well and truly choseu P Evidently the idea that the creator of Amy Falconet had in his mind was to pressut a life ot self-love with its cbaracterijt'c3 aud its consequences, or, at least, some of them— self-love with its three shoots of vanity, hsvcdtiesj;, aud iupitmenfcy.

! Dr Waddell suggested as a parallel character that of Rosalind as drawn by George Eliot in "Middlemarch." Aa to tho means which Jamet Lane Allen had chosop for the expression ol his idsa, tho lecturer snid that of course it was imagination — fiction, — but fiction was the mosb effective teacher of truth, and with respect to the third test of a work, he staled that it was not easy to conceive a more subtle, delicate por* traiture of pure eelfishness than Amy presented. There could be no possible doubt about the striking and full expression which th« author had given to this idea, aud there could b3 no passible doubfc also as to whether it was worth expressing. Dr Waddell quoted freely from the' work to illustrate hi 3 . remarks, and expressed frequent admiration for the felicity of expressioa employed by Mir Allan. Toe lecture was listened fco with rapfc attention, and mu^t have been much enjoyed by all present,

The arrivals in the colony during June num* bered 1043, and tbe departures 1305.