MRS BESANT'S LECTURES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 14

MRS BESANT' S LECTURES.

Mrs Besant delivered two lectures during her visit to Dunedin, large audiences attending at the Garrison Hall. The subject of her first lecture was " Brotherhood : Real and Unreal." She went on to point out that everywhere there was a war of classes, and bitter strife between capital and labour, and then proceeded to trace the gradual evolution of thought on the subject of brotherhood until social obligation took the place of rights of man. Everyone born into a 6oci*l organisation had debts to discharge to that organisation, and! by whioh their conduct should be shaped. The family. That was the type of the; nat'on, of the State. The young and the old with a common object for co-operation. Not each for self, but each for all, and the social welfare. The true law of human society, "For ©very man according to his capacity ; to every man according -to hia needs," would 1 yet be realised. No one asked " what are the ' rights' of the elders of a family, but according to the various capacities were the various, duties discharged. The foundations of such a civilisation were being laid by Nature itself, of whioh the signs were already to be seen among them. The mark' of a civilisation was found in the religion that was born with it. So in the great spiritual impulse now sweeping over the world there were no barriers, no walls but brotherhood in religions, as we^ll as in humanity. Mrs Besant' went on to say there must be a brotherhood of emotions, and contended that emotions had a powerful influence on others. They did not realise that so close-bound are we all that hatred spread out like a, force, and embodied itself in some poor, passionate creature who had not their selfcontrol, and the anger of many a respectable man and woman flowed into the murderer, making them participants in his crime. There was this wireless telegraphy. Everyone of them was a generating, aieo a receiving, station. Emotions were waves searching for an instrument fit to respond to them. We were responsible for the vibratory energies we send out into the community. Their thoughts were not their own — nothing less sq. Thoughts were living messengers going out in all directions. Half the causes of wars were the different mental atmospheres in which the nations lived. People wem gradually learning that their thoughts were more powerful than their actions. EveTy religion had taught it. Such laws were inviolable and unchangeable wherever humanity existed. One spirit lived in all of us. One universal life and spirit, and we went into that as we recognised the unity everywhere. The most dimcult thing to realise was that the one life was shared with the lowest and tifoe highest ; and that the oriminal and the purest saint was your brother. The subject of Mrs Beeant's second lecture was "Do We- Live on Earth Again? " After explaining a,t length the whole meaning of the theory of reincarnation, and the result of environment on the struggling. Bpirit, Mrs Besant concluded 1 thus: ' You will grow stronger and calmer and able to overcome your doubts and troubles. There is no restriction to the development of your life. No, there » nothing you cannot accomplish, no height you cannot pcale, and at last, if you have learned youar lesson, what life means, then shall com© the time when are incarnation shall be over, when perfection shall have crowned your efforts, and you shall have leached a jfrest-er evolution, and a- {5-rea.ter perfection, until you have truly reached the perfection of your Father in Heaven."