The Lecturer.

Southern Cross, Volume 6, Issue 9, 4 June 1898, Page 5

The Lecturer.

J. M. BARRIE. On Friday evening, May 27th, under the auspices of the Natives’ Association, Miss Freeman, principal of Girfcon College, Dunedin, gave a lecture on J. M. Barrie in Haftan’s Hall, which was listened to with marked approval by a numerous audience. The lecturer has a good presence, trained platform graces, and a voice that is strong, melodious, and versatile. The lecture, which was throughout finely conceived, was enhanced by the effective reading o£ it, and by copious extracts from Barrie’s works, so judiciously chosen and so dramatically rendered that the audience were keenly delighted. The style of the essay, though markedly ornate and embellished with many quotations, was yet lucid and vigorous. Miss Freeman is a strong admirer of the Kailyard school, while of Barrie, whom she places at their head, she might fairly be called a devout worshipper. Her praise of his genuis was unstinted. He interpreted human life with a realism better than that of Hardy, because more lit up with hope, faith, and enthusiasm for humanity. He showed the soul of good there was in things evil, he saw and brought to light the goodness and nobility hidden in lives outwardly ignoble, sordid, and cramped by hard circumstances. Abjuring the craze for dealing with problems of sex and society which contaminated our current fiction, he reminded us that life had other phases than these. Free from the morbid introspection and cold scepticism which poisoned happiness, he brought ns back to the saner moods of older times. Memories become dim to our generation in the prevalent cynicism and pessimism were recalled as from afar under the spell of his genius. The dawn of a brighter era in thought and literature was foreshadowed by his rise in these times and by the fervid reception accorded his works. The field be chose for pourtrayal was the one best known to his mind, because of a lifetime of intimate acqnaintanse, closest cherished in his heart because of sympathetic insight into its touching realities. The men and women he knew in his secluded native place in Scotland became types for those realistic characters which gave his pages such intense human interest. These people, left behind by the quick march of civilisation, were a survival of a bygone age, but would all too soon, under the assimilating agencies of travel and intercourse, merge their individuality in the commoner types. Barrie’s magic touch drew aside the veil and revealed them in clear relief to a world that welcomed such quaint and interesting society. Narrow they were, and often, too, dull and unemotional in exterior, but withal possessed of fortitude and patience, and showing in crises the noble traits hidden in their nature. Creed-bound as they were, and even insistent on dogma and doctrine, they had a saving reverence which made their religion the salt of their lives. Of such as these Barrie presented the doings and destinies with a kindly humour, exquisitely blended with chaste, restrained pathos. A few biographical particulars were given, and the chief works of the authoi passed in, review with the illustrative readings mentioned. ‘ Auld Licht Idylls ’ and ‘ A Window in Thrums ’ were estimated the best of the series, while * Sentimental Tommy ’ and * Margaret Ogilvie ’ were set down as a deterioration. A very eloquent peroration gave the significance of Barrie’s contribution to literature, and the sum of his teaching. Miss Birss, in a few felicitous sentences, expressed the thanks of the Association and the audience for the excellent address given, and the chairman, Mr Hanau, added his tribute of approval.