LECTURE ON "EMERSON."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10104, 16 March 1911, Page 1

LECTURE ON "EMERSON."

Last night at the Choral Hall Mr Wilson Fritch, an American orator, gave his third literary recital, entitled "Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Seer of Spiritual Democracy." There was a fairly good attendance. The lecturer said that Darwin presented the physical phase of evolution, but Emerson had anticipated him by twenty years in teaching a spiritual evolution. The teachings of Emerson had now penetrated the whole world of thought; his principles were known and studied in East and West; his mind was the most fertilising mind America had produced; he was indeed the seer of a spiritual democracy, which was wide as the world itself. Emerson sprang from a long line of cultured ministers at a time when religion had almost a monopoly of culture. He devoted most of his study to literature and philosophy, but nevertheless graduated in divinity, and was called to the pastorate of a church of cultured men and women. But Emerson went on thinking; he faced the alternatives of repose and thought. The result was that he stepped out of all religious organisations, and became the high priest of humanity itself. Then came travel, but all Rome he said he would give for one man worthy to walk her streets; Paris ho found another loud New York; and then, full of fresh thought, but sad at heart, he returned to America and began to write, largely influenced by his notable meeting with Carlyle. In conclusion, the lecturer gave an exposition of Emerson's philosophy, interspersed with passages from his various writings. Mr Fritch was heartily applauded at the close of his lecture.