LECTURE ON " CIVILIZATION" BY THE BISHOP OF WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 95, 20 February 1875, Page 8

LECTURE ON " CIVILIZATION" BY THE BISHOP OF WELLINGTON.

u£ ss£tf 1 9^^! 1 W^gton, delivered a lee FaXFSiS rf£ th w' ¥ es6rs ' T ' C - Kedwood, the Eev. famiw^Tf?! who said that Civilization was a word very ©n?but tW frequently on the tongue of almost everj Sf Sit W^ erßOnß who had ** dear Perception of ti£n7*! Tfll me * nntn 1 tb y th ® word Civilization: If you enquired SJfcSKrfS 8 to , tlie . real mea^g of the term it would be found drftiSSL ex *J* natlottß me lt«d into vagueness, inwherency/intWoSSi P ere f we T e two sorts of com in circulation, there was feit ££? the "* there was *a counter■laiS?f^ Iff 6*6 * *" hearers to ** <******■ *»»*• took a bad Siiwf^* T/S"? Bof civilisation, the wordly or secular ChSch Th** * Chnßtian civilisation as taught by theCatholS •x£K?i«» rS ™*w Of modem "^ M displayed at the industrial fj^ and Paris, were described in glowing and «* LTmSSL, h t V™*>* iatruments of astronomy, the^min. JSSI^SfS^S ?* . micr °scope, the triumphs of nival archi2^ d **> W chariots of the rail, down to the most denote Sfw^e TZOL t* W f Ch "* l he Wonders of *"» electric StHrfwhSS y reviewed as some of the re. jatiofwhatwaaconfflderedby some people the highest civilizaZ^inSXZSSf $? + - Of lOrld1 Orldl y S^deur aid wealthTthe SiTwlS^S^ by the beaut "« of refined art in painting and sculp. m^t«« yeav ear * Wa fv c ? chanted b y the finest musicfof the fir?t w£hK m entering ripples of meloay, or rolSng Jffi^^ eßtte * gnu !5 earof a mounta* torrent, produced X £v^? ™^ MSm S €"*?* that art and science could t^-^£%P hj * B } uaaaoi the moßt Bkmed instrumen2SJrfI,S tolß W S nofc *">« civilization. Some one had said SjhSSSSdT the , cul^ ati <« o{ the inteUectual up to ti£ owV^r^H^-S * of nature, and of ma£ for his •JSSit w n .? Wealth aQ d prosperity to allwhocould SS?nS" J^n^* thQ y caaed a « ood Becular education, but SoXLv* g^Tr W^ Only for ose who wealth and ISK^vir a ?, nn ° tlo . r tho i e to whom Christ had taught that SJ SfS*^. love of God and man. He had S?«»^f for ifc ie easier for **• c*^ l to P^B through the eye oi an needle than for a rich man to enter into Heaved" f cUiar learning there was no mention of morality Ja^rSSt ?, dUCatetl f tellect until a man possessed the superSrSaU ?8? 8 T eOt adeE ? on '^d he might be rich enough to F^ST^i P leasureß and enjoyments that art and science could viewed fc?« ?^ PP ° 3SeSS The lecturer then reti« « ?f^ la y curnculum of common schools, and ridiculed t?l!I TCad ™S.™itxng, and arithmetic, contributed to "St£l nU T ea S c moml edition of the people- He Sed! tht£ V??"* 1 * 1U c^try who cannot read less virtuous than ibZd^t^H^T O< £ B "* easU y accessible, and learning £S«?«v that they were not. Let them turn to -«MU3*£^^^^^edged to be the very centre of nSm SdCt S?S^T n °. t fil ? d Preeminently thereDiveain purple Si t^' W ¥?. ?e? c Lazarus Ues perishing at his S&h,» W J fttutlC8 1 ..? f crime, too, showed that secular StSL M n ° th^ S *°, i mprove the moral edition or society Worldly science had no connection with moraL^LhL i * each , man to know God or to do his wm. ffis £riSr P "S 80 1 . 01164 On the D arwinian theory, which he charach^r^W mg to man ' Who had teen formed in the imaged St™J«' , Thafc man be descended from or allied to the SSLS^^'J* 8 P^Po^ous, and opposed to revelation He X d BS modern hterature as a sou\£e from which the child who had been taughtto read, would imbibe only poison to his soul. |SpthnlS^^ J f °ft unproveit , and that modem civSisation whenXS blhtl m a w d < f tern t l gUtter lef fc notllin & but shriveUed husks cSLi^ Huxley, therefore, should not be surprised that the SSftl?" 11 * 11 reSlSted modern ci^sation, any more than he would be to see a man resisting a burglar, or a judge condemning a ennunal, for a man may possess all the outward polish that reSdl^T* loll^^ beßtoW ' aad yet be ** ver y « ssen <« ot vice and meanness. There was one great truth admitted by the Church SdMfaS" h t oulta « o«teu»ing of the individual-not a? 2 uidividual, but as a social bemg— was real civilisation; that the perfection of the mdmdual was necessary to society for the sake of mutual influence. If you put a rude, unpolished man, into refined society, he would become to a certain extent refined ; whereas if the ea ? ied ° r r^ noxiß were constantly surrounded by the low and the depraved, it was scarcely to be expected that he could reiSit 8^ 1 "2? in tellectual standing. There was a sSo" g n£:2£t « e^.t 116 cultivation of the mind, and that of the soil : perfection of society depended on the culture of its several parts, a« the fruitfulness of an orchard would depend on the care , bestowed on each individual tree. To render ma£ perfect his b^y and hw soul must be cultivated. Some might be surprised at M?

?l he *&' but xt was b y the the y are chained to the earth, through it we received the means of sustaining life, and a healthy and well regulated body was necessary to a happy and contented mind. The soul was constituted of the intellect, the will, and memory. The object of the intellect was truth, and that intellect became the more perfect in proportion to the number of truths and the degree of their value and high order. The highest of all truths were those taught by the JCatholic Church, through her men obtained the knowledge of God and of his life, and that when compared with worldly civilisation was the grandest of all truths, f orworldly when it had done all it could left nothing worth having. There was more sublimity in the poor peasant who could not read a letter, but lifting his eyes to heaven said, " I believe in God-, ' than there was in all the truth grasped by the most exalted intellect of the scientific atheist, a knowledge and belief in the Holy Trinity, a glorious and mysterious truth, the foundation and source of Christian civilisation, fell alike to all, to rich and poor, 3 only to be attained by man through divine revelation. The whole* world had believed in the divinity of Christ, and the Catholic Church was the true guardian of that faith. Through the instrumentality of that Church the civilised world had received all the gifts of learning and of science. The rev. gentleman then reviewed the atomic theory and molecular action as explained by Professor Tyndall, and said if that theory were true man was but an automaton, and consequently the possession of every virtue was in a moral point of view no better than the most vicious and depraved in the social scale. He hoped those men who asserted these things were not in earnest ; if they really meant these statements they were monsters on the face of the earth. As the object of the intellect was truth, so the object of the will was good ; the instincts or appetites of the body were through the influence of the intellect or reason to be made subject to the will. The third element of the soul, memory, was the storehouse of the intellect, and in order that it should be properly trained it should not receive or retain any thing but good. He censured, most severely, the public press as pandering to the evil passions and morbid tastes of the profane, that it dragged vice from the obscurity to which it should be consigned, and paraded it in vivid colors, polluting the minds of the young. He held up the Catholic Church as the friend of progress and of science, so long as science was kept withiu its proper sphere, and the wild and speculative theories of men were not taught as science in direct antagonism to the revealed will of God. With regard to the body, it craved tco much indulgence to be much neglected or readily forgotten, the greater danger was that it would be over indulged and the most indulgence to be feared was through the vice of drunkenness, this sin the civilisation of Christianity taught them to reject. Thus it would be seen that Christianity imbued the intellect with vigor, the body with health, and the will, with the desire for Truth. As soon as tie applause, which followed the conclusion of the address had subsided, Mr Thomas Eedwood moved a vote of thanks to the Chairman. Mr Henderson briefly acknowledged the compliment, and said before the meeting gave him any thanks be thought a cordial vote was due to the learned lecturer, who had given them some food for earnest thought. The vote was carried by acclamation, and the meeting separated. — ' Marlborough Express.'