The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-02 00:00:00

lIIR. SPURGEON ON THE ,s GORILLA."

--4,--

Last night Mr. C. H. Spurgeon delivered a lec-
ture on the Gorilla," with the accessories of vocal
music and dissolving views, in his great tabernacle,
at Newington, to an audience which completely
filled the whole building-, and must have numbered
over 5,000 persons.

The doors, although opened an hour before the
time appointed for the lecture, were besieged by
an immense crowd, who struggled hard to get the
best places. The admission was by payment, vary-
ing from Gd. to is., and the proceeds, which must
have amounted to a very considerable sum, were,
it was announced, to be devoted to the Band of
Hope Union, a society whose object is to promote
total abstinence from spirituous liquors among
children and young persons.
An immense sheet of canvas was suspended over
the dais in front of the pulpit for the dissolving
views, which the prospectus said were painted by
" first-rate artists expressly for the lecture," and
had never before been exhibited." During the
evening a choir of 500 children, accommodated in
.thegallery behind the pulpit, sang a selection of
sacred music which had a special application to the
object of the society.
It was intimated in the bills that M. Da Chaillu
the celebrated African traveller, had promised to'
lend a specimen of the gorilla for the occasion, and
when half a dozen men brought some large object
carefully wrapped up in drugget, and placed it
upon a table near the lecturer's table, there was
much laughter and cheers. Upon being uncovered
it was found to be a veritable gorilla of formidable
build, standing nearly upright, with a ferocious
grin, showing the whole extent of its huge month
and teeth, or rather fangs, and holding up its right
arm in a menacing manner.

The arrangements upon and near the platform
were of the roughest kind, and no accommodation
whatever was afforded to those who attended to
report the proceedings.
Mr. A. 11. Layard, M.P. for Southwark, and
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, pre-
sided, having M, Da Chaillu on his right.
Mr. Spurgeon, upon entering, was greeted with
some cherry, which, however, were indignantly sup-
presed by a large portion of the congregation, who
seemed to think they were out of keeping with the
place.

The CHAIRMAN, who on rising was, however,
cheered as cordially as if he were about to address
an ordinary public meeting, said ho was at a loss to
know why he found himself in the chair. It was
surely not to introduce the rev. lecturer, who must
be known to all or the greater part of them per-
sonally, and if not personally there were few
throughout the length and breadth of the land,
-whether rich or :iloor, high or low, to whom his
name was not familiar. (Cheers.) It was not to
introduce the interesting party on his right—(the
gorilla). He would leave that to his rev, friend,
who was better able to discharge the duties of the
master of ceremonies. (Laughter.) Nor was it to
keep order, as he had before been in that vast.build-
ing when it was filled, and when the rev. gentle-
man was listened to with perfect silence. He came
there to listen, to be amused, and to be instructed ;
and though he was slightly beyond his own pecu-
liar dominion, he could not refuse to take the chair
on an occasion when he had an opportunity of meet-
ing so many of his friends, and showing how deeply
he approved of the conduct of Mr. Spurgeon, who,
amidst arduous labours and no common anxieties,
found time to afford amusem nit and to promote
cial intercourse among those who were in the habit
of listening to him as a m:nister. (Cheers.) Having
adverted to the object of the scciety on whose be-
half the lecture would be given, the chairman said,
whether Mr. Spurgeon admitted that that interest-
,ing creature (pointing to the gorilla) was their first
cousin, and in the course of time the state of things
might be reversed, and they might have a gorilla
giving a lecture on Mr. Spurgeon, instead of Mr.
Spurgeon delivering a lecture on the gorilla—
(laughter)—or whether he discarded the relation-
ship, he would not venture to predict. This, how-
ever, he would venture to say, that that gorilla
might have witnessed scenes of which they might
be ashamed, and in which their nearer relations had
taken a part. Englishmen had penetrated portions
of Africa with a rum bottle in one hand
and gold for buying slaves in the other. That fatal
rum, with the accompanying habit of dimikenness,
avhich seemed to be thought a peculiar qualification
of the Anglo-Saxon race, did much to bring about
miscrY and wretchedness and to exterminate tribes
in that country. He trusted, however, that the
time would come when the Anglo-Saxon would no
longer bring the rum bottle to the land which the I
gorilla inhabited. (Cheers.)
Mr. SPURGEON, on presenting himself, was re-
ceived with most enthusiastic cheers. He said he
had no notion that a fourth of those he saw would
be present, and expressed his regret that so many
had been turned away from the doors. Perhaps
the first question he ought to answer was, why he
lectured on the gorilla. He would give his reasons,
and they, would judge whether they were proper
ones or not. It was a growing opinion in his mind,
that the human animal needed one sort of amuse-
ment or another, and that if you did not give him
the right sort he would certainly seek the wrong.
God so adapted man's nature that he should not
only. attend to the necessities o.? existence, but seek
for the enjoyment of pleasureF. 'lt was no use his
constantly saying in the pulpit, " You must not go
to the public-house or the theatre." rhe reply
would be, " We want something of the sort, and if
yOu do not' give us the right thing we will certainly
take to the wrong." (Cheers.) Mr. Spurgeon then
explained that, seeing the success which had atten-
ded his le,ctures in the schoolroo.n, he had readily
complit d with the request to deliver this lecture,
observing that his only object in life was to benefit
his fellow creatures. The best way to elevate them
was to preach the Gospel of Christ, but that did not
prevent his using other mans besides. Lectures
on scientific or other subjects, in which he was
able to throw, out useful hints upon dress, cleanli-
ness, economy, and temperance, did pod service
as well as preaching the Gospel. These were his
reasons for giving the lecture, and if they were
not satisfactory to his audience they were to
him, and that was generally enough for him.
(Laughter and cheers.) Now, was M. Du Chaillu's
book on the gorilla true or not ? They saw M.
Du Chaillu himself present, and when they looked
at him they_would hardly think he was able to
shoot a gorilla, or to bring home as many as 22.
(Laughter.) But he (Mr. Spurgeon) believed he
had done it. (Cheers.) He would enter into the
question of the truth of his book as if he were ab-
s::" When he first read M. Du Chaillu's work he
thought it Was a very
wonderful book; but ho knew
that Owl moo woLderful creatures, and he was not
surprised at a Wonderful story. Since, however, the
lecture had beenanxnn.ounced, lie had received scores'
of letters from a
friends who thought he
would ruin hieaerat
°
believed the stories told
about the gorilla. Tin it
her
an impartial opinion u efere sat down to form
bi ate the result of hispon the
investigationb book, and he would
It was true
ust look t
that he was no great naturalist, and
opinions. on the subject the 1:0r any learned
y m
Gray;
but professor
wen, and possibly to Mr. Gra
cer
a. nip not
to him. In the- Morning Adeertiser letters had „.
j,ered attacking M. Du Chaillu. , Ijo
kacw fir.
Jame's °rant, the editor, and he did not think that
would allow any one to ho rerrroached in that
rowsplper needlessly, but aynistaken estimate was
etrr. allay, lOuT)lic characters like Xt. Du Chaillu.
eon) \Vila natuv4.lly inclined to t:lk
ho was ahusril, as it was th

110 PT

le of thr rim

wenkr,r one, and to do 30 was the most courageous
cfmrse. For the last two days he had read M. Du
Chailtu's book, night and day, and the first question
he put to himself was, " Is it not full of stories P"
Alight there not be'in it a smattering of truth and
a great deal of invention? He looked beck to the
past, and he recollected that Bruce, the great Abya-
Linian traveller, was thought to be an impostoti,
thought they now knew that he spoke nothing but
h
truth. Sc., again, with regard to Japan. The
Dutch stories respecting that country, which were
'to be pure actions, had been verified by
recent trty,
vore not inci)rieeriBl.leri:llllet• narratives of M. Da Chailln
bte than the storieu related
bygone day„,
Loeb now turned out be 'quite

true. Well, he took up the hook and looked first at
the pictures—children always did. (Laughter.)l
After reading the letterpress, he said to himself that
those pictures were the ruin of the book, because,
although very well done, they were not cor-
rect. !laving pointed out various important and
humorous discrepanceS between the illustrations and
the printed matter, the lecturer said that if_the man
was an impostor he would first have looked to his
pictures, because such an individual would not have
left a hole big enough for a mouse to have crept
through. M. Du Chaffin could shoot &gorilla, but
he was not a good draughtsman. He had got some
one else to prepare the drawings, and he had done
them the wrong way up. (Laughter.) Give an
artist the beat instructions you could and he would
still make a mistake. For instance, every single
picture of the interior of that building was wrong.
If men made blunders in sketching what they did
see, was it any wonder that they should do so in
drawing what they had not seen ? (Laughter.) No
doubt M. Da Chaillu's sketches wereeonly taken in
his head, and were not committed by him to paper.
He could not control the artist any more than they
could control the compositor, and make him set up
the type correctly. If Mr. Murray, the publisher,
would give him (Mr. Spurgeon) a handsome sum,
he could show a respectable list of errors in the
letterpress of the book. Many Fords were wrongly
spelled, and altogether the work appeared to have
been brought out in a hurry. Still, the pictures
were unfortunate, although he admitted they were
no proof against the merits or truth of the book:
With regard to Mr. Walker's letter, all he could
say was that there was nothing in it. That writer
made M. Du Chaillu say what he did not say, and
then he refuted him. (Laughter.) If nothing
stronger than that could be brought against M.Du
Chaillu, his .name would live and not-die, ant it
would not be said that he had deceived the people.
(Cheers.) But supposing M. Da Chaillu a rogue
and- impostor, who only wished to write a book
to make money by it, was it likely he would
have been so great a fodl as to have begun his
journey at a point where people would have been
readily found to confute him, instead of confining
it to remote districts where he could have been
tracked by no one ? Besides, was it likely that any
oae in his senses would sell his soul and his cha-
racter for the trumpery popularity of one year ?
If the book" were an invention, it was the most
wonderful one ever written. If De Foe wrote
" Robinson Crusoe," it would take ten De Foes to
write " Du Chailtu'sDiscoveriesin Africa." (Cheers.)
Certainly, if it were a fiction, no other man pos-
sessed genius enough to compose such another work
entirely out of his own head. The 22 gorillas he
supposed were matters of fact, as well as the hun-
dreds of specimens of other animals and birds which
M. Du Chaillu had brought over from Africa. He
verily believed, in spite of all that had been said,
that M. Du Chaillu's book was Matter of fact, and
that the author was entitled to all praise as one of
the greatest of modern discoverers—as one who had
done more for science and for religion than most
men of his time, if not than any man. (Cheers.)
This was no new topic, because 600 years before
the Christian era the discovery was mentioned of a
great animal wonderfully resembling man. In 1836
the skin of a gorilla was deposited in the museum
at Havre. Wilson, the missionary in the district
of the Gamboon river, discovered in the hut of a
native a great skull, which turned out to be that of
a gorilla. At last a whole gorilla was brought to
England, and under the inspection of Professor
Owen and Mr. Bartlett, of the Crystal Palace, the
barrel in which it was enclosed was opened, but the
smell was so exceedingly bad that all ran away.
(Laughter.) There was no chance of standing
against the gorilla, he was so exceedingly offen-
sive; but Mr. Bartlett, feeling that so rare an ani-
mal should not be lost, had him taken to Norwood.
No 6-isr those of the inhabitants of Norwood
whom he addressed remembered a bad smell in that
neighbourhood in
.1858. (Laughter.) It might
possibly have been caused by the gorilla, who was
placed in a great field at Norwood, as it was thought
fresh air might do him good after havin been so
long " cabined, cribbed, and confined." (Laughter.)
This specimen was afterwards exhibited in the
Crystal Palace, and was now in the British Museum.
Then came the 22 gorillas which had been brought
to this country by M. Du Chaillu. Now, what was
the gorilla ? *He was an enormous ape, which
claimed to approach nearer to man than any other
creature. How near he approached he would leave
them to judge. A claim to be considered their first i
cousins had been put in on behalf of the chimpan;
zee and other animals, but these were matters
to be settled by learned scientific men. Dr. Darwin
might also assert that his great grandfather's great
grandfather's father was a guinea pig, or that he
originally descended from an oyster, or something
of that sort. (Laughter.) Now, he demurred to
that, and he did so upon his own account. Many
of his friends might choose to claim relationship to
the oyster, and if any Chinese were present whose
pigtails .were not cut off, they might claim to be
related to guinea pigs; but for his own part he said
(turning to the gorilla), "there is a great gulf be-
tween you and me, and neither can I.pass to yen,
nor you to me." (Cheers.) There was the story of
the man with the bad £5 note. He laid it down,
and ran away from it as hard as ho could. He
(Mr. Spurgeon) wished to run away as hard as he
conic' from the gorilla, and to leave relationship
oat of the question. (Laughter.) Still, after all,
there was wonderful likeness, and it was most
humiliating; but even if an exact fore sinti!e of man
could be discovered, if it were destitute of a living
soul, the difference between the two would be in-
finite. (Cheers.) The gorilla was enormously
strong, and very courageous. M. Du Chaillu said
he never saw the male gorilla run away, and that
the males invariably threw their protection round
the females. The worst gorillas were bachelor
gorillas. (Laughter.) Ile hoped he addressed none
of that class. (Continued laughter.) From this sub-
ject Mr. Spurgeon digressed to the softening in-
fluence of female society, and said that the best
thing every bachelor could do was to take under his
sheltering wing one who could give him more than
he could give her. (Laughter.) With regard to the
country inhabited by the gorilla, he said it was in-
habited by a great many tribes whose names he
' could not pretend to pronounce, as they could only
be correctly given by a Welchman standing upon
his head. (Laughter.) Many of them were great
traders, but the rule among them appeared to
be that " honesty was the worst policy." These
people had a firm belief in witchcraft, which
rendered their existence miserable, as they sus-
pected even their wives and children of evil arts
with the intention of depriving them of health and
life. The most diabolical cruelties were consequently
practised, and if a man wanted to get rid of
another he had only to say he was suspected of
cruelty, and his life was forfeited. If any one in
that meeting thought that it was unlucky to spill
salt, to give a friend a pair of scissors, or to begin
work on Friday, he would say to him, " Away with
such ideas," as they were derogatory to God, and
_only fit for heathens and brutes. (Cheers.) He
next adverted to the subject of slavery, which he
said was the most abject, iniquitous, infamous, and
deviligh of all crimes, and that it was better that
the hurricane of war should sweep away the pesti-
lence than that it should be suffered to destroy the
souls of men any longer. (Cheers.) After thanking
M. Du Chaillu for the great services ho had ren-
dered in paving the way for missionary efforts in
Central Afr:ea, he concluded by repeating that he
believed in
trend which his di
The dissolvin,g
the book and in the man, and in the
scoveries would do ih years yet
to come, and receimed hisviewmsevaret atmhiednstelxohuidhairepdl,auansed.
Mr. Spurgeon gave amusing descriptions of each,
which kept the vast congregation in a continual
titter,

The CHAIRMsAaNi,d
Mr. Spurgeon, itnh aptr onPoolis ionnge sat - vheetaor tocfdthanks to
man could fail to sympathise with his denunciatiOn.
of slavery, observing that Lord Palmerston, the
present Prime Minister, had done as much as any
-man after Clarkson, Wilberforce, and Brougham,
to abolish that abominable traffic. In reference to
the attacks upon M. Du Cha,illu's book, he said that
what he stated in its pages he believed to be sub-
stantially true. (Cheers.)
M. Du CHAILLtI, in seconding the proposition,

was most cordially received. Ho said Mr. Spur.
geon had been his friend that night, and he appre-
ciated his friendship the more because he (M. Du
Chaillu) had so many er: eraieS.4 -lier-thnnked him
for his strictures'upon his book, and he could only
say that if he travelled again he would try and do
better. He had levned a great deal of wisdom
during the last five or six months, and he would
put it in practice in his next travels. (Laughter.)
Ho was happy that night to have learnt more about
Africa than he knew himself, and he was grateful
to Mr. Spurgeon for having shown his faults, as ho
had done so in so good a spirit.
The motion was agreed to, and Mr. Spurgeon
having returned thanks, the proceedings termi-
nated.