The Portland daily press., 1871-11-16

REV. DIR. CHAPIN's LEoTURE.-The fourth
lecture OF the Mercantile Library course was
delivered last evening by Rev. DR.. e. 81.
Chaplin. Few men would have drawn so large
an audience from their homes on SO disagreea-
Bile night; at least 800 people being present.
The subject OF the lecture was Orders of No
bility-not the potato-vine aristocracy of king
ly patentsi but the nobility of work. The es-
sential elements of true nobility may be spoken
OF in three ways: the nobility of work; the
nobility of thought and nobility of life. Under
the first division of his subject the speaker re-
marked that it is the noblest thing in any
sphere of action to recognize our work, and he
who meets it cheerfully does hii part willingly
and well helps the world, and is himself the
lower strata of true aristocracy. People are
ready enough to eulogize labor, but practically
good many skulk from it, An industrious
bootblack is better than lazy gentleman.
There is no labor more arduous than that per-
formed in the silent hours of thought, and
many who win by this envy the worker with
his hands whose toll is ended with the stroke of
the clock. The hardest work is not that Which
makes the most noise and exhibits the most
processes. The professional ranks are crowded
with genteel insufficiency of ability; still pa
rents educate their children to avoid manual
labor; hence the worlds great field OF produce
tive action is unoccupied. The secret of the
worlds poverty is the neglect of tho worlds
great need of labor. The mechanic is the
builder of the worlds civilization, and in the
true order of nobility they who bear this name
march far ahead of the fictitious aristocracy.
The sprins OF nobility is in the mind. No.
sbleness of thought comes from an aspiration of
q noble purpose. The vulgar man is a man Of
vulgar thoughts. Men are not saved by breadth
of intellectual responsibility but by loyalty to
truth. The speaker presented loyalty to truth
as an element of truc nobility, and one of its
essential features is seriousness. We are liv-
ing in the comic age of the world, and are
drencked with funny books and funny news
papers. There is serious as well as ludicrous
side to life. The habit of touching everything
with the ludicrous tends to smother serious
ness. If there was not so much humor 10 the
Commonwealth as under Charles II. there was
more sincerity. can see as clearly as any one
the ugly features of the Puritans; but the real
Puritan was not a man of gloom. The best
traits of Puritanism give us the strongest ele-
ments of the American character.
announcer quallty OF nODillty Is readiness OF
mind; willingness to see truth and let it in
and courage to face it, There is no such thing
as a dangerous truth. As there is no nobility
Of work without nobility of thought nobility Of
life combines them both. Three other traits
are seen in noble life; Inconsistencies, COM
munication and aspiration. He defined the
first in being great and doing good without ap-
parent knowledge of it. When a man dis
covers that he is great he becomes mean. Com
munication is that sympathy which gives moro
than it receives and blesses his fellow linen
and truly noble lie is always a life of aspra-
ton; a constant striving to be. In the course
of his lecture DR.. Chaplin spoke Of art and lit
erature as aids to a noble life. In the cultva-
ton OF the good apd beautiful We elevate our
race and diminish wickedness. A free art gal.
lery in each of our large towns and cities would
relieve community of the cost of an army Of
policemen. He also spoke in severe terms Of
much of the literature Of the present day
books of fiction, which if.not positively are
negatively bad; and closed with beautiful
apostrophe to some Of the noble live, in his
tory, the greatest and most lovely of whom
was the inspired Psalmist