The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-10-22
MIR. BEECHER,s LECTURE.


The opening lecture of the M. L. A. Course
was delivered last evening by the Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher. There was very large audi
ence present, every seat being taken, and many
people standing about the doorways.
As Mr.. Beecher came upon the stand he was
welcomed in the usual cordial Portland man
ner with the clapping of many hands. He
looked fresh, vigorous and rosy, his face show
ing the tan and burn of sojourn in the noun
tains, and was evidently in excellent health
and spirits. The lecture was one of his best
platform efforts, and all through its delivery
the speaker gave that impression of immense
reserve power which he habitually conveys. In
short the lecture was characteristic Beecher
lecture, the reception was the usual cordial one,
and at the close many people, as usual, pressed
to the platform to shake hands with him.
Mr.. Beecher began by stating the subject OF
his lecture, Upper and UNDER" and com
mented at some length on the modern impa-
thence of class distinctions, the constant striv-
ing upward of all classes, and the constantly
increasing wants and luxuries of even those
low down in the social scale.
That society must classify itself is inevitable,
it is a necessity if there is no moral and intel
lectual force and specific gravity which, vary
ing, must needs place different people and
classes of people at different elevations. Many
defend classes and many assail them, and both
in part are right for as classes have demeaned
themselves, as classes have been constituted ar,
tificially with prerogatives and privileges which
did not ftly belong to them, they have been
,,,;cobinvouc and tho class cnir;t ubap = COL
fish and arrogant is always bad. But these
are faults of administration, and not of organ
ization.
There are many lamina, strata in society
They run into each other. They cannot be dis
tinctly transposed in their outlines. Where the
population is small, is widely scattered, where
the education and employment are not thoro-
ughly organized and developed tits less obvious.
Then there seems to be great, uniform and
homogeneous whole. But it becomes apparent,
this classifying spirit, as population crowds in
to narrow confines or competition brings out
men and compares them one with another.
In the first place, in these common pursuits,
it is quite natural that men that are pursuing
common ends, drawing them together, should
need counsel and cooperation. There are in
tellectual affinities that will draw other men
together, aesthetic afinities that will draw 9TH
ers together, religious social affinities which
will draw others together, afinitles OF morality
conformity act to classify men and tend to put
them into sympathy with the promiscuous |
whole, or to appoint them paths among the |
the few. We consort where our dominant feel |
ings are apt to be gratfied. We do not like to |
go among those who do not feel as we do.
Mr.. Beecher said the fullest and the largest |
conception of a man, is one that measures So |
ciety from top to bottom, and has something of |
everything in him, and he is the best man |
whom no man passes without being more or |
lQSc updnrStOod nv him and SvmOqthiZpd with |
by him. A man may belong to different class
es. Men belonging only to one class may be |
extremely proper, but are apt to be learned mar
row and nndeveloped. The man who believes |
set, the man who believes he has Joined himself |
to class, that contains all the knowledge or |
all the refinement or all the morality, that man |
must be very narrow. There is no one class |
that contains everything, and to be shut up in |
class is like being shut up in prison.
Healthy condition requires, however, that in |
the formation of these different classes in So
ciety there should be perfect ease of access and
exit. thought not to be difficult for man to |
rise into any class. 1t ought not to be difficult
for any class to reject man when he is no |
longer fit for the association.
The distinction Mr.. Beecher made between
the upper and uEder classes was that one was
above the other as the one is better developed
than another: Men that are developed in the
direction of the intellect and its moral feeling
and spirituality are of the higher class, and the
inferior class of men are those who represent |
only the material or the lower comprehension
of the mental.
As we ascend we forget where we come from.
We forget and we are prone by pride to en-
tinguish those sympathes which connect us |
with the lower classes round about us, and We |
limit our station of manhood to that particular
manhood which is in direct sympathy with our
selves, and forget that royal injunction, Eye
that are strong bear with the weak"
After reviewing in satirical manner the
spirit of excusiveness and caste which widely |
prevails, the lecturer said: sit is refreshing |
sometimes to go from among good men to men
that are not so good, for goodness is like sugar.
like little of it diffused but when you have
to take it in the lump it becomes very satiat--
ing. To go from our ordinary environment and
find ourselves among the simple and plain and
have that intercourse the change in social life,
unrestricted as it is, is great rest While Gull
ture tends to develod the intellect and taste, it
is often at the expense of the heart, and l OBJ
serve that highly cultivated people feel that ex-
preston of feelings is not in good taste, or to
express surprise great interest ;hat it is not
in good taste to laugh to smile, or to give in
diligence to any impetuous feelings of pleasure
of enthusiasm, &c. He said these things
were not common to high culture land persons
must repress their feelings until at last they get
into that state where they are extremely adj
mlrable to themselves and nobody else. Lack
ing, it may be, much refinement, neverthe-
less plain people have more affection, more
heart. Among humble people there are just as
many acts of heroism as are found among the
superior classes, but there are no heroes be-
cause they are obscured too much to allow their
heroic acts to be seen or known by the world
These people give more too in their religious
and charitable contributions in proportion than
the rich do. There is among them more pa
thence in sorrow and suffering, more resigna-
ton, more submission.