The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1842-12-06

pal cities present much TO interest the attentive stu
dent of the progress of society, and great deal to
alarm the followers and friends of the old regime in
morals and religion. II is now, believe, pretty
well established fact, that the old serpent has long
been liz The habit of assuming proper occasions,
the form and linsaments OF an " angel of light )"
and we will venture TO say that In no period OF the
worlds history, has the venerable deceiver been
more successful in the adoption OF this sage line OF
policy, than in the busting, revolutionary age In
which our lots have been so fortunately cast There
is much more of this Satanic masqueradng in the
present fashionable lecture SYSTEM than is dreamt of
in the philosophy of your stad sober-going, strait
laced moraiists and relgonists. 1t is therefore
quite worth ones while to make some investigation
of this business, and examine the operations and
bearings of this agency, SO extensively patronl-
sed, and actively at work in the world of litera-
ture, philosophy, morals, and religion.
And before saying word about these peripatetic
teachers, and their dscourses, it will be any thing
but out OF place to describe the character OF the
diences, who imbbe spiritual nutrment, and seek
lessons division from this new priesthood. The
overwhelming majority of the attendants on these
public popular lectures is composed of those classes
who denomnate themselves, par erceence, the moral
| and religious-they who would be esteemed the
salt of the earth-the antseptlc qualities OF whose
virtue and morality alone preserve the land from
general corruption, and prove efectual antdote
against the cancerous ravages of low, vulgar, gro
yelling vice, and lmpudent infidelity. The lecture
going portion of the community for instance, enter
tain most holy horror Of the stage; the player is
piously designated by them the devils servant :"
and were they by accident TO touch the proane
leaves of Shakespeare, we suppose they would deem
a Mosaic publication absolutely necessary. great
proportion OF these audiences, too, Is composed of
young persons of both sexes, easily mlsed by
phistry, and eager to catch with enthusiasm at
tangled notions in philosophy and morals. Such,
them is the general character of the crowds who at
tend these lectures On those then, who reputed
be the recognised guardians of the strictest code
of morals and purestfom of religious faith; and on
the plastic minds of the young and rising genera.
ton, will the effects of these public dscourses be
| exhibited.
And now what is the character of the lectures
| themselves? They may be divided with toerable
accuracy into two great classes-the trashy or alb
soutely worthless, and the poisonous, positively
injurious We except with readiness, from this
classification the few isolated lectures of one or two
really useful men who have appeared in the field
DIR. Nelson, and Jared Sparks for instance; but the
great herd belong or other of the two divisions
have named. BY far the greatest number of the
lectures delivered on scientific subjects come under
| the "trashy" order. They are merely badly COM
piled, improperly arranged, and crudely digested
abrdgements of the published treatises, which could
be procured for little more than the price of single
reticket but which people too lazy to read
and study. Our young masters and misses, and the
| nhI Of lie
very wise in their generation, although they have
not inclination TO acquire Dy laborous and proper e-
fort, knowledge of scientific subjects, yet must OBJ
tain some friendly veil to their ignorance, and
accordingly repair to the popular lecturer who in
most obliging Manner gives them, in course Of six
lectures, at three dollars, (famy ticket five dollars,
and children halfprce)-a highly respectable smat-
| erng of TERMS which enables them to talk quite
earnedy of the circulation othe blood-the nervous
centres-the principles of isomorphous replacement
qualitative anayss-and the origin of the carbon
ferrous strata. To the "traslly' order belong also
the thousand and one twadGng, mawksh oral dis
questions poetry and the poets and the light liter
AZURE of the past or the present day. True, these
eloquent" disconrses often delivered with CON
siderable Evolutionary taste, but their audiences
uniformely, (being human,) remind one of the
lines
..sot creeping, words on words, the sense compose,
| At every line they stretch, they yawn they doze,
| And now to this side, now to that they nod;
| AS verse or prose- infuse the drowsy god!"
But it is the influence and effects of those lectures
which belong to the poisonous" order, which chief
| y claim our attention. If people choose to sit
composedly and listen to mere twaddle, and pay
handsomely for the privilege, why, however little we
can admire their taste esteem their sagacity, we
| ords ~ D,,t
when it is attempted under the guse of liberal and
phiosophic views of the human mind-the prospects
of socety-and the ultimate destiny of our race, to
disseminate principles calculated to sap the very
foundations of morality and religion, and to unhinge
the whole framework of society surely it is time to
discover alarm And in tact nothing more for.
chilly discloses the utter worthlessness of the mere
party political newspapers OF the day, than the uni
form indifference which they manifest with respec,
to the mighty, nos less, revolutions in public thought
and principle, which are going on around them al
ten thousand firesides. What do we see at this mo-
ment in this city-in Boson-in Phadelphi ain
all our large cites aye, even in villages and ham
lets! Can we not trace the progress OF that spirit
mmaterialism, infidel philosophy and laltudineri
anism in religion which were first sown in Boston
by Or. Priestly, and which has gradually in
fused Itself into great and influential class e
of society in this countryl The whole tenden
cies OF the popular lectures delivered at our Ia
bemaces, and Lyceums, and Halls, have been
and are verging rapidly towards Owenism il
political economy-transcen dentalism IN moral phi
losophy-and Unitarisnsm, sceptcism and infdel
ity, in religion. False and distorted views of human
nature and responsibilities are becoming NOR
and more prevalent The old landmarks which
guided our fathers, disappearing from the Devil
dered vision Of our modern philosophers. Instea,
of the healthy impulses which the true moralit,
breathes into the torpid breast Of daily fe,'' thes,
dwelling perpatetics would give us ruling senti
mentalism, fitted only to dssipate the mind. Fo