The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-10-05

OF the lave wing party TWO new OrganZau )nS
have sprung into Ii e; and (each upon totally
Off, rent plst'orm,) William Il. Seward and
John NJ. Clay ton are in the field.
THE LECTURE SEAs0N-The season is now
at hand when peripatetic humbug In the
person of the ineran lecturer makes
its periodical visitations to the towns aud
villages Of the Union, diffusing borrowed lights
and plagiarised rhetoric in ex bange for the
more sterling metal Of it's gaping dupes. The
literary pretenders who make out Of the small
capital required for this calling o profitable
livelihood differ but little from the thimble-
regers and profess ORB Of legerdemain who
figure on the improvised platforms of country
fairs, except, perhaps, that the latter are the
smartest fellows of the two, and require for
their avocations q combination Of talents that
we vainly look for in the dull pedlars of the
fruits Of other mems brains. In the hypocriti-
cal aspirations after moral excellence, which
form the prevailing characteristic Of the present
age and which but too frequently serve as con-
venjent cloak for profigacy and rascality, the
witty and ingenious saltimbanque is gradually
giving place to the prosy retailer of ethical pla-
titudes. whose influence upon his auditors is but
too generally that Of the poppy and mandra-
CORA. The more is the pity. We have neither
grown wiser nor more moral by the exchange
The truth is, we are losing all our gayety and
sense of enjoyment without approaching any
nearer to our ideal.
How could it well be otherwise? The cen
tury in which we live may be said to be en-
phatically one of false gods and false prophets.
We are fast losing sight Of the pure and simple
doctrines taught by Christia,ity-adap rs
they are to the conditions of our being-in
or6er to strain after perfectability which our
nature will not admit Of We abandon the
practical and the possible for the widest
distractions that the perversion of the human
intellect can suggest, and we glorify ourselves
upon the fancied progress which society is
making. When we come, however, to analysc
the results, we are compelled to ackno wledge
the humilating truth that our fathers sons are
but little more advanced in the scale Of social
perfection than their progenitors.
1t is this straining after the visionary and
unreal which throws SO many quacks and pre-
tenders to the surface Of society. 1t is this
admiration Of new theories and new systems OF
philosophy, tending rather to create fresh delu-
sions than to destroy the old ones, that renders
the masses such ready victims to itinerant
literary charlatans, who, whilst pretending to
instruct and enlighten them, are only in fact
leading them into more grieyous errors. We
have Away looked upon the lecture system,
as at present practised, as q means of profess
sional livelihood, with distrust and suspi-
cion. The men who pursue it are, in general,
but imperfectly educated for their task,
and are animated rather by thirst for
gain than the love of truth. 1t is in the
very eccentricity and extravaganza of their
ideas, rather than in conscientious
endeavor to guide the minds Of iheir hearers
to practical and Christian-like aims, that they
hope to reap rich harvest from their labors.
Their mission Is, therefore, evil in its fruits,
however innocent it may be in its intentions.
To the efforts of such men may be attributed
most Of the pernicious and dangerous social
errors that have led to SO many divisions anC
heartburniDgs in the bosoms of families, that
have induced women to abandon the sacred
duties of home in order to parade themse. I
unblushingly upon the platforms Of public con
troversy, and that have engendcred discord and
bloodshed wherever the seed of their religious
or political fallacies has been sovn.
With these opinions, it is not to be wondered
at that we should regard the profession Of the
itiperant lecturer with but little favor, and
that we should take every opportunity of en-
deavoring to neutralise the influence which he
is gradually obtaining over tho masses AS
long as the instruction sought to be diilused
through this medium is dispensed by class of
men--themselves but imperfectly informed,
and but in too many instances animated by
purely mercenary iDAuences-we cannot view
their labors in any other light than as mis-
chievous interference with those legitimate in
struments of progress which seek rather to ele-
vate and strengthen than to dazzle and confuse
the mind.
GEN. WAIBRIDGE's DEcLNATIoN.--It will az.
pear from the following card that Gen. Wal.
bridge positively declines again being candi-
date for Congress =
TO TIE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN ELECr0Rs or THE
THIRD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT.
Friends and fellow citiaena-business engagements Of
priya char acter render it imperative not to al
low the use OF my name % candidate In the approach
ing political canvass. Grateful to you for past and re
pta,ed hindnesses, In the walks OF private life shah
still endeavor TO advance the honor and interests Of that
great republican party to which all attached aud
whose continued preservation is identical with the