New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-09-30


religion without its apostle, 10 speech without
its orator. no batte-sceBe without IT'S spechl
hero, 10 history without its romance sni
moi 7iduslities. Thus the dramatic writer
and the novelist will ever take precedeace
in the affections of the human heart when IL beats
at the age of the passions and is most IN earnest
This alteration of personality accounts, too among
myriads of cognate phenomena for the poisonous
sip-slop in books and magazines about ne'oes'
from MYTHICAL days TO the last squlrm OF poor na'
narit, in its vicious circle, and has caused more
boarding school regrets over Napoleon "chsined
20 that rock 10 ST. Helena, than were ever De-
slowed On the FIVE or ten millions who shrIekei
their sdieus to this world on the CORY ded IN or
der that the one man might be Great.
The success of literary lectures therefore it
| NAV be affirmed is independent in great meas
ure of their matter, and aiistes from the poPu-
lsrity Of the man who delivers them. II Is voted
pleasant TO sit perhaps next some one 10 psrtIeu-
lar. snd bear q welI-intonated discourse by hum
who has explored, Travelled, studied, and delivers
the lecture because he IS proper man for that
calling. All rhetoric against such lectures on
q dolce far nients feeling in considering what is
deep and poble ayails not. Books are multi
piled but students are not multiplied in the sane
proportion. The mass Of people, theic daily
drudgery over wish to be amused, not instructed.
If d little instruction can be smugged into the
amusement. so much the better but, as the
staple, it will not succeed. The lecturer who
personally charms his auditory, or has the dra-
matte element will have the success-not he who
is most instructive or profound. The exceptions
to this rule prove its truth.
The second kind of lecture that demanding
practical illustration or experiment isa more Sc
rious affair. as il includes course, aud cannot be
dispatched in a single hour. Instruction. is or ought
to be thus conveyed but the value of this kind
of lecture is generally oyer-estimated. The extent
of the subject treated the novelty OF the expert
ments 10 the mass Of hearers, the brevity re-
ouired by the occason-these all forbid any great
acquisition by the hearer. To qualify man to
lecture scientifically on any subject requires some
ten years Of study: one great authority, Sir Isaac
Newton, if We remember Alright thought an edu-
Gated man could master fresh science in two years
devoted study-but il must be something not worth
mastering which would surrender on 80 short no.
tice The celebrated old fogy Latin and Greek
Qrammarian James Ross Used tossy. "Ine7er let
''one of MY pupils go TO psge2 until he knows
"page l. aud never leave the Grammar until he
"knows it as well as l do, and do know it,"
Put this Interpretation Of the respective duties
Of master and learner alongside Of the gentle
dlletantism that seeks to belt knowledge at q
course of Lectures!
There is no royal road to mathematics aud
bearing this IA, in mind, We msy estimate the
love of lectures at their true valuation encour-
age them as they ought to BE-, foe they belong to
the bumanities Of association, of public meetings
and public feelings, of seeing, hearing and vel
coming the iustrious stranger, and of now aud
then dropping Il seed in some fruitful soil.
Though lectuTing has been l,tely so extensively
adopted by orr more brilliant and accomplished
men as profession some speaA Off lit were
merely temporary thing Il Whit from fashions.
bic pipe. TO be dissolved into ether at the first
breath of " ind. THIS seems TO us not so; We per-
ceiye on the contrary. no reason why such popular
ecturine il not now established as permanent
institution and why any young gentleman Of
parts may not adopt ii as certain aud honorable
means Of living Capital hits have been made
By clever fellows in it, so much so, that they do
not care to look TO "the learned professions for
funds TO meet their bills and make investments.
And as it pays we may surely expect it's sustenta-
ton, extension and cultivation as an art
The trade of politics, it may be added, is de-
clining in public estimation; the sunlike sPlendors
of Senatorial eloquence, because it IL Senatorial,
are dmmed. and people think more OF themselves
and less of their public servants than they used
to DO; the pulpit too, for some unexplained rea-
SOD, is lees attractive than it formerly was to
Young men OF talent, since the number OF clergy
men is no greater in this country than ten years
ago; the stage though it pays irst-rate wages to
frst.rate workmen, no longer emits the stage
struck epidemic knocking down students and sp-
prentices-postiye science, even in the social re-
latiops Of man to his fellow, having dimmed its
ideslity. The Popular Lecturer, therefore, step,
in to fill upa gap. His rostrum is a halfway
house between the stage and the pulpit: not the
illogical not histrionc, and yet with dash of
sacred authority and Of seductive dramatizaton.
He lie bis own prelatical Pope aud his own thea
trical Shakspere. Such an independent must
flourish under the cerulean blue OF our literary
skies.
Some Of our readers are already aware that a