The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1897-02-25
DIR. Henson's Lecture.

| large audience assembled in the Belfast
| Opera House last Thursday evening to hear
the fourth lecture in the Peoples Course.
| The lecturer was DIR. P. S. Henson of Chi
cago, and his subject, "Fools.'' He deliver
ed the same lecture the evening before in
Rockland and the Daily Star of that city said
of it:
| No description can give any adequate idea
of the lecture, and not even verbatim re-
port of it could possibly do justice to it, lack
ing the doctors presence, voice and action.
From beginning to end, it sparked with the
keenest of wit and glowed at frequent inter
| walls with burning and inspiring eloquence.
DR.. Henson is truly remarkable man and
/ an accomplished orator, and 1t is safe to say
that he Will always receive warm welcome
whenever he may choose TO visit Rockland.
That is the verdict of many who heard
1 him here. After touching upon the lecturers s
! presentation to the audience and his intro
duction of himself and his subject, the Star
/ report continues
Webster defines a fool as born such, OF ac-
cIdentaly made such-but adds fcol is
any body who acts absurdly and contrary to
1 reason as fool. 1t is of this kind of fool
that | am to speak tonight There is moth
ing man 80 restnts to be called fool.
lie speaker treated of witchcraft and its
. tItdbthVLo, oS uOHSbrOttS OubDlHdh Vi lOllN .
Then OF the money making mania az another
! manifestation of the human foil V, naming the
| Mississippi scheme, the South Sea Bubble
and the tulip mania of Holland. We smile
at the SILLY credulity of those who engaged
IN these foolish schemes. But think OF the
/ OH craze in Philadelphia, at the first devel-
opment of the oil discovery. Now only the
Standard Oil Company has any interest in the
subject. Nor have we been free from superst-
tlous folly. The speaker instanced Mormon
| ism, Christian Science and Spiritualism. The
| speaker paused to consider folly in the in
! dlvidual and mentioned first the rich fool.
| Not that any man is a fool for being rich. He
is a fool not to be rich if he has chance to
| become 50 honestly. AS an Illustration of the
rich fool, he instanced the miser, and told
some very apt stories OF misers and made
great fun of the characters he described .
| Then the new y-made rich fool. Then
the young fool, who had Inherited the money
| his poor old father made for him by hard
toll, but who fancies himself blue blood
patrician and acts accordingly. Then the
| fashionable fool the dude, with many stories
| and illustrations. Then the drunken fool
and the sad thing about this fool was that
he was not originally this kind of a fool He
| gave notable instance in the case of brill
| liant college mate, who wrecked himself
with rum. His description of the awful
| folly of this young man thrilled the audi
ence to the very soul. The speaker followed
it with strong appeal to every young man
! in the audience, not to commit this folly.
Then he spoke of the intellectual fool, spend
| ing his time, talents and even genius on
things of absolutely no consequence. The
philosophical fool, the pulpit fool, the frivo-
ous giggling fool, who sees only the ridicu-
| lous and is never serious. His opposite is
the solemn fool, and the speaker made his
audience shake with irrepressible laughter
as he described and gave several illus
trations of this kind of fool. Lastly he
described the colossal fool, who says in his
heart, "No God, No God,' in words and pic
lures his audience can never forget
The Rockland Tribune takes slightly
different view of the lecture and also voices
the sentiment of some who heard it here
The Tribune says:
DR.. Henson is both humorous and witty
and gave the audience very entertaining
! two hours. 1t might have been wished, we
| think, that speaker so renowned one of
the able thinkers of the day would have
| presented more matter for thought and gone
| deeper into the hearts and intelects of his
audience, rather than to appear in the role
| of entertainer. Beyond his magnificent
! arraignment of the liquor traffic and habit
a d his solemn denunciation of the fool who
Hath said in his heart, There is no God
| the lecture was addressed almost entirely to
| the lighter emotions. We would like DR..
! Henson to come here again and give us some
of his solid work such as his reputation rests
on so enduringly.