far as any appreciably
practical benefit is concerned, do not need to go. It is only when some
eminent enthusiast in these walks of learning consents to address them
that they come out, and then it is rather to place themselves under the
influence of his personality than to acquire the knowledge which he
dispenses. Facts, if they are identified in any special way with the
experience and life of the lecturer, are always acceptable; but facts
which are recorded in books find a poor market in the popular
lecture-room. Thus, while purely historical and scientific lectures are
entirely neglected, narratives of personal travel, which, combine much
of historical and scientific interest, have been quite popular, and,
indeed, have been the specialties of more than one of the most popular
of American lecturers, whose names will be suggested at once by this
statement.

Twenty years ago the first popular lectures on anatomy and physiology
were given, and a corps of lecturers came up and swept over the whole
country, with much of interest and instruction to the people and no
small profit to themselves. These lectures called the attention of
educators to these sciences. Text-books for schools and colleges were
prepared, and anatomy and physiology became common studies for the
young. In various ways, through school-books and magazines and
newspapers, there has accumulated a stock of popular knowledge of these
sciences, and an apprehension of the limit of their practical
usefulness, which have quite destroyed the demand for lectures upon
them. Though a new generation has risen since the lecture on anatomy and
physiology was the rage, no leaner field could possibly be found than
that which the country now presents to the popular lecturer on these
sciences. These facts are interesting in themselves, and they serve to
illustrate the truth of that which has been stated touching lectures
upon general historical and scientific subjects.

For facts alone the modern American public does not go hungry. American
life is crowded with facts, to which the newspaper gives daily record
and diffusion. Ideas, motives, thoughts, these are always in demand. Men
wish for nothing more than to know how to classify their facts, what to
do with them, how to govern them, and how far to be governed by them;
and the man who takes the facts with which the popular life has come
into contact and association, and draws from them their nutritive and
motive power, a