diffusion of useful knowledge is
regarded as a paramount duty of the state. The same crowded assemblies
were collected, for a long succession of nights, in the largest theaters
of each of the southern and western cities; in the Charleston Theater;
the Mobile Theater; the St. Charles Theater, New Orleans; the Vicksburg
and Jackson Theaters, Mississippi; the St. Louis Theater, Missouri; and
in the theaters of Cincinnati, Pittsburg, and other western and central
cities.

"It can not be denied that such facts are symptomatic of a very
remarkable condition of the public mind, more especially among a people
who are admitted to be, more than any other nation, engrossed by
money-getting and by the more material pursuits of life. The less
pretension to eloquence and the attractive graces of oratory the
lecturer can offer, the more surprising is the result, and the more
creditable to the intelligence of the American people. It is certain
that a similar intellectual entertainment, clogged, as it necessarily
was, with a pecuniary condition of admission, would fail to attract an
audience even in the most polished and enlightened cities of Europe."

While these statements are highly creditable to the American people,
the lectures themselves contain paragraphs which show that the popular
mind even in our own country is not sufficiently enlightened to
eradicate the superstitions just considered.

THE MOON AND THE WEATHER.--Dr. Lardner, in a lecture on the moon, in
answer to the question, Does the moon influence the weather? says,[36]
It is asserted, first, that at the epochs of new and full moon, and at
the quarters, there is generally a change of weather; and, secondly,
that the phases of the moon, or, in other words, the relative position
of the moon and sun in regard to the earth, is the cause of these
changes. Now these and kindred opinions are very extensively held in
this country. But the doctor refers to meteorological tables,
constructed in various countries after the most extensive and careful
observation, and the result is that no correspondence exists between the
condition of the weather and the phases of the moon. He hence, after a
full examination, comes to the conclusion that "_the condition of the
weather as to change, or in any other respect, has, as a matter of fact,
no correspondence whatever with the lunar phases_."

[36] See Lectures on Science and Art, vol. i., p. 315.

In another lecture on the moon an