That Practice Of Lecturing Is "Quite An Institution" In The States.
So It Is In England, My Readers Will Say.
But in England it is
done in a different way, with a different object, and with much
less of result.
With us, if I am not mistaken, lectures are mostly
given gratuitously by the lecturer. They are got up here and there
with some philanthropical object, and in the hope that an hour at
the disposal of young men and women may be rescued from idleness.
The subjects chosen are social, literary, philanthropic, romantic,
geographical, scientific, religious - anything rather than
political. The lecture-rooms are not usually filled to
overflowing, and there is often a question whether the real good
achieved is worth the trouble taken. The most popular lectures are
given by big people, whose presence is likely to be attractive; and
the whole thing, I fear we must confess, is not pre-eminently
successful. In the Northern States of America the matter stands on
a very different footing. Lectures there are more popular than
either theaters or concerts. Enormous halls are built for them.
Tickets for long courses are taken with avidity. Very large sums
are paid to popular lecturers, so that the profession is lucrative -
more so, I am given to understand, than is the cognate profession
of literature. The whole thing is done in great style. Music is
introduced. The lecturer stands on a large raised platform, on
which sit around him the bald and hoary-headed and superlatively
wise.
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