EDITOR'S TABLE. 



499 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



TYNDALL'S LECTURES IN NEW YORK. 



PROF. TYND ALL'S course of lec- 

 tures in New York has met with 

 a success that is commensurate with the 

 reputation of the lecturer, and the in- 

 terest of the suhject which he selected 

 for popular elucidation. One of the 

 largest halls in the city has been densely 

 crowded throughout the course of six 

 lectures by the most cultivated and in- 

 telligent people of New York and the 

 adjacent towns, and he has been lis- 

 tened to with close and absorbing atten- 

 tion throughout. The first lecture tests 

 a man's reputation, and its degree of 

 success is a measure of the desire to 

 see as well as to hear him. As a re- 

 salt, the first performance often dissi- 

 pates a reputation. The second lecture 

 tests character and capacity, and an 

 extended course applies the test still 

 more rigorously. Had Prof. Tyndall 

 given but a single lecture, however 

 large may have been his audience, it 

 might have been considered as gathered 

 by curiosity ; but when a vast audito- 

 rium, like that of the Cooper Institute, 

 is packed to the last by the ablest men 

 in all the professions science, law, 

 medicine, divinity, and education 

 with many of our strongest and shrewd- 

 est men of business, and a large pro- 

 portion of our most cultivated ladies, 

 the verdict is unequivocal and assured, 

 and the highest compliment possible 

 is paid to the genius and power of the 

 'teacher. No such assemblages as have 

 greeted Prof. Tyndall, and followed 

 him with sustained enthusiasm through 

 his course, have ever before been gath- 

 ered in New York. 



But one interpretation can be given 

 to this success, and that is the growing 

 interest in matters of science, and the 

 increasing appreciation of ability in its 

 expounders. If it be said that the au- 



ditors were in search of mere pleasura- 

 ble excitement, it comes to the same 

 thing, for the pleasurable excitement 

 is derived from a prolonged scientific 

 demonstration. Something was due to 

 the attractiveness of the experiments, 

 and much to the felicity of the profess- 

 or's manner, but there were abundant 

 and gratifying indications of an ear- 

 nest desire to comprehend the argu- 

 ment, and get a thorough understand- 

 ing of the phenomena presented. The 

 strength of this feeling has been put 

 to a significant test in the present case. 

 Just before sailing, Prof. Tyndall had 

 exposed himself to the reprobation of a 

 large class of the community by con- 

 senting to introduce to the public Dr. 

 Thompson's paper proposing the so- 

 called prayer-gauge. He thus became 

 an object of bitter attack from religious 

 quarters, and so considerable was the 

 feeling aroused that it was said by 

 many the step he had taken would 

 cost him his American audiences. But 

 the strength of public prejudice was 

 over-estimated, and the progress of 

 liberal feeling forgotten. Twenty-five 

 years ago it would have been different ; 

 but such has been the conquest of pre- 

 judice, and the enlargement of ideas, 

 that Prof. Tyndall's lecture-rooms, in 

 all the cities where he has spoken, 

 have been filled to overflowing with 

 those who are prepared to accept sci- 

 ence on its own merits, without mixing 

 up with it questions of theology. 



Another circumstance deserves men- 

 tion in relation to the success of Prof. 

 Tyndall's lectures in New York. His 

 audience came together upon the bare 

 announcement that he would give them 

 a course of lectures. There were nono 

 of the usual trumpetings of mana- 

 gers puffs, placards, show-bills, por- 

 traits in the windows, staring sensa- 



