56 APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 



purely intellectual value of lectures ; though I ventui e 

 to doubt if more than one in ten of an average 

 audience carries away an accurate notion of what 

 the speaker has been driving at ; yet is that not 

 equally true of the oratory of the hustings, of the 

 House of Commons, and even of the pulpit ? 



Yet the children of this world are wise in their 

 generation ; and both the politician and the priest 

 are justified by results. The living voice has an 

 influence over human action altogether independent 

 of the intellectual worth of that which it utters. 

 Many years ago, I was a guest at a great City 

 dinner. A famous orator, endowed with a voice of 

 rare flexibility and power ; a born actor, ranging 

 with ease through every part, from refined comedy 

 to tragic unction, was called upon to reply to a 

 toast. The orator was a very busy man, a charming 

 conversationalist and by no means despised a good 

 dinner ; and, I imagine, rose without having given 

 a thought to what he was going to say. The 

 rhythmic roll of sound was admirable, the gestures 

 perfect, the earnestness impressive ; nothing was 

 lacking save sense and, occasionally, grammar. 

 When the speaker sat down the applause was 

 terrific and one of my neighbours was especially 

 enthusiastic. So when he had quieted down, I 

 asked him what the orator had said. And he could 

 not tell me. 



That sagacious person John Wesley is reported 

 to have replied to some one who questioned the pro- 

 priety of his adaptation of sacred words to extremely 

 secular airs, that he did not see why the Devil should 

 be left in possession of all the best tunes. And I 

 do not see why science should not turn to account 

 the peculiarities of human nature thus exploited by 

 other agencies : all the more because science, by the 

 nature of its being, cannot desire to stir the passions, 

 or profit by the weaknesses, of human nature. The 

 most zealous of popular lecturers can aim at nothing 

 more than the awakening of a sympathy for abstract 



