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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



regard to party or condition, would 

 probably deem him faithless to his 

 principal duty." 



If such things are done in the 

 green tree of Massachusetts, what 

 may we expect in the drier wood of 

 less happily conditioned States ? The 

 Atlantic Monthly would render a 

 great service if, taking this article of 

 Mr. Lowell's as the first of a series, 

 it would give us a dozen or so of 

 similar studies of other State Legisla- 

 tures. Nothing would more effectu- 

 ally hold up to us a mirror in which 

 to see our true social and political 

 status. Meantime let us first ask how 

 such a condition of political intelli- 

 gence as Mr. Lowell depicts tallies 

 with the vast apparatus we already 

 command, and the vaster we are 

 daily acquiring, for the promotion 

 of higher learning. When do our 

 learned men propose to swoop down 

 from their heights with culture in 

 their wings for the help and inspira- 

 tion of the masses of their country- 

 men ? Or is this a matter which 

 they think may safely be left to the 

 common schools ? 



In this uncertainty as to what the 

 learned classes are going to do for the 

 commonwealth, we sometimes won- 

 der whether it might not be possible 

 to divert advantageously to purposes 

 of popular culture some portion of 

 the wealth which is now finding its 

 way in lavish streams to already 

 well -endowed seats of learning. 

 How the money, if available, could 

 best be applied is an interesting ques- 

 tion as to which we should be glad to 

 receive suggestions from our readers. 

 We have more than once heard re- 

 gret expressed and we share the 

 feeling ourselves at the almost com- 

 plete disappearance of the lecture 

 system which was doing so much 

 useful work a generation ago. The 

 newspaper has superseded the plat- 

 form; and yet the platform, we do 

 not hesitate to say, was a more civil- 



izing force in some respects than the 

 newspaper. For one thing, it "ut- 

 tered nothing base," which is more 

 than can be said for the newspaper. 

 It gave the people high thoughts, in- 

 teresting ideas, pure sentiments, and 

 useful knowledge. It was not occu- 

 pied with idle gossip, or mean per- 

 sonalities, or the criminal side of life. 

 It is not fully replaced even by good 

 books and papers. As Prof. Corson 

 says in his interesting little book on 

 The Aims of Literary Study: "The 

 intellectual coefficient can be appre- 

 hended through silent reading; the 

 main object of vocalization is to ex- 

 hibit the spiritual coefficient, which 

 is indefinite to the intellect, and 

 needs to be vocally rendered as much 

 as a musical composition needs to be 

 vocally or instrumental ly rendered," 

 There was, moreover, a certain social 

 stimulus afforded by the lecture sys- 

 tem which the private reading of 

 even good literature does not supply. 

 We conceive, therefore, that a 

 wealthy man, desiring to benefit the 

 people at large, might with great 

 advantage establish not lectureships 

 but rather readerships. The litera- 

 ture of to-day and of past days con- 

 tains ample material for the instruc- 

 tion and delight of popular audiences 

 if read aloud by a properly trained 

 elocutionist. Our idea would be to 

 have such readings entirely free, ex- 

 cept that local expenses in the way 

 of hall hire, etc., might be met hy 

 the locality; and we should further 

 propose that the reader should in 

 each place that he visited give a 

 course of lessons, also free, in cor- 

 rect reading. For the results which 

 might be expected to accrue from 

 such measures we would refer to the 

 little work by Prof. Corson already 

 mentioned, and to another by the 

 same author entitled The Voice and 

 Spiritual Education. If Prof. Corson 

 is right, culture, no less than faith, 

 comes mainly hy hearing ; and an 



