April 13, 1883.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



217 



LECTURES AKD THE LONDON 



PAPERS. 



By Ricuabd A. Proctor. 



IT is singular bow differently the London papers and 

 those of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, 

 Chicago, St. Louis, St Francisco, Melbourne, Sydney, 

 Adelaide, llobart Town, Dunedin, Christchurch, Auck- 

 land, Wellington, and indeed every considerable place in 

 America and Australia, treat lectures on scientific, 

 artistic, or literary subjects. In America a course of 

 lectures such as I have now nearly completed at St. James's 

 Hall is a familiar matter enough. There would be no 

 reason, on the score of mere novelty, why such a series of 

 lectures should receive special attention. Yet, whether 

 i^iven by an American or by an Englishman, a series of 

 lectures of the kind would be heralded by articles and 

 tiotiios in everj- paper, small and great ; the opening 

 lecture would be attended by representatives of the press 

 prepared to report it in extenso for one paper, at 

 nearly full length for another, here in full abstract, 

 there in condensed abstract, but always well. If the first 

 lecture were satisfactory, and were also (which is else) 

 successful, the attentions of the press would be increased ; 

 and full success would be greatly helped Viy their support 

 In a few days not an intelligent person in the city, in the 

 state, nay, in the length and breadth of the land, would 

 fail to know whether the lectures were good, bad, or in- 

 different, well worth attending, or very much the reverse. 

 In London it is different. Who ever saw lectures on 

 science, art, or literature fully reported in any London 

 paper 1 To a humourist like Artemus Ward or Mark 

 Twain, a third of a column may, as a great concession, be 

 accorded, once now and again. But this is very rarely done. 

 Certainly I am freed in my own case from any risk of 

 attributing the success of my lectures at St James's Plall 

 to press influence. I remember when I gave my first 

 course of lectures at Association Hall, New York, in 1873, 

 I was disposed to consider that with such support as the 

 press gave me, the lectures could not possibly have failed. 

 Kie Secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association 

 filled a quarto scrap-book more than an inch thick with 

 press e.xtracts relating to that course of lectures alone. I 

 wondered whether, if I ever gave another similar course, I 

 should have anything like similar success ; and it was with 

 some misgiving that I consented to give six lectures at 

 Steinway Hall in 187.5. But they were even better 

 attended, and as fully reported and noticed. The 

 experience was repeated at the Chickering Hall in 

 1879. Wherefore, I hold and maintain that the Ame- 

 rican people do not, as many assert, go once to hear 

 and see a man out of curiosity, and then leave him for the 

 next novelty, but give staunch and steady support, — on one 

 sole condition, that a man shall give them his best. The 

 one thing American audiences will not stand, is the 

 attempt to palm off on them anything short of the very best 

 a man can do. A tirst-rate actor or lecturer giving them 

 second-rate work, will have "a worse time" than a fourth- 

 late one by reputation, who, by persevering exertion shall 

 succeed in giving third-rate work. They detect any falling 

 off through carelessness or laziness intuitively, and never 

 mistake for it deficiencies arising from real want of power 

 or capacity. 1 know this well. For, ten years ago there 

 were certainly many marked faults in my lecturing, which 

 I was then striving — but not as yet successfully — to correct. 

 These must have been manifest to many ; but because I 

 was striving to correct them, these faults were forgiven, 

 i and I was encouraged to persevere. 



In London the press gives practically no support at all 

 to lectures on science, art, or literature. Such lectures 

 are so seldom given that one would suppose they would 

 have a certain claim from their novelty to notice from the 

 leading papers. But they never are noticed ; and, as a 

 consequence, they very seldom are successful. I was 

 assured, when I mentioned ray purpose in reference to the 

 series now drawing to a close, that such lectures never 

 could succeed in London, for the press would never notice 

 them. One half of this prophecy has certainly failed ; 

 but the other has been made good, as I knew it would be, 

 having seen how all who have over made a similar experi- 

 ment have been " welcomed " in the metropolis of the 

 world. 



But is it altogether fitting that this should be so 1 Is it 

 likely that the particular form of culture which lectures 

 on science, art, and literature are intended to advance, can 

 be advanced nearly as rapidly in this country as in America 

 and in Australasia, so long as this Philistinism characterises 

 our city press 1 (In the provinces the press is altogether 

 more advanced.) With anything like proper support, the 

 course of lectures now drawing to a close might have led 

 the way to other experiments in the same direction. The 

 London public might have heard Professors Tync'all and 

 Huxley on their subjects. Doctors Carpenter and Richard- 

 son on theirs, besides a number of others well able to in- 

 struct and interest them outside the rooms of Philosophic 

 and Literary Institutions. But under such a system of 

 prets repression as exists who is likely to try the experi- 

 ment, unless (as I chanced to V)c) he is prepared to lose 

 £300 or £-100 over the venture 1 It is true he can 

 advertise freely ; and as it would be mere waste to 

 send course tickets to the press, he may gain some- 

 thing there which in America (where it is not 

 unusual for half-a-dozen tickets to be given to the 

 representatives of a single paper) he would lose. He 

 may also bill the town if he pleases ; and by choosing 

 such a hall as St. James's, he may make sure of 

 reaching with posters and so forth the best of the popu- 

 lation. But the risk of loss is great all the same ; and 

 successful as I have been — by good fortune— in my own 

 venture, I would not care to repeat it in London, nor 

 would I advise others to do so, while our city press Miuits 

 its reports and notices to theatrical and musical entt-rtain- 

 ments. 



It may seem singular that in the midst of a great success 

 — a success which every one seems to consider marvellous 

 (which it may be for London, though in every great city in 

 America or Australasia where I have lectured, a greater 

 success has been much more easily and much more safely 

 achieved) — I should write in a tone not altogether sanguine. 

 But I know from experience how much in these cases depends 

 on press support, in the long run. I have succeeded by good' 

 fortune in this particular case without any press support 

 worth noticing. But I would not care to try the experi- 

 ment again in London, and still less to try what I had pro- 

 posed, and before long hoped to do — viz., to take the risk 

 of inviting other lecturers to address the London public in 

 the same hall and under similar conditions. With a decent 

 amount of press support, the experiment would be safe 

 enough ; as matters actually stand, no one should attempt 

 it who is not ready to risk a few hundreds for the spread 

 of scientific knowledge. 



But press support is the only thing that London needs 

 in the matter. So far as the material for audiences is con- 

 cerned, it is plentiful, and of excellent quality. With 

 the exception of an occasional tendency to talk (always 

 noticed where lectures are a new experience) London 

 audiences are as good as any I have ever addressed. 



