14 



PREFACE. 



attractive graces of oratory the lecturer can offer, the more 

 surprising is the result, and the more creditable to the intelli- 

 gence of the American people. It is certain that a similar in- 

 tellectual entertainment, clogged, as it necessarily was, with 

 a pecuniary condition of admission, would fail to attract an 

 audience even in the most polished and enlightened cities of 

 Europe. 



It is proper to state here, that the lectures as orally given 

 though similar in substance with those which appear in the 

 present volumes, differed considerably in form and expression 

 This must necessarily be the case. The oral discourses were 

 strictly extemporaneous, in the only sense in which didactic 

 discourses ever are so. They were delivered from the stage 

 of the theatre without reference to any written notes or mem- 

 oranda. The general outline of the subject, the leading argu- 

 ments, and the most important illustrations and examples, 

 alone were previously registered in the memory of the \ 

 speaker. The language in which these were clothed, and the 

 more minute details of the subjects, arguments, examples, 

 and illustrations, were left to the suggestion and inspiration 

 of the moment. Nor was this course adopted merely to save 

 labor, or from any necessity arising from the over-pressure of 

 business. It was pursued because it was found, from lono 

 practical experience in public lectures, to be the best. The 

 style of the speaker is more animated than it could be when 

 the discourse is uttered verbally from memory. The mastery 

 which he has, or ought to have, over his subject, and the rich 

 and various stores of illustration on which he draws, enables 

 him to adapt his mode of reasoning and style of illustration 

 to the varying character and capacity of his audience, and 

 hence it will happen often that the same lecture, delivered on 

 two different occasions and to two different audiences, will bt 



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