of the best
that has been written, it is safe to conclude that, except for special
reasons, he cannot spare time or energy for books of second or third
rate.

Of course, in the beginning it is usually better to approach the great
masters through some well informed, popularizing disciple. A beginner in
biological evolution would do well to approach Darwin through Huxley's
essays and John Spargo has been kind enough to say that Marx should be
approached through the various volumes of my published lectures.

The lecturer must be familiar with the very best; he must plunge to the
greatest depths and rise to the topmost heights.

CHAPTER VIII

SUBJECT

A great lecture must have a great theme. One of the supreme tests of a
lecturer's judgment presents itself when he is called upon to choose his
subject. Look over the list of subjects on the syllabus of any speaker
and the man stands revealed. His previous intellectual training, or lack
of it, what he considers important, his general mental attitude, the
extent of his information and many other things can be predicated from
his selection of topics.

Early in his career the lecturer is obliged to face this question, and
his future success hinges very largely on his decision. Not only is the
selection determined by his past reading, but it in turn largely
determines his future study.

Not long ago a promising young speaker loomed up, but he made a fatal
mistake at the very outset. He selected as his special subject a
question in which few are interested, except corporation lawyers--the
American constitution.

The greatest intellectual achievements of the last fifty years center
around the progress of the natural sciences. Those greatest of all
problems for the human race, "whence, whither, wherefore," have found
all that we really know of their solution in the discoveries of physics
and biology during recent times. What Charles Darwin said about "The
Origin of Species" is ten thousand times more important than what some
pettifogging lawyer said about "States' Rights." The revelations of the
cellular composition of animals by Schwan and plants by Schleiden mark
greater steps in human progress than any or all of the decisions of the
supreme court. Lavoisier, the discoverer of the permanence of matter and
the founder of modern chemistry, will be remembered when everybody has
forgotten that Judge Marshall and Daniel Webster ever lived. From these
and other epoch-