From this
can follow nothing less than the complete rout of the Germans.
SYLLABUS OF LECTURES.
_I.--A World in Darkness._
The world before newspapers--Unbearable thought--No Street and no Man in
it--Unfortunate position of great Generals of history, ALEXANDER, HANNIBAL,
CAESAR, etc., in lacking support or criticism by military experts--Their
fatal ignorance of public opinion--Serious handicaps in the past--LEONIDAS
never seen at lunch by Mr. Gossip--ALCIBIADES never stimulated by attacks
in Athens journals--No brainy onlooker at defeat of Armada.
_II.--The Growth of the Press._
The birth of a happier era--The first English newspaper--Rapid development
of the new arm--A nation made articulate--Unfortunate quietistic
tendencies: ADDISON, STEELE, JOHNSON--Foreshadowings of the real
thing--Arrival of the real thing--The Fourth Estate--The Tenth Muse--The
Editor as Dictator--The Millennium.
_III.--The Vigilant Correspondent._
The Council of Ten and the Lion's Mouth--Importance of attending to other
people's affairs--True citizenship the improvement of one's
neighbours--Neglect of one's own character a national virtue--Brief sketch
of Paul Pry--Brief sketch of Meddlesome Matty--Keepers of the public
conscience--Human alarm-clocks--Samples of reforms delayed by absence of
letters to the Press--The circulation of the blood--The law of gravity--The
movement of the solar system--Value of iteration and undauntability.
Pages:
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48