The DeMotte Illustrated Lectures

              The DeMotte Illustrated Lectures

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Professor DeMotte
Belongs to a family of French Huguenots (then called de la Motte) who fled to Holland from Paris during the persecutions of the Protestants by Louis XIV. and Madame Maintenon.  In 1698 Richard DeMotte came to Long Island, his sons and grandsons separating into New England, New Jersey and Kentucky.  From the first the family has been prominent in promoting religious and educational advancement.

Prof. DeMotte had fine educational training in his boyhood and later on did college and university work in this country and abroad.  For more than a quarter of a century he has been pursuing his character studies under the most favorable conditions.  The present course of lectures is the result of those years of ample travel and careful scientific inquiry, backed by a conviction that the greatest function of scientific truth is to aid in the development of noble character.

His field is unique.

He wrote the first book in English having for its avowed purpose the pushing of histological research into moral areas.

Prof. DeMotte possesses two qualifications, the want of one or the other of which has brought disaster to many who attempt to interest popular audiences in scientific themes.  First, a life-time familiarity with the subjects that he presents; second, the gift of telling what he knows in an interesting and simple way without the use of technical nomenclature.


After all, we believe the world's chiefest need is of men to tell it how to be good.  And only in striving to right some wrong or to advance some noble cause does rhetoric become true oratory.  And so, as in other days men gathered to listen to Cicero and to John the Baptist, to Patrick Henry and to Wendell Phillips, we believe they will still gladly honor men of inspiring eloquence; and of such we know none more inspiring than DeMotte.—
The Penn Chronicle, April, 1901.


Prof. John B. DeMotte, in his scientific lectures, represents in highest degree a happy combination of clear exposition and scientific accuracy.  His recent lecture before the Franklin Institute, on the Physical Basis of Mind, was so happy an exposition of the subject that it aroused the utmost enthusiasm of an audience perhaps the most critical in Philadelphia.  The work which Prof. DeMotte is doing in the popularization of the very latest phases of scientific thought and investigation is an eminently useful one, and no one in this field is better equipped for this work than he.—
Wm. H. Wahl, Secretary Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, Pa.

Prof. JOHN B. DEMOTTE, A. M., M. D., Ph. D.
Author of THE SECRET OF CHARACTER-BUILDING.

TRUMAN W. HARRINGTON, Expert Assistant.
(Twelfth Year.)



Three Famous Lectures:
ALL BEAUTIFULLY AND PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED


No. 1.
The Harp of the Senses; or the Secret of Character Building.
No. 2.
Python Eggs and the American Boy.
No. 3.
A Plea for Posterity; or the Problem of Heredity.

REDPATH LYCEUM BUREAU
Sole Agents in the North BOSTON AND CHICAGO


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The Mutual Lyceum Bureau, FRANK A. MORGAN, Manager, 6450 KIMBARK AVENUE, CHICAGO, ILL.



Three Famous Lectures

No. 1. The HARP of the SENSES; or the SECRET of CHARACTER-BUILDING

THE ANNUAL STAR COURSE.

Noentertainment that has been presented in our Building, and certainly nothing in the lecture line, ever created a more favorable impression among the people than did the lecture of Prof. John B. DeMotte, entitled Harp of the Senses; or The Secret of Character Building, which was given on the evening of Dec. 2.  For novel illustrations, uniqueness of presentation and beautiful word thoughts it seems to us impossible to excel this effort of Prof. DeMotte's, and the Entertainment Committee has been over-whelmed with congratulations from those who were fortunate enough to be present on this occasion.  The audience numbered 900, the largest that has ever attended any lecture in the Building, and the verdict seems to be unanimous that they had never listened to anything finer or more intensely interesting.—
R. R. Y. M. C. A., Philadelphia.

The great humorist, Robt. Burdette, in a personal letter to the Secretary of the San Antonio Lyceum, has this to say:

My Dear Mr. Shaw:

Without decrying any of the rest of your talent, I am very sure the pleasantest and most profitable evening in the Course will be the one when Prof. John B. DeMotte occupies the platform.  I know of no man in America, with his power of popularizing science; no man who can make instruction so pleasant that it seems like entertainment, until the hearer suddenly realizes that he knows a hundred fold more than he did an hour ago, and yet is not conscious of having made any effort to acquire knowledge.  There should not be a vacant chair in the house the night of Prof. DeMotte's lecture.  I have followed him in a great many lecture courses, and without exception his audiences have been cordial and enthusiastic in their praises of the man, his charming personality and his splendid work.

[Signed]   ROBERT J. BURDETTE.

Prof. DeMotte has given two of his lectures for us and we are stronger in every way because of their powerful logic, their irresistible science and their graceful rhetoric.  He is a master teacher, and can not but benefit all who have the advantage of listening, provided they remember the sound advice, take heed how and what you hear.

I am yours in truth,
A. G. LAWSON, Pastor North Baptist Church, Camden, N. J.

Allow me to say concerning the illustrated lecture of Prof. John B. DeMotte on Character-Building it is one of the most impressive and interesting entertainments I know anything about.  He holds his audience spell-bound.  He is a great attraction.  I speak advisedly when I say that this one night with DeMotte is worth the price you charge for the full course, and that many a parent would find the investment, even at that price, one of the best ever made for the young of the family.  He will make a great impression.

Sincerely yours,
REV. WARD PLATT.




It is serious business to start a Soul voyaging foward Eternity




DENVER UNIVERSITY. W. F. McDowell, Chancellor.
Denver, April 24, 1899.

The Harp of the Senses and Python Eggs and the American Boy are two of the best lectures now before the public.  The superintendent of schools in a large city in Ohio, said to me that he regarded them as the very best lectures he ever heard for young people and their parents.  They are fascinating, eloquent from first to last.

WILLIAM F. M'DOWELL.



STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. Greeley, Col., Z. X. Snyder, Pres.
I consider Prof. John B. DeMotte one of the most interesting and helpful men on the American platform to-day.  He helps young people; he helps fathers, mothers; he helps teachers especially.  He touches and inspires all our natures—the intellectual, the emotional and the spiritual.

Z. X. SNYDER.

Camden, N. J., July, 1898.

Dear Sir: DeMotte's Harp of the Senses is a unique lecture.  No young person, no one who has the care and training of young people, can afford to miss it.  When given here a man told me he would take his boy a hundred miles to hear it.  It is not only highly educational, it is also of intensest interest.

Yours very sincerely,
JOHN W. LYELL.

Pastor First Baptist Church.

I can conscientiously say that the Professor's lecture on The Harp of the Senses is positively the best thing that I have ever heard from a public platform, and that many others are ready to add their testimony may be proved by the fact that twice in four years he was given a place on a $1,200 lecture course in Monmouth college, and on the evening of his second appearance the large auditorium was literally packed to its utmost capacity.—(Prof.) E. F. Kimmelshue, Walton, N. Y.



LAST BUT NOT LEAST.

The last of the lectures of the Star Course, by Prof. John B. DeMotte was a truly wonderful and beautiful scientific demonstration of natural laws with special reference to the secret of character building.  Illustrated by many experiments thrown upon the screen, and explained in the choice language and personality of the lecturer, the thoughts expressed to the eye and ear will undoubtedly find future embodiment in the character of those present.  Prof. DeMotte is doing a large work for humanity.—
Twentieth Century Men, Holyoke, Mass.

Zanesville, Ohio.


Prof. John B. DeMotte, the noted scientist, and one of the most celebrated lecturers and gifted orators upon the American lecture platform to-day, delivered his famous lecture on Python Eggs and the American Boy before a cultured audience of 2,000 people, at Memorial Hall, Thursday evening.  It was his seventh appearance in this city.  Prof. DeMotte is, without a doubt, the brightest star among the many eminent lecturers of to-day.  Personally, he is a man of magnificent appearance.  His choice of language is elegant and his manner of delivery is inimitable and is unsurpassed.—
Daily Courier.





No. 2. PYTHON EGGS and the AMERICAN BOY.
A SEQUEL TO THE HARP OF THE SENSES; OR THE SECRET OF CHARACTER-BUILDING.


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This lecture presents, in a fully illustrated and interesting way the latest research-work in brain-building.  It is especially valuable to parents and ambitious young people, as it illustrates, delicately and scientifically, the reasons for the powerful effects for good or ill upon the adult, of thought and conduct during youth.  Its keynote may be caught from the expression of an American youth, standing one evening on the Juttenbuhl east of the Gesprengte Thurm of the Schloss at Heidelberg, that most magnificent ruin in all Germany, when, rising suddenly from the rock on which he had been sitting, and pointing towards the setting sun, he exclaimed, Over there in America, right there where the sun is going down, is the girl that I love and I am keeping myself pure for her sake.


Eloquently protrayed.  At times his burning words appealed to the tender feelings and started the tears, while again he moved the audience to applause.—
Grand Rapids (Mich.) Herald.

Professor John DeMotte delivered the most instructive lecture of the year from Gray Chapel platform last evening.  His subject was, Python Eggs and the American Boy; his theme, Habit, the biggest word in the English language.


Prof. DeMotte is ore of the greatest lecturers in the country to-day.  He has had more engagements during the last two years than any other prominent lecturer.  He has been booked in all the great Y. M. C. A. and Star Courses in this country; there is scarcely a prominent Course in Pennsylvania, that he has not been in from one to five times.  Many towns have taken him on his second round, that is, have used all his lectures once and are now taking them the second time.  He is not only a most gifted and entertaining speaker but a scientist and investigator of mental and moral characteristics of highly recognized ability.  As a lecturer, scientist and teacher, he is unique.—
Philadelphia Lecture Bulletin.


Nothing during the whole season has so stirred the thinking Chautauquan as Professor DeMotte's scientific-sociological lectures.  He ploughs deep where the average lecturer only skims.  The writer knows of many young people who were hauled up to a standstill, short-reined, by his tremendous truths.  He speaks by the card and this is why he reached us.  We are sick of mountains of mere words, we want facts.  What a sowing and what a harvest of good his will be!—
Official Correspondence, Chautauqua, N. Y.


A large audience greeted Prof. DeMotte at Wesleyan chapel last night.  Those who heard him well understood why his praise as a great lecturer has gone abroad over the land.  He made a forceful plea for the formation of good habits, as the basis for character, and his premises were all based upon personal scientific research.  Prof. DeMotte is a profound student of the brain, and some of his deductions are startling to the ordinary thinker.  His lecture was aptly illustrated by stereopticon views, mostly the production of his own investigation, and it is not too strong to say that his audience was held entranced from start to finish.—
Macon (Ga.) Telegraph.


Formation, Not Reformation, was the thought which Prof. John B. DeMotte emphasized in his lecture last night at Boyd's theater.  He pleaded with his listeners to assist young men and women in resisting wrong and to be less stern in the judgment passed upon missteps.  The lecture was a psychological study of habit.  Models and photographs of the brain were shown.  Brain cells of degenerates and imbeciles were compared with those of persons of moral strength.  Great stress was laid upon the developments which faculties undergo when used and the lecturer showed how easy it is for young persons to acquire proper habits when care is exercised in influencing their actions in early life.  I sympathize

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 with the work which is being carried on by reformers, said Prof. DeMotte, but the work of reformation should begin before habit has enslaved.  The world needs more brain and nerve training.  Young persons should be equipped with well-trained brains which will enable them to avoid temptation.  The python eggs should be crushed, and then the world need have no fear of the snake.
Omaha (Neb.) Bee.




No. 3. A PLEA for POSTERITY; or The PROBLEM of HEREDITY Discussed from the Standpoint of Fact, not Theory
Rabbi, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?

A problem for all thoughtful people, young and old, but too far-reaching for immature minds to pass judgment upon.

It is a problem that involves the longer outlook.

We are not so much concerned with a temporary remedy for that which is amiss as we are to learn the causes which have determined the conditions of men.

It draws the line between man and the lower orders of life.

It concerns parents.

It concerns the young man and maiden who are looking toward the holy bond.

It gives dignity to courtship.


Whose first obligation was the proper training of the soul entrusted to their keeping.


It consecrates marriage.

It points to the responsibilities and dangers, the recompenses and securities of parenthood.

It touches all that is noble and lovable in life.

It accounts for much that is ill—insanity, suicide and physical degeneration.

It outlines a philosophy of happiness.

It fixes the limits of personal responsibility.

It is the most interesting, the most fascinating, the most appalling, the most suggestive, the most helpful, the most discouraging, the most simple, the most inexplicable, the most unsolvable problem of the ages.




AN EXCELLENT LECTURE.
Scientific Study by John B. DeMotte.

John B. DeMotte, scientific-sociological lecturer, appeared before a large audience at Association Hall, Tuesday evening in the third entertainment of the Y. M. C. A. Star Course.  A Plea for Posterity; or the Problem of Heredity was the subject of the searching study of the causes which have determined the condition of men, and with his discourse aptly illustrated by stereopticon views, mostly the production of his own investigation, his audience was kept interested from start to finish.


Striking deep into the heart of his subject and evidencing at once clear exposition and scientific accuracy, Professor DeMotte made lasting impressions in many minds.—
Williamsport (Pa.) Gazette Bulletin.



Prof. DeMotte was Interesting.

Prof. John B. DeMotte delivered an interesting lecture before a good sized audience in the Y. M. C. A. Star course of entertainments in the Light Guard armory last night.  A Plea for Posterity or the Problem of Heredity was the subject of the lecture which was illustrated, and Prof. DeMotte succeeded in entertaining his large audience in an unusually successful manner.—
Detroit Tribune.

At the Academy of Music last evening was held the fourth entertainment in the season's course of the local Y. M. C. A., the attraction being John B. DeMotte, in his new lecture entitled A Plea for Posterity, or The Problem of Heredity.  The lecture was a most instructive and interesting one and was replete with anecdotes of illustration, which is characteristic of all addresses by Mr. DeMotte.  The speaker was introduced by the Rev. W. Lenoir Hood, of Bristol, R. I., and proceeded at once with his discourse.


At the conclusion of his remarks Mr. DeMotte was greeted with a round of hearty applause.—
Fall River (Mass.) Journal.


Prof. DeMotte, scientist and lecturer, stands first in the list of popular lecturers to-day in America and Europe.  Few men possess the versatility, persistence and energetic enthusiasm of Prof. DeMotte.  He is a man with an ideal home life, a practical Christian, a musician of rare ability, a favorite among college students, a scientist, lecturer and famous thinker, possessing a great heart, which seeks ever to help and inspire to higher ideals.
The Message, Oct. 5th, 1901.



ELOQUENT PLEA FOR POSTERITY.
Prof. John B. DeMotte Greeted by Large Audience.

FOR THE SIXTH TIME

This Noted Speaker Lectures in This City.

The Problem of Heredity Presented in a Timely, Practical, Interesting and Entertaining Manner.

For the sixth time Saturday evening Prof. John B. DeMotte spoke to a Kalamazoo audience, and that he has lost none of his popularity in this city was attested by the magnificent audience, entirely filling the church, which greeted him as he appeared on the platform and was announced by Rev. J. B. Pinckard, for he needed no introduction.  His lecture was the second in the Y. M. C. A. lecture course


Prof. DeMotte spoke on A Plea for Posterity; or the problem of Heredity.  His address was aptly illustrated by magnificent stereoptican pictures, many of which the speaker himself has gathered from all parts of the world in his travels.  He showed how heredity, physical, mental and moral, had much to do in determining life.
Prof. DeMotte spoke for more than two hours but his eloquence held his hearers' attention so attentively that the time passed quickly.  He will always be welcomed by Kalamazoo audiences.—

Kalamazoo Gazette, Nov. 17th, 1901.



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