GILLES DE RAIS 
 
Long ago when King Brahmadatta reigned in 
Benares, a gentleman whose Christian names were 
Thomas Henry—you may possibly have heard of 
him—he was no less a personage than the Grand-
father of the great Aldous Huxley—once found 
himself threatened by a predicament similar to that 
in which I stand tonight.  He had been asked to 
lecture a distinguished group of people. 
What bothered him was this :  what assumption 
was he to make about the existing knowledge of 
the audience ?  He adopted the sensible course of 
asking the advice of an old hand at the game ;  and 
was told “ You must do one of two things.  You 
may assume that they know everything, or that 
they know nothing.”  Thomas Henry thought it 
over, and decided that he would assume that they 
know nothing. 
I think that merely shows how badly brought 
up he must have been ;  and explains how it was that 
he became a dirty little atheist, and repented on his 
death-bed, and died blaspheming. 
No !  No !  that would be quite impossible bad 
manners.  I shall assume that you know everything 
about Gilles de Rais ;  and that being the case, it 
would evidently be impertinent for me to tell you 
anything about him.  So that we can consider the 
lecture at an end, and (after the usual vote of thanks) 
pass on immediately to the discussion, which I think 
ought to be more amusing, if scarcely as informative.