The Banned Lecture

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.