Concord, September 14, 1767.
Lectures were not common in the last century. It was not until within fifty or sixty years ago, when Lyceums began to be established, that the lecture system became developed.
We find that in 1769 a Mr. Douglass lectured in Boston, according to an advertisement in the "Chronicle," August 17th.
The well-known Colonel David Mason of the Revolution, who was a prominent figure among the patriots at Leslie's Retreat at the North Bridge in Salem in February, 1775, was one of the earliest, if not the very first, to lecture in Salem upon a scientific subject. In the "Essex Gazette," Jan. 15, 1771, we find his advertisement:—
No longer than next Week, will
Continue to be exhibited, every Evening in which the Air is dry, (Saturday and Sunday excepted)
A Course of Experiments in that inſtructive and entertaining Branch of Natural PHILOSOPHY, called
Electricity,
To be accompanied with Methodical Lectures on the Nature and Properties of that WONDERFUL ELEMENT,
By David Maſon,