The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-15 00:00:00

jected to " the faithful eye." One who should even read a
book straight through without pausing would, unless he
had a most retentive memory, remember at the end next
to nothing of what he had read. What he did remember
would be indistinct and undefined. No one would so read
any book but a novel. Nay, if the novel, like Sir Walter
Scott's, had any more vivid touches of human nature, any
more solid reflection, any beautiful picture of our
beautiful world, any flash of imagination, any his-
torical knowledge, the reader will either pause or go
back to dwell upon it. Cursory reading or hearing does
not sink. The river flows away, and sinks not in ; it fer-
tilises, like the Nile, where it rests. The office of delivery
is toward the feelings rather than the intellect. The living
being, if in earnest, has a power of persuasion over and
above his book, on the very ground that he is seen to be
impressed with what he says : Si vis me flere, dolendum
est Primum ipsi tibi."

Herein lies the difference between oratory
and lecturing for the purpose of instruction.
The two things have nothing in common.
Their very end and object is not the same.
Nor is it merely in want of perceptive power
that the listener to an oral discourse is want-
ing. Memory must also be exercised. Two
distinct mental efforts have to be carried on
at the same time—that of understanding, and
that of retaining. These, as most persons
will feel who have made the experiment, are
well-nigh incompatible. The strain cannot be
upon both organs at once, consequently the
lecture runs no small risk of either beiug un-
intelligible or being forgotten.

3. A lecture is addressed to a large number
of persons gathered together. This is in its
nature. The same exertion, mental and
physical, is required to teach 20 as to teach
200. Consequently the greater the audience
the better economy. But, also, the greater the
audience the wider must be the diversity of
individual minds composing that audience.
How are all to be taught according to their
several capacities? Either the best informed
carry away little or nothing that to them is
new, or the most ignorant find nothing suited
to their comprehension. This holds of a
single lecture. Much more of a course, or
series of lectures. For here, where the know-
ledge acquired is supposed to be progressive,
the rate of progress of all learners will not be
the same. One remembers what he has heard
once ; his neighbour requires at least three
repetitions of the same lesson before it stands
a chance of being retained. What is the
teacher to do? To advance with the most
rapid learner, or wait for the slowest? In
either case time is lost ; either the first is
delayed and disgusted, or his less acute
fellow-pupil is carried on beyond his capacity
to follow.
4. As time is lost in adapting the informa-
tion conveyed to the mind of the least
advanced student, so it is also lost in dwelling
on topics comparatively simple, which, never•
theless, cannot be wholly omitted. In reading,
how rapidly do we pass over what we already
understand ! How remarkable is that mental
intuition which penetrates the sense of a
paragraph of which the words have perhaps
hardly been glanced at ! And, on the other
hand, who that has studied in earnest is not
familiar with the frequent pause—the turning
back to what was read before—the collation
of passage with passage, each throwing li?ht
on the other? Allthese things are in lecturing
impossible.
6 . Between the mental condition of a student
who reads, and of one who only listens, there
is a wide difference. The intellect of the one
is active, that of the other only passive. To
sustain attention where no actual exertion is
called for becomes doubly difficult. A cele-
brated philosopher is reported to have said,
" If I want to understand a subject, I write a
" book about it." And doubtless he was
right. The labour of communicating know-
ledge creates the necessity for acquiring it
thoroughly. He who even reads merely with
a view to his own instruction runs the risk of
reading hastily and superficially. Much more
the mere listener, of whom nothing is required,
except to keep his ears open and his attention
awake.

6. Dr. Pusey argues also against what he
regards as an evil, and one long prevalent in
German teaching—the tendency of a pro.
fessor's or lecturer's pupils to form a school,
adopting his opinions blindly, and shaping
their minds upon hie. The probability of this