vi.] ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY. 95 



consists of three elements lectures, demonstrations, and exami 

 nations. 



The object of lectures is, in the first place, to awaken the 

 attention and excite the enthusiasm of the student ; and this, I 

 am sure, may be effected to a far greater extent by the oral 

 discourse and by the personal influence of a respected teacher 

 than in any other way. Secondly, lectures have the double use 

 of guiding the student to the salient points of a subject, and at 

 the same time forcing him to attend to the whole of it, and not 

 merely to that part which takes his fancy. And lastly, lectures 

 afford the student the opportunity of seeking explanations of 

 those difficulties which will, and indeed ought to, arise in the 

 course of his studies. 



But for a student to derive the utmost possible value from 

 lectures, several precautions are needful. 



I have a strong impression that the better a discourse is, as an 

 oration, the worse it is as a lecture. The flow of the discourse 

 carries you on without proper attention to its sense ; you drop 

 a word or a phrase, you lose the exact meaning for a moment, 

 and while you strive to recover yourself, the speaker has passed 

 on to something else. 



The practice I have adopted of late years, in lecturing to 

 students, is to condense the substance of the hour s discourse into 

 a few dry propositions, which are read slowly and taken down 

 from dictation; the reading of each being followed by a free 

 commentary, expanding and illustrating the proposition, ex 

 plaining terms, and removing any difficulties that may be 

 attackable in that way, by diagrams made roughly, and seen to 

 grow under the lecturer s hand. In this manner you, at any 

 rate, insure the co-operation of the student to a certain extent. 

 He cannot leave the lecture-room entirely empty if the taking 

 of notes is enforced ; and a student must be preternaturally dull 

 and mechanical, if he can take notes and hear them properly 

 explained, and yet learn nothing. 



What books shall I read ? is a question constantly put by the 

 student to the teacher. My reply usually is, &quot; None : write 



