BLACK. 19 



and thirty-four when his second was added. He lived 

 to nearly fourscore, 



It remains to consider him as a teacher ; and cer- 

 tainly nothing could be more admirable than the man- 

 ner in which for forty years he performed this useful 

 and dignified office. His style of lecturing was as 

 nearly perfect as can well be conceived ; for it had all 

 the simplicity which is so entirely suited to scientific dis- 

 course, while it partook largely of the elegance which 

 characterized all he said or did. The publication of 

 his lectures has conveyed an accurate idea of the 

 purely analytical order in which he deemed it best to 

 handle the subject with a view to instruction, consider- 

 ing this as most likely to draw and to fix the learner's 

 attention, to impress his memory, and to show him 

 both the connection of the theory with the facts, and 

 the steps by which the principles were originally as- 

 certained. The scheme of the lectures may thence be 

 apprehended the execution imperfectly ; for the dic- 

 tion was evidently, in many instances, extemporaneous, 

 the notes before the teacher furnishing him with little 

 more than the substance, especially of those portions 

 which were connected with experiments. But still 

 less can the reader rise from the perusal to any con- 

 ception of the manner. Nothing could be more suited 

 to the occasion ; it was perfect philosophical calmness ; 

 there was no effort ; it was an easy and a graceful con- 

 versation. The voice was low, but perfectly distinct 

 and audible through the whole of a large hall crowded 

 in every part with mutely attentive listeners ; it was 

 never at all forced any more than were the motions of 

 the hands, but it was anything rather than monotonous. 

 Perfect elegance as well as repose was the phrase by 

 which every hearer and spectator naturally, and as if 

 by common consent, described the whole delivery- 

 The accidental circumstance of the great teacher's as- 

 pect, I hope I may be pardoned for stopping to note, 

 while endeavouring to convey the idea of a philosophic 



