58 UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL. [LECT. 



" Add and alter many times, 

 Till all be ripe and rotten ; " 



to spend the energies which should be reserved for 

 action, in whitening the decks and polishing the guns. 



The obligation to produce results for the instruc- 

 tion of others, seems to me to be a more effectual check 

 on these tendencies, than even the love of usefulness 

 or the ambition for fame. 



But supposing the Professorial forces of our 

 University to be duly organised, there remains an 

 important question, relating to the teaching power, to 

 be considered. Is the Professorial system the sys- 

 tem, I mean, of teaching in the lecture -room alone, 

 and leaving the student to find his own way when he 

 is outside the lecture -room adequate to the wants 

 of learners ? In answering this question, I confine 

 myself to my own province, and I venture to reply 

 for Physical Science, assuredly and undoubtedly, No. 

 As I have already intimated, practical work in the 

 Laboratory is absolutely indispensable, and that prac- 

 tical work must be guided and superintended by a 

 sufficient staff of Demonstrators, who are for Science 

 what Tutors are for other branches of study. And 

 there must be a good supply of such Demonstrators. 

 I doubt if the practical work of more than twenty 

 students can be properly superintended by one 

 Demonstrator. If we take the working day at six 

 hours, that is less than twenty minutes apiece not a 

 very large allowance of time for helping a dull man, 

 for correcting an inaccurate one, or even for making 

 an intelligent student clearly apprehend what he is 



