1851 ADVICE AS TO LECTURING 127 



Then follow his sketch of the English scientific 

 world as he found it in 1851, given in his letter to 

 W. Macleay ; several letters to his sister ; the descrip- 

 tion of his first lecture at the Royal Institution, 

 which, though successful on the whole, was very 

 different in manner and delivery from the clear and 

 even flow of his later style, with the voice not loud 

 but distinct, the utterance never hurried beyond the 

 point of immediate comprehension, but carrying the 

 attention of the audience with it, eager to the end. 

 Two letters of warning and remonstrance against the 

 habits of lecturing in a colloquial tone, suitable to a 

 knot of students gathered round his table, but not 

 to a large audience, of running his words, especially 

 technical terms, together, of pouring out new and 

 unfamiliar matter at breakneck speed, were addressed 

 to him one by a " working man " of his Monday 

 evening audience at Jermyn Street in 1855, the 

 other, undated, by Mr. Jodrell, a frequenter of the 

 Eoyal Institution, and afterwards founder of the 

 Jodrell Lectureships at University College, London, 

 and other benefactions to science, and these he kept 

 by him as a perpetual reminder, labelled "Good 

 Advice." How much can be done by the frank accept- 

 ance of criticism and by careful practice is shown by 

 the difference between the feelings of the later audiences 

 who flocked to his lectures, and those of the members 

 of an Institute in St. John's Wood, who, as he often 

 used to tell, after hearing him in his early days, 

 petitioned " not to have that young man again." 



