a a ae 
Oct. 
obstruct the lecturer. 
23, 1873] 
NATURE 
525 
eminent degree to the illustration and perfection of a 
lecture. When an experimental lecture is to be delivered, 
and apparatus is to be exhibited, some kind of order 
should be observed in the arrangement of them on the lec- 
ture table. Every particular part illustrative of the lecture 
should be in view, no one thing should hide another from 
the audience, nor should anything stand in the way of or 
They should be so placed, too, as 
to produce a kind of uniformity in appearance. No one 
_ part should appear naked and another crowded, unless 
some particular reason exists and makes it necessary to be 
so. At the same time, the whole should be so arranged 
as to keep one operation from interfering with another. 
If the lecture-table appears crowded, if the lecturer (hid 
by his apparatus) is invisible, if things appear crooked, or 
aside, or unequal, or if some are out of sight, and this 
without any particular reason, the lecturer is considered 
(and with reason too) as an awkward contriver and a 
bungler. 
“The most prominent requisite to a lecturer, though 
perhaps not really the most important, is a good delivery ; 
for though to all true philosophers science and rature 
will have charms innumerable in every dress, yet am 
sorry to say that the generality of mankind cannot accom- 
pany us one short hour unless the path is strewed with 
flowers. In order, therefore, to gain the attention of an 
audience (and what can be more disagreeable to a lec- 
turer than the want of it ?), it is necessary to pay some 
attention to the manner of expression. The utterance 
should not be rapid and hurried, and consequently unin- 
telligible, but slow and deliberate, conveying ideas with 
ease from the lecturer, and infusing them with clearness 
and readiness into the minds of the audience. A lecturer 
should endeavour by all means to obtain a facility of 
utterance, and the power of clothing his thoughts and 
ideas in language smooth and harmonious, and at the 
same time simple and easy. His periods should be round, 
not too long or unequal; they should be complete and 
expressive, conveying clearly the whole of the ideas in- 
tended to be conveyed. If they are long, or obscure, or 
incomplete, they give rise toa degree of labour in the 
minds of the hearers which quickly causes lassitude, in- 
difference, and even disgust. 
“With respect to the action of the lecturer, it is requi- 
site that he should have some, though it does not here 
bear the importance that it does in other branches of 
oratory ; for though I know of no species of delivery 
(divinity excepted) that requires less motion, yet I would 
by no means have a lecturer glued to the table or screwed 
on the floor. He must by all means appear as a body 
distinct and separate from the things around him, and 
must have some motion apart from that which they 
possess. 
“A lecturer should appear easy and collected, un- 
daunted and unconcerned, his thoughts about him, and 
his mind clear and free for the contemplation and descrip- 
tion of his subject. His action should not be hasty and 
violent, but slow, easy, and natural, consisting principally 
in changes of the posture of the body, in order to avoid 
the air of stiffness or sameness that would otherwise be 
unavoidable. Azs whole behaviour should evince respect 
for his audience, and he should in no case forget that he 
is in their presence. No accident that does not interfere 
with their convenience should disturb his serenity, or 
cause variation in his behaviour; he should never, if 
possible, turn his back on them, but should give them full 
reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for 
their pleasure and instruction. 
“Some lecturers choose to express their thoughts 
extemporaneously immediately as they occur to the mind, 
whilst others previously arrange them, and draw them 
forth on paper. Those who are of the first description are 
certainly more unengaged, and more at liberty to attend 
to other points of delivery than their pages ; but as 
every person on whom the duty falls is not cqually compe- 
tent for the prompt clothing and utterance of his matter, 
it becomes necessary that the second method should be 
resorted to. This mode, too, has its advantages, inas- 
much as more time is allowed for the arrangement of the 
subject, and more attention can be paid to the neatness 
of expression. 
“But although I allow a lecturer to write out his 
matter, I do not approve of his reading it ; at least, not 
as he would a quotation or extract. He should deliver it 
in a ready and free manner, referring to his book merely 
as he would to copious notes, and not confining his tongue 
to the exact path there delineated, but digress as circum- 
stances may demand or localities allow. 
“ A lecturer should exert his utmost effort to gain com- 
pletely the mind and attention of his audience, and 
irresistibly to make them join in his ideas to the end of 
the subject. He should endeavour to raise their interest 
at the commencement of the lecture, and by a series of 
imperceptible gradations, unnoticed by the company, keep 
it alive as long as the subject demands it. 
digressions foreign to the purpose should have a place in 
the circumstances of the evening ; no opportunity should 
be allowed to the audience in which their minds could 
wander from the subject, or return to inattention and 
carelessness. A flame should be lighted at the commence- 
ment, and kept alive with unremitting splendour to the 
end. For this reason I very much disapprove of breaks 
in a lecture, and where they can by any means be avoided, 
they should on no account find place. If it is unavoidably 
necessary, to complete the arrangement of some experi- 
ment, or for other reasons, leave some experiments in a 
state of progression, or state some peculiar circumstance, 
to employ as much as possible the minds of the 
audience during the unoccupied space—but, if possible, 
avoid it. 
“Digressions and wanderings produce more or less 
the bad effects of a complete break or delay in a lecture, 
and should therefore never be allowed except in very 
peculiar circumstances ; they take the audience from the 
main subject, and you then have the labour of bringing 
them back again (if possible). 
“ For the same reason (namely that the audience should 
not grow tired), I disapprove of long lectures ; one hour 
is long enough for anyone, nor should they be allowed to 
exceed that time. 
“A lecturer falls deeply beneath the dignity of his 
character when he descends so low as to angle for claps, 
and asks for commendation. Yet have I seen a lecturer 
even at this point. Ihave heard him causelessly condemn 
his own powers. I have heard him dwell for a length of 
time on the extreme care and niceness that the experi- 
ment he will make requires. I have heard him hope for 
indulgence when no indulgence was wanted, and I have 
even heard him declare that the experiment now made 
cannot fail from its beauty, its correctness, and its appli- 
cation, to gain the approbation of all. Yet surely such 
an error in the character of a lecturer cannot require 
pointing out, even to those who resort to it ; its impro- 
priety must be evident, and I should perhaps have done 
well to pass it. 
“ Before, however, I quite leave this part of my subject, 
I would wish to notice a point in some manner con- 
nected with it. In lectures, and more particularly experi- 
mental ones, it will at times happen that accidents or 
other incommoding circumstances take place. On these 
occasions an apology is sometimes necessary but not 
always, I would wish apologies to be made as seldom 
as possible, and generally, only when the inconvenience 
extends to the company. I have several times seen the 
attention of by far the greater part of the audience called 
to an error by the apology that followed it. 
“ An experimental lecturer should attend very carefully 
to the choice he may make of experiments for the illus 
No breaks or | 
