INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. 767 
your attention to the lecturer, and a corresponding loss 
must ensue. 
Your teachers will, doubtless, from time to time, instead 
of a lecture, give you an examination upon some portion 
of matter upon which they have lectured. Never absent 
yourselves from these examinations. I am rather inclined 
to the opinion that an occasional examination, carefully 
conducted, rivals a lecture as a mode of teaching, and I 
think so because the expectancy of being questioned secures 
the closest attention to the subject under consideration of 
every pupil of the class, because the fact of being ques- 
tioned upon a topic is calculated to make a more lasting 
impression of it upon the memory than a simple descrip- 
tion, and because, knowing that at a future day any por- 
tion of a lecture may be made the subject of any one of 
these examinations, the student, fearing a chance of appearing 
ignorant before his fellows, works with more diligence. The 
absentees from these examinations, gentlemen, are soon 
known by your teachers, and they almost invariably prove to 
be the idlers of the class. 
As another help have recourse to reading. 
“ Books are strange things — although untongued and dumb, 
Yet with eloquence they sway the world ; 
And, powerless and impassive as they seem, 
Move o’er th’ impressible minds and hearts of men. 
Like fire across a prairie. — Mind sparks, 
They star the else-dark firmament ; they spur 
The thoughtless to reflection, raise the prone 
With the strong leverage of intelligence ; 
Furnish the empty-minded, chart the soul 
Through her stern perilous voyage ; pedestal 
The great and gifted, beckoning meaner men 
To gaze upon their mightier works and ways.” 
This and more may be said of books — I wish I could add 
of all books ; but experience teaches us that some are not 
worth the reading, and that others are even worse than this ; 
therefore would I advise you to possess yourselves of a select 
few only for the present, and let these be well recommended 
by your teachers. When sitting down to read, do not strive 
to get over a large quantity of matter ; if you do, what you 
read will not be remembered, because the attention becomes 
unsteady, unfixed, and then wanders away, while the eye 
still travels on over pages which may as well be so much 
blank paper ; your advantage will be far more complete if 
you read less and ponder over it. Never suppose you are 
mastering your subject by reading respecting it the thoughts 
