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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
Therefore, soldiers who have mastered a subject spoken of in a lecture 
should be encouraged to explain to those who do not understand it.* 
To ATTAIN THE THIRD OBJECT. 
Information should be presented, as already remarked, in a manner 
easy to remember. 
Questioning will recall facts to the minds of the men, and so prevent 
their forgetting what -they have learnt. In his annotations on Bacon' 5 s 
essay of “'Study,” Archbishop Whately remarks on the words “conference 
(maketh) a ready man,” that “what is properly to be called instructive 
questioning,” (distinct from questions of examination) “is employed by 
all who deserve to be reckoned good teachers.” 
If the men practically carry outf as far as possible what they have 
been taught, there is less chance of their forgetting it than if they are 
only spoken to on the subject. For instance, a man may be told how to 
make a spar bridge, but unless he actually constructs one he is not likely 
to remember much about it. In fact, in learning, the men must employ 
their tongues and hands as well as their ears and eyes. 
In India, all artillerymen are ordered to be instructed for 42 hours 
annually, previous to the practice, by their subaltern officers. If what has 
been said in the preceding paragraphs be true, it is evident that although 
an officer may be thoroughly instructed himself, he must undergo con¬ 
siderable trouble and labour in order to teach his men in the best way. 
Gunnery instructors have their attention confined to this subject, and 
they have time to work out plans according to the best of their abilities ; 
but it must of necessity take anyone a long while to find out the most 
successful method of teachiug. 
The directions contained in the standing orders of the regiment and 
the drill-book on this subject are rather few and general. Would not 
a great advantage be secured by obtaining and publishing a more definite 
system of instruction, containing something like the following:—- 
(1) A few practical hints on the art of teaching. 
(2) Outlines of lectures, illustrated with very numerous incidents and 
anecdotes from actual experience. 
* It does not follow from this that the instructor himself should know hut little more than his men. 
The very reverse should he the ease. The best lecturers on scientific subjects to unlearned audi¬ 
ences—Tyndal, Huxley, Bloxam, and others—are men of deep knowledge. When Faraday gave 
evidence before the Public Schools Commission, he said one day, “ The difficulty of teaching chemistry 
in schools will be to find men competent to teach it.” “ What! in its first rudiments?” asked the 
Commissioners; to whom he replied, ‘‘The teachers of first rudiments should be deeply versed 
themselves.” The same rule must hold good in teaching artillery and gunnery. 
f As the delivery of effective fire is the great object of artillery, it would appear that a certain 
number of rounds (of shell especially) might be usefully expended for instructional purposes, when 
the principles stated in theory could be practically illustrated. 
In India, in garrison batteries, all the annual allowance of ammunition is expended in compe¬ 
tition. For instructional purposes this is not so useful as it might be; because the officers in charge 
are unable to correct or even point out the mistakes which the men make in firing, as thereby an 
unfair advantage would be given to the men who fire after each error is noted. Of course mistakes 
can be explained when all the practice is over; but by that time probably nearly all the circum¬ 
stances connected with them are forgotten, and little impression is made on the men’s minds. 
