of interest which they all have in the same object, the mastery of the difficulties of the Latin and Greek authors; and if he be of an ambitious temper, he is stimulated to exertion by the desire of excelling his companions, or at least of not being left behind by them. This living personal intercourse of the scholars with the master and with each other, maintained by a scheme of daily and hourly occupations entirely subservient to it, takes a strong hold of the schoolboy's mind and character; and makes the season of schoolboyhood a most important part of education; perhaps even more important than the subsequent season of university life.

121 But how great, and of what kind, shall be the influence of university life upon the student, must depend upon the system of teaching existing in the University; and especially upon this point:--whether the system does or does not include any habits which bring the students into constant oral intercourse with the teacher in the presence of each other, such as takes place at school. Such habits have constantly prevailed in the Colleges of the English Universities. In these institutions, Classical Lectures are given; of the nature of Lessons at school, although dealing with more comprehensive and profound views of language and antiquity. The Tutor assembles his Pupils in his Lecture-room, at stated periods; and, requiring them in turn to consider portions of the classical subject selected for their study, he corrects their mistakes, and gives them information connected with the subject as supplied by his own reading and reflexion. Ånd the same process takes place in Mathematical studies, or at least in the most elementary of such studies. The pupil is required to prove orally a proposition in Euclid or in Mechanics, and is interrogated as to the connexion of the steps of the proof, or as to the application of the proposition to a particular case; while

the lecturer, by his comments and additions, analyses or extends the propositions beyond the form which they possess in the text book, or brings new problems before the pupil.

122 Although, in such College Lectures, the views may often be as comprehensive and profound, and the learning as extensive, as are found in the Lectures of Professors in other Universities, it has been the practice, in recent discussions on this subject, to distinguish between College Lectures and Professorial Lectures : and the distinction is an important one, if it be understood as implying that, in Professorial Lectures, the student is a listener only, and is not called upon to show, by taking any part in the lecture, that he is a prepared listener. The distinction being thus understood, if we inquire whether College Lectures should be superseded by Professorial Lectures in our University, we cannot hesitate to reply, that such a change. would be a grievous damage to English Education. Without at all denying the value of Professorial Lectures for their own particular purposes; (and for these purposes they are largely delivered and attended in the English Universities) such Lectures cannot take the place of College Lectures, so as to produce their beneficial effects. These effects are of the same kind as those which we have already mentioned. The hold which studies so pursued obtain upon the student's mind and character, in virtue of their forming part of a daily employment, which brings him into intercourse with his tutor and his fellow-students, placing before them a common subject of mental activity, disclosing to him their characters, instructing him both by their mistakes and by their knowledge, and impelling him to study by the necessity of being constantly ready with his own share of the work. In Professorial Lectures, on the other hand, the student is supposed to be induced to listen to the Lecture by the solid rea

soning, extensive learning, new views, or peculiar eloquence of the Professor; who follows out his speculations, unfettered by the necessity of connecting his exposition with the imperfect learning of his hearers. To return to the distinction of educational studies, of which we have spoken already, Professorial Lectures are especially suited to those which we have called Progressive Studies, in which the student is to be instructed in the views at which his most active-minded contemporaries have arrived. But with regard to Permanent studies, the impression which, in a Liberal Education, they ought to produce upon the mind, is eminently promoted by College Lectures such as we have described; and can, by no means, be derived from Professorial Lectures alone.

123 There are some difficulties which belong especially to College Lectures; or, rather, there are some difficulties which belong to all higher teaching, and which become apparent in College Lectures; while they are masked in Lectures when the Professor alone speaks. All teaching of the higher portions of educational subjects requires a knowledge of the lower portions; thus, as we have seen, the Classical teaching, which takes place in College Lectures, requires the pupils to be able to construe the Latin or Greek author who is the subject of the Lecture. This previous knowledge the pupils of the English Colleges ought to acquire, and, in a great degree, do acquire, at school. And the principal remedy for any defect in such preparation which may exist generally, is an improvement in the teaching of Latin and Greek at the schools. It seems also highly desirable, in order to render the teaching of our Colleges really efficacious, that pupils, in entering them, should be subject to an examination, by which it may be ascertained that they really have such a knowledge of Latin and Greek, (and also in elementary Mathematics) as may enable [PT. I.]

9

them to take their proper part in College Lectures. They ought to be able to construe at least the easier authors; and, with a little preparation, to construe them correctly and well; in order that they may join in the Lecture with profit and convenience to themselves and their companions. It will be impossible to carry on the teaching of a College with spirit and effect, except this condition be insisted on; and if it were insisted upon by Colleges in general, there can be no doubt that the general standard of attainment of boys leaving school would be brought up at least to this point. For the length of time which boys spend at school, before they go to College, is ample and abundant for their acquiring this degree of proficiency under moderately good teaching. So long as youths who cannot construe Cicero and Xenophon are admitted into our Colleges, the teaching of their lecturerooms must necessarily want the flow, and interest, and dignity which would most fully fit it for its object.

124 So far as the easier and earlier subjects of College teaching are concerned, this step, the insisting upon an adequate previous preparation of the youths who come to College, is the true remedy for the difficulties of the case; and no other can really avail. But when some considerable progress has been made by a body of pupils in the subjects taught at College, wide differences of proficiency soon make their appearance; and such differences are glaring, even from the first, when no sufficient test of preparatory proficiency is applied. These differences form a difficulty in College teaching; for when they exist, the Lecturer must either leave behind him, in his progress, the most slow and ill-instructed of his class, or he must retard the natural pace of the active and intelligent students. Much may be done to palliate this inconvenience, without breaking up the class. Pupils who come to College ill prepared, or of dull intellect, may be assisted by Private Tuition,

employed in subservience to the College Lectures. Or, while in the lecture-room all go on with the general business of the course, the more able members of the class may, in addition to this, be engaged in tasks proposed to them alone-translations or compositions, theorems or problems;-while their more tardy companions are barely travelling onwards with them through the subject. But this process, if carried far, destroys the community of study in the class. In a large body of pupils, the inconvenience may be remedied by dividing them into subordinate classes, according to the degree of their proficiency, and providing lecturers for each sub-class. And so far as this course is practicable, it completely meets the difficulty. It is, however, still to be recollected that it is desirable, as far as possible, that the subjects in which the higher and the lower students are engaged, should form part of one general course of learning; so that the pupil who has fallen behind in his progress shall not find himself turned into a path in which idleness and delay are specially provided for; but shall be able, at any future time, when his exertions are more effective, to recover his lost ground, and resume his place with the more forward students.

125 The size of the classes which are thus divided by the difference of capacity and diligence in the pupils, is a question which must be determined, in a great measure, by the nature of the teaching which the subject requires. The higher we advance, especially in mathematical studies, the more widely does one man's intellect and power separate itself from another's. In the highest subjects, therefore, the number of men who can be profitably taught together in one class must necessarily be very small; perhaps not more than three or four. But in the earlier steps of College teaching, for which, as we have said, the pupil ought to bring from school an adequate preparation, the classes may