attractive to us, is a very valuable result of mental discipline. Whatever acuteness or sagacity a man may have on a special subject, if he be so helpless or so fastidious that he cannot employ his thoughts to any purpose or any other subject, we cannot consider him as a well cultured person: nor ought we to frame our education so as to give to men such an intellectual character.

We come back therefore to the doctrine stated sometime ago, that mathematical and classical studies, both Permanent and Progressive, are the leading and essential parts of a liberal Education for Englishmen. We have already, in some measure, pointed out the kind of Mathematics and of Classics which are to form the matter of such teaching as we contemplate; but we must now speak more at length of the methods according to which this teaching is to be conducted.

CHAPTER II.

ON THE METHOD OF TEACHING IN CLASSICS AND MATHEMATICS.

SECT. 1. Of College Lectures and Professorial
Lectures.

119 HAVING considered in some measure what is to be taught to students, as the mathematical and the classical part of a liberal Education, I now proceed to make some remarks on the manner of teaching. Different methods may be adopted for this purpose; and these differences of method lead to such differences of character and result in the education so given, as are deserving of our very serious consideration.

The Classical and Mathematical Education, of which we have to speak, may be considered as consisting mainly in that given at School, and that given at the University. And first, I shall speak of Classical Education.

120 The teaching of Latin and Greek at school is necessarily in a great measure oral. After preparing himself by the aid of his dictionary and grammar, the boy says his lessons, in which he construes a portion of Latin or Greek aloud, and then, if required, parses some parts of it, being often corrected and informed by his master in points where he is wrong or ignorant. This being done by boys collected in classes, each boy is instructed, not only by what is said to himself, but also to his class-fellows. He may profit by the notice taken of their errours and defects, as well as of his own, and by their knowledge of what he does not know. Besides this, he is interested by the community

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.]

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