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

be of considerable size;-perhaps thirty, or even forty, is not too large a body. The extended feeling of a common interest in the subject; the manifestation of the varieties of intellectual character and habits among the pupils; the larger stock of knowledge which they probably possess among themselves, are advantages which may be set against the disadvantage obviously belonging to a large class; namely, the smaller share which each pupil must have of the Teacher's attention and of the work to be publicly done in the lecture

room.

126 Though College Lectures are, as we have seen, quite necessary in order to keep up and carry on that real knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Mathematics, which are essential parts of a Liberal Education, lectures of another kind, which we have distinguished as Professorial Lectures, have also their place, and a very important place, in such an Education. In such lectures the Lecturer presents his subject in some form which aims to be instructive or striking, by containing the results of extensive reading and careful thought, or by exhibiting lucid arrangement, or difficulties solved, or new views; or, in the material sciences, by presenting experimental exemplifications and illustrative apparatus. Such lectures tend to make the hearer feel that he is a sharer in the present as well as the past progress of literature and science;-that he is a citizen of an intellectual republic, which has the advancement of knowledge, and the discovery of truth for its constant aims. The charm which belongs to such lectures, when they are delivered by able and diligent professors, will very often take a strong hold upon the mind of the intelligent student; and impart to him a fervour of thought and a largeness of comprehension, which cannot be communicated in any other manner. Such, for instance, appear to have been the lectures of Niebuhr upon Roman History and Antiquities. To attend such

lectures, is an event which stimulates and expands, in an extraordinary degree, the minds of the more intelligent students: and to have the opportunity of attending such, is a very happy circumstance in any one's university education.

127 The defects of Professorial Lectures, are, that courses of such Lectures, delivered by any, except very able and diligent professors, can convey no knowledge which is not to be found, and in many cases in a better form, in published books; and that they convey little knowledge to unintelligent or inattentive students, such as must occur in every large body of young men. The first defect is in a great measure compensated by the feeling of sympathy in a common intellectual object, which a large lecture-room inspires, and by the advantage of receiving that view of the subject which a thoughtful man has derived from all that has been done up to the present time. The possibility of those who profess themselves students not profiting by instructions so given, universities have sought to guard themselves against by instituting examinations which shall test the student's proficiency in the educational studies to which he is directed.

Of examinations, and their conditions, I must speak at some length; but I find myself previously called upon to make a few further remarks upon College Lectures and Professorial Lectures.

SECT. 2. Of Mr Lyell's Remarks on the English Universities.

128 The preceding pages express opinions, upon the subject of College and University teaching, which I have, for the most part, already published. When these pages were already written, I found that the opinions, as formerly published, were assailed in a work in which I had never imagined I should find them discussed, Mr Lyell's Travels in North America. Having

accidentally stumbled upon this attack, in a work so popular in its form and matter, and giving in its title so little warning of its controversial character, it may serve to illustrate the subject if I briefly notice Mr Lyell's criticisms.

129 Mr Lyell refers to that part of my former publication in which I gave, as appeared to me, strong reasons why Permanent Studies (as I have here termed them) should occupy a prominent place in a university system; and why College Lectures, as the best modes of teaching these studies, are highly valuable parts of our education. To my arguments in favour of Classical and Mathematical Studies, he gives his assent and applause; but he blames me, because I have, as he says, "defended the exclusive monopoly enjoyed by these subjects, in the education of young men at Oxford and Cambridge, from the ages of eighteen to twenty-two. In support of this charge, he quotes passages in which I have argued that "philosophical doctrines" cannot supply the place of mathematical and classical studies in University Education; an opinion which he had seemed himself to adopt in the preceding page, when he said that my arguments on this subject are unanswerable, and enforced with great eloquence and power." I am sorry that my powers so inadequately responded to my intentions, when, a few pages earlier (p. 41), I tried to show, what I asserted, that though the progressive sciences "cannot do the work of mental cultivation, they are highly valuable acquisitions to the student, and may very beneficially engage his attention during the later years of his University career." I urged, in support of this view, arguments of the same kind as those which I have already employed in the present volume. I said, "A considerable general knowledge of the modern progressive sciences is as requisite to connect the educated man with the future, as a thorough acquaintance with ancient literature is

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