ABSTRACT
Again I resort for pleasure (and to dispel1 the dullness of a violent headache) to my correspondence with you, ’tho perfectly unfit for it except as it may answer the purpose of amusing myself. The subject upon which I shall dwell more particularly at present has been in my head for some considerable time and now it bursts forth in all its confusion. In a word, Ben, I intend to give you my ideas on the subject of lectures and lecturers in general. The observations and ideas I shall set down are such as entered my mind at the moment the circumstances that gave rise to them took place. I shall point out but few beauties or few faults that I have
not witnessed in the presence of a numerous assembly and it is exceedingly probable, or rather certain, that I should have noticed more of these particulars if I had seen more lecturers or, in other words, I do not pretend to give you an account of all the faults possible in a lecture or directions for the composing and delivering of a perfect one.
