ABSTRACT
We think that the Professor of the English Language and Literature in our College, ought, if it were possible to unite all the qualifications which we think desirable, to be a thoroughly educated man, a man whose peculiar learning is based upon the sound scholarship which is the general training of English gentlemen. He ought to have made a systematic study of the English Language and English Literature: a systematic study of the Language, so as to be thoroughly conversant with its etymological structure, and the history of its formation through its successive stages; a systematic study of the Literature, so that his familiar knowledge of it may not be confined within the limits of one or two periods. He ought to have experience as a Lecturer, and to be able to lecture well: but he ought to be prepared not only to lecture, but to teach. We must bear in mind, and our Professor must bear in mind, that the practical end of our English Class is to teach our students to use their own language well both in speaking and writing.
