ABSTRACT
Faraday used his friend Benjamin Abbott (see Chapter 2) as a foil for working out some of his ideas and his correspondence as a means of focusing his mind on topics that seemed to him important. Having been attracted to the Royal Institution by Humphry Davy’s lectures on chemistry, which had captured the public for many years, and learnt at close quarters about the art of lecturing with demonstrations through his job as Davy’s assistant, Faraday already had decided opinions about it. In the following lengthy account he goes into detail about every aspect of the art, of which he became one of the greatest exponents. This account was spread over several letters to Abbott, written between 1 and 18 June 1813:
Again I resort for pleasure (and to dispell 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 Faraday giving a Friday Evening Discourse, from <italic>Illustrated London News</italic> 1846 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003063094/279d7dd9-7e21-43fe-922e-8f1f3058ee16/content/fig0037.jpg"/> 132 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.
On going to a lecture I generally get there before it begins. Indeed, I consider it as an impropriety of no small magnitude to disturb the attention of an audience by entering amongst them in the midst of a lecture and, indeed, bordering upon an insult to the lecturer. By arriving there before the commencement, I have avoided this error and have had time to observe the lecture room.
The best form for a lecture room in general is without dispute a circular one, ‘tho in particular circumstances deviations 133may with propriety be adopted. The seats should be arranged that no obstruction intervene between the spectator and the lecture table. If there is a gallery, each person in it should be situated in a manner the most convenient for observation and hearing. Those in which I have seen company and which please me most are the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, the Anatomical Theatre and the Lecture room here, to the last of which I must give preference. In a lecture room I would have the lecturer on a level with the lowest person in it. Consequently the pit should ascend very considerably, an object which cannot be attained in a theatre. Also, in the two I have mentioned, the lecturer is too far backward and a part of his audience is placed in a direction by far too oblique with respect to him (I allude to the side seats of this theatre).
In considering the form of a Lecture room we should take into account the time at which it is intended to be occupied, inasmuch as the modes of lighting by means natural and artificial are very different. In this particular the theatres in a large way have one advantage, i.e. in the site of their stage lamps which illuminate in a grand manner all before them, ‘tho at the same time they fatigue the eyes of those who are situated low in the house. But ‘tho Walker has shewn in the most splendid and sublime manner that Astronomy may be illustrated in a way the most striking by artificial light, yet, from what little I know of these things, I conceive that for by far the greater part of philosophy, day light is the most eligible and convenient.
When a Lecture room is illuminated by the light of the sun it should constantly be admitted (if convenient) at the top, not only as rendering the whole of the interior more uniform and distinct but also for the convenience of darkening the room. In the instance of the Lecture room here, you will readily recognize the mode of attaining that end to which I allude.
There is another circumstance to be considered with respect 134to a Lecture room, of as much importance almost as light itself, and that is ventilation. How often have I felt oppression in the highest degree when surrounded by a number of other persons and confined in one portion of air. How have I wished the Lecture finished, the lights extinguished and myself away merely to obtain a fresh supply of that element. The want of it caused the want of attention and pleasure (and even of comfort) and not to be regained without its previous admission. Attention to this is more particularly necessary in a lecture room intended for night delivery, as the lights burning add considerably to the oppression produced on the body.
Entrance and Exit are things too, worthy of consideration amongst the particulars of a Lecture room, but I shall say no more on them than to refer you to the mode in which this is arranged here, a mode excellently well adapted for the convenience of a great number of persons.
Having thus thrown off in a cursory manner such thoughts as spontaneously entered my mind on this part of the subject it appears proper next to consider the subject fit for the purposes of a Lecture. Science is undeniably the most eminent in its fitness for this purpose. There is no part of it that may not be treated of, illustrated and explained with profit and pleasure to the hearers in this manner. The facility, too, with which it allows of manual and experimental illustrations place it foremost in this class of subject. After it comes (as I conceive) Arts and Manufactures, the Polite Arts, Belles Lettres etc, a list which may be extended until it includes almost every thought and idea in the mind of man (Politics excepted). I was going to add religion to the exception but remembered that is it explained and laid forth in the most popular and eminent manner in this way.
The fitness of subjects, however, is connected in an inseparable manner with the kind of audience that is to be present, since excellent Lectures in themselves would 135appear absurd if delivered before an audience that did not understand them. Anatomy would not do for the generality of audiences at the R.I., neither would Metaphysics engage the attention of a company of school boys. Let the subject fit the audience or otherwise success may be despaired of.
A Lecturer may consider his audience as being polite or vulgar (terms I wish you understand according to Shuffletons new Dictionary) learned or unlearned (with respect to the subject), listeners or gazers. Polite company expect to be entertained not only by the subject of the Lecture but by the manner of the Lecturer; they look for respect, for language consonant to their dignity and ideas on a level with their own. The vulgar (that is to say, in general, those who will take the trouble of thinking) and the bees of business wish for something that they can comprehend. This may be deep and elaborate for the learned but, for those who are as yet tyros and unacquainted with the subject, must be simple and plain. Lastly, listeners expect reason and sense, whilst gazers only require a succession of words.
These considerations should all of them engage the attention of the Lecturer whilst preparing for his occupation, each particular having an influence on his arrangements proportionate to the nature of the company he expects. He should consider them connectedly, so as to keep engaged completely during the whole of the Lecture the attention of his audience.
The hour at which a Lecture should be delivered should be considered at the same time with the nature of the audience we expect or wish for. If we would suit a particular class of persons we must fix it at the hour most convenient for them. If we would wish to exclude any, let the time be such that they cannot attend it. In general we may distinguish them according to their times into morning and evening Lectures, each being adapted for different classes of persons.
I need not point out to the active mind of my friend the astonishing disproportion (or rather difference) in the 136perceptive powers of the eye and the ear and the facility and clearness with which the first of these organs conveys ideas to the mind; ideas which, being thus gained, are held far more retentively and firmly in the memory than when introduced by the ear. Tis true the ear here labours under a disadvantage, which is, that the Lecturer may not always be qualified to state a fact with the utmost precision and clearness that language allows him and that the ear can understand, and thus the complete action of the organ (or rather of its assigned portion of the sensorium) is not called forth. But this evidently points out to us the necessity of aiding it by using the eye also as a medium for the attainment of knowledge, and strikingly shews the necessity of apparatus.
Apparatus, therefore, is an essential part of every lecture in which it can be introduced, but to apparatus should be added at every convenient opportunity illustrations that may not perhaps deserve the name of apparatus and of experiments, and yet may by introduced with considerable force and effect in proper places. Diagrams & Tables, too, are necessary, or at least add in an eminent degree to the illustration and perfection of a Lecture.
When an experimental Lecture is to be delivered and apparatus is to be exhibited, some kind of order should be observed in the arrangement of them on the Lecture table. Every particular part illustrative of the Lecture should be in view; no one thing should hide another from the audience, nor should anything stand in the way of, or obstruct, the Lecturer. They should be so placed, too, as to produce a kind of uniformity in appearance. No one part should appear naked and another crowded, unless some particular reason exists and makes it necessary to be so. At the same time the whole should be so arranged as to keep one operation from interfering with another. If the Lecture table appears crowded, if the Lecturer (hid by the apparatus) is invisible, if things appear crooked or aside or unequal, or if some are out 137of sight (and this without any particular reason), the Lecturer is considered (and with reason too) as an awkward contriver and a bungler.
Diagrams (’tho ever so rough) are often times of important use in a lecture. The facility with which they illustrate ideas, and the diversity they produce in the circumstances occurrant, render them highly agreeable to an audience. By diagrams, I do not mean drawings (nor do I exclude drawings) but a plain and simple statement in a few lines of what requires many words. A sheet of cartridge paper and a pen, or a black board and chalk, are often times of great importance. I, in general, allude to temporary diagrams and would resort to temporary means to obtain them.
A diagram or a table (by which I mean constituent parts or proportions wrote out in a rough enlarged way) should be left in view of the audience for a short time after the Lecturer himself has explained them, that they may arrange the ideas contained in them in their minds and also refer to them in any other parts of the theory connected with the same subject and (if they choose, as is often the case) also to copy them.
With respect to illustrations (simply so called) no regular rules can be given on them. They must be in part extempore and suggested to the mind of the Lecturer by particular circumstances; they may be at one time proper at another time improper, but they should always be striking and to the point.
The most prominent requisite to a Lecturer, ‘tho perhaps not really the most important, is a good delivery. For though, to all true philosophers, Science and Nature will have charms innumerable in every dress, yet I am sorry to say that the generality of mankind cannot accompany us one short hour unless the path is strewn with flowers. In order, therefore, to gain the attention of an audience (and what can be more disagreeable to a Lecturer than the want of it) it is necessary to pay some attention to the manner of expression. The 138utterance should not be rapid and hurried, and consequently unintelligible, but slow and deliberate, conveying ideas with ease from the Lecturer and infusing them with clearness and readiness into the minds of the audience. A Lecturer should endeavour by all means to obtain a facility of utterance and the power of clothing his thoughts and ideas in language smooth and harmonious and, at the same time, simple and easy. His periods should be round, not too long or unequal; they should be complete and expressive, conveying clearly the whole of the ideas intended to be conveyed. If they are long or obscure or incomplete they give rise to a degree of labour in the minds of the hearers which quickly causes lassitude, indifference and even disgust.
With respect to the action of a Lecturer, it is requisite that he should have some, ‘tho it does not here bear the importance that it does in other branches of oratory. For ‘tho I know of no species of delivery (divinity excepted) that requires less motion, yet I would by no means have a Lecturer glued to the table or screwed on the floor. He must by all means appear as a body distinct and separate from the things around him, and must have some motion apart from that which they possess.
A Lecturer should appear easy & collected, undaunted & unconcerned, his thoughts about him and his mind clear and free for the contemplation and description of his subject. His action should not be hasty and violent bul slow, easy and natural, consisting principally in changes of the posture of the body in order to avoid the air of stiffness or sameness that would otherwise be unavoidable. His whole behaviour should evince respect for his audience and he should in no case forget that he is in their presence. No accident that does not interfere with their convenience should disturb his serenity, or cause variation in his behaviour. He should never (if possible) turn his back on them, but should give them full reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for their pleasure and instruction.
139Some Lecturers choose to express their thoughts extemporaneously, immediately as they occur to the mind, whilst others previously arrange them and draw them forth on paper. Those who are of the first description are certainly more unengaged and more at liberty to attend to other points of delivery than their pages; but as every person on whom the duty falls is not equally competent for the prompt clothing and utterance of his matter, it becomes necessary that the second method should be resorted to. This mode, too, has its advantages, inasmuch as more time is allowed for the arrangement of the subject and more attention can be paid to the neatness of expression.
But, ‘tho I allow a Lecturer to write out his matter, I do not approve of his reading it, at least not as he would a quotation or extract. He should deliver it in a ready and free manner, referring to his book merely as he would to copious notes, and not confining his tongue to the exact path there delineated, but digress as circumstances may demand, or localities allow.
A Lecturer should exert his utmost efforts to gain completely the mind and attention of his audience and irresistibly to make them join in his ideas to the end of the subject. He should endeavour to raise their interest at the commencement of the Lecture and, by a series of imperceptible gradations unknown by the company, keep it alive as long as the subject demands it. No breaks or digressions foreign to the purpose should have a place in the circumstances of the evening; no opportunity should be allowed to the audience in which their minds could wander from the subject or return to inattention and carelessness. A flame should be ignited at the commencement and kept alive with unremitting splendour to the end. For this reason I very much disapprove of breaks in a Lecture and, where they can by any means be avoided, they should on no account find place. If it is unavoidably necessary (to complete the arrangement of some experiment, or for other reasons) to leave some experiments in a state of progression, state some peculiar circumstance to 140employ as much as possible the minds of the audience during the unoccupied space: but if possible avoid it.
Digressions and wanderings produce more or less the bad effects of a complete break or delay in a Lecture, and should therefore never be. Surely such an error in the character of a Lecturer cannot require pointing out, even to those who resort to it; its impropriety must be evident and I should perhaps have done well to pass it.
Before, however, I quite leave this part of my subject I would wish to notice a point in some manner connected with it. In Lectures (and more particularly some experimental ones) it will at times happen that accidents or other incommoding circumstances take place. On these occasions an apology is sometimes necessary, but not always. I would wish apologies to be made as seldom as possible, and generally only when the inconvenience extends to the company’s. I have several times seen the attention of by far the greater part of the audience called to an error by the apology that followed it.
An experimental Lecturer should attend very carefully to the choice he may make of experiments for the illustration of his subjects. They should be important as they respect the science they are applied to, yet clear and such as may easily and generally be understood. They should rather approach to simplicity, and explain the established principles of the subject, than be elaborate and apply to minute phenomena only. I speak here (be it understood) of those lectures which are delivered before a mixed audience, and the nature of which will not admit of their being applied to the explanation of any but the principle parts of a science. If, to a particular audience, you dwell on a particular subject, still adhere to the same precept, ‘tho perhaps not exactly to the same rule. Let your experiments apply to the subject you elucidate. Do not introduce those that are not to the point.
‘Tho this last part of my letter may appear superfluous, seeing that the principle is so evident to every capacity, yet 141I assure you, dear Abbott, I have seen it broken through in the most violent manner. A mere ale-house trick has more than once been introduced in a Lecture delivered not far from Pall-Mall as an elucidation of the laws of motion.
Neither should too much stress be laid upon what I would call small experiments, or rather illustrations. It pleases me well to observe a neat idea enter the head of a Lecturer, the which he will immediately and aptly illustrate or explain by a few motions of his hand, a card, a lamp, a glass of water or any other thing that may be by him. When he calls your attention in a particular way to a decisive experiment that has entered his mind, clear and important in its application to the subject and then—lets fall a card, I turn with disgust from the Lecturer and his experiments.
‘Tis well, too, when a Lecturer has the ready wit and the presence of mind to turn any casual circumstance to an illustration of his subject. Any particular circumstance that has become table talk for the town, any local advantages or disadvantages, any trivial circumstance that may arise in company, give great force to illustrations aptly drawn from them, and please the audience highly, as they conceive they perfectly understand them.
Apt experiments (to which I have before referred) ought to be explained by satisfactory theory, or otherwise we merely patch an old coat with new cloth and the whole (hole) becomes worse. If a satisfactory theory can be given, it ought to be given. If we doubt a received opinion, let us not leave it unnoticed and affirm our own ideas, but state it clearly and lay down also our objections. If the scientific world is divided in opinion, state both sides of the question) and let each one judge for himself, assisting him by noticing the most striking and forcible circumstances on each side. Then (and then only) shall we do justice to the subject, please the audience and satisfy our honour (the honour of a philosopher).
