Faraday to Benjamin Abbott   4 and 5 June 1813

June 4th. 1813.

Dear Abbott

Not having room in my last letter I must apologise in this for the extraordinary length to which it was spun out a length which would have made it unpardonable to any one but yourself. However I am so confident that I can judge aright of you at least that I take it for granted you will allow me the liberty of resuming the subject dwelt upon before and so without farther ceremony I shall proceed[.]

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 at 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 perceptive 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 be 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 other 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 of sight and this without any particular reason the Lecturer is considered (and with reason too) as an awkward <<con>>triver 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 the 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 & to the point[.]<qr>June 5th. | 6 o clock, P.M.

I have but just got your letter or should have answered it before[.] For your request - it is fulfilled - For your invitation - I thank you but cannot accept it - For your orders - they shall be attended to - For to see you - I will come on tuesday evening and - For want of time - I must conclude with respects to all friends,

Yours Sincerely | M. Faraday

Address: Mr. B. Abbott | Long Lane | Bermondsey