Faraday to Benjamin Abbott   11 June 1813

June 11th 1813.

Dear Abbott.

Having fulfilled your part so well and so completely with respect to a Lecture it is now my turn to begin[.] At this time I shall speak of the qualifications requisite to form a Lecturer and do it with the less hesitation because having so lately a display of many of them they are impressed on my mind with the more force and clearness.

The most prominent requisite to a Lecturer ‘tho perhaps not really the most important is a good delivery for tho 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 strewed 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 utterance 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 cloathing 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 & 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 but 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[.]

Some 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 cloathing 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 attent<<ion>> 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 unnoticed 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 lighted 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 avoid[ed] they should on no account find place[.] If it is unavoidably necessary to complete the arrangement of some experiment or for other reasons leave some experiments in a state of progression or state some peculiar circumstance to employ 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 allowed except in very peculiar circumstances - they take the audience from the main subject & you then have the labour of bringing them back again (if possible)[.]

For the same reason (namely that the audience should not grow tired) I disapprove of long Lectures one hour is long enough for any one nor should they be allowed far to exceed that time[.] The only instance in which I have seen a Lecturer succeed in occupying the attention of his audience for a time eminently longer than an hour was at Walker’s¹ orrery² in which the subject has occupied time to the amount of two or three hours[.] But here we have peculiar attendant circumstances from the nature of the place itself (a theatre) we expect to remain there a considerable time & tho the subject differs from such as usually draw us there yet we in part associate the ideas together - Again Mr. Walker very judiciously leaves the audience at intervals to themselves during which time they are entertained by harmony well suited to accompany such a subject by these interruptions he allows the minds of his company to return to their wonted level and they are in a short time again ready to accompany him into the celestial regions[.]

Nor fancy dear Abbott that I here utter sentiments contrary to those I have just expressed and that I now approve of what I so strongly condemned[.] I have not spoken without thought nor uttered undigested opinions ‘tis true I may be wrong I am but an inexperienced and unfit director but still those ideas I have expressed still appear to me correct[.]

The science which Mr. Walker undertakes to explain and describe has for its object the most stupendous and magnificent work of the great the universal creator the subject is so immense that the mind is lost in the contemplation of it and the mode in which it is illustrated in the case in question is not at all deficient in grandeur and beauty but is well calculated to explain such a subject[.] A mind engaged for too great a length of time amongst such illustrations and on such matter would become lost & confused and unable to follow rightly the path of reasoning that the subject requires[.] Mr. Walker does well therefore to allow opportunities for the re-arrangement of our thoughts and we become by the vacation instead of less, more capable of again following the subject[.]

These interruptions too are made at those parts of the subject where the science naturally separates into divisions so that our thoughts are not drawn from & then to one point but are merely taken from one when finished to be placed renovated on another we may indeed consider Mr. Walkers Lecture as a continual series of three or four distinct ones on the same subject & thus we easily become reconciled to the interruptions and admit their utility & good effects[.]

But I have said enough for once on this subject and must leave it in order to have room for other things[.] I had arranged matters so as to accept your kind invitation for Sunday and anticipated much pleasure from the meeting but am disagreeably disappointed circumstances being such as to hinder my seeing you at that time this I much regret but hope however to enjoy the full measure of pleasures expected at some not far distant time[.]

I had a conversation with Mr. Hume³ of Long acre this afternoon at which time he partially stated to me his opinion of Silex being the base of oxygen gas he promised me some papers⁴ on the subject and if I obtain them you shall of course see the foundation of so singular an opinion but farewell dear Abbott for a few days when you shall again hear from yours, most Sincerely | M. Faraday

Address: Mr. B. Abbott M.CP.S. | Long Lane | Bermondsey