But it will not be enough, I am afraid, to study the style of others without attempting something yourselves.  No criticism teaches so much as the criticism of our own works.  And I hope therefore that you will not think that I ask too much of you when I propose that weekly prose and verse compositions, on set subjects, be sent in by the class.  To the examination of these the latter half of each lecture may be devoted, and the first half-hour to the study of various authors:  and in order that I may be able to speak my mind freely on them I should propose that they be anonymous.  I hope that you will all trust me when I tell you that those who have themselves experienced what labour attends the task of composition, are generally most tender and charitable in judging of the work of others, and that whatever remarks I may make will be such only as a man has a right to make on a woman’s composition.

And if I may seem to be asking anything new or troublesome, I beg you to remember, that it is the primary idea of this College to vindicate women’s right to an education in all points equal to that of men; the difference between them being determined not by any fancied inferiority of mind, but simply by the distinct offices and character of the sexes.  And surely when you recollect the long drudgery at Greek and Latin verses which is required of every highly-educated man, and the high importance which has attached to them for centuries in the opinion of Englishmen, you cannot think that I am too exigeant in asking you for a few sets of English verses.  Believe me, that you ought to find their beneficial effect in producing, as I said before, a measured deliberate style of expression, a habit of calling up clear and distinct images on all subjects, a power of condensing and arranging your thoughts, such as no practice in prose themes can ever give.  If you are disappointed of these results it will not be the fault of this long-proved method of teaching, but of my own inability to carry it out.  Indeed I cannot too strongly confess my own ignorance or fear my own inability.  I stand aghast when I compare my means and my idea, but I believe that “by teaching thou shalt learn,” is a rule of which I too shall take the benefit, and having begun these lectures in the name of Him who is The Word, and with the firm intention of asserting throughout His claims as the inspirer of all language and of all art, I may perhaps hope for the fulfilment of His own promise:  “Be not anxious what you shall speak, for it shall be given you in that day and in that hour what you shall speak.”

ON ENGLISH LITERATURE

Introductory Lecture given at Queen’s College, London, 1848.