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 others have few or no mistakes left to correct. When this is the case, the remainder of the time may be devoted to the class in general, that those who are still uncertain about a passage may bring forward their difficulties, or those who think that their rendering is better than that which has been given may read it and receive criticism on it.

28. The method here suggested has been illustrated by an exercise in translation. Its application, however, is just as easy, if the exercise be one in style, rhetoric, logic, theology, or philosophy.

29. We have thus seen that one teacher can instruct a hundred scholars with as little labour as he would expend in teaching a few.

How is it possible for all the scholars to be taught from the same books?

30. It is an undisputed fact that too many objects at once distract the attention. It will therefore be of immense advantage if the scholars be allowed to use no books but those that have been expressly composed for the class in which they are; and in this way it will always be possible to use with effect the order that was given to the worshippers in the temples of old, namely, “This shalt thou do.” Since the less the eyes are distracted, the easier it is to concentrate the mind.

31. Secondly, if all the materials that are required for instruction, blackboards, inscriptions, first reading books, dictionaries, schematic diagrams of the arts, etc., be kept in constant readiness. For if (as is often the case) the teacher must prepare the exercise-books for the scholars, and write a model for them to copy, or if he have to dictate grammatical rules, the text of an author, or its translation, how much time is thereby lost! It is therefore necessary that sufficient quantities of all the books which are used in each class be kept in readiness, and that translations be supplied with those texts that are to be