was the sense and not the wording which had to be mastered. Thus
geography was studied from an atlas and not by the mere parrot-like
learning of the names of towns and rivers. In grammar the boys had
to show that they understood a rule by citing examples other than
those given in their books. History was rather a lecture from the
master than a repetition of dry facts and dates by the boys. Latin
and mathematics were made clear in a similar way.

"It was almost too good to last," the boys said after the first
day's experience of this new method of teaching; but it did last.
A considerable portion of the work out of school was devoted to the
keeping up the facts they had learned, for Mr. Porson was constantly
going back and seeing that their memories retained the facts they
had acquired, and what they called examinations were a part of the
daily routine.

In some points upon which Mr. Hathorn had laid the greatest stress
Mr. Porson was indifferent--dates, which had been the bane of
many a boy's life and an unceasing source of punishment, he regarded
but little, insisting only that the general period should be known,
and his questions generally took the form of, "In the beginning
or at the end of such and such a century, what was the state of
things in England or in Rome?" A few dates of special events, the
landmarks of history, were required to be learned accurately, all
others were passed over as unimportant.

It was not that the boys worked fewer hours than before, but that
they worked more intelligently, and therefore more pleasantly to
themselves. The boys--and there were some--who imagined that
under this new method of teaching they could be idle, very soon