it, and the peculiarity of human nature, in or out
of our movement is, that it is wonderfully human.

There are very few of us who do not enjoy sitting in plain view of a
large audience and, when any good purpose is to be served, it is a very
laudable ambition.

But if we have no better end to gain than standing between a speaker and
his audience and, though with the best intentions in the world, adding
to the difficulties of a task that is already greater than most of us
would care to face, for the sake of our great cause, and that it may be
the more ably defended, let us refrain.

CHAPTER XIII

COURSE LECTURING--LEARN TO CLASSIFY

The definition of science as "knowledge classified," while leaving much
to be said, is perhaps, as satisfactory as any that could be condensed
into two words.

A trained capacity for classification is wholly indispensable in a
course lecturer. We all know the speaker who announces his subject and
then rambles off all over the universe. With this speaker, everybody
knows that, no matter what the subject or the occasion of the meeting,
it is going to be the same old talk that has done duty, how long nobody
can remember.

If, under the head of "surplus value" you talk twenty minutes about
prohibition, how will you avoid repetition when you come to speak on the
temperance question?

The surest way to acquire this qualification is to study the sciences.
The dazzling array of facts which science has accumulated, owe half
their value to the systematization they have received at the hands of
her greatest savants.

It is impossible to take a step in scientific study without coming face
to face with her grand classifications. At the very beginning science
divides the universe into two parts, the inorganic and the organic. The
inorganic is studied under the head of "physics"; the organic, under
"biology."

Physics (not the kind one throws to the dogs, of course) is then
subdivided into Astronomy, Chemistry, and Geology, while Biology has its
two great divisions, Zoology (animals) and Botany (plants), all these
having subdivisions reaching into every ramification of the material
universe, which is the real subject matter of science, being as it is
the only thing about which we possess any "knowledge."

Another way of learning to classify is to select a subject and then
"read it up." Here is a good method:

Take a ten-cent copy book, the usual size about eight by six inches and
b