Abernethy was remarkably free from anything of the kind. The expression of his countenance was, in the highest degree, clear, penetrative, and intellectual; and his long, but not neglected, powdered hair, which covered both ears, gave altogether a philosophic calmness to his whole expression that was peculiarly pleasing. Then came a sort of little smile, which mantled over the whole face, and lighted it up with something which we cannot define, but which seemed a compound of mirth, archness, and benevolence. The adjustment of the quantity of matter to the time employed in discussing it, is an important point in teaching. A lecture too _full_, is as objectionable as a lecture _too long_. If the matter is spread too thinly, the lecture is bald and uninteresting, and apt to fall short of representing any integral division of a subject; if it be too thick, it is worse, for then all is confused and difficult. A man's brain is like a box packed in a hurry; when all is done, you neither know what you have got, nor what you have forgotten. Here again Abernethy was in general very happy. Various circumstances would sometimes, indeed, in the Anatomical Course, oblige him to put more into one lecture than was usual; but he had always, in such a case, some little manœuvre to sustain the attention of his audience. No man was ever a more perfect master of the _ars est celare artem_. Everything he did had its object, every joke or anecdote its particular errand, which was in general most effectively fulfilled. The various ways in which Abernethy managed to lighten up the general lecture, or to illustrate single points, can hardly be conveyed by selection of particular examples. There was a sort of running metaphor in his language, which, aided by a certain quaintness of manner, made common things go very amusingly. Muscles which pursued the same course to a certain point, were said to travel sociably together, and then to "part company." Blood-vessels and nerves had certain habits in their mode of distribution contrasted in this way; arteries were said to _creep_ along the sides or between muscles. Nerves, on the contrary, were represented as penetrating their substance "_without ceremony_." Then he had always a ready sympathy with his audience. If a thing was difficult, he would, as we have said, anticipate the feelings of the student. This is always encouraging; because, when a student finds a point difficult, if he is merely diffident, he is depressed; if he is disposed to be lazy, he finds too good an excuse for it.