Try rewriting the lecture as a formal essay and examine Forster’s statement: ‘…since the novel is itself often colloquial, it may possibly withhold some of its secrets from the graver and grander streams of criticism’.

Why does Ruskin feel that reading the work of a good author is a painstaking task?

Study each of the following sentences and notice the balance between its parts. Pick out other sentences in the text that reflect this kind of balance

a. It is right that a false Latin quantity should excite a smile in the House of Commons; but it is wrong that a false English meaning should not excite a frown there.

b. Let the accent of words be watched, by all means, but let the meaning be watched more closely still, and fewer will do the work.

Discuss the following in pairs or in groups of four

‘It is time to realise that unless we modify the established notion of literature as something written, we will silently witness the decline of various Indian oral traditions.’

What do you infer from Darwin’s comment on his indifference to literature as he advanced in years?

Discuss in pairs or groups of four

Replacing old machines with new is better than getting them repaired.

How does Forster use the analogy of Scheherazade to establish his point?

Discuss the following in pairs or in groups of four

While tribal communities may not seem to possess the scientific temper, there are many ideas from tribal conventions that could enrich modern societies.

Explain the metaphor in the line: ‘Poets are ... the mirrors of gigantic shadows that futurity casts on the present’.

Discuss in pairs or in small groups

What does a novel do?

How does the ‘assortment of remarks’ compiled by the author give us an understanding of the ways of science and poetry?