But you have seen this morning's newspaper: you have
read of Captain Scott and his comrades, and in particular of the death of
Captain Oates; and you know that the breed of Sidney is not extinct.
Gentlemen, let us keep our language noble: for we still have heroes to
commemorate![1]

[Footnote 1: The date of the above lecture was Wednesday, February 12th,
1913, the date on which our morning newspapers printed the first
telegrams giving particulars of the fate of Captain Scott's heroic
conquest of the South Pole, and still more glorious, though defeated,
return. The first brief message concerning Captain Oates, ran as
follows:--

'From the records found in the tent where the bodies were discovered it
appeared that Captain Oates's feet and hands were badly frost-bitten,
and, although he struggled on heroically, his comrades knew on March 16
that his end was approaching. He had borne intense suffering for weeks
without complaint, and he did not give up hope to the very end.

"He was a brave soul. He slept through the night hoping not to wake; but
he awoke in the morning.

"It was blowing a blizzard. Oates said: 'I am just going outside, and I
may be some time.' He went out into the blizzard, and we have not seen
him since.

"We knew that Oates was walking to his death, but though we tried to
dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man and an English
gentleman."']

LECTURE III.

ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VERSE AND PROSE

Wednesday, February 26

You will forgive me, Gentlemen, that having in my second lecture
encouraged you to the practice of verse as well as of prose, I seize the
very next opportunity to warn you against confusing the two, which differ
on some points essentially, and always so as to demand separate rules--or
rather (since I am shy of the word 'rules') a different concept of what
the writer should aim at and what avoid. But you must, pray, understand
that what follows will be more useful to the tiro in prose than to the
tiro in verse; for while even a lecturer may help you to avoid writing
prose in the manner of Milton, only the gods--and they hardly--can cure a
versifier of being prosaic.

We started upon a promise to do without scientific definitions; and in
drawing some distinctions to-day between verse and prose I shall use only
a few rough ones; good, as I hope, so far as they go; not to be found
contrary to your scientific ones, if ever, under another teacher you
attain