This two-part essay is by Bernard Cracroft (1828-1888). Cracroft graduated from Cambridge in 1853, later becoming a stock broker with Austenfriar’s (Gordon 48).
The Wellesley Index
entry on this essay is misleading. The entry lists the possibility of
Fulford as the author, and claims that the style favors Fulford over
Cracroft. The justification for this statement is the academic and
moralistic tone, and the outline of the subject given at the beginning of
the essay. But these are the only features this essay has in common with
Fulford’s writings, and the very next entry cites Cracroft’s
use of italics as evidence for his authorship of the
Stylistically, Fulford favors long, complex sentences, often linking
multiple clauses together with semicolons. The writing in this essay is
straight-forward, and the syntax is more similar to Cracroft’s than
to Fulford’s. Furthermore, nearly all of Fulford’s essays in
The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine
Probably the strongest evidence that this essay is by Cracroft, not Fulford, is that “education” here refers primarily to scientific and economic education: the given examples of subjects for lectures are levers, tea, and bread. Fulford almost certainly would have favored more literary examples.
This essay is addressed to young men just out of college. Cracroft argues
that much of what one learns is quickly forgotten, because not used in daily
life, and claims that one way to prevent oneself from losing this knowledge
is to deliver elementary lectures. He focuses primarily on the social
benefits of such lectures, linking this essay to the other social articles
in the Magazine, such as
First printed in The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine
The Wellesley Index