They handed in written exercises in Latin and Greek which were examined by the instructor and the faults corrected, and returned.
There were, during the last three years, declamations once a month, where the boy recited some piece of prose or poetry in the presence of the class, but got very little instruction or criticism from the professor.

Then, in the last three years, English themes were required.

The subjects were given out by Professor Channing, himself a most accomplished and admirable scholar in his line.

He seemed to choose his subjects with a view of taxing the ingenuity of the boy to find anything to say about them instead of taking something which the boy knew about and devoting himself to improve his English style in expressing his thought.

Channing was a good critic.