EDITOR'S TABLE. 



271 



garding the adoption and educational 

 use of these books, and it is open to 

 grave criticism. 



In the first place, the fundamental 

 principles of the sciences are not "suit- 

 ed to pupils of an early age," and can 

 not be made so by any manner of pres- 

 entation. The immature mind can not 

 apprehend them, and, though the lan- 

 guage in which they are embodied may 

 be learned by heart, there will be no real 

 understanding of the truths conveyed, 

 and the sole "discipline" that can be 

 gained will be that of loading the mem- 

 ory with undigested and unassimilated 

 statements. The mature mind of the 

 race has been long and painfully occu- 

 pied in working its way to the " funda- 

 mental principles" of science; and to 

 pour these into the minds of " pupils of 

 an early age " is not a wise or enlight- 

 ened practice. Undoubtedly the true 

 method is to bring the young mind 

 "into immediate contact with Nature 

 herself" ; or rather to keep it there, as 

 this is where the educator at first finds 

 it. But what is "immediate contact 

 with Nature" in this case, but for the 

 pupil to occupy himself with the objects 

 of Nature to make his own observa- 

 tions, to make his own experiments, to 

 start his own questions, solve his own 

 difficulties, and do his own thinking? 

 All this would be at first rudimentary 

 and crude, and the pupil will not get at 

 "fundamental principles," but he will 

 cultivate his faculties in the only way 

 they can be properly cultivated, by self- 

 exertion. The Science Primers fail for 

 beginners by making no provision for 

 thi3 kind of activity. They are to be 

 toid in the old way they are to have 

 things shown, and explained, and made 

 clear, and everything done for them. 

 " The experiments must be performed 

 by the teacher in regular order before 

 the class." This is the ancient college 

 way of imparting instruction ; but even 

 the colleges are departing from it as an 

 intellectual failure, and are establishing 

 physical and chemical laboratories in 

 vvhich the students can be really brought 



" into immediate contact with Nature 

 herself." Listening to lectures, witness- 

 ing experiments, and reciting from text- 

 books, is not that "immediate contact 

 with Nature herself" which rational 

 education now demands. And what is 

 true of the Primers of Chemistry and 

 Physics in this series is equally true of 

 the Primers of Geology, Botany, As- 

 tronomy, Logic, and Political Economy. 

 They are all lesson-books of funda- 

 mental principles, clear and admirable 

 as expositions, but all of them as much 

 second-hand book-knowledge as the 

 "Primers of History." 



It was hoped that Professor Huxley, 

 as chief editor of this series, and writer 

 of the Introduction to it, would have 

 taken up the question of primary scien- 

 tific education, at least sufficiently to 

 explain and limit the school use of these 

 little books. But he considers other 

 questions, as we show elsewhere in the 

 notice of his volume; and this is the 

 more disappointing, as Professor Hux- 

 ley has ever been a strenuous advocate 

 of direct first-hand knowledge in sci- 

 ence. He long ago declared that " mere 

 book-knowledge in physical science is 

 a sham and a delusion " ; and in his last 

 admirable work on the "Study of Zool- 

 ogy" he enjoins that the book be read 

 " crayfish in hand " ; but is not this 

 principle of equal if not greater impor- 

 tance when it is proposed to deal with 

 " pupils of an early age " ? 



There is one book, however, intro- 

 duced into the American edition of the 

 series, which is not liable to the objec- 

 tions here indicated. This is the " In- 

 ventional Geometry " of Mr."W. G. Spen- 

 cer. It is not a child's book, but it adopts 

 the right method. It may be taken up 

 by boys and girls twelve or fifteen years 

 old, and it will do more to cultivate 

 and strengthen their original powers of 

 thought, more to give them clear ideas 

 and mental self-reliance, than all the 

 other Primers of the series put to- 

 gether. But, as it implies some mental 

 effort to gain the power that can only 

 come from exercise, it is not so easy as 



