LITERARY NOTICES. 



237 



Out of every ten, " seven call themselves 

 members of the Churches of England, Scot- 

 land, or Ireland," while the remaining three 

 are distributed among various sects ; two 

 out of every ten have a " decided religious 

 bias." 



To the question " Has the religious creed 

 taught you in your youth had a deterrent 

 cfl'ect on the freedom of your researches ? " 

 seven or eight say " Ko " to one who says 

 " Yes." 



Chapter III. deals in an admirable man- 

 ner with the " Origin of the Taste for Sci- 

 ence," and we commend it to all who are 

 interested in scientific education ; together 

 with Chapter IV., which deals with the 

 merits and demerits of the education itself. 



The lessons of these two chapters are 

 condensed by the author into this general 

 statement : Teach a few congenial and loseful 

 things very thoroughly ; encourage curiosity 

 concerning as wide a range of subjects as 

 possible ; and do not over-teach. Specially he 

 recommends (from the knowledge gained 

 from his inquiry), for the precise subjects to 

 be studied in order best to educate a youth 

 for scientific pursuits : 1. Mathematics ; its 

 processes to be utilized for interesting ends 

 and practical application ; 2. Logic ; 3. Ob- 

 servation ; theory in experiment in at least 

 one branch of science ; 4. Accurate draw- 

 ing of objects connected with this branch ; 

 5. Mechanical manipulation. " These five 

 subjects should be rigorously taught." 

 There should remain enough time for lit- 

 erature, history, poetry, and languages : these 

 last are to be learned solely to enable the 

 learners to read ordinary books written in 

 them. 



Most of these conclusions are quite as 

 applicable to America as to England, and 

 they deserve the most careful attention. 



Roughly speaking, the author finds that 

 "six out of every ten men of science were 

 gifted by nature with a strong taste for it," 

 and " we may therefore conclude that the 

 possession of a strong special taste is a pre- 

 cious capital, and that it is a wicked waste 

 of national power to thwart it ruthlessly by 

 a false system of education." No test can 

 be given to distinguish in the youth a spe- 

 cial taste from a passing fancy, but hered- 

 itary inclinations should be carefully re- 

 garded. A curious result of the inquiry is, 



that the influence of the father in determin- 

 ing the scientific taste is three times more 

 potent than that of the mother. Probably 

 the general impression on this point is op- 

 posed to such a conclusion. 



The practical lesson for England is drawn 

 with great force and skill by the author on 

 page 22.2, et seq. Much of this is inapplicable 

 to us in America, but it is in the highest de- 

 gree valuable generalization, and it is pecul- 

 iarly worthy the attention of educators. 



Science with us is sporadic, and no one is 

 in any degree directly responsible for its fos- 

 tering, except, perhaps, the larger universi- 

 ties. There is no central power which can 

 assist its prosecution, nor is there much in- 

 telligent inclination on the part of our law- 

 makers to help it or hurt it. As an exam- 

 ple of the lack of intelligence in the for- 

 warding of scientific research, we may not& 

 the liberal appropriations ($175,000) for the 

 observations of the transit of Venus by the 

 last Congress but one ; and the refusal of 

 more than $3,000, by the last Congress, for 

 the preliminary computations incident there- 

 to. Evidently for us at this time the les- 

 sons of this book are not to be applied, but 

 much more elementary ones ; yet, undoubt- 

 edly, the true principles of " government 

 aid to science," and cf the " endowment of 

 research," are coi'rectly indicated. 



These are questions which assuredly will 

 arise in America as they have in England, 

 and we cannot doubt that the careful analy- 

 sis here given will serve as a firm basis for 

 rational action in this most important direc- 

 tion. 



The Heart op Africa : Three Tears' Trav- 

 els and Adventures in the Unexplored 

 Regions of Central Africa, from 1868 to 

 1871. By Dr. Georg Schweinfcrth. 

 In two volumes. Price, $8. Harper & 

 Brothers. 



This is a model book of travel, fresh, 

 entertaining, full of novelty, yet in a high 

 degree instructive and trustworthy. Its 

 author combines the accomplishments of 

 the artist with the solid acquirements of the 

 man of science and the ardent enthusiasm 

 of the explorer, so that, though still a young 

 man, his name is already famous both in 

 Europe and America. The history of Dr. 

 Schweinfurth happily illustrates the power 



