SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN BOARD SCHOOLS. 617 



a most important contribution to educational literature, and will 

 render great service to our cause. But I count as his greatest 

 achievement the introduction of a proper balance calculated to 

 inspire confidence and respect into the schools, for I believe the 

 discipline of learning to weigh carefully and exactly to be of the 

 very highest value to a child, and one of the most effective means 

 of leading children to be careful and exact in their work gener- 

 ally. I envy my friend his success, as I have in vain tried to get 

 proper balances introduced into schools of far higher grade in 

 place of wretched contrivances costing but three or four shillings, 

 luhich can be of no service in forming character, although I have 

 no wish to deny that such may be made use of in illustrating 

 principles. 



Mr. Gordon, I believe, was appointed to teach mechanics under 

 what I will venture to call an antiquated and wooden syllabus, 

 but he had the courage to burst the bonds imposed upon him, and 

 from the outset determined to teach what was likely to be of real 

 service to his pupils. I have said that he gained the confidence 

 and sympathy of the teachers with whom he was associated and 

 whose work he was appointed to supervise and direct ; but I be- 

 lieve that he did more, and achieved success in a task of greater 

 difficulty that he actually made converts of some of her Majesty's 

 inspectors whose sympathies had previously lain with literary 

 studies. 



I have thought it desirable thus to sketch the history of the 

 introduction of our British Association scheme into school-board 

 circles. Let me now further emphasize the importance of teach- 

 ing scientific method, which after all is recognized by very few as 

 yet. Let me endeavor to make clear what I mean by scientific 

 method : that when I speak of scientific method I do not mean a 

 bl-anch of science, but something much broader and more gen- 

 erally useful. We may teach scientific method without teaching 

 any branch of science ; and there are many ways in which we may 

 teach it with materials always close to hand. 



I have very little belief in the efficacy of lecturing, and it is 

 always difiicult to persuade those who are not already persuaded 

 I would therefore refer those of you who are not yet with me to 

 a book from which they may derive much information and inspi- 

 ration. I mean Herbert Spencer's Essay on Education.* It is a 

 book which every parent of intelligence desiriug to educate his 

 children properly should read ; certainly every teacher should 

 have studied it thoroughly ; and no one should be allowed to be- 

 come a member of a school board who on examination was found 

 not to have mastered its contents. But as Herbert Spencer says 



* Published by D. Appletou & Co. Paper, 50 cents; cloth, $1.25. 



,VOL. XLTI. 45 



