620 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



bert Spencer remarks : " To tell a child this and to show it the 

 other is not to teach it how to observe, but to make it a mere re- 

 cipient of another's observations, a proceeding which weakens 

 rather than strengthens its powers of self -instruction, which de- 

 prives it of the pleasures resulting from successful activity 

 which presents this all-attractive knowledge under the aspect of 

 formal tuition. . . /' You must train the children under your 

 care to help themselves in every possible way, and give up always 

 feeding them with a spoon. Abolish learning lessons by rote as 

 far as possible. Devote every moment you possibly can to prac- 

 tical work, and, having stated a problem, leave it to the children 

 if possible to find a solution. Encourage inquisitiveness, but sug- 

 gest methods by which they may answer their own questions by 

 experiment or trial or by appeal to dictionaries or simple works 

 of reference, part of the furniture of the schoolroom, and lead 

 them to make use of the public library even; in after life you 

 will not be at their elbows, but books will always be available, 

 and if they once grow accustomed to treat these as friends to 

 whom they can appeal for helj), you will have done them infinite 

 service and will undoubtedly infuse many with the desire to con- 

 tinue their studies after leaving school. Under our present sys- 

 tem school books are cast aside with infinite relief at the earliest 

 possible moment, and the desire for amusement alone remains. 

 Teach history, geography, and much besides from the daily papers, 

 and so prepare them to read the papers with intelligence and in- 

 terest, and to prefer them to penny dreadfuls and the miserable, 

 often indecent, illustrated rubbish with which we are nowadays 

 so terribly afflicted. At the same time make it clear to them that 

 the editorial "we" is but an " I," and that assertion does not con- 

 stitute proof. If such be your teaching, and it have constant ref- 

 erence to things natural, you will also as Herbert Spencer points 

 out in a very remarkable passage without fail be giving much 

 religious culture, using the word in its highest acceptation, for, as 

 he says, " it is the refusal to study the surrounding creation that 

 is irreligious." As I have already said, one great indeed the 

 great object of our teaching is the formation of character : and 

 if you teach your pupils to be careful, exact, and observant, and 

 they become trustworthy workers, you are giving much training 

 of the highest excellence ; and if they have enjoyed such train- 

 ing, what does it matter what facts they know when they leave 

 school ? 



In the course that you are about to attend under Mr. Heller 

 the demonstrator upon whom has fallen the mantle previously 

 worn by Mr. Gordon, and who is equally desirous of promoting 

 and devising rational methods of teaching you will in the first 

 place devote your attention to exercises in measurement, includ- 



