BIOLOGICAL WORK IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 639 



the exercise. To be able to express accurately witb a pencil point 

 what is observed is a power of inestimable value. However, tbe 

 power to observe accurately is not necessarily accompanied by 

 the power to express accurately, but the former must precede the 

 latter. No one can draw accurately what he has not seen accu- 

 rately. And along with this mental development must also go a 

 moral development. Seeing accurately is only seeing the thing 

 as it actually is that is, seeing the truth ; and drawing and de- 

 scribing are only stating the facts, or telling the truth. Here is 

 where the temptations lie. An indolent or careless pupil finds 

 telling the exact truth with his pencil point to be arduous, and is 

 tempted to distort or only partially represent the truth. But 

 accuracy of expression must be a constant drill in truthfulness. 



But, along with the seeing and expressing, pupils must be led 

 to think, if the work is to be of much value. What is the rela- 

 tion between this observed fact and that observed fact ? What 

 must be the use of this organ ? Why is it so constructed ? Why 

 why ? why ? These are questions that should be continually 

 brought before them. This is the shore upon which many are at 

 first stranded. They may see fairly well, they may draw and de- 

 scribe fairly well ; but to answer such " whys " is something to 

 which they are not accustomed. However, they launch out little 

 by little, and eventually become bold explorers on the ocean of 

 truth. But besides being able to answer " whys," they should 

 learn to deduce laws from observed facts, and to make predictions 

 as to future processes. Here the power of imagination, that is so 

 important in all school work, must be exercised. Without this 

 power few "whys" can be answered, few deductions made, and 

 no processes predicted. If a pupil can build up in his mind a 

 plant or animal, with or without this or that organ or set of 

 organs, and can then imagine what functions could or could not 

 be performed by his creation, he has a power that will aid him in 

 any work to which the duties of life may call him. 



But as yet I have said little concerning the value of the facts 

 learned in pursuing such a course of study. The value of the in- 

 formation gained was formerly the chief reason for studying 

 natural history, as it was called. But now the best educators 

 know that the power to discover truth, to acquire knowledge, is 

 of far greater value than simple possession of knowledge. How- 

 ever, the information obtained from the study is of great value to 

 any one. For example, in studying progressively the structure 

 and use of the organs of the animals below man, they get accu- 

 rate ideas concerning their own bodies. I make a special effort 

 to have them get correct ideas concerning sexual organs and pro- 

 cesses, that subject concerning which there is such a wide spread 

 ignorance and such a lamentable amount of false modesty and 



