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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



petent knowledge of our own language 

 is surely one of the leading objects of 

 the most common education. We are 

 of opinion that our course of instruc- 

 tion in the English language is altogether 

 too limited in its scope and imperfect 

 in its methods. This should include 

 something more than reading, spelling, 

 grammar, and an occasional composi- 

 tion. The language, in its elements and 

 structure, should be taught on scientific 

 principles, so far as they have been as- 

 certained, and the power to use it in 

 speaking and writing, not only cor- 

 rectly but elegantly, systematically de- 

 veloped from the lowest to the highest 

 grade. Then, again, no course of in- 

 struction however elementary can in 

 our day be said to be complete, which 

 does not aim to cultivate some ac- 

 quaintance with the leading outlines of 

 natural science ; and we are persuaded 

 that, in the more advanced grades at 

 least, a portion of the time at present 

 given to geography might be advan- 

 tageously devoted to giving instruction 

 in botany, zoology, physics, and astron- 

 omy, by oral lessons of a simple and 

 elementary nature." 



Mr. Mill says that geography exer- 

 cises none of the powers of intelligence, 

 except the memory, and the committee 

 declare that it does this badly; and 

 both, we think, are right. Loading 

 the memory with an array of arbi- 

 trary and disconnected facts is not the 

 proper method of cultivating it. The 

 true office of this faculty is, to be the 

 servant of the other faculties. It is 

 the power which recovers for present 

 use the mind's past acquisitions. But 

 the power of recalling past impres- 

 sions rests upon the law of associa- 

 tion, and rational memory depends 

 upon the relations subsisting among 

 the mental impressions. If knowledge 

 has been digested, and the relations 

 among its objects seen, their recovery 

 in thought is easy and natural ; but, 

 where the other faculties are neglect- 

 ed, the memory is merely burdened 



with arbitrary statements, and only 

 those things are remembered that are 

 burnt into it by interminable repeti- 

 tion. Dr. Arnold reprobates the ordi- 

 nary school-method of treating geog- 

 raphy, and commends the point of 

 view here indicated. He says : " And 

 this deeper knowledge becomes far 

 easier to remember. For my own 

 part, I find it extremely difficult to re- 

 member the positions of towns, when 

 I have no other association with them 

 than their situations relatively to each 

 other. But let me once understand 

 the real geography of a country its 

 organic structure, if I may so call it ; 

 the outline of its skeleton, that is, of 

 its hills ; the magnitude and course of 

 its veins and arteries, that is, of its 

 streams and rivers ; let me conceive 

 of it as a whole made up of connected 

 parts ; and then the positions of towns, 

 viewed in reference to these parts, be- 

 come at once easily remembered, and 

 lively and intelligible besides." 



The objection to teaching geogra- 

 phy to the young is, that its entire sub- 

 ject matter is beyond the sphere of ex- 

 perience ; it is, therefore, much less fit 

 to be used as a means of mental cul- 

 tivation than many other subjects. 

 Geography deals with an order of 

 ideas which it is extremely difficult 

 for the adult mind to grasp in their 

 true relations, and impossible for the 

 minds of children. " Geography is 

 a description of the earth," and, to 

 begin with, the earth is " a vast 

 globe, or ball." Now, a .child may 

 have a correct conception of a ball, 

 which it gets from experience, but it 

 has no conception from experience 

 which will help it to a true idea of 

 what is meant by "25,000 miles in 

 circumference." The notion i3 utterly 

 beyond its grasp, and, so far from 

 knowing the fact, or forming any just 

 mental view of it, it is merely cheated 

 with words. And so it is with the at- 

 tempt to conceive the extent and re- 

 lations of the great continental and 



