204 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ings, is too apt to forget that, after all, lie lias neglected the con- 

 sideration of utility ; and that on the perfection of the adaptation 

 of the structure to human needs must depend its real value, its 

 true measure of success. 



The Great Pyramid of Egypt, which is among the most ancient 

 monuments in the world, has survived for thousands of years "be- 

 cause each stone had a definite place, in which it was set with the 

 greatest care. It owes its size and its endurance to a strict at- 

 tention, on the part of its builders, to small things, and the exer- 

 cise of an almost limitless patience. It teaches a profound truth, 

 that in architecture no single thing is too unimportant to be 

 treated in the best way ; and, though we need not seek to erect 

 buildings whose permanency will be of the type of the Pyramid 

 of Cheops, we can at least apply to our structures the same care 

 for the minor parts, believing that, as the members are, so will 

 the whole be. 



Architecture must express the life of any people in order to be 

 successful. It is this which makes former styles so admirable, 

 and it is this element that is so sadly wanting in our own. We 

 must not make our lives conform to our buildings, but our build- 

 ings must conform to our lives. They must express not only our 

 culture and our tastes, but the land in which we live and the en- 

 vironment in which we are placed. This can never be accom- 

 plished by erecting buildings for their exterior only, and until our 

 architects learn to treat the plan and disposition of the building 

 as the chief part of the structure we can never hope to be rid of 

 the discomfort that makes so much of our daily life unbearable. 

 The Gothic builders achieved success, not because their buildings 

 were beautiful only, but because they filled every natural require- 

 ment. It is impossible to delude ourselves with the thought that 

 we are equally successful simply because we happen to live in a 

 house with a Gothic front, but which subjects us to hourly an- 

 noyances by the total absence of the conveniences and necessaries 

 of modern daily life. 



Botany, said Prof. Marshall Ward, in the British Association, ought to he 

 taught in schools because of the interest which the subject arouses in tbe mind of 

 a child and the ease with which it can be taught. The study cultivates and stimu- 

 lates those powers of accurate observation and comparison and conscientious 

 recording of results so much needed by all, and which come naturally to children 

 who are not too much under the bane of a mere instruction system. The value of 

 such teaching is not to be measured by the number and kind of facts remembered, 

 any more than historical knowledge consists of being able to remember the dates 

 of battles and other events. The elements of botany afford to the teacher the 

 cheapest, the cleanest, and the most convenient means of cultivating in young 

 children the power of observation and comparison direct with nature, and after- 

 ward teaching them to generalize. 



