EDITOR'S TABLE. 



497 



mental needs of children, and the adap- 

 tation of objective studies to their early 

 cultivation. They would therefore hegin 

 with physics and chemistry when boys 

 and girls are old enough to commence 

 simple experimenting ; that is, at per- 

 haps the age of twelve or thirteen. Mr. 

 Wyles, of Allesley Park College, claims 

 to have had the best success with chem- 

 ical and physical experiments and the 

 use of the microscope, and he embodies 

 Ins views and results in the following 

 instructive passage: 



" I believe that such knowledge as I have 

 indicated may be profitably given even to 

 very young boys. They learn thereby to 

 distinguish the precise features and qualities 

 of natural objects, and the conditions of or- 

 dinary phenomena ; and such teaching un- 

 doubtedly exercises in the best way the ob- 

 serving powers, which develop much earlier 

 than the reflective faculty. I am inclined to 

 say that teaching elementary science to boys 

 from ten to thirteen is a greater success than 

 teaching grammar ; i. e., that the principles 

 involved are more easily seen, excite more 

 interest, and become therefore a better men- 

 tal discipline. We rarely have boys come 

 to us with any knowledge of science, and, 

 when they have, it has generally been ac- 

 quired from lectures, and is worthless as a 

 means of education. We do not lecture, but 

 do real hard class-work, and take periodical 

 examinations on this work, giving it equal 

 value in these and our grade examinations 

 with language and mathematics. We have 

 no reason to believe that this work interferes 

 with or deteriorates the work in language 

 and mathematics, in which subjects we find 

 our boys quite equal, and, except in very 

 rare cases, I may say, superior to incomers 

 of like power, and who have had no science- 

 teaching. 



" The great number of men eminent for 

 their vast scientific attainments, who have 

 achieved this eminence in spite of our non- 

 scientific, I may almost say anti-scientific 

 system of education, clearly indicates that 

 many of us have aninherentlscientific power 

 or genius surpassing our power in any other 

 direction. I plead for such that they have 

 the same chance of being floated on their 

 scientific voyage as the linguist and the 

 mathematician have on theirs: and I have 

 seen no satisfactory plea why they should 

 not. Value for value, I claim for the science- 

 man a higher status in our present social 



vol. ix. 32 



life than is due to either linguist or mathe- 

 matician. 



"My experience as a schoolmaster has 

 reveded to me many cases where the talent 

 for language or mathematics has been so 

 low that the education effected by these has 

 been of the meanest kind; or where the in- 

 cessant failure has produced a stolid igno- 

 rance, a kind of mental paralysis, most dis- 

 heartening to all concerned. Such cases 

 have come into my hands, aud I have seen 

 intelligence rekindled, and mental power 

 aroused, by simple science - teaching, and 

 the power even for other subjects enhanced 

 thereby." 



But there are others who insist that 

 scientific studies may and should begin 

 much earlier, and their view must be 

 adopted before society can ever reach 

 the solid and lasting advantages which 

 are to be gained by scientific education. 

 It is the teachers of natural history 

 that favor this view, maintaining that 

 the collection, observation, and com- 

 parison of plants, insects, shells, etc., 

 may be made highly instructive at a 

 period when chemical and physical ex- 

 periments may not be undertaken. The 

 Rev. George Henslow takes this de- 

 cided position, and, in replying to Mr. 

 Wilson, of Eugby, in Nature, of April 

 20th, he has the following remarks: 



" Before twelve, I agree with Mr. Wil- 

 son, that practical chemistry should not be- 

 gin. But, Mr. Wilson says, ' Science should 

 be introduced into a school, beginning at 

 the top and going downward gradually to a 

 point which will be indicated by experi- 

 ence.' Surely this is inverting a fundamen- 

 tal principle of education, and we may ask, 

 Why should science be thus singled out? 

 Why not begin at the top with Latin and 

 arithmetic and work downward? Science, 

 however, has its ' elements ' and its ' ad- 

 vanced' stages, like everything else. The 

 soundest method seems to me to select the 

 science for each age or capacity of pupils, 

 and for the teacher himself to adapt the 

 branch selected to them. Let him begin 

 with botany with children of the age of 

 six, if he pleases and by using the schedule 

 he will find it almost self-adapting to the 

 child's powers. Physical geography might, 

 come next, with pupils from eight to twelve ; 

 then the experimental sciences or geology 

 from twelve upward. The observing of the 



