498 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



habits of animals might go along with any 

 other science as an out-door instructive 

 amusement, and be limited to no age. 



" Mr. Wilson talks of the difficulty of a 

 ' bored and weary schoolmaster teaching 

 science informally.' Passing by the fact 

 that, if he be bored and weary, it is largely 

 due to his own want of interest in teaching, 

 or in engaging that of his pupils, I would 

 maintain just the opposite opinion that, 

 assuming a teacher- to he such, informal 

 teaching in natural history has a wonderfully 

 invigorating effect, and reawakens the at- 

 tention which may have become dull by mo- 

 notony. Thus I have often found, during a 

 lesson in Latin, e. g., Yirgil's ' Georgics,' 

 passages to be constantly occurring when 

 ' collateral science ' can be invoked. And, 

 what is a proof of its value is, that it be- 

 comes suggestive to the pupils themselves, 

 so that I have been obliged to check the su- 

 perabundance of questions lest a Latin las- 

 son should resolve itself into one on natural 

 history. 



" Beyond such informal teaching as this 

 I would never encourage it as a principle for 

 teachers solely to act upon with young 

 children, though, of course, there need be 

 no restrictions in giving it them. But if sci- 

 ence is to be taught at all and all such in- 

 formal methods are not really teaching let 

 it be thorough as far as it goes, lest it should 

 lapse into a slipshod informality. It is the 

 charm of the schedule-system of botany 

 that it demands close and accurate observa- 

 tion in the dissections, and the writing com- 

 pels accuracy in the result, as well as im- 

 presses the facts firmly upon the memory." 



CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN 1876. 



One of the objects of this Govern- 

 ment, avowed by its founders in the 

 preamble to the Constitution, is to es- 

 tablish justice. The implication here 

 is that there are such things as human 

 rights which require to be protected, 

 and that it is the office of government 

 to enforce this protection. The first 

 utterance to the world of the American 

 people, in detaching themselves from 

 the parent-country and proclaiming 

 independence, was an affirmation of 

 "inalienable rights," to secure which 

 " governments are instituted among 

 men." We may infer from this that it 

 is the first, the supreme, and the ac- 

 knowledged duty of the governing 



power in society to guarantee the 

 rights of citizens, and to see to the 

 strict enforcement of justice. The pre- 

 sumption is that, in the free interactions 

 of citizens in the social state, wrongs 

 will occur, rights w T ill be violated, and 

 injustice be done. The innocent will 

 be circumvented by the crafty, the 

 weak will be oppressed by the strong, 

 the unscrupulous will combine to plun- 

 der the helpless, and, to prevent all 

 this, Legislatures enact laws, courts are 

 established, judges, sheriffs, and con- 

 stables appointed to carry them out 

 and secure the requirements of justice. 

 This is the boasted theory of our civil 

 institutions, but, after a hundred years 

 of experience and improvement and 

 progress, it is painful to note the enor- 

 mous gap that still exists between theory 

 and practice. That government should 

 fail to secure its great ends in a perfect 

 manner is what might be expected from 

 the imperfection of all human institu- 

 tions. Though devoted assiduously to 

 this great object, such are its difficul- 

 ties, and 3iich the ingenuity of the prac- 

 tised perpetrators of wrong, that we 

 should be entitled to expect from gov- 

 ernment only a very partial accom- 

 plishment of its purpose. Another and 

 a very powerful cause of the inefficient 

 execution of justice in society is, that 

 government perpetually forgets its su- 

 preme function, in the pursuit of other 

 ends. It attempts to do so many things 

 that it does nothing well, and sacrifices 

 the very object for which it was insti- 

 tuted, in the attempt to accomplish 

 others which it had no business to un- 

 dertake. Instead of confining itself vig- 

 orously to establishing justice in all the 

 relations of society, and then allowing 

 the widest liberty of individual action 

 and enterprise, it meddles with every- 

 thing and everybody, interfering, check- 

 ing, and restraining, where it should let 

 things alone, and undertaking to play 

 the part of Providence in controlling 

 the whole course of human interests. 

 Justice is thus not only neglected, but 

 injustice is wrought in all directions, 



