338 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



who is properly described in the terms of the popular ex- 

 pression — He's a knowing fellow — which implies something 

 more than the mere possession of knowledge, namely, the 

 power to use it properly and with effect. There is every 

 difference, in fact, between the scientific and the merely 

 learned man. To be scientific is to be as far as possible 

 exact in thought, deed, and word ; to act with a purpose and 

 after due and careful consideration ; to be observant and 

 thoughtful ; to be logical and methodical ; to be guarded but 

 fearless in opinions and judgment : and it is because we are 

 so rarely all these that we are so rarely truly scientific. 



Unfortunately the word science is now associated in the 

 popular mind with certain branches of natural knowledge, 

 and it is because these are generally regarded as of import- 

 ance only to those whose special business it is to attend to 

 them that the proper application of the term is lost sight 

 of. 



I am not here to speak of science teaching — I do not 

 know what that is — but of scientific teaching ; of the method 

 of teaching scientifically, that is to say, exactly and pro- 

 perly. I am really speaking on the very subject on which 

 Professor Herkomer dilated ; we are both pleading one 

 cause although on behalf of somewhat different interests, 

 and mine is the wider plea, and will, in fact, include his. 

 He was the advocate of a practical workshop method of 

 art tuition, under a teacher free as well as competent to 

 consider the peculiar qualities and requirements of his 

 pupils ; of a method of so training students as to develop 

 to the utmost their individual innate talents, instead of 

 turning out a set of mechanical automata, blind followers 

 of fashion. I desire to urge that whatever we teach, our 

 method shall be scientific, so that students, in proportion to 

 their abilities, may learn to honestly and usefully apply 

 whatever knowledge they may become possessed of. 



Institutions such as this have a great field of usefulness 

 before them if all their work be done from such a stand- 

 point ; if it be not they will be absolute and costly failures. 

 I much fear that unless a change in policy, almost amounting 

 to a revolution, take place in many of the schools throughout 



