106 THE president's ADDRESS. 



surprise when awakened to the results. In any study or pursuit 

 there are two possible sources of advantage. There is, first, the 

 practical utility of the knowledge gained, or the object attained; 

 and secondly, the beneficial effect of the study or pursuit upon the 

 mental or physical powers of the individual. The former may be 

 considered as indicating in a certain sense the commercial — the latter 

 the educational — advantage of the study or pursuit. 



Now when we consider the subject from the point of view I have 

 thus hastily and imperfectly indicated, it becomes easy to see how 

 valuable an aid the microscope may be in the process of general 

 education, and how much more widely than is often supposed it 

 is capable of being rendered useful. 



Allow me to offer you two or three illustrations of the educational 

 aspects of the use of the microscope. 



First, — with regard to the Senses. In the work of education, as 

 ordinarily understood, no systematic attempt is made, so far as I 

 know, to educate the faculty of observation. Attempts are made 

 to strengthen the memory, to draw out and exercise the calcula- 

 ting and reasoning faculties, and to teach discrimination in the use 

 of language. At any rate, school and college studies are com- 

 monly accredited as being attempts having such tendencies. But 

 the observing faculties are too often left to take their chance — to 

 be awakened by accident, and fostered and developed by fortuitous 

 circumstances. The playground, the cricket field, and out-of-school 

 occupations thus afford opportunities not supplied in the class room, 

 or at the Professor's lecture. But systematic cultivation is need- 

 ful for the production of the finest fruits and best results. The 

 education of the observing faculties being thus neglected, naturally 

 enough the importance of accurate observation is liable to be 

 ignored. To the mere word-weaver, however clever — to the mere 

 reason er, however logical — the easy fictions of the imagination are apt 

 to be as acceptable as the hard facts of observation. A most emi- 

 nent logician and divine is said to have been a disciple of Hahne- 

 mann the Globulist ; and a most distinguished mathematician has 

 been believed to be an ally of Home the Spiritualist. There is 

 nothing surprising in this. The study of mathematics and logic 

 does not necessarily involve the cultivation of the powers of obser- 

 vation and investigation. But it is impossible that the wqJI edu- 

 cated observer — the rightly trained investigator — could ever accept 

 the absurd conclusions attributed to the acute logician and the ac- 



