212 Prolf^essor E. T^i^bfes's LhciiiW'^l iHe ''itnattotis 



depend, lias been neglected <ir'eVeii ehtirelyigndi^ed.' Yet^yo^^^^^ 

 truly, to note accurately, are surely qualities of essential importance 

 to the wellbeing and future prospects of every youth. The suc- 

 cessful progress of a man through life, the weight attached to his 

 statements, must, in a great measure, depend upon them. The 

 simplest, easiest, and most beneficial method of cultivating the ob- 

 serving powers lies in the acquirement of the methods and practice 

 pif the natural history sciences. Ignorance alone could have ex- 

 cluded them from recognised courses of education. Though partly 

 taught in some of our universities, it is as branches of knowledge 

 usually in connection with the enlightened profession of medicine, 

 and not on account of their value in educational training. Of late, 

 however, there has been a tendency to rectify this. Oxford and 

 Cambridge have recognised, in theory at least, the right of natural 

 history to share in their honours. Their younger sister, London, 

 with the timidity of youth, has hesitated to pronounce in its favour. 

 In the metropolitan colleges, and the universities of Scotland and 

 Ireland, the natural history sciences are taught by able professors ; 

 but the total number of their unprofessional disciples is small, and 

 cannot be said to be increasing. In schools of lesser grade they as- 

 sume, when professed to be taught at all, the form of intellectual 

 recreations ; not that of exercises, and strengtheners of the mind of 

 the pupil. The time, I trust, will yet come when every student will 

 be required to educate his observing powers through the agency of 

 ' l^ese delightful branches of study. '^''i^^ ^'^'' *^^-^*^^ l-"-^ > .■ 



' "' The earliest efforts of infant intellect^Kr#*mrecSea*tbw^Wis the 

 observation of natural objects. Animals, plants, minerals, are col- 

 lected by the schoolboy, who delights to note their shape and qualities, 

 and rudely to compare and classify. But the thirst for natural know- 

 ledge thus early and unmistakeably manifested, is rudely quenched 

 by unpalatable draughts of scholastic lore, administered too often by 

 a tastless pedagogue, who, blind to the indications of a true course 

 of education, thus plainly pointed out by human nature, developing 

 itself according to the laws of its own God-given constitution, prunes 

 and trims, binds and cramps, the youthful intellect into traditional 

 and fantastic shapes ; even as the gardeners of a past age tortured 

 shrubs and trees into monstrous outlines, vainly fancying to improve 

 their aspect, arresting the growth of the spreading boughs and the 

 budding of the clustering foliage, mistaking an unhealthy formality 

 for beauty. Far be it from me to disparage the educational value 

 of the glorious literature of Greece and Rome, or to withhold due 

 honour from the many able and learned men who give dignity to 

 their profession as educators. To them I would appeal for the rec- 

 tifying of the evils of a one-sided education. I would implore them, 

 in the name of Aristotle, the greatest of naturalists, and most ad- 

 mirable of observers — how great otherwise none know better than 

 they do — to avail themselves of that science upon which he laid so 



