64 ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE ii 



Florentine tells us are those who, during this life, 

 " wept when they might be joyful." 



But I shall be trespassing unwarrantably on 

 your kindness, if I do not proceed at once to my 

 last point — the time at which Physiological 

 Science should first form a part of the Curriculum 

 of Education. 



The distinction between the teaching of the 

 facts of a science as instruction, and the teaching 

 it systematically as knowledge, has already been 

 placed before you in a previous lecture: and it 

 appears to me that, as with other sciences, the 

 common fads of Biology — the uses of parts of the 

 body — the names and habits of the living creatures 

 which surround us — may be taught with advantage 

 to the youngest child. Indeed, the avidity of 

 children for this kind of knowledge, and the com- 

 parative ease with which they retain it, is some- 

 thing quite marvellous. I doubt whether any toy 

 would be so acceptable to young children as a 

 vivarium of the same kind as, but of course on a 

 smaller scale than, those admirable devices in the 

 Zoological Gardens. 



On the other hand, systematic teaching in 

 Biology cannot be attempted with success until 

 the student has attained to a certain knowledge 

 of physics and chemistry: for though the pha?- 

 nomena of life are dependent neither on physical 

 nor on chemical, but on vital forces, yet they 

 result in all sorts of physical and chemical 



