120 SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: v 



that he should not merely be told a thing, but 

 made to see by the use of his own intellect and 

 ability that the thing is so and no otherwise. 

 The great i)cculiarity of scientific training, that in 

 virtue of which it cannot be replaced by any 

 other discipline whatsoever, is this bringing of the 

 mind directly into contact with fact, and practising 

 the intellect in the completest form of induction; 

 that is to say, in drawing conclusions from par- 

 ticular facts made known by immediate observa- 

 tion of Xature. 



The other studies which enter into ordinary 

 education do not discipline the mind in this way. 

 Mathematical training is almost purely deductive. 

 The mathematician starts with a few simple propo- 

 sitions, the proof of which is so obvious that they 

 are called self-evident, and the rest of his work 

 consists of subtle deductions from them. The 

 teaching of languages, at any rate as ordinarily 

 practised, is of the same general nature, — author- 

 ity and tradition furnish the data, and the mental 

 operations of the scholar arc deductive. 



Again: if history be the subject of study, the 

 facts are still taken u])on the evidence of tradition 

 and authority. You cannot make a boy see the 

 l)attle of Thermojiyla} for himself, or know, of his 

 own knowledge, that Cormwell once ruled Eng- 

 land. There is no getting into direct contact with 

 natural fact by this road; there is no dispensing 

 with authority, but rather a resting upon it. 



