290 ON THE STUDY UF BiOLOGY x 



I have long advocated this view, and I am 

 perfectly certain that it can be carried out with 

 case, and not only with ease, but with very con- 

 siderable profit to those who are taught; but tlien 

 such instruction must be ada])ted to tlie minds 

 and needs of the scholars. Tliey used to have 

 a very odd way of teaching the classical languages 

 when I was a bov. The first task set vou was to 

 learn the rules of the Latin grammar in the 

 Latin language — that being the language you were 

 going to learn! I thought then that this was an 

 odd way of learning a language, but did not ven- 

 ture to rebel against the judgment of my supe- 

 riors. Xow, perhaps, I am not so modest as I was 

 then, and I allow mvsclf to think that it was 

 a very absurd fashion. But it would be no less 

 absurd, if we were to set about teaching Jji- 

 ology by putting it into the hands of boys a series 

 of definitions of the classes and orders of the 

 animal kingdom, and making them repeat thorn 

 by heart. Tluit is so very favourite a method of 

 teaching, that I sometimes fancy the spirit of the 

 old classical svstem lias entered into the new 

 scientific system, in which case I would much 

 rather tliat any pretence at scientific teaching 

 were al^olished altogether. Wliat really has to be 

 done is to eret into the vouno: mind some notion 

 of what animal and vegetable life is. In this 

 matter, you have to consider practical convenience 

 as well as other thin^js. There are difficulties in 



