68 LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS. [iv. 



Tliose who urge the difficulty of instructing young 

 people in science are apt to forget another very im- 

 portant condition of success — important in all kinds of 

 teaching, but most essential, I am disposed to think, 

 when the scholars are very young. This condition is, 

 that the teacher should himself really and practically 

 know his subject. If he does, he will be able to speak 

 of it in the easy language, and with the completeness 

 of conviction, with which he talks of any ordinary 

 every-day matter. If he does not, he will be afraid to 

 wander beyond the limits of the technical phraseology 

 which he has got up ; and a dead dogmatism, which 

 oppresses, or raises opposition, will take the place of 

 the lively confidence, born of personal conviction, which 

 cheers and encourages the eminently sympathetic mind 

 of childhood. 



I have already hinted that such scientific training as 

 we seek for may be given without making any extra- 

 vagant claim upon the time now devoted to education. 

 We ask only for " a most favoured nation " clause in our 

 treaty with the schoolmaster ; we demand no more than 

 that science shall have as much time given to it as any 

 other single subject — say four hours a week in each class 

 of an ordinary school. 



For the present, I think men of science would be well 

 content with such an arrangement as this ; but speaking 

 for myself, I do not pretend to believe that such an 

 arrangement can be, or will be, permanent. In these 

 times the educational tree seems to me to have its roots 

 in the air, its leaves and flowers in the ground ; and, I 

 confess, I should very much like to turn it upside down, 

 bo that its roots might be solidly embedded among the 

 facts of Nature, and draw thence a sound nutriment 

 for the foliage and fruit of literature and of art. No 

 educational system can have a claim to permanence, 



