iv.] SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION. 71 



Ecclesiastically-minded persons are in the habit of 

 calling things they do not like by very hard names, and 

 I should not wonder if they brand the proposition I 

 am about to make as blasphemous, and worse. But, 

 not minding this, I venture to ask, Would there really be 

 anything wrong in using part of Sunday for the purpose 

 of instructing those who have no other leisure, in a 

 knowledge of the phenomena of Nature, and of mans 

 relation to Nature ? 



I should like to see a scientific Sunday-scbool in every 

 parish, not for the purpose of superseding any existing 

 means of teaching the people the things that are for 

 their good, but side by side with them. I cannot but 

 think that there is room for all of us to work in helping 

 to bridge over the great abyss of ignorance which lies 

 at our feet. 



And if any of the ecclesiastical persons to whom I 

 have referred, object that they find it derogatory to the 

 honour of the God whom they worship, to awaken the 

 minds of the young to the infinite wonder and majesty 

 of the works which they proclaim His, and to teach 

 them those laws which must needs be His laws, and 

 therefore of all things needful for man to know — I can 

 only recommend them to be let blood and put on low 

 diet There must be something very wrong going on 

 in the instrument of logic, if it turns out such conclu- 

 sions from such premises. 



