118 LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS, [vi 



spirit, and indebted for his best products to her methods. 

 I believe that the greatest intellectual revolution man- 

 kind has yet seen is now slowly taking place by her 

 agency. She is teaching the world that the ultimate 

 court of appeal is observation and experiment, and not 

 authority ; she is teaching it to estimate the value of 

 evidence ; she is creating a firm and living faith in the 

 existence of immutable moral and physical laws, perfect 

 obedience to which is the highest possible aim of an 

 intelligent bein^. 



But of all this your old stereotyped system of educa- 

 tion takes no note. Physical science, its methods, its 

 problems, and its difficulties, will meet the poorest boy 

 at every turn, and yet we educate him in such a manner 

 that he shall enter the world as ignorant of the existence 

 of the methods and facts of science as the day he was 

 born. The modern world is full of artillery ; and we 

 turn out our children to do battle in it, equipped with 

 the shield and sword of an ancient gladiator. 



Posterity will cry shame on us if we do not remedy 

 this deplorable state of things. Nay, if we live twenty 

 years longer, our own consciences will cry shame on us. 



It is my firm conviction that the only way to remedy 

 it is, to make the elements of physical science an integral 

 part of primary education. I have endeavoured to show 

 you how that may be clone for that branch of science 

 which it is my business to pursue ; and I can but acid, 

 that I should look upon the clay when every school- 

 master throughout this land was a centre of genuine, 

 liowever rudimentary, scientific knowledge, as an epoch 

 in the history of the country. 



But let me entreat you to remember my last words. 

 Addressing myself to you, as teachers, I would say, mere 

 book learning in physical science is a sham and a 

 delusion — what you teach, unless you wish to be impos- 



