156 TRANSACnOXS OK TIllR TI.f.TXOT:^; 



and probably more than all, that he w ill ever need to ])ut in practice. 

 But its del'iciency lies in this, that it teaches only what is local, special, 

 and exceptional; it gives no 'principles, no general information, no 

 knowledge winch can l)e applied under a change of circumstances.* 

 The intelligent child will not long rest satisfied with the knowledge 

 thus communicated. (His eager young mind would starve u])on such 

 exclusively ])ractical diet as this.) He will say, or may be imagined to 

 say : Yes, I think 1 am sufficiently familiar with these two or three dozen 

 species. 1 l)elicvc 1 know pretty well how to contend with them, and if 

 1 do not, J can mucji better learn what 1 actual!) need to know, when 

 the time comes, bv consulting some [)ractical treatise ui)()n the subject. 

 But how is it as respects the twenty-odd thousand species which I am 

 informed inhabit the State of Illinois alone. What business have they 

 here; what bearing have they on human interests, directly or indirectly; 

 what part do they enact in the curious and complicated economy of 

 nature; what can you tell me about these; what general principles can 

 you give me by which 1 can tell which of the hundreds of species that 

 i meet with, are likely to be injurious to me or not; or what general 

 rules arc there by which i can distinguish my friends from my enemies ? 

 These are some of the questions that will present themselves to the 

 mind of the empiiring child, and which our methods of teaching must 

 be prepared to meet before we can dignify them with the title of educa- 

 tion. 



There are two principal methods by which instruction is commu- 

 nicated ; first, by oral or conversational lessons on the part of the teacher ; 

 and second, by the aid of text-books. 



A very considerable diversity of opinion exists as to the value, or 

 necessity of text-books. The fact that teachers have been in the habit 

 of reiving too much uport such aids, and sometimes to the almost total 

 exclusion of Jhe great book of all, the book of nature itself, has 

 caused a reaction which is liable to run to the other extreme, and to dis- 

 parage the use of books almost entirely in teaching the natural sciences. 



A great deal of the uncertainty which in\'olves this subject is 

 cleared away by recognizing an imjtortant distinction which exists in 

 the requirements of the child and those of the more advanced student. 

 A child soon tires of books, and often fails to understand them, whilst 

 his attention is immediately arrested by the natural object itself, whether 

 it be a bird, a flower, or an insect. He cares but little what is said 

 about this object on the printed page, so long as he has the thing itself 

 before his eye, and a living teacher ready to explain it. But as he pro- 

 gresses in his studies, the case becomes changed ; after becoming suffi- 

 ciently familiarized with the objects of his study, a new desire arises; 

 he longs to know what the masters have said concerning them, and 

 what results have been arrived at by those who have gone before him 

 in this field, and who, by a life time, perhaps, of patient toil, have over- 

 come the obstacles which lie heavily in his path. 



* It does not so much as touch that higher department of education referred to by 

 B. Cuvier in the extract which we have read from his writings. 



