1884.] THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCES OF THE FAEM. 185 



Now, this great advance in knowledge, this revolution in meth- 

 ods by which ends are gained, has been largely brought about by 

 the use of what is sometimes called the "laboratory method" in 

 education; or, as others are pleased to call the simpler phases of 

 the same thing, " object teaching." To illustrate what 1 mean: no 

 instruction in the science of chemistry reaches its full value with- 

 out a laboratory for practice, where the student must do as well 

 as think while he is trying to unravel the mysteries of nature. 

 Actual experiment has been an essential factor in solving the 

 problems of nature. Before the use of the telescope and instru- 

 ments for accurate measurement, astronomy remained merely 

 astrology, and was the handmaid of superstition. Then, too, 

 chemistry was but alchemy, and experiment was more in the direc- 

 tion of magic than a search for truth. Physics remained where 

 the old Greeks left it, a collection of so-called philosophical deduc- 

 tions, until the experiments of Galileo began a new era in that 

 science. Medicine and the healing art were mostly empyricism 

 and quackery. Modern science has bettered all this, science based 

 on experiment as well as observation, where doing as well as 

 thinking is an essential part in the method of education. Experi- 

 ment, suggested and directed by intelligence ; experiment,' often 

 laboriously performed. In this way science has grown, and with 

 it all its beneficent works, increasing man's comforts, aiding his 

 arts, lengthening his life ; robbing pestilence and famine of most 

 of their terrors; adding to the wealth of the world; and spreading 

 civilization and Christianity. Hence we have chemical labora- 

 tories, physical laboratories, biological laboratories, physiological 

 laboratories, botanical laboratories, etc., where youth can be taught 

 and knowledge advanced, experiment and study going on to- 

 gether, reading along with observation, doing something while we 

 are thinking of the why. This is "the laboratory method," now 

 such a feature in modern education, so rapidly growing, and main- 

 tained at such enormous expense. The world is just seeing that 

 this is the great modern idea in education. 



But this is only a phase of what every farmer's boy enjoys. 

 This in a sense has been the regular way in which the American 

 farmer's boy has been educated. 



The farm is a stupendous laboratory. Here the learner is 

 brought in contact with the things as well as the words of the 

 world; he sees the prpcesses and phenomena of nature, and the 



