428 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



somewhere in tlie golden mean between these two extremes, of science supreme 

 over the arts and subordinate to the arts. She must be neither mistress nor 

 slave, but the thrifty helpmate. Science is to be wooed and won by treating 

 her according to her nature; she is ever shy of tliose who distrust or maltreat 

 her. By this I mean that the study of science must always be with the genu- 

 ine spirit of enquiry. The youth who cannot bring to his study an honest love 

 of it can never succeed in any science. This implies the need of encouraging 

 as early as may be the inquisitive tendency of children, by directing their en- 

 ergies toward finding their own questions and the proper answers in nature 

 itself. This is easily done with but little knowledge of scientific matters and 

 with no familiarity in scientific terms. Let the boys gather their little muse- 

 ums of woods and stones and bones and birds' eggs, and even of skins and 

 fish and reptiles, always keeping alive the one object-knowledge. Thus their 

 observing faculties are quickened and trained, while they gain an experimental 

 knowledge of nature right at home, which serves as the very best of introduc- 

 tions to the broad fields of natural history. The grand scheme of classifica- 

 tion in zoology becomes a most desirable acquisition to one who has already 

 traced resemblances and differences of the nicest shade in his own surround- 

 ings. The scientific arrangement of botanical facts is gladly welcomed by one 

 who has grasped after such truths in childhood. Meanwhile this early crude 

 inquiry is a most excellent stimulant to ingenuity and tact. AVhat can more 

 fully tax the creative faculties of a boy of ten or twelve, than to gather, pre- 

 pare and arrange a cabinet of minerals or plants or animal products. The 

 mother who cannot afford a corner for such "litter" may be thankful if she 

 meet no worse disgrace; and the father wlio treats the boy's treasures of this 

 kind as rubbish, may wish for riddance of a rubbish of bad habits far more 

 annoying. 



The next step will be to call in the aid of books. A child-student of nature 

 will learn to read about animals, flowers and natural scenery without being 

 driven to the task ; and if his judgment has had due range at home, even those 

 strange mixtures of fact and fancy called travels cannot do him serious harm, 

 for he becomes a natural critic. 



In the schools, so far, the child has been occupied witli the very fundamen- 

 tals of all training, and these will seem to have found their use immediately. 

 The skillful teacher knows how to take advantage of these natural incentives, 

 so as to make a double advancement possible by adding to ability as well as 

 to knowledge. Even taste and character can be develoi)cd in the very rudest 

 surroundings by aid of such a hold upon the childish nature. I have some- 

 times wished, as duty brought me into the summer country schools, where the 

 little five and six year olds alternately read and play and sleep, that dame 

 nature miglit be more the mistress there. What a world of intelligence might 

 be awakened in those drowsy little pates by establishing a temporary cabinet 

 of curiosities ! 



But advancing to the higher education, we shall find the same laws of devel- 

 optnent. The elements of scientific truth, whether in language, mathematics, 

 natural history, chemistry or philosophy, must always bo the means of mental 

 discipline ; and the more extensive the view which can be actually gained, in- 

 telligently, the better the drill for observation, judgment, retentiveness and all 

 tliose really practical qualities which give genuine mental al)ility. By an exten- 

 sive view 1 by no means intend to encourage that immense multiplication of 

 facts by which the whole universe is poured through the memory, catching in 

 its meshes barely long enougli to be recited. All the facts I would have so 



