SCHOOL-CULTURE OF OBSERVING FACULTIES. 173 



sumed to be studying, yet in the above paragraph he presents us with 

 an argument which would be amusing had it come from the pen of a 

 mere literary man, but which it is almost impossible to believe a cul- 

 tivator of science could advance in sober earnest. What would have 

 been the thoughts and feelings of the professor had one of his pupils, 

 when asked to demonstrate the pons asinorum, returned answer : 



" Sir, my tutor was the Rev. Mr. Jones, of Westbury ; he is a 

 clergyman of mature knowledge, recognized ability, and blameless 

 character. Now, he assured me that he had examined Euclid's proof 

 of this proposition, and had found it to be correct, and as to doubt 

 his word would be to manifest irrational suspicion, and a want of 

 power to properly appreciate evidence, I accepted his testimony, and 

 I now offer it to you as my proof." 



I suspect that that pupil's ideas of proof would have received a 

 clearing up. lie would have learned that there are other kinds of 

 evidence besides oral testimony, and that it is as necessary to be able 

 to judge of the validity in each case, of these other kinds of evidence, 

 as it is to be able to judge of the value of testimony. He would 

 learn that, unless he were to be a professed mathematician, a knowl- 

 edge of the bare truth of the 2^07is asinorum was a matter of no 

 moment, the important thing was to see how that truth was arrived 

 at, and how it was demonstrated ; the educative factor present in the 

 study was the exercise of the reasoning faculties, and of the powers 

 of orderly arranging and of clearly presenting all the parts of a some- 

 what long argument. 



So in the experiment with the sovereign and the feather, the mere 

 testing of the truth or the falsehood of the statement that, if the re- 

 sistance of the air be got rid of, a feather will fall earthward as fast 

 as a sovereign, is not the chief thing aimed at. In fact, this state- 

 ment should not be advanced prior to the performance of the experi- 

 ment, but the fact stated in it should be discovered by the pupils for 

 themselves from the experiment ; and I beg to add that, had Professor 

 Todhunter ever actually tried the experiment with the common ap- 

 paratus, he would possibly have found the discovery of the fact 

 not quite so simple a matter for a boy as he evidently imagined it 

 to be. 



But Professor Todhunter, while admitting that a boy takes more 

 interest in seeing an experiment performed or in performing it for 

 himself than in merely hearing a statement of its truth, doubts the 

 educational value of the appeal to the senses. Any teacher of natural 

 science worthy of the name of teacher would from his experience be 

 able instantly to explain why this increase of interest, and instantly 

 to set all doubts regarding the matter to rest. There seetns in many 

 minds to he an almost total separation between loords and the things 

 they represent, except as regards constantly recurring incidents of their 

 daily life. Hence words seem to have no power in such cases to call 



