SCHOOL-CULTURE OF OBSERVING FACULTIES. 175 



of you will take, say, a second class through the first twenty exercises 

 in Miss Youmans's little book, working them out conscientiously and 

 thoroughly, I do not hesitate to predict that that class will by this 

 means acquire more real knowledge and more intellectual power than 

 it would acquire from all the reading, writing, and ciphering done in 

 the first four classes, if done without such a course. Furthermore, 

 the power gained and the habits acquired in the study of plants, or 

 even in the examination of leaves, will not be confined solely to these, 

 but will be directed to and exercised upon all other objects coming 

 within the range of the children's observation ; thus their general 

 knowledge will be extended, and, as a result, your pupils will read 

 with more intelligence and with fuller comprehension of what they are 

 reading about. As for arithmetic — and here I can speak with some 

 authority — you will find that you have somehow bridged over the to 

 many seemingly impassable gulf between the mere art of ciphering 

 and the application of that art to the resolution of numerical problems. 

 Words will no longer be mere vacant forms or empty sounds, their 

 content will be restored to them, the data of the problem will be men- 

 tally realized, and their interrelations discovered and comprehended. 

 In nine cases out of ten, it is the inability to realize the data, to pro- 

 ject before the mind's eye a picture of the reality, that is the actual 

 stumbling-block in the way of children who fail in the solution of 

 arithmetical problems. 



But the work had better not be done at all if it be not done thor- 

 oughly and conscientiously. All that can be done in a text-book is 

 merely to set up numerous finger-posts to guide the student or the 

 teacher ; the scenery on the route can not be presented in all its full- 

 ness of detail, with all its play of light and shade ; to behold it one 

 must actually travel the road. In the course of teaching these twenty 

 exercises, thousands of questions will arise of whys and wherefores, 

 some of which you will have to put aside for the time being at least ; 

 but to others you must lead your children to find the answers for them- 

 selves. All these questions can not possibly be anticipated in any 

 book ; and it is well they can not be so, for, ever new, ever changing, 

 they afford mental exercise to the teacher as well as to the pupils, and 

 thus prevent any danger of stagnation on either side. Let me take in 

 illustration a very simple question ; one interesting to myself person- 

 ally, because it was the first botanical problem I ever solved, but 

 which, if the solution be properly generalized, is interesting in itself 

 as giving the key to many peculiarities in the forms and markings of 

 leaves. 



When I was but a lad at school, a fellow-pupil, the son of a 

 farmer, told me that on the back of every green blade of oats there 

 was legibly stamped a capital B. I laughed at him for his simplicity 

 in thinking he could make me believe such an " old wife's fable " ; 

 but he indignantly replied that not only had his father told him of 



