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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



at some little coils there, ponder on the 

 blaze of light that has been shed over 

 the whole world from the dimly lighted 

 cupboard in which these coils now lie. 

 Then he may realize that while the 

 earth as a magnet has endured for all 

 time, the earth as a tramway conductor 

 may at no distant date be relegated to 

 the class of temporary makeshifts, and 

 that the raids of the feudal baron into 

 the agricultural fields of his neighbors 

 ■were not more barbarous than the 

 alarms and excursions of the tramway 

 engineer into the magnetic fields of his 

 friends." 



Teaching' the Teachers. — The fol- 

 lowing suggestive paragraph is taken 

 from the inaugural address of William 

 Henry Preece, president of the British 

 Institution of Civil Engineers: " Our 

 educational methods have begun at the 

 wrong end. We ought to teach the 

 masters first and then the men. More- 

 over, we have to teach the teachers and 

 those who have control of the purse- 

 strings. The County Councils of Eng- 

 land are scarcely qualified as yet to 

 discharge the very serious duty of 

 properly dealing with a question so few 

 of them understand — though many of 

 them have tackled the matter manfully, 

 especially the London County Council, 

 through its Technical Education Board, 

 on which a large proportion of co-opted 

 experts have seats, who, by supporting 

 existing institutions, have contributed 

 toward the supply of teachers. But 

 how are we to approach the masters? 

 A fault once discovered is halfway to 

 repair. It is diificult to remove the 

 scales from the eyes of the man who has 

 been successful in business and knows 

 not of his blindness; but the coming 

 generation will be more enlightened, 

 and the future masters better educated. 

 We are suffering from a lack of com- 

 petent teachers. A teacher Avho has 

 had no training in the practical world 

 is worse than useless, for he imparts 

 ideas derived from his inner conscious- 

 ness or from the false teaching of his 

 own abstract professor, which lead to 

 mischief. In my own experience 1 have 

 met with very serious inconveniences 

 from this cause. The ideal professor of 

 pure abstract science is a very charm- 

 ing personage, but he is a very arrogant 

 and dogmatic individual, and, being a 



sort of little monarch in his own labo- 

 ratory and lecture room, surrounded by 

 devoted subjects, his word is law, and 

 he regards the world at large, especially 

 the practical world, as outside his do- 

 main and beneath his notice. He is 

 generally behind the age. These are 

 not the men for technical institutes. 

 Such teachers should possess the diplo- 

 ma of this institution." 



The People of India and the Mis- 

 sionaries. — In the light of three 

 months' special observation, J. T. Sun- 

 derland has reviewed in the New World 

 Magazine the prospects of the success 

 of Christian missions in India. There 

 are several causes that hinder their 

 progress, among which the author men- 

 tions as more important the number 

 of Christian sects and denominations; 

 the character of the doctrines preached, 

 in that in many aspects they do not 

 appeal to Hindu or Mohammedan faith 

 or modes of thought, and in some con- 

 tradict them, and as to those points are 

 a serious hindrance to the progress of 

 Christianity; and the vices of many 

 Europeans, creating a prejudice against 

 their professed religion that is not 

 wholly contradicted by the testimonies 

 and examples of the missionaries and 

 men of nobler stamp. To the last ob- 

 jection the answer is easy, though it 

 may not always be convincing, that 

 these wicked men sin not because they 

 are natural products of Christianity, 

 but because they disobey it. A strong 

 factor in disarming prejudice against 

 Christianity and winning favor for it 

 is the fact that through it, directly or 

 indirectly, certain very important kinds 

 of good are coming to India — education, 

 schools, books, science, invention. The 

 contact of India with Christian lands, 

 civilization, thought, and life, is stead- 

 ily telling upon Indian thought. Fur- 

 ther, " it is to be said to the honor of 

 all the Protestant missions of India, at 

 least, of whatever name, that they are 

 helping, instructing, and lifting up the 

 lower classes, and offering them hopes 

 and prospects such as they could not 

 have had under their old faiths. This 

 is much, very much." The very pres- 

 ence of the missionary in a community 

 is likely to be an enlightening influ- 

 ence. He is a man of more than com- 

 mon education, and " has brought with 



