8oo POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to leave tlie mind dazed and discouraged, partly because the sugges- 

 tions made for the conquest of these obstacles, though easily for- 

 mulated in theory are difficult and sometimes impossible in prac- 

 tice, and partly because the general if not expressed tendency of 

 our analysis is (it may be said) in the direction of that Pyrrhonic 

 skepticism which " doomed men to perpetual darkness." To the 

 former objection I have only to reply that it is one to which all dis- 

 cussions of the principles and problems of conduct are necessarily 

 open. " If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, 

 chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' pal- 

 aces." * JSTone the less, to state as lucidly as we can what were 

 good to do under certain circumstances is properly regarded as part 

 of the business of ethics. The other point is touched upon by 

 Bacon himself in words which it would be impertinent to seek to 

 better: "It will also be thought that by forbidding men to pro- 

 nounce and set down principles as established until they have duly 

 arrived through the intermediate steps at the highest generalities, 

 I maintain a sort of suspension of the judgment, and bring it to 

 what the Greeks call acatalepsia — a denial of the capacity of the 

 mind to comprehend truth. But in reality that which I meditate 

 and propound is not acatalepsia, but eucatalepsia ; not denial of 

 the capacity to understand, but provision for understanding truly; 

 for I do not take away authority from the senses, but supply them 

 with helps; I do not slight the understanding, but govern it. And 

 better surely it is that we should know all that we need to know, and 

 yet think our knowledge imperfect, than that we should think our 

 knowledge perfect, and yet not know anything we need to know." 



MATHEMATICS FOR CIIILDREK 



By M. LAISANT. 



EXCEPT with persons having specially favorable surroundings, 

 I believe that the vast majority of parents have a feeling of 

 dread at the thought of putting their children to the study of mathe- 

 matics. They know that the child must learn something about 

 it in order to pass his examinations; but with this knowledge 

 goes an apprehension of loading his mind with those ideas which 

 are so complicated and hard to acquire, and we put off the dreaded 

 moment of setting him to work as late as possible. 



While I believe it is wise to spare the child all useless overwork, 

 I am persuaded also that the best way of sparing him is not to 



* This quotation is not from Bacon. 



