258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



this inheritance is only potential : its realization depends partly on 

 education ; and the more of it there is, the more education is requisite. 

 The truth which the above opinion has mistaken is, that the power of 

 education is limited both for good and evil by the nature of a child. 

 But this truth the world did not wait for the theory of evolution to 

 reveal. The notion that character and understanding depend wholly 

 on the experience and training of the individual was never adopted 

 by common sense. It is everywhere recognized that no education, 

 however good, can insure against taking one of the by-paths of the 

 Pilgrim's Progress that man who has some deep ancestral taint — " a 

 bad avidge " one calls it in Cornwall (however that word should be 

 spelled). On the other hand, the first rule for a successful educator is 

 to get a good pupil. But this does not conflict with the further truth 

 that the greater natural potency of development which accompanies 

 civilization, makes the teacher's task not less necessary, but (as far as 

 it goes) more exacting, requiring greater care and skill ; since, first, the 

 subject to be trained becomes more complex and delicate ; secondly, 

 the time during which it requires supervision increases ; thirdly, the 

 changes occurring in it during that time are more numerous and less 

 predictable ; and, lastly (not to seek further reasons), the world to which 

 it is to be adapted grows far more complex and exigent. How rap- 

 idly the world has changed in the last three hundred years, and how 

 little scholastic education has tried to keep pace with it ! So much the 

 more desirable is it that the changes now inevitable should be made in 

 the light of scientific criticism. 



To the scientific criticism of education Mr. Sully brings every 

 requisite. A wide reputation as a psychologist guarantees the com- 

 petence of his theoretical knowledge. A deep and varied culture in 

 science, literature, and art enables him to survey the whole field of 

 labor. He has for a long time studied education as a science, and in 

 so doing has availed himself of all the work of his predecessors and 

 contemporaries both at home and abroad. "Whoever wishes to make 

 an exhaustive study of the subject will find in the appendices to his 

 chapters a sort of index to educational literature. Mr. Sully has, more- 

 over, direct experience of the difficulties of education both in its earli- 

 est and most advanced stages. Many of the anecdotes that enliven 

 his book bear the stamp of personal observation. And a humane and 

 serious spirit everywhere dispenses wisdom as well as knowledge. 



In this "Hand-book " education is, of course, treated in a broad and 

 general way, covering both the early years of training at home and 

 the later periods at school. But there would be manifest advantages 

 in treating these ages and conditions separately with more specific 

 detail. Again, while a work of this sort begins with psychological 

 principles and then proceeds to apply them to education, teachers 

 might be more readily interested by the method of beginning with the 

 particular problems and difficulties of their art, and then exhibiting 



