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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that can easily be remedied ; and, by 

 the aid of a little reflection and 

 experience, scientific instruction in 

 girls' schools can be so organized as 

 to produce the best results as regards 

 not only the direct imparting of sci- 

 entific knowledge, but also the in- 

 fusing of new life and significance 

 into other branches of study. 



We quite agree with our con- 

 tributor when she says that scientific 

 teaching unaccompanied by practical 

 work on the part of the student is a 

 very ineffectual, not to say wholly 

 useless, thing. Mere oral instruc- 

 tion or the study of text-books will 

 never impart any adequate sense of 

 the need for evidence or of the 

 nature of verification; far from 

 weakening, it can only tend to 

 strengthen the habit of dependence 

 on authority. But set young minds 

 to make their own observations and 

 draw their own conclusions, to veri- 

 fy experimentally the theories con- 

 tained in the text-books, instead of 

 simply taking them on trust, and 

 the intellectual benefit will be last- 

 ing and far-reaching. Lessons of 

 patience and exactness will be taught 

 that can not fail to be of value in 

 after life; and the highest purely in- 

 tellectual result of education will be 

 achieved in the acquisition of a true 

 conception of the manner in which 

 knowledge is built up and rational 

 certitude acquired in all matters ac- 

 cessible to the human mind. The 

 difference is vast between a mind 

 which knows what verification is, 

 what an experiment is, and one that 

 wholly lacks such knowledge. The 

 one can take a more or less accurate 

 measure of the facts of life and of any 

 given situation, while the other is to 

 a great extent at the mercy of hap- 

 hazard impressions. The one sails a 

 definite course, making the best use 

 of every wind; the other is apt to 

 change its course with every change 

 of wind. 



In girls' schools the study of sci- 

 ence assumes a specially important 

 function. The fashionable doctrine 

 to-day in some quartere is that there 

 is no sex in mind; but, for our own 

 part, we incline to think that even 

 in these latter times there is suffi- 

 cient difference in the mental habits 

 of men and women to render instruc- 

 tion in the facts and methods of sci- 

 ence of more pressing need from the 

 point of view of individual develop- 

 ment in the case of the latter than in 

 the case of the former. Writers who 

 are not open to the suspicion of 

 prejudice dwell on the greater " in- 

 stinctiveness " of women as com- 

 pared with men. Instinctiveness 

 may be a valuable quality, but it has 

 the drawback of dictating a very 

 summary and personal manner of 

 deciding questions which really de- 

 pend wholly on external evidence. 

 It is common enough among men 

 for the wish to be father to the 

 thought ; but in the case of women 

 we may use with considerable ap- 

 propriateness the ponderous para- 

 phrase of Dr. Johnson, and say that 

 "desire superinduces conviction." 

 Not merely a thought, be it remarked, 

 but conviction : and how convinced 

 a woman may be on the side of her 

 desires perhaps most i^eople have ex- 

 perienced. 



Some one may say that this is 

 an interesting condition of mind, 

 a kind of sweet unreasonableness, 

 which no one should seek to inter- 

 fere with. Banter of this kind may 

 at times be amusing, but it does not 

 decide any serious question. The 

 study of science affords precisely the 

 intellectual exercise best adapted to 

 check waywardness of thought and 

 bring the mind into a right relation 

 to the questions which have to be 

 faced in everyday life. It shows one 

 clear road, one well-established high- 

 way, to true conclusions, and reveals 

 the danger of short cuts and hasty 



