18 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



phenomena, what is cognizable by the senses and the senses alone. 

 It is hopeless for the most gifted human being to attempt to 

 realize the taste of an apple if he has not had the actual experi- 

 ence. It is idle to read a poem on a sunset to the man that never 

 saw light. We will all admit this ; but do we not ignore this very- 

 plain conclusion in our teaching ? In even the best schools, pure 

 abstractions, or the use of words that can convey no definite mean- 

 ing because not founded on any sensory experience to the learner, 

 are still too common. Words have but one use — to express knowl- 

 edge, not to impart it. I greatly wish I could adequately impress 

 this simple truth on those I address, especially the young teach- 

 ers before me. 



How often do we forget that one may have a vast amount of 

 real knowledge of a subject who has never read a page written 

 upon it; while no amount of verbiage can supply those sensory 

 impressions which are essential to all real understanding of the 

 properties of matter ! The very first advance the infant makes 

 toward knowledge, real knowledge, is when it first looks out on 

 the world or moves its tiny limbs. 



Now, if we would but imitate Nature, or rather assist and not 

 impede her, all would be well. It is a source of great gratifica- 

 tion to me that I am in this connection able to refer to one edu- 

 cational method that does almost perfectly realize the true ideal 

 — the kindergarten. The kindergarten was the invention or dis- 

 covery of a man that got very near to Nature; and had we, led 

 by the light of his genius, but followed, happy would it have 

 been for our education since that time. It is humiliating to 

 think of the long period of stupid blundering through which we 

 have passed. Schools and colleges alike have till recently re- 

 pressed and dwarfed rather than developed man's intellect in 

 the natural way. It were not possible but that Burns's satire 

 should apply, speaking of colleges, "They went in sturks and 

 came out asses." 



Think of what we have passed through ! Arithmetic without 

 any basis of concrete perception or practical application ; geogra- 

 phy, confined to knowing right and left, up and down, in and out, 

 on a flat surface or " map," with certain names attached to these 

 forms that suggested no realities ; reading that was necessarily 

 uninteresting and lifele'ss because the things described were not 

 within the child's experience, and so were not realized ; grammar ! 

 — that last straw to break the long-suffering learner's back — 

 grammar that was the worst bore of all, because introduced at 

 a period when the mind was unfitted for abstractions and so 

 became divorced from all that was real and practical. 



Is it any wonder that farmers and business men complained 

 that such an education was no fitting preparation for real life ? 



