I 88 SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS. 



physics or chemistry, let him put his students to work in meteorol- 

 ogy, and, with the simplest appliances, examine the changes in 

 the sky. 13ut the teacher who is inclined to botanical study might 

 make use of the botanical outline for his pupils, and the chemically 

 inclined, the chemical one, and so on. The teacher would naturally 

 use that study which he likes best as the entering wedge to secure 

 a little preliminary training in scientific method, and he would 

 let the other outlines alone. In this way we ought to obtain for 

 our pupils efficient instruction in the method of some one science. 

 It is inconceivable that the range of selection which I have sug- 

 gested should not be sufficiently large to meet every case. At 

 any rate, if a teacher couldn't find some one outline which he or 

 she could make use of, that teacher is not fit to be trusted with a 

 school or a child. 



Thus, according to my proposition, the grammar-school 

 teacher would have a well-edited compend of the rudiments of 

 the various sciences tributary to the study of Physical Geography, 

 and in this coordinated handbook would be given the methods 

 for simple practical laboratory work in the beginnings of each of 

 those sciences, one of which i/iust supplement the mechanical 

 teaching and the learning by rote. It appears to me a matter of 

 absolute indifference which science is studied for a glimpse of 

 scientific method ; one is as good as another. Tiie main thing is 

 to wean the helpless from the book as their exclusive source of 

 nourishment ; for this study of nature a cloud is as good a thing 

 to examine as a plant or a butterfly. 



One of the chief advantages to be gained by the pupil would be 

 the recognition of the fact that the scientific method is apj)licable 

 to every branch of study. In fact, it has won some of its greatest 

 victories in fields remote from the territory occupied by the 

 sciences properly so called. Faithfully studied, and honestly 

 used as a guide, the simple treatise would place every pupil in 

 possession of a few uncontroverted facts and fundamental prin- 

 ciples in the elementary physical and natural sciences. 



More than this, and better than this, it would show each pupil 

 what is meant by scientific method. We believe, do we not, that 

 tiie true scientific method is characterized by singleness of pur- 

 pose, directness of aim, thoroughness, and absolute truthfulness; 

 that it stands inflexibly op])osed to aimlcssness, supcrficialit}', and 

 lack of candor. 



