Rl'XORDS. 189 



Above all, it iiiiisl he ri-mciuhercd that our proposition would 

 meet the cases of the vast majority of our grammar and high 

 school pupils who cannot find time or means for a college course. 

 Even the slight glimpse, which such a work as that now referred 

 to would give, of scientilic data and scientilic incthotl, might ])rove 

 of lasting benefit. 



There are numerous objections to my suggestion. 



In the first place, it may seem too much like an attempt to pro- 

 vide a treatise on Qiiaternions in words of one syllable, or a 

 pocket encyclopedia for infimts. Hence it might be found 

 difficult to secure the separate contributions from authorities of 

 the first rank. But when I remember that first-class science 

 primers have been made by men who have a right to speak with 

 authority and at first hand, I have been encouraged to think that 

 our series of shorter science primers could be secured for the 

 composite which I have ventured to propose. It will be found 

 more diflicult to secure a proper editor for the coiirdinating of 

 these most rudimentary of primers. But there is one of our 

 former members in whose hands the work would be perfectly 

 safe, viz., President Stanley Hall. 



The second objection to the scheme is that it seems to be par- 

 tially analogous to what is called in agriculture the method of 

 ensilage. In ensilage almost anything, even remotely nutritious, 

 is cut fine enough and crowded with a host of odds and ends into 

 a receptacle known as a silo. In this silo, if the things are left 

 long enough, they are believed to undergo a change analogous 

 to fermentation by which the mass can be utilized as food for 

 animals. Now, it is no such incongruous ensilage that I beg for 

 our youth. I ask, simply and solely, for coordinated authoritative 

 primers, and for some selection in the matter of laboratory work. 



A third objection, and a weighty one, is that it might result in 

 evolving a good many students of that objectionable class who 

 know it all. Well, on the whole, if this book of coordinated 

 fragments could be made what I should wish, it would be well 

 worth learning, and its method well worth securing, and a 

 student who knew it all would be l)ettcr than the one who does 

 not know anything. 



I intrust to your charitable and serious consideration this frail 

 raft of suggestions, freighted though it is with a heavy weight 



