25 



and a cause (physical incapacity?). So, likewise, when we 

 find changes in the moods or qualities of dead matter, we 

 inquire what is the cause of these changes, and we always 

 find they have a cause.'* It would not, I think, be very 

 difficult to find what would be the consequence of such 

 teaching as this. For my part, I think it would be advan- 

 tageous to let the child prepare himself for physical studies 

 of this kind by learning such highly suggestive lines as the 

 following, from one of the most philosophical works that has 

 issued from the press for a long while : — 



" Far and few, far and few, 



" Are the lands where the Jumblies live ; 



" Their heads are green and their hands are blue, 

 " And they went to sea in a sieve, they did, 

 " In a sieve they went to sea." 



Now, I should be very sorry if anything that I have said 

 should lead you to suppose that I desire to depreciate physics 

 or any department of natural knowledge. For every branch 

 of human information I entertain the highest respect, and I 

 doubt if anyone feels more strongly than I do the desirability 

 of teaching science, and particularly certain departments of 

 physics ; but there is room for the greatest difierence of 

 opinion concerning what should be taught, and how the 

 teaching should be conducted. And pray do not suppose 

 that, because I have studied one subject, I am trying to raise 

 it in importance at the expense of another. I desire to see 

 all departments of science fairly taught and fairly treated. 

 No one person can follow more than one branch of investi- 

 gation. Of many subjects most of us must remain in total 

 ignorance ; and of those who love and live but to prosecute 

 one particular investigation, the great majority must submit 

 to be ignorant of many things well worth knowing, and that 

 they ought to know — but this will ever be. The man who 

 is most active and most successful in one line of work will 



