EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. xi 



printed word it has been found necessary to re-en- 

 force the reading in the school by supplementary 

 reading at home. Books of the same grade of diffi- 

 culty with the reader used in school are to be pro- 

 vided for the pupil. They must be so interesting 

 to him that he will read them at home, using his time 

 before and after school, and even his holidays, for 

 this purpose. 



But this matter of familiarizing the child with the 

 printed word is only one half of the object aimed at 

 by the supplementary home reading. He should 

 read that which interests him. He should read that 

 which will increase his power in making deeper 

 studies, and what he reads should tend to correct his 

 habits of observation. Step by step he should be 

 initiated into the scientific method. Too many ele- 

 mentary books fail to teach the scientific method be- 

 cause they point out in an unsystematic way only 

 those features of the object which the untutored 

 senses of the pupil would discover at first glance. It 

 is not useful to tell the child to observe a piece of 

 chalk and see that it is white, more or less friable, 

 and that it makes a mark on a fence or a wall. Sci- 

 entific observation goes immediately behind the facts 

 which lie obvious to a superficial investigation. 

 Above all, it directs attention to such features of the 

 object as relate it to its environment. It directs at- 

 tention to the features that have a causal influence in 

 making the object what it is and in extending its 

 effects to other objects. Science discovers the recip- 

 rocal action of objects one upon another. 



