PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 957 



of ordinary native ability, have usually approved themselves 

 among the most thorough linguists of the eiasses to which they 

 belonged. There is no doubt that tAvo years is as good as two 

 dozen for the acquisition of all tiiat our colleges require of prepa- 

 ration in the classics, provided violence be not done to nature by 

 forcing the study upon minds unprepared to receive it. 



During the earlier period now occupied with weary, and to a 

 great degree profitless, labor over uncongenial studies, I w^ould 

 introduce, first, the sciences of classification, embraced under the 

 general name of Natural History — as botany, zoology, mineralogy. 

 No subjects are l:)etter suited than these to gratify the eager 

 curiosity of the growing mind ; to satisfy its cravings after posi- 

 tive knowledge ; to keep alive the activity of the perceptive 

 powers; to illustrate the beauty and value of method, and to lead 

 to the formation of methodical habits of thought. That these sub- 

 jects will interest children of very early years, and that such 

 children will require no painful constraint to secure their atten- 

 tion to them, I have myself seen experimentally verified ; and the 

 testimony of Professor Hooker, before the Koyal Commissioners 

 appointed to inquire into the condition of the public schools of 

 England, in regard to the success of his distinguished relative, 

 Prof. Henslow, in gi\*ing instruction in the same subjects in one 

 of the humblest schools of England, is conclusive to the same 

 eifect. The lessons of Professor Henslow were given to children 

 between the aijes of eig^ht and fifteen. The attendance was alto- 

 gether voluntary. The children became deeply interested in the 

 subject of botany, learned to analyze and classify plants, to dis- 

 tinguish the relations of the parts of plants to each other, and of 

 one plant to another. The result was a very obvious improve- 

 ment in the powers of observation and of reasoning, and an 

 increase of general intelligence. These effects were so sensibly 

 manifest, that some of the inspectors of the schools remarked that 

 these children A^^ere decidedly more intelligent than those of other 

 parishes, and attributed the fact to the training which their 

 observant and reasoning powers had received from this instruction. 



Along with these sciences, I would teach those Avhich depend 

 on observation and experiment, embracing chemistry and the vari- 

 ous branches of physics. As in natural history we have classifi- 

 cation of individuals referred to form, so here we have classifica- 

 tion of facts and phenomena referred to law. These sciences pre- 

 sent the happiest examples of reasoning in both the inductive and 



