PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION 



A GLANCE at the preface to the first Russian edition 

 will, I hope, convince the English reader that I was fully 

 aware of the exceptional difficulties of the task I had 

 undertaken. Seven editions in the course of thirty-five 

 years have in a certain degree contributed to dispel my 

 fears, but on being asked to give my assent to this 

 English translation I experienced afresh the same feeling 

 of diffidence at the prospect of addressing a new audi- 

 ence. Just at that moment I came across that admirable 

 article by Professor Armstrong on The Future of Science 

 in our Schools. 1 I was glad to see that not only .in its 

 general tendency, but even in the choice of matter and 

 in the order of exposition, my book seemed to answer 

 the present requirements of English schools as formu- 

 lated by so eminent an authority as Professor Armstrong. 

 The inspection of the table of contents of this book will 

 suffice to show that even in details it agrees with the 

 short programme proposed by Professor Armstrong 

 (I. c. p. 438, 439) ; both begin with the analysis of flour 

 and culminate in an exposition of Darwin's theory, 



' The main thing we ought to teach our youth is to see 

 something.' This maxim of John Ruskin, chosen by 

 Professor Armstrong as a heading to his article, has ever 

 been present to the author of this book. A pair of healthy 

 eyes and occasionally a good lens is all that is -required 



1 Presidential Address to the Association of Public School Science 

 Masters, delivered January I3th, 1910. Science Progress, January 1910, 

 p. 417. 



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