LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



THE PLACE, METHOD, AND ADVANTAGES OF 

 BIOLOG Y IN ORDINAR Y ED VGA TIOX. 



THE task of an educational apologist is one which, in 

 these days of the widespread recognition of the teachers 

 office and power, may be accounted as being almost of super- 

 fluous kind. Whatever need the past may have had of 

 educational reformers, the present requires no apologist to 

 advocate the extension of knowledge as a humanizing and 

 elevating influence in man's estate. Contented with the 

 three "R's," our predecessors might, and probably would, 

 have needed some forcible arguments to convince them 

 that their limitation of the branches of knowledge was in- 

 jurious. And it would have needed an exercise of much 

 apologetic skill to show them that the utter absence of 

 sympathy between their educational code and the after-life 

 of the pupil, was a most glaring fault and error in their 

 system of mind-training. Whilst, however, we may safely 

 congratulate ourselves upon the progressive character of the 

 movement of liberality in matters educational, it may not 

 be out of place to guard against the idea that further pro- 

 gress is unnecessary. We have gained a solid advance in 

 the necessary branches of education : it now remains for us 

 to further develop and differentiate these branches, accord- 



