6 -LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



itself on every side to other departments of purely physical 

 inquiry. I need not discuss at any great length the equally 

 obvious manner in which biology merges, in one aspect at 

 least, into the domain of the metaphysician. The con- 

 sideration of a colony of social insects, and the investigation 

 of the wonderful phenomena presented to us in the daily 

 life of an ant or bee-community, introduce us to the study 

 of mental physiology, and open up to us the department of 

 psychology when we endeavour to compare the acts of the 

 insect with those of higher forms. To omit from physiology, 

 as a branch of biology, the due consideration of the phe- 

 nomena of mind, would be to imperfectly appreciate what 

 the study of physiological science involves. Whilst the 

 pursuit of the department of psychology to its ultimate 

 and practical end, brings us face to face with problems and 

 matters of the deepest social interest such as are well 

 exemplified in the relations of religious belief to mental 

 disposition, and in those which the psychologist may be led 

 to deduce between the mental and social disposition of 

 individuals, sects, or of the nation at large. 



The discussion of these preliminary points now leads 

 me to speak of the place which the study of biology may 

 reasonably hold in an ordinary school-curriculum. I may 

 be told by some that the place of biology is already re- 

 cognized, and that educationists are alive to its value and 

 power. My reply to this observation must be that I have 

 failed to obtain evidence that biology is recognized as a 

 branch of education proportionably to its value, or that it is 

 taught even in a small proportion of schools, as it should 

 be taught. I am fully aware that in some of our secondary 

 schools some one branch or other of biological science is 

 included in the list of studies. I know for example that 

 botany forms a summer study in many instances ; and that, 

 in the form of elementary book-lessons, physiology is at- 

 tempted to be taught to school-boys and school-girls. 

 I admit that in some of the larger endowed schools of 

 this country, and in a few private schools of large extent. 



