8 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



sapling, depending for nourishment upon mere chance kind- 

 ness, and which can hardly hope ever to assume the propor- 

 tions of a goodly tree of knowledge. I know of cases where 

 a science-teacher has succeeded in drawing a class around 

 him in an ordinary public school ; the numbers attending 

 the class, however, being, in respect of their paucity, out 

 of all proportion to that exhibited by the roll of available 

 attendance. On making inquiry into such cases, I have 

 invariably found that whilst the head-master or mistress, 

 as the case might be, sanctioned and approved of the class, 

 he or she took no further interest in its welfare. " You 

 may attend the science-class if you choose," was the under- 

 standing which existed between the pupils and the respon- 

 sible head of the school, who in some cases was, nevertheless, 

 liberal enough to make the science-class one open to the 

 entire school without extra charge. Yet the pupils them- 

 selves were left the sole judges as to the advantage or 

 necessity of attending the class. I need say nothing of the 

 wisdom of the practice of accrediting pupils with the power 

 of judging for themselves what they should or should not 

 study. Nor need I do more than point out that if science- 

 teaching be admitted and recognized in any school-curri- 

 culum, the pupils should no more as a matter of reason 

 and logic be left to decide the question of attendance for 

 themselves, than they should be allowed to select or reject 

 the other branches which are also admitted into the pro- 

 gramme of the school. The pupils might equally and as 

 feasibly be allowed to attend or reject an English or an 

 arithmetic class as they pleased, as to be allowed the option 

 of attending or not their science-class. Once let educa- 

 tionists recognize the science-teacher and his work, and they 

 do him the grossest injustice if they allow his success to be 

 determined by the tastes or dispositions of the pupils. It 

 is the true office, I should imagine, of the principal of a 

 school to foster and encourage a love for science-instruction, 

 as well as for other branches which are usually deemed of 

 more essential nature. And I hold that science-teachers 



