20 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



From these remarks on the method of biological teach- 

 ing, I may now pass to consider very briefly the advantages 

 of the study. I apprehend I have the sympathy and support 

 of the majority of thinking men and women with me so far 

 as I have gone, in detailing the place and method of biology 

 in ordinary education. But I am well aware that many who 

 may concur with me in my description of theoretical details, 

 may differ from me, or, at least, require some more practical 

 argument to convince them when I maintain that biology 

 should form, not merely an incidental, but an essential study 

 of the youth of both sexes. I know well that the educa- 

 tional mind is not prepared to give an unqualified assent 

 to my demand for the universal recognition of biology. 

 " There is no absolute need for it," may be the response of 

 many, who will agree with much of what I have said of its 

 place and method. Wherever taught, all will agree that 

 biological study should be conducted as I have indicated, or, 

 what is the same thing, as thoroughly as it can. But this is 

 quite a different matter from accompanying me a step further, 

 when I demand that biological training should be included 

 as a compulsory subject in our educational code. And it 

 is to the. attempt to illustrate and make good my position 

 that I now proceed. 



I would firstly address myself, in speaking of the advan- 

 tages of biological study, to the question of our need of it. 



No better or more forcible exposition of the want and 

 need of biological instruction in the world at large can well 

 be found than in the evidence of Dr. Hooker given before 

 the English Public Schools Commission, when he states that 

 " sometimes two or three letters a day come to us requiring 

 information with regard to well-known fibres, which the 

 slightest habit of observation, or the slightest knowledge, 

 would assure the persons who send them that they cannot in 

 any way be used for cotton." Dr. Hooker also speaks of 

 the universal regret expressed by his numerous applicants, 

 that they had neglected the study of natural science ; whilst 

 he himself says that the neglect of this important study is a 



