u] Introduction. 2O3 



ought not to be more incomprehensible than the phenom- 

 ena themselves. A very serious charge might justly be 

 brought against teachers for laying unnecessary burdens 

 upon pupils by making the subjects of study much harder 

 than they really are. Again, the elaborate apparatus 

 requires a vast amount of time for its care and manipula- 

 tion. Most of those who actually use it are persons who 

 have assistants to do the work of preparation and manipu- 

 lation. Pray, what could the public school teacher, who 

 has every hour occupied both in school and out, do with 

 this apparatus; except, indeed, to keep it locked up in 

 a show case ! Lastly the elaborate apparatus requires 

 persons of a mechanical turn of mi'nd to manipulate it 

 successfully. For this reason, many of those who under- 

 take to use it make lame experiments which have to be 

 propped up with pedantic explanations, and many of those 

 who find it stored away in their school buildings are care- 

 ful never to bring it to light. When will the public 

 schools be supplied with teachers having sufficient skill 

 to use this apparatus ? 



In the second place, I cannot believe that " instru- 

 ments of precision" and quantitative experiments have 

 any proper place in the public schools, not even in 

 the most thoroughly equipped high schools but only in 

 the university where specialists begin their work. High 

 school pupils cannot be expected to use that accuracy 

 which is necessary to establish scientific laws. Their 

 attempts, as a rule, do much to unsettle their confidence 

 in such laws. ''Accuracy is not a characteristic of the 

 beginner, particularly of the young beginner. It is a 

 growth, and must come at the end and not at the begin- 

 ning. To insist upon accuracy at first would, therefore, be 

 a great mistake. And it is seen to be more than ever a 

 mistake when we remember that the stimulus of interest, 

 of continued interest, is an absolute necessity in all mental 

 activity; and that is sure to be destroyed by a pedantic 



