VII THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY 225 



make his life that which it ought to be, a con 

 tinual progress in learning and in wisdom. 



But, in addition, primary education endeavours 

 to fit a boy out with a certain equipment of 

 positive knowledge. He is taught the great laws 

 of morality ; the religion of his sect ; so much 

 history and geography as will tell him where the 

 great countries of the world are, what they are, 

 and how they have become what they are. 



Without doubt all these are most fitting and 

 excellent things to teach a boy ; I should be very 

 sorry to omit any of them from any scheme of 

 primary intellectual education. The system is 

 excellent, so far as it goes. 



But if I regard it closely, a curious reflection 

 arises. I suppose that, fifteen hundred years ago, 

 the child of any well-to-do Roman citizen was 

 taught just these same things ; reading and writing 

 in his own, and, perhaps, the Greek tongue; the 

 elements of mathematics ; and the religion, moral 

 ity, history, and geography current in his time. 

 Furthermore, I do not think I err in affirming, 

 that, if such a Christian Roman boy, who had 

 finished his education, could be transplanted into 

 one of our public schools, and pass through its 

 course of instruction, he would not meet with a 

 single unfamiliar line of thought ; amidst all the 

 new facts he would have to learn, not one would 

 suggest a different mode of regarding the universe 

 from that current in his own time. 



VOL. VIII Q 



