v.] VALUE OF NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES. 79 



walk through a gallery rilled with wonderful works of art, nine- 

 tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. Teach 

 him something of natural history, and you place in his hands a 

 catalogue of those which are worth turning round. Surely our 

 innocent pleasures are not so abundant in this life, that we can 

 afford to despise this or any other source of them. We should 

 fear being banished for our neglect to that limbo, where the great 

 Florentine tells us are those who, during this life, &quot; wept when 

 they might be joyful.&quot; 



But I shall be trespassing unwarrantably on your kindness, if 

 I do not proceed at once to my last point the time at which 

 Physiological Science should first form a part of the Curriculum 

 of Education. 



The distinction between the teaching of the facts of a science 

 as instruction, and the teaching it systematically as knowledge, 

 has already been placed before you in a previous lecture : and it 

 appears to me, that, as with other sciences, the common fads of 

 Biology the uses of parts of the body the names and habits of 

 the living creatures which surround us may be taught with 

 advantage to the youngest child. Indeed, the avidity of children 

 for this kind of knowledge, and the comparative ease with which 

 they retain it, is something quite marvellous. I doubt whether 

 any toy would be so acceptable to young children as a vivarium 

 of the same kind as, but of course on a smaller scale than those 

 admirable devices in the Zoological Gardens. 



On the other hand, systematic teaching in Biology cannot be 

 attempted with success until the student has attained to a 

 certain knowledge of physics and chemistry: for though the 

 phenomena of life are dependent neither on physical nor on 

 chemical, but on vital forces, yet they result in all sorts of 

 physical and chemical changes, which can only be judged by 

 their own laws. 



And now to sum up in a few words the conclusions to which 

 I hope you see reason to follow me. 



Biology needs no apologist when she demands a place and a 

 prominent place in any scheme of education worthy of the 



