ON THE STUDY OF PHYSICS. 229 
ing, formed a most attractive study for youth. But it was 
my habitual practice to withdraw the boys from the rou- 
tine of the book, and to appeal to their "self-power in the 
treatment of questions not comprehended in that routine. 
At first, the change from the beaten track usually excited 
aversion: the youth felt like a child amid strangers; but in 
no single instance did this feeling continue. When utterly 
disheartened, I have encouraged the boy by the anecdote 
of Newton, where he attributes the difference between him 
and other men mainly to his own patience; or of Mirabeau, 
when he ordered his servant, who had stated something to 
be impossible, never again to use that blockhead of a word. 
Thus cheered, the boy has returned to his task with a smile, 
which perhaps had something of doubt in it, but which, 
nevertheless, evinced a resolution to try again. I have 
seen his eye brighten, and, at length, with a pleasure of 
which the ecstasy of Archimedes was but a simple expan- 
sion, heard him exclaim, "I have it, sir." The conscious- 
ness of self-power, thus awakened, was of immense value; 
and, animated by it, the progress of the class was aston- 
ishing. It was often my custom to give the boys the 
choice of pursuing their propositions in the book, or of 
trying their strength at others not to be found there. 
Never in a single instance was the book chosen. I was 
ever ready to assist when help was needful, but my offers 
of assistance were habitually declined. The boys had tasted 
the sweets of intellectual conquest and demanded victories 
of their own. Their diagrams were scratched on the walls, 
cut into the beams upon the playground, and numberless 
other illustrations were afforded of the living interest they 
took in the subject. For my own part, as far as experience 
in teaching goes, I was a mere fledgling knowing nothing 
of the rules of pedagogics, as the Germans name it; but 
adhering to the spirit indicated at the commencement of 
this discourse, and endeavoring to make geometry a means 
rather than a branch of education. The experiment was 
successful, and some of the most delightful hours of my 
existence have been spent in marking the vigorous and 
cheerful expansion of mental power, when appealed to in 
the manner here described. 
Our pleasure was enhanced when we applied our math- 
ematical knowledge to the solution of physical problems. 
Many objects of hourly contact had thus a new interest and 
