WILLIAM .s//:.]//;.\.v, r.R.s. 277 



short to admit of both, and that one or other must therefore be 

 chosen. I should venture to doubt the sufficiency of this objec- 

 tion, bring of opinion that the study of the one kind of knowledge 

 qualifies the mind the better for the other, in the same way as in 

 after life recreative exercise of mind and body is resorted to in 

 order to relieve the drudgery of daily duty. 



The usefulness of science teaching depends of course to a great 

 extent upon the teacher, and upon the system adopted. Science 

 taught as it were by rote is of comparatively little value in after 

 life ; to be beneficial it should be practical, impressing the mind 

 vividly with the simplicity and the beauty of the laws of nature, 

 and for this purpose each statement of a law should be followed up 

 by ocular demonstration, nay by active co-operation on the part 

 of the student in the experiment. For this purpose no school 

 ought to be without its chemical, its physical, and its mechanical 

 laboratories, where students could test for themselves chemical 

 reactions, verify physical laws, and ascertain the mechanical pro- 

 perties of materials used in construction. Nor do these laboratories 

 necessarily involve a large expenditure for apparatus, the most 

 instructive apparatus being that which is built up in the simplest 

 possible manner by means of pulleys, cords, wires, prisms, and glass 

 tubes, and, if possible, by calling into requisition the constructive 

 ingenuity of the student himself. 



Only after the student has attained a thorough knowledge of 

 first principles will it be desirable to introduce him to elaborate 

 instruments such as telescopes, polariscopes, electrometers, and 

 delicate weighing machines wherewith to attain numerical results 

 and to commence original research. For this reason very complete 

 laboratories are of great importance at the Universities and superior 

 colleges, where exact science and independent research should take 

 the place of mere tuition of first principles. 



After first principles have been taught at school, the university 

 on the one hand and the workshop aided by study on the other 

 hand are requisite to impart that special knowledge necessary for 

 the profession or business to be followed in after life. In this 

 respect the German university that glorious institution for the 

 development of independent thought offers advantages much 

 more commendable for imitation than the technical school, and it 

 is a significant fact that while the thirty universities of Germany 



