ii Preface. 



science-teaching." The ability to get facts and to use them, 

 not the number of facts acquired, is the true measure of 

 education. The value of observed facts to the student, like 

 the use of minnows to the fisherman, is that, if skillfully 

 handled, they enable him to get larger facts. It is this exer- 

 cise of handling facts that strengthens the mind, that truly 

 educates. As the activity of muscles and mind is worth 

 more to the hunter than the game he brings down, so the 

 exercise of observing facts and deducing truths from them 

 is more valuable to the student than the knowledge gained, 

 or, as President Jordan puts it, " To seek knowledge is better 

 than to have knowledge. " The wise teacher does not, in 

 giving an educational test, direct the student to write out 

 what he has read; but says to him, "Go to-day into the 

 library, the laboratory, or the fields and find facts; to-mor- 

 row tell me what they mean." 



The questions in this book are designed to draw atten- 

 tion to facts that might otherwise be overlooked; to stimu- 

 late thought and to lead in the direction of truth. They 

 are not test questions. It is not expected that pupils can 

 at once answer many of them, nor is it supposed that any 

 pupil can, even at the close of the course in botany, answer 

 perfectly all of them. The teacher should never answer 

 any of the questions. They are for the use of the pupil. 

 He should, however, help the class to weigh the evidence 

 presented by pupils in defense of their answers. As a pre- 

 siding judge he should point out errors in statements of 

 facts and weak points in arguments. The questions must 



