FOR CHILDREN. 



times fed vigorous and active, although the dog, and the 

 dining-table, and the canary-bird may be perfectly dull and 

 listless ! 



But let us proceed to the next step in the lesson on the 

 definition of Physics. The physicist says, " Now, if you 

 think a little, you will see that the things around you are 

 subject to moods very like yours." The little pupil is to 

 think in order that he may see that the objects around him 

 have moods like his own. They smile, they frown, and 

 feel vigorous or listless, just as he does, and, indeed, 

 express what they feel. But he and the things around are 

 not the only possessors of faces. Nature has a face. 

 < { To-day the face of nature looks bright and happy, and full 

 of smiles ; to-morrow the same face is dark and lowering;" 

 and so on. 



The tendency of teaching of this sort must surely be 

 towards the acceptance by the pupils of a thoroughly 

 incorrect inference, viz., that there is no essential or abso- 

 lute difference between the living and the non-living, and 

 that there are no characters by which the one may be 

 clearly distinguished or marked off from the other. It 

 would appear that such is indeed the aim of those who 

 write thus ; but if this be not so, and it should appear chat 

 the strange comparisons that have been instituted really 

 result from mere inaccuracy and carelessness, it is equally 

 important that these tendencies should be pointed out, and 

 the attention of those interested in the science-teaching of 

 cur day seriously directed to the matter. 



M 2 



