ON THK STUDY OF PHYSICS. 



iug, 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 



