Jail. 3, 1878] 



NATURE 



179 



of these includes the " text-books," which should aim at 

 presenting only the accurate and well-proportioned outlines 

 of a system of instruction, leaving it to the teacher himself 

 to to fill in these outlines with explanation and illustration, 

 as to cause the new facts and reasonings to produce the 

 most vivid and abiding impressions upon the minds of his 

 pupils. But inasmuch as the attainment of such a result 

 demands much practical skill and educational tact — a 

 skill and tact which are by no means easy of acquirement 

 — the necessity and value of another class of works be- 

 comes manifest. This second class of educational works 

 comprises such as aim at instructing the teacher how 

 best to perform his difficult task ; which exemplify the 

 work of explanation, illustrate the art of illustration, and 

 show how the dry bones of barren facts may, by clear 

 arrangement and logical connection, be compacted into 

 a body of real knowledge, and this body by being infused 

 with the earnest intelligence of the teacher, may be 

 quickened into active and fruitful life in the minds of 

 the scholars. 



It is to this latter very important class of educational 

 works that we should be inclined to refer the book before 

 u?, and we cannot therefore regard the designation of it 

 as a " manual for students," which is borne upon its cover 

 - one for which we suspect that the author is not himself 

 responsible — as either happy or judicious. That some 

 instruction in the physical laws of that universe in which 

 we are placed ought to form a recognised part of our 

 system of elementary education has been again and again 

 maintained and strongly insisted upon by scientific men, 

 and by none more persistently or more urgently than 

 by the author of the present work. When we reflect on 

 the fact that to the man who has learnt to recognise, obey 

 and apply these laws, Nature reveals herself as a helpful 

 and bountiful mother, ever ready to aid him n his in- 

 dustry, his arts, and his commerce ; while to him who 

 ignores or violates these laws she is kno>vn only as a 

 terribly relentless and avenging goddess, ever thwarting 

 his most earnest endeavours, and scourging him with 

 plagues, pestilences, and famines — it is hard to realise 

 how slowly the necessity for this instruction in natural 

 knowledge has forced itself upon the minds of those who 

 are responsible for the scheme of elementary education 

 adopted in this country. But society — the machinery of 

 which is every day becoming more complicated and more 

 susceptible to those painful consequences which follow 

 from the infringement of the laws of nature — will doubt- 

 less in the end demand, as indeed it has a right to do, 

 that every unit in her organisation should be fitted so to 

 play his part, as to avoid the danger to himself and others 

 which the neglect or violation of natural laws invariably 

 entails. 



Almost every demand that the principles of physical 

 science should be taught in our elementary schools, has 

 been met with the objection that our knowledge of nature 

 and her laws has in recent years grown to such an ex- 

 tent, and ramified into so vast a number of channels as to 

 make any attempt to teach it to the young quite hopeless. 

 As well might we point to the number of volumes in the 

 library of the British Museum, and declare that their 

 existence demonstrates the uselessness of teaching, the art 

 of reading. No one, of course, would desire that an epitome 

 all the sciences should be taught to children ; but what 



is demanded is that the methods of modern scientific 

 thought should be made familiar to every mind, that a 

 few leading and necessary truths should be taught con- 

 cerning the world in which we live and the laws which 

 control its potent forces (seeing that upon our knowledge 

 or ignorance of these depends much of our happiness and 

 success or our misery and failure in the adventure of life), 

 and that, last but not least, the minds of all young people 

 should be conducted within the threshold of the temple 

 of natural knowledge, so that any among them that may 

 be endowed with the necessary capabilities may learn 

 there to dedicate themselves to the pursuit of science. 



How can this elementary instruction in science be best 

 imparted to the young ? This is the important question 

 which Prof. Huxley applies himself to answer in the work 

 before us ; and he accomplishes his object much better 

 by means of example than he could by any amount of 

 discussion of the general principles of the art of teaching. 

 On several other occasions the author has indicated the 

 importance of making a knowledge of the more striking 

 phenomena of nature, those with which we come into 

 contact in our every-day life, and which exercise the 

 greatest influence on our daily occupations and experi- 

 ences, the starting-point of our introduction to the world 

 of scientific thought ; and it is to this vestibule of the 

 temple of natural science that he applies the name of 

 " Physiography." 



The author of the present work of course recognises 

 that first principle of good teaching v;hich consists in 

 fastening at first on facts and ideas which are known and 

 familiar, and from thence leading the minds of the 

 student by a succession of steps, no one of which shall 

 present any serious difficulties, up to those more unfa- 

 miliar observations and those less obvious deductions 

 from them, which if presented in the first instance might 

 startle and repel rather than attract the scholar. We 

 must ask the reader himself to trace in the work before 

 us how, setting out from the most striking and easily 

 observed facts about the River Thames, Prof. Huxley 

 shows his admirable skill in teaching by leading his 

 readers t'lrough a series of reasonings couched in 

 simple and untechnical, but always accurate and ele- 

 gant, language, up to the grandest truths in physics, 

 biology, geology, and astronomy; how, throughout, happy 

 analogies and telling illustrations make the path of the 

 scholar, light, easy, and pleasant ; and how in all this 

 nothing of the exactness and dignity of science is sacri- 

 ficed to a desire to say those fine or funny things which 

 are too often supposed to convert a prosy book into a 

 " popular " one. 



The teacher who takes these easy lessons in elementary 

 science and simply repeats them to his scholars can 

 scarcely fail to communicate some sound and useful 

 instruction to them. But every competent and judicious 

 teacher will prize Prof. Huxley's book rather as a model 

 than as a " crib " — and this is the light in which the author, 

 we are persuaded, would desire that his work should be 

 regarded by them. It is as easy, for example, to make the 

 Mersey, the Severn, the Forth, or the Clyde the starting 

 point of our studies of nature, as the Thames, and in Man- 

 chester, Bristol, Edinburgh, or Glasgow respectively, it is far 

 better to do so ; nor will any well-instructed teacher hud 

 the smallest difficulty in thus adapting his lessons to his 



