468 



NA TURE 



[Sept. 15, 1887 



what is spoken of, but the teacher can readily ascertain what 

 mental pictures they have formed, and can make use of this 

 faculty in the first use of maps. Children should first be 

 instructed in maps of the village or town in which they live. It 

 is remarkable how readily uneducated natives in uncivilized 

 countries can understand plans from their constant observation 

 of Nature. Most intelligent Bedouins are able to make a 

 rough plan or diagram in the sand with a stick of the district 

 they know, and will also take care that the orientation is 

 correct. Kaffirs can do the same, and can point out the direc- 

 tion of a cattle post fifty or sixty miles distant with unerring 

 sagacity. 



It is of vital importance that children in our island, who can- 

 not under ordinary circumstances have sufficient opportunities 

 for using, cultivating, and developing their powers of observa- 

 tion to any purpose, should have the use of maps put before them 

 in such a manner that they will not be led into error. Otherwise 

 they will have fixed in their minds factors of discord which the 

 teacher may know nothing of, and which will trouble them 

 through life, and which if they do get rid of with great labour 

 in after years, will constantly return at unseasonable moments. 



It is very common for children to mistake east for west, north 

 for south, and even to make still more ridiculous errors which 

 appear on reflection to be quite impossible. Yet these errors 

 remain often unobserved until the youth is eighteen or nineteen 

 years old. when he begins to think the matter out for himself, 

 from finding that he is continually making absurd mistakes, but 

 then it is too late for him to do more than know that he is liable 

 to the error, for on an emergency it will crop up in spite of 

 himself. 



I am aware of one instance in which an educated surveyor 

 when thinking of London invariably placed the portions about 

 Regent Street and Charing Cross in an inverted position while 

 picturing all the rest correctly, and it was only by an effort that 

 he could turn this portion upside down into its place. Another, 

 when thinking suddenly of Paris, always placed it to the north 

 of London ; and another always thought of the west end of 

 London as being towards the eastern coast. 



Out of thirty cases of well-instructed men at an age between 

 eighteen and twenty, I have found that about eighteen were 

 under the impression that while the sun rises in the east, the 

 stars rise in the west, from having learned that the sun has a 

 proper motion among the stars. 



I fancy there are few educated men who have not grown up 

 with some curious errors with reference to geographical facts which 

 have bothered them all their lives, and which they have found it 

 impossible to get rid of even when they have discovered where 

 the errors lay ; and I believe that many of the numerous blunders 

 and accidents which constantly occur on railways, with shipping, 

 machinery, &c., and the causes of which cannot be accounted 

 for, are really to be ascribed to some early error in learning 

 geography or the knowledge of common things, errors which, 

 when attention and watch over self is suddenly withdrawn, in- 

 fluence the actions in a contrary direction to that which is right. 



As an instance of the natural liability to error, even apart 

 from those which may be ingrained while under instruction, I 

 may allude to the feeling when the eyes are shut when travel 

 ling by rail or carriage that the vehicle is going in an opposite 

 direction to that in which it actually moves, to the impression 

 when approaching or leaving land in a boat or balloon that the 

 earth is moving and that oneself is stationary ; even when on 

 horseback under excessive fatigue in the dark the traveller has 

 been known to imagine that the horse was moving rapidly 

 backwards. The effect of excessive fatigue from physical exer- 

 tion has somewhat the same result as a want of self-control 

 from bad training of the mind, and perhaps those who have 

 ridden for many miles on horseback or in a coach may have 

 noticed how in the dark a fixed lamp may be seen to make 

 various fantastic signals due to the motion of the horse or 

 coach transferred by the eye to the lamp. As another instance 

 of the difficulty of self-control I may mention a case in which 

 a man well instructed in taking astronomical observations and 

 in the rudiments of astronomy could not divest himself of the 

 idea, which he had gained as a child, that the moon shines 

 with light of her own, and that her phases are due to the earth 

 getting between her and the sun, this error continually interfer- 

 ing with his mental astronomical pictures, though when his atten- 

 tion was specially called to the subject he was aware of the error 

 which intruded itself so constantly in his views of the heavenly 

 bodies. The difficulties regarding east and west, north and 



south, probably arise from a multiplicity of causes, such as the 

 southern side of the Mediterranean being the northern coast of 

 Africa, or the southern view of a house being obtained by look- 

 ing towards it in a northerly direction, and these difficulties as 

 to orientation do not only occur in modern times, but are to be 

 found in ancient writings. Another constant source of error is 

 inverting names unconsciously, such as speaking of Jupiter'.s 

 rings and Saturn's belts. As an instance of this I mention a 

 case in which, a lecture being given on the Franco-Prussian war, 

 the lecturer inadvertently in the middle of his lecture used the 

 word "Prussian" for "French," and vice versd continually 

 throughout, and though he was quite aware of some anomaly 

 every now and then, he could not ascertain where he was in 

 error until near the end of his lecture. Another source of error 

 which cannot be too carefully guarded against results from 

 placing the celestial globe by the side of the terrestrial globe 

 and treating them as though they are of the same character ; 

 this is certain to confuse east and west with most children, as 

 one has to be looked at from the outside and the other from the 

 inside in actual fact. Again, as some star charts are made that 

 they may be looked at from above and others from below, 

 causing the east and west points to differ, there is sure to arise 

 confusion. I venture to say that there are few young minds 

 which are not absolutely and hopelessly confused by the use of 

 celestial globes and charts. I believe it to be essential that, 

 until the mind is fully trained and developed, the stars should be 

 looked at from within and not from without, and it appears to 

 me that all the information which a child can require, apart 

 from practical observation, concerning the phenomena of day 

 and night, the seasons and months, the circles and zones, the 

 phases of the moon and eclipses, can be imparted by the use of 

 a lamp with a reflector and two globes, though a good orrery 

 placed in the school for children to examine and observe for 

 themselves would often enable the dull ones to keep up with the 

 rest more easily. 



It will be interesting to note whether the class of error alluded 

 to does not arise principally among those bred in towns, and 

 who have not had an opportunity of developing their obser- 

 vation in the coimtry ; as with those who do use their observa- 

 tion a habit is required of unconsciously working out questions 

 which arise, and the mind arrives at a correct conclusion. This 

 end should be the great aim and object in instructing in geo- 

 graphy, for as there is no royal road to knowledge divested of 

 grind and pain, there is yet the path which provides the greatest 

 amount of result with the least amount of grind, in which all 

 the labour expended is productive, and in which after a time 

 labour even becomes a pleasure. 



It seems very desirable that the first maps presented to a child, 

 viz. those of the school grounds and the parish, should be placed on 

 the floor and properly orientated ; this will go far to fix the correct 

 positions of east and west, north and south, and will prevent the 

 idea of the north necessarily being /// and the south down. It 

 is to be observed that if the child looks up to a map it is almost 

 equivalent to looking at the map when lying on the back, in 

 which case the east and west are inverted. The motion of the 

 sun over the map might with advantage be pointed out at various i 

 times of the day, and if the position of the rays of the sun on 

 the floor when on the meridian could be shown each day when 

 practicable on the line drawn north and south, it would do much 

 to fix in the mind the fact that the sun is in the meridian at 

 apparent noon each day. A sun-dial should also be available 

 in every school-yard to which children may have access. 



The map of the district round the school should only be made , 

 use of in order to clear the way to understand what a map is,^H| 

 for reference in describing other maps, and for practical pur-^BI 

 poses in giving the child useful information as to the places in^" 

 the neighbourhood. While this is going on, the child should be 

 taught to point out the actual directions in space of the principal 

 towns, &c. , in the county and island, and then an outline mapi 

 of the British Isles with the principal places and features marked| 

 on it should be brouiiht under review. Too much detail should 

 not be crammed into the early lessons ; a good firm foundation 

 is required, something to start upon before the great test of faith 

 is made in teaching, viz. that the world is round. 



Children should be taught, as far as is practicable, to make , 

 this discovery for themselves, and many will arrive at it one wayJH 

 or another, or think they do so, which is equally important. ItJ^ 

 is far better they should grasp truths themselves than have the' 

 drummed into them ; it gives them confidence in their own '^" 

 ductions, and leads to further observation of Nature. In ir-''o- — 



i 



