194 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY cHAP. vrii 



they slioiild be led from the observation of the commonest 

 facts to general scientific truths. If I were called upon to 

 frame a course of elementary instruction preparatory to 

 agriculture, I am not sure that I should attempt chemistry, 

 or botany, or physiology or geology, as such. It is a 

 method fraught with the danger of spending too much 

 time and attention on abstraction and theories, on words 

 and notions instead of things. The history of a bean, of 

 a grain of wheat, of a turnip, of a sheep, of a pig, or of 

 a cow properly treated — with the introduction of the 

 elements of chemistry, physiology, and so on as they 

 come in — would give all the elementary science which is 

 needed for the comprehension of the processes of agri- 

 culture in a form easily assimilated by the youthful 

 mind, which loathes everything in the shape of long 

 words and abstract notions, and small blame to it. I am 

 afraid I shall not have helped you very much, but I 

 believe that my suggestions, rough as they are, are in the 

 right direction. 



The remaining letters of the year are of miscel- 

 laneous interest. They show him happily established 

 in his retreat at Eastbourne in very fair health, on 

 his guard against any further repetition of his 

 "jubilee honour" in the shape of his old enemy 

 pleurisy ; unable to escape the more insidious attacks 

 of influenza, but well enough on the whole to be in 

 constant good spirits. 



HODESLEA, EaSTBOTTRNE, 



Jail. 13, 1891. 

 My dear Skelton — Many thanks to you for remind- 

 ing me that there are such things as " Summer Isles " in 

 the imiverse. The memory of them has been pretty well 

 blotted out here for the last seven weeks. You see some 

 people can retire to " Hermitages " as well as other people ; 



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