Science in Public Affairs 



he had visited) "has an attempt been made to 

 form a collection of books which the masters and 

 boys can use in the illustration of school work. 

 There will be a finely -built and well-equipped 

 laboratory, an unlimited supply of expensive 

 material for the teaching of chemistry and physics, 

 but there will not be found a good atlas of modern 

 times, much less an historical atlas. There will 

 be no standard dictionary of the English or any 

 other language. The master who is giving a lesson 

 on English history will find no book to which he 

 can refer for information where the text-book is 

 defective, or for those illustrations and details 

 without which no narrative is more than words. 

 There are in the English language books of the 

 greatest interest and merit dealing with those 

 scientific studies in which so much time is passed ; 

 there are books on natural history and travels 

 which would be of interest to many boys. Their 

 existence is in many places entirely unknown to 

 them. How can it be expected that they should 

 acquire a love of reading or study ? The result 

 is that it is no uncommon thing for a bright and 

 intelligent boy to leave school at the age of six- 

 teen or seventeen without ever having had an 

 opportunity of becoming personally acquainted 

 with any book except the text-books written purely 

 for school purposes. . . . The boys have an ex- 

 cellent introduction to the study of the natural 

 sciences, but they are not introduced to the world 

 of books and literature. They are not taught to 

 read for pleasure ; they are not taught to use 



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