ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY 369 



for they arise from that profound ignorance of the value and 

 true position of physical science, which infests the minds 

 of the most highly educated and intelligent classes of the 

 community. But if I did not feel well assured that they 

 are capable of being easily and satisfactorily answered ; 

 that they have been answered over and over again ; and 

 that the time will come when men of liberal education will 

 blush to raise such questions. I should be ashamed of my 

 position here to-night, YVithout doubt, it is your great 

 and very important function to carry out element ary 

 edueation : without question, anything that should 

 interfere with the faithful fulfilment of that duty on your 

 part would be a great evil ; and if I thought that your 

 acquirement of the elements of physical science, and your 

 communication of those elements to your pupils, involve,! 

 any sort of interference with your proper duties, I should 

 be the first person to protest against your being encouraged 

 to do anything of the kind* 



But is it true that the acquisition of such a knowledge of 

 science as is proposed, and the communication of that 

 knowledge, are calculated to weaken your usefulness ? Or 

 may I not rather ask, is it possible for you to discharge 

 your functions properly without these aids? 



NY hat is the purpose of primary intellectual education? 

 I apprehend that its first object is to train the young in the 

 use of those tools wherewith men extract knowledge from 

 the ever-shifting succession of phenomena which pass 

 before their eyes ; and that its second object is to inform 

 them of the fundamental laws which have been found by 

 experience to govern the course of things, so that they 

 may not be turned out into the world naked, defenceless, 

 and a prey to the events they might control. 



A boy is taught to read his own and other languages, in 

 order that he may have access to infinitely wider stores 

 knowledge than could ever be opened to him by oral inter- 

 course with his fellow men ; he learns to write, that his 

 means of communication with the rest of mankind may be 

 indefinitely enlarged, and that he may record and store 

 up the knowledge he acquires. He is taught elementary 

 mathematics, that he may understand all those relations 

 of number and form, upon which the transactions of men, 

 associated in complicated societies, are built, and that he 

 may have some practice in deductive reasoning. 



All these opv of reading, writing, and ciphering. 



