170 Thomas Mcnry Huxley 



allowed his son, or the state which allowed its members, to 

 grow up without kuowiug a pawn from a knight ? 



Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, 

 the fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and more 

 or less of those who are connected with us, do depend upon 

 our knowing something of the rules of a game infinitely more 

 difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game which has 

 been played for untold ages, every man and woman of us 

 being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. 

 The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena 

 of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the 

 laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from 

 us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. 

 But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a 

 mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. 

 To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with 

 that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows 

 delight in strength, and one who plays ill is checkmated — 

 without haste, but without remorse." 



Huxley wished that this scientific education should 

 begin at an early period of every child's training. 

 In 1869 he wrote : 



"Let every child be instructed in those general views of the 

 pheenomena of nature for which we have no exact English 

 name. The nearest approximation to a name for what I mean 

 which we possess is physical geography ; the Germans have 

 a better, 'Erdkunde' (earth knowledge or geology in its 

 etymological sense), that is to say, a general knowledge of the 

 earth, and what is on it and in it and about it. If anyone 

 who has experience of the ways of young children will call 

 to mind their questions, he will find that so far as they can 

 be put in any scientific category, they will come under this 

 head of ' Erdkunde.' The child asks, ' What is the moon, 

 and why does it shine ? ' ' What is this water, and where 

 does it run ? ' ' What is the wind ? ' ' What makes these 

 waves in the sea ? ' ' Where does this animal live, and what 

 is the use of that plant ? ' And if not snubbed and stunted by 



