CHILDHOOD AND EARLY EDUCATION n 



may now return to earlier and happier years, and to the 

 father's virile initiation and guidance of his son's education. 



A father so exceptionally active in public duties and 

 these beyond ordinary routine and with external interests 

 as well, in these days generally leaves the care of his 

 children's education to others. But not so in the Bose 

 household, where the father all along was felt not only as 

 authority, but as guide and friend. Philosopher too for 

 the child Jagadis, to whom the father, discerning nascent 

 powers, wisely gave all the time he could spare, especially 

 during those earliest years of a child's development and 

 awakening, perhaps the most marvellous of all the many 

 wonders of mental evolution, and correspondingly im- 

 portant for the educator. Tired after his long day, 

 the father used to lie down beside the child after the 

 evening meal, to encourage and patiently answer the 

 flood of questions which the eager little observer had been 

 gathering for him throughout the day, and which he had 

 to go through before he could be induced to settle down to 

 sleep. ' I saw so-and-so to-day : why was that ? ' was a 

 standard type of question, and always patiently answered 

 when possible ; yet often perhaps most important and 

 educative of all for the future investigator with a candid 

 confession of ignorance, and never any of the evasion, or 

 pretence of knowledge beyond a child's, which is so common 

 a discouragement to children from parents less frank and 

 wise. ' I don't know, my son : we cannot tell ; we know 

 so little about nature ! ' was thus a frequent reply : but 

 instead of lowering the child's respect, as foolish parents 

 and teachers fear, this only aroused further wonder, and 

 kept curiosity and observation alive. In such ways it is 

 that the questioning child later becomes the scientific man : 

 and what scientific man worth the name in history is more 

 than such a child of larger growth ? The ' advancement of 

 Science ' is no such easy matter as founders of its schools 

 and departments suppose. It requires a corresponding 



