NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH 127 



tion about matters of physical science as soon as it begins to 

 talk. The first teaching it wants is an object-lesson of one 

 sort or another; and as soon as it is fit for systematic in- 

 struction of any kind, it is fit for a modicum of science. 



People talk of the difficulty of teaching young children 

 such matters, and in the same breath insist upon their learn- 

 ing their Catechism, which contains propositions far harder 

 to comprehend than anything in the educational course I 

 have proposed. Again: I am incessantly told that we, who 

 advocate the introduction of science in schools, make no 

 allowance for the stupidity of the average boy or girl; but, 

 in my belief, that stupidity, in nine cases out of ten, ^^fit, 

 non nascilur,'^ and is developed by a long process of paren- 

 tal and pedagogic repression of the natural intellectual 

 appetites, accompanied by a persistent attempt to create 

 artificial ones for food which is not only tasteless, but essen- 

 tially indigestible. 



Those who urge the difficulty of instructing young people 

 in science are apt to forget another very important condi- 

 tion of success — important in all kinds of teachiiig, but 

 most essential, I am disposed to think, when the scholars 

 are very young. This condition is, that the teacher should 

 himself really and practically know his subject. If he does, 

 he will be able to speak of it in the easy language, and with 

 the completeness of conviction, with which he talks of any 

 ordinary every-day matter. If he does not, he will be afraid 

 to wander beyond the limits of the technical phraseology 

 which he has got up; and a dead dogmatism, which op- 

 presses, or raises opposition, will take the place of the lively 

 confidence, born of personal conviction, which cheers and 

 encourages the eminently sympathetic mind of childhood. 



I have already hinted that such scientific training as we 

 seek for may be ^iven without making any extravagant 



