SCIENCE AND ART AND EDUCATION 161 



horse is termed Equiis caballus; belongs to the class Mam- 

 malia; order, Pachydermata; family, Solidungula." Was 

 any human being wiser for learning that magic formula? 

 Was he not more foolish, inasmuch as he was deluded into 

 taking words for knowledge? It is that kind of teaching 

 that one wants to get rid of, and banished out of science. 

 Make it as little as you like, but, unless that which is 

 taught is based on actual observation and familiarity with 

 facts, it is better left alone. 



There are a great many people who imagine that elemen- 

 tary teaching might be properly carried out by teachers 

 provided with only elementary knowledge. Let me assure 

 you that that is the profoundest mistake in the world. There 

 is nothing so difficult to do as to write a good elementary 

 book, and there is nobody so hard to teach properly and 

 well as people who know nothing about a subject, and I 

 will tell you why. If I address an audience of persons 

 who are occupied in the same line of work as myself, I can 

 assume that they know a vast deal, and that they can find 

 out the blunders I make. If they don't it is their fault and 

 not mine; but when I appear before a body of people who 

 know nothing about the matter, who take for gospel what- 

 ever I say, surely it becomes needful that I consider what 

 I say, make sure that it will bear examination, and that I 

 do not impose upon the credulity of those who have faith 

 in me. In the second place, it involves that difficult process 

 of knowing what you know so well that you can talk about 

 it as you can talk about your ordinary business. A man can 

 always talk abijut his own business. He can always make 

 it plain; but, if his knowledge is hearsay, he is afraid to go 

 beyond what he has recollected, and put it before those 

 thu.t are ignorant in such a shape that they shall compre- 

 hend it , That is why, to be a good elementary teacher, to 



