800 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



to inform him of the fact. He falls downstairs, burns his 

 fingers, cuts his hand, scalds his tongue, and in this way 

 learns the conditions of his physical well being. This is 

 Nature's way of proceeding, and it is wonderful what 

 progress her pupil makes. His enjoyments for a time are 

 physical, and the confectioner's shop occupies the fore- 

 ground of human happiness; but the blossoms of a finer 

 life are already beginning to unfold themselves, and the 

 relation of cause and effect dawns upon the boy. He 

 begins to see that the present condition of things is not 

 final, but depends upon one that has gone before, and will 

 be succeeded by another. He becomes a puzzle to him- 

 self; and, to satisfy his newly- awakened curiosity, asks all 

 manner of inconvenient questions. The needs and ten- 

 dencies of human nature express themselves through these 

 early yearnings of the child. As thought ripens, he de- 

 sires to know the character and causes of the phenomena 

 presented to his observation; and unless this desire has 

 been granted for the express purpose of having it re- 

 pressed, unless the attractions of natural phenomena be 

 like the blush of the forbidden fruit, conferred merely for 

 the purpose of exercising our self-denial in letting them 

 alone; we may fairly claim for the study of Physics the 

 recognition that it answers to an impulse implanted by 

 Nature in the constitution of man. 



A few days ago, a Master of Arts, who is still a 

 young man, and therefore the recipient of a modern edu- 

 cation, stated to me that until he had reached the age of 

 twenty years he had never been taught anything whatever 

 regarding natural phenomena or natural law. Twelve 

 years of his life previously had been spent exclusively 

 among the ancients. The case, I regret to say, is typicaL 



