816 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



already cited, which presented themselves to my notice 

 during my brief career as a teacher in the college already 

 alluded to. The facts, though extremely humble, and 

 deviating in some slight degree from the strict subject 

 of the present discourse, may yet serve to illustrate an 

 educational principle. 



One of the duties which fell to my share was the in- 

 struction of a class in mathematics, and I usually found 

 that Euclid and the ancient geometry generally, when 

 properly and sympathetically addressed to the understand- 

 ing, formed a most attractive study for youth. But it 

 was my habitual practice to withdraw the boys from the 

 routine of the book, and to appeal to their self-power in 

 the treatment of questions not comprehended in that rou- 

 tine. At first, the change from the beaten track usually 

 excited aversion: the youth felt like a child amid stran- 

 gers; but in no single instance did this feeling continue. 

 When utterly disheartened, I have encouraged the boy by 

 the anecdote of Newton, where he attributes the differ- 

 ence between him and other men mainly to his own pa- 

 tience; or of Mirabeau, when he ordered his servant, who 

 had stated something to be impossible, never again to use 

 that blockhead of a word. Thus cheered, the boy has re- 

 turned to his task with a smile, which perhaps had some- 

 thing of doubt in it, but which, nevertheless, evinced a 

 resolution to try again. I have seen his eye brighten, 

 and, at length, with a pleasure of which the ecstasy of 

 Archimedes was but a simple expansion, heard him ex- 

 claim, *'I have it, sir." The consciousness of self -power, 

 thus awakened, was of immense value; and, animated by 

 it, the progress of the class was astonishing. It was often 

 my custom to give the boys the choice of pursuing their 



