SCIENCE IN EDUCATION 



Training in the use of the eyes develops, at the same 

 time, alertness of the intelligence and suppleness of the 

 mind in dealing with new problems, which in after-life 

 will be of great value in facing the unforeseen difficulties 

 of all kinds which are constantly arising. 



Science, practically taught, does more ; for, under the 

 constant control of his inferential conclusions by the 

 unbending facts of direct experiment, the pupil gradually 

 acquires the habit of reasoning correctly from the observa- 

 tions he makes. In particular, he learns the most precious 

 lesson of great caution in forming his opinions, for he finds 

 how often reasoning, which appeared to him to be flawless, 

 was not really so, for it led him to wrong conclusions. 

 Further, from the constant study of Nature the student 

 comes so to look at things as almost unconsciously to 

 discriminate between those which are essential and those 

 which are only accidental, and so gradually to acquire 

 the faculty of classing the facts of experience, and of putting 

 them in their proper places in a consistent system or 

 theory. Are there any other studies, it may be asked, 

 by which, in the same time, a young mind could develop 

 an equally enlarged capacity for correct reasoning, and 

 acquire so wide an outlook ? Yet, notwithstanding the 

 immense intrinsic value of its teaching, science is but one 

 of the studies which are necessary for a wide and liberal 

 education. Intellectual culture, or, in other words, the 

 whole mind working at its best, requires, besides the 



training of all its powers harmoniously by the study of 

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