DEFICIENCY OF EXISTING SCHOOL METHODS. 297 



come a regular and habitual mental exercise, and to have a 

 fundamental place in education. 



The importance of training the young mind to habits of 

 correct observation, to form judgments of things noted, and 

 to describe correctly the results of observation, can hardly be 

 over-estimated. It has been well remarked that, "without 

 an accurate acquaintance with the visible and tangible proper- 

 ties of things, our conceptions must be erroneous, our infer- 

 ences fallacious, and our operations unsuccessful. The educa- 

 tion of the senses neglected, all after-education partakes of a 

 drowsiness, a haziness, an insufficiency, which it is impossible 

 to cure. Indeed, if we consider it, we shall find that exhaust- 

 ive observation is an element of all great success. It is not to 

 artists, naturalists, and men of science only, that it is needful ; 

 it is not only that the skilful physician depends on it for the 

 correctness of his diagnosis, and that to the good engineer it 

 is so important, that some years in the workshop are prescribed 

 for him ; but we may see that the philosopher also is funda- 

 mentally one who observes relationships of things which others 

 had overlooked, and that the poet, too, is one who sees the fine 

 facts in Nature which all recognize when pointed out, but did 

 not before remark. Nothing requires more to be insisted on 

 than that vivid and complete impressions are all-essential. 

 No sound fabric of wisdom can be woven out of a rotten, raw 

 material." 



It needs hardly to be repeated that observation is the start- 

 ing-point of knowledge, and the basis of judgment and induc- 

 tive reasoning. In the chaos of opinions among men, the con- 

 flicts are usually on the data, which have not been observed 

 with sufficient care. Dispute is endless until the facts are 

 known, and, when this happens, dispute is generally ended. 

 Dr. Cullen, long ago, remarked : " There are more false facts 

 in the world than false hypotheses to explain them ; there is, 

 in truth, nothing that men seem to admit so lightly as an 

 asserted fact." 



Children should, therefore, be taught to see for themselves, 

 and to think for themselves on the basis of what they have 

 geen. In this way only can they learn to weigh the true value 



