APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 8i 



But of all this your old stereotyped system of 

 education takes no note. Physical science, its 

 methods, its problems, and its difficulties, will meet 

 the poorest boy at every turn, and yet we educate 

 him m such a manner that he shall enter the world 

 as ignorant of the existence of the methods and 

 facts of science as the day he w^as born. The 

 modern world is full of artillery ; and we turn out 

 our children to do battle in it, equipped with the 

 shield and sword of an ancient gladiator. 



CCXVII 



Posterity will cry shame on us if we do not remedy 

 this deplorable state of things. Nay, if we live 

 twenty years longer, our own consciences will cry 

 shame on us. 



It is my firm conviction that the only way to 

 remedy it is to make the elements of physical science 

 an integral part of primary education. I have 

 endeavoured to show^ you how that may be done for 

 that branch of science which it is my business to pur- 

 sue ; and I can but add, that I should look upon the day 

 when every schoolmaster throughout this land was a 

 centre of genuine, however rudimentary, scientific 

 knowledge as an epoch in the history of the country. 



But let me entreat you to remember my last words. 

 Addressing myself to you, as teachers, I would say, 

 mere book learning in physical science is a sham and 

 a delusion— what you teach, unless you v/ish to be 

 impostors, that you must first know ; and real 

 knowledge in science means personal acquaintance 

 with the facts, be they few or many. 



CCXVIII 



The first distinct enunciation of the hypothesis 

 that all living matter has sprung from pre-existing 

 living matter came f-'om a contemporary, though a 

 junior, of Harvey, a native of that country, fertile in 



