290 ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY x 



I have long advocated this view, and I am 

 perfectly certain that it can be carried out with 

 ease, and not only with ease, but with very 

 considerable profit to those who are taught ; but 

 then such instruction must be adapted to the 

 minds and needs of the scholars. They used to 

 have a very odd way of teaching the classical 

 languages when I was a boy. The first task set 

 you was to learn the rules of the Latin grammar 

 in the Latin language that being the language 

 you were going to learn ! I thought then that 

 this was an odd way of learning a language, but 

 did not venture to rebel against the judgment of 

 my superiors. Now, perhaps, I am not so modest 

 as I was then, and I allow myself to think that it 

 was a very absurd fashion. But it would be no 

 less absurd, if we were to set about teaching 

 Biology by putting into the hands of boys a series 

 of definitions of the classes and orders of the 

 animal kingdom, and making them repeat them 

 by heart. That is so very favourite a method of 

 teaching, that I sometimes fancy the spirit of the 

 old classical system has entered into the new 

 scientific system, in which case I would much 

 rather that any pretence at scientific teaching 

 were abolished altogether. What really has to be 

 done is to get into the young mind some notion 

 of what animal and vegetable life is. In this 

 matter, you have to consider practical convenience 

 as well as other things. There are difficulties in 



