50 



POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 



[April, 1888. 



his tasks, replacing in a measure the tradition 

 and prescription by the spirit of observation, in 

 order to secure the end in view. It is, of course, 

 not desirable in any way to separate the tiller of 

 the soil from the vast fund of knowledge whish has 

 come to him by the experience of his predecessors: 

 What is needed is, that he should be informed con- 

 cerning the nature of the creatures with whicli he 

 deals, that he should know the laws of plant-life 

 and of animal function, so that he does nothing 

 unintelligently or without the sense of the truth 

 which is before him. From this creation of the 

 spirit of inquiry we may not only hope for a new 

 mental state in the agriculturist, but for a vast 

 measure of benefit in the economic results which 

 he seeks to attain. A purely traditional agricul- 

 tural art at best suits the narrow range of condi- 

 tions of the folk whose crops have not changed, and 

 who till the same soil and the same climate as those 

 who have accumulated the store of experience. 

 Particularly in this country, where the farmers gen- 

 erally occupy territories recently won to tillage, is 

 it necessai'y to have the motive of research as well as 

 the capacity for it well developed in order to secure 

 the best profit from the soil. 



All the other occupations in which the man acts 

 from his individual motive are likewise suited "for 

 the training necessary to develop the capacities of 

 the naturalist. The blacksmith, the carpenter, the 

 mechanic in charge of engines of all descriptions, 

 can be taught to find his way to natural law 

 through his daily experience. The ordinary house- 

 hold duties of women are so varied, and at so many 

 points come in contact with natural phenomena, 

 that it seems to me clearly possible to lift their 

 occupations above the plane of mere routine in 

 which they now lie. In fact, with the exception of 

 the lower grades of factory hands, where the work 

 is extremely routine-like in its character, there 

 is reason to believe that, with a proper system of 

 training, one in which the education given the 

 laborer is largely with reference to his life's em- 

 ployment, we may be able in the course of time 

 to effect a very great change in the relations of 

 culture to life. We may make men and women 

 feel the comforting sense which comes from the 

 understanding of the world about them. There 

 remains unhappily a great body of toilers, those en- 

 gaged in the purely routine employments, that have 

 no actual contact with nature, where it does not 

 seem possible to afford any training in science which 

 will directly bear upon their vocations. 



One of the great advantages arising from the use 

 of machinery in our arts is. that in time we may 

 hope to have all those engaged in mechanical em- 

 ployments in charge of engines, the natural forces 

 supplying the energy, and the man or woman the 

 thought alone. When this position of the arts is 

 attained to all, artificers will be in a position to 

 receive the benefits of the training substantially 

 like that to which the naturalist attains. If we 

 teach a youth a machine, the principles of its 

 structure, the process of its evolution, the nature 

 of the force involved in its operation, we make him 

 an inquirer. The field of his inquiry is less exten- 

 sive than that of the astronomer or the geologist, 

 but the principles are essentially the same; and the 

 effect on the character and intellectual development 

 is of the same order as that which the most favored 

 naturalist receives. 



It will be manifest to the reader that the accom- 

 plishment of this training in the arts of inquiry as 

 applied to the occupations of life, demands a very 

 considerable reconstruction in our system of edu- 

 cation. In certain respects, the change will have 

 to be of a radical sort, but the profit which will 

 come from a modification in our theory of teach- 

 ing will be so great as to "warrant^thejcost of the 



changes. The most serious difficulty whfch besets 

 the education which we now give to those who 

 have to look mainly to labor for their support, 

 arises from ancient prejudices with reference to 

 liberal culture. In the first stage of our modern 

 education, the universities were the end for which 

 all education was given to boys. The languages 

 and mathematics were required for admission to 

 the colleges, and so the first primary schools led 

 upward towards them. With the extension of the 

 public-school system, although the training was no 

 longer destined to carry the student to the univer- 

 sities, its form remained essentially unchanged. 

 Thus the ideal of our high schools is that of the 

 university reduced in the measure which the lim- 

 ited time allowed for the student's intellectual 

 training will permit. The standards of education 

 were those required to fit the student for the prac- 

 tice of the learned professions. The body of 

 natural science did not exist. There was noth- 

 ing else to be taught save those branches of learn- 

 ing which still remain the principal resources of 

 our secondary schools. The modern development 

 of science, and the close relations of that division 

 of learning to the practical affairs of life, have 

 made it possible to create another scheme of educa- 

 tion, a scheme in which almost all men can have a 

 share of culture which may abide with them for 

 all their lives. 



I would not have the reader suppose that I am 

 advocating the abandonment, in the education of 

 those who cannot attain to the universities, of all 

 the liberal culture which may be attained to from 

 the study of the mother-tongue and its literature, 

 or from the elementary training in mathematics, 

 nor would I willingly give over tlie training in the 

 elements of geography or of history. I would, 

 however, have our educators recognize the fact 

 that the greatest result to be attained from school- 

 ing is an enlargement in the methods of dealing 

 with the affairs of life. To accomplish this result, 

 it is absolutely necessary that the burden of our 

 education must have direct reference to the work 

 which the individual boy or girl is to do in the 

 world. At present the good effects of education 

 are generally arrested if not destroyed by the in- 

 troduction of the youth to the practical affairs of 

 life. I would have the education proceed in such 

 a manner that the adult would necessarily go for- 

 ward in daily labor on the lines which were already 

 strongly indicated in his preliminary training. 



The importance of this general principle has of 

 late bepn recognized by those who are endi avor- 

 ing to attach systems of industrial training to the 

 education given in our common schools. The re- 

 formers who are endeavoring to accomplish the end 

 in this manner have acted on the supposition that 

 it was possible in the curriculum of a school to 

 give a general training in the principles of practical 

 mechanics and in the use of tools, by which the 

 youth would come to his life's task, at the end of 

 his schooling, essentially prepared to maintain the 

 educated spirit in his work. The principal dif- 

 ficulty of this system arises from the fact that the 

 student cannot have the sense of actual work in 

 the school laboratory which it is necessary to bring 

 him to in order to confirm his relations to the avo- 

 cation he is to follow. So far, the project of sep- 

 arating the training in the arts from the actual 

 pursuit of them has not, it appears to me, been 

 successful. The reason of the relative failure is 

 doubtless to be found in the lack of actuality 

 which must characterize the work in the workshop 

 which is a mere appendage to the school. In a 

 subsequent paper I shall undertake to set forth the 

 methods of teaching by which I think we can hope 

 to bring the spirit of inquiry into the ordinary 

 employments of men. 



[Original in Popular Science News.] 



THE MAKING OFTBE "ORIGIN OFSPECIES." 



BY K. B. CLAYPOLE. 



The long-expected Life of Charles Darwin is 

 now before the public, and there are few people of 

 ordinary cultivation who will not find pleasure in 

 its perusal. In the choice of materials and their 

 arrangement Mr. Francis Darwin has with rare 

 skill consulted all tastes; illustrating the personal 

 character of his father, giving an insight into the 

 daily life of the great naturalist, and recording 

 the history of that theory of the origin of known 

 organic forms which has regenerated biological 

 science, and made itself felt in every department 

 of modern thought. 



What was there in Darwin, that it was given to 

 him to find the hypothesis for which the whole 

 scientific world was waiting? What in the cir- 

 cumstances of his life to shape his thoughts to 

 such an end? 



Charles Darwin, like his grandfather, Erasmus, 

 possessed an indomitable love of hard mental 

 work, and a "vividness of imagination " which 

 led to an "overpowering tendency to theorize and 

 generalize." In Charles this tendency was kept in 

 check by great powers of observation and attention 

 to details, inherited from his father, Dr. Robert 

 Darwin of Shrewsbury. To his father, also, he 

 owed a good memory, confidence in his own ob- 

 servations, even if opposed to current opinion, 

 and a remarkable ability to find cause from effect; 

 while the rare patience and persistent industry 

 vfhich enaliled him to accomplish an enormous 

 amount of intellectual work, notwithstanding con- 

 tinuous physical suffering, may well have descended 

 to him from Josiah Wedgwood, his mother's 

 father. 



In his own analysis of his mental qualities 

 Darwin finds that the most important to him as 

 a scientific worker were, " the love of .science, 

 unbounded patience in long reflecting over any 

 subject, industry in observing and collecting 

 facts, and a fair share of invention as well as 

 of common sense." To these his son adds "the 

 power of never letting an exception pass un- 

 noticed," with the " special instinct of arresting 

 it, and seizing on it as a new point of departure." 

 To these mental qualifications for scientific re- 

 search one other condition of success was added 

 to Charles Darwin, — leisure." "I have had," he 

 writes, "ample leisure, from not having to earn 

 my own bread." 



Looking back on the early days of his life, 

 Darwin found that at eight years old his taste for 

 natural history was so far developed, that he tried 

 to make out the names of plants by examining 

 their flowers, and to account for the changes in the 

 colors of primroses and polyanthuses — not always, 

 however, with a strict regard for truth. He had 

 also a passion for collecting shells, seals, coins, 

 minerals, — any thing and every thing that inter- 

 ested him. These tastes he considered innate, as, 

 not being shared by brothers or sisters, they arose 

 without the stimulation of example. Nor were they 

 at any period encouraged by his instructors, who 

 regarded their indulgence as trifling and waste of 

 time, and whose methods of teaching were cal- 

 culated to destroy all but the most vigorous powers 

 of observation and reasoning. In after-life Darwin 

 said of his thirteen years of regular instruction, 

 " I consider that all I have learnt of any value has 

 been self-taught" 



Collecting minerals, observing insects, and 

 noting the habits of birds, were means of self- 

 education during his boyhood; but the most im- 

 portant lesson of the period was learned in work- 

 ing with his brother Era.smus at chemistry in 



