Professor Morgan's Address 145 



training, and that each should find a place in our 

 educational system, I am of opinion that Nature-study 

 belongs to an earlier stage, experimental work in 

 physics and chemistry to a later stage, of that mental 

 training. It is urged by the advocates of physical 

 science that the experimental course is more nicely 

 under control, more exact and quantitative, and lends 

 itself better to systematic treatment. But it is pre- 

 cisely on these grounds that I think it should follow 

 Nature-study, which is freer, more superficial, less 

 exact, and less systematic. For the natural course of 

 psychological development is from simple observation 

 to experimental work, which is observation under 

 controlled conditions; from the qualitative to the 

 quantitative; from the more superficial to the deeper 

 aspects of nature ; from the relatively unsystematic to 

 the relatively systematic. Furthermore, the concepts 

 which lie behind even the simplest experiments pre- 

 paratory to a right understanding of chemistry and 

 physics are exceedingly complex; and until these 

 concepts begin to take something like definite form, 

 the real significance of what they are doing is not 

 sufficiently obvious to attract and hold the interest of 

 little folk. While, therefore, I would not be under- 

 stood to say anything which might seem to imply 

 that I undervalue the importance of careful and ac- 

 curate weighing and measuring and the conduct of 

 simple chemical experiments at the appropriate stage 

 of mental development, I am convinced that it should 

 be supplementary to and not a substitute for that 

 Nature-study which we advocate. 



A word or two may here be said, in passing, with 

 regard to the application to Nature -study of the 



