32 HUXLEY 



strong, was added reason for according equality of op- 

 portunity : Nature might be depended upon to let 

 the incompetent find their level. In physical training, 

 drill and the simpler kind of gymnastics should be 

 taught, the importance of this being paramount in the 

 case of town-bred children who, shut up in sunless 

 alleys, have to amuse themselves with " marbles and 

 chuck-farthings instead of cricket or hare-and- 

 hounds." He would have girls taught the elements 

 of household work, if a supply of competent servants 

 and of thrifty housewives is to be maintained. In 

 mental training, after the " three R's," reading being 

 taught so as to make it a pleasure and incentive, fore- 

 most place should be given to some one or more of 

 the natural sciences, because these bring the faculties 

 of observation and inquiry into play, and because, in 

 teaching a child the nature and properties of things, 

 he is shown that the method of reaching knowledge 

 of these is to be applied to every other branch of 

 knowledge. 



Let every child be instructed in those general views 

 of the phenomena of Nature for which we have no 

 exact English name. The nearest approximation to 

 a name for what I mean, and which we possess, is 

 " physical geography." ] The Germans have a bet- 

 ter, Erdkunde (" earth knowledge " or " geology " in 



1 The more inclusive, but somewhat indefinite, term " physi- 

 ography," has since come into use. 



