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NATURE 



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too much of the orthodox Hamiltonian school, and too 

 little of the, at present despised, phrenological, which latter 

 considers memory a mode of action of all the intellectual 

 faculties, and which, on this point at least, contains more 

 truth and practical suggestion than is generally suspected : 

 " Examining," in which the elements of skilful questioning 

 are well put, and not a few fresh suggestions made, as in 

 regard to the use of " Socratic questioning" in school, on 

 which, however, we recommend to the author's considera- 

 tion, the views of his friend, William Ellis, the liberal 

 and philanthropic founder of the Birkbeck Schools, who 

 was the first to adopt and advocate it in its entirety, 

 making it a true Socratic dialogue, the pupil also stating 

 difficulties and asking questions of the teacher, as well as 

 answering questions asked : the " Preparatory Training" 

 of the child, in which much sound practical advice is 

 convej'ed as to the early stages of the "three R's" and their 

 congeners, but in which, amidst much appreciation of 

 the Kindergarten, this system is on many points — we are 

 sure unconsciously — greatly misunderstood and misrepre- 

 sented ; as that Frobel did not take " a large, or very sound, 

 view of the purpose of education as a whole," that the 

 system "does little or nothing to encourage reflection," is 

 " apt to mistake means for ends," " does not train to over- 

 come difficulties," and much else in the same strain, 

 regarding which, we may safely and confidently leave 

 Mr. Fitch to Miss Shircff and other wise and fully-informed 

 Kindergartener : " The Study of Languages,'" in which the 

 vexed question of the place of the ancient classics and 

 modern languages in education is very fairly and estinia- 

 tively stated, and recent broader views advocated, a 

 chapter that would be studied with advantage by both 

 parties in this wordy strife : " The Enghsh Language," 

 where he claims a very high — we should be inclined to 

 claim even a higher — place for the native tongue and 

 literature, in intellectual, cultural, and general educative 

 power, when rightly taught, and gives some excellent 

 practical suggestions to help towards this, his conclusion 

 being admirably expressed thus—" If your scholars do 

 not acquire a positive love for reading ; if they do not ask 

 to be allowed to read the whole book or poem of which 

 the extract you take as a lesson forms a part ; ... if they 

 do not feel a heightened admiration for what is noblest 

 and truest in literature, and an increasing distaste for 

 what is poor and flimsy and sensational : then be sure 

 that there must be something incurably wrong in your 

 method of teaching, and that all your apparatus of 

 grammar, paraphrase, and logical and grammatical 

 analysis, will have failed to fulfil its purpose." 



Then we have two chapters on "Arithmetic," both as 

 an art and a science, on which, as might be expected 

 from the author of a well-known text-book on the subject, 

 he places high value, for both culture and use, and on 

 which he gives very good hints ; on "Geography" and 

 " History" he is equally fresh, suggestive, and practical ; 

 and the book concludes with two very good chapters on 

 the teaching of "Natural Science" and on "The 

 Correlation of Studies." 



On the place of science and scientific teaching in all 

 true education Mr. Fitch speaks with his accustomed 

 candour, fairness, and perspicuity, and pleads in their 

 favour with a quiet but firm and skilled advocacy, which, 

 with its genial non-polemical incisiveness and force, 



makes it a real acquisition to the growing literature on 

 the scientific side, which will carry conviction into certain 

 scholastic circles that Avould be, as they have been, deaf to 

 more formal and strenuous pleading. Here Mr. Fitch 

 reveals himself with unwonted power as a skilled, Socratic, 

 but disguised polemic, in the advancing cause of science 

 in education. His way of making the scientist in educa- 

 tion put his case "to those who live in the academic 

 world," is admirable : "You are mistaken in supposing 

 that the domain of physical science is a merely material 

 and practical region, while yours is essentially mtellectual. 

 There is here a body of truth of the highest practical utility, 

 no doubt, but also of the greatest value for educational pur- 

 poses. The laws and principles by which the facts of the 

 material world may be explained and co-ordinated, are 

 quite as uniform, quite as beautiful, and as far-reaching 

 in their applications, as any of the laws of language or 

 the truths of mathematics. Moreover, the processes of 

 thought required in the study of these questions are just 

 as vigorous, just as stimulating, stand in just as close a 

 relation to the intellectual needs of a well-instructed man, 

 as those involved in the older studies. You can make 

 the teaching of physical science as fruitful, as thoroughly 

 disciplinal for all the higher purposes contemplated in a 

 liberal education, as the teaching of Greek or of geometry, 

 if you will only first recognise the possibility of making it 

 so, if you will encourage skilled and accomplished men to 

 take up this branch of instruction, and are ready to give 

 them the same status and encouragement as you now 

 give to accomplished teachers of philology or history. 

 Enlarge your conception of what a liberal education 

 means." Mr. Fitch concludes that "of the legitimacy 

 of these claims there can be no doubt," and wishes "some 

 Huxley or Tyndall had enunciated this message before 

 we ourselves went to school." He shortly discusses the 

 utilities of physical truths, their beauty and intellectual 

 attractiveness ; the disciplinal value of the inductive pro- 

 cess by which they are discovered, and its function as 

 an invaluable corrective and necessary supplement to the 

 one-sided deductive method of the common scholastic 

 studies. His recommendations on the practical teaching 

 of science in schools, and on technical education, are 

 also good, and to the point. Altogether, this chapter on 

 Science deserves perusal by all interested in its teaching, 

 and we wish our space allowed us to take his arguments 

 up in detail. 



The last chapter, on " The Correlation of Studies," is 

 an important one, and in great part sound and sensible, 

 though not a few will be inclined to disagree with the 

 author on some points ; for the problem of " the conflict 

 of studies " is as yet more crude and unsettled than any 

 other in the educational world. He wisely controverts 

 the plausible maxim, non niulta, sedmultum. His division 

 of the proportionate times that should be given to the dif- 

 ferent classes of studies, viz. "nearly half to language and 

 literature and subsidiary exercises, and of the remaining 

 half, rather the larger portion to mathematics, and the 

 smaller to experimental science," will provoke controversy) 

 and is surprising in an advocate of science in schools. 

 He would also have never more than two physical sciences 

 studied at the same time. His remarks on the principle 

 of selection amidst the increasing press of studies should 

 be serviceable to distracted teachers, and help them to a 



