76 EEPOET— 1888. 



ledge. As to the former of tbese, the subject is not, in the opinion of the 

 present writer, of great value, for the methods of demonstration as they 

 can be exhibited in a school laboratory are not very rigorous and logical, 

 and at the best seem rather to afford a strong presumption than a satis- 

 factory assurance in favour of any particular conclusion. As to the latter 

 object, it may be said that it is not one about which educationists generally 

 are very enthusiastic. At the same time, if there is any subject more than 

 another the knowledge of which is desirable it is chemistry. The entire 

 change of mental attitude towards physical surroundings, which even a 

 slight knowledge of the principles of chemistry induces, is most noticeable, 

 and boys find it both a source of healthy wonder and, though they do not 

 observe it themselves, a great mental stimulus. There is, of course, one 

 other object with which chemistry maybe taught, namely, for the sake of 

 those who will find it directly useful in after-life. But as they are, after 

 all, only a small percentage of the whole, the argument of practical utility 

 is one which cannot be advanced as in itself a justification for teaching 

 the subject.' 



IX. ' Chemistry should be taught in schools while boys are com- 

 paratively young, in order that those who have no taste for classics may- 

 find some work in which they can take a practical interest. There are 

 boys who, without being stupid, have no taste whatever for books, and 

 the chance of practical work, like chemistry, for which they can see some 

 use of an obvious kind, may prevent many a boy from becoming a con- 

 firmed idler. The study of chemistry, therefore, should be encouraged as 

 a distinct benefit to the character of many bo^^s. It should also be 

 encouraged for the public good, because any boy so interested in early 

 life may be led to devote his after-years to the pursuit of scientific 

 subjects. And again, it should be taught in schools to enable boys who 

 go into business now very young to have some slight knowledge of 

 scientific facts of an elementary kind while they still have time to learn.* 



X. 'AH my experience shows that even to young children chemistry 

 may be made the threshold of the fairyland of science, and that by means 

 of it they may early acquire a profound sense of the rigorous, unyielding 

 nature of law and of the unity in the midst of diversity which pervades 

 the world around us. Again, as a mere discipline for the intellect, I 

 believe chemistry is destined to take the place of Latin and Greek 

 grammar, when a definite course of teaching has been laid down, and 

 teachers have themselves mastered that course as thoroughly as former 

 teachers had mastered their accidence and syntax. To make the pupil 

 aware of the existence of an unknown, unexplained, inscrutable side to 

 every, and even the simplest phenomenon, is to awaken desire, expectation, 

 pleasure — all the antecedents of healthy mental effort, and the difference 

 between the daily, hourly life of one who has thus become conscious of the 

 literally infinite, ineffable nature of things around him, and that of one 

 who thinks he knows all about them, is immense.' 



XI. ' Too much weight may easily be attached to the objection often 

 urged against chemical teaching (and, indeed, against the study of other 

 branches of natural science), that it fails to cultivate good taste and good 

 style ; that the learner is brought into contact merely with material facts 

 and not with human thoughts, and so acquires a character and mode of 

 expressing himself as hard, rough, and unsympathising as the laws of 

 Nature with which he deals. It is certainly impossible to avoid noticing 

 that the abstracts of lectures and answers to examination papers shown 



