642 REPORT— 1903. 



is a proverbial safeguard, and those who are alive to a danger will cast ahout for 

 a means of guarding against it. And there are many ways of neutralising what- 

 ever there may be potentially harmful in the use of Geology for educational ends.' 



After thus himself answering what is in reality his main indictment, Professor 

 Green proceeds with the rest of an address crammed full of such valuable hints as 

 could only fall from an experienced and practical teacher, showing how much 

 could be done if the science were only properly taught. 



And then he concludes by asking for ' that kindly and genial criticism with 

 which the brotherhood of the hammer are wont to welcome attempts to strengthen 

 the corner-stones and widen the domain of the science we love so well.' 



I think the time has now come to speak with greater confidence ; and, although 

 the distance signal stands at danger, to forge ahead slowly but surely, keeping our 

 eyes open for all the risks of the road, with one hand on the brakes and the other 

 on the driving gear, secure at least in the confidence that Nature, unlike man, 

 never switches a down train on to the up track. 



Accessibility and Interest. 



Those of us who have been teaching our science for any considerable time 

 have come to realise that there are many re.asons why Geology should be more 

 widely taught than at present ; that there are many types of mind to whom this 

 science appeals as no other does ; and that there are abundant places and 

 frequent circumstances which allow of the teaching of it when other sciences are 

 unsuitable. 



To begin with, there is no science in which the materials for elementary 

 teaching are so common, so cheap, and everywhere so accessible. Nor is there 

 any science which touches so quickly the earliest and most elementary interests. 

 It was for this reason that Huxley built his new science of Physiography on 

 a geological basis. Hills, plains, valleys, crags, quarries, cuttings, are attractive 

 to every boy and girl, and always rouse intelligent curiosity and frequent inquiry ; 

 and although the questions asked are difficult to answer in full, a keen teacher 

 can soon set his children to hunt for fossils or structures which wiU give them part 

 of the information they seek. Of course the teaching cannot go very far without 

 simple laboratory and museum accommodation, and without a small expenditure 

 on maps and sections ; but the former of these requirements can soon be supplied 

 from the chemical laboratory and by the collection of the students themselves, 

 while the latter are every day becoming cheaper and more accessible and useful. 

 The bicycle and the camera, too, are providing new teaching material and 

 methods, while at the same time they are giving new interests. The bicycle has 

 already begun to create a generation to whom relief maps are not an altogether 

 sealed book, and for whom the laws which govern the relief of a country are 

 rapidly finding practical utility ; and the camera, at the same time that it quickens 

 the appreciation of natural beauty, must give new interest to each scrap of know- 

 ledge as to the causes, whether botanical or geological, to which that beauty is 

 due. And it is this new knowledge which in turn develops the ossthetic sense. 

 Mente, iJiatiu, et malleo sums up most of what is required in the early stages of 

 learning ; but to round off' the motto we still require words to express the camera 

 and bicycle. 



Field-worh. 



Another reason is the opeu-airness of the practice of the science. The delight 

 of the open country comes with intense relief after the classroom, the laboratory, 

 or the workshop.. In education generally, and especially in geological education, 

 we have reached the end of the period when 



' all roads lead to Rome 

 Or books — the refuge of the destitute.' 



Of course I realise fully the vital necessity of laboratory and museum work in the 

 stages of both learning and investigation, and quite freely admit that there is aq 



