PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 603 
written, ‘Sandford and Merton.’ When teaching a subject, teach all sorts of 
other subjects as well. If Mr. Barlow’s boys were interested in astronomy he 
showed them stars and planets through a telescope for a night or two, but he 
gave them no stupefying course on astronomy. He gave them stars and the solar 
system just as long as they were interested. He used a globe as well as mere 
maps in teaching them geography and history, but the soul-destroying idea of a 
course of study on ‘the use of the globes’ did not commend itself to him. 
They walked over the fields and took an interest in trees and flowers, but he 
gave them no stupefying course on botany. When he gave them a lesson on 
English grammar or literature he taught them at the same time the geography 
and history and the fairy stories of their country. How can a man give a 
course on grammar or geography or history or anything else without diverting 
his talk in an interesting way to other subjects? What is so tremendously 
important about Natural Science laboratory work is that a student must be 
thinking all the time about the same matters, not from one ‘but from ten interest- 
ing points of view. He is not merely observing, he is measuring, he is comput- 
ing, he is reasoning; he has to write out descriptions of what he sees and does, 
and he thinks then of his spelling and grammar; he has to sketch; he has to 
read books about what other people have done before him on the same subject, 
and also for statistics. He learns the value of a bit of work done in a clean 
honest way, and when he gets some more experience he glows with the feeling 
that he has really added to the knowledge of the world. He is a discoverer, 
and he feels the emotion of Cortez! It is marvellous the alteration which 
has occurred in the mental attitude of the common average boy. Instead of 
feeling that he is a degraded slave he feels the emotion of his childhood 
returning to him. He once made the great discovery at the age of six that the 
back garden was inhabited by fairies and lions and Indians and pirates. He 
was the Caliph Haroun Alraschid for a while. And now, after a wretched 
life at Latin and Euclid, a new revelation is vouchsafed to him, and as he gathers 
years he finds that Nature is placidly willing to let him steal her secrets little by 
little, one by one, secrets that are gradually changing men from the bewilderment 
and spirit possession of the Middle Ages; so that at length he enters into com- 
plete communion with Nature and rollicks with her, and quarrels with her, and 
loves her more and more until he dies. And his reasoning power has been grow- 
ing all the time, so that more and more he understands complex things, for, 
after an experimental study of story-books, he probably entered the kingdom of 
Shakespeare at the age of fourteen. Things requiring memory can be learnt only 
in early life—weights and measures, the multiplication table, languages. He 
knows games involving spelling. But, over and above all these, he has from 
infancy repeated all sorts of poetry long before he could enjoy much more of it 
than the jingle of its rhyme. 
Educaticn consists in the development of a man from his earliest day, and 
does not cease till he dies. Any thoughtful man must see that there is no science 
so important as that of education, the preparation of children of this generation 
to be the citizens, the rulers of the country, in the next generation. The whole 
future of cur Empire depends upon the education of the children. By the study 
of this science we hope to improve teaching so as to make future citizens not only 
to have more knowledge and more skill, but to make them wiser than the people 
of the present or the past. 
Early training determines what later training ought to be. Let us consider 
what the early training of a boy ought to be. In his very early days Nature has 
provided that his education shall proceed very rapidly by observation and experi- 
ment, and the only teaching needed is through careful nursing and affection. He 
teaches himself, and he loves to learn. He ought to get toys not too realistic, 
for he loves to weave romance round his toys, but still things to observe 
and experiment with. He has most complex problems in physical science when 
he is ouly a few weeks old, the solution of which involves much labour, but it is 
pleasant labour and he is happy. And he will remain sweet-tempered and happy 
and unspoilt if there is real affection from his teachers. If, however, somebody 
teases him by playing practical jokes, or if a selfish mother who was unreasonably 
kind to him yesterday is unreasonably unkind to him to-day, he gets, because of 
his reasoning power, a sense of injustice. Man, woman, or child with a sense of 
injustice may be said to be possessed of a devil. During the first six years of a 
