L.— EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE. 217 



derived from becoming acquainted with what others have seen or 

 thouglit. It is true that we learn from personal experience, but a wise 

 man learns also from the experience of others, and one purpose of a de- 

 scriptive science course should be to cultivate this capacity of under- 

 standing what others have described. As in art, or in music, or in 

 literature, the intention of school teaching should be mainly to promote 

 appreciation of what is best in them rather than to train artists, musi- 

 cians, or men of letters, so in science the most appropriate instruction for 

 a class as an entity must be that which expands the vision and creates a 

 spirit of reverence for Nature and the power of man, and not that which 

 aims solely at training scientific investigators. It should conform with 

 Kant's view that the ultimate ideal of education is nothing Less tha,n 

 the perfection of human nature, and not mei-ely a goal to be obtained 

 by the select few. 



The sum and substance of this address is a plea for the expansion 

 of scientific instruction in this humanising spirit, for widening the gate- 

 way into the land of promise where the destinies of the human race 

 are shaped. It is the privilege of a president to be to some extent 

 pontifical — to express opinions wliich in other circumstances would 

 demand qualification — and to leave others to determine how far the 

 doctrines pronounced can be put into practice in daily life. I do not, 

 therefore, attempt to suggest the outlines of courses of science teaching 

 for pupils of different ages, or for schools of different types; this has 

 been done already in a number of books and reports, among the latter 

 being the Eeport of Sir J. J. Thomson's Committee on the Position 

 of Natural Science, the Eeport of the British Association Committee 

 on Science Teaching in Secondary Schools, Mr. 0. H. Lattei-'s Report 

 to the Board of Education on Science Teaching in Public Schools, the 

 ' Science for All ' Eeport and Syllabus issued by the Science Masters' 

 Association, a Board of Education Eeport on ' Some Experiments in the 

 Teaching of Science and Handwork in certain Elementary Schools in 

 London,' and one prepared for the Board by Mr. J. Dover Wilson on 

 ' Humanism in the Continuation School.' What has been said in this 

 address as to the need for extending the outlook of customary scientific 

 instruction beyond the narrow range of manual exercises, manipulative 

 dexterity, experimental ritual, or incipient research, can be both ampli- 

 fied and justified from these Eeports. I want science not only to be 

 a means of stimulating real and careful thinking through doing tilings, 

 but also a means of creating interest and enlarging the working vocabu- 

 lary of the pupils and thus truly increasing their range of intelligence. 

 So may scientific instruction be made a power and an inspiration by 

 giving, in the words of the Book of Wisdom (vii. 16-20) : — 



' an unerring knowledge of the things that are, 

 To know the constitution of the world and the operation of the elements ; 

 The beginning and end and middle of times. 

 The alternations of the solstices and the changes of seasons, 

 The circuits of years and the positions of stars ; 

 The nature of living creatures and the raging of wild beasts, 

 The violences of winds and the thoughts of men, 

 The diversities of plants and the virtues of roots.' 



