106 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



reasoning developed iu the earlier stages, that Biology should be called 

 upon to play its role. 



What is required is by no means the storing of the memory with a vast 

 array of separate facts. It is rather that the budding citizen should be given 

 a grasp of broad principles, as accepted by the competent authorities of 

 the day. Such broad principles are generalisations from immense masses. 

 of detail. The probable soundness of the generalisation is intimately 

 related to the broadness of its basis of fact. It is, of course, impracticable 

 to place before the pupil the entire body of facts that constitute this base, 

 and if it were possible it would be useless, for it is only a master who is 

 able to perceive clearly the relations of superstructure to base. The object 

 of the teacher is, then, not to attempt the vain task of demonstrating the 

 truth of the general principle in the short period available : such facts as 

 are introduced should serve merely to ilhistrate the particular principle 

 and facilitate its appreciation. 



I know that there are many who will criticise as unscientific andl 

 unsatisfactory such a simple manner of approach to general principles^ 

 They will say you cannot really instil such principles unless you make 

 the pupil go through an elaborate course of laboratory training in dis- 

 section and microscopic observation such as we impose upon the specialist 

 student of Biology. I do not agree. My experience has been that an 

 audience, whether of youths or of adults, of ordinary average composition 

 such as we get in a public lecture in a big industrial city, appreciates the 

 points and follows the argument perfectly satisfactorily without such 

 elaborate preparation, provided always that the argument is clothed in 

 plain, non-technical English. 



Biology in the Curriculum. 



The question may now be put : What exactly are the biological facts 

 and principles that should be introduced into such a course of instruction 'I 



I. Firstly, the great fact of evolution. We still see with tiresome 

 frequency in magazine articles the statement that evolution is not a fact, 

 but merely an unproved hypothesis. No doubt it may be said with 

 perfect accuracy that in one sense absolute proof is unknown to science, 

 except in relation to successive steps of an operation in pure mathematics. 

 Taking, however, the word ' proved ' as we use it in ordinary life, e.g. in 

 relation to a matter inquired into by a Court of Law, then we are com- 

 pletely justified by the data of embryology and palaeontology in stating 

 that evolution is a definitely proved fact. The realisation that it is a fact 

 admitted by all competent judges should be incorporated in the mental 

 equipment of every citizen at an early stage of his training. 



II. Secondly, the broad fact of inheritance : the fact that the offspring 

 repeat the characters of the parent — physical, mental, moral — but that 

 this repetition is never so complete as to amount to identity as regards 

 such characters. It is not always realised that, were the repetition 

 actually exact and complete, it would constitute a fact that would shake 

 our whole biological philosophy to its foundations ! 



The voyager upon the open ocean often sees a towering wave 

 approaching his vessel, overwhelmingly impressive in its seeming 

 individuality, and yet we know from physics that that onwardly rushing 



