THOUGHTS ON SCIENCE TEACHING. 535 



It is in truth all which enters into the cultural influence which science exerts 

 upon the intelligence of the masses. Now, as has been shown, this class of 

 scientific knowledge, to those who have not reasoned up to it from the facts, 

 must necessarily be imparted by means of dogmatic statements, and the learner 

 must rest content with the results, ignorant, largely, of the data from which they 

 have been reached. This may be half-knowledge, but beyond question, it -may 

 be very interesting and very valuable knowledge. This is the department of 

 scientific knowledge best suited for impartation through popular lectures. It is 

 the aspect of science to which the popular intelligence always turns with eager- 

 ness. Still, it is not to be supposed that the highest appreciation requires the 

 exclusion of all statements of fact. The mind — even the popular mind — takes 

 delight in its own activity. It likes to trace the relations of causality by means 

 inductive and deductive. The lecturer, for instance, may direct the attention of 

 his hearers to the familiar phenomena of erosion, occurring within the narrow 

 sphere of his own observation. The hearer will easily follow the generalization 

 of this action into a universal phenomenon ; and then, by a mental process 

 equally agreeable, he will accompany the lecturer in a delineation of the ulterior 

 consequences of such geological action. The experimental sciences afford su- 

 perior opportunities for conducting the hearer over the steps of fact, generaliza- 

 tion and deduction. But to assume that no popular instruction in science is 

 legitimate which does not accompany every conclusion by its appropriate proof, 

 is the affectation of a mind which has been running in a rut. To summarize 

 results, we may say that instruction in natural science intended for youthful 

 learners, should deal chiefly with the concrete data, givirig occasional glimpses of 

 the ratiocinative procedures to be based on them. Definitions and general enun- 

 ciations should come at the end instead of the beginning. This work compasses 

 the rudiments of the science. For all persons entering on a thorough course, a 

 similar method should be pursued, extending the range of logical inferences as 

 knowledge accumulates, or the maturity of the learner is more advanced. The 

 inductive method may well be supplemented by formal, descriptive, didactic and 

 dogmatic presentations. 



This instruction may cover the fundamental facts and doctrines, and the 

 prominent theories in the science. It embraces the elements of the subject, and 

 ought always to be acquired during the preparation for college. The third phase 

 of scientific teaching, which may be noted as collegiate, should combine the 

 same method with a larger supplement of lectures designed to gather into a unity, 

 with a clearer co-ordination of parts, the somewhat disjointed results of observa- 

 tional and inductive study, and to lead the learners mind over the lofty ranges 

 of remoter generalization, and ulterior results of the causes in action. A fourth 

 form of presentation is the popular, in which the interest and profit of the learner 

 require a minimum of facts and a maximum of general conceptions. Thus the 

 method of instruction in natural science is not one and uniform. It must vary 

 with the subject matter and with the age and aims of the learner. It may be 

 rudimentary, preparatory, collegiate or popular, and in each case a different pro- 



