180 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



works of art. When such schools are plentiful the number of minds seeking 

 for the useful in natural objects and the development of the aesthetic in works 

 of art will be increased a hundredfold. But to accomplish this it is evident 

 that there must be a decided change in the system of early instruction which 

 will necessitate a corresponding change in advanced schools. 



This change, I beg to observe, requires no Government aid and no increase 

 of expenditure, but it requires a higher appreciation of the importance of the 

 first four or five years of school life, and a general conviction that to become 

 a teacher is not such a very simple matter. 



The importance of a more judicious cultivation of the mental powers of a 

 child will also appear from the fact that reason and memory preponderate the 

 more over imagination the younger the child. When habits of observation 

 are formed early by which the mind is directed for recreation to external 

 objects an important check will be given to wayward fancies and castle- 

 building, or more properly speaking, to subjective sensations, which are often 

 the fruitful source of folly in youth and of discontent and misery in later life. 

 The passion for sensational novels tells the tale of bad early instruction of 

 incompetent teachers and of the waste of some of the most important years 

 of human life. 



I have read from time to time of masters of some advanced schools 

 urging the necessity of preparatory schools in connection with their own, but 

 the proposals have generally been coldly received. There is naturally a great 

 hesitation in persisting in such suggestions because they are always attributed 

 to some selfish motive, and there is also the fear in arousing the public who 

 are content with the present system, lest, to use the simile of an old Greek, 

 those whom it is intended to benefit may feel angry, like a sleeper suddenly 

 awakened by a fly, and strike at the disturber of their rest. The necessity of 

 good preparatory schools may be very evident to some teachers, but the people 

 at large must feel the necessity of them before they can be established. At 

 the same time it is certain that no very high attainments can be expected from 

 boys of our schools so long as a very important part of school life is shamefully 

 wasted. I do not expect any change in our present system for some years, 

 but I believe the wrong done to young children is every year becoming more 

 apparent, and in time the badness of our present method of early instruction 

 will be evident to every one. 



It is with this hope that I do like the traveller in Ireland, who comes to a 

 cairn raised to mark some crime, when he throws a stone on the risinir heap. 



