RELATIONSHIP OF GEOLOGY TO TEACHING DEFINED. 317 



importance to his science. We all recognize and deplore the evils which 

 arise from the fact that young people have to be introduced to most 

 branches of learning by teachers who have little chance to gain or to 

 preserve the spirit of inquiry. We can at most hope that the scientific 

 motive may come to these instructors through a study of the psychology 

 which properly underlies their work. It is unreasonable to suppose that 

 they will be able to bring to their work the stimulating influence of those 

 who are a part of the learning they convey. Therefore if men are to be 

 bred in the ways of the naturalist, the task must be done by investigators. 

 Jt goes, or should go, without saying that while these men may give and 

 receive profit from their positions as teachers, the}^ should not be called 

 on to do the share of this work which is often inflicted on them, as it is 

 on the teaching body of our schools in general. A condition of this 

 combination of inquiry and instruction is that the two should be associ- 

 ated so as to give the men of science leisure for their studies as well as 

 an opportunity to influence youths by their teachings. 



Interdependence between Research and Instruction in Geology. 



There are good reasons why the connection between research and in- 

 struction should be preserved in geology, even if it be abandoned in the 

 case of the other sciences. In those other branches of natural learning 

 the subject-matter can be brought into the laboratory'', or at least, as in 

 the case of astronomy, be in some measure made immediately visible to 

 the student, but in geology only a very small part of the fact can be 

 demonstrated by laboratory means. Even where the teacher finds him- 

 self in a field which is rich in illustrations, he is sure to lack examples 

 of the greater part of the important facts which he has to bring to the 

 understanding of his pupils. Under these conditions good teaching de- 

 pends upon the development of the inquiring spirit without the stimulus 

 of a satisfactory direct contact with phenomena. This task cannot be 

 accomplished by any routine methods or by instructors who are not 

 true men of science. It can only be done by those who have the spirit 

 of the investigator in them, who know the range of fact in the intimate 

 and personal way which will enable them to arouse the constructive im- 

 aginations of the youth to the task of picturing the unseen — a task 

 which is at the foundation of the best culture which science has to give. 



A capital instance of what can be done by a teacher who is also an 

 inquirer is afforded b}^ the work of Louis Agassiz in extending the in- 

 terest in glacial geology in this country. His lectures on the subject 

 were so vivid, they so effectively presented the physiognomy of the Swiss 

 glaciers, that they quickened the imaginations of the dullest persons. 

 They aroused an interest in the matter which was so intense ancl on the 



