318 N. S. SHALER — RELATIONS OF GEOLOGIC SCIENCE TO EDUCATION. 



whole so well informed that the study of glacial geology in the larger 

 sense of the term developed more rapidly and on better lines in this 

 country, where existing ice fields are lacking, than in European lands, 

 where exam2)les abound. In such work we see the part of the master 

 in instruction. As a contrast I may be allowed to relate a story which 

 gives us a notion of what science teaching is likely to become when it is 

 left to the people of routine. 



The professor of mineralogy in Harvard University one day observed 

 two 3^oung women examining his mineral cabinet, one of whom was 

 evidently searching for some particular species. Offering his help, he 

 found that the object of her quest was feldspar. Wlien shown the min- 

 eral she seemed ver}'- much interested in the specimens, expressing her- 

 self as gratified at having the chance to see and touch them. The })ro- 

 fessor asked her why she so desired to see the particular mineral. The 

 answer was that for some years she had been obliged to teach in a neigh- 

 boring high school, among other things, mineralogy and geology, and that 

 the word feldspar occurred so often in the text-book that her curiosity 

 had become aroused as to its appearance. 



It will, of course, be possible to give the routine teachers some practi- 

 cal knowledge of feldspar and of the other matters of fact witli which 

 they have to deal in their text-book work, but the motive, or the lack of 

 it, which is indicated by the incident will always have to be reckoned on 

 as inseparable from the mill-work of ordinary schools. So far as geology 

 is concerned, the instruction of this text-])Ook kind which may be essayed 

 in the secondary schools is quite in vain ; its only effect is to make the 

 youths on whom it is inflicted quite unapproachable by the teacher who 

 ma}^ afterwards undertake to introduce them to geology. All of us who 

 have taught in colleges know the youth who has had somebody's "six 

 weeks of geology " rubl^ed in by a drudge who, if required to do so, would 

 in a like way have api)lied Sanscrit. We know that the youth who has 

 been so misused is in most cases, provided he is not blessed with a good 

 ca{)acity for escaping the influences of education, utterly unfit for our uses. 

 The most economical thing to do, in the large sense of the word, is to give 

 him the advice which the elder Agassiz was wont to give to those of his 

 students who proved impregnable to his methods of instruction : " Sir, 

 you better go into business." 



Value of geological Education and Methods of Transmission. 



co m pr e fte xsi ve cha racter of geology. 



Assuming, as we needs must, that as geologists it is our duty not only 

 to extend the learning of the science, but also to take charge of its dif- 

 fusion among the people, let us consider in general the value of good 



