viii CURIOUS HOMES AND THEIR TENANTS. 



part of their readers than all other influences com- 

 bined. 



It is therefore much more a matter of importance 

 to get the right kind of book than to get a living 

 teacher. The book which teaches results, and at the 

 same time gives in an intelligible manner the steps of 

 discovery and the methods employed, is a book 

 which wdl stimulate the student to repeat the ex- 

 periments described and get beyond these into fields 

 of original research himself. Every one remem- 

 bers the published lectures of Faraday on chemistry, 

 which exercised a wide influence in changing the style 

 of books on natural science, causing them to deal 

 with method more than results, and thus to train 

 the reader's power of conducting original research. 

 Kobinson Crusoe for nearly two hundred years has 

 stimulated adventure and prompted young men to 

 resort to the border lands of civilization. A library 

 of home reading should contain books that stimulate 

 to self -activity and arouse the spirit of inquiry. The 

 books should treat of methods of discovery and evo- 

 lution. All nature is unified by the discovery of 

 the law of evolution. Each and every being in the 

 world is now explained by the process of development 

 to which it belongs. Every fact now throws light on 

 all the others by illustrating the process of growth in 

 which each has its end and aim. 



The Home Reading Books are to be classed as 

 follows : 



First Division. Natural history, including popular 

 scientific treatises on plants and animals, and also de- 



