ON SCIENCE AND ART 145 



schools, my advice to him is, to let it alone. I will not 

 dwell at any length upon the first point, because there 

 is a general concensus of opinion as to the nature of the 

 topics which should be chosen. The second point 

 practical teaching is one of great importance, be- 

 cause it requires more capital to set it a-going, demands 

 more time, and, last, but by no means least, it requires 

 much more personal exertion and trouble on the part 

 of those professing to teach, than is the case with other 

 kinds of instruction. 



When I accepted the invitation to be here this even- 

 ing, your secretary was good enough to send me the 

 addresses which have been given by distinguished per- 

 sons who have previously occupied this chair. I don't 

 know whether he had a malicious desire to alarm me; 

 but, however that may be, I read the addresses, and 

 derived the greatest pleasure and profit from some of 

 them, and from none more than from the one given by 

 the great historian, Mr. Freeman, which delighted me 

 most of all ; and, if I had not been ashamed of plagiaris- 

 ing, and if I had not been sure of being found out, I 

 should have been glad to have copied very much of 

 what Mr. Freeman said, simply putting in the word 

 science for history. There was one notable passage: 

 "The difference between good and bad teaching mainly 

 consists in this, whether the words used are really clothed 

 with a meaning or not." And Mr. Freeman gives a 

 remarkable example of this. He says, when a little girl 

 was asked where Turkey was, she answered that it was 

 in the yard with the other fowls, and that showed she 

 had a definite idea connected with the word Turkey, and 

 was, so far, worthy of praise. I quite agree with that 

 commendation; but what a curious thing it is that one 

 should now find it necessary to urge that this is the be-all 

 rnrl end-all of scientific instruction the sine mt.& 



