XCii TROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May I903, 



in a single experimental science, such as Chemistry and Physics, 

 can do more for the pupil than give him a glimpse of a corner of 

 nature. 



It is sometimes suggested that instruction in Earth-Knowledge 

 should commence with the simplest facts and deductions, and lead 

 up stage by stage to the highest philosophical conceptions and 

 generalizations. But this is not the way in which any branch of 

 knowledge has grown and developed in the past. The human mind 

 is so constituted that it can often appreciate the broadest gene- 

 ralizations in some directions, before it can interest itself in the 

 most elementary facts and draw the simplest conclusions in others. 

 What must be done is to ascertain, from the study of the several 

 branches of knowledge, how they have individually grown during 

 their developmental history in past ages, note the order of subjects 

 which were earliest and most easily appreciated by the human 

 intellect, and give the successive phases of education as nearly 

 as may be in that order. 



Again, it is sometimes hinted that the only fruitful education is 

 that which is purely experimental, the deductions and generalizations 

 in which shall be worked out by the scholar himself ; and also that 

 all knowledge which is imparted by the didactic method is not true 

 knowledge and is comparatively infertile. But I firmly hold that 

 both methods are correct, each for itself, and should both be utilized. 

 There are unquestionably some things which are best taught by 

 experiment, and by that demonstration in which the pupil takes the 

 whole or the largest share. But, on the other hand, the facts of 

 science are so overwhelming in number, and some of its grandest con- 

 clusions are so dependent on the highest extremes of knowledge, that 

 they must be communicated didactically, and must be accepted by 

 the scholar more or less as an article of faith. Indeed the younger 

 the scholar, and the less his experience, the more certain is he to 

 accept as unquestionable truths the assertions of his instructors. 

 It would be the height of folly to neglect the advantages of all this 

 side of a youth's education in those years of his life when he is most 

 qualified to profit by it. 



The fact is that in the imparting of Earth-Knowledge, as in 

 any other kind of instruction, both educational methods — didactic 

 and experimental, authoritative and original — should be utilized 

 together. It is a matter for the educationalist to find out what 

 sections of a subject, and what stages of a subject, are best 

 imparted by one method and what by another. The only rule 



