146 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



T do not knoAv wliether this prophecy extends to fishing 

 also. I doubt it. J^ut I can truthfully say that the pursuit 

 of grey mullet includes a maximum of observation and a 

 minimum of murdei*. 



But I do think the boys were rigiit who seemed to 

 feel that they should have been caught young. Of course, 

 the great naturalist, like any other genius, is })orn, not made, 

 yet even he may be lost for want of opportunity and 

 encouragement. What we want is that all young people 

 should take an intelligent interest in such studies — should find 

 them even exciting, with a more sober but more sensible and 

 more sustained excitement even than a football final cup-tie. 

 But for this one thing is essential. They must know some- 

 thinsf of the scientific attitude of mind. 



There was once a boy who after listening with exemplary 

 patience to some botanical information Avhich was being 

 communicated to him, said, " Now, uncle Charles, don't you 

 think we might stop, and talk like gentlemen for a little V " 

 Such an utterance ought to be impossible for an educated 

 boy. It is fast becoming impossible, I am thankful to say, 

 among the rising generation. Every child in a decent school 

 is taught something nowadays of Elementary Science, and 

 taught it by self-made experiments. 



But what form should this Elementary Science take V 

 Shoidd it be Elementary Chemistry and Physics, or is 

 there a better way ? 



The advocates of Nature Study say they have found 

 that better way. They say that in the early stages no 

 definite course of science should be attempted at all. No 

 course of botany, or of geology, or of zoology, or of physics, 

 and still less of chemistry. Eormal and methodical courses of 

 given subjects have their proper place at a much later stage. 

 The work should be Nature Study, an elastic term capable of 

 being stretched to include in one bundle bits from each of the 

 Natural Sciences. 



The child's natural curiosity is to be exercised on the 

 things around him ; any natural phenomenon will do, provided 

 that he is forming the habit of accurate observation, and of 

 recording, as soon as he is old enough, what he observes. 



The object is to imbue him with an attitude of mind 

 towards his environment. To lead him to take an intelligent 

 interest in the things of his everyday life, is to make him first 

 observant, then inquisitive, and at last thoughtful. The 

 short-lived curiosity of the child is to be turned into a love of 

 knowledge. 



