quisition. The most patent display of the property consists in memory for knowledge imparted. In this view the leading inquiry in the art of Education is how to strengthen memory. We are therefore led to take account of the several mental aptitudes that either directly or indirectly enter into the retentive function. In other words, we must draw upon the science of the human mind for whatever that science contains respecting the conditions of memory.

Although memory, acquisition, retentiveness, depends mainly upon one unique property of the intellect, which accordingly demands to be scrutinised with the utmost care, there are various other properties, intellectual and emotional, that aid in the general result, and to each of these regard must be had, in a Science of Education.

We have thus obtained the clue to one prime division of the subject the purely psychological part. Of no less consequence is another department at present without a name—an inquiry into the proper or natural order of the different subjects, grounded on their relative simplicity or complexity, and their mutual dependence. It is necessary to success in Education that a subject should not be presented to the pupil until all the preparatory subjects have been mastered. This is obvious enough in certain cases: arithmetic is taken before algebra, geometry before trigonometry, inorganic chemistry before organic; but in many cases the proper order is obscured by circumstances, and is an affair of very delicate consideration. I may call this the Analytic or Logical branch of the theory of Education.

It is a part of scientific method to take strict account of leading terms, by a thorough and exhaustive inquiry

UNION OF EXPERIENCE AND THEORY.

9

into the meanings of all such. The settlement of many questions relating to education is embarrassed by the vagueness of the single term 'discipline.'

Further, it ought to be pointed out, as specially applicable to our present subject, that the best attainable knowledge on anything is due to a combination of general principles obtained from the sciences, with wellconducted observations and experiments made in actual practice. On every great question there should be a convergence of both lights. The technical expression for this is the union of the Deductive and Inductive Methods.' The deductions are to be obtained apart, in their own way, and with all attainable precision. The inductions are the maxims of practice-purified, in the first instance, by wide comparison and by the requisite precautions.

I thus propose to remove from the Science of Education matters belonging to much wider departments of human conduct, and to concentrate the view upon what exclusively pertains to Education-the means of building up the acquired powers of human beings. The communication of knowledge is the ready type of the process, but the training operation enters into parts of the mind not intellectual-the activities and the emotions; the same forces, however, being at work.

Education does not embrace the employment of all our intellectual functions. There is a different art for directing the faculties in productive labour; as, for example, in the professions, in the original investigations of the man of science, in the creations of the artist. The principles of the human mind are applicable to both departments, but although the two come into occasional contact, they are

so far distinct that there is an advantage in viewing them separately. In the practical treatise of Locke, entitled 'The Conduct of the Understanding,' acquisition, production, and invention are handled promiscuously.

CHAPTER II.

BEARINGS OF PHYSIOLOGY.

THE science of Physiology, coupled with the accumulated empirical observations of past ages, is the theoretical guide in finding out how to rear living beings to the full maturity of their physical powers. This, as we have said, is quite distinct from the process of Education.

The art of Education assumes a certain average physical health, and does not inquire into the means of keeping up or increasing that average. Its point of contact with physiology and hygiene is narrowed to the plastic or acquisitive function of the brain-the property of cementing the nervous connections that underlie memory, habit, and acquired power.

But as Physiology now stands, we soon come to the end of its applications to the husbanding of the plastic faculty. The inquiry must proceed upon our direct experience in the work of education, with an occasional check or caution from the established physiological laws. Still, it would be a forgetting of mercies to undervalue the results accruing to education from the physiological doctrine of the physical basis of memory.

On this subject, physiology teaches the general fact

that memory reposes upon a nervous property or power, sustained, like every other physical power, by nutrition, and having its alternations of exercise and rest. It also informs us that, like every other function, the plasticity may be stunted by inaction, and impaired by overexertion.

As far as pure physiology is concerned, I would draw attention to one circumstance in particular. The human body is a great aggregate of organs or interests-digestion, respiration, muscles, senses, brain. When fatigue overtakes it, the organs generally suffer; when renovation has set in, the organs generally are invigorated. This is the first and most obvious consequence. We have next to add the qualifying consideration that human beings are unequally constituted as regards the various functions; some being strong in stomach, others in muscle, others in brain. In all such persons the general invigoration is equally shown; the favoured organs receive a share proportioned to their respective capitals: to him that hath shall be given. Still more pertinent is the further qualification, that the organ that happens to be most active at the time receives more than its share; to exercise the several organs unequally is to nourish them unequally.

Now comes the important point. To increase the plastic property of the mind, you must nourish the brain. You naturally expect that this result will ensue when the body generally is nourished: and so it will, if there be no exorbitant demands on the part of other organs, giving them such a preference as to leave very little for the organ of the mind. If the muscles or the digestion are unduly drawn upon, the brain will not respond to