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and the physical processes are more thought of than in them; in which respect, it nearly resembles Meteorology, an applied department of Physics. Geology could be understood and followed on a basis of Natural Philosophy or Physics, with mere 'object lessons' on minerals, plants and animals.

PRACTICAL TEACHING.

With reference to the Experimental Sciences of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and the Natural History group, it is now frequently urged that the teaching should be practical: meaning, not merely, that the teacher should present to the pupils actual experiments and specimens, but that the pupils should manipulate with their own hands. Professor Huxley seems to hold that Zoology cannot be learnt with any degree of sufficiency unless the student practise dissection.

In support of this position, there are strong reasons. In the first place, the impression made on the mind by the actual objects, as seen, handled, and operated upon, is far beyond the efficacy of words, or description. And not only is it greater, but it is more faithful to the fact. While diagrams have a special value in bringing out links of connection that are disguised in the actual objects, they can never show the things exactly as they appear to our senses; and this full and precise conception of actuality is the most desirable form of knowledge; it is truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Moreover, it enables the student to exercise a free and independent judgment upon the dicta of the teacher.

Whether the power and habit of experimental mani

pulation should be acquired for its own sake, depends on what further use is likely to be made of it. In the Zoology courses in the School of Mines,' there are schoolmasters' classes, where dissecting is practised, and is useful; but we cannot contend that very valuable instruction may not be imparted by merely showing dissected and prepared specimens, although the pupil has no hand in the work. So, in Experimental Physics, a good knowledge may be obtained from a course that shows all needful experiments, without the actual participation by the pupils themselves. To make an experiment succeed, many delicate precautions and fine manipulations may be wanted; some of these precautions implicate matters of knowledge that are not perhaps conveyed to the minds of the learners, while they are very strongly impressed on the mind of the experimenter. As regards the mere manual skill, that cannot be called a part of scientific information or discipline, while to acquire it needs time and attention. The Laboratory teaching in Physics (a recent innovation), like Laboratory teaching in Chemistry, is a good introduction to various scientific avocations, as Engineering, Machinery, and Manufactures; it cannot be regarded as essential to the general course of scientific study, and would be too dearly bought at the cost of marring some other department of science. More especially, if training in the higher intellectual operations of the mind is the object of view, would it be a disproportion to give up a large share of time to practical working.

What may be said in favour of practical teaching for a general training is, that the arts, devices, precautions connected with exact observation, would be brought

USES OF TEXT-BOOKS.

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home by a course of study in some one of the experimental or observational sciences. Practical experience in a single subject would be enough; and the interest of the work would go far to repay the devotion. It is plain. that in none of the experimental subjects could anyone be an adept, an expert, or an authority, apart from the practical study; but to carry the information and the training forward into other departments, a knowledge obtained without this help may suffice. We need not be workers in Physiology to apply its results to the physical accompaniments of the Mind.

ORAL TEACHING AND TEXT-BOOKS.

In primary instruction, and, to a certain extent, in the secondary higher instruction, text-books are made use of as the means of communicating knowledge. They are very variously employed. Sometimes the teacher himself orally delivers the whole substance of the lesson, referring to the text-book as a further aid. Sometimes he selects portions for oral exposition, thus awakening the pupils' minds to what is to be done, and leaving the rest to their own exertions. Lastly, he may do nothing at all, but exact, in the form of lessons, an account of what is in the book, giving corrections and explanations according as these are found to be necessary. The first method very nearly approaches to independent lecturing, the text-book being an adjunct and support. A combination of the lecture and the text-book, when they are made to harmonize well, is an effective mode of carrying on instruction both in the lower and in the higher grades. The text-book does not supersede the lectures, but only

supplies gaps. If there is no text-book, provision has to be made for taking full notes, and the lecturer must advance slowly, and be careful to dictate or post up the heads and leading principles.

Lecturing, that is, oral teaching, with or without textbook, has the very great advantage of the living voice, aided by the sympathy of numbers; and is indispensable in school-teaching. Young pupils have much difficulty in guessing out for themselves the meaning of a compactly-worded handbook; to set them to work at this, as an evening task, is a kind of fatigue drill. The generality are found at fault when the class is examined; a few may succeed, and the others get the benefit of the rehearsal, with the comments of the master, and in that way learn all that they do learn. If a lesson, after being heard in this way, were to be again prescribed, the getting up might be extended to the whole class.

A task may be of a kind to dispense with preliminary explanation, as in learning a string of words, or a verbatim statement. Even then, it is well that the teacher should first recite it to the pupils; his doing so once will go farther to fix it in the memory than their going over it by themselves six times. There is no harm, but good, in exacting a certain amount of independent preparation, especially with older pupils, but the teacher's first recitation, and the final iteration during the lessons, are the principal instrumentality whereby the lesson is fixed in the memory; the learner's own studies are the smallest contribution to the effect.

When there are difficulties to be encountered, the previous explanations of the master are indispensable. One species of difficulty deserves mention, as serious in itself,

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and of common occurrence. A passage in the textbook may be prescribed, not to be got by heart, but to be understood, and repeated in substance. In historical narration, in a geographical picture, in a natural history description, and in scientific explanation, this position is created; and it is a severe ordeal alike to the text-book, to the pupil, and to the master. To divine what are essential or leading points in a subject, and what are the accessory or subordinate details, requires a very mature judgment; while, if they are separated by typography, in the text-book, the lowest degree of judgment is dispensed with, unless the exercise be to show the bearing of the one on the other. But for a pupil to discover what shall appear the leading points to the master, is to be something more than a pupil. It is in this situation, that the teacher should indicate what the points are, and should awaken the minds of pupils to the difference between these and the subordinate details.

The easiest case is when there is a principle or rule, with a host of examples to choose from; all that is necessary is to prescribe the rule with a choice of examples. The exercise is not one of memory but of comprehension.

It is bad policy to prescribe lessons of excessive length, expecting only a part to be performed. If, for the sake of the better pupils, the lesson should exceed what the average can perform, the minimum should be a defined portion, to be exacted of everyone. The impossibility of bringing every pupil in a class to book, on every occasion, is in itself a standing temptation to run the blockade; but when the quantity prescribed is beyond what can be reasonably required, the do-nothing habit receives positive encouragement.