Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/346

330 enjoys is greatly due to his having early learned one simple physiological lesson.

Turning again to the class subjects, last year elementary science was only taken in forty-five schools out of twenty thousand. This, however, was not because it was unpopular, but simply on account of the rules laid down in the Code. According to Mr.Williams, grammar—which, under compulsion, was taken in over nineteen thousand schools—was not a popular subject, and, if only the Code permitted it, it would be dropped in half his schools. One of her Majesty's inspectors, in the last report, seemed to regard it as an advantage of grammar that "its processes require no instruments, no museums, no laboratories." This, on the contrary, is one of its drawbacks. It fails to bring the children into any contact with Nature. Indeed, Helmholtz is probably correct in his view, that the rules of grammar, followed, as they are, by long strings of exceptions, weaken the power of realizing natural laws. Again, it is surely undesirable to attach so much importance to the minutiae of spelling. Dr.Gladstone has shown that the irregularities of English spelling cause, on an average, the loss of more than one thousand hours in the school-life of each child. "A thousand hours in the most precious seed-time of life of millions of children, spent in learning that i must follow e in conceive, and precede it in believe; that two e's must, no one knew why, come together in proceed and exceed, and be separated in precede and accede; that uncle must be spelled with a c, but ankle with a k, and numberless other and equally profitless conventions! And this, while lessons in health and thrift, sewing and cooking, which should make the life of the poor tolerable, and elementary singing and drawing, which should make it pleasant and push out lower and degrading amusements, are, in many cases, almost vainly trying to obtain admission." At present, we really seem to follow the example of Democritus, who is said to have put out his eyes, in order that he might reason better. It was a truer instinct which identified the "seer" and the "prophet." It seems very undesirable that our rules should be so stringent as to lay down a "flattening-iron" over schools, but if the choice of subjects were dictated at all, why, of all subjects in the world, should grammar, with its dry and bewildering technicalities, be especially favored? I do not, however, wish to disparage grammar; all I desire is, that it should not block the way; that elementary science should have a fair chance. The three objections which are sometimes heard, especially at schoolboard elections, are over-pressure, over-expense, and over-education. That there is really no general over-pressure, Mr.Fitch and Mr.Sydney Buxton have satisfied most impartial judges. Still, the relief afforded by a change from literature to science, from books to nature, from taxes on memory to the stimulus of observation, is no doubt of the most grateful character.

Mr.Matthew Arnold, in his recent "Report on Certain Points