Science Lectures for the People

Abstract

OF the justice of your remarks on “Science Lectures for the People” there can be no doubt whatever. The lectures in question are perfect models of what lectures should be, and while reading them I pictured to myself the rich feast that had been prepared for the people who were fortunate enough to hear them—especially for those who had some previous acquaintance with the subjects of which they treat. They are couched in simple language, so that those who run may read. They are strictly to the point, well calculated to excite further inquiry, and in every way adapted for the purpose for which they were intended. It may be, however, doubted, whether lectures on scientific subjects before the general public, however delivered, do that amount of good which they certainly ought to do. A lecture to be thoroughly and lastingly effective presupposes a certain acquaintance with the subject already. To listen even to the most brilliant and never so simply worded address on Spectrum Analysis or Coral Reefs, has a very transient effect, I take it, upon those who have rarely or never heard of such things. However praiseworthy, therefore, every effort to scatter scientific knowledge among our population may be—and it certainly deserves every commendation—my decided opinion, arrived at after large experience with the people in towns and country, especially the latter—is that it will fail, unless we begin with the young. People in masses may be compared with fuel laid in the grate. If you ignite it from the top, a considerable time will elapse before it reaches the whole mass; but if the fire be applied from below, the course is more rapid, and the fuel sooner feels the effect. So with science teaching, or any teaching, we must begin in our schools. Every school, from the primary to the highest, must be opened to its influence. Teachers, I am sure, would welcome the innovation, for it would dispel many a weary hour both for teacher and taught. The everlasting monotony of reading, writing, arithmetic, and scripture, would be enlivened by simple explanations of the human body, plants, &c., and thus children would be taught to take an interest in all matters connected with their future welfare even from their infancy. The same remarks, slightly modified, would apply to many of our middle class and upper schools; for scientific matters, in far too many cases, have still to find a place even here—parents being themselves quite as much, in many instances far more, to blame than the regulations of the school.