the destinies of the world. The same spirit should be adopted in relation to the development of our methods of education.

The inductive method has already done something for the progress of education, but its importance is not yet sufficiently acknowledged or understood. We are still the slaves of conventional forms and prescriptive theories; we are still too much overawed and cowed into servility by high-sounding names, and by the dogmas of selfserving professions and ambitious societies. The progress which we have made should be taken as the guarantee of further advancement. The positions we have gained must form the base of operations for still greater achievements.

When I was a boy, geography was taught by rote; now it is taught much more efficiently by means of maps. Arithmetic was imperfectly taught by rules; now it is admirably taught by an exposition of principles; but there are still many important branches of knowledge very imperfectly taught by the rule and rote system. We must not abandon the hope of future progress. With respect to utility, there is much which remains to be accomplished. We want a greater enlargement of the basis of intellectual and moral development, suited to the advanced state of our arts and sciences. The rich stores of scientific knowledge, which we now possess, should be more thoroughly and systematically taught in our schools, not only as means of intellectual and moral culture, but also on account of their immediate bearing on the business of life.

Let us enter an elementary school in one of our manufacturing cities. The master still teaches on the old individual system. There is no black board, or any kind of experimental apparatus. There are maps, it is true, hanging on the walls, but they seem to have been little used, for they are covered with dust. The school is not noisy, but there is the constant chatter and titter of idleness and frolic. There is discipline of a certain kind, but it is not moral discipline. The boys are sons of mechanics and factory labourers, and, like their

parents, they will have to enter the workshop or the factory. They are sharp, intelligent-looking boys, and seem capable of learning anything which the schoolmaster might attempt to teach them, or of taking advantage of his occasional fits of listlessness and abstraction; but they are idle, and feel no interest in their tasks. The dull routine of reading, writing, and arithmetic, with catechisms and formularies, goes on day after day. The school is characterised neither by utility nor by progress. The master sits at his desk, apparently in a deep "brown study" let us look over his shoulder and see what he is doing. He is studying the ancient geometry, and on one side of his desk are some books of the ancient classical authors. He is a scholar and a mathematician. What a misdirection of intellect ! What fruit has his knowledge yielded him? or what advantage has it been to the pupils of his school? It has been a negation; or rather, it has been worse than a negation. These boys want to be taught in matters relating to the employments which they will soon have to follow. The master is idle, as a teacher, because the boys will not attend to his abstract prelections; and the boys are idle because the master will not instruct them in those things which form the subjects of their every-day associations. The schoolhouse is surrounded by engines, by factories, by chemical works, and by workshops of all sorts. What a mine of intellectual wealth lies at his very door available for school instruction! How useful he might become! He might fill these hives of industry with a far more intelligent and skilful class of operatives, and thereby not only advance the interests of the operatives themselves, but contribute to the productive resources of his country. Hark! the steam whistle! He starts as a man aroused from his slumber. Does that sound awaken some useful trains of association? The steam-engine, with its huge train of cars, passengers, and merchandise, starts on its winged course. It goes onward and onward, and woe betide the thing that obstructs its progress. It rolls from hamlet to hamlet, and from city to city, carrying with it the products of industry and intelligence. Type of the

age of progress! has the shrill blast of thy whistle reminded the schoolmaster that utility and progress are realities demanding his consideration, and claiming the tribute of his powers? Poor dreamer! have you really returned to your problems? Are you content to remain stationary, whilst everything around you reminds you that utility and progress are the motive principles of the age; and that beings such as you, with all your classical lore, must be swept away as the surf of the ocean before the advancing tide of civilisation?

PHILOSOPHY OF METHOD.

Having arrived at an educational epoch in which the importance of teaching, as well as of the method of teaching, is duly recognised, it becomes a matter of inquiry, How are we to distinguish the true from the false? Amid such an accumulation of facts, methods, and systems, what are the evils arising out of the abuse of method, and by what principles of philosophy are our systems to be tested and improved? In short, what are the laws which govern the philosophy of method?

Education, like all other sciences, must be based upon à careful induction of facts. All true ideas of method must be derived from a careful study of the nature of the human faculties, as regards the mode as well as the order of their development. It is, therefore, the first business of the science of method to discover the laws and conditions which regulate the development of the mind, to follow Nature wheresoever she may lead us, and not to lay down preconceived rules for her guidance. Our attempts to teach by abstract notions, formed independently of a careful study of facts, are as ridiculous as the conduct of the savage who sowed gunpowder instead of trying to make it. It is true, that in the progress of all science there must be an initiative idea, but then this idea must be tested and perfected by an appeal to experience and experiment. When the ancient astronomers affirmed that the orbits of the

planets were circular, because the circle was the most perfect figure, they committed a great error in philosophy, for the true proof of their initiative conception should have been sought for in nature, and not in any abstract principle. So, in like manner, all our theories, or general principles of teaching should be tested by an appeal to facts of observation and experiment. The relative efficiency of different systems should be determined, by placing them under the same circumstances and relations, and then, by a careful induction of facts, we should establish some general principles of method. The certainty of our conclusions, in such cases, depends upon two circumstances;-first, on the facilities which we have for tracing effects to their causes, and conversely for following causes to their legitimate effects,-second, on the faith which we have in the constancy and uniformity with which the same relations and conditions occur. Thus, for example, the phenomena of the material world are always open to observation and experiment; and, at the same time, the perfect uniformity with which they take place leads us to speak with confidence of the future, from what has taken place in the past. A chemist, after having determined the particular action of one substance upon another, from his instinctive belief in the permanence of the laws of nature, at once decides that the same action will always take place under the same circumstances; but experience alone must lead him to find out what are the essential circumstances and relations for producing the particular action, and what are merely casual or accidental; in short, experience, or repeated experiment, must lead him to discover the true relation of uniform sequence-the relation of cause and effect.

Let us penetrate a little further into the recesses of this subject. Facts are the point of departure of all philosophy; these become matters of consciousness; observation there lays hold of them before committing them to induction, which forces them to yield up the principles which they contain. The method of observation and induction was first given by Bacon, but it has be

come the spirit of the age, the spirit of the world of civilisation and development. It constitutes the unity of an age characterised by the most striking diversities and antagonisms. Philosophy has its origin in observation. and experience only; to be so limited is to be limited to human nature; but what else could we have, or would we have? The experimental philosophy of Bacon (characterised by observation, experience, and experiment), is sufficient for the attainment of all knowledge, and for the completion of every science. It has passed sentence on the ancient systems of philosophy,—it has destroyed all that was merely hypothetical, but it has perpetuated all that was based on observation. A single fact not unfrequently consecrates a mass of errors, and sometimes gives to the wildest theories a certain amount of credit among men. Everything true and permanent in the systems of philosophy, scattered throughout the course of time, is the fruit of observation; and everything permanently useful in society is the result of the experimental method. To arrive at a permanent system we must not only observe, but we must observe everything faithfully, truly, and completely, without prejudice and partiality. We must use only the method of observation, but we must apply it to all facts, wherever they exist; on its impartiality depends its accuracy, and to be impartial it must be universal. Method, as applied to education, is a mixed inquiry, comprehending questions of physics as well as metaphysics; and a comprehensive method of observation is necessary to establish the desiderated alliance between the two classes of phenomena, not by the sacrifice of the one to the other, but by the unity of the method employed in ascertaining the law connecting the phenomena, which, though different as to kind, are nevertheless coexistent and inseparable as to results. When observation has put us in possession of all the elements of our science, we then proceed with the work of classification, generalisation, &c.

In order to fulfil these conditions, the principles of method, as applied to education, must be considered SUBJECTIVELY, as well as OBJECTIVELY; that is to say,

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