THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 STI.l 
 
 EDUCAmi 
 
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 « ’-i" 
 
 Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/suggestivehintstOOdawe 
 
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SUGGESTIVE HINTS 
 
 TOWARDS 
 
 IMPROVED SECULAR INSTRUCTION, 
 
 MAKING IT BEAR UPON 
 
 PRACTICAL LIFE. 
 
 INTENDED FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLMASTERS AND TEACHERS IN 
 OUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS, AND FOR OTHERS TAKING 
 AN INTEREST IN NATIONAL EDUCATION. 
 
 BT THE 
 
 REV. RICHARD DAWES, A.M. 
 
 VlCAIl OF kino's SOMBORNE, HANTS. 
 
 Mens sibi conscia recti. — Virg. 
 A good intention. 
 
 THIRD EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 R. GROOMBRIDGE & SONS, 5, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 DUBLIN : J. M^GLASRAN. 
 
C. AND J. ADLARD, PRINTERS, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE, 
 
^ The reader must not expect anything like perfection in 
 ^ the following pages, or that the matter which they contain is 
 5f arranged in the best possible order ; they are intended to give 
 an idea of what is taught in the school here, and the manner 
 of teaching it ; the Author feels that if anything of this kind 
 had fallen in his own way when this school opened, it would 
 d have saved him much trouble ; however, without apologising 
 p for their imperfections, or attempting to point out their merits 
 ^ (the former of which others will but too readily see), such as 
 they are, he casts his bread upon the waters,” hoping that 
 it may in some way or other advance the cause of education ; 
 there will, no doubt, be found in it some chaff, but not un- 
 mixed, he is willing to hope, with some wheat also, which 
 * bs worth picking out: on the whole, as the man who 
 
 ^purchased an axe of the blacksmith, which he wished to have 
 ^^all over polished like the edge, to which the latter agreed on 
 condition that he would turn the grindstone, but finding the 
 labour of so doing greater than he expected, said, he was not 
 rOqiiite sure that he did not prefer a speckled axe to a bright 
 one ; so I feel myself obliged to let my axe go forth with 
 \many specks upon it ; however, such as it is, take it, reader ! 
 V profit from the bright spots, if it has any, and be lenient to 
 vthe specks. 
 
 King’s Somborne; Jpril 18 , 1847 . 
 
 The present edition has been considerably added to in the 
 ■l^ody of the work, and in the general remarks on the state of 
 ^he rural population : an appendix of tabular matter of a 
 
 ^^seful kind has also been added, and the reader will find 
 ^considerable additions to the introductory matter. 
 
 April f 1849 . 
 
 r- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction . . v 
 
 Introductory remarks . . 1 
 
 Grammar ... 8 
 
 Poetry 15 
 
 Questions on materials of food, 
 clothing, &c. . . 21 
 
 Exercises, for children to write 
 on their slates at School, and 
 on paper in the evening . 25 
 
 Geography . . . 27 
 
 Natural History . . .37 
 
 English History . . 39 
 
 Arithmetic . . . .40 
 
 Algebraic formulae . 43, 47 
 Questions on the econo- 
 
 mic purposes of life . 44 
 Solid measure . . 50 
 
 Examples for practice . 55 
 Geometry . . . . 57 
 
 Diagrams . . 60, 6 1 
 
 Land measuring . .63 
 
 Words ending in ometry 
 and ology . . 64 
 
 Mechanics . ... 65 
 
 Natural philosophy . . 70 
 
 Experiments . . 73 
 
 Table of the velocity and 
 force of the wind . 76 
 
 Specific gravity . .89 
 
 Questions . . 90 
 
 Barometer, thermometer 92 
 Experiments . . .97 
 
 Metals ... 98 
 
 Experiments . . .101 
 
 Light . . . 109 
 
 Astronomy . . . .116 
 
 Eclipses . . 123 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chemistry . . . .125 
 
 Geology .... 137 
 
 Statistics . . . .139 
 
 Value of labour in manu- 
 factured products 140, 141 
 Conversational lectures . 142 
 
 A loaf of bread . .143 
 
 The cottage fire . 144 
 
 Singing .... 151 
 Observations on the duties of 
 a schoolmaster . . 152 
 
 Concluding remarks. — State of 
 the cottages of the poor. 
 
 Mr. Justice Coleridge’s 
 opinion. Ignorance of 
 the rural districts. On 
 wages .... 155 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Mann’s educational tour . 178 
 
 TABLES. 
 
 1. Numerical constants . 181 
 
 2. Specific gravity . . • ib. 
 
 3. Barometrical height, and 
 
 corresponding tempera- 
 ture at which water boils 182 
 
 4. Melting points of different 
 
 substances . . . ib. 
 
 5. Boiling points of different 
 
 liquids . . . ib. 
 
 6. Freezing points of liquids . ib. 
 
 7. Linear dilatation . . 183 
 
 8. Latitude and longitude, &c., 
 
 of different places, and 
 mean temperature of the 
 seasons . . . .184 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Addison, in one of liis numbers of the ^Spectator,’ tells 
 us, that the common people of his day were very fond of a 
 little Latin, and intimates that the reason of this was, because 
 they did not understand it. Now the opinion I have formed 
 of the people of the present day is, that they do not like a 
 thing unless they do understand it; and although I have placed 
 a few Latin words in the title-page of this book, this is not 
 because I think the words will be approved of where they are 
 not understood, nor from any wish to make the book appear 
 more learned than it is, but simply for this reason, — that the 
 words themselves briefly express, in a portable shape for the 
 memory, what I wish to have credit for, in offering to the 
 public a second edition of these ‘ Suggestive Hints on Secular 
 Teaching,’ viz. ^‘a good intention;” and however imperfect 
 they may be in other respects, with this impression on his 
 mind, the reader will, I trust, overlook many defects which he 
 might otherwise be inclined to criticise, and see something of 
 usefulness in what is well meant, although it may not in reality 
 be all that he had expected. 
 
 It is from no love of authorship that I am offering these 
 remarks — remarks, let it be observed, which have arisen en- 
 tirely from experience in a parish school, — but from a wish to 
 promote that kind of education among the middle and lower 
 classes, which, at the same time that it bears upon their 
 industrial pursuits, leads to an improved moral condition, by 
 instilling in early life those feelings of self-respect and self- 
 dependence, and those principles of honesty and truth, which 
 ought to be the guide of every one who lays claim to the cha- 
 racter of a Christian man. 
 
 I am the more induced to do this, from seeing that the 
 rising generation about me, and with whom I am more im- 
 mediately concerned, are made happier and better by this 
 education, — that it leads to greater propriety of conduct in all 
 the relations of life, and that those who liave remained longest 
 at school have generally turned out the best, and have given a 
 
 a § 
 
VI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 proof that the longer they remain the greater is the security 
 of their becoming, in their respective stations, what the friends 
 of education expect them to be. 
 
 The value of education of the labouring classes ; or, in fact, 
 of any other class, cannot be said to depend solely on the 
 amount of knowledge given at school, but rather on the ten- 
 dency which such knowledge has, to make them alive to the 
 humanities of life, to fit them for their industrial occupations, 
 to raise them in the scale of thinking beings, and make them 
 feel what they owe to themselves and to those around them — 
 to open out to them those sources of fireside amusement and 
 of instruction which the art of printing has brought within 
 the reach of all who are educated. 
 
 Now to effect this, the mere reading by rote is not sufficient, 
 and it should be the aim of the schoolmaster, as far as he has 
 it in his power, to give the children a knowledge of the struc- 
 ture of their own language — to enable them to get at the 
 grammar of a sentence — to take it to pieces and reconstruct it ; 
 and, unless children are left at school until this can be done, 
 and they are enabled to get at the meaning of an ordinary book 
 without difficulty, little use will, I fear, be made of it in after 
 life, and the fireside will not become, what it otherwise might 
 be, through good books — a school through life. 
 
 A celebrated writer of the present day, has said, ^'The 
 English language is a conglomerate of Latin words, bound 
 together in a Saxon cement ; the fragments of the Latin being 
 partly portions introduced directly from the parent quarry, 
 with all their sharp edges, and partly pebbles of the same 
 material, obscured and shaped by long rolling in a Norman, 
 or some other channel.” Now, although this definition is 
 somewhat geological in its language, as the author intended 
 it to be, yet it is a very forcible one, and indicates clearly 
 that the way to get at the knowledge of this conglomerate 
 mass, must be by taking it to pieces, and examining the 
 separate parts ; and, when the schoolmaster can do this him- 
 self, he will be able to bring his knowledge to bear in 
 teaching others. 
 
 How important, then, that he should be able to unpack this 
 conglomerate — to separate the cement from that which is im- 
 bedded in it — to show to his more advanced classes the origin 
 of the different words of a sentence — how words of a Saxon or 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Vll 
 
 a Latin origin, vary in the modes of inflection — how they have 
 been introduced — to show how some belong direct to the 
 parent quarry ; how others, by rolling about in different chan- 
 nels, have had ‘Hheir rough and sharp edges” rubbed off — 
 the force and origin of the prefixes, &c. 
 
 This points out a most useful direction for the studies of 
 the schoolmaster in this particular branch of knowledge. 
 
 With respect to this book itself, it does not profess to teacli 
 the schoolmaster the subjects he ought to have a knowledge of; 
 its object is rather to point out to teachers, both in our elemen- 
 tary schools and in private families, common-sense modes of 
 applying their knowledge, and of bringing it to bear upon 
 their teaching ; but without particularising the leading features 
 of it, it is an attempt to introduce into our elementary schools 
 more of science, and a knowledge of scientific facts bearing 
 upon the arts of life, and of every-day things, than has been 
 hitherto done. 
 
 It is a fact almost unaccountable, and certainly curious to 
 reflect upon, how few there are, even in any class of life, 
 educated or uneducated, who are acquainted with the philo- 
 sophical principles of those things which they see in action 
 every day of their lives, and which are in so many ways ad- 
 ministering to the wants of social life, — truths easily under- 
 stood when explained by experiment, and so important in 
 themselves to mankind, that the names of the discoverers of 
 them are handed down from one generation to another for the 
 admiration of future ages, and as the great benefactors of 
 their species. 
 
 No one denies the importance of this knowledge when 
 applied to the arts of life, and how must the progress of 
 civilization, and of the great interests of mankind, have been 
 advanced by it, which makes it more strange that so little of 
 the intellect of a country should be brought to bear upon it. 
 
 This is perhaps in some measure owing to its being sup- 
 posed, that a considerable knowledge of mathematics and of 
 arithmetic is necessary, and from a prevailing notion that such 
 subjects are, even when illustrated by experiment, difficult 
 to understand; but Dr. Arnott, in the Introduction to his 
 Natural Philosophy, justly observes, There are few persons 
 in civilized society so ignorant, as not to know, that a square 
 
Vlll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 has four equal sides, and four equal corners or angles, or 
 that every point in the circumference of a circle is at the 
 same distance from the centre. Now, so much of unity, 
 simplicity, and harmony is there in the universe, that such 
 simple truths as these are what give exact cognizance of the 
 most important circumstances in the phenomena and states 
 of nature an acquaintance with the common rules of arith- 
 metic, and of the measures of quantity, which fit a man for 
 ordinary occupations, are quite sufficient for all that is wanted 
 here. 
 
 Hitherto all classes seem to have taken for granted, that 
 the labouring part of the community had no business with 
 anything Avhere the mind is concerned ; but why should not 
 the miner, whose life may have been saved over and over again 
 by the safety-lamp of Sir Humphrey Davy, know something of 
 the principle to which he owes his safety, and of the philosophy 
 of it — many of the accidents which occur from mere careless- 
 ness would be avoided by it ; or the plumber, whose business 
 it is to make a pump, be taught, hov^^ever much the sense 
 of sight may mislead him, that air and gaseous substances, 
 which he cannot see, have weight, and that these and fluid 
 substances press equally in all directions, and he will then 
 understand why his mechanism succeeds, and the water rises, 
 which, without some knowledge of this kind, must appear 
 to him a kind of witchcraft ; or why should not the labour- 
 ing classes have it shown to them during their education at 
 school, that the burning of charcoal, or of chalk and lime- 
 stone into lime, &c., gives rise to a kind of substance which 
 they cannot see, but when breathed into the lungs is fatal to 
 animal life, and its being heavier than common air makes 
 the burning of charcoal in small rooms a very dangerous 
 thing. From a want of a knowledge of this, many lives have 
 been lost. 
 
 With a view to encourage a knowledge of the applications 
 of science to the occupation of the country in my own neigh- 
 bourhood, during the autumn of last year a course of six 
 lectures on the Chemistry of Agriculture was given at the 
 schoolroom by a gentleman who had made the subject his 
 professional study, and who was well qualified to give an 
 interest to it, not only from his knowledge, but from being 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IX 
 
 a good manipulator in the experiments necessary to illus- 
 trate it.* 
 
 My first intention as to these lectures was for the instruc- 
 tion of the school itself, and of the schoolmasters of the neigh- 
 bourhood, but finding that many of the gentlemen and also of 
 the farmers in the neighbourhood wished to attend, I invited 
 all to do so who were so inclined, and, with the exception of 
 two extremely wet days, the attendance was good. 
 
 Many of the gentlemen took a considerable interest in them, 
 and although the farmers, I have no doubt, felt they could not 
 carry away so much as they had expected, yet the indirect 
 effect of such lectures is good in an educational point of view — 
 it creates a wish, and that a very natural and a very laudable 
 one, on the part of the parents in the middle classes, that 
 their children should have an opportunity of acquiring a 
 knowledge of the appliances of science to those pursuits in 
 life in which they are so much interested. 
 
 The conclusion which I drew from the experiment, and 
 which I think is a correct one, was, that a short course of 
 lectures, and made as practical as possible, and repeated at 
 intervals in different parts of a county, would be attended 
 with great good, and in the end lead to an improvement 
 in the education of agricultural youth, which it is most de- 
 sirable to effect. It is not to be expected that those who 
 are grown up, and whose habits are formed, should enter 
 into it as a science ; their previous education has not fitted 
 them for it, and their modes of thinking are against it ; nor 
 can they stand anything like a continuous course of lectures, 
 but they carry away facts bearing upon some particular 
 point which they understand, talk about them afterwards, 
 persuade themselves that such knowledge is good for their 
 children, and in this way an influence for good on the edu- 
 cation of the rising generation is likely to spring up. 
 
 In the schoolroom here, these lectures vrere turned to good 
 account, both as instruction to the teachers and to the older 
 children, and the outline given filled up by experiments and 
 explanations afterwards. 
 
 * For these lectures T have to thank Mr. Edmonson, the head of the 
 Queenwood Agricultural College, and Mr. Frankland, the chemical lecturer 
 there, by whom they were given ; both these gentlemen entered into the 
 subject from the same motives as myself, viz. a wish to promote the edu- 
 cation of the neighbourhood. 
 
X 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 To speak even of teaching anything of science as a part of 
 the education of village children, or of the teacher having 
 such a knowledge of these subjects as to be able to bring it 
 to bear upon his teaching, is, I am perfectly aware, by many 
 looked upon as visionary, by some as useless, and by others 
 even as mischievous. Now many of these are carried away 
 by their prejudices against such instruction, without knowing 
 or considering seriously what is meant by it; but, on the 
 subject of chemistry, for instance, when it is considered that 
 chemical processes are involved in everything which we eat 
 or drink, in the preparation of every material used for our 
 clothing; in every change of the material world, whether 
 animate or inanimate, with which our senses can make us 
 acquainted, some knowledge of these processes must be looked 
 upon both as interesting and highly important, and ought to 
 be understood by those with whose pursuits and employments 
 in life they are so intimately connected. 
 
 Besides, it seems to me even highly instructive that an 
 intelligent child should be made to seize a firm hold of so 
 much of this subject as to enable the mind to get out of the 
 habit of viewing all the difierent productions of nature as 
 being made up of substances having nothing in common — 
 that earth, iron, stone, air, water, animal, and vegetable as 
 things having no single element of the same kind in their 
 several compositions — not having the slightest idea that all 
 the infinite varieties of the material world around us are only 
 difierent compounds of a few simple elements, — that the mind 
 should be able to correct this impression by seeing a few of 
 these substances taken to pieces by experiment, their simple 
 elements tested, and shown to be the same in each, is of itself 
 good, and opens out a train of thinking, which in some may 
 lead to most important results, by calling into use those 
 faculties of the mind which God has given them. 
 
 The workman who is acquainted with the facts in science 
 connected with his occupations, becomes less of a machine 
 than the one who is ignorant of them, is every way more useful 
 to his employer, and is himself a happier and a better man ; 
 for it is acknowledged, that the better educated workmen of 
 all countries are distinguished by superior moral habits in 
 every respect — they are more sober and discreet, and their 
 enjoyments are of a more rational kind. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XI 
 
 Of the necessity of an improvement in their social habits 
 among the labouring classes of this country, whether mining, 
 agricultural or manufacturing, no one can doubt ; but the 
 Eeport of the Rev. H. Moseley on the state of education in 
 the midland districts for the year 1846, addressed to the 
 Council on Education, which I have lately read, discloses 
 many features in the character of the mining population in 
 and about Bilston, and which of course is the same in other 
 mining districts, which I must confess were new to me, and 
 which one cannot read without great interest, but it is an 
 interest of a very painful kind. 
 
 The habits of life which prevail among this population, and 
 their social condition, as seen in the description of the Bilston 
 market, and an appendix to the Report, are most instructive, 
 as to the effect of ignorance upon a labouring community 
 earning high wages — ignorance, as Mr. Moseley says, carried 
 out into action ; and adds, wherever ignorance is associated 
 with ‘ high w^ages,’ they will, I believe, become, as they are 
 here, a curse and the Report goes on to say, ‘^rude as 
 these men are in their manners, and wholly uneducated, yet 
 when the opportunity has been afforded them, they have shown 
 themselves capable of deriving pleasure from other than 
 sensual gratifications and low pursuits.* 
 
 From the Report which has lately been published on the 
 state of education in Wales, there is one thing which appears 
 very remarkable, independent of the lamentable state of igno- 
 rance which seems generally to prevail, which is this : that 
 in those districts where the people seem to have a very con- 
 siderable knowledge of Scripture, the state of their morals is 
 of the lowest and most degrading kind — in this fact the 
 evidence of the clergy of all denominations seems to agree. 
 Something of the same kind I have myself observed in the 
 south of England, and it is by no means an uncommon thing 
 to find in some, nay, I should say in many of that class, an 
 aversion to their children being taught anything of a secular 
 kind — as if secular instruction partook in some measure of 
 
 * The opportunity alluded to was a course of winter lectures, established 
 for their benefit by the Rev. J. B. Owen, the incumbent, an account of 
 which, in a letter of Mr. Owen’s in the Appendix to Mr. Moseley’s Reports, 
 is well deserving the attention of those more particularly who are engaged 
 in education in populous districts. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xii 
 
 the nature of sin ; this is no doubt a state of gross ignorance 
 greatly to be pitied, and which will in the end be corrected 
 by the influence of a better educated class, as this becomes 
 diffused among them ; but the singular and almost unaccount- 
 able part of it is, that this apparent knowledge of Scripture 
 should have so little influence on their moral conduct ; that 
 it should never enter into their minds (or if it does, they do 
 not regard it) that Scripture truths are intended as rules of 
 life ; whether the sort of familiarity which they have with 
 Scripture phrases, and the constant habit of interweaving 
 them into their conversation can have led to this I do not 
 know, but such is the fact. 
 
 Nor is this even in England confined to the labouring class ; 
 there are many of those of the class above them, particularly 
 of those who are uneducated, to whom the same remarks 
 would extend — a man who gravely tells you, I does the best 
 I can to get an honest living,’^ and perhaps quotes some text 
 in Scripture to support his views, at the same time knowing 
 that the very principle upon which he acts towards those 
 about him makes it almost impossible for them to do so, 
 cannot be said to make the proper application of his religious 
 knowledge. 
 
 I observed another thing in the same Report, of a more 
 cheering kind, that it had occurred to some of the Educational 
 Committees to combine the education of the middle and the 
 lower classes, and that in this way funds might be raised for 
 proper education. One would suppose that the social state 
 of most of the districts in Wales, the number of small farmers, 
 tradesmen, &c., would be particularly favorable to such views, 
 and that if worked out as they ought to be, they could scarcely 
 fail of success. 
 
 The present Bishop of Sodor and Man, thinking this plan 
 well calculated for the state of society there, is endeavouring 
 to introduce it throughout the island ; and it appears from a 
 Report lately made by Mr. Moseley to the Council on Edu- 
 cation, that some plan of the kind had been thought of by 
 the good Bishop Wilson, for whose memory they retain so 
 lively an affection, that its renewal now will be received with 
 the greater interest. The general feeling in favour of edu- 
 cation, as shown by ‘Hhe framework,’’ as Mr. Moseley terms 
 it, in their laws regarding schools, and in the feelings of all 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 classes in favour of it, dispose one to think that these matters 
 have been much more cared for there than with us ; perhaps 
 their vicinity to Scotland, and a knowledge of its school- 
 system may have led to it. In their present position and with 
 the Minutes of Council to assist them in their poverty, they 
 have all the elements of success. 
 
 An important feature in the school here, and one which is 
 worthy of the attention both of school committees and of 
 schoolmasters, is the amount of payments both for schooling 
 and for books ; this arises from the union of the children of 
 different classes, also from many children coming from the 
 smaller neighbouriug parishes. 
 
 This amount of payment, both in a moral and in a pecu- 
 niary point of view, is important, and one in the success of 
 which the schoolmaster is deeply interested — his improved 
 social position almost entirely depends upon it ; and if the 
 better class of schoolmasters will reflect upon this in all its 
 bearings, they will see how much their success in life depends 
 upon their acquirements and their capabilities of teaching 
 being equal to the want of the middle, as well as of the 
 labouring classes. 
 
 What is wanted in our rural districts, most assuredly, is an 
 improvement in the quality as well as in the quantity of in- 
 struction, and the mere extension of the Sunday school to 
 week-day teaching is not sufficient ; but to attempt anything 
 beyond an improved dame’s school, or one fit for the younger 
 children is, in very small parishes, on account of the expense, 
 a thing manifestly impracticable ; nor, in fact, would it be 
 necessary with the class of schools I am advocating, numer- 
 ously spread about the country, and to which the bigger 
 children in the small parishes would resort. And in this way 
 I am thoroughly persuaded an improved system of education 
 may be worked out of a very high character, almost self- 
 paying, and which would in a few years have a firm hold on 
 the public mind. 
 
 Nor should it be said, that in order to effect this, indivi- 
 duals can do little ; on the contrary, they may do a great 
 deal, — every school of an effective kind, conducted in such a 
 way as to gain a footing for education in a neighbourhood, is 
 of immense importance, whether it is the result of an indivi- 
 dual effort, or not, — it is good, not only as regards the locality 
 
 b 
 
XIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in which the school is, but good as an example practically 
 worked out, and which has much more influence than a thing 
 merely carried out on paper ; and every one who reflects must 
 see, that perfect and general plans of education must, like all 
 other things of human contrivance, arise gradually, and can- 
 not, in a country where opinion is so much divided as in this, 
 be at once established. 
 
 Let the farmer and the tradesman weigh well in their minds 
 what they will save upon each child educated at the parish 
 school, and the kind of education he will get — let the land- 
 lord consider the interest he has in bringing a cheap edu- 
 cation within the reach of his tenants, and how much they 
 would rise in respectability as a class, by being better edu- 
 cated — and let both classes consider the mutual duties, and 
 the moral obligations they are under to improve the condition 
 of the labourer, both physical and moral, who is equally 
 necessary to them both : if all would reflect in this way, and 
 could be brought to see how much society at large would gain 
 by this improvement in these links of the social chain, and 
 how much the very slight fastenings which at present hold 
 them together would be strengthened by it, the progress of 
 education and of sanitary measures, would meet with less 
 difficulty than it has hitherto done, and these would very 
 soon be felt to be both a benefit, and a source of increased 
 happiness, to all classes of the community. 
 
 The rising generation of schoolmasters must not judge of 
 the future from the past ; hitherto they have been ill paid and 
 little thought of, but very often this has arisen from their 
 beino- ill qualified for the duties they had to perform. As an 
 honest old dame said to one of the inspectors, “ It is but 
 little they pays me, but then it is but little I teaches ’em."’ 
 In many cases, in such parishes as had a schoolmaster, he has 
 been appointed not from any fitness for the office, but be- 
 cause he had failed in everything else, or some labourer able to 
 read and write, and was made schoolmaster to keep him from 
 the parish. The schoolmaster may rest assured of this, that 
 the better he is qualified for his situation, the more he will 
 make society feel his worth, and instead of appointing the 
 w orst men who can be found, as the rate-payers of a parish, 
 when they have had a voice in the matter, have been apt to 
 do, both labourer and employer will unite and struggle to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XV 
 
 get the best schoolmaster they can — the best qualified in 
 every respects, and one who will make the importance of his 
 office felt, by the better education he is diffusing among 
 them. 
 
 Although much depends on the schoolmaster in the success 
 of a school, yet much depends also on the books which are ' 
 introduced : owing to a deficiency of these, and to a want 
 of a fitting apparatus, &c., many of the schoolmasters have 
 no chance of success ; and I would observe here, that it is 
 almost impossible to overrate the importance of introducing 
 the system of the children buying their own books, the result 
 of which is, that every fireside becomes a school. 
 
 In the selection of these, there should be no prejudices as 
 to their being published by this or that Society, there are 
 many which are good, published by them all, and I have intro- 
 duced here some of the Christian Knowledge Society, of the 
 Irish National Board, and of the British and Foreign Schools. 
 It has been found that the children in some of the lower 
 Beading Books have them almost by heart, so that it is really 
 necessary to introduce a more extensive range of reading, and 
 add to their stock of knowledge. 
 
 I am aware that prejudices have hitherto existed, more par- 
 ticularly in my own profession, with regard to the books pub- 
 lished by the British and Foreign Schools, and this has greatly 
 hindered a more extensive use of them. Now as a set of 
 educational books in secular instruction for our elementary 
 schools they are very good, not only good in substance as to 
 the reading lessons, but they contain also excellent hints, 
 which will be found most useful to the teachers. The only 
 fault I find with them is the price, and the committee would 
 do great service to the cause of education if they could reduce 
 them about 25 per cent., which I have no doubt would be 
 made up by the increased sale. Those I introduced here were 
 No. 2, and No. 4 ; the price of the former is 9^/., and it is 
 the only book which has been sold in the school below the 
 cost price, and which has only been done to the children of 
 the labourer. 
 
 Arnott, in the Introduction to his Physics, speaking of a 
 set of books of education in science, says, “To have all the 
 perfections of which they are susceptible, they can be looked 
 for only from academies of science, or from an association of 
 
XVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 learned men ; and even then, they cannot be compiled by 
 each individual taking a distinct part or parts, but by the 
 parts being undertaken conjointly by several persons, so that 
 he who conceives most happily for students may sketch, he 
 who is learned may amplify, he who is correct may purge, he 
 who is tasteful may beautify, &c.” The composition of this 
 Book of Nature (as he calls it,) he adds, might be a worthy 
 object of rivalry between nations.” What might not be done 
 for education by a set of books adapted to our elementary 
 schools, and got up on this principle, and how worthy such 
 an object is of the attention of our most talented men ! 
 
 Now that extreme opinions on all sides are tempered down 
 into something of a practical plan, it is to be hoped that 
 prejudices and jealousies will die away, and that all will unite 
 in supporting the present plan for the advancement of edu- 
 cation, although it may not be the best according to their 
 own ideas, yet it certainly unites in its favour a great part 
 of the com.mon sense of the nation, and will, if carried out in 
 singleness of purpose, work better in practice than those who, 
 from mere theory have been opposed to it, are led to expect. 
 
 With respect to the Minutes of Council on Education, so far 
 as I am capable of judging, I have always thought them fair 
 in principle and judicious in their detail, and characterised by 
 a great deal of talent in the way in which they have been 
 worked out. They offer great encouragement to the well- 
 qualified and efficient schoolmaster, both through an increase 
 of salary and through the assistance of the pupil-teachers in 
 the management of his school. 
 
 Some, I know, are of opinion that the standard of acquire- 
 ments of the school-teachers and of the quaUfications for 
 pupil-teachers are too high. With respect to the acquirements 
 of pupil- teachers, I feel persuaded, if the general standard 
 were below what is fixed upon, and what in practice the in- 
 spectors seem to require, we should soon find a numerous 
 class of pupil-teachers totally unfit for their position, and that 
 the cause of education would, on account of the great expense 
 attending it and the small proportionate results, retrograde 
 rather than advance. No doubt a very great proportion of 
 the present teachers are not qualified to teach what the 
 Minutes require ; but it is much better that they should be 
 obliged to work up to a moderate standard, rather than that 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XVll 
 
 it should be lowered to a point which would render it totally 
 inefficient for the advancement of good teaching. 
 
 In carrying into practice the contemplated increase of salary 
 to masters and mistresses, the examination seems to me de- 
 fective, inasmuch as it does not make sufficient inquiry into 
 the state and efficiency of the school of which the candidate is 
 the teacher. 
 
 A man who is just leaving a training school, or has only 
 lately left it, and during the last year or two been practised 
 in composition — in examinations on paper, &c. will, as the 
 examination is conducted, do much better than many of the 
 really good, practical teachers, and whose usefulness as 
 teachers has been proved by the state and efficiency t)f their 
 schools. In this way there is great danger of the experienced, 
 good schoolmaster being classed far below one who may not 
 turn out half so useful when tried in the school. I think, 
 unless the state and condition of a school is taken into account, 
 many useful schoolmasters, and very deserving of the increase 
 of salary, both from their past labours and their future promise 
 of good, wdll be deterred from offering themselves. I don’t 
 know how far the continuance of an increase of salary depends 
 upon the state of a school, but it is evident there ought to be 
 Some connexion between them. 
 
 I see it stated in a new periodical, the ‘ Educational Maga- 
 zine of the Home and Colonial School Society,’ “what the 
 country really requires is schoolmasters who have professional 
 skill ; or, in other words, who are well acquainted with the 
 nature of children, and the way to deal with them : (we may 
 add schoolmistresses, also, for the patient training and happy 
 influences of women are invaluable.) Faithful teachers, of 
 steady, hard-working, pains-taking habits, with a tolerably 
 good English education, well informed in common every-day 
 matters, grasping what they have acquired firmly, and having 
 it ready for use ; knowing something of the art of teaching, 
 well trained to draw out the faculties of children, to teach them 
 the rudiments of knowledge, as well as to read with ease, and 
 to read fluently.” Now, all this is very good as far as it goes, 
 and will, in many schools, be all that is wanted ; yet there can 
 be no doubt the higher the acquirements of the teacher, and 
 the more knowledge he is able to bring to bear on his teaching, 
 the more likely he is to succeed. 
 
 H 
 
XVlll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Although the attainments aimed at in some of the training 
 schools may appear of a character beyond what is wanted in 
 the lower class of schools, yet these very men of greater 
 attainments are by no means beyond what is wanted in our 
 larger elementary schools, and will, if they can unite in edu- 
 cation the children of the employer and employed, in the 
 end be the cheapest schoolmasters, inasmuch as I am confident 
 they will be the means of raising up a numerous class of self- 
 supporting schools, and make the farmers and tradesmen 
 feel what they have hitherto never done, the real value of the 
 village schoolmaster. 
 
 It may not be thought necessary, nor do I think that it is 
 necessary, for the schoolmaster to teach Latin and Greek, and 
 perhaps undue importance may have been given, or thought to 
 have been given, to these in some of our Training Institutions, 
 but it must be recollected that they are taught these in order 
 to qualify them the better for teaching other things ; and 
 what I am holding out for is an amount of knowledge in 
 the teacher which will make him worth having when he is 
 sent among us, and by his teaching make the parents feel 
 that education is worth paying for, and is one of the decent 
 Wyants of life. 
 
 The kind of knowledge which appears to me most useful 
 in our schoolmasters is sufiiciently indicated in the following 
 pages ; and I think experimental science, and a knowledge of 
 the science of common things, ought to form an important 
 part of the instruction in all our training schools. 
 
 One very serious difficulty which the Training Institutions 
 have had to contend with, and one really of a serious nature, 
 has been the small amount of knowledge possessed by the 
 candidates at the time of their admission ; this is in general 
 so great, that it is a thing totally impossible to make any- 
 thing of them in less than two or three years ; but when once 
 they can draw their supplies from the best pupil-teachers in 
 our elementary schools, a very different state of things will 
 commence : they will then be supplied with young men and 
 young women of eighteen or nineteen, who will have a much 
 greater knowledge of teaching, and of the subjects in which 
 they are expected to teach, at the time of their admission, 
 than many of those, who had been trained there, had after a 
 residence of two or three years in the institution ; and instead 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XIX 
 
 of three years, it will be quite unnecessary that any of them 
 should remain more than one. Until lately I was of opinion 
 that the Training Institutions were slow in making their use- 
 fulness felt in the country ; but having had an opportunity 
 of judging of the kind of materials they had to work upon 
 (whether this may not in some measure be the fault of those 
 who recommend I do not know), I feel confident, if sent out 
 at the end of one year’s training, the majority of them could 
 not possibly be qualified for schools even of the lowest class, 
 and this without any blame attaching to the teaching in the 
 institution itself. 
 
 The system of pupil-teachers, if carried out as it ought to 
 be, and with due vigilance on the part of the inspectors, is 
 admirably calculated for a future supply of efiicient teachers, 
 and will in a few years entirely alter the character of ele- 
 mentary teaching throughout the country ; on this, as well as 
 on every other account, the standard of acquirements ought 
 not to be lowered. 
 
 The reader will find in an Appendix a few short extracts 
 from an interesting ‘Educational Tour in Prussia and Holland,’ 
 by an American, Mr. Mann, Secretary to the Board of Edu- 
 cation at Boston ; they relate chiefly to the importance of the 
 schoolmaster having a knowledge of drawing. 
 
 This, it seems, in the Prussian schools, is almost universal ; 
 and the various ways in which a teacher will find it useful, 
 and not only that, but in which, by means of the black-board, 
 it will give life to his teaching, make it a thing of great im- 
 portance, and one which every schoolmaster, having the 
 slightest taste for, ought to cultivate.* 
 
 The reception which a former edition of this little work 
 has met with, leads me to think it has been found useful for 
 the purposes for which it was intended ; and I hope the pre- 
 sent one, with the additions which have been made, will not 
 
 * The same writer, who clearly does not admire the ordinary w ay of 
 teaching the alphabet, gives the following anecdote taken from an Ame- 
 rican prize essay on Education. 
 
 “ A Mr. Ottiwell Wood, at a late trial in Lancashire, England, giving 
 his name to the court, the judge said, ‘ Pray, Mr. Wood, how do you spell 
 your name ?’ To which the witness replied : ‘ 0 double T, 1 double U, E 
 double L, double U, double 0, D.’ The learned judge at first laid down 
 his pen in astonishment; and then, after making two or three unsuccessful 
 attempts, declared he was enable to record it. 
 
XX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 be less so, and that the remarks on the effect of the kind of 
 education I am advocating, and its success here, may interest 
 those who are friends to an improved social condition of the 
 middle and labouring classes, and are anxious to bind these 
 two adjoining links of society together by stronger fastenings 
 than hold them at present, although they may not be actually 
 engaged in the business of teaching ; but, above all, should 
 every friend to education feel, if he wishes to promote it, 
 that the mass of society never can understand, or take an 
 interest in it, from mere written theories, and can only be 
 brought to do so step by step, and that by a slow progress, 
 by its being brought practically home to them ; — it is only 
 in this way that the labouring classes can be made what 
 they ought to be, and what we ought to endeavour to make 
 them. 
 
 King^s Somborne; April, 1848. 
 
 The occasion of a new Edition affords an opportunity of 
 making a few additional remarks, which, it is to be hoped, 
 may not be without interest. 
 
 That schools should be able to get the best elementary 
 books at a cheap price, is a thing of the utmost importance, 
 and although the plan of the Committee of Council on 
 Education for effecting this, is not in its present state, all that 
 one could wish it to be, yet it is to be hoped that the office 
 will, as it gains experience, free it from those crippling con- 
 ditions which make it objectionable, and which must damage 
 the amount of good that would otherwise arise from it. 
 
 The principle of the regulations under which books are 
 supplied, appears to be one having a downward tendency 
 rather than an upward one ; inasmuch as it is based on this 
 — that no school belonging to the class with which the Council 
 on Education have to do, can, by a possibility, be in a position 
 to buy its own books at the reduced prices ; and in order to 
 be able to purchase, it is made compulsory to ask a grant in 
 aid, limited in amount by the number of scholars : after which 
 it is allowed to purchase to a certain extent, and applications 
 may now be renevv^ed for books and maps at the reduced 
 prices, once a year, to an amount not less than three pounds ; 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXI 
 
 a great improvement upon the first plan ; the books forming a 
 grant to be the property of the school, and lent to the children 
 — the others allowed to be sold at the price of purchase. 
 
 Now, it surely would have been better to have made the 
 system of buying books at the reduced prices the prominent 
 feature of the regulation, and to have spoken of this as the 
 pith of the matter : the grants in aid to be had recourse to in 
 cases of such schools as are absolutely unable to purchase ; 
 making these the exceptional cases, as they ought on sound 
 principles to have been, and not the rule, as it stands at 
 present. 
 
 There are no doubt many schools where this grant in aid 
 may be necessary ; but there are hundreds of others rising up, 
 which, on principle, would prefer buying the books at the 
 reduced prices, if allowed to apply at reasonable intervals ; 
 unless this making a grant absolutely necessary should suggest 
 to them the worse of two plans — ‘‘facilis descensus averni” — 
 and prove to be a bait too tempting to be resisted. 
 
 The parents of the labouring class will naturally, from 
 ignorance, prefer the lending system ; and those connected 
 with the management of schools, who have not had experience 
 of the benefits of a contrary one, or perhaps who may not 
 have thought much upon the subject at all, will, from an 
 apparent saving of expense which it holds out, be led to adopt 
 the same. 
 
 It never occurred to me as possible, that an application for 
 books at the reduced prices on the part of any school, and 
 without asking a grant in aid, would not be received at the 
 Council ofiice even with some degree of satisfaction — a sort 
 of joy at finding a state of things sufiiciently prosperous to 
 enable it to buy books without asking for a grant, and 
 without putting the office to any expense beyond the mere 
 agency — so that the receiving an answer from the secretary, 
 that the office could not dispense with the preliminary 
 condition of asking a grant, was a matter of surprise — 
 and it has been to me ever since a source of wonder, how so 
 strange a principle should have found its way into practice, 
 more particularly as an example had been set by the National 
 Board in Ireland, which had been for some years furnishing 
 their books to schools of a like class in this country, at low 
 
XXll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 prices, and to an extent limited only by the wants of the 
 school. 
 
 Another* thing which ought to be borne in mind, in trying 
 to give a wholesome direction to the education of the masses 
 of a country, is to do it upon principles as little pauperising 
 as possible — and I feel persuaded that a child educated from 
 borrowed books, the property of the school, and one educated 
 from its parents buying them, and their being the property of 
 the child, in a social sense, and for all the economic purposes 
 of life, the two are not the same beings ; — nor is the effect on 
 the parents, or the interest they take in their children, the 
 same in the two cases ; the minds of the children are not 
 formed in the same mould, nor are they habituated to view 
 things, connected with the way in which they are to struggle 
 through life, through the same medium. 
 
 No one, unless he has had experience of children in the 
 matter of education in schools of this kind, can form an idea 
 of the wish they have to possess books of their own, when 
 once they have been interested in what they are learning ; and 
 if there is any one thing which more than another, from 
 experience here, I feel entitled to recommend to managers of 
 schools, and to those who take an interest in them, it is by 
 all means to introduce the plan of children buying their own ; 
 a thing which, when once established and the instruction good, 
 there is no difficulty whatever in maintaining. 
 
 * The exclusively eleemosynary character which many attempt to give 
 to the education of the labouring classes, is, in some respects, to be re- 
 gretted. One cannot but admire the conduct of those who are at great 
 expense in doing this entirely gratis, in their own localities ; still I con- 
 ceive much greater good would result by establishing moderate payments 
 even in such cases, and any saving from this might be given to school 
 building when pecuniary assistance is wanted. This making them pay, 
 many, more particularly ladies, who have schools of this kind, will not 
 hear of : they no doubt find great gratification and are pleased in doing so 
 much good, but why not allow the parents to join in this feeling, by doing 
 something towards it themselves ; without this it excites but little interest 
 in them, and altogether wants that kind of vitality which leads to the 
 best results. 
 
 I am persuaded with respect to my own profession, that if we relied more 
 on improving the staple of education in our [schools, and less on charity 
 sermons, we should find better and less expensive results. The changes 
 lately adopted in the examinations at Cambridge, and it is to be hoped 
 Oxford may do the same, will eventually, through the clergy, have a most 
 beneficial etfect on the education of the labouring and middle classes. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xxiii 
 
 The prices of these books in the Council list are so reason- 
 able, that the great majority of schools would be able to purchase 
 them ; and there could be no greater boon to the cause of 
 education than enabling them to do so (unrestricted by the 
 present conditions), and to an extent limited only by their 
 wants, and allowed also to apply for them at reasonable 
 intervals. The dividing the list into two parts might be 
 worthy of consideration : one of school-books used in the 
 school, from which grants in aid, when necessary might be 
 made ; the other, of books of a more advanced kind for 
 pupil-teachers and masters, and to be had only at the reduced 
 prices. 
 
 The putting in circulation a well-selected list of educational 
 books is in itself good, inasmuch as it brings before the 
 school-managers and school-teachers the best books of the 
 kind, which otherwise they might not have an opportunity of 
 knowing much about ; and in this way places the education 
 of the country in a wholesome channel, so far as books are 
 concerned. 
 
 The restrictions with which the Council regulations are fet- 
 tered may probably in some measure arise, from the booksellers 
 and publishers being averse to this mode of supplying our 
 elementary schools, and, of course, it is not to be expected 
 that they can sell books at a price which is not remunerating; 
 but if they would consider, that this is not taking away a 
 market, which they have already had, but is opening out one 
 in a quarter which never existed before — (the little which was 
 wanted being supplied by the Christian Knowledge, or similar 
 Societies) — one which, when the people are fairly in a train 
 of being educated, so as to enable them to read when they 
 leave school, will be of an extensive kind. If the publishers 
 would look forward in this way, they would be anxious to 
 supply such schools at prices which may be remunerating to 
 the publisher, although not to the retail trade; the latter 
 would very soon find the benefit of this, as there is scarcely a 
 cottage, into which books, bought after leaving school, to a 
 greater or less extent, would not find their way, when once 
 a people are fairly educated. 
 
 The supplying our schools with educational books of the 
 highest character, and at the lowest prices, is no doubt a great 
 
XXIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 national object, — one which well merits, and will, it is to be 
 hoped, meet with every attention from the Committee of Council; 
 but whether this can best be effected by the Council endea- 
 vouring to put into effective operation the talent of the country, 
 in writing books in all those departments of knowledge which 
 it is desirable to introduce into our schools, and be their own 
 publishers ; or whether it can best be done through private 
 publishers and the booksellers themselves, may be a matter of 
 question. The prices at which the National Board in Ireland 
 supply what are termed poor schools in this country, being a 
 remunerating one, is encouraging to the former plan, — and the 
 increasing demand for books once well established,would enable 
 the bookseller to do it at a small rate of profit ; but, under all 
 circumstances, what the country may reasonably expect from 
 the Committee of Council, is — school books, good and cheap. 
 
 Whenever an important want has shown itself in this 
 country, and one by which society would be largely benefited, 
 it is astonishing how much private individuals have done to 
 supply the want ; and now that attention is so much turned 
 towards education, as an instrument of great public good, 
 perhaps it may occur to some benevolent individual, blessed 
 with the power to do it, and wishing to connect his name 
 with the education of his country, to appropriate (as the late 
 Earl of Bridgewater did for a high moral purpose) a sum of 
 eight or ten thousand pounds, as prizes for the best educa- 
 tional books, on all useful subjects — appointing some discreet 
 mode of carrying the object out — the copyright to rest with 
 the Committee of Council, in order to render the books as 
 cheap as possible. Such a sum, spent in this way, might 
 largely benefit a whole nation, and would do more to promote 
 the education of it, that any other conceivable application of 
 the same amount of money. 
 
 The mode in which benevolent individuals have endeavoured 
 to promote local education, has been by leaving property in 
 the hands of trustees (in many cases the parish officers), and 
 attaching some condition — such as that a certain number of 
 children or the whole of the children of the poor shall be sent 
 free ; but however well such endowments may have operated 
 in Scotland (and in many instances, also, in the north of 
 England), where, from experience of the benefit of it, a strong 
 feeling in favour of education pervades all classes of society. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXV 
 
 and where they mix and blend harmoniously together at 
 school, yet in this country, in the rural districts more par- 
 ticularly, where such endowments exist, they have become, in 
 nine cases out of ten, a positive hinderance, rather than a be- 
 nefit, to the object they were intended to promote. This 
 indifference as to the way in which charitable endowments for 
 education are administered, arises from an entire want of a 
 practical knowledge, that a people can in any way be benefited 
 by it ; and it is most strange, that the abuses of these charities 
 in England should not be looked into. 
 
 In some counties in Scotland, such bequests have been so 
 large, that the salary of the master has been very considerably 
 increased, in almost every parochial school in the county, and 
 this chiefly owing to the generosity of individuals, who felt 
 that their success in life was owing to an education received 
 at the parish school, and who had a confidence that those 
 intended to be benefited were sufficiently alive to the hu- 
 manising effects of education upon their children, to see that 
 bequests so left, would be properly administered. 
 
 With respect to apparatus of a philosophical kind, it will 
 be found advisable to commence with absolutely necessary 
 things, and to add to these, as the wants of the school in this 
 way make themselves felt ; otherwise, the buying expensive 
 things at first, and afterwards, not turning them to account, 
 might lead to disappointment. 
 
 Mr. Moseley, in his Eeport of last year, calls the attention 
 of schoolmasters to a most important subject — one, not less 
 important to their own happiness and welfare, and to that of 
 their families, than it is to the interests of education in 
 general — the consideration of means for providing for sup- 
 port in time of sickness and of old age, and of contributing 
 towards the maintenance of a family in case of death he 
 adds, that a mutual assurance or benefit society, formed 
 upon a secure basis, among persons of this class, and con- 
 ducted under the auspices of the Council on Education, would 
 be an inestimable benefit.” 
 
 This is a question in which the public are deeply interested, 
 as affording the only means of protection against a master 
 continuing to hold his situation, when, from age and in- 
 firmity, he is unfit for the duties of it ; and school-managers 
 
 c 
 
XXVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 will find some plan of this kind, the only security against in- 
 competent teachers, who have become so," from being advanced 
 in life, and whom it would be cruel and unjust to deprive of 
 their situations, unless they had some provision to fall back upon. 
 
 It should be the object and fundamental principle of such 
 a plan, that every schoolmaster should be his own insurer 5 
 — to secure a provision, for instance, of from 20/. to 30 /. per 
 annum, to commence at the age of fifty or fifty-five ; there 
 would be no reason whatever, when a master is competent to 
 his duty, that he should give up his situation when he came 
 into possession of his annuity, but it would be in the power 
 of the managers to prevail upon him to retire, when unfit for 
 it, and it would also be desirable in such a plan of assurance, 
 that the insurer should be able, in case of death before coming 
 into the enjoyment of the annuity, to dispose, by will, of the 
 amounts of payments made ; in this way, without being very 
 complicated, it would be something of a provision for those 
 dependent upon him. 
 
 In a well-digested plan of this kind, all the good school- 
 masters would insure ; this would have the effect of retaining 
 them in their employment, many of whom would otherwise 
 leave it ; and, in many ways, the plan seems to be so im- 
 portant to the cause of education, and, in fact, so necessary 
 to its ultimate success, as to make it well deserving the 
 consideration of those, who have the power to carry it out ; 
 and the public have so great an interest in it, that the Com- 
 mittee of Council may reasonably be expected to give some 
 assistance towards doing so ; grounded on the principle of 
 every man being his own insurer, no Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer could possibly object. This ought not to interfere 
 with any consideration, by way of reward, to those who, from 
 great success in their vocations, and from long service, might 
 be thought worthy of them— but it might be a part of the 
 plan, to make some addition to an annuity, in cases of merit 
 of a high order, in this hard-working department of the pub- 
 lic service.* 
 
 * The fact of its being alluded to by Mr. Moseley, in bis Report, was 
 the cause of a memorial being sent to the Committee of Council on the 
 subject, signed by 84 schoolmasters in that part of the north which is 
 under Mr. Watkin’s inspection alone — a strong proof of the importance 
 which the masters themselves attach to such a plan. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXVll 
 
 In a letter published some years ago, as an appendix to 
 Mr. Allen’s (now Archdeacon Allen) Report, I alluded to Lord 
 Howick, the present Earl Grey, having suggested in the 
 House of Commons, voluntary examination of the schools in 
 a district,” and his having pointed out to the minister ‘‘ that 
 further encouragement might be given by occasionally con- 
 ferring, on the deserving, situations in the lower ranks of the 
 public service.” Sir Robert Peel, in answer, expressed as 
 his only fear, that children did not remain at these schools 
 to a sufficient age to be fit for them,” but otherwise seemed 
 to receive the hint remarkably well. 
 
 It is rather singular, that the friends of education in the 
 House of Commons, should have allowed this hint thrown out 
 by Lord Grey so completely to drop, as it seems to have done, 
 and I fear since his lordship has been in office, and has had 
 the power of acting upon it, that he also may have forgotten 
 it — at least one has never seen mention made since, of this 
 kind of encouragement in the speeches of either House of 
 Parliament ; so that this may only have been one of those 
 things thrown out when in opposition, and having an appear- 
 ance of good intention, but where there was not sufficient 
 earnestness of purpose on the part of the speaker, to carry it 
 out, and take the responsibility of doing so when in power ; 
 however, be this as it may, there can be no doubt that if such 
 encouragement is held out, and if an educational test were 
 established throughout what is termed the lower ranks of 
 the public service,” or if carried farther, and any system 
 adopted of selecting from the schools in which this class of 
 society are educated, those best fitted by education or by 
 character for such situations, that many boys would be found 
 to remain ; and not only that, but that they must be found to 
 be well qualified for them. Many, if this principle of selec- 
 tion were adopted, and who find their way into the very situa- 
 tions in question on easier terms, would remain longer at 
 school ; and thus a wholesome channel for supplying this part 
 of the public service would be opened out, by which the public 
 would be benefited in getting those best qualified to serve 
 them.* There is a class in our rural districts, that just above 
 
 * At present such situations fall too much to the lot of the sons of those 
 having the franchise in borough towns, by no means the class of society 
 best fitted for them. 
 
XXVlll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the labourer, who would find great encouragement in this, 
 hut who from being, as it were, above daily labour, and find- 
 ing nothing to do, are worse educated, and in every way worse 
 brought up, than any other class in society ; this would hold 
 out to some a road to useful employment, and many of these 
 youths when educated in this way might find most useful 
 employment in our colonies ; why should not these sources be 
 to them what India is to the classes above them. , 
 
 But although the subject of establishing an educational 
 test, in the kind of offices above alluded to, does not seem to 
 attract the attention of statesmen on the ground of the 
 principle which it involves, or of its public importance, yet it 
 has, I am happy to say, suggested itself in one quarter, when 
 there is the power to act upon it, from a conviction of the 
 good which it will do ; at the same time being a means of 
 finding for the public service, in such departments, those 
 best qualified for the duties of it. 
 
 About a year ago the chairman of the now Inland Revenue 
 Board, who is in no way connected with this part of the 
 country, and to vffiom I was at that time an entire stranger, 
 offered in the kindest way to place at my disposal, for the 
 encouragement of education here, the first situation in the 
 Excise which he had to give, wishing it to be given to the 
 one who, all things considered, was the best qualified for it, 
 and it is to be hoped so good an example may find others 
 ready to follow it. 
 
 This mode of appointment, founded on merit, has a great 
 advantage over any other ; it is based upon the highest and 
 best principles, and would, if extensively acted upon, lead to 
 a most important change, in what may be called the morale 
 of the lower departments of the public service. 
 
 The minister who would endeavour to introduce an educa- 
 tional test in all cases of this kind, and do his utmost to carry 
 it out, would deserve well of his country ; he would at the 
 same time that he was indirectly promoting the best interests 
 of society, have the satisfaction of feeling that he was filling 
 up such situations, with those most competent for the duties 
 of them. 
 
 It is now beginning to be generally felt that the only way 
 to make our national and similar schools efficient, and to have 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXIX 
 
 them remaining so^ is by making them places of education, 
 not exclusively for the labouring classes, but by having the 
 standard of acquirement and the means of carrying it out, 
 such as are fitted for the wants of all the industrial part of the 
 community located in a district. This, both from experience 
 and from the nature of the case, is now becoming evident, 
 and a strong evidence is given of it in the number of schools 
 of this kind now rising up in different parts of the country, 
 and taken up by influential individuals in a way which gives 
 every promise of success. 
 
 The way in which we have lately seen Sir Robert Peel 
 reorganizing the school at Tamworth, and the evident interest 
 which he takes in doing so, show clearly what his opinions 
 are as to the mode in which the education of the country 
 ought to be carried out, and the practical bearing which it 
 ought to have upon the employments of after life ; and it is 
 greatly to be wished that a man of his acknowledged talent 
 as a statesman would not confine his interest in it, to his 
 own locality, but that he would, as a public man, give that 
 consideration and assistance to the cause of education, which, 
 from his position, he is so well able to do ; and which, from 
 the importance of the question, in its bearings both upon our 
 own social relations at home and in our colonies, it so well 
 deserves. 
 
 At a meeting in Staffordshire a few months ago, at which 
 Lord Harrowby presided, the general feeling seemed to he of 
 the same kind. The following is an extract from the reported 
 speech of the chairman : 
 
 It was pretty evident that in many parts of the country 
 the poorer classes were placed, as regarded education, in a 
 better position than those immediately above them ; that the 
 labourer’s children were, in fact, in the way of being better 
 educated than those of the farmers, and that this arose from 
 the fact that the state assisted the former, whilst the latter 
 were entirely neglected. Those connected with farming were 
 no doubt generally able to give their children a suitable edu- 
 cation ; but they were so divided by distance of residence and 
 so unaccustomed to combine, that they were placed in a very 
 disadvantageous position as compared with the inhabitants of 
 towns. In general the sons of farmers were sent out to 
 
introduction. 
 
 school at a cost of from £25 to ^630 per annum, and the 
 expense when there was a number of sons was so great that 
 the youths were often removed before their education was 
 completed. To remedy this evil two plans have been sug- 
 gested : the first was to establish new and independent schools, 
 and the second was to improve the common schools scattered 
 over the country. The objection to the first of these plans 
 was the expense, and the great uncertainty of the result • 
 while to the second was urged the unwillingness of farmers 
 to allow their children to mix with the children of the 
 humbler classes. He, however, did not see that the enter- 
 tainment of the one scheme should preclude the conside- 
 ration of the other, and that the meeting should appoint 
 a committee to consider the subject. Experience had justified 
 the establishment of schools in which all classes mixed 
 tor the purpose of education ; and the High School of 
 
 dinburgh might be pointed out as a worthy example, where 
 the high and the low, the son of the peer and the son of the 
 artisan, studied under the same roof, to the advantage of both. 
 The mixture of the various orders of society in a common 
 school, while it did not deteriorate the morals and manners 
 ot the pupils, induced the cultivation of kind and social 
 feelings. 
 
 In fact the whole of Scotland is an example of this. With 
 respect to the observation of Lord Harrowbv, ‘Uhat the 
 faimers are left to themselves,’^ thev in fact want no assist- 
 ance ; all that is wanted on their part is the common sense 
 to see that the only way in which they can, as a class, be 
 properly educated, is by making our parish schools efficient 
 for the purpose, and by their getting rid of their preiudices, 
 and sending their children to them. 
 
 Earl Talbot, the Bishop of Lichfield, and others, expressed 
 themselves to the same purpose ; and Mr. Adderley, member 
 lor the county, added, ‘^that he considered the plan of 
 adopting separate schools hopeless, and thought that of im- 
 proving the character of the national schools bv far the most 
 feasible. He should object, however, to any plan which gave 
 a boon to the farmers and middle classes at the expense of the 
 labouring classes.” 
 
 So far from the establishing mixed schools being a boon to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXXI 
 
 the farmers and middle classes at the expense of the labouring 
 classes, I believe they will have a decidedly contrary effect, 
 and that the establishing separate ones for sons of farmers, &c. 
 would be in every way detrimental in the end, and bring about 
 such a state of things in the schools exclusively for the poor, 
 that in a very short time the character of such schools would 
 be in no way better than it has been, and that as places of 
 education they would entirely fail. 
 
 One resolution of the meeting proposed by the Bishop of 
 Litchfield was, that it was expedient to provide from the 
 training schools or institutions at Battersea* fit and proper 
 masters for the national schools, and that those masters 
 should be qualified to communicate religious instruction and 
 teach arithmetic, geography, the lower mathematics, and the 
 sciences applicable to agriculture ; and I believe they have 
 since sent six young men to the institution there for the 
 purpose of being educated as masters. 
 
 In the present transition state of the country as to edu- 
 cation, such meetings have a more than ordinary interest 
 attaching to them — in fact at this moment in some measure a 
 national one — as much depends upon what is done in the next 
 
 * This institution owes its origin, and for many years nearly its wdiole 
 support, to Mr. Key Shuttleworth and Mr. Edward Tufnell, and in 1842 
 w^as transferred to the National Society. 
 
 The Rev. Thomas Jackson, the principal, has lately printed a statement 
 of its views and prospective objects, to which is appended testimonials of 
 the masters and condition of the schools to which the Battersea masters 
 have been sent. 
 
 These statements afford a very gratifying proof and are strong evidence 
 of the good w’hich must result from establishments of this kind, conducted 
 as Battersea is. The education of the country must necessarily and in a 
 great measure take its tone, and assume its character of usefulness, from 
 the sources from w hich the teachers are derived ; and if the opinion of one 
 w ho has paid considerable attention to the educational wants of the present 
 time, and the way in which those wants can best be supplied, were likely 
 to be of any weight, he would strongly recommend Battersea and similar 
 institutions to those w^ho have the means and the wish to aid the cause 
 of national education. Much more good, in an educational point of view, 
 is likely to arise from bequests and from gifts to institutions of this kind 
 under efficient public control, than in any other way ; and it is greatly 
 to be hoped that the efficiency of good training institutions, both for 
 schoolmasters and schoolmistresses may not be checked for want of 
 means. 
 
XXXll 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 few years — as to the direction which the education of the 
 country will take, — a question of no small importance to the 
 rising generation, although one, to which many of the present 
 are perfectly indifferent. 
 
 King’s Somborne ; 
 
 April 7 y 1849. 
 
SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Having taken a considerable interest fore some years in the 
 daily teaching of my own village school, I am, from the 
 success which has attended it, induced to offer the following 
 outline of what is taught, and the manner of teaching it, to 
 the attention of teachers in our elementary schools, — as being 
 likely to be of some assistance, at all events to the less expe- 
 rienced among them, and perhaps not altogether useless to 
 those whose qualifications and training in our Normal Schools 
 may have better fitted them for their work. 
 
 And first, it is of great importance that the teacher should 
 be able to interest the children in what they are doing ; and 
 this, if he takes a lively interest in it himself, he will find no 
 difficulty in, even when teaching what is looked upon as 
 the mechanical part of reading ; particularly if he knows how 
 to mix with it a little oral instruction of a conversational kind, 
 and has any judgment in selecting subjects to talk to them 
 about, — such as the domestic animals, birds, &c., and other 
 things, with which they are brought in contact in their earliest 
 years — the cat and dog, how they differ in their habits, man- 
 ner of living, and how useful to man,— the one attaching 
 itself to places, the other to man ; then perhaps relating some 
 short and amusing anecdote of the dog or other animal, for 
 which a good teacher would be at no loss, and would always 
 see, if he has any tact, from the countenances of the children, 
 whether he was interesting them or not, and would go on, or 
 leave off, accordingly. 
 
 And again, if a cow or horse is mentioned — drawing them 
 into a description of it— a child will perhaps say, a cow is a 
 four-footed animal. Teacher : yes, but so is a horse ; and 
 then will point out something in which they differ. The child 
 will then try again— a cow has got horns, but a horse has not: 
 then the teacher will point out that some cows have no horns, 
 
 1 
 
2 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 and will lead them on into things, in which the cow and horse 
 really do differ — such as the hoof : the cow having a cloven 
 foot with two hoofs on one foot ; what other animals have the 
 same ? — difference in the way of feeding ; a cow chews the 
 cud — ruminating : does the horse ? — what animals do ? sheep, 
 deer, &c. What difference in their teeth? has a cow front 
 teeth in the upper jaw ? a sheep ? a horse ? &c. What do you 
 call a number of cows together ? what of sheep ? — of deer ? — 
 of swine ? — of bees ? What are the habits of animals going 
 many together ? mention those you know which do so. The 
 flesh of the sheep called what ? — of the ox ? The particular 
 noise of the sheep, cow, horse, swine, &c. ? bleats, bellows, 
 grunts. The young of a cow? a calf; and its flesh? veal. 
 The young of the horse, what ? a foal. Spell calf, calves ; 
 write them down on your slates. And in this way children 
 may be led into a tolerably correct idea of the thing in ques- 
 tion, and will be partly able to describe it themselves ; all this 
 they tell again at home, which has its use. 
 
 There is something extremely pleasing and interesting to 
 children in having their attention called to the habits — 
 difference in structure— in covering — in manner of feeding — 
 in fact, all possible outward differences, a knowledge of which 
 can be acquired by the eyes and by the hands (seeing and 
 feeling) of the beasts and birds about them ; and of this a very 
 strong proof is given, in what I have related in connexion with 
 my giving to a class of boys a lesson of the following kind, 
 which was suggested by some observations in a book on 
 Natural History, by the Rev. L. Jenyns, on the dificrence of 
 the way in which animals with which they are acquainted rise. 
 How does the cow get up ? — hind-feet or fore-feet first? how 
 the sheep ? how the deer, &c. ? some will answer right, some 
 wrong, but all think and are alive to the question. Then 
 pointing out to them, that all these animals rise with the hind- 
 legs first, and that they belong to the class of ruminating or 
 cud-chewing animals — and, that if it is true that in one, two, 
 three, four, &c. particular cases of animals which chew the cud, 
 that they rise in this way ; whether it would not be likely to be 
 true in all cases — showing them the way of getting at a general 
 rule, from its being true in a number of individual instances. 
 
 Then again : How does the horse, the pig, the dog, &c., 
 rise ? hind-feet or fore-feet first ? do they ruminate ? have they 
 
SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 3 
 
 front teeth in the upper jaw ? The teacher would point out 
 how they differ from the ox, the sheep, &c. 
 
 Children living in the country are very much alive to this 
 kind of instruction, and I found that several of them in going 
 home from school had observed the animals when rising, and 
 gone out of their way to make them get up ; thus bringing to 
 the test of experience what they had been taught, and com- 
 mencing, at this early period, habits of observation on things 
 around them ; which, in after life, may add much to their 
 happiness, and open out sources of enjoyment to them, to 
 which they have hitherto been strangers. 
 
 Happening to mention that some observers of the habits of 
 animals thought that sheep more frequently lie down on the 
 left side than the right, I find that many of them count a flock 
 of sheep, as to the side they are lying on, when they see them 
 lying down in the fold or in the field ; and I have no doubt 
 will, in time, have counted such numbers as may balance their 
 opinions one way or the other. 
 
 Mr. Jenyns says, that he mentioned to a farmer, who had 
 passed all his life among animals belonging to the farm, this 
 difference in the mode of rising in the horse and in the ox— 
 the sheep and the pig — and generally in the cud-chewing and 
 non-cud-chewing animals, but that he (the farmer) was not 
 aware of it ; and I recollect myself many years ago in college 
 combination-room, a conversation arising, as to whether a 
 sheep had a double row of teeth in front, similar to the horse 
 (and in the same way the cow), when, strange to say, although 
 every one seemed to know that it was the case with the horse, 
 yet not more than one or two were aware that the sheep had 
 not; and so many doubts were started about it, that two young 
 men of the party walked a considerable distance to a field 
 where there were some sheep, and caught one of them in order 
 to examine it. 
 
 When able to read with tolerable ease, and when they have 
 acquired some idea of reckoning up small numbers, which 
 they very soon do, it will be found extremely useful occasion- 
 ally to call their attention to the number of letters in a word — 
 pointing out which are vowels, and which are consonants ; for 
 instance, the word number — how many letters ? six. How 
 many are vowels ? two. Then how many consonants : some 
 will reckon by looking at the book ; others, and these are the 
 
4 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 sharp ones, will reason and say, as there are six letters, and 
 two of them vowels, the remaining four must be consonants ; 
 making it a question in arithmetic. 
 
 In this way very great interest may be excited ; and when 
 such words as bounty, city, yearly occur, the teacher should 
 point out, that at the end of words y is a vowel ; at the begin- 
 ning, a consonant ; and then ask them to quote all the words 
 they know beginning or ending with y : this gives them great 
 facility in acquiring words ; such questions, as, what is the 
 first letter in such and such a word — what is the last — how 
 many syllables in the word — what is the middle syllable — 
 what is a syllable made up of ? of letters. What is a word 
 made up of ? of syllable or syllables. This interests much 
 more than the ordinary way of reading without observation, 
 and keeps up the attention. 
 
 Again, call their attention to the page of their book — say 
 it is page ten, eleven, twelve, or thirteen— how many leaves ? 
 five, five and a half, six, six and a half ; and from this they 
 will very soon gather that when the page is denoted by an even 
 number there is an exact number of leaves, and no odd page 
 remaining ; hence the teacher will point out to them, that all 
 even numbers are divisible by two without a remainder, and 
 that an odd number, when divided by two, always leaves a 
 remainder of one. Occasionally making them reckon the 
 leaves, in order to show that it agrees with their arithmetic, is 
 good ; in fact, there are innumerable ways in which the com- 
 mon sense of a teacher ought to be called forth. 
 
 It will also be useful to give them correct ideas of the kind 
 suggested by the following questions. Where does the sun 
 rise ? point in the direction. Where is he at noon ? Where 
 does he set ? When is he highest in the heavens ? In what 
 direction is your shadow cast in the morning : in what direc- 
 tion at noon?— in the evening? In what direction do you 
 come to school? — go home? and as they come, of course, 
 from very different directions, this becomes more instructive. 
 Point to your home — towards sunset. Are the days lengthen- 
 ing or shortening ? Will to-morrow be longer or shorter than 
 to-day ? In what direction is such and such a parish or strik- 
 ing object ? How the parish in which they live is bounded on 
 the different sides, &c. In this way children may be made to 
 get correct ideas as to east, west, north, and south, and the 
 intermediate points. ** 
 
SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 5 
 
 The teacher should also occasionally call one of them for- 
 ! ward, and, putting a piece of chalk into his hand, tell him to 
 i draw a line on the floor running north and south. What is 
 j the first letter of north, and what of south? put N and S then 
 at the proper ends ; how does he know the south from the 
 north ? draw a line through the middle running east and 
 west — another half way between the east and the north — the 
 east and the south, &c. This they are all pleased in being 
 able to do themselves, and there is scarcely a boy in the smaller 
 classes that would not do it with great accuracy ; of course 
 the teacher might vary it, by telling a boy to begin and make 
 a ring (circle) on the floor as if he were going to play marbles, 
 then to draw a line through the centre due east and west — 
 another north and south, and this way has an advantage ; as 
 they improve in doing it, they will get to something like the 
 figure of the compass. 
 
 I have observed also, that they take great interest in having 
 their attention drawn to the particular points in which the sun 
 rises and sets ; for instance, that on a certain day in March he 
 rises due east and sets due west ; that every succeeding day 
 up to the 21st of June he rises farther and farther to the north 
 of east, and sets a little farther to the north of west, on each 
 succeeding day, and up to this point the days go on increas- 
 ing : he then returns in the same way, rising nearer to the 
 east and setting nearer to the west on each succeeding day until 
 the 21st of September, when he again rises due east and sets 
 due west: then up to the 21st of December rises farther to 
 the south of east and sets farther to the south of west, and 
 on each succeeding day describing a smaller and smaller arch 
 in the heavens and the days shortening. 
 
 This becomes a matter of daily observation, as a thing which 
 they can see with their own eyes, and interests them accordingly. 
 
 Again, the teacher should point out how their shadow is 
 longest when the sun is in the horizon— diminishes up to noon, 
 when the sun is highest, and then increases again until sun- 
 set — what it would be if the sun were over their heads, &c. 
 
 The following verse, from one of the Lessons, affords con- 
 siderable instruction : 
 
 Trudging as the ploughmen go 
 (To the smoking hamlet bound) ; 
 
 Giant-like their shadows grow, 
 
 Lengthened o^er the level ground/e 1 § 
 
6 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Questions like the following are also instructive. If the 
 sun rise at five o’clock, half-past four, three, &c., in the morn- 
 ing, at what time will he set? getting them to understand 
 what mid-day means, and that there are as many hours from 
 sunrise to noon, as from noon to sunset — that the difference 
 between the hour of rising and twelve o’clock will give the 
 hour at which he sets. 
 
 As soon as children are able, the teacher should endeavour 
 to give them correct ideas of the measures of time, of space, 
 and of volume : ask them, for instance. What is a year ? they 
 will answer, twelve months. What is a month? four weeks. 
 What is a week ? seven days. What is a day ? twenty-four 
 hours. What is an hour? sixty minutes; and thus driving 
 them into a corner, they find out the answer was not the one 
 expected, and begin to think on the subject : the teacher should 
 then point out to them, that a year is a measure of time, as a 
 yard is a measure of length ; that a month, a week, a day, 
 &c., are also measures of time, but of less duration than the 
 year ; of course they will afterwards be made to understand 
 what duration of time the year does measure ; he should then 
 point out the great conveniences of the subdivisions of time 
 for the purposes of civil life. 
 
 I was pleased some time ago in going into the school, to see 
 the contrivances of some of them in making a clock-face on 
 paper, which had been the evening task for one of the lower 
 classes ; what struck me was, the great regularity of an inner 
 and outer circle for the face, in many instances as if made 
 with compasses ; they had had recourse to cups or saucers, or 
 any other circular things of unequal dimensions in their cot- 
 tages, but of a size which came within the compass of their 
 paper on which they placed them, and then run the pen round 
 the edges ; this shows that man is a contriving animal, and 
 I have no doubt the task afforded amusement and instruction 
 both to parent and child. 
 
 The teacher should exercise the children on the clock-face 
 pointing out that the minute-hand goes round twelve times for 
 the hour-hand once ; that the circle on the face is divided into 
 twelve equal parts ; that while the minute-hand goes once 
 round the whole circle, the hour-hand would only move from 
 twelve to one, or -J^th of the whole ; that when it had gone 
 twice round, the hour-hand had arrived at two o’clock, or 
 
SUGGESTIVE HINTS* 
 
 7 
 
 /^ths ; wlien tliree times, at three o’clock, or ^\ths, and so 
 on ; and when the minnte-hand had gone twelve times round, 
 the hour-hand would have moved over twelve of these divi- 
 sions, or -jf ths : in this way they hy degrees get some idea of 
 fractions. 
 
 In the same way as to measures of length, giving them a 
 correct idea as to the length of a yard, a foot, an inch, &c., 
 and how many times the smaller measure is contained in the 
 greater ; and here the teacher would do well to have a two-foot 
 rule, and make first one and then another of the children 
 measure the dimensions of the room — the length and breadth 
 of the doorway, or any distance between one fixed point and 
 another — to show them to what particular purposes in civil life 
 these measures are used — measuring the distance between one 
 place and another ; that the yard is the measure by which they 
 buy calico, flannel, fustian, cloth, cordage, &c., all things for 
 the purposes of clothing : the length only being measured, 
 the breadth being of a standard kind. 
 
 That in speaking of the size of a room, of a garden, of a field, 
 both length and breadth must be taken into account — of a peck, 
 a bushel, a quart, &c., length, breadth, and depth — and the 
 particular things measured by these should be pointed out. 
 
 Again, as to weight, the name of all the weights used, from 
 a ton downwards, or from an ounce upwards, speaking to them 
 of the particular things bought at the shop by weight — of 
 those bought by volume — that fluid substances easily taking 
 the shape of the vessel into which they are poured make the 
 usual modes of measuring them the most convenient that 
 solids, instead of putting them into any particular measure, 
 might be more easily measured by putting them into the form 
 of some regular solid, and then taking its dimensions,* &c. 
 
 When a class is able to read without spelling, the teacher 
 should endeavour to interest them in what they are reading, 
 
 * A friend of the author’s, speaking with a large farmer in his neigh- 
 bourhood on the importance of giving the agricultural labourer a better 
 education, observed that he thought it very probable there was not one of 
 his labourers, and he employed a great many, who knew the number of 
 ounces in a pound, although they were in the daily habit of buying things 
 by these weights. The farmer could not see much good in education, and 
 thought none of his labourers so ignorant as this ; but agreed to ask them 
 the question on the Saturday night, when he paid their wages, and, to his 
 own great astonishment, there was not one who could answer it. 
 
8 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 by showing them specimens of anything which may be men- 
 tioned ; pointing out whether it is of an animal, a vegetable or 
 a mineral kind — if a manufactured product, how made, and the 
 nature of the raw material — if it form any part of what they 
 eat, or drink, or wear ; — how it is called into use in any of their 
 domestic concerns ; — in the every-day occupations of them- 
 selves, or of their parents connected with the mechanic 
 trades, or with farming occupations ; in short, calling their 
 minds into exercise in every way he may have it in his power. 
 
 For instance, the pen and ink with which they write ? the 
 one animal, the other vegetable matter dissolved in water ; — 
 how the water dries away and leaves the vegetable matter be- 
 hind? —paper made from what, and how ? — when first made ? — 
 difficulty of getting books before that, and on what written? — 
 printing, when invented? — wooden types, afterwards metal 
 types, &c., down to printing by steam : the slate they use ; — 
 the string which fastens it round their necks ; — the binding of 
 their books, pointing out the variety of materials used, and the 
 trades called into operation in preparing them ; — the little 
 woodcuts which illustrate their lessons, how made, &c. 
 
 Also in the same way the manufactured articles of ordinary 
 clothing — how made, and whether the raw material is animal 
 or vegetable — leather, how prepared, &c. : their stockings, knit 
 or woven ; carding — spinning, knitting. 
 
 GRAMMAK. 
 
 Grammar is taught here almost entirely through their read- 
 ing lessons, and in this way, far from being the dry subject 
 many have supposed it to be, it becomes one in which they 
 take great interest. Any attempt by giving them dry defini- 
 tions of parts of speech and rules of grammar is almost sure 
 to fail : for one which it interests, it will disgust ten, and 
 therefore the thing ought not to be attempted in this way. The 
 most natural and easy manner seems to be, first, — 
 
 Pointing out the distinction between vowels, consonants, 
 and diphthongs, from words in their lessons : when a or an 
 is used before a noun : the difference between a table, and the 
 table ; between a book, and the book ; a sheep, and the sheep; 
 
grammar. 
 
 9 
 
 a deer, and the deer : whether they would say, a house or an 
 I house : a hare or an hare ; an heir, an hour ; drawing atten- 
 tion to exceptions as they occur. 
 
 The next and easiest thing would be the nouns, pointing out 
 all the things which they see around them ; such as book, 
 table, map, &c. ; and thus they immediately know that the 
 names of all visible substances are called nouns. This being 
 once fixed, they are soon led to the idea, that the names of 
 things which they can imagine to exist, are nouns also ; to 
 distinguish the singular from the plural : that the singular 
 means one, the plural more than one : —the general rule of 
 forming the plural by adding 5 ; house, houses ; map, maps, 
 &c. ; the teacher taking care to point out the exceptions as 
 they are met with in reading, such as ox, oxen ; tooth, teeth ; 
 man, men ; loaf, loaves ; church, churches ; city, cities ; and 
 to observe also, where anything like a general rule can be 
 traced out, such as that nouns ending in ch soft make the 
 plural by adding es, as church, churches ; arch, arches ; match, 
 matches ; while in ch hard they follow the general rule, as 
 monarch, monarchs, &c. ; in sh, as dish, dishes ; fish, fishes, 
 &c., adding ^5 ; in /, as leaf, loaf ; changing / into v, and 
 adding es, leaves, loaves ; nouns ending in y into ies, as city, 
 cities ; fly, flies ; why such words as boy, valley, do not fol- 
 low the general rule.* 
 
 The teacher would do well to exercise them in forming the 
 plural of any particular class of nouns as they occur ; for in- 
 stance, nouns ending in jf, as leaf ; spell it in the plural, leaves ; 
 potato, potatoes ; negro, negroes ; echo, echoes ; and making 
 them quote all the nouns ending in /and in o they could pos- 
 sibly recollect ; the same way for others. This calls forth 
 great emulation, and is attended with good results. 
 
 The difference of gender also in nouns ought to be pointed 
 out, a thing very necessary in this county (Hampshire) ; every- 
 thing alive or dead, male or female, coming under the denomi- 
 nation he, never by any chance changed into him. 
 
 * I would strongly recommend to all our school teachers a small book 
 bv Professor Sullivan, called ‘ The Spelling Book Superseded,’ on this sub- 
 ject, as well as his other books, ‘ Geography Generalized,’ his ‘ Geography 
 and History,’ and his ‘ English Grammar,’ published by M‘Glashan, Dublin, 
 and by Messrs. Longman in London. They are all excellent in their way, 
 and have done good service here. 
 
10 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 They would now be able when sitting down, and without the 
 assistance of a teacher, to pick out all the nouns in a lesson, 
 writing them in columns in the singular and plural number ; 
 also, to write on their slates, or as exercises on paper in the 
 evenings, things of the following kind : 
 
 The names of the months in the year, and the number of 
 days in each. 
 
 Of all the things in their cottages and in their gardens — of | 
 all the tools used by the carpenter, such as plane, axe, chisel, 
 &c. — by the blacksmith — of all the implements used in agri- 
 culture, or in their trades and occupations. 
 
 What are the names of all the tools made of iron which we 
 use in the village ? 
 
 The names of all the trees — of the vegetable and animal pro- 
 ducts of the parish — of such vegetables as are food for man, 
 for beast, &c. — of all articles of home consumption, &c. — of 
 the materials of which houses are built, &c. 
 
 Describe a dog, cat, barn-door fowl : -^write the names of all 
 the singing-birds — of the birds of prey, &c. ; — write down six 
 names of birds all of which are compound words. 
 
 A year, a month, a week, day, hour, are measures of what? 
 
 A yard, a foot, an inch — of what ? 
 
 A quart, a bushel, &c. — of what ? 
 
 The teacher might also set each child to write down the date 
 of its birth — to make out how many years, months, weeks, 
 days, &c., old it was ; so as to give its age in all the different 
 measures of time. 
 
 Being now able to point out the nouns, &c., they should 
 advance to such words as qualify them — adjectives. 
 
 The teacher, holding up an apple, for instance, will ask. Do 
 all apples taste alike ? No, sir ; some are sour and some are 
 sweet, bitter, &c. Do apples differ in any other way ? Some i 
 are large and some are small — this is differing in size ; some , 
 are red and some green — this is differing in colour ; some soft 
 and some hard — this is differing in the quality of hardness ; ' 
 some are rounder than others — differing in shape ; and all these 
 words expressing different qualities in the noun are adjectives. 
 Then perhaps they are told to sit down and write all the words 
 they can think of, which qualify the word apple, such as sour 
 apple, sweet apple, large apple, &c. 
 
 Then to get at the degrees of comparison : The teacher will 
 
GRAMMAR* 
 
 11 
 
 jobserve the different sizes of the children, taking two of them 
 but and making them stand side hy side. When I say that 
 [this boy is taller than the one next to him, what am I com- 
 (paring ? The height of the two boys. This boy has got darker 
 hair than the one next him — the colour of their hair : you 
 have got cleaner hands than the boy next to you — the clean- 
 ness of my hands with the cleanness of his : such a child is the 
 tallest in the class— is the best reader in the class. What do 
 jl compare ? His or her height, with the height of all the rest ; 
 ihis or her reading, &c. In this way they will very soon under- 
 stand what is meant by degrees of comparison, and should be 
 told how to form them : tall, taller, tallest ; great, greater, 
 greatest, &c. ; taking about half-a-dozen adjectives at a time, 
 the children repeating them, and occasionally being set to 
 write them on their slates. Reasoning in this way the general 
 rule soon strikes them, and the teacher must take care to 
 point out the exceptions. Their very errors, in following out a 
 general rule, are sometimes instructive, as well as amusing : 
 for instance, if you give them such a word as little, or good, 
 they will immediately begin, good, gooder, goodest, following 
 out the general principle ; when all at once it flashes across 
 them that the word is an exception, and the sort of knowing 
 look they give you, as if you had tried to take them in, is most 
 amusing. 
 
 In monosyllables, such as hot, hotter, hottest ; big, bigger, 
 biggest, making them write down words which vary from the 
 rule by doubling the final letter, and pointing out to them, that 
 this is the case with all words of one syllable ending in a con- 
 sonant, with a vowel going before it. 
 
 The teacher should now begin to point out the pronouns as 
 they occur— what particular nouns they stand for in a sentence 
 — what case — ^whether they mark possession, &c. ; for instance, 
 when 1, he, or she occurs, to ask them what they make in the 
 objective cases : what in the possessive. If him or them or her 
 occur, what is the form of the nominative ; and occasionally 
 using the pronouns in making short sentences, in order to fix 
 a clear impression on their minds : such as, where is my book ? 
 I saw it just now : the pen which I had in my hand : the book 
 which he is reading, showing them in this last sentence you 
 cannot understand which is meant by he, unless the noun to 
 which it refers had been mentioned before. 
 
12 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 With respect to the verbs : in this school they are con- 
 stantly exercised in going through all the persons and tenses, 
 past and present, both on their slates, and occasionally by 
 having two or three given to bring in writing as an evening 
 exercise : showing them they must use the present tense of the 
 verb, or an auxiliary verb with the present particle if they 
 speak of a thing while it is being done — the past form of the 
 verb or the auxiliary verb and past particle, when the action 
 is past : the teacher would write an example on the black 
 board such as 
 
 I work. We work. 
 
 Thou workest. Ye or you work. 
 
 He works, They work : 
 
 'present participle^ working ; pasty wrought. 
 
 I write, &c., writing ; written : 
 particularly pointing out the auxiliary verbs when they occur 
 with a past participle — and noting words where the past form 
 of the verb and the past participle differ — as wrote, written ; 
 smote, smitten — calling upon the children to make short sen- 
 tences to illustrate it ; I wrote a letter — a letter was written ; 
 he broke a cup — a cup was broken. He should also correct 
 such expressions as, I writ a letter — father work for Farmer 
 A — we 'works for Mr. B — we reads — I does, &c. It is interest- 
 ing to observe how much the school is altering expressions of 
 this kind here : the school-children of any age will all say, my 
 father or father works — we do, we work ; or, if from habit they 
 are led into making use of the former mode of expression, they 
 will many of them immediately correct themselves. 
 
 This kind of teaching, young as many of them are, seems 
 to exercise their minds, and give them a great interest in what 
 they are learning. 
 
 In the same way their attention must be called to all the 
 other parts of speech as they occur. 
 
 It is very important that the teacher, in exercising them in 
 these parts of grammar, at first should select words to which 
 they can easily attach ideas ; as nouns for instance, the names 
 of visible objects, such as ploughs, harrows, horses, cows, &c.; 
 then tea, coffee, sugar, wheat, oats, things connected with 
 their daily occupations, and the qualities of which are known 
 to them ; this soon gets them into the way of knowing what 
 an adjective is. Again, for verbs select such words as express 
 
GRAMMAR. 
 
 13 
 
 some action they are in the habit of doing — to walk, to ride, 
 to plough, to harrow — then point out the difference to them, 
 or ask them to explain the difference between a plough and 
 to plough— « harrow and to harrow— « walk and to walk— 
 a ride and to ride — and that the noun which is in the nomi- 
 native case is the doer of the action — the verb expresses the 
 doing it, and the noun in the objective case is the thing on 
 which the verb acts. ^ 
 
 It will be necessary to point out the inflection of nouns, 
 although the nominative and objective cases are generally the 
 same, in order to show them how this ought to be attended to 
 in the personal pronouns, &c. To notice such expressions as 
 I saw he, I saw she, which they would invariably say here — 
 and how they are wrong. For instance, suppose the teacher 
 gives such a question as the following to write about : What 
 
 is a spade made of, and what are its uses ? he should take 
 care to explain why he uses the pronoun its, and get them into 
 the way of using the pronouns properly by making little sen- 
 tences of their own to illustrate them — how verbs are made 
 into nouns by adding er, as do, doer ; walk, walker ; talk, 
 talker ; plough, plougher, &c. — nouns into adjectives by adding 
 aly as national, &c. 
 
 Compound words may be made very instructive and very 
 amusing to them : bird-cage, pen-knife, &c. The teacher to 
 lead them to explain what a compound word is ; if asked, they 
 will answer, perhaps, “ A word made of two words then 
 show them that this is correct as far as it goes, by mentioning 
 several words made up of two, and ask what they would call 
 a word made up of three words ; they immediately see that 
 their definition comes short of what was wanted ; then show 
 them that a word made up of two or more words” would 
 include every case ; this speaks to their understanding better 
 than if a correct definition had been given at first. 
 
 Pen-knife — pen does not explain the material of which the 
 knife is made, but the use to which it is applied. 
 
 Oak-table — oaky taken as an adjective, explaining of what 
 the table is made ; might say oaken-table : writing-table ; made 
 up of a noun, table, and a participle, explaining for what the 
 table is used. 
 
 Bring, to-morrow morning, neatly wTitten, six compound 
 nouns, names of things about your houses. They will probably 
 
14 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 bring such as fire-side, bed-post, house-door, tea-pot, sugar- 
 basin, milk-pail. In the morning the class to be arranged ac- 
 cording as they have done ; the teacher to interest them by 
 showing how the meaning of the compound words is to be got 
 at through the simple ones. 
 
 The word barge-river is invariably used here for canal ; I 
 doubt very much whether many of them know what is meant 
 by canal. 
 
 The importance of making the instruction turn a good deal 
 upon their own occupations and domestic consumption, can 
 scarcely be overrated ; it leads to a fire-side conversation in 
 an evening, between parents and children, of a most interesting 
 kind ; and by setting the children questions of this kind for 
 an evening exercise the whole family is set to work. 
 
 The reading-books used here are principally those published 
 by the Irish National Board, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and those 
 of Professor Sullivan, in connexion with it ; a list of them is 
 given at the end. 
 
 The following specimen from an easy lesson may be taken as 
 a mode of teaching. Second Book of Lessons, page 49. 
 
 We cannot but admire the way in which little birds build 
 their nests and take care of their offspring. It is easy to con- 
 ceive that small things keep heat a shorter time than those that 
 are large. The eggs of small birds,^’ &c. 
 
 Point out the vowels in the first line — the consonants in the 
 word build — what is ui ? a diphthong, and build pronounced 
 like bild. What is a bird ? a thing. A nest ? a thing. And 
 therefore what parts of speech? nouns. Birds, does that 
 mean one or more than one ? More than one. What do you 
 say when you mean only one ? A bird, a nest. When only 
 one, what number is that ? Singular. When more than one? 
 Plural. You say a bird, a nest ; would you say a egg ? No, 
 sir, an egg ; a before a consonant, an before a vowel. What 
 are a and an ? Articles. Cannot but, what does that mean? 
 Must admire — be much pleased with. The teacher will point 
 out that, if speaking in the singular number, the sentence 
 would be : IV e cannot but admire the way in which a little 
 
 bird builds its nest and takes care of its offspring . Then the 
 class will sit down and occupy themselves in writing on their 
 slates all the nouns in the lesson. 
 
 The pieces of poetry they learn by heart, having first made 
 
GRAMMAR POETRY. 
 
 15 
 
 each piece the object of one or two reading lessons ; they then 
 write down from memory, either on their slates or as an exer- 
 cise on paper, about half of one of the short pieces at a time ; 
 at first they will run all the lines together, perhaps, as in prose, 
 or begin the lines with small letters, — write 2 for the pronoun 
 7, and so on ; but in a very short time they write them out 
 most correctly, and this exercise is a very useful one. 
 
 Again, Lesson Book, No. 3, page 230. 
 
 “ ON HUMAN FRAILTY. 
 
 Weak and irresolute is man, 
 
 The purpose of to-day, 
 
 Woven with pains into his plan, 
 
 To-morrow rends away. 
 
 “ The bow well bent, and smart the spring, 
 
 Vice seems already slain ; 
 
 But passion rudely snaps the string, 
 
 And it revives again/^ 
 
 TFea^ and irresolute ; what parts of speech ? Adjectives. 
 What word do they qualify? Man. What does the prefix zr 
 mean ? Not. Can you quote any other words with the same 
 prefix meaning not ? Irregular, irreparable, &c. Is ; what 
 part of speech? An auxiliary verb. In what way does it differ 
 from Tiave^ as to the case which comes after it ? It always 
 takes the nominative case both before and after it ; it was I, it 
 he, whom I saw ; — have follows the general rule. Woven ; 
 what part of speech ? Past participle from weave. Are the 
 past participle and the past tense of this verb the same ? No, 
 sir ; wove, I wove, thou wovest, he wove, &c. What are the 
 warp and woof in weaving ? The warp, the threads that run 
 the long way of the cloth ; and the woof, the threads that run 
 across : the woof is thrown by the shuttle over and above each 
 alternate thread. Do you recollect any piece of poetry which 
 you have learnt in which Time is called the warp of life ? Yes, 
 sir. Quote it. 
 
 “ Time is the warp of life : — Oh ! tell 
 The young, the fair, the gay, to weave it well.’^ 
 
 What is meant by Time being the warp of life ? The length 
 of life. What by weave it well ? Spend it well. With pains. 
 
16 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS, 
 
 means what? With trouble. His plan; his, what part of 
 speech ? Relative pronoun, referring to man ; possessive case 
 of he; the objective, him. In the second verse, rudely snaps ; 
 what part of speech is rudely ? An adverb explaining the way 
 in which the action of the verb is performed. Slain, what 
 part of the verb ? 
 
 The class will then sit down, and write in their own words, 
 the substance of what the first two verses have conveyed to their 
 minds, or perhaps of one verse ; afterwards get it by heart, 
 and, as an evening exercise, bring it written from memory on 
 paper. It is a great thing if the teacher can get them to write 
 out in their own words at all correctly, the sense conveyed to 
 their minds of a sentence in prose or verse. 
 
 In teaching a lesson, such as the following two verses from 
 Lesson Book, No. 3. 
 
 “ Thus far on lifers perplexing path, 
 
 Thus far the Lord our steps hath led, 
 
 Safe from the world’s pursuing wrath. 
 
 Unharm’d though floods hung o’er our head ; 
 
 Here then we pause, look back, adore. 
 
 Like ransom’d Israel from the shore. 
 
 “ Strangers and pilgrims here below, 
 
 As all our fathers in their day. 
 
 We to a land of promise go, 
 
 Lord, by thine own appointed way, 
 
 Still guide, illumine, cheer our flight. 
 
 In cloud by day, in fire by night.” 
 
 After explaining the first two lines, the teacher asks per- 
 haps the grammar of a part of it, but from the words not 
 coming in the prose order the children find a difficulty ; he 
 should, therefore, read them, thus — The Lord hath led our 
 steps, thus far, on the perplexing path of life ; and they will 
 at once get at the grammar of it, as well as the meaning ; 
 safe — what part of speech, and what word does it agree with? 
 The verb from the same root is what ? save : and the noun ? 
 safety. What does the fourth line mean ? does it mean that 
 waters were suspended over our heads ? And then read to 
 them the plain meaning of the lines in something like the fol- 
 lowing words : 
 
 The Lord hath led our steps, thus far, on the troublesome 
 path of life ; protecting us from the pursuing wrath of the 
 
GRAMMAR POETRY. 
 
 17 
 
 world uninjured, notwithstanding dangers have surrounded 
 us : here, then, we stop, we review the past, we thank God 
 for his protection from danger, as the Israelites did when they 
 found themselves set free from the Egyptians and on the other 
 side of the Red Sea. 
 
 We, Lord, as strangers and pilgrims in this world, go, in the 
 way in which thou hast appointed, to a land of promise, in the 
 same way as all our fathers have done in their time ; but we 
 pray thee still to continue to guide, to enlighten, and to cheer 
 our passage through this life, in the same way as Thou didst 
 the Israelites in their journeyings from Egypt to the desert — 
 in cloud by day, in fire by night. 
 
 Then referring them to the 13th chapter of Exodus— 
 
 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a 
 cloud, to lead them the way ; and by night in a pillar of fire, 
 to give them light ; to go by day and night. He took not away 
 the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, 
 from before the people.’’ 
 
 After having had the lesson explained in this way, they are 
 then told, perhaps, to sit down and write the meaning which 
 it conveys to their minds of one verse, and on a Monday 
 morning to bring the first two, or any other two verses, as an 
 exercise written in prose. 
 
 The teacher should be in the habit of calling attention to 
 the composition of particular words, and asking them to men- 
 tion any others of a similar kind which they can call to mind ; 
 for instance — 
 
 Words with a prefix or afiix, such as ungodly, unholy, in- 
 hospitable, incorrigible, irregular, occur ; they should then be 
 told to quote all the words they know with in, and 2 >, as 
 prefixes meaning not when in is changed into im, as in the 
 words improper, imperfect, &c., and why ; or such words as 
 leafiet, &c. with an affix ; ask if they know any others — 
 streamlet, ringlet, &c. A noun ending in ist, as chemist ; 
 quote any others, as botanist, druggist, mechanist, copyist, 
 &c. ; or an adjective in al, ive^ &c., such as national, local, 
 vocal, destructive — quote others ; extensive, positive, &c., and 
 the nouns made from them. 
 
 I merely mention a few cases that occur to me at the mo- 
 ment of writing, but these are quite sufficient to show what 
 is meant. 
 
 2 § 
 
18 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 After having heard the lesson, the monitor or teacher should 
 tell them to sit down and write on their slates a certain num- 
 ber (or as many as they know) of words, nouns, adjectives, 
 &c., having any particular prefix or affix, which may have 
 occurred in their lesson ; for instance — 
 
 Write down six adjectives ending in al and ive, six nouns 
 ending in ist, in let. 
 
 When a word occurs which has a common root with many 
 others, the teacher ought to ask what others we have from the 
 same root ; instance, the word extent occurs as a noun ; what 
 is the word we use as a verb ? extend ; extending, present 
 participle ; past participle, extended : as an adjective ? exten- 
 sive ; adverb ? extensively ; also extension and extensiveness 
 as nouns. 
 
 It is also useful to show them how the same word may be 
 used as an adjective, a noun, or a verb ; for instance, such a 
 line as the following occurs — 
 
 How calm is the summer sea’s wave.” 
 
 They see the word calm here used as an adjective ; let them 
 form a sentence, using it as a noun, a verb, &c. ; there was a 
 great calm — he calmed the sea — a calm day ; and they should 
 occasionally be asked to quote passages from their books, 
 where the word is used in all these different ways ; to call to 
 mind passages either in prose or in poetry containing particular 
 usages of words. This teaches them their own language, and 
 makes them recollect particular passages, both of poetry and 
 prose, which they may have read. Lines descriptive of any 
 particular country — of its physical character — character of its 
 people — love of country, &c. ; such as Scott’s — 
 
 “ 0; Caledonia ! stern and wild, 
 
 Meet nurse for a poetic child ; 
 
 Land of brown heath and shaggy wood — 
 
 Land of the mountain and the flood.” 
 
 Or — 
 
 “ Dear to my spirit, Scotland, thou hast been 
 Since infant years, in all thy glens of green ; 
 
 * * * 
 
 Land of wild beauty and of romantic shapes, 
 
 Of sheltered valleys and of stormy capes.” 
 
 T. Gray. 
 
POETRY* 
 
 19 
 
 Or the following from Cowper’s * Task 
 
 “ England, with all thy faults, I love thee still — 
 
 My country ! and while yet a nook is left. 
 
 Where English minds and manners may be found. 
 
 Shall be constrain’d to love thee. Though thy clime 
 Be fickle, and thy year most part deform’d 
 AVith dripping rains, or wither’d by a frost, 
 
 I would not yet exchange thy sullen skies 
 And fields without a flower for warmer France 
 With all her vines : nor for Ausonia’s groves 
 Of golden fruitage and her myrtle bowers.” 
 
 As most of the upper children here can repeat the poetry of 
 their Reading Books by heart, should a passage of this kind 
 happen to be called up, they would be asked to bring it next 
 morning written down from memory as an evening task. 
 
 In the later printed copies of the Dublin Reading Books, 
 I am sorry to observe they have omitted much of the poetry ; 
 as I know of nothing which has tended so much to humanize 
 the children in this school, and improve their minds, by 
 calling forth the gentler feelings of their nature, as the poetry 
 of these books. 
 
 With many of the pieces by Cowper, Scott, Mrs. Hemans, 
 and others, such as — On Cruelty to Animals — Human Frailty 
 — The Stately Homes of England— Birds of Passage — The 
 Graves of a Household, the more advanced children are so 
 thoroughly acquainted, as to be able to admire their beauties 
 and to feel the force of them ; this also has given a character 
 to their reading which nothing else could have done, and 
 shed a softening influence over their minds which will last 
 through life. 
 
 The following may be taken as a specimen how children 
 may be amused into instruction if the teacher is well up to his 
 work. Page 204, Lesson Book, No. 3. 
 
 “ O’er the heath the heifer strays 
 Free (the furrow’d task is done) ; 
 
 Now the village windows blaze. 
 
 Burnish’d by the setting sun. 
 
 “Now he hides behind a hill, 
 
 Sinking from a golden sky ; 
 
 Can the pencil’s mimic skill 
 Copy the refulgent dye ? 
 
20 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 “ Trudging as the ploughmen go 
 (To the smoking hamlet bound) ; 
 
 Giant-like their shadows grow, 
 
 Lengthen'd o'er the level ground." 
 
 In what direction do you go home from school ? West/ Did 
 you ever observe your shadow in going home? Yes, sir. 
 Behind you or before you ? Behind me, to the east of me. 
 Does it lengthen or shorten as the sun gets lower? Lengthen. 
 You who go home to the east, in what direction do you ob- 
 serve your shadows ? before you or behind you ? Before us. 
 Did you ever observe them as you came to school in the morn- 
 ing ? In what direction are you walking when you come ? — 
 Answer from one — As I go west in going home, I must be 
 coming east when I come from home to school. Is your shadow 
 then before or behind you ? Behind me, cast towards the west. 
 Does it lengthen or shorten as you are going to school? 
 Shorten, because the sun is getting higher. Does it lengthen 
 or shorten as you are going home ? Lengthen, because the sun is 
 getting lower. In what direction is the sun at noon ? South. 
 Point south. And your shadow cast to the north. If the sun 
 were directly over your head where would your shadow be ?* 
 Under my feet, a point. In what countries is that the case ? 
 Twice a year to an inhabitant between the tropics. Now can 
 you explain Giant-like their shadows grow, &c.” Yes, sir; 
 as the ploughmen are going home, every step they take the 
 sun is getting lower, and the lower the sun, the longer the 
 shadow. Trudging means what ? If it were ploughman, how 
 must the lines be altered ? 
 
 “ Trudging as the ploughwza?z goes^ 
 
 Giant-like his shadow grows,” 
 
 Now look at the last two lines of the first verse. In what 
 direction is that window at the end of the room? West.f 
 
 ^ The teacher should call attention to the adverbs of time and place, in 
 such expressions as when and where, then and there, &c. ; and point out 
 generally how adverbs qualify verbs and other parts of speech, making 
 them form short sentences to make clear what he says : — as 
 He writes well ; an adverb qualifying a verb. 
 
 He writes very well ; the adverb very qualifying another adverb. 
 
 That was extremely wrong ; an adverb qualifying an adjective, 
 t The window is in the west end of the schoolroom. 
 
aXJESTIONS. 
 
 21 
 
 Does the sun shine upon it when it sets ? Did you ever ob- 
 serve it on going home in a bright sunset, how it was lighted 
 up, and did not that explain to you what burnished meant ? 
 Yes, sir ; it looks as if on fire. 
 
 The second verse — Now he hides behind the hill,” would 
 give the teacher an opportunity of calling their attention to 
 the beauties of the setting sun on a fine summer’s evening — 
 whether behind the hill — apparently sinking into the sea — 
 setting on a level plain — varying according to the nature of 
 the country. From this what a very beautiful moral lesson 
 also might be given ! 
 
 Passages of this kind occurring, which may be so strikingly 
 illustrated by things around them, a good teacher never would 
 let slip ; they give him an opportunity of making strong and 
 lasting impressions on the mind, and add an interest to his 
 teaching which almost commands success. 
 
 The following hints of a suggestive kind may be useful when 
 a lesson happens to be on the materials of clothing, of food, &c. 
 
 The word cotton, for instance, occurs : the teacher will ask, 
 showing them a piece in the raw state. Is cotton an animal or 
 vegetable product? Vegetable. What part of the vegetable is 
 it? The lining of the seed-pod. Do you recollect any lines of 
 poetry in your books which tell you about the cotton being the 
 lining of the pod ? what are they ? 
 
 “ Fair befall the cotton tree, 
 
 Bravely may it grow ; 
 
 Bearing in its seeded pod 
 Cotton white as snow.^^ 
 
 A good teacher will often call upon them to quote the poetry 
 they have learned by heart, in illustration of a lesson they 
 may be reading. 
 
 What is meant by raw state, raw material ? The material 
 unworked up, just as it comes from the plant. From what 
 country do we chiefly get it ? America. Is it then called an 
 export or import from that country? Ex means from, and ini 
 in ; it is, therefore, an export from America, and an import into 
 England. Into what port does it chiefly come ? Liverpool. 
 Would you call Liverpool a manufacturing town ? No, sir ; a 
 commercial seaport, into which the cotton is only brought, 
 and then sent off to the manufacturing towns. Which are our 
 
22 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 principal manufacturing towns for cotton ? point them out on 
 the map. Do you think William the Conqueror used to wear 
 shirts made of cotton from America? — leading them to recol- 
 lect that America was not known at that time : then to show 
 them a piece of calico, to point out the dilGferent processes it 
 undergoes, from the raw state up to the state they see it in, 
 how the cross threads (the woof) pass alternately over and 
 under the others running the long way, and called the warp — 
 calico, plain and printed, bleached and unbleached — the 
 various articles it is made up into — how water and steam assist 
 in moving the machinery used in manufacturing it — how in 
 the transport of the material — consequent cheapness — the 
 numbers to which it gives employment, &c. 
 
 Flax — showing them the plant, of course they see it is vege- 
 table, but in this case it is the stalk, the fibre which runs the 
 long way, that we use — ^laying a few fibres together length- 
 wise and twisting them into a thread, showing the increased 
 strength — grown at home, and in Ireland the best — when 
 ready, pulled up by the roots — steeped — the quantity grown at 
 home not sufficient for our consumption. From what countries 
 do we get it ? the soil and climate of New Zealand favorable 
 to it — its uses when manufactured, for shirting, table-cloths, 
 smock-frocks, &c. 
 
 Hemp — take a piece of rope, untwist the threads, which will 
 show the material; what countries do we get it from? — Its 
 uses, cordage for ships, cart-ropes, &c. 
 
 Silk, animal or vegetable — on what particular leaf the worm 
 feeds, and the countries we get it from, and the kind of 
 manufactures. 
 
 Wool, leather — their shoes,* &c. ; animal products — to ex- 
 plain how leather is tanned, the processes which the raw hide 
 undergoes before it comes into the shoemaker’s hands, and the 
 various uses to which both wool and leather are applied ; when 
 the woollen manufacture was first introduced into this country, 
 and where it is now chiefly carried on. 
 
 Tea, sugar, coffee — the countries they come from, what par- 
 ticular parts of the plant, and how prepared for the market ; 
 
 * To show them the difference between a natural and a manufactured 
 product, for instance, that shoes do not grow in gardens, like cabbages, but 
 that the materials of which they are made are sewn together by hand, &c. 
 
QUESTIONS. 
 
 23 
 
 from what other plant sugar has been extracted, so as to be 
 made an article of commerce ; — maple-sugar from Canada — 
 from beet-root in France and Germany. That, at the present 
 moment, thousands of people are employed in China, India, 
 America, and every part of the world, in preparing things for 
 our consumption in England, and to point out to them such 
 as come into their cottages — what we send out in return, and 
 how the commerce is carried on. 
 
 In the same way the things they are in the habit of using 
 which are home-made, cutlery, knives, scissors, &c. ; pottery, 
 soap, &c. That, in cutlery, we excel all other nations, and 
 that wherever they go they will find English knives, axes — 
 point out the difference between iron and steel, showing them 
 the steel of the knife-blade welded on the iron to make the 
 cutting edge, and asking them the names of other instruments 
 of this kind which they know — the advantages of a people who 
 know the use of iron, and are able to turn it into steel — how 
 they would manage to cut down a tree, or cut their meat with- 
 out iron and steel — that if it had not been for these they would 
 have been little better than savages, picking the meat off the 
 bones with their nails ; or, in a district like this, where flints 
 abound, using little pieces with sharp edges to scrape it off ; — 
 how they would have managed to cut down a tree — the savage 
 making his canoe, ^ &c. 
 
 * The writer of an account of the New Zealanders in the ^ Library of 
 Entertaining Knowledge/ observes, The especial distinction of the 
 savage, and that which, more than any other thing, keeps him savage, is 
 his ignorance of letters. This places the community almost in the same 
 situation with a herd of the lower animals, in so far as the accumulation 
 of knowledge, or, in other words, any kind of movement forward is con- 
 cerned ; for it is only by means of the art of writing, that the knowledge 
 acquired by the experience of one generation can be properly stored up, 
 so that none of it shall be lost, for the use of all that are to follow. 
 Among savages, for want of this admirable method of preservation, there 
 is reason to believe the fund of knowledge possessed by the community, 
 instead of growing, generally diminishes with time. If we except the ab- 
 solutely necessary arts of life, which are in daily use and cannot be for- 
 gotten, the existing generation seldom seems to possess anything derived 
 from the past. Hence the oldest man of the tribe is always looked up to 
 as the wisest, simply because he has lived the longest ; it being felt that 
 an individual has scarcely a chance of knowing anything more than his 
 own experience has taught him. Accordingly the New Zealanders, for 
 example, seem to have been in quite as advanced a state when Tasman 
 discovered the country in 1642, as they were when Cook visited it, 127 
 years after.’^ 
 
24 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Then again, soap — made of animal fat, vegetable oils — its 
 importance to our personal comfort and cleanliness — in wash- 
 ing our linen, clothes, houses — its civilizing effect. The teacher 
 taking occasion to remind the children always to be neat and 
 clean in their persons and dress, and how much this adds to 
 their respectability — that no one looks upon a child of dirty 
 habits with the same respect as on one that is clean (showing 
 them something like neglect when they are dirty has a good 
 effect). To enforce cleanliness of person and dress in the 
 children of a school is a thing of some difficulty, and requires 
 attention. Opportunities of reminding them of the importance 
 of truthfulness — of cleanliness — ought never to be lost. 
 
 It must be recollected, that although children of the better- 
 educated classes may be in the habit of hearing all this from 
 their parents in conversation, yet those who attend our ele- 
 mentary schools have no such advantage. 
 
 The following extract from the Introduction to Arnott’s 
 ‘ Physics,’ published in 1828, ought to have a place in one of 
 our Lesson Books. I give it here, as I think it may suggest 
 many useful hints to the village schoolmaster. 
 
 ‘‘ In our cities now, and even in an ordinary dwelling-house, 
 a man is surrounded by prodigies of mechanic art ; and with 
 his proud reason, is he to use these as careless of how they 
 are produced, as a horse is careless of how the corn falls into 
 his manger ? A general diffusion of knowledge is changing 
 the condition of man, and elevating the human character in 
 all ranks of society. Our remote forefathers were generally 
 divided into small states or societies, having few relations of 
 amity with surrounding tribes, and their thoughts and interests 
 were confined very much within their own little territories and 
 rude habits. In succeeding ages their descendants found 
 themselves belonging to larger communities, as when the 
 English Heptarchy was united, but still remote kingdoms and 
 quarters of the world were of no interest to them, and were 
 often totally unknown. Now, however, every one sees himself 
 a member of one vast civilized society, which covers the face 
 of the earth; and no part of the earth is indifferent to him. 
 In England, a man of small fortune may cast his looks around 
 him, and say with truth and exultation, ^ I am lodged in a 
 house that affords me conveniences and comforts which even 
 a king could not command some centuries ago. Ships are 
 
SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 25 
 
 crossing the seas in every direction to bring what is useful to 
 me from all parts of the w^orld. In China, men are gathering 
 the tea-leaf for me— in America, they are planting cotton for 
 me — in the West India islands, they are preparing my sugar 
 and my coffee — in Italy, they are feeding silkworms for me — 
 in Saxony, they are shearing the sheep to make me clothing — 
 at home, powerful steam-engines are spinning and weaving for 
 me, and making cutlery for me, and pumping the mines, that 
 minerals useful to me may be procured. I have post-coaches 
 [now steam-carriages] running day and night on all the roads, 
 to carry my correspondence. I have roads, and canals, and 
 bridges, to bear my coals for my winter fire ; nay, I have pro- 
 tecting fleets and armies around my happy country, to secure 
 my enjoyments and repose. Then I have editors and printers, 
 who daily send me an account of what is going on throughout 
 the world among all those people who serve me. And in a 
 corner of my house I have Books ! — the miracle of all my 
 possessions, more wonderful than the wishing-cap of the 
 Arabian Tales, for they transport me instantly, not only to all 
 places, but to all times. By my books I can conjure up before 
 me, to vivid existence, all the great and good men of antiquity, 
 and for my individual satisfaction I can make them act over 
 again the most renowned of their exploits. The orators de- 
 claim for me — the historians recite — the poets sing ; and from 
 the equator to the pole, or from the beginning of time until 
 now, by my books, I can be where I please.’ ” 
 
 As the Exercises which the children have to write on their 
 slates at school, and on paper in an evening at home, are, in 
 my opinion, very instrumental in its success, I have added a 
 few questions, in the hope that they may be useful as hints to 
 the teachers of village schools, who have not yet attempted 
 anything of the kind ; although the getting anything like 
 tolerable answers may be attended with great trouble at first, 
 and success appear to be a hopeless task, yet, in the end, it 
 will amply repay the teacher for any pains he has to bestow 
 upon it. In this school, in hearing a lesson read, the teachers 
 are in the habit of leading the children to give the substance of 
 it in their own words, as they would relate it to their mothers 
 at home, and in this way they are led to simple descriptions of 
 animals, and to explain in words what is passing in their own 
 heads. In a short time some of them get very expert, and 
 
26 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 will ask for pet animals of tlieir own to write about, such as 
 they think they can describe best. 
 
 The questions are of the following kind : — 
 
 Write down the names of all the implements used in farming 
 — in gardening, &c. 
 
 The names of all the birds you know, which of them come 
 in spring, and go away at the end of summer. 
 
 Tell all you know about the swallow, how she builds her 
 nest, feeds on the wing, &c. ; about the cuckoo, &c. 
 
 Describe a sheep, and how it helps to clothe or feed you. 
 
 A cow the same, and its habits. 
 
 A horse, and the uses to which we turn it in the parish . 
 
 A dog — domestic fowl. 
 
 Write down the names of all the trees and shrubs you know, 
 and mention which are evergreens. 
 
 What is the work which the farm labourer does in the 
 different seasons of the year ? 
 
 Describe one of the four seasons, &c. 
 
 Describe a waggon and its uses — a plough — harrow — an 
 axe — a saw, &c. 
 
 Give a description of any of the vegetable products of the 
 parish, and their uses. 
 
 What are the uses of soap, and in what way does it increase 
 our comforts, civilize us, &c. ? What is it made of? 
 
 Give the best account you can of all the purposes to which 
 iron is applied in your cottages, in agriculture— in glass, lead, 
 tin, &c. 
 
 In what ways is the power of making iron into steel useful 
 to us ? — point out all its uses in your cottages — in any other 
 practical things you can. 
 
 Glass, what are its peculiar properties, and in what way 
 useful to man ? 
 
 What are the advantages which a people, knowing the uses 
 of iron and steel, have over one who do not— point out any of 
 them which occur to you. 
 
 Mention the materials of your own clothing, from what 
 countries the raw materials come, and whether animal or 
 vegetable. 
 
 What are the plants in the parish that furnish food to man ? 
 — food for animals. 
 
 How were books made before printing was invented, and 
 what is the material of which paper is made ? 
 
GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 27 
 
 John of Gaunt used to live where this school stands. Do 
 you think he had tea and coifee with sugar for breakfast? — 
 give your reasons for thinking he had or had not. 
 
 Where do we get coals from?— describe how they are brought 
 from the coalpit to us. 
 
 Explain what are the processes of ploughing, harrowing, 
 and what the ground undergoes in preparing for a crop of 
 wheat — of turnips — of barley, &c. 
 
 The different ways in which milk of the cow is presented to 
 us for food. 
 
 The oak and the elm, their properties as timber, and how 
 each is more particularly used ; bring a small twig of each 
 to-morrow in full leaf, and let us point out how they differ in 
 leaf, bark, hardness of wood, &c. 
 
 Describe wheat from its being sown until it is bread — how 
 the grain sprouts, making one shoot downwards, which is the 
 root, another upwards, which is white until it reaches the sur- 
 face of the ground, and is then the green blade— then the 
 straw — then the ear — when ripe, the harvest — then stacking 
 in the farm-yard — then thrashing. What is said in Scripture 
 of the mode of thrashing corn ? — pointing out how done, how 
 in many southern climates — then winnowing, and going to 
 the mill where it is ground (what in Scripture about grinding), 
 and is then called flour — and so bread. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY.* 
 
 Having made them acquainted with the different bearings 
 of particular objects of a local kind — of the towns and vil- 
 lages in the neighbourhood — how the parish is bounded, &c., 
 and having well fixed on their minds the cardinal points — 
 children very soon form tolerably correct ideas as to the 
 nature of a map ; and it is always better at first, if conve- 
 nient, to have a map on the north wall of a school, as the 
 four sides then correspond with the cardinal points where the 
 observer is standing. This helps towards forming correct 
 ideas ; and as they generally become familiar with the map 
 of England before any other, it is well to draw their attention 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
28 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 at first to tliose counties on the extreme east or west — ex- 
 treme north or south — showing them how they lie between 
 particular meridians, or between particular parallels of lati- 
 tude — to show them between what extremes of latitude and 
 longitude the whole county is, of which the map is a repre- 
 sentation ; in this w^ay they get a knowledge of the use of 
 these fixed lines : until they do which a map is not properly 
 understood ; and it becomes therefore of consequence to show 
 them their use, and the particular points from which we 
 reckon — to show them that, having the latitude north or 
 south, and the longitude east or west, the intersection of the 
 two lines necessarily fixes the place wanted. They should 
 then, for instance, pay attention to all the counties on the 
 coast, noting the river-mouths, &c. ; and thus by degrees fill 
 up the whole, so as to have a correct representation of it in 
 their minds, and know at once the bearing and position of 
 every county on the map. 
 
 Every school should be provided with a compass, the 
 teacher pointing out that the needle does not rest due north 
 and south ; but drawing a line parallel to it when at rest, and 
 knowing the number of degrees which the north point of the 
 needle is from the true north, he wdll very easily manage to 
 teach them to draw a line nearly due north and south. By 
 placing it on the floor, and having explained its directive 
 power — that in this latitude the north point is now about 
 22° 30' to the west of north — then describing a circle and 
 drawing a diameter parallel to the needle, it will be easy to 
 set off an arc of about 22° towards the east of the north end 
 and towards the west of the end nearest the south, and a 
 diameter drawn through these points will be the true meridian. 
 
 The teacher of course will by degrees call their attention 
 to the difierence of counties in physical character — in mineral 
 wealth — whether agricultural or manufacturing — why the seats 
 of our manufacturing industry should be in those counties 
 where coal and iron are found — how the agriculture or com- 
 merce of a county is likely to be affected by geological cha- 
 racter — how this bears upon the character of its inhabitants. 
 
 A globe, however small, is extremely useful, and from 
 which among other things, not to be learned from maps, 
 children may be made to understand how the sun comes upon 
 the meridian of different places at different times, or perhaps 
 
GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 29 
 
 1 speaking more correctly, how the meridians of different 
 ! places come in succession under the sun — that the time of a 
 ' place to the east of them is before, and to the west after the 
 time of the place where they are — that all the meridians pass 
 in succession under the sun in twenty-four hours ; and this 
 being understood, it may at once be explained to them how a 
 degree in longitude corresponds to four minutes in time, &c. — 
 the arithmetic of it they must of course be made to work out. 
 
 In the school here there are several little mechanical con- 
 trivances for giving them a correct idea of the two motions of 
 the earth, on its axis and in its orbit, and its different po- 
 sitions at the different seasons of the year ; also to illustrate 
 what is meant by the hemisphere on which the rays of light 
 fall, and that only one half of a sphere can be illuminated at 
 the same time — this is shown by pieces of thread, supposed to 
 represent rays of light, fastened to a globe of wood (the sun), 
 and then being stretched over a smaller globe (the earth), it is 
 made visible to the eye what part of the earth will be in the 
 light, and what in the dark, and that if made to fall upon a 
 plane surface, the sun would shine throughout its whole extent 
 at the same time. 
 
 It is not sufficient merely to tell the children to look at a 
 map and point out any particular place upon it ; this does not 
 make geography an exercise of the mind, which everything 
 they learn ought to be. They ought to be made to under- 
 stand that a map is constructed on a particular plan and scale ; 
 that if one country is larger than another it will occupy a 
 larger space in proportion upon the map — to give them ocular 
 proof of this by showing them the different sizes of the coun- 
 ties on a map of England — that if two places one hundred 
 miles apart are one inch from each other on the map, two 
 places four hundred miles apart would be four inches, and so 
 on — to show them how to find the distance between places, if 
 on the same meridian, by taking the sum or difference of lati- 
 tude, and turning the degrees into miles ; if on the same 
 parallel of latitude, by finding the difference of longitude, and 
 multiplying the length of a degree of longitude in that latitude 
 by it — or by applying a thread to the map, and measuring the 
 distance between the two places — to apply this to the degrees 
 of latitude, and point out why we cannot apply it to degrees 
 of longitude. 
 
 3 § 
 
30 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 If a school is provided with a variety of maps, then atten- 
 tion should be drawn to the different scales on which they are 
 made, and why a map, perhaps of Europe or of England, is 
 much larger than one of the world ; asking them such ques- 
 tions as, why is not the equator found on the map of Europe ? 
 Why does not a map of England extend from the equator to 
 the pole ? Simple questions of this kind puzzle them very 
 much, while at the same time they instruct them, and I have 
 known children, after having been learning geography for 
 some time, look at a map of Syria, for instance, or the Holy 
 Land, for some minutes for the equator or the pole, and won- 
 der why they could not find it. In looking at a map on 
 the wall of the school, of any country not reaching to the 
 equator or poles, they are generally made to apply a carpen- 
 ter’s rule to the side of the map, and make out the scale upon 
 which it is made ; and then mark, below or above, as the case 
 may be, on the wall where the equator would be, and in like 
 manner to show the pole to which all the meridians ought to 
 converge. 
 
 The being able to make out the difference of time from the 
 difference of longitude, gives rise to a set of questions instruc- 
 tive in arithmetic, as well as in geography. The schoolmaster 
 looking at the clock, observes, perhaps, it is eleven ; what is 
 it in London (Greenwich) — what at Yarmouth in Norfolk? 
 What is the difference in time between Yarmouth and the 
 Land’s End — what the difference in time between the extreme 
 east and west of any country they may be looking at the map 
 of. They will then be directed to look at the map, and work 
 out the results themselves. 
 
 Short lessons of a conversational kind should occasionally 
 be given to them, pointing out the mountain chains — their 
 relative heights in the different parts of the world, and the 
 directions in which they run — the course and length of the 
 principal rivers,* comparing them with our own — their direc- 
 tions, and the seas into which they empty themselves — the 
 commercial advantages which one country has over another, 
 either from its position, its rivers being navigable far inland, 
 
 * Also such things as the quantity of water discharged by them com- 
 pared for instance with the Thames, taking this as unity, that by the 
 Danube is 65, the Volga 80, the Nile 250, the Amazon 1300, &c. ; then 
 the kind of reasoning which such facts suggest to the mind. 
 
GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 31 
 
 projecting arms from the sea running far into it — showing 
 them the advantages of England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, 
 &c., in this respect — tidal rivers, such as the Thames and the 
 Scheldt ; and hence such towns as London and Antwerp, 
 pointing out the coal and iron districts in England, and how 
 they have in consequence become the manufacturing districts 
 — that settlers in new countries invariably fix themselves on 
 the banks of large rivers, or in parts of the country where 
 branches of the sea run up far inland, instancing America, 
 &c. — the reasons why they do this. 
 
 Such lessons as these a teacher ought to be able to give, as 
 they not only interest and exercise their minds, but are highly 
 useful to them. 
 
 But in order that they may get an accurate knowledge of 
 geography, it must not only be taught as a formal lesson, but 
 as occasion may call it forth in the reading lessons. For 
 instance, the inhabitants of America or Asia are mentioned — 
 that will lead the teacher to ask, what country do you inhabit ? 
 Some will answer Europe ; yes, but what part of it ? England, 
 an island in the west. But what part of England ? The south. 
 Yes, but merely saying the south of England does not point 
 out with sufiicient accuracy where you live. Oh, in Hamp- 
 shire. Well, but the English counties are subdivided (what 
 is meant by subdivided ? division of a division) into parishes ; 
 what parish are you in ? and in this way working them down 
 to the very spot. 
 
 Again, in their reading perhaps something occurs about 
 France and Spain. The teacher : How are the two countries 
 situated with respect to each other 1 in what part of Europe ? 
 — separated by what chain of mountains ? Are the Pyrenees 
 the highest mountains in Europe? What is their height 
 compared with the highest mountains in England ? Between 
 v/hat two seas do they run, and in what direction ? How do 
 you get out of the Atlantic into the Mediterranean ? Passing 
 through the Straits of Gibraltar, what country is on your 
 right hand? what on your left? Ho you pass Cadiz before 
 you get at the strait or after? Then give them some account 
 of the rock. Supposing a ship was sailing from Gibraltar to 
 Constantinople, through what remarkable straits would it pass? 
 What country is on the east and what on the west of the 
 Dardanelles? On what sea is Constantinople? — built by 
 
32 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 whom ? Are all the states of Europe Christian ? — any other 
 exception besides Turkey ? What do we get from Smyrna, 
 Constantinople, &c. ? and to show* how the commerce of the 
 world is facilitated by the Mediterranean running between the 
 continents of Europe and Africa, and up to Asia. 
 
 Or if anything about Petersburgh or Stockholm occurs, 
 make them point out the course of a ship from London to 
 either of these places — what it would be likely to take out 
 and bring back ? By whom was St. Petersburgh founded ? 
 How long since Peter the Great lived? What is the ancient 
 capital of Russia ? — then to tell them about Moscow being 
 burnt in 1812 — to point out the course of the Volga, Vistula, 
 the Don, and into what seas they empty themselves. How is 
 Europe separated from Asia ? observe the course of the rivers 
 in the north of Asia, and their emptying themselves into the 
 North Seas, consequently the mouths of them frozen up during 
 great part of the year. 
 
 The following may be taken as an example of questioning 
 the children when teaching a lesson such as that on America, 
 Book of Lessons, No. 3. 
 
 America, or the New World, is separated into two subdi- 
 visions by the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean sea. Soon 
 after it was discovered, this vast continent was seized upon by 
 several of the nations of Europe, and each nation appears to 
 have obtained that portion of it which was most adapted to 
 its previous habits. The United States, the greater part of 
 which was peopled by English settlers, while they possess the 
 finest inland communication in the world, are admirably 
 placed for intercourse with the West India islands, and with 
 Europe, &c 
 
 In what direction from Europe is America ? By w^hom dis- 
 covered, and about what time ? In the service of what nation 
 was Columbus, and what were the names of its sovereigns? — 
 the teacher telling them his difficulties, and interesting them 
 with the story. — Who was king of England at the time? 
 (explain the word contemporary.) Was the passage round the 
 Cape of Good Hope to India known then ? No, sir ; discovered 
 a few years later. In the service of what nation was Vasco 
 de Gama? — and then point out to them how this discovery 
 affected the line of commerce with the East — its course through 
 the Mediterranean previously — the attempts made at discovery 
 
GEOGRAPHY. 33 
 
 by England about the same time — Newfoundland — Nicholas 
 Cabot — the variation in the polarity of the needle.* 
 
 The lesson says “ Soon after it was discovered, each nation 
 appears to have obtained that portion of it which was most 
 adapted to its previous habits.’^ What does this mean ? — look 
 at the map. — What is there that would lead you to fix upon the 
 parts taken possession of by the English ? — anything in the 
 names of places — the names of rivers — of divisions of the 
 country — pointing out Jamestown, New England, and New 
 Hampshire. Where would the early settlers be likely to fix 
 themselves ? Why upon rivers ? Why particularly navigable 
 rivers ? What would guide you in your choice if you were 
 going to an unsettled country? — the teacher to point out 
 such things as attract an agricultural people. What is the 
 most remarkable mountain chain in the two Americas — its 
 direction, and how it runs into the Rocky Mountains— the 
 rivers on one side flowing into the Pacific, and on the other^ 
 into the Atlantic — those into the Pacific a short course, and 
 probably rapid, and not navigable — those into the Atlantic, 
 as the Amazon, of great length, lazy, sleepy, running through 
 a fiat country, and therefore likely to divide into many branches 
 — slow, navigable — the character and employments of a people 
 how affected by this ? Do you recollect any passage in your 
 book about a river being lazy? Yes, sir : 
 
 Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow. 
 
 Or by the lazy Scheldt or wandering Po.’^ 
 
 Reading at other times on this subject, the teacher would 
 draw their attention to the Gulf of Mexico — the rivers that 
 run into it — the course of the equatorial current, splitting 
 
 * The teacher, placing the compass before them, should show what is 
 meant by the directive power of the needle — what by its variation, dip, 
 &c. “ The variation was unknown until the time of Columbus, who ob- 
 
 served on his first voyage that the needle declined from the meridian as 
 he advanced across the Atlantic. The dip of the magnetic needle was first 
 observed by Norman in 1576. The line of no variation passed through 
 London in 1658, since that it has moved slowly to the westward, and is 
 now near New York in America. The needle is also subject to a diurnal 
 variation, which in our latitude moves slowly westward in the forenoon, 
 and returns to its mean position about ten in the evening ; it then deviates 
 to the eastward, and again returns to its mean position about ten in the 
 morning.’^ 
 
34 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 into two on the coast of the Brazils; one branch going to 
 the south, the other into the Gulf of Mexico, and called the 
 gulf stream — most rapid between the coast of Florida and the 
 Bahamas, striking against the coast of Newfoundland, and 
 meeting the polar current, is again sent back across the 
 Atlantic to the Azores, and so into itself again ; — in the time 
 of Columbus, remains of trees, also two dead bodies, were 
 found at the Azores, washed over by this stream — how and 
 why this encouraged him in his views. 
 
 The connexion of North America with this country, when 
 declared independent, &c., and, in like manner, how the other 
 divisions of this large continent were, at an earlier period, 
 connected with other European nations — Canada with France 
 — the Brazils, &c., with Portugal — Mexico, &c., with Spain. 
 
 It is not meant that all this is to be taught to children at 
 one lesson, but in the course of their reading the lessons on 
 the subject of America, introduced into their school-books ; 
 this is the sort of information given by the teachers in the 
 school here. 
 
 After a first lesson they would be made to sit down and 
 write on their slates the meaning conveyed to their minds by 
 such a sentence as the one quoted above, which occurs at the 
 beginning of their lessons : Soon after it was discovered 
 
 each nation,” &c. at another, to sit down before the map 
 and make an outline of the coast bordering on the Gulf of 
 Mexico, noting the river mouths, towns, &c., or to put down 
 on their slates the longitude of the extreme east and west 
 points of South America, and then to work out the difference 
 in time. 
 
 The first class of boys are reading Sullivan’s ^Geography 
 Generalized,’ one of the most useful books on this subject for 
 the purposes of teaching I have ever seen. 
 
 By most of them questions of the following kind would be 
 answered with a good deal of intelligence : What is the differ- 
 ence between a great and small circle on the same sphere ? 
 What sort of circle is the parallel of latitude on which we live ? 
 What parallels of latitude are great circles ? Is the sun ever 
 vertical to the inhabitants of Europe? In what direction is 
 he seen, when on the meridian, by an observer north of the 
 northern tropic? Always south. To an observer between the 
 trojiics ? Explain why he would appear north or south of him 
 
GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 35 
 
 at noon, according to the time of the year ? To an observer 
 in a higher southern latitude than 23^°, where would he 
 appear at noon ? Always north. 
 
 Two men walking out of the school, the one direct east, 
 the other west, and always keeping equally distant from the 
 equator and pole, on what line would they walk supposing 
 the earth a sphere? Is it a straight line? How would their 
 reckoning of time vary ? Supposing each to walk a degree a 
 day, how would their respective noons differ from the noon of 
 the place where they started from and from each other? — at 
 the end of one, two, three, &c., days — at the end of 360 days ? 
 When would they meet a first, second, third, &c., time ? When 
 they come to the place from which they set out, how many 
 times will the one walking east have seen the sun rise ? How 
 many the one walking west ? What is the circumference of 
 the circle on which they walk, supposing them to start from a 
 place in latitude 51°? 
 
 Two men starting from the same point on the same meri- 
 dian, latitude 51°; point out their course, supposing one to go 
 due north, the other due south, and always to walk on the 
 same meridian. Will they have described a greater space when 
 they meet than the two walking on the same parallel of lati- 
 tude ? How much longer ? How will their reckoning of time 
 differ? How long will it continue to be noon to both at the 
 same time ? 
 
 The sun is said never to set on the Queen’s dominions — 
 how is this ? would he set on a belt of land running from pole 
 to pole ? — on a belt one degree wide on each side of the equator, 
 and running round the earth ? — |^ths of the equator is in seas 
 — Jth in land — show this on the map, reckoning the exact 
 number of degrees through which sea and land run. 
 
 Point out the advantage of knowing the figure of the earth, 
 in answering the above. 
 
 Supposing a ship to sail from the Red Sea along the east 
 coast of Africa, round the Cape of Good Hope, and so to 
 Europe, would they always see the sun south of them at noon ? 
 Answer : No, sir. Point out, then, where they would begin to 
 see him north according to the time of year — how this direc- 
 tion would vary in different latitudes up to the Cape of Good 
 Hope. That to a people ignorant of the figure of the earth, 
 and of its motions, and never having been beyond the Tropic 
 
36 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 of Capricorn, seeing the sim to the north of them at noon 
 would appear as something supernatural. 
 
 Now, we find in a book written before the time of our 
 Saviour, that, in the time of Pharoah Necho, king of Egypt, 
 some Egyptians had made their way in a boat, setting out 
 from the Red Sea, along the east coast of Africa, turned round 
 what is now called the Cape of Good Hope, in passing which 
 they would have, with their faces to the west, the sun on their 
 right hand and towards the north of them, their left hand to 
 the south, and of course their backs to the east. They then 
 coasted along the west coast of Africa, found their way into 
 the Straits of Gibraltar, which perhaps were known to them, 
 and so sailed up the Mediterranean until they came to Egypt 
 again, having thus coasted along the entire sea-coast of the 
 continent of Africa. They took three years to do this in, and 
 when they came back told people that they had seen wool 
 growing on trees, and the sun at noon^ when their faces were 
 to the west, on their right hand. At that time these were 
 reasons for not believing the account ; but with us who know 
 more of the figure of the earth than people did then, and 
 something about cotton, they confirm the truth of the story. 
 
 On the subject of Physical Geography,* which is one of great 
 interest many things suggest themselves — such as the varying 
 altitude of the snow-line in different latitudes — why it should 
 be higher near the tropics than at the equator — and why the 
 line of the same temperature should recede further from the 
 equator in the old continent than in the new — the limits of 
 the different vegetable productions, and why on high moun- 
 tains, even within the tropics, those of all climates, from the 
 equator to the pole, may be found, &c., showing the effect 
 which elevation above the level of the sea has upon climate — 
 illustrating the explanation by instances of the vegetation of 
 mountainous districts in low latitudes, and of low levels in 
 high latitudes, and how it is that the temperature of the air 
 decreases as the height above the earth’s surface increases — 
 state facts in proof of this. If the lands in the equatorial 
 seas were increased, an increased temperature of climate 
 would arise — if those of the polar regions, the temperature of 
 the climate would be diminished. 
 
 * See Appendix (B). 
 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
 
 37 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY. 
 
 The subject of Natural History, both of plants and animals, 
 so far as they differ from each other in external form, in habits, 
 &c., maybe turned to very good account, and made the means 
 of a great deal of useful instruction in our elementary schools. 
 
 ‘^All this, it has been observed, children are capable of 
 understanding — it consists in attending to the objects with 
 which Nature presents us, in considering them with care, and 
 admiring their different beauties, but without searching out 
 their causes, which belongs to a higher department of know- 
 ledge : for children have eyes and do not want curiosity : they 
 ask questions and love to be informed, and here we need only 
 awaken and keep up in them the desire of learning and know- 
 ing what is natural to all mankind.’’ 
 
 The children here are in the habit, as the spring and summer 
 advance, of bringing to the school plants and flowers when 
 they first come out— small twigs of the different trees of the 
 parish, as the foliage begins to expand — aquatic and other 
 plants ; all these, so far as a knowledge of them can be had 
 from the organs of vision, with a little of the mind and of 
 common sense to help it, are made vehicles of instruction. 
 
 For instance, the names of the different parts of a flower, 
 from its root upwards, and the functions which each part 
 performs — the nature of the root, whether bulbous, fibrous, 
 or tap-rooted — the uniformity in number of the petals, stamen, 
 pistil, &c.,— running through the same class of plants ; — dif- 
 ference in the shape of leaves — some are notched and some 
 are plain — some rough, others smooth, some oval, some round, 
 some bright green, others dark-— the under side of the leaf 
 differing in colour from the upper, &c. : the different kinds of 
 soils on which they find the wild plants — showing that the soil 
 on which any particular plant is generally found is, most likely, 
 one best suited to its habits— that some plants, and pointing 
 out which (this they ought to know from their own observa- 
 tion), are only found in shady places, while others will not 
 grow at all in the shade ; that, when a flower or a leaf withers, 
 this is from the juices making their escape into the atmosphere, 
 and the plant being separated from its roots, cannot get a fresh 
 supply ; how aquatic plants differing in structure from those 
 on dry land, in their air-cells, are calculated to make them 
 float. 4 
 
38 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Then again, the small twigs of the different trees or shrubs 
 they may bring, the oak, and the elm, and the beech —place a 
 little twig of each side by side — how many differences in 
 external appearance — in the leaf, the bark, the texture of the 
 wood— the bark of the oak used for tanning, and the difference 
 in time in the leaf coming out, and in its fall — the value of 
 each as timber. 
 
 The acacia and the laurel — beauty of the leaves, how uni- 
 formly the leaflets of the acacia are set on, one opposite 
 another — how regularly in some plants the leaves are placed 
 directly opposite to one another, others, again, alternating on 
 opposite sides of the stem ; point out the framework of the 
 leaves, how the skeletons of them differ — to observe this in 
 decayed leaves. 
 
 Another morning they bring different twigs of the pine 
 tribe — the larch, the Scotch fir, spruce, or silver fir— pointing 
 out their thread-like leaves — that the larch is deciduous, the 
 others not, &c. In this way they become acquainted with all 
 the trees in the parish. That when a tree is cut down, the 
 number of concentric rings on the face of a section of the 
 stem marks the number of years’ growth ; that, when they 
 observe one ring smaller than another, it would denote a small 
 growth for that year, and might have been caused, by some 
 peculiarity in the season, &c., such as a hard winter. 
 
 The great age of some trees, particularly yew. 
 
 These kind of observations should be made with the plants 
 before their eyes, otherwise they have but little effect : the 
 teacher would then tell them to sit down and describe a leaf, 
 a twig, &c., of any of them ; or some take one, some another, 
 which is better, as this does away with the temptation to get 
 hints from each other. 
 
 Again, calling their attention to some of the more striking 
 differences in animals in their outward appearance and habits 
 — the migrating of birds, and when they return, getting them 
 to observe it ; difference in the teeth and in the articulation of 
 the jaw in animals of prey and of those which ruminate, the 
 jaw of the latter being capable of a rotatory motion, which 
 enables them to grind, the other not, and having long tearing 
 teeth ; the air-cells in the bones of birds so beautfully adapted 
 to the purposes of flight — the feathering of water-birds — the 
 down on their breasts — the peculiarity of their feet, and how 
 differing from the feet of those that roost, &c. 
 
ENGLISH HISTORY. 
 
 39 
 
 But more particularly will a teacher interest his school in 
 this department hy making observations of this kind and com- 
 parisons, &c., among the ftrds they are in the habit of seeing, 
 such as the cuckoo, swallow, tom-tit, skylark, woodpecker, 
 jay, or ducks and geese. 
 
 In this way they become observers of the external world 
 with which they are in contact ; it adds both to their happi- 
 ness and to their usefulness, inasmuch as all these things have 
 a practical bearing on social life.* 
 
 In teaching English History, the Outlines by the Society 
 for promoting Christian Knowledge have been used here, 
 being the only book on this subject which, on account of 
 price, is attainable by the generality of children in a school 
 like this ; when reading, instruction of the following kind, in 
 a conversational way, is given to them — on the different 
 people who have invaded us at different periods of our history 
 — Roman, Saxon, Dane, Norman — the Roman and other 
 remains in this neighbourhood— the Roman road between 
 Winton and Sarum, running through part of the parish, and 
 anything of this kind of a local nature — how a people invad- 
 ing another, and remaining among them, is likely to affect 
 their language, manners, &c. — traces of this is shown in our 
 language ; — the manners and customs of particular periods — 
 how people were housed, and clothed, and fed — the little 
 intercourse there could be between people living even in 
 different counties, for want of internal communication afforded 
 by roads, &c. — there might even be famine in one county and 
 abundance in the adjoining one ; — how such evils are reme- 
 died by roads, canals, &c. ; — the different inventions in 
 science, &c., and dwelling upon the more remarkable ones, 
 bringing with them great social improvements — paper, print- 
 ing — the Reformation, impulse given to it by this ; — nations 
 contending for the honour of the invention — how this enables 
 one generation to start from the point where another leaves 
 
 * These are thy glorious works, Parent of good — 
 
 Almighty ! Thine this universal frame, 
 
 Thus wondrous fair: Thyself how wondrous then, 
 
 Unspeakable ! who sit’st above the heavens — 
 
 To us invisible, or dimly seen 
 
 In these thy lowest works ; yet these declare 
 
 Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.’^ 
 
 Milton. 
 
40 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. ' 
 
 off — how rapid the progress of colonies from the mother 
 country in consequence ; the improvements attending the 
 introduction of turnpike-roads — post-office; — application of 
 wind, water, steam, &c., as the moving power in machinery. 
 How the introduction of the manufacture of cotton among a 
 people, to anything like the extent of it in this country, must 
 alter the mode of dress — the domestic employments of fami- 
 lies, doing away with spinning, carding, knitting, &c., as 
 home occupations; comparing the employments of a family 
 in agricultural life at the present day with what they were at 
 different periods. Again, the time which it took at no very 
 distant period to travel between London and the provinces,"^ 
 and how done; — the great men that have risen up at intervals 
 in science, literature, &c., and in other ways ; — the number 
 and extent of our colonies, giving them such popular expla- 
 nation of the nature of the constitution, one part of the legis- 
 lature being hereditary", another elective, &c., as is within the 
 comprehension of children ;f — the comforts and conveniences 
 within the reach of every class in society compared with those 
 of* earlier periods ; and thus, instead of making it a dry detail 
 of the chronological order of reigns, which in itself would not 
 be instructive, endeavouring to give an interest to it, by speak- 
 ing of those things in past ages which bore upon their daily 
 occupations, and showing how they may improve the future 
 by reflecting on the past. 
 
 ARITHMETIC. 
 
 Arithmetic should be made an exercise of the mind, and 
 not merely an application of rules got by heart ; in fact, it 
 
 * The following is the copy of a card which used to he, and perhaps is 
 still preserved at York, in the bar of the inn to which it refers : 
 
 “ York Four Days’ Coach, begins the 18th of April, 1703. All that are 
 desirous to pass from London to York, or from York to London, or any 
 other place on that road, let them repair to the Black Sw an in Holbourne, 
 in London ; and to the Black Swan in Coney-street, York, at each which 
 places they may be received in a stage-coach, every Monday, Wednesday, 
 and Friday — which performs the whole journey in four days — if God 
 permit.” 
 
 The same distance is now travelled by railroad in eight or nine hours. 
 
 t Dr. Johnson observes in the Kambler: “ That not a washerwoman 
 sits down to breakfast without tea from the East Indies, and sugar from 
 the West.” 
 
ARITHMETIC. 
 
 41 
 
 ought to be taught on a sort of common-sense principle, be- 
 ginning with very simple things, and leading the children on, 
 step by step. It is difficult to fix on their minds ideas of 
 abstract numbers, and therefore, at first, the numerals 1, 2, 3, 
 &c., should be connected with visible objects ; such as books, 
 boys, girls, &c., and thus they should be made to understand 
 that 'a number, when applied to things or objects, means a 
 collection of units of that thing or object, but that the same 
 kind of unit must run throughout ; that, in a class of children 
 each child is an unit, and that, when we speak of a hundred 
 children in a school, we speak of a hundred units, each of 
 which is a child ; but that we must have units of the same 
 kind, or we could not class them all together ; that we might 
 say a hundred children when half are boys and half are girls, 
 because the word child means either boy or girl, and in that 
 sense either of them is an unit ; but we could not say one 
 hundred boys or one hundred girls when there are fifty of 
 each sort ; the unit, of boys or girls, not running through the 
 school, but only half way : we might say a hundred head of 
 cattle, when half were sheep and half were cows, but we could 
 not say one hundred sheep or one hundred cows. In the 
 same way the sportsman says a hundred head of game, mean- 
 ing by that hares, rabbits, &c., but in all a hundred separate 
 heads of animals. 
 
 It will help very much to facilitate the future steps if the 
 teacher can get the children to form correct ideas as to the 
 local value of each figure, and this may be done by altering 
 the position of the same figures, so as to make them represent 
 dijfferent numbers; as 56, that is five tens and six units; 65 
 would be six tens and five units ; 678 is six hundreds, seven 
 tens, and eight units, — but 876, &c. : that 0 has no value in 
 itself, but being placed on the right hand of a figure makes 
 its value ten times as great as it was, because it shifts the 
 first figure from the units to the tens place, and so on ; as 6 
 by placing 0 on the right hand becomes 60, and so on, and 
 from this to infer that by placing a 0 on the right-hand side 
 of any number, you multiply it by ten. This is to be a sort 
 of induction or conclusion they are to arrive at, as a general 
 rule drawn from testing it by particular instances. 
 
 In the same way he would point out that any other figure 
 placed on the right hand of a number multiplies that number 
 
 4 § 
 
42 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 by ten, inasmuch as it advances each figure one place to 
 the left, and at the same time increases the number by the 
 number of digits it contains ; two figures by 100, &c. ; thus 
 95, placing 6 on the right hand, becomes 956, or 900 + 50 + 6; 
 placing 65 becomes 9565, or 9000 + 500 + 60 + 5. That 
 5, 6, &c. are always so many units, but the unit of value rises 
 in a tenfold proportion every place the figure is advanced to 
 the left. 
 
 When they know a little of numeration, the teacher should 
 write on the black board, and make them thoroughly under- 
 stand, writing down numbers in the following way : 69 or 
 60 + 9 ; 756 or 700 + 50 + 6 ; 1050 or 1000 + 0 hun- 
 dreds, + 50 + 0, making them say seven hundreds, five tens, 
 six units ; one thousand, no hundreds, five tens, no units : 
 this they ought to be exercised in until they know what they 
 are about. 
 
 In exercising them as a class by the repeated addition or 
 subtraction of the same number, it may be made more of a 
 mental exercise by checking them every now and then, testing 
 what has been done ; for instance, adding by sevens, and they 
 have come up to 63 ; stop there, and ask the boy whose turn 
 is next, whether they are correct as far as they have gone ; 
 
 63 
 
 perhaps he says yes. Why? because — = 9, or seven added 
 
 nine times to itself gives 63, and the probability is they are 
 right, and one would generally let them conclude so ; but 
 here the teacher will point out to them — there may be an 
 error of seven, or any multiple of seven, and in that case the 
 result would still be divisible by seven, and at the same time 
 wrong ; tell them to reckon the boys, and if nine, the proof is 
 complete. Again, supposing them to have gone on adding 
 by sevens until the sum is 77 : ask, right or wrong ; the boy 
 
 will answer right, because 
 
 77 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 = 11; then go on a little fur- 
 
 ther, and a boy says, for instance, 99 : divide, there is a re- 
 mainder of one; it was right at 77 when the eleventh boy 
 answered, therefore the error must be with the last three boys. 
 
 They should also be practised in asking such questions as. 
 How many divisors has the number 12 above unity — how 
 many 15 ? thus 12 = 2x3x2, or 5x3 splitting the num- 
 
ARITHMETIC. 
 
 43 
 
 ber ipto its factors : that all even numbers are divisible by 2, 
 and that no odd number is. This seems simple, but if con- 
 stantly repeated has a good effect.* 
 
 3 may be written 1 -f 1 -f 1 or 3 
 
 4 „ 2 4-2 
 
 5 „ 1 4- 1 4- 1 4- 1 4- 1 or 5 
 
 6 ,, 2 4” 2 4“ 2 or 3 4-3 
 
 9 may be written in separate units, or 3 4- 3 4- 3 ; that a class 
 of nine children may he made to stand out as units, but they 
 cannot be made to stand out in twos without a remainder — 
 in sets of three but not of four. 
 
 Thus showing them that up to 20, a class containing an 
 even number of children may be made into more sets without 
 a remainder, than a class containing an odd number-; it is 
 well to illustrate this practically either by parcelling out a 
 class, or a number of small pieces of wood, thus carrying 
 conviction both to the eye and to the mind. There is no 
 exercise which has a better practical effect than pointing out 
 all the factors into which numbers up to a hundred, for in- 
 stance, can be broken, such as 24 = 2 x 1 2, or 3 x 8, 3 x 2 x 4, 
 or 3 X 2 X 2 X 2. 
 
 This subject of the number of divisors without a remainder, 
 would lead the teacher to speak of the subdivisions of a 
 
 * If the teacher is acquainted with a little Algebra, he would do well to 
 apply it to a few of the common properties of numbers. Thus in this case : 
 
 Every even number may be represented by the form {2n) 
 
 Every odd number by {2n -f- 1) 
 
 giving to n in each of these forms its successive values, 0, 1, 2, 3. 
 
 {2n) becomes 0, 2, 4, 6, &c. all the even numbers. 
 
 (2?^4- 1) >j 3, 5, 7, &c. all the odd numbers. 
 
 Now it is clear ) giving the quotient (n) that all even numbers are 
 
 divisible by 2 without a remainder, — 
 
 ^ ^ ^ w 4" — , therefore the odd ones are not. 
 
 Again, the square of {2n) ~ 
 
 the square of {2n 4- 1) =r 4 - 4?^ 4- 1. 
 
 2 
 
 Or, 
 
 4n^ 4- 4- 1 1 
 
 = 
 
 Therefore the square of every even number is divisible 
 remainder. 
 
 The square of an odd number is not. 
 
 by 
 
 4 without a 
 
44 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 coinage, from which he would show that a coin value twenty 
 shillings would be much more convenient than one of twenty- 
 one shillings, as admitting of more divisions without a re- 
 mainder, and therefore of more sub-coins without fractions. 
 
 Having made them well acquainted with the first four rules, 
 they must then be made to understand the coinage, the mea- 
 sures of space, time, and volume. 
 
 To get a correct idea of the comparative length of an inch, 
 a foot, a yard, &c., and how many times the shorter measure 
 is contained in the longer, the common carpenter’s two-foot 
 rule is of great service — show them by actual measurement on 
 the floor what is meant by two, three, four yards, &c., as far 
 as the dimensions of the school will permit. 
 
 The motions of the hands on the face of the clock should 
 he pointed out* — what space of time is meant by a minute, 
 an hour, and a year — all words in use as measures of time — 
 the same as to measures of volume. 
 
 When the children understand these things, it will be found 
 most useful to practise them in little arithmetical calculations 
 connected with their own domestic consumption, or applying 
 personally to themselves, such as — 
 
 Supposing each person in a familyf consume 16^1b. of 
 sugar in a year, consider each of you how many your own 
 family consists of, and make out how much sugar you would 
 use in one year. 
 
 How much would it cost your father at b\d, per pound, 
 and how much would be saved if at \\d, per pound ? 
 
 This village consists of 1120 people, how much would the 
 whole village consume at the same rate ? How much the 
 county, population 35.5,004? 
 
 In this way a great variety of questions connected with 
 sugar, coffee, their clothing, such as a bill of what they buy 
 at the village shop, groceries, &c. — a washing bill, &c., may 
 
 * Many of the labouring class in agricultural districts, even when grown 
 up to manhood, cannot read the clock face. 
 
 t Each boy adapting the question to the number of his family, varies it 
 without trouble to the teacher, and thus no temptation is offered to any 
 one to rely on his neighbour. In arithmetical calculations they can easily 
 catch a result from others ; this the teacher should in every way discourage, 
 or he will very soon find that two or three of the sharper boys in a class 
 know something about it, the rest nothing. Tell them to rely upon them- 
 selves, and ask questions if they are at a loss. 
 
ARITHMETIC. 
 
 45 
 
 be set ; and when told to do a question or two of this kind in 
 an evening at home, it will very often be found to have been a 
 matter of great interest and amusement to the whole family. 
 
 In teaching them arithmetic, such simple questions as the 
 following occasionally asked will, by degrees, lead them to 
 form correct ideas of fractional quantities. 
 
 How many pence in a shilling ? Twelve. Then what part 
 of a shilling is a penny? One twelfth. Then make them 
 write it on their slates. 
 
 How many twopences in a shilling — threepences, &c. ? 
 
 Then what part is twopence, threepence, &c. ? &c. 
 
 Again, how many shillings in a pound ? Then what part 
 of a pound is one, two, three. .. .nineteen shillings? 
 
 2V A’ ¥§» fS ^ whole. 
 
 In the same way with measures of space, thus leading them 
 by gentle degrees to see that in numerical fractions what is 
 called the denominator denotes the number of parts into 
 which a whole is divided, and the numerator the number of 
 parts taken. 
 
 When sufficiently advanced to commence the arithmetic of 
 Fractions, the teacher will find it of great service in giving 
 them correct ideas of the nature of a fraction, to call their 
 attention as much as possible to visible things, so that the 
 eye may help the mind — to the divisions on the face of a 
 clock — or of the degree or degrees of latitude on the side of a* 
 
 map, thus 
 
 I 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 1 1 1 1 
 
 showing that a degree. 
 
 50 ° 51 ° 
 
 which here represents the unit, is divided into twelve equal 
 parts — and then reckoning and writing down t\> tV 
 
 A. -h (or i)> T¥> T¥> T%> ¥z> H’ T2 or units, showing how 
 these may be reduced to lower terms, and that the results 
 still retain the same absolute value — that the value of a frac- 
 tion depends upon the relative, and not upon the absolute, 
 value of the numerator and denominator ; as and 
 and and and J, &c., have in each case the same 
 absolute value. 
 
 In casting his eye round a well-furnished schoolroom, the 
 teacher will see numberless ways in which he may make the 
 nature of a fraction clear to them, as counting the number of 
 courses of bricks in the wall — say it is fifty, as they are of 
 
46 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 uniform thickness, each will be of the whole height — 
 placing the two-foot rule against the wall and seeing how 
 many courses go to making one foot, two feet, &c., there will 
 be such and such fractions — or supposing the floor laid with 
 boards of uniform length and width, each will be such and 
 such a fraction of the whole surface, taking care to point out 
 that when the fractional parts are not equal among themselves 
 they cannot put them together until they are reduced to a 
 common denominator, and the reason of all this. In this 
 way, and by continually calling their attention to fragments 
 of things about them and putting them together, children get 
 a correct idea of numerical fractions at a much earlier age than 
 is generally imagined. 
 
 The following kind of question interests them more than 
 very abstract fractions ; the teacher should try to form ques- 
 tions connected with their reading. 
 
 What are the proportions of land and water on the globe ? 
 
 land, f water. What do you mean by ? A whole divided 
 into three parts, and two of them taken. Here the teacher 
 would put a piece of paper into a boy’s hands, and tell him 
 to tear it into three equal parts, and show the fractions ; or 
 by dividing a figure on the black board. 
 
 What proportion of the land on the globe does America con- 
 tain? What Asia? Africa? Europe ? -j’y. And 
 Oceanica? -jL. Now, putting all these fractions together, 
 what ought they to give? The whole land. The unit of 
 which they are the fractional parts was what ? The land on 
 the globe. Work this out. Africa or ; Europe and 
 Oceanica, each being these with Africa will be or 
 America and Asia together are f, and adding to this gives 
 or 1 for the whole. 
 
 Having been taught this and decimal arithmetic, they 
 should be taught to work out most of their sums decimally, 
 and made to reason about them as much as possible, rather 
 than to follow a common rule — for instance : 
 
 What is the interest on £500 at 5 per cent, for two years ? 
 — 5 per cent, means what? — the interest on a hundred pounds 
 for a year: then the interest of £l will only be the one 
 hundredth part of that : work it out, *05 — the interest of £2 
 will be twice as great ; of £3 three times as great ; and of £6 
 six times as great, &c. Having the interest for one year, the 
 
ARITHMETIC. 
 
 47 
 
 interest for any number of years will be the interest for one, 
 multiplied by that number.* 
 
 * The following algebraic formula may be useful : 
 
 Let P the principal. 
 
 r = the interest of £1 for one year. 
 
 n — the number of years, or the time for which it is put out. 
 
 Now if r is the interest of £1 for one year, it is clear the interest of 
 2, 3, 4, &c. P£ will be twice as much, 
 
 or 2r, 3r, 4r . . . Pr interest for one year. — 
 
 The interest for 2, 3, 4 ... years will be 
 
 2 Pr, 3 Pr, 4 Pr . . . wPr, 
 
 (1) the interest nrVj 
 
 we have the amount, being the principal added to the interest, M rrP -f- nrV, 
 Now in this equation there are four quantities, any three of which being 
 given the fourth can be found. 
 
 Ex. Interest on £250, for 2^ years, at 5 per cent. 
 
 Here P 250 
 
 w = 2i =2-5. 
 
 .*. I 250 X (-05) X (2-5) = 31*25£, 
 and M = 250 X 31*25 = 281*25£. 
 
 But the above formula is much more important than the ordinary rule, 
 inasmuch as it accommodates itself to every possible kind of case. 
 
 A certain sum put out to interest at 5 per cent., in four years amounts 
 to £250 IO 5 . ; what was the sum put out ? 
 
 In this case, M, r, and n, are given to find P. 
 
 Or the sum put out was £30, and in two years amounted to £33 ; what 
 was the rate per cent. ? 
 
 Here M, P, and n are given to find r. 
 
 The cases where all, rate per cent., time, &c., are fractional, are quite 
 as easy as the rest, excepting in having a few more figures to work out. 
 
 The whole expenditure of a family in a year is A pound, of which 
 a per cent, is spent in bread, b in tea, c in clothes, d in house rent, e in 
 taxes, &c., what part of the whole income is spent in each of these articles, 
 and give an expression for the wdiole ? 
 
 = part of every £ spent in bread, andj^= what is spent in a year. 
 = the part of each £ in tea, and of the whole income. 
 
 Ac 
 
 In the same way — that in taxes in the year. 
 
 . ka kb kc . 
 
 Therefore—— -I 1 k &c.= A. 
 
 100 ^ 100 ^ 100 ^ 
 
 Or, (a b -{■ c &c.) the whole expenditure. 
 
 [And 
 
48 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Children sometimes get into the way of working out ques- 
 tions of this kind, without having any definite idea of what 
 is meant by so much per cent., &c. ; this they should be made 
 
 And if the annual income of a family is per annum, P — — 
 
 ^ 4. c + &c.) will be the state of the pocket at the end of the year. 
 When this expression is negative, it means they have exceeded their 
 income. When it is = 0, they have just spent their income ; and when 
 it is positive, they have saved money. 
 
 A mass M of three metals, of which c per cent, is copper, s per cent, 
 silver, and g per cent, gold ; how much of each ? 
 
 the copper. 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 = the silver. 
 
 Or, 
 
 = the gold. 
 
 Suppose the mass 1000 lbs., of which 25 per cent, copper, 40^ per cent, 
 silver, and the rest 34 1 gold ; how much of each ? 
 
 Here M = 1000, c = 25, .9 = 40-5, &c. 
 
 Me 1000 x 25 otAu, r 
 
 /. = =250 lbs. of copper. 
 
 100 100 
 
 1000 X 40-5 
 
 = = 405 lbs. of silver. 
 
 100 100 
 Mg 1000 x 34-5 
 
 Ioo=— 
 
 The skilful teacher who knows a little algebra may see a very extensive 
 application of it in this way, and the satisfaction and instruction to a 
 boy in being able to work out easy formulae of this kind, and adapt them 
 to particular cases, is beyond comparison greater than being taught by 
 rules. 
 
 This makes it highly desirable that all our schoolmasters should be able 
 to teach so much of the rudiments of algebra as to apply it to simple cal- 
 culations of this kind. The merely being able to substitute numerical 
 values for the different letters in an algebraical formula3 is of service. 
 
 For instance, that 
 
 (1.) (a 4- — b)=.ar — P: that this means that the sum of two 
 
 quantities multiplied by their difference is equal to the difference of their 
 squares. 
 
 (2.) That (a -j- -f 2ab + Py or that the square of the sum of two 
 
ARITHMETIC. 
 
 49 
 
 thoroughly to understand, as bearing upon many other ques- 
 tions besides those on interest, as will be seen from the 
 examples given ; also what is meant by so much in the shil- 
 ling, so much in the pound, &c., — that if a person spends 
 twopence in the shilling in a particular way, and lays out tv/o, 
 three, ten shillings, he spends 4c?., 6c?., 20c/., &c., in that par- 
 ticular thing. 
 
 A penny in the shilling is twenty pence in the pound, 
 twenty pence in one pound is one hundred times that in a 
 hundred pounds, and would be called so much per cent. The 
 same in the common rule of three ; they get into the way of 
 stating their questions mechanically ; but what the teacher 
 should do is, instead of saying as 1 yard : 2^. 6c/. : : 50 yards 
 to the answer ; he should say, if one yard cost 2^. 6c/. two 
 yards will cost twice as much ; three yards three times ; 50 
 yards 50 times as much, having recourse to the common-sense 
 principle as much as possible. 
 
 The following questions, with those at the end of this sec- 
 tion, may be useful to the teacher, as bearing upon the econo- 
 mic purposes of life, and will suggest others of a like kind : — 
 
 The population of the parish in 1831 was 1040, at the cen- 
 sus of 1841 it had increased 7 percent., what is it at present? 
 
 In the population of the parish 20 per cent, of them ought 
 to be at school; in this parish, containing 1040, only 12 per 
 cent, are at school ; how many are at school ? and how many 
 absent who ought to be there ? 
 
 The population of the county in 1841 was 355,004 ; — 82*8 
 
 numbers is equal to the sum of their squares, increased by twice their 
 product. 
 
 (3.) That (a — hy = — 2ab -|- -f- — 2a^, or that the 
 
 square of the difference of the numbers is equal, or the same thing as 
 adding the squares of each separate number together, and then diminishing 
 this by twice their product. 
 
 In each of these cases let a = 6, and J = 4 ; then (a -f- ^ ) (a — b) would 
 become (6-|-4) x (6 — 4), or 10 x 2 = the square of 6 or 36, di- 
 minished by the square of 4 or 16, or (6^ — 4^) = 20. 
 
 (2.) (6 d- 4)2 or 102 = 62 + 42 + 2 X 6 X 4. 
 
 or 36 4-16-1-48 = 100. 
 
 That is, it is the same thing if you add the two numbers together, and 
 square the sum, or square each number separately, add them, and to this 
 add twice their product. 
 
 (3.) (6 — 4)2 -22 or 4 = 624- 42 — 2 X 6 x 4. 
 
 or 36 4-16—48 = 4. 
 
 5 
 
50 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 per cent, were born in the county, 14*9 in other parts of 
 England, 0*5 in Scotland, and 0*9 in Ireland ; what number 
 were born in each country ? — how many in number, and what 
 per cent, are unaccounted for ? 
 
 Give the average of the parish, how many to the square acre ; 
 number of the houses, how many to a house, &c. These 
 questions ought also to be the vehicle of a good deal of instruc- 
 tion on the part of the teacher. 
 
 A sheet containing the names of the towns in each county, 
 arranged by counties, and giving in a tabular form the popu- 
 lation in adjoining columns, according to the census of 1831 
 and of 1841, is to be had for a shilling, and offers great faci- 
 lity to a master for making questions of this kind ; as well as 
 affording useful statistical information. 
 
 In teaching them superficial and solid measure the following 
 mode is adopted. 
 
 They are first shown, by means of the black board, what a 
 square inch, foot, yard, &c., is, by proofs which meet the eye ; 
 that a square of two inches on a side contains four square 
 inches ; of three inches on a side nine square inches, and so 
 on ; or, in other words, that a square of one inch on a side 
 could be so placed on a square of two inches as to occupy dif- 
 ferent ground four times, and in doing this it would exactly 
 have occupied the whole square, one of three inches, nine 
 times ; thus showing clearly what is meant by a surface con- 
 taining a certain number of square feet, &c. 
 
 The same illustration with an oblong, say nine inches by 
 two, three, &c., two or three figures of figures so divided are 
 painted on the walls. 
 
 Solid Measure, 
 
 The teacher takes a cube of four inches on a side, divided 
 into four slices of one inch thick, and one of the surfaces 
 divided into sixteen superficial inches ; to this slice of one inch 
 thick, containing sixteen solid inches, add a second, that will 
 make 32, and so to the fourth, making 64 ; so that they now 
 have ocular proof so simple that they must understand that 
 the superficial inches in a square, or rectangle, is found by 
 multiplying together the number in each side ; the contents of 
 a regular cube by multiplying the number of linear inches on 
 one side by the number of slices. 
 
ARITHMETIC. 
 
 51 
 
 To applj this : 
 
 The master tells one of the hoys to take the two-foot rule 
 (a necessary thing in a village school), measure the length and 
 breadth of the schoolroom. Yes, sir. 
 
 Length 26 feet, breadth 1 6 feet. What is the figure ? An 
 oblong — sides at right angles to each other. Multiply length 
 and breadth — what is the area ? 
 
 To another — Look at the boards of the floor; are they 
 uniform in width ? How are they laid ? Parallel to each other. 
 The breadth of the room you have got, and, as the boards are 
 laid that way, you have the length of each board ; measure the 
 width of aboard. Nine inches. Reckon the number of boards. 
 What is the area of the room? Does it agree with your first 
 measurement ? If not, what is the source of error ; the boards 
 will turn out to be unequal in width. 
 
 The door — what is the shape of the opening ? An oblong, 
 with one side a good deal longer than the other. Measure the 
 height — the width : now what number of inches of surface on 
 the door? 
 
 The rule again. Measure the thickness. Now how many 
 solid inches ? 
 
 The door-posts. Measure the height, width ; now the depth. 
 How many solid inches of wood in one post ? How many in 
 the whole door-posts ? How many solid inches in a foot ? 
 Turn it into feet. 
 
 In the same way they may apply the rule — to find out the 
 surface of a table, a sheet of paper, surface of a map, a page 
 of a book, &c., but always making them do the actual measure- 
 ment, first taking one child, then another. 
 
 Again the room — we have got the area — tell us how much 
 water it would hold, if we could fill it as high as the walls ; we 
 have got two dimensions, what is wanting? — The height. We 
 cannot reach up, sir.— Take your rule. Measure the thickness 
 of a brick with the mortar. — About four inches. — Measure the 
 first three courses. — A foot, sir. — Reckon the courses of the 
 wall. — Thirty-six. — Then the height is what? — Twelve feet. 
 Now find out the solid contents of the room. 
 
 Find the surface and solid contents of a brick. 
 
 In fact, the two-foot rule is to the village school what Liebig 
 says the balance is to the chemist. 
 
 Another practical application, which works well in giving 
 ideas of linear measure is the following ; 
 
52 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Take a hoop, say of two feet diameter ; apply a string to 
 the circumference ; measure it. — Eather over six feet. — An- 
 other of three will be found to be nine, and, by a sort of in- 
 ductive process, you prove that the circumference is three 
 times the diameter : when farther advanced, give them the 
 exact ratio, 3*14159, which they will work from with great 
 facility. 
 
 Boys ! make a mark on the hoop : let it rest on the floor, 
 the mark being directly opposite the point which touches the 
 floor;* trundle it, stopping every time when the mark rests 
 upon the floor, and let another boy make a chalk mark where 
 it touches ; now take your two~foot rule and measure between 
 each mark. What is it ? — Six feet, twelve feet, eighteen feet, 
 &c. — And the hoop has been round how many times at each 
 mark ? — Once at the first, twice at the second, three times at 
 the third, &c. — Now, you see, if you trundle your hoop over a 
 piece of level ground, and reckon the number of times it has 
 gone round, you can tell the length of space it has gone over. 
 
 How many miles to Winchester? — Nine, sir. — Measure the 
 height of your father’s cart-wheel, and tell him how often it 
 will go round in going to market. Tell him he must not zig- 
 zag. The teacher should point out the sources of error. The 
 philosophy of common life and everyday things is most attrac- 
 tive to them, and a book of this kind, if well done, would be 
 a most useful one for our village schools. 
 
 This two-foot rule, and other appliances, setting to work both 
 hands and head, amuses at the same time that it instructs, and 
 gives a sort of certainty to their knowledge, fixing it in a way 
 that learning things by mere rote never can. 
 
 In order that they may get correct ideas of what is meant 
 by lines parallel and inclined to each other, and of a square, 
 a circle, a triangle, &c., I have had painted on the upper part 
 of the walls, above the maps, four series of simple figures 
 marked, Series A, No. 1, 2, 3, angles and triangles. Series 
 B, No. 1, squares and parallelograms. Series C, circles, &c. 
 
 * The teacher who has sufficient mathematical knowledge may exercise 
 himself in trying to make out the nature of the curve traced out, by any 
 given point in the surface of the hoop between two successive contacts 
 wdth the floor. A curve of very curious properties, which interested 
 mathematicians very much about 200 years ago, and was made out by the 
 famous Pascal when labouring under a fit of toothache : it is the curve in 
 which the pendulum keeping true time vibrates. 
 
ARITHMETIC. 
 
 53 
 
 a square and a rectangular parallelogram, divided into linear 
 inches. These figures are easily referred to, extremely useful, 
 occupying no space which is wanted for other things, and 
 cost nothing. 
 
 Of the simple solids the school is also provided with models, 
 and these, with the figures on the wall, may be called into use 
 in almost numberless ways. 
 
 What is the shape of the room — of the door — of a brick — - 
 of a book — table, &c. ? —a square or parallelogram on Series 
 B, No. 1, No. 2. Look at the beam running between the 
 walls, what are the figures of the two surfaces ? What of a 
 section perpendicular to either surface? — what slantwise? 
 
 The stove in the room, what is its figure? — A hollow cylinder. 
 — The pipe carrying away the smok^ ? — The same. — What 
 would the figure of a section of the stove parallel to the floor 
 be? — of the pipe? — A circle. No. 2, series C. — What of a 
 section perpendicular to the floor, &c. The different sections 
 of a cube — or any solids which may be about the room — but 
 always referring to the exact figure on the wall. These figures 
 will often supply the place of the black board. 
 
 Again, tell a boy to turn the door on its hinges as far as he 
 can — to find out what solid it would trace out if he could turn 
 it entirely round. — A cylinder like the stove, but much larger. 
 — What is the section of the solid part of the stove? — A ring 
 inclosed between two concentric circles. — Concentric, what ? — 
 If the door were a right-angled triangle, what figure would it 
 generate by going quite round on the hinges ? — A cone, like a 
 sugarloaf. — What if a semicircle, the line between the hinges 
 the diameter?— A globe : and so on. Then again, the outer 
 edge of the door and a line parallel to it, at 2, 3, &c., inches 
 apart, would trace out a solid ring. What would the door 
 trace out if, instead of revolving round its hinges, it revolved 
 round one of its ends; and to illustrate this still further, fasten 
 two pieces of string of unequal lengths to the top of a stick, 
 which place perpendicular to the floor, then let two boys tak- 
 ing hold one at each end, walk round the stick, they will clearly 
 see, that the finger of the short-stringed boy describes the 
 inner surface, and of the long-stringed the outer surface— that 
 every point in a circle is equally distant from the centre — 
 explain what is meant by circles being in different planes — 
 what by concentric circles— and then the teacher will ask 
 
 5 § 
 
SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 r>4 
 
 them, if the strings were 2, 3, 4 feet, &c. long, what the cir- 
 cumferences would be ; at first some of them would say six 
 feet, nine feet, &c., not seeing that their piece of string was 
 the radius and not the diameter ; difierence to be pointed out, 
 and that the circumferences of circles are in proportion to 
 their diameters. 
 
 Here they may be shown that the area of a circle is the cir- 
 
 ^ radius ^ . diameter _ 
 
 cumference x — - — or the circumference x , and 
 
 2 4 
 
 since 3*14159 is the circumference of a circle whose diameter 
 is unity, 3*14159 X *78539 is the area, and that the area 
 of circles are to each other as the squares of their diameters ; 
 this expression they can work with practically afterwards, in 
 measuring timber, &c.* 
 
 The contents of a cylinder ; 
 
 The teacher should not be content with merely showing 
 them how to find the contents of a cylinder, or any other 
 regular figure, but should point out to them, in this case, for 
 instance, anything in the room of a cylindrical form, such as 
 the stove if round, the pipe which carries off the smoke, &c. ; 
 and taking the diameter of a section, and from this finding the 
 area of it, and multiplying into the height or length would give 
 the solid contents ; that for an iron roller, or any other roller 
 hollow in the middle, they must take the diameter of the outer 
 and inner surface, get the area of these sections, and subtract- 
 ing them from each other, would give the area of a section or 
 ring which, multiplied into the length of the roller, would give 
 the quantity of solid matter in it ; thus calling their attention, 
 and actually measuring vessels, &c., the shape of which they 
 are familiar with. 
 
 This, of course, applies to other regular solids than the 
 cylinder. 
 
 In the case of the cylinder, let d = the outer diameter, d! 
 the inner, then 
 
 (*78539) d? = area of outer circle, 
 
 (*78539) d^‘^ = area of inner circle ; 
 and (*78539) \d? — d!‘^) ==area of section of the ring; and if 
 h denote the height, solid contents will be (*78539) {d^ — d!'^) 
 h ; then to give particular values to d, d and A, and work out 
 the results. 
 
 * See Appendix (B). 
 
ARITHMETIC. 
 
 55 
 
 Examples for Practice, 
 
 A boy at the age of 15 begins to save 7\d. per week, what 
 will he have saved at the end of one, two, three, &c., years. 
 
 What will his savings amount to when he reaches the age of 
 twenty-one ? And what would it be if put into the savings’ 
 bank at the end of each year, interest three per cent. 
 
 Supposing at the age of 21 he begins to save Is, per week, 
 and at the end of each year puts it into the bank, what would 
 he have when he is 31 years of age 
 
 A goes to the village shop and lays out IO 5 . per week, on 
 an average, for necessaries for his family, every week in the 
 year ; but, for want of thought and of understanding his own 
 interests, has got into the habit of running a bill, and having 
 his things booked, as it is called ; for this the shopkeeper is 
 obliged to charge 1 0 per cent, more than for ready money. 
 How much does A lose by this in the year ? — or how much 
 more does he pay than the ready-money customer ?f 
 
 * Such questions not to be drily set, but to have their bearings ex- 
 plained. 
 
 t The following extract from ^ An Educational Tour in Germany,^ &c. 
 affords a very useful and practical hint to the schoolmaster : 
 
 Holland I saw what I have never seen elsewhere^ hut that which 
 ought to he in every school — the actual weights and measures of the country. 
 These were used not only as a means of conveying useful knowledge, but 
 of mental exercise and cultivation. 
 
 “ There were seven different liquid measures, graduated according to 
 the standard measures of the kingdom. The teacher took one in his hand, 
 held it up before the class, and displayed it in all its dimensions. Some- 
 times he would allow it to be passed along by the members of the class, 
 that each one might have an opportunity to handle it, aud to form an idea 
 of its capacity. Then he would take another, and either tell the class how 
 many measures of one kind would be equivalent to one measure of the 
 other, or, if he thought them prepared for the question, he would obtain 
 their judgment upon the relative capacity of the respective measures. In 
 this way he would go through with the whole series, referring from one 
 to another, until all had been examined, and their relative capacities 
 understood. Then followed arithmetical questions, founded upon the facts 
 they had learned, — such as, if one measure full of anything costs so much, 
 what would another measure full (designating the measure) cost, or seven 
 other measures full ? The same thing was then done with the weights. 
 
 “ In the public schools of Holland, too, large sheets or cards were hung 
 upon the walls of the room, containing fac-similes of the inscription and 
 
56 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Supposing the whole expenditure of a parish in rates to be 
 ^920 IO 5 . in the year, and the whole property rated at 
 £5276 9s, 4d., what is that in the pound? 
 
 Supposing the number of acres in the parish to be 7000, 
 what would that be per acre ? 
 
 A spends ^6250 IO 5 . 6d. per annum, of this 3^. in the 
 pound is paid in house rent, 95. Sd, in food, 35. 4d, in cloth- 
 ing, the rest in sundries ; how much in the pound is paid in 
 sundries ; and what is his absolute expenditure in each of the 
 above things ? 
 
 Supposing him to save ^*80 per annum out of the above 
 income, and his proportionate expenditure in each article as 
 above, what would be the sum spent for each ? 
 
 The whole amount of taxation in this country is upwards of 
 50 millions, supposing it is this sum, and that every twenty 
 shillings paid in taxes is disposed of as follows : 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Expenses of the army and navy .... 72 
 
 King’s judges, &c., and other departments of state . 0 10 
 
 Interest of the national debt . . . . 12 0 
 
 What is the exact sum paid to each ? 
 
 What would be the expense of digging three acres, two 
 roods, and 20 perches of ground at 4d. per pole ? What of 
 double trenching it for the purpose of planting, at 1 Od. per 
 pole ? 
 
 How many trees to plant an acre at such and such dis- 
 tances, &c. ? 
 
 A pole or perch of land is 16| feet square the usual mea- 
 sure, but here they have a measure for underwood called wood- 
 measure, a pole of which is 18 feet square. How much is the 
 wood-acre larger than the ordinary acre ? 
 
 A labourer agrees to move a piece of earth 25 feet long, 15 
 feet wide, and 10 feet high, a certain distance at l5. 6d. per 
 cubic yard, what would his work come to ? 
 
 A pair of horses plough | of an acre in one day, the width 
 of each furrow is one foot. How many miles will the boy 
 walk who drives the plough ? 
 
 relief — face and reverse — of all the current coins of the kingdom. The 
 representatives of gold coins were yellow, of the silver white, and of the 
 copper, copper colour.” — Mann’s Educational Tour, with Preface by 
 W. B. Hodgson, LL.D. 
 
GEOMETRY. 
 
 57 
 
 Supposing the furrows were only nine inches or six inches 
 broad, how far would he have to walk? Work this out, and 
 reduce the difference into yards. 
 
 A window is five feet nine inches high, four feet six inches 
 broad. How many square feet of glass for a house of ten 
 windows ? 
 
 How many panes, each nine inches by twelve inches, and 
 what would the cost be at per foot. 
 
 GEOMETRY. 
 
 A knowledge of some of the more simple parts of geometry 
 is quite necessary for any schoolmaster who wishes to be 
 thought competent to his work, or to stand in what may be 
 looked upon as the first class of teachers in our elementary 
 schools. For this purpose it is highly desirable that they 
 should at least know so much of the subject as would enable 
 them to teach the first three hooks of Euclid, with a few pro- 
 positions out of the other books. Many of the propositions in 
 the first three books are of easy application to the mechanic 
 arts, particularly to the carpenter’s shop, to the principles of 
 land-measuring, &c., and an edition of these, pointing out 
 such propositions and their application, with a few practical 
 deductions from each, would be of great use in our elementary 
 schools. 
 
 There are many of the appliances of the carpenter with his 
 tools, and of other mechanic trades, so strictly geometrical and 
 so easy of proof, as to be easily learned, and the workman 
 who knows them, instead of being a machine, becomes an in- 
 telligent being, and has sources of enjoyment opened out to 
 him which many of them would turn to a good purpose. 
 
 Even a knowledge of the axioms of Euclid, such as “things 
 which are equal to the same are equal to one another.” 
 
 If equals be added to equals the wholes are equal. 
 
 If equals be added to unequals, the wholes are unequal, &c. : 
 suggest modes of reasoning, which are extremely useful ; 
 and a thorough knowledge of the kind of reasoning in the 
 propositions of‘ the three books gives a man a habit and a 
 power of drawing proper conclusions from given data, which 
 he would scarcely be able to acquire with so little trouble in 
 any other way. 
 
58 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Children may easily be made to understand what is meant 
 by the terms perpendicular, horizontal, right angle, and lines 
 parallel to each other, by referring to the things in the 
 room. 
 
 Thus the walls are perpendicular, or at right angles to the 
 floor —the boards are horizontal and parallel to each other — 
 the courses of bricks are parallel — the door-posts perpendicu- 
 lar to the floor, &c. ; the beams, rafters, &c., of the roof, all 
 might be referred to as illustrating things of this kind. 
 
 The way in which the circle is divided ought to be under- 
 stood ; the number of degrees in a quadrant, &c. ; that the 
 three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles ; and 
 therefore if a triangle is right-angled, or has one right angle, 
 the remaining two must be equal to a right angle. 
 
 The proposition that if two sides of a triangle are equal, the 
 angles opposite are equal, and the converse. 
 
 To bisect a given rectilineal angle.* 
 
 To draw a perpendicular from a given point in a line, or let 
 one fall on a line from a point without it. 
 
 The one that either of two exterior angles is greater than 
 the interior and opposite angle — showing from this how the 
 angle under which an object is seen diminishes as you recede 
 from, and increases as you advance towards it. 
 
 The proposition about the areas of triangles and parallelo- 
 grams, as applying to the superficial measurement of rectilineal 
 figures. 
 
 The 47th in the first book, that the square of the side 
 opposite the right angle is equal to the sum of the squares on 
 
 ♦ The following is a very interesting and useful application of this pro- 
 position in showing how a meridian line may be laid down by it : 
 
 Tell the hoys to stick in the ground, and in the direction of the plumb- 
 line, a straight rod, to observe and mark out the direction and length of 
 its shadow on a sunny morning before twelve o’clock, say at eleven : to 
 observe in the afternoon when the shadow has exactly the same length ; 
 join the two extremities of the shadows, and on the line which joins them, 
 which is the base of an isosceles triangle, describe an equilateral triangle ; 
 a line drawn from the point where the stalf goes into the ground to the 
 vertex of this triangle will be the true meridian, or by simply drawing a 
 line from the stick to the middle of the line joining the extremities of the 
 shadows. 
 
 Place the compass on the line and let them observe how much the two 
 meridians differ ; that the length of the shadow, at equal intervals from 
 noon, will be the same both in the morning and in the afternoon, &c. 
 
GEOMETRY. 59 
 
 the other two sides. All these from the first book are parti- 
 cularly of practical application. 
 
 It will be found very useful for fixing on their minds any 
 particular geometrical truth likely to be of use to them after- 
 wards, if the teacher tests it, by application to actual measure- 
 ment, and not to rest satisfied with proving it merely as an 
 abstract truth ; for instance, in this schoolroom there is a 
 black line, marked on two adjoining walls, about a foot from 
 the floor ; as the walls are at right angles to each other, of 
 course these lines are also ; they are divided into feet and 
 divisions of a foot, numbered from the corner or right angle, 
 then taking any point in each of these lines, and joining them 
 by a string, this forms a right-angled triangle. The boys 
 have learned that the sum of the squares of the two sides con- 
 taining the right angle is equal to the square on the third 
 side, the teacher will tell them, for instance, to draw a line 
 between the point marked six feet on the one and eight feet 
 on the other; square each number, add them together, and 
 extract the square root, which they find to be 10; then they 
 apply the foot-rule — measure the string, and find it is exactly 
 ten feet by measurement. 
 
 Again, draw the line between the point marked five feet on 
 one and seven on the other ; work it out, and they get a 
 result 8*6 feet ; the teacher would ask is *6 half an inch or 
 more ? — More by a tenth. — They then measure the piece of 
 string which reached between the extreme points, and find it 
 perfectly correct. 
 
 The teacher would then point out that this would always 
 be the case when the walls stand at right angles to each other. 
 The bricklayer knows this, and laying out his foundation 
 walls measures eight feet along one line and six along the 
 other, from the same corner ; he then places a ten-foot rod 
 between the extreme points, and if it exactly reaches, he is 
 satisfied his walls are square. 
 
 Through the middle of the line on the end wall a vertical 
 line is drawn, and divided in the same way, and higher up on 
 the wall are marked three parallel lines an inch, a 
 
 foot, and a yard in length ; these are very convenient to refer 
 to as a sort of standard of measure,* and to show what mul- 
 
 * It is recorded, that in the time of Henry the First, the length of the 
 king's arm was the standard yard : this gives an idea of the rudeness of 
 the age. 
 
60 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 tiple of an iiicli, a foot, a yard, &c., any lengths of the other 
 lines are. 
 
 A teacherwith a little knowledge of geometry will see number- 
 less ways in which these lines may be made useful. I feel a diffi- 
 culty in entering further into this without having recourse to dia- 
 grams, which in the printing of this book I did not contemplate. 
 
 The following occur to me as simple : — Tell a boy to mea- 
 sure the width of the door and its height ; now what length of 
 string will it take to reach between opposite corners ? work it 
 out : then to take a piece of string and measure, — they corre- 
 spond ; the same for his book, slate, a table, &c. Measure the 
 two sides of the room — find the line which would reach from 
 corner to corner. 
 
 Again, let one of the boys hold the string against a fixed 
 point in the upright wall, say four feet high, and another ex- 
 tend it to any point towards the middle of the fioor — they see 
 this forms a right-angled triangle ; another boy takes the rule, 
 measures from the point where the string touches the floor to 
 the base of the black line, taking this as one side, the height 
 four feet as the other, they work it out, and then measure as 
 before. This testing of theory by practice gives them a great 
 interest in what they are doing. 
 
 As an example of the carpenter applying a proposition in 
 Euclid, take this : 
 
 Not having his square at hand, he wishes to draw one chalk 
 line at right angles to another, from a given point in it. 
 
 From C in the straight line AB he 
 marks off with his compasses on each 
 side of it, CA and CB, equal to each 
 other, he then places his rule in the 
 direction, CD as nearly perpendicular 
 as he can guess, and draws a line, 
 CD, along it; from any point D he 
 stretches a string to A, and if turning 
 it on D he finds the same length exactly reach to B, CD is 
 at right angles to AB. 
 
 If he wanted to fix a piece of wood CD in AB, and at right 
 angles to it, he would of course measure in the same way ; if 
 AD were longer than DB, he would lean it towards A until 
 they were equal, if shorter he would have to move it in the 
 contrary direction. 
 
GEOMETRY. 
 
 61 
 
 D G F 
 
 If he take liis square, and place one side on the line AC, 
 the other will fall in a direction perpendicular to it, and he 
 could run his chalk line along the edge. 
 
 The teacher would also point out, that when the lines are 
 perpendicular, the angles ACD DCB are equal ; that if CD 
 lean more towards A than towards B, the angle ACD will be 
 less than DCB, &c. 
 
 Again, another very easy application of a simple proposi- 
 tion in the first book, to show that if AB is a straight line, C a 
 point without it, the perpendicular 
 CD is the shortest line from C to D ; c 
 
 any other line CF, CG, &c. would be 
 greater than CD, as being opposite to 
 the greater angle in the same triangle, 
 and although every successive line 
 CF, CG, keeps lessening as it gets 
 nearer to D, yet at D it is least, and when it passes through 
 that point, the length of a line from C to any point in A D 
 goes on increasing as that point gets farther from D. It will 
 easily be seen on what proposition in Euclid these remarks 
 depend, and the young schoolmaster may profit by them, and 
 apply other propositions in the same way. 
 
 Take this as a case where the eye may be made to help the 
 mind : take a square thin piece 
 of deal, say one foot on a side, and 
 a circle of the same one foot in 
 diameter ; place the circle on the 
 square so that it becomes inscribed 
 on it, the figure will be this. They 
 see clearly the difference between 
 the area of the square and the in- 
 scribed circle is the sum of the 
 four irregular corners AEKF, &c., 
 contained between the sides of a 
 triangle and the arc in each case. 
 
 Find this difference, divide it by four, that will give anyone 
 corner AEKF : then inscribe a square in the circle : the dif- 
 ference between this and the first square will be the four tri- 
 angles AEF, &c., and which will be found equal to the 
 inscribed square FEHG. Dividing by four will give one of 
 the triangles. 
 
 6 
 
62 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Let the side of the square = which will also be the 
 diameter of the circle : 
 
 Then the area of the square will = c?, 
 
 are.„t.hecircle= (3-14159)^; V’’” 
 
 = (-78539) «2, 
 
 the area of the four corners, FBEG, &c., 
 
 = (_ 78539), 
 
 = (-214G1) ; 
 
 and area of one of them = (-051365) a^. 
 
 2 2 2 
 
 Again, EF2 = AE2 + AF2 = — + — = — , which is the 
 
 4 4 2 
 
 area of the inscribed square, and is one half of the circum- 
 
 CL^ 
 
 scribing one ; and any one of the triangles AEF will = - . 
 
 8 
 
 Again, the area of the triangle AFG = — - — — — x 
 
 2 2 2 
 
 and this divided by two, or — , as by the other method. 
 
 8 
 
 These are given merely because of the pieces of wood making 
 visible what is to be done. 
 
 The following offers a practical application of the 47th and 
 other propositions in the first book of Euclid. 
 
 Imagine a line drawn from the eye of the spectator to the 
 top of a tower, or any other object standing on a plain, and 
 at right angles to it, and another from the same point parallel 
 to the horizon, making an angle of 45° ; then the height of 
 the tower above the level of the eye is equal to the distance 
 at which the observer is standing from the base; adding to 
 this the height of the eye, would give the height of the ob- 
 ject above the surface of the ground ; if, when the observer 
 takes his station, the angle is above 45°, he must recede from 
 the tower — if less, he must advance — bringing to bear upon 
 this the proposition that the exterior angle of a triangle is 
 greater than the interior and opposite.’’ An approximation 
 to accuracy in observing an angle of this kind may be made 
 by making a sort of quadrant out of a piece of deal ; holding 
 one side horizontal, and looking along a line drawn from the 
 centre through the middle of the arc. 
 
GEOMETRY. 
 
 63 
 
 At all events, this is sufficient to make boys understand the 
 theory of it, and the object of this is obvious to make them 
 reason, that — 
 
 If one angle of a triangle is a right angle, the other two 
 taken together must be a right angle, because the angles of a 
 triangle are 180°, or two right angles; if one of the two is 
 45°, or half a right angle, the remaining one must be the same 
 — as the angles are equal the sides are equal.* 
 
 The particular propositions bearing upon this the teacher 
 will easily see. 
 
 In teaching them land-measuring, they should be made to 
 understand on what principle it is that they reduce any field 
 complicated in shape to triangles, squares, and parallelograms ; 
 why they make their offsets at right angles to the line in which 
 they are measuring ; to be able to prove the propositions in 
 Euclid as to the areas of these figures, &c. ; that a triangle is 
 half the parallelogram on the same base and altitude, &c., and 
 not to do everything mechanically, without ever dreaming of 
 the principles on which these measurements and calculations 
 are made. 
 
 Some time ago the observation was made to me, arising out 
 of some boys having been seen to attempt carrying the above 
 into practice: ‘^Well, the worst thing I have heard of you 
 lately is, that you are having trigonometry taught to the boys 
 in the Somborne School.” 
 
 This odd sort of compliment has often come across me, not 
 knowing exactly what it could mean. I suppose those who 
 make such observations do not mean that there is anything 
 positively wrong in teaching trigonometry ; but that it is wrong 
 to teach it to that class of boys usually attending our parish 
 schools. Now, one of the leading features of the school here, 
 and, in my opinion, one of the most important, is, that it 
 unites in education the children of the employer with those 
 of the employed ; and that to many children of the former 
 class the elements of this subject may be most usefully 
 
 * A stick 5 feet 3 inches high is placed vertically at the equator, what 
 is the figure traced out by its shadow during the 12 hours the sun is above 
 the horizon ? What is the length of the shadow, and of a line joining the 
 top of the stick and the extremity of the shadow, when the sun’s altitude 
 is 45° and 60° ? Work out the result in the latter case to four places of 
 decimals. 
 
64 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 taught, as applying to practical purposes connected with their 
 after-life. 
 
 However, I have myself no objection that this or any other 
 ometry, a knowledge of which may be likely to advance the 
 interest and tlie civilization of mankind, half as much as it 
 does, should be taught to promising boys in our parish schools, 
 whose parents have been able to keep them there to a sufficient 
 age, and have acquirements enabling them to learn it — these 
 will be exceptions, and not the rule. 
 
 But why among the words, supposed to be of suspicious 
 termination, attack the ometries? they, of all others, are the 
 most harmless — dealing in weight and measure of an exact 
 quantitative kind ; so demonstratively true, that there is no 
 chance of getting wrong — no possibility of there being anti 
 anything whatever. There maybe something of wrongness in 
 some of the ologies, as they leave room for the wanderings of 
 fancy, and do not deal in measured quantity as the ometries 
 do. Here scientific men may, and perhaps sometimes do, be- 
 come bold and speculative to a degree which may startle those 
 of a more sober-minded temperament, and who have not paid 
 attention to the subject on which they treat ; still, 1 think we 
 may rest satisfied that where theories are advanced not based 
 on truth, they will be but short-lived, and not do much mis- 
 chief in the end. 
 
 •Surely these objectors do not consider themselves as living 
 in a railroad age — if they have ever travelled in the heavy 
 Falmouth mail of olden times (for the distance between that 
 time and this is, in social improvement as regards locomotion, 
 not a part of a generation, but whole centuries) — or if they 
 have ever gone between Paris and Geneva in a French diligence 
 without stopping, let them call this to mind, and they will no 
 longer object to trigonometry. 
 
 As an instance of the force of meaning in a word when it 
 once gets good hold on the public mind — happening to go to 
 a book sale in my own neighbourhood, where there was a copy 
 of an early edition of the Encyclopoedia Britannica, when it 
 was placed on the table for sale, a man, employed by one of 
 the booksellers in London, rather drily, perhaps cunningly, 
 observed, — “ Why, you won’t find the word railroad in it.” 
 Not another word was said ; but after that, I observed there 
 was not a bidder besides himself. 
 
MECHANICS. 
 
 G5 
 
 MECHANICS. 
 
 The teacher should understand the more simple properties 
 of the mechanical powers, and if not equal to the mathematical 
 proofs of them, he should be able to show their application in 
 the tools they are in the habit of using, and in many other 
 things of common life — such as the common steelyard — turning 
 a grindstone — raising water from a well by means of a rope 
 coiling round a cylinder, and the nature of the momentum of 
 bodies — what is meant by the centre of gravity, &c. A skilful 
 teacher, with models of the mechanical powers to assist him, 
 will make this a subject of great interest. For instance, in 
 the lever, assuming the power multiplied the distance from 
 the fulcrum equals the weight multiplied its distance, he might 
 take a rod four feet in length and divide into feet and inches ; 
 at one end he fixes a w^eight, and placing the fulcrum at dif- 
 ferent distances from the weight, shows how the theory and 
 practice agree, by actually testing each particular case, showing 
 that the calculated weight produces an equilibrium. This is 
 a sort of proof by testing it in particular cases, and then by a 
 process of induction assuming it to be generally true. 
 
 Then instance their own attempts at moving a block of 
 wood or stone by means of a lever, placing the fulcrum as 
 near the stone as they can, in order to gain power. 
 
 Boys balancing each other on a piece of wood over a gate, 
 and adapting the length of the arms to their own weights. 
 
 Taking a spade, and supposing it to be pressed into the 
 ground, and pulling at the handle in a direction perpendicular 
 to it, the teacher asks, where the fulcrum is — points out it 
 must be the surface of the ground — the arm the power — the 
 earth pressing against the spade the weight. Show if the 
 power (the man’s arm) is exerted at an acute angle with the 
 handle, power is lost, part of it being employed in forcing the 
 spade deeper into the ground ; if at an obtuse angle with the 
 handle, or an acute angle with the handle produeed, power is 
 again lost, part of it being employed in dragging the spade out 
 of the ground ; that pressing on the handle at a right angle is 
 to work at the greatest advantage : this they perfectly feel 
 from their own experience ; also the necessity of having the 
 spade of a substance specifically heavier than the handle. 
 
 6 § 
 
66 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 The poker in stirring the fire— a pronged hammer in draw- 
 ing a nail (the teacher drawing one)— the axe, when they place 
 it in a cleft of wood edgewise, and press upon the handle to 
 make the opening larger — pair of scales, the steelyard — draw- 
 ing water from a well by means of the windlass — the pump- 
 handle, scissors, &c. 
 
 The knife — the blow of an axe in cutting down a tree — the 
 coulter of the plough, &c. belonging to the wedge. 
 
 In the same way on the inclined plane when the power acts 
 parallel to the plane, and taking for granted that the power 
 is to the weight as the height of the plane to the length, or 
 P ; W : : H : L ; any three of which quantities being given, the 
 fourth may be found. 
 
 Then, for instance, knowing the height of the plane and 
 its length, with a given power they will calculate what weight 
 can be raised, or for a given weight what power must be 
 applied. 
 
 It is in working formula of tliis kind, where a little algebra 
 is required, and this with a knowledge of a few elementary 
 propositions in geometry, which the boys who remain longest 
 at school are getting here, which gives a practical usefulness 
 to their education, which is of great value. 
 
 The teacher should point out what an immense addition to 
 human power all these mechanical appliances are, and besides 
 these, others of a more striking kind, such as wind, water, 
 steam, &c. 
 
 On this subject the following, taken from Babbage on the 
 ^Economy of Machinery,’ and given as an experiment related 
 by M. Rondelet, ^Sur FArt de Batir,’ offers considerable in- 
 struction. A block of squared stone was taken for the subject 
 of experiment : 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1. Weight of stone ...... 1080 
 
 2. In order to drag this stone along the floor of the quarry, roughly 
 
 chiselled, it required a force equal to ... 758 
 
 3. The stone dragged over a floor of planks required . . 652 
 
 4. The same stone placed on a platform of wood, and dragged over 
 
 a floor of planks required ..... 606 
 
 5. After soaping the two surfaces of wood, which slid over each 
 
 other, it required . . . . . .182 
 
 6. The same stone was now placed upon rollers of three inches 
 
 diameter, when it required to put it in motion along the floor 
 of the quarry ...... 
 
 34 
 
MECHANICS. 
 
 67 
 
 28 
 
 7. To drag it by these rollers over a wooden floor 
 
 8. When the stone was mounted on a wooden platform, and the 
 
 same rollers placed between that and a plank floor, it required 22 
 
 From this experiment it results that the force necessary to 
 move a stone along Part of 
 
 its weight. 
 
 The rough chiselled floor of its quarry is nearly 
 
 Along a wooden floor 
 
 By wood upon wood 
 
 If the wooden surfaces are soaped 
 
 With rollers on the floor of the quarry . 
 
 On rollers on wood 
 On rollers between wood 
 
 From a simple inspection of these figures it will appear how 
 much human labour is diminished at each succeeding step, 
 and how much is due to the man who thought of the grease. 
 
 Care should be taken in introductory books containing 
 formula to work from, the proofs of which the teacher per- 
 haps does not understand, that the expressions are correct. 
 I am led to make this observation from the following circum- 
 stance : when I first introduced this working from formulae 
 in the school here, I happened to go in one day when 
 the boys were working out practical results between the 
 power and weight on an inclined plane ; this they were 
 doing by taking the power to the weight, as the height 
 of the plane to the length of the base, in the case of the 
 power acting parallel to the plane ; I was at a loss to con- 
 ceive why master, boys, &c. should look so confident, even 
 after I had pointed out to them the absurdity it led to in a 
 particular case, instancing that if P : W : : H : length of the 
 H 
 
 base, and P = W. , , when the base became 
 
 length or base 
 
 nothing and the plane vertical, the power, instead of being 
 equal to the weight, became infinite, the expression becoming 
 
 W.^; but taking it as the length of the plane, when the 
 
 plane was vertical, L and H were equal, and the expression 
 
 P = W. — would become P = W. ^ = W, as 
 
 length of plane H 
 
 it ought to be. 
 
 This I found arose from their having been reading a lesson 
 on the inclined plane, and the error was, in the formula given 
 
68 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 in the note to the lesson : the confidence of the hoys in the 
 authority of the book, made it rather amusing to observe the 
 shyness with which at first they received my explanation. 
 
 The great art in teaching children is not in talking only, but 
 in practically illustrating what is taught ; for instance, in 
 speaking of the centre of gravity of a body, and merely saying 
 it was that point at which, if supported, the body itself would 
 be supported, might scarcely be intelligble to them ; but 
 showing them that a regular figure, like one of their slates, 
 would balance itself on a line running down the middle, the 
 length way of the slate, and then again on another through 
 the middle of that, and at right angles to it, they see, as the 
 centre of gravity is in both lines, it must be where they cross ; 
 and accordingly if this point be supported the body will be at 
 rest — this they understand. 
 
 Again, balance a triangle of uniform density on a line 
 drawn from one of its angles to the middle of the opposite 
 side — the centre of gravity will be on that line — balance it 
 again on a line drawn in the same way from one of the other 
 angles — the centre of gravity of the body will be in the inter- 
 section of these two lines. 
 
 In the same way methods of finding the centre of gravity of 
 other regular figures mechanically might be pointed out. 
 
 The teacher should also make himself acquainted with the 
 theory of bodies falling by the force of gravity — that it acts 
 separately and equally on every particle of matter without 
 regard to the nature of the body — that all bodies of whatever 
 kind, or whatever be their masses, must move through equal 
 spaces in the same time. This, no doubt, is contrary to 
 common experience — bodies, such as feathers, &c., and what 
 are called light substances, not falling so rapidly as heavy 
 masses — smoke, vapour, balloons, &c., ascending ; all this to 
 be accounted for from the resistance of the atmosphere. 
 
 The spaces described by a falling body being as the squares 
 of the times — that if it describes 16^ feet in one second, 
 in 2, 3, 4, &c., seconds it will describe 4, 9, 16, &c., multi- 
 plied into 1 
 
 To show that while the spaces described in one, two, three, 
 &c. seconds are as the numbers 1, 4, 9, 16, &c., those actu- 
 ally described in the second, third, fourth, &c. successive se- 
 conds are as the odd numbers 3, 5, 7, 9, &c., showing very 
 strikingly the accelerated motion of a falling body. 
 
MECHANICS. 69 
 
 To apply this also to the ascent of bodies projected directly 
 upwards, with a given velocity. 
 
 Again, the moving force of bodies being equal to the mass 
 multiplied into the velocity : How a small body- moving with 
 a great velocity, may produce the same etfect as a large body 
 with a small one — as a small shot killing a bird — a large 
 weight crushing it to death. 
 
 Interesting observations of a simple kind might be made 
 on the strength of timber — weights suspended on beams be- 
 tween supports, such as the walls of a building — these coming 
 under the principle of the lever, &c. ; also such simple things 
 as the following might be asked : Why is it easier to break 
 a two-foot rule flat-ways than edgeways ; and why joists are 
 now always made thin and laid edgeways ? — which our fore- 
 fathers did not understand. Although the reasons are suffi- 
 ciently simple, very few even amongst the tolerably well edu- 
 cated can give a satisfactory explanation of them. The usual 
 answer, that it breaks more easily because it is thinner, will 
 not do. 
 
 Wood, and all fibrous matter, is much stronger in the 
 direction of the fibre than across it, and the strength varies 
 as the square of the dimension in direction of the pressure, 
 multiplied into the dimension transverse to it, when the length 
 
 ,, breadth x depths 
 
 IS given, or generally as the i ' eno-th — * 
 
 It is a curious fact, but completely proved by experiment, 
 that hollow tubes are stronger than solid ones of the same 
 quantity of material — how beautiful this provision of nature, 
 as shown in the structure of the bones of animals, more par- 
 ticularly in those of birds and the larger quadrupeds, giving 
 them the greatest strength, and encumbering them with the 
 least possible weight.* 
 
 * As a means of testing with accuracy and of forming some definite idea 
 of the strength of the hollow stems of plants, &c., the following simple 
 experiment, which I witnessed, by Professor Cowper, of King’s College, 
 London, is very instructive : 
 
 He placed a length of one inch of wheat straw in a vertical position in a 
 hole bored in the lower of two parallel boards, held together by a hinge 
 of the same height, one inch, and then brought down the upper board 
 upon it. This he loaded with a load of sixteen pounds, without any ap- 
 pearance of breaking, and stated that he had known a straw bear as much 
 as 35 lbs. placed in this position, before it broke. 
 
70 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 NATUKAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Nature herself seems to give a very instructive hint on this 
 part of education, in the amusements of early childhood. 
 We see a child as soon as it can use its hands, trying to move, 
 or to lift anything which it can, placing it first in one posi- 
 tion, then in another, and trying it in all the various ways 
 which its senses admit of — in fact, making a variety of expe- 
 riments with it, and this is generally looked upon as mere 
 amusement; but children when thus employed, are, as has 
 been observed by Dr. Reid, acquiring the habits of obser- 
 vation, and by merely indulging an undetermined curiosity, 
 are making themselves acquainted with surrounding objects. 
 If some new effect occurs from any of their little plays, they 
 are eager to repeat it. When a child has for the first time 
 thrown down a spoon from the table, and is pleased with the 
 jingling noise upon the floor, if another or the same is again 
 given to him, he is sure to throw it down, expecting the same 
 noise to occur ; but if a piece of wood is given, he very soon 
 finds out that the same effect does not take place, and is no 
 longer anxious to repeat the experiment. So long as the 
 noise goes on, the child has pleasure in repeating it, and if 
 two objects are given, one of which produces a noise when 
 thrown down in this way, and the other not, he very soon finds 
 out the difference, and acts accordingly, and this is, in fact, 
 the method of induction. The child is thoroughly persuaded 
 that a jingling noise is sure to follow his throwing down the 
 spoon, and goes on repeating it until he is tired. 
 
 Such,” observes the same philosopher, ‘‘ is the education 
 of kind Nature, who, from the beginning to the end of our lives, 
 makes the play of her scholars their most instructive lessons, and 
 has implanted in our mind the curiosity and the inductive pro- 
 pensity by which we are enabled and disposed to learn them.” 
 
 It is an observation of the late Professor Daniel, in some 
 of his works, that the principles of natural philosophy are 
 the principles of common sense,” and from my own experi- 
 ence here in introducing this kind of teaching into the school, 
 I am confident tliat, with those who have been able to remain 
 to an age to profit from it, it has given an hfferest in what 
 they are learning, and a kind of practical character to it, 
 which no other teaching could. 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 71r 
 
 I recollect many years ago, going into a scliool in Germany, 
 and a German gentleman, with whom I was, observed of some- 
 thing they were teaching, das ist kein practicahles ding,” 
 that is no practicable thing — the impression made at the time 
 has remained on my mind ever since. We look upon the 
 Germans, in some respects, as a people fond of theories, but 
 at all events this was a sensible remark. 
 
 The following hints are intended to show to our school- 
 masters, of the class for which this book is intended, the im- 
 portance of being so far instructed in subjects of this nature, 
 as to be able to point out, in a common-sense way, some of 
 those results in science which bear more immediately on the 
 occupations of life ; these will be found not only interesting 
 and instructive to the children while at school, but may be 
 most useful to them after they have left it. 
 
 As a class, no doubt at the present day the far greater 
 number of our schoolmasters are not qualified to give this 
 instruction, but there are many, and that number, I hope, in- 
 creasing, who are ; — to such, although the following pages 
 may not add much to their knowledge, they may perhaps 
 suggest something in the way of imparting it, and in bringing 
 it to bear upon their teaching. They will also point out to 
 others some things with which they may easily make them- 
 selves acquainted, and a few simple experiments which are 
 easily tried. 
 
 Among the more striking of these things will be such as 
 the following : the elastic and other properties of air — the 
 nature of aeriform fluids — of water — how the pressure of 
 fluid bodies differs from that of solids — how these properties 
 enable man to turn them to useful purposes, such as wind- 
 mills, watermills, &c. 
 
 Civilized man is able to take advantage of these properties, 
 and avail himself of them as motive powers in the business of 
 life ; the savage, on the contrary, observes the trees torn up 
 by the winds, stones and rubbish carried down by mountain 
 torrents, but is unable to turn this observation to any useful 
 purpose.* 
 
 * Archbishop Whateley, in his ^ Introductory Lectures on Political 
 Economy,’ observes : “ Many of the commonest arts, which are the most 
 universal among mankind, and which appear the simplest, and require but 
 a very humble degree of intelligence for their exercise, are yet such that 
 
72 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 And first of the atmosphere — a sphere of air surrounding 
 the earth — has substance and weight, but is invisible — elastic, 
 can be squeezed into a less space by pressure — expands again 
 when the pressure is removed— expands by heat and contracts 
 by cold. This may be easily made intelligible to them in the 
 following way : 
 
 Take a tumbler and invert it — or better, take a jar used for 
 gases, with an air-tight stopper, and placing its mouth hori- 
 zontally on the surface of the water, in a pneumatic trough, 
 or in any vessel of sufficient depth, having a shelf for sup- 
 port, show them, by letting them feel it, the difficulty of 
 pressing the jar down — it offers resistance — increase the pres- 
 sure, the air occupies less and less space, but the water inside 
 the glass does not rise so high as on the outside ; — difference 
 owing to what ? — point out. Diminish the pressure, it again 
 expands, showing its elasticity. Of course the attention of 
 the children must be called to the surface of the water inside 
 and outside the jar. 
 
 Take out the stopper, the jar sinks by its own weight, 
 proving clearly that the resistance was offered by the air. 
 
 Again, allow the jar to fill with water, put in the stopper, 
 and raise the jar nearly to the surface of the water in the 
 trough — explain why the column of water is supported, and 
 would be supported if the jar were 33 feet high at the ordi- 
 
 ■we must suppose various accidents to have occurred, and to have been 
 noted — many observations to have been made and combined — and many 
 experiments to have been tried — in order to their being originally in- 
 vented. 
 
 “ And the difficulty must have been much greater, before the invention 
 and the familiar use of writing had enabled each generation to record for 
 the use of the next, not only its discoveries, but its observations and in- 
 complete experiments. It has often occurred to me that the longevity of 
 the antediluvians may have been a special provision to meet this diffi- 
 culty in those early ages which most needed such help. Even now that 
 writing is in use, a single individual, if he live long enough to follow up 
 a train of experiments, has a great advantage in respeet of discoveries over 
 a succession of individuals ; because he will recollect, wffien the occasion 
 arises, many of his former observations, and of the ideas that had occurred 
 to his mind, whieh, at the time, he had not thought wmrth reeording. But 
 previous to the use of writing, the advantage of being able to combine in 
 one’s own person the experience of several centuries, must have been of 
 immense importance ; and it was an advantage which the circumstances of 
 the case seemed to require.” 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 73 
 
 nary pressure of the atmosphere— take out the stopper, the 
 water immediately falls ; — or while the column of water re- 
 mains, show how the jar may be filled with air, by carrying 
 down successive tumblers of it until the jar is filled.* 
 
 From this the method first used of taking down barrels of 
 air into a diving-bell is easily understood. 
 
 Air expands by heat. Experiment : A half-blown bladder 
 placed before the fire, the wrinkles disappear, the air expand- 
 ing it ; remove it, the air again contracts. 
 
 Place the same under the receiver of an air-pump, it ex- 
 pands from diminished pressure. 
 
 Air has weight, A bottle exhausted of the air is lighter 
 than when full — difference, the weight of a volume, of air 
 equal to the contents of the bottle — this means air at the 
 ordinary temperature and pressure of the atmosphere — 100 
 cubic inches dry pure air weigh 31*0117 grains, being for a 
 cubic yard 4^ oz. 
 
 Drinking through a straw. The teacher, taking a straw and 
 a basin of water, shows them, if the mouth or orifice of the 
 straw is not wholly immersed, or under water, the water will 
 not rise ; wholly covered — when they begin to draw out the 
 air the water immediately rises, and why ? — What takes place 
 if a hole is made in the straw above the surface of the water ? 
 Water does not rise. — What if you plunge it deeper, so that 
 the hole made in the straw is below the surface ? — It imme- 
 diately rises again. — Reasons for all this, which, if they com- 
 prehend, they will at once understand the barometer and 
 common pump. 
 
 Again, a piece of wet leather with a string attached, called 
 a sucker : — press it with the foot against a stone — removes 
 the air between the leather and the stone — leather, say a 
 square piece three inches on a side, ought to support 9 X 15 
 pounds, only supports, say 801bs. — reason why? The vacuum 
 not complete. Then take a circular piece, three inches dia- 
 meter, let them find the area, and calculate how much it 
 ought to support. This is the principle on which a fly is able 
 to walk along a pane of glass, or across the ceiling. 
 
 The common syringe. The popgun they are in the habit of 
 making out of a piece of the elder tree — how, by pressing 
 
 * Why is it necessary to have a vent-peg in a barrel — or how does it 
 happen that the teapot sometimes will not pour, &c. 
 
 7 
 
74 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS, 
 
 down the rod, the elasticity of the air forces out the pellet at 
 the other end ; when they cease to press the rod of it down, 
 the elasticity of the air within forces it back. 
 
 A pair of common bellows. Show them the construction — 
 the valve, or trap-door in the bottom board, opening only 
 inwards — the bellows fill with air when the boards are sepa- 
 rated — valve shuts down, and the air goes out at the nozzle 
 when they are pressed together — -will not work when turned 
 upside down, why ? — the current of air makes the fire burn 
 better ; — the reasons for all this. The teacher should have a 
 pair of bellows, and show what takes place at each movement 
 of the board, and let them handle them themselves. 
 
 The barometer. The teacher shows them the instrument, 
 how constructed, and what it is for; — pressure of the air 
 supports a column of mercury about 30 inches — a column of 
 water about 33 feet — the height of the column being less in 
 proportion as the specific gravity of the fluid is greater — not 
 so high if carried to the top of a mountain,* and why? — tem- 
 perature at which w^ater boils varies with the height of the 
 barometer --boils at a less heat on the top of a mountain than 
 at the bottom. The mode of ascertaining the height of 
 mountains by means of the barometer. — Why this method is 
 more to be relied on in tropical climates than in high lati- 
 tudes, &c. 
 
 The principle of the common pump might now be ex- 
 plained to them — how the atmospheric pressure which sup- 
 ports the mercury enables them to pump up water — having a 
 model of a pump, or even with paper and pasteboard, show- 
 ing the kind of tubes and nature of the valves, this may be 
 clearly explained — pointing out how the valves act at each 
 separate movement up and down of piston-rod — the limit to 
 which water can be raised — the experiment of Torricelli, &c. 
 
 Supposing the atmospheric pressure about 151bs. on the 
 square inch — how much on five square inches ? — how much 
 on five inches square ? — on a square three inches on a side ? — 
 on the surface of the floor or the table ? — making them have 
 
 * Pascal, in Prance, about the year 1647, was the first tp make this 
 experiment, which he did at the summit and foot of a mountain in Auvergne, 
 called Le Puy-de-D6me, the result of which led him to conclude that the 
 air had weight. He also tried it at the top of several high towers, which 
 convince d him of the weight of the atmosphere. 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 75 
 
 recourse to tlie two-foot rule ; — pressure on the animal body 
 &c., and how counteracted. A fish under water has the pres- 
 sure of the air, 1 51bs. on a square inch, besides the pressure from 
 its depth in the water ; — a basin of water with a live fish in it, 
 when placed under the receiver of the air-pump and exhausted, 
 the air-bladder expands, and the fish turns on its back. 
 
 They may easily be made to understand that the atmosphere 
 is an aeriform fluid surrounding the globe, acted on like other 
 bodies by the force of gravity, consisting principally of two 
 airs or gases, varying in weight, and partly of a third, heavier 
 than either of the others, but if placed upon each other in 
 the order of their specific gravities, the heaviest nearest the 
 surface of the earth, next heaviest in the middle, and the 
 lightest at the top, that they would not remain in this order 
 of superposition, as, for instance, the three fluids, quicksilver, 
 water, and oil, would do ; but the heavy one at the bottom 
 would rise up and travel through the pores of the other, and 
 the lighter one would descend, this being a property peculiar 
 to bodies of this nature, and called the difiusion of gases. 
 That, in addition to this, there is an atmosphere of vapour of 
 water, arising from evaporation from the surface of the earth 
 and of water, and which is in itself lighter than dry atmo- 
 spheric air ; a cubic inch of water at the common atmospheric 
 pressure forming about 1700 cubic inches of vapour; there- 
 fore a cubic inch of vapour of water is about of the 
 
 weight of a cubic inch of water — a cubic inch of common 
 atmospheric air about 
 
 Having called their attention to the fact that a substance 
 lighter than water will, if plunged into it, rise to the top ; 
 that of two fluids the lighter will rest upon the heavier, ar- 
 ranging themselves according to their specific gravities — as 
 water upon mercury — oil upon water — cream upon milk — 
 they will easily understand why bodies lighter than air ascend 
 in it, as the smoke from their chimneys — tell them to watch 
 it, particularly on a still calm day — why it ascends to a certain 
 point and then stands still — why it stands still and does not 
 rise higher ; the principle on which a balloon ascends, a soap- 
 bubble, &c. 
 
 Again, why there is a draught up the chimney ; — the air 
 rarefied, how this takes place ; — why a current of air under 
 the door and towards the fire — and another perhaps out of 
 the room at the top of the door. 
 
76 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 The kind of resistance offered by the air to a falling body — 
 this increases with the density — that under the receiver of an 
 air-pump, a guinea and a feather would fall in the same time. 
 
 As a simple experiment, showing the effect of rarefaction 
 of air, the teacher might light a piece of paper, and while 
 burning place it in a teacup, and invert the cup in a saucer 
 of water — the water will immediately be driven into the cup 
 with a gurgling noise. 
 
 Again, the practice which cooks have of putting an inverted 
 teacup in a fruit pie, as they think with a view to prevent the 
 syrup running over, as the pie bakes the air in the cup is 
 rarefied, driven into the pie- dish, through the crust, into the 
 atmosphere — when taken out of the oven it cools, the rarefied 
 air in the cup is condensed, but as the mouth of the cup is 
 surrounded with the juices of the pie, air cannot get into it, 
 but it forces the liquid up. 
 
 The teacher explains why the resistance of the air in moving 
 along is so little felt — some of the consequences of its being 
 disturbed, and causes of its being put in motion — a breeze, 
 hurricane, &c. ; he would also speak of the forces of these at 
 different velocities — the force varying as the square of the 
 velocity. This short table might be the subject of a lesson : 
 
 Velocity of the 
 wind in miles per 
 hour. 
 
 Perpendicular 
 force on one square 
 foot in pounds. 
 
 — 
 
 5 
 
 •123 
 
 Gentle wind. 
 
 10 
 
 •492 
 
 Brisk gale. 
 
 20 
 
 1-968 
 
 Very brisk. 
 
 40 
 
 7-872 
 
 High wind. 
 
 80 
 
 31-488 
 
 Hurricane. 
 
 It will be easy to calculate the force of the wind acting on a 
 given surface, doing so in particular cases will be instructive. 
 
 Tell them they may form an idea of the velocity of wind by 
 watching the shadows of clouds, or the clouds themselves, and 
 if ever they should travel by railroad on a sunny day, to ob- 
 serve the shadow of the train as it passes over one field after 
 another, and from this they may form some idea of the speed 
 at which they are travelling. 
 
 Air as a vehicle of sound: 
 
 A bell under the receiver of an air-pump when exhausted, 
 is not heard. 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 77 
 
 Bodies which produce the sensation of sound on the ear are 
 in a state of vibration, as in a bell — the running a wet finger 
 along the rim of a common drinking-glass, &c. 
 
 Here having to do with the instruction of children engaged 
 in country occupations, I have called their attention in this, 
 as in other subjects, to things coming under their observation, 
 in a way something like the following : 
 
 Did you ever observe a woodman cutting down a tree at a 
 distance ; you could see the hatchet fall, and some time after 
 that the sound of the blow came to your ear. Do you know 
 the reason?* 
 
 Teacher : Light travels so fast that the time it is in coming 
 from the hatchet to you is so small that it cannot be reckoned; 
 so that when you see the hatchet fall, that is the instant the 
 blow is given; but sound, coming at a very slow pace (1142 
 feet in a second), takes as many seconds to get to your ear as 
 when multiplied by 1142, would give the number of feet be- 
 tween you and the man cuting down the tree. 
 
 For instance, if it were 2^' his distance would be 1 142ft. x 2, 
 if 3" 1 142 X 3, and so on. 
 
 Did you ever see a man firing a gun at a distance, and, after 
 seeing the flash, wondered why you did not hear the sound, or 
 that you were kept considering how long it would be before 
 the sound came ? Do you know the reason — can you explain 
 it ? Because sound lags behind, and the flash takes up no 
 time in coming to the eye. 
 
 Supposing you were 5" before you heard the sound after 
 seeing the flash, how far would you be olF? — 5 X 1142; 
 how far ? — 6 X 1 142, and so on. 
 
 When we hear the Portsmouth guns here, if you could have 
 seen the flash, do you think you could find out the distance 
 between this and Portsmouth ? 
 
 Supposing a man was standing where you could see him k 
 mile off, and you saw the flash of his gun, how long would it 
 be before you heard the sound ? A mile in feet divided by 
 1142 would give the number of seconds before I could hear 
 the sound. 
 
 Teacher : How do you think the sound gets to your ear? The 
 air in the gunpowder suddenly expands and disturbs the air 
 
 7 § 
 
 See Appendix (B). 
 
78 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 immediately about it, or the hatchet causes a vibration or tre- 
 mulous motion in the wood, which sets the air in motion all 
 round about ; and this makes a sort of circular wave, beginning 
 from a point which gradually enlarges, one circle of the air of 
 the atmosphere striking against another, until it reaches the 
 ear, unless it meets with some hinderance in the way ; just as 
 when you throw a stone into a smooth pond, a wave, begin- 
 ning from the stone, spreads in every direction, until it reaches 
 the bank. The air is as necessary to continue the sound up to 
 your ear as the water is to make the wave come up to the bank. 
 
 Sound goes much quicker in water — nearly four times as 
 quick as in air, and in solids from ten to twenty times quicker ; 
 so that if you splash in the water at one end of a pond, the 
 fish would hear you much sooner than a boy standing at the 
 opposite side would do. 
 
 Now, in order that you may understand how well solids 
 convey sounds, the next time you see a solid log of deal, or 
 timber not very knotty and broken in the grain, at the car- 
 penter’s shop, set one of the boys to scratch at one end of it, 
 and the rest of you go and listen at the other. Try the same 
 on a block of stone, marble, &c. 
 
 But perhaps this will amuse you more : when you see the 
 kettle on the fire, and you cannot tell whether it boils or not, 
 place one end of the poker on the lid, the other to your ear, 
 and it will tell you. If you strike with a hammer on a solid 
 wall at one end, and some of you go and fix your ears against 
 the other, you will most likely hear the sound of the blow 
 twice — the first going along the wall you may call the wall- 
 wave (coming more quickly), the second, a little after, through 
 the air, coming with the air-wave we have talked of before. 
 Try if you can hear two reports of the same knock by tapping 
 with a hammer at the end of a log of wood— one along the 
 wood, the other along the air. 
 
 You have heard of the wild natives of America — when they 
 think their enemies are near, they lie down on the ground, 
 and, by applying their ears to it, they can judge of the dis- 
 tance, and hear sooner than through the air. 
 
 Did you ever hear what is called an echo ? 
 
 Supposing you were to clap your hands violently together, 
 that creates a wave in the air which carries the sound along 
 with it ; now, if this wave happens to meet with a wall or a 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 79 
 
 rock, or any obstacle in its way, it is checked and beat back, 
 and so brings the sound with it a second time to your ear ; 
 and again, after passing you, if it met with the same sort of 
 obstacle on the other side, it would be sent back again, and 
 so strike your ear in passing and repassing, losing a little 
 every time until it entirely died away. This would be called 
 an echo ; people living in a flat country have not so many 
 opportunities of observing it as those who inhabit a craggy 
 and mountainous one. 
 
 Water — a fluid at the common temperature of the atmo- 
 sphere. Have you ever seen it solid ? In winter — in frost — 
 it is then ice. — How high does the thermometer stand when 
 water begins to freeze ? 32°. — Look at the thermometer in 
 
 the room, how high is it ? 52°. — How many degrees above 
 
 the freezing-point ? — Does it increase in volume when it be- 
 comes ice? Water, from the temperature of about 39°, ex- 
 pands as it grows colder, and at 32°, when it becomes ice, 
 expands so as to crack water-bottles, water-pipes ; a piece of 
 ice floats in water, part of it being above the surface ; if it 
 were of equal weight with the same volume of water, it 
 would just sink so as to have no part above. — You should 
 never let water stand in leaden pipes, or in vessels likely to 
 be broken by its freezing in severe frosts. This expansion of 
 water in becoming ice how serviceable to the farmer, in some 
 soils in pulverizing and making them fit for vegetation — good 
 for gardens, &c. !* 
 
 Quicksilver, unlike water in this respect, contracts and be- 
 comes denser in becoming solid. It has been ascertained by 
 leaving it exposed to the cold in high latitudes, where it has 
 assumed a solid form, and observing the temperature at which 
 it begins to thaw, that the freezing point is about 40° below 
 zero of Fahrenheit. 
 
 Attention may be called to the way in which the roads are 
 
 * “ That water contracts in reducing the temperature to about 40°, and 
 below that again expands, is easily shown, by taking two equal thermo- 
 meters, the one filled with water and the other with spirit; placing them 
 in melting ice, the spirit one will gradually fall to the freezing point, 
 but the other will fall to about 40° and then begin to rise. By Act 
 of Parliament the temperature at which the specific gravity of spirits is 
 determined by the excise, and at which the standard weights and measures 
 is adjusted, is 62° of Fahrenheit.'' — Daniel's Chemical Philosophy, 
 
80 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 raised up in winter by tbe freezing of the moisture within 
 them — how after a thaw a loaded cart or waggon sinks in, 
 causing deep ruts — how rocks and stone, which have absorbed 
 much moisiure, split after frost — parts of buildings peel 
 off, &c. 
 
 Can water be made into a vapour — something you cannot 
 see? By heat it becomes steam, thermometer 212° at the 
 average pressure of the atmosphere ; one inch of water makes 
 about a cubic foot, 1728 inches, if further heated it exerts a 
 greater pressure in trying to escape, pressing on the surface 
 of the vessel in which it is. This is the property which makes 
 it so serviceable to us in grinding our corn, moving the ma- 
 chinery for spinning and weaving, of steam-boats, &c. and as a 
 motive power on our railroads, carrying us forty or fifty miles an 
 hour. If cooled below 2 1 2° it immediately falls back, shrinks 
 up into one inch, and becomes visible water again, giving out 
 a great deal of heat ; — instance steam raising the kettle-lid. 
 
 Why does the teakettle just before boiling very often force 
 out a quantity of water from the spout ? Because the air, 
 driven from the water by heat, and the steam which is forming 
 from the water rise to the top, and the lid happening to be 
 air-tight, it cannot escape, and being lighter than water it 
 cannot descend, so the vapour or steam under the lid increases 
 and expands, and, pressing upon the surface of the water, 
 forces it out at the pipe. — ^Did you ever see on a frosty day, 
 when you were going with a team, what you call the breath 
 of the horses, or your own breath ? Yes, sir. 
 
 Teacher : The warm air from the horses’ mouths, or from 
 your own mouth, containing vapour which you cannot see 
 when the air has a certain degree of warmth in it, as soon as 
 it comes in contact with the colder air gets cooled, and the 
 steam or vapour becomes water (is what they call condensed), 
 or perhaps watery vapour, which you can see, instead of a 
 vapour which you could not see. 
 
 Did you ever see sugar or salt melted in water ? No, sir ; 
 but we have seen sugar in tea. — Then the teacher takes a 
 small phial containing water and puts in a certain quantity of 
 salt, when entirely melted they see the fluid perfectly clear ; 
 increase the quantity beyond what the water will take up, this 
 remains undissolved; if the temperature of the water were 
 increased it would take up more ; in the same way the air 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 81 
 
 will take up a greater quantity of vapour the warmer it is, 
 and, coming from the mouth warm, it holds more vapour than 
 it is able to do, when it comes in contact with the cold air, and 
 throws some of it down, so that you can see it ; thus, water 
 on the inside of the window in frosty weather — dew on the 
 outer surface of a bottle of cold water in hot weather, &c. — the 
 quantity of watery vapour in the air in hot climates greater than 
 in cold, hence torrents of rain when it is suddenly cooled, &c. 
 
 About London, latitude 51° 30', the average fall of rain in 
 the year is about 23 inches ; while in Rome, latitude 41° 54', 
 it is 38 inches ;* at Calcutta, latitude 22° 34', it is 81 inches ; 
 and in climates like the West Indies upwards of 100 inches ; 
 but though the quantity of rain falling in hot countries is 
 greater than in the temperate ones, the number of wet days 
 is greater in the latter than in the former ; there is more 
 moisture in the air in our climate in summer than in winter ; 
 but from the greater temperature it is held up, and is not so 
 sensible to us. 
 
 Two fluids in the same vessel, one lighter than the other, 
 which would get to the bottom? The heavier one. — Give 
 instances. Milk and cream, water and oil, quicksilver and 
 water, water and air. 
 
 The teacher, holding up a glass : What is this glass full of? 
 Atmospheric air. — If I pour in water, what does that do ? 
 Drive out the air, because it is the heavier fluid? — If I pour 
 quicksilver into a glass of water what would take place? The 
 quicksilver would drive out the water for the same reason. — 
 If water upon mercury, or oil upon water ? The water or oil, 
 being the lighter fluids, would rest on the top, and the same 
 thing would take place if carbonic acid or any gas heavier 
 than air were poured in. — Another instance : All a small phial 
 with water, leaving room for a bubble of air, and then cork 
 it ; holding it in a horizontal position the bubble rests in the 
 middle, elevate one end, the bubble rises to the top ; show 
 how this may be used as a spirit-level. 
 
 Look at that cubical vessel on the table, divided into two 
 equal parts by a division in the middle. Suppose one di- 
 
 * By inches of rain is meant the depth at which it would stand on 
 every square inch of surface on which it falls, supposing none to be ab- 
 sorbed by the soil or to evaporate. 
 
82 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 vision full of mercury, the other of water, and the partition 
 suddenly withdrawn, what happens? The mercury imme- 
 diately covers the bottom of both parts, and the water rises 
 to the top. 
 
 Take a bottle of water from a cool spring or from the 
 pump ; place it in the sun or in a room — for instance, as you 
 see it sometimes in a bedroom. You will observe air-bubbles 
 form themselves on the surface of the glass — at the bottom 
 and the sides — this is air contained in the water. As it takes 
 the temperature of the room these air-bubbles form them- 
 selves, expand as they rise, come suddenly to the top, the 
 water being of equal temperature throughout. Why does the 
 bubble expandas it rises ? The pressure upon its surface varies 
 as the depth, and therefore the nearer the surface the less the 
 pressure. 
 
 How is it, then, if you place water in an open saucepan on 
 the fire to heat, we see at first bubbles form themselves at the 
 bottom, like pieces of glass, rise up a little way, and then lost 
 before coming to the surface ? 
 
 The air in that part of the water in contact with the bottom 
 of the saucepan, immediately it begins to feel additional 
 warmth, forms a bubble, rises up a little way, and although 
 the pressure is diminished, it becomes again compressed, in 
 consequence of coming in contact with cooler v/ater as it rises. 
 This it is, 1 believe, which causes what is called the hissing of 
 the kettle. 
 
 If you were to boil a quart of water until it has all, as you 
 call it, boiled away, what has become of it ? — All turned into 
 steam. — If water with salt or chalk in it ? — The water would 
 go into vapour, and the chalk or salt left behind, at the bottom 
 of the kettle. 
 
 Did you ever see a white crust at the bottom of your tea- 
 kettle? — Yes, sir ; but we don’t know what it is. — Don’t you 
 know we live upon what is called a chalk soil here, and the 
 rain that falls makes its way through the chalk and comes out 
 underneath it, having taken up some of the chalk in its way 
 through. If our hills had been of iron ore, lead, or salt, the 
 water would have taken up some of these substances in passing 
 through them, as it always takes up some of the earth through 
 which it filters — as it is a fluid in which many things are soluble; 
 thus, we get water v/ith chalk in it — when you boil it, the 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 83 
 
 pure water goes off in vapour, and leaves the chalk behind, 
 ■which falls to the bottom of the kettle : besides this, although 
 hot water will hold up or melt more sugar or salt than cold, 
 yet it will not hold more chalk, on the contrary less, as the 
 heating drives off a particular gas or air (called carbonic acid 
 gas), which has a great liking for the chalk, and holds it up 
 in the water, so that what falls to the bottom partly belongs 
 to the water which is driven off, and partly to that which is 
 left in the kettle. These are two reasons therefore why your 
 kettle has a white mass of chalk at the bottom. 
 
 Taking off the lid of a kettle when the water is boiling, 
 turning it up, what do you observe ? Drops of water. These 
 are formed by the steam coming against the lid, cooling it 
 down so that it becomes water — the lid being in contact with 
 the atmosphere conducts off the heat from the steam — this is 
 distilled water or pure water, containing no lime, salt, &c. 
 
 Two fluids mixed together, which become vapours at diffe- 
 rent temperatures, may be easily separated — thus a mixture of 
 spirit and water ; heat the mixture up to the temperature at 
 which spirit becomes vapour, it goes off and may be collected, 
 the water remaining behind. 
 
 That the boiling point of water or any other fluid varies 
 with the atmospheric pressure — how this may be applied to 
 find the altitude of mountains — that water at the top of Mont 
 Blanc, for instance, boils at a temperature of about 187° — 
 that a difference of in the boiling point corresponds to about 
 530 feet of ascent,* and this difference in boiling will denote a 
 fall of about 0*589 inch of barometric pressure — that, under 
 the receiver of an air-pump, water may be made to boil at a 
 very much lower temperature than in the air. This and other 
 things of a similar kind I find, from experience, may be made 
 most instructive and useful to them, and more particularly if 
 a school is provided with a philosophical apparatus with which 
 the experiments can be shown. A table of the temperatures 
 at which different fluids boil and freeze should be suspended 
 on the wall. 
 
 Heat water to boiling in a Florence flask, cork it well when 
 
 * Archdeacon Wollaston invented an apparatus of such delicacy for 
 ascertaining this, that the difference of the height of a common table 
 from the ground would produce a difference in the boiling point, which 
 was clearly shown by the instrument. 
 
84 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 boiling, and turn the flask upside-down, having removed it 
 from the lamp it now ceases to boil ; sprinkle water on the 
 surface of the bottle, the steam within is condensed, and it 
 again begins to boil ; when it again ceases to boil, from the 
 elasticity of the steam within, repeat the sprinkling, and it 
 commences boiling again ; thus the application of cold makes 
 the water boil. 
 
 The different ways in which water and metals are heated — 
 hot current ascending, the cold water descending, and metals 
 from particle to particle ; point out also the difference in the 
 process, in attempting to heat water by placing the fire above 
 and not under the vessel containing it. 
 
 Salt is got from sea water by exposing it to the air in large 
 pans ; the water goes off in vapour and leaves the salt behind ; 
 the greater the surface exposed to the air the more rapidly the 
 water goes off. Shallow pans better than deep, and why ; 
 Do you not observe the water lessen very much in summer in 
 your sheep-ponds, even when you do not take cattle to drink 
 at them ? It is taken up by the air ; in the same way a good 
 brisk wind dries rapidly the hay, corn, clothes after washing ; 
 and if you want anything that has been washed to dry fast, 
 you unfold it as much as you can in order to expose all its 
 surface to the air. For the same reason you spread out the 
 grass and leave the corn in the field, in order that the fluid 
 matter contained in them may be taken off. 
 
 Salt also is found as a mineral in Cheshire, Poland, &c. ; 
 and salt-springs are very often found in the coal-mines in 
 some districts, particularly in Durham and Newcastle, where a 
 great part of the salt used by the miners for their own domestic 
 purposes is supplied by the salt-springs in the mines. 
 
 The following is an easy instructive experiment: Take a small 
 quantity of rock-salt and also of saltpetre, the crystals of 
 which differ very much, dissolve them together in water, they 
 form a clear limpid fluid. Pour this solution of the two into 
 a small dish and let it evaporate ; crystals of pure salt and 
 saltpetre will be the result, the beautiful long crystals of salt- 
 petre being totally devoid of salt. This shows clearly that the 
 atoms of salt have an attraction for and seek for their own 
 atoms — the same of the saltpetre, and that if there is any 
 attraction of the one for the other, it is less than that among 
 themselves. 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 85 
 
 Dew, When it is once understood that the air of the atmo- 
 sphere holds up a considerable quantity of vapour, and that the 
 greater its temperature the greater is the quantity which it 
 holds, it will be easily understood that, when any portion of 
 air comes in contact with a body colder than itself, that it will 
 throw down some of its moisture. 
 
 During the daytime the earth, plants, &c., absorb heat from 
 the sun ; when he goes down they radiate or give off part of 
 the heat they have absorbed, and consequently cool; — this 
 cools the air in contact with them, and when cooled below the 
 point which enables it to hold up all the vapour which it had 
 taken up during the day, it lets it fall again — this is called the 
 dew-point. Now, some plants and some leaves, and earths 
 give off heat faster than others — on such a more copious dew 
 will be deposited. On the contrary, gravelled walks, stone, 
 &c., give off heat less rapidly, and on them little or no dew is 
 deposited. 
 
 This all know from experience, or at least may easily ascer- 
 tain it: — then to call their attention to the beautiful drops of 
 dew formed on the leaves — the service they are to the plants 
 — the beautiful provision of the Almighty in causing the dew 
 to fall more copiously on the vegetable world, which wants it, 
 than on the mineral — attraction of cohesion keeping the 
 globules together, &c. Why they disappear in the morning, 
 again becoming vapour. 
 
 Any schoolmaster taking an interest in this subject, will see 
 some very simple but curious and instructive experiments in 
 Griffiths’s ^ Chemistry of the Four Seasons.’ They consist in 
 taking equal portions of dry wool of a given weight, and plac- 
 ing them in the evening — one on gravel, another on glass — 
 another on grass, but sheltered by a slight covering a little 
 elevated above it, and then at sunrise taking them up and 
 weighing them ; of course the increased weight, which will in 
 all these positions vary very much, is the weight of water 
 deposited in the shape of dew. These and a variety of pheno- 
 mena connected with this subject, easy of explanation — such 
 as the mists — the fogs rising in damp, marshy places — follow- 
 ing the course of a river, and many appearances of a like kind, 
 which those living in the country are in the habit of witness- 
 ing, may be studied with great interest ; but, as it is merely 
 my object to throw out what I conceive to be useful hints, I 
 will not pursue it further. 8 
 
86 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 The force with which the absorption of moisture by porous 
 bodies causes them to expand is much greater than those who 
 have never thought on the subject have any idea of. 
 
 As an instance of this, and of turning it to a practical pur- 
 pose, Sir John Herschel, in his ‘Discourse on the Study of 
 Natural Philosophy,’ gives the following very interesting one, 
 as a process which is had recourse to in some parts of France 
 where millstones are made : “ When a mass of stone suffi- 
 ciently large is found it is cut into a cylinder several feet high, 
 and the question then arises how to subdivide this into hori- 
 zontal pieces, so as to make as many millstones. For this 
 purpose horizontal indentations or grooves are chiselled out 
 quite round the cylinder, at distances corresponding to the 
 thickness intended to be given to the millstone, into which 
 wedges of dried wood are driven. These are then wetted or 
 exposed to the night dew^ and next morning the different pieces 
 are found separated from each other by the expansion of the 
 wood arising from its absorption of moisture.” 
 
 This is a very curious instance of a simple natural power 
 doing what would require great trouble and expense to effect ; 
 either by chiselling through, or by any machinery of sawing, 
 sometimes used for dividing blocks of stone. The same author 
 also mentions another instance where a knowledge of the laws 
 of nature, although acting here in a different way, is called into 
 action. In this case the heat first expanding, and then the 
 application of the water causing a sudden contraction. In the 
 granite quarries near Seringapatam the most enormous blocks 
 are separated from the solid rock by the following neat and 
 simple process. The workmen, having found a portion of the 
 rock sufficiently extensive, and situated near the edge of the 
 part already quarried, lay bare the upper surface, and mark on 
 it a line in the direction of the intended separation, along 
 which a groove is cut with a chisel, about a couple of inches 
 in depth. Above this groove a narrow line of fire is then 
 kindled and maintained till the rock below is thoroughly 
 heated, immediately on which a line of men and women, each 
 provided with a potful of cold water, suddenly sweep off the 
 ashes, and pour the water into the heated groove, when the 
 rock at once splits with a clean fracture. Square blocks of 
 six feet in the side, and upwards of eighty feet in length, are 
 sometimes detached by this method. 
 
 The following practical way of giving an insight into the 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 87 
 
 principle on which bodies float in fluids lighter than them- 
 selves, and of estimating their weight by the quantity of fluid 
 displaced, has been found very serviceable : 
 
 Tliey have two tin vessels, a larger and a smaller one, the 
 large one having a small spout level with the top, so that, 
 when filled with water and running over, it may discharge 
 itself into the small vessel placed by the side of it : the small 
 one of known dimensions, say nine inches square at the bottom 
 and six inches high, with a graduated line on one of the sides, 
 so that it may be immediately seen to what height the water 
 rises when flowing into it, and of course knowing the area of 
 the base, and multiplying this into the height at w^hich the 
 water stands, will give its volume. 
 
 Then they are provided with a number of cubes of wood, 
 the woods of the parish, oak, elm, ash, &c., four inches on a 
 side — together with other pieces of any irregular shapes, for 
 the purpose of experiment. 
 
 Having filled the larger vessel with water up to the spout, 
 and placed the smaller one under it, the teacher takes a cube 
 of oak, for instance, floats it on the water, which imme- 
 diately begins to flow into the smaller vessel, and when it has 
 ceased to do so, the height at which k stands is observed. 
 They then calculate the number of cubic inches of water dis- 
 placed. 
 
 This they know is equal to the number of cubic inches of 
 oak under water — (the teacher should show them the proof of 
 this) — that it is equal in weight to the piece of oak — (proof) 
 — then knowing that the weight of a cubic foot of water, tem- 
 perature about 62°, is 1000 ozs., and why it is necessary to 
 specify the temperature— they calculate, for instance, the 
 weight of a cubic inch, by dividing 1000 by 1728, the number 
 of inches in a foot. 
 
 Then multiplying the w' eight of one inch by the number of 
 inches, this gives the weight of w^ater displaced, and the weight 
 of the wood. 
 
 They then take the piece of wood, tie a string round it, 
 weigh it by a spring balance, and find this exactly agrees with 
 the figures they have worked out ; and it is this weighing 
 which gives such a character of certainty to what they have 
 been doing, which makes them take pleasure in the work. 
 Weighing before floating it is better. 
 
88 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Again, knowing the measurement of the piece of wood, 
 supposing it to be one of known dimensions, subtracting the 
 number of solid inches under water from the whole, gives 
 them that part of the body above the surface, and which is 
 floating in air. 
 
 The same would be done with pieces of ash, elm, fir, &c. 
 Also in winter, pieces of ice afford a teacher who under- 
 stands the subject an opportunity of giving a useful lesson — 
 pointing out how water becomes solid at a particular tempera- 
 ture — that although water freezes at this particular point, yet 
 pieces of ice may have a temperature far below this — that a 
 piece of ice, temperature 20°, as measured by Fahrenheit, 
 would be of more service for cooling butter, water, &c., than 
 one at 32°, and so on. 
 
 The teacher might ask such a question as. What is the 
 atmospheric pressure on the surface of the water in the vessel ? 
 making them calculate it, and showing how it varies with the 
 barometer. 
 
 It is by repeating these questions over and over again, in a 
 practical way, that they tell on the minds of children. 
 
 Again, take a small square, or oblong, or a box of any shape 
 — a piece of wood hollowed out like a boat — a tin, such as 
 tarts and bread are usually baked in : floating these, and load- 
 ing them with weights until the water reaches the edge — they 
 then see clearly that the quantity of water displaced is equal 
 to the measure, in volume, of the vesssel and the material of 
 which it is made ; and that a boat will just float, when the 
 weight of the cargo and the weight of the boat taken together 
 are equal to this displaced volume of the fluid in which it 
 floats, and that any weight beyond this will sink it. 
 
 Calculating the weight of this volume of water displaced, 
 and subtracting from it the weight of the boat, gives the ex- 
 treme weight which the boat would carry without sinking. 
 
 Applying this to boats made of iron, or any other heavy 
 metal, it is evident, that so long as the weight of the boat is 
 less than a weight of fluid on which it is floating, the volume 
 of which is equal to the whole size of the boat and material 
 included, it will carry some cargo — that the limit to the thick- 
 ness of the iron, so that the whole may float, is that which 
 would make the weight of the boat equal to the weight of 
 fluid of its own volume — that the thinner the material (due 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, 
 
 89 
 
 regard to safety being bad), as in all cases the less the weight 
 of the boat itself, of a given size, the greater cargo it would 
 carry — that a boat which would sink in one fluid, would float 
 merrily in another which was heavier, &c. ; for instance, a load 
 which would sink in fresh, would float in salt water, and be 
 buoyant in mercury. The teacher would naturally point out 
 that the same boat would carry a heavier cargo on salt water 
 than on fresh. What would it be on oil, milk, mercury, &c. ? 
 
 The number of things which the principles connected with 
 floating bodies may be called upon to illustrate is very great. 
 
 It may be well also to point out that a floating body is 
 stable, when the line joining the centre of gravity of the 
 body and that of displaced fluid is vertical. 
 
 Having made them understand what is meant by the term 
 specific gravity, and that by taking the weight of a certain 
 volume of water as a standard, we calculate the weight of 
 other bodies, it will be well to have a table of the specific 
 gravities of substances in common use, metals, woods, &c., 
 suspended on a card in the schoolroom ; and to show them 
 by experiment how these results are arrived at. It is quite a 
 mistake to think that boys about twelve or thirteen years of 
 age cannot be made to understand them, and not only that — 
 they will take a great interest in them. 
 
 A short list is added, merely for the purpose of working an 
 example or two from it. Taking water as 1 . 
 
 Distilled water 
 
 1* 
 
 Copper 
 
 . 8-788 
 
 Coal . 
 
 . 1-250 
 
 Sea water is . 
 
 1-026 
 
 Tin . . 
 
 . 7-291 
 
 Oil . 
 
 . *940 
 
 Platina . . . 
 
 22-069 
 
 Iron (cast) 
 
 . 7-207 
 
 Oak . 
 
 . *925 
 
 Gold . . . 
 
 19-258 
 
 Iron (bar) 
 
 . 7-788 
 
 Ash . 
 
 . -845 
 
 Mercury . . 
 
 13-586 
 
 Zinc . . , 
 
 . 7-100 
 
 Maple 
 
 . -755 
 
 Stand^ffd silver 
 
 10-474 
 
 Flint glass 
 
 . 3-329 
 
 Elm . 
 
 . -600 
 
 Lead . . . . 
 
 11-352 
 
 Marble . , 
 
 . 2-700 
 
 Fir . 
 
 . *550 
 
 Brass . . . 
 
 8-396 
 
 Ivory . . . 
 
 . 1-825 
 
 Cork . 
 
 . -240 
 
 A simple inspection of this table may be made a useful 
 lesson, by pointing out to them the comparative weight of 
 those substances they are continually handling, the difierence 
 among them being much greater than they are in the habit of 
 thinking it — that those substances the specific gravity of which 
 is less than 1 will float. In this way the comparing one thing 
 with another makes them think. Also why distilled water is 
 a standard—that water varies in weight with the substance it 
 
 8 § 
 
90 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 holds in solution — that its boiling point varies with these 
 substances. 
 
 Assuming the weight of a cubic foot of distilled water, and 
 at the temperature of 63° Fahrenheit, to be 1000 ozs., 
 (why distilled water, and why a fixed temperature ?) let them 
 
 show that the weight of a cubic inch = and why the 
 
 divisor is 1728. 
 
 When we speak of the specific gravity of lead being 11*352, 
 and of iron 7*788, we mean that the weight of any given 
 volume of lead or iron will be so many times that weight of 
 the same volume of water, and knowing the one, the other is 
 easily calculated. 
 
 Thus a cubic foot of water weighs 1000 ozs., therefore a 
 cubic foot of lead weighs 1000 ozs. x 11*352 = 11352 ozs., 
 of iron 1000 ozs. x 7 * 788 , or 7788 ozs., of an inch in the 
 same way. 
 
 The specific gravity of dry oak is *925, of fir *550, of elm 
 •600, therefore any given volume of these woods would float, 
 being lighter than the same volume of water. A cubic foot 
 of dry oak would be 1000 ozs. x *925, or 925 ozs. ; of fir 
 1000 ozs. X *550, or 550 ozs., a little more than half the 
 weight of oak. 
 
 As applied to these substances, a good deal depends on their 
 state of dryness, sap in them, &c. 
 
 The following questions of a practical kind may suggest 
 others : 
 
 What is the weight of a block of marble, granite, &c., of 
 regular figure (or any other which they can measure), base of 
 it fifteen feet six inches by five feet two inches, and four feet 
 high ? 
 
 A given number of feet of oak, elm, ash, &c. ? A given 
 mass of metal, what would be its weight? The weight of 
 metals is exactly known from measurement, supposing them 
 to be pure. 
 
 In this way they will easily see what horse-power, or man- 
 power-moving power— it will take to move given masses of 
 these materials ; and would, if called upon to put it into prac- 
 tice, contrive accordingly — strengthening their machinery, &c. 
 adapting it to the work required to be done. 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 91 
 
 From this also may be shown the reason why heavy bodies 
 appear so much lighter when moved in a fluid like water— the 
 heavier the fluid the easier they move — as when they raise a 
 bucketful of water from a well ; its increased heaviness the 
 moment it gets to the surface of the water— given size of the 
 bucket how much increased in weight ?— would it be heavier 
 if raised out of the water into a vacuum, and how much ? — 
 moving masses of stone, as granite, under water— floating 
 beams of timber, &c. Having given the volume and the 
 specific gravity of the fluid in which they are moving, to cal- 
 culate what they lose in weight. 
 
 Suspend a cubic foot of lead by a chain from one end of a 
 balance : what weight would balance it at the other end, or 
 over a single pulley ? A weight equal to itself.— Now let it 
 fall into a vessel of water : will it take the same weight to 
 balance it as before ? No, sir ; a weight less than itself, by 
 the weight of a cubic foot of water.— What does a cubic foot 
 of water weigh? 1000 ozs.— Well, I don’t recollect the weight 
 of a cubic foot of lead, but what is its specific gravity ? — look 
 at your table, 1 1 *352 ; therefore the weight of the lead in air 
 as 11352, and deducting 1000 ozs., the weight of a cubic foot 
 of water, which is the weight lost by the lead, gives 10352, 
 the weight necessary to balance the lead when in water. 
 
 Suppose a cubic foot of lead resting on a pile under water, 
 what force must be exerted to pull it off, supposing no re- 
 sistance from friction on the pile? About ^^^ths of its own 
 weight. 
 
 From this to explain how it is that the sand, stone, shingle, 
 &c., are so easily tossed about on the sea-shore — how the 
 human body floats, &c. 
 
 Questions : A vessel full of mercury, the bottom of which 
 is nine inches by 4*56, and the height ten inches, what is its 
 weight ? 
 
 Suppose a cistern, twelve feet long, five feet wide, and four 
 feet six inches high, made of lead a quarter of an inch thick, 
 what would be its weight ? 
 
 What is the weight of a cylinder of iron thirty inches in 
 diameter and six feet high ? Of a block of granite in the 
 form of a circle, four feet six inches in diameter and twenty 
 inches thick ? 
 
 A statue of marble is placed in a vessel full of quicksilver, 
 
92 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 and causes six cubic feet to run over, what is its weight? 
 Would it sink? Would a statue of cast-iron sink? 
 
 Why is the line of the angler more likely to break after 
 the fish is out of water than when it is in it ? 
 
 Do you see any connexion between the weight of a given 
 mass of matter and the altitude of the barometer? and how 
 might a dealer in any bulky commodity profit by observing 
 that connexion ? 
 
 The specific gravity of ice is to that of water as 8 to 9, and 
 a field of ice of uniform thickness, has 10 feet above water, 
 how many feet below it ? 
 
 A cubic foot of a metal weighs 1000 lbs. when weighed in 
 air ; the weight of a cubic inch of air being about 
 of a cubic inch of water at a temperature of 63°, what would 
 be the weight of the body in vacuo ? also if weighed in water 
 — and if in air of half the density, — work out the arithmetical 
 results. 
 
 Making them reduce the fluid measures into cubic inches, 
 feet, &c., is a good exercise. 
 
 How many cubic inches in a pint? 34*659. 
 
 in a quart? 
 in a gallon ? &c. 
 
 Then of course they easily calculate the weight of any of 
 these measures filled with a fluid, the specific gravity of which 
 is given. 
 
 In aeriform bodies, common atmospheric air is taken as a 
 standard instead of water, the weight of which is about one 
 eight-hundredth part of the former ; therefore, as a cubic 
 foot of water weighs 1000 ozs., the weight of a foot of air 
 will be or 1*25 oz. ; ten feet will be 12*5 ozs., 100 feet 
 125 ozs., &c. ; then having the specific gravities of other 
 gaseous substances, some of which are heavier, some lighter 
 than the atmosphere, they may be made to calculate the 
 weights of given volumes. 
 
 The principle of the thermometer should be explained — 
 how it is made — how graduated — and how the freezing and 
 boiling points are determined — why the tube is of a narrow 
 bore, &c. 
 
 In the Boy’s school here there is a barometer and a ther- 
 mometer, which they are in the habit of observing ; register- 
 ing the height when they go in, and noticing the course of 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 93 
 
 its rise from increased temperature ; this is registered three 
 times a day, and a thermometer kept in the open air — the 
 height of the barometer — the taking a weekly and a monthly 
 average forms an exercise of their arithmetic. 
 
 Attention might be called as to how such averages of the 
 thermometer are affected by swampy and marshy grounds of 
 great extent — improved drainage* — how this is likely to affect 
 the temperature of a district, so much so, even as to advance 
 the period of harvest — how the height of the thermometer may 
 be affected by particular aspects — whether the line of country 
 slopes towards the north or south, or is a level plain, &c. 
 
 The subject of heat is one of great interest, and one on which 
 the teacher may bring to bear a variety of experiments not at- 
 tended with much expense, and having this additional recom- 
 mendation that they have an intimate relation with many of 
 the comforts and conveniences of life. 
 
 Heat is present everywhere and in every kind of matter : we 
 cannot measure its quantity, but we can measure the quantity 
 in one body relatively to that of another. 
 
 The general effect of heat upon matter is to expand it, that 
 is, an increase of heat in the same body produces an increase 
 of volume in some proportion to the increased temperature. 
 
 This increase of volume for a given increase of temperature 
 varies in different kinds of matter ; air and gases expand most, 
 fluids next, and then solids. 
 
 Instances of each have been mentioned — as a full kettle 
 swelliug and flowing over just before it boils — a round piece 
 of iron fitting exactly into a ring when cold, when heated is 
 too large. 
 
 Then, again, heated bodies impart heat to everything around 
 them until all have acquired the same temperature ; as the 
 heater of a box-iron, for ironing linen, when put into the fire 
 becomes red-hot like the cinder — when taken out it is put into 
 the box, communicates heat to it, and so to the linen ; and, 
 when used for a certain time, becomes of the same temperature 
 with the things around it. 
 
 We call things which we touch hot or cold, according as they 
 are hotter or colder than the human body, but in this the sense 
 
 * I was told by an experienced farmer in the county of Cambridge, that 
 he believed the average period of harvest in that county was earlier by tea 
 days, within the memory of man, owing to improved drainage. 
 
94 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 of touch deceives us ; when we touch a body hotter than the 
 hand we receive heat from it — when we touch one colder than 
 the hand it receives heat from us ; but experience tells us that 
 all the things in a room, when measured by a thermometer, 
 have an equal temperature, yet they do not feel equally so to 
 the hand. 
 
 The different degrees in which bodies conduct heat have been 
 ascertained by experiment ; air and gases, when confined, are 
 very bad conductors : metals varying in degree among each 
 other are good ones — generally the more dense the body the 
 better conductor it is. 
 
 Porous bodies are bad conductors, as are any bodies which 
 contain air confined in cells, such as the feathers of birds— the 
 fur of animals — the bark of trees. All these, how beautiful a 
 provision for the preservation of animal and vegetable life ! 
 
 Then, again, straw, reeds, &c. are bad ones ; so that a thick 
 covering of thatch is a much better covering for a cottage, so 
 far as warmth in winter and coolness in summer are concerned, 
 than either tile or slate. 
 
 Tile, being rather a thick and a porous substance compared 
 with slate, is better than the latter ; and every one who is in 
 the habit of visiting the cottages of the poor will have observed 
 that the bedrooms of those covered with slate are in the sum- 
 mer extremely hot, and in the winter equally cold. 
 
 Slate, again, would be better than iron. 
 
 The teacher would do well to observe the variety of far and 
 hair in animals, varying with the climates they inhabit ; in 
 warm climates the hairy coat of animals being short and thin, 
 in the colder ones becoming thick and woolly. . The birds of 
 colder regions, that live in the air, have a much greater quan- 
 tity of plumage than those of the warmer ones ; water-fowl, 
 such as ducks, geese, &c., have the interstices between their 
 feathers filled up with down, more particularly on the breast. 
 In the cold weather in winter the birds may often be seen 
 shaking and ruffling up their feathers in order to increase the 
 quantity of air among them, which, being a bad conductor, 
 helps to keep them warm. 
 
 Earth is a bad conductor, and the sharpest frosts in conse- 
 quence scarcely ever get more than a few inches deep into the 
 ground. The temperature of the earth, a very little below the 
 surface, is the same in every climate. 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 95 
 
 In covering up a potato-pit for the winter, the lighter the 
 soil, and the more of a covering of straw or leaves between it 
 and the potatoes, the better they will be preserved. When it 
 is said the frost gets to the potatoes, the thing really meant is 
 that, the temperature of the air becoming lower than freezing 
 point, the surface covering of the potatoe-pit first gives out 
 heat to the air, then that nearest the surface to the particles 
 adjoining, until, last of all, the potatoes give out heat to what 
 is resting upon them, and so the water of the potatoes gets 
 cooled below freezing and becomes solid, and the potatoe 
 spoiled ; hence the necessity of covering them with bad con- 
 ductors — not to make the soil over them a solid, but as light 
 as possible. 
 
 On the same principle, a covering of snow is a great pro- 
 tection, in very severe frosts, to the more delicate plants ; 
 although the temperature may be very far below the freezing 
 point, and, in some climates where the cold is great, the ther- 
 mometer is even down to zero, yet the temperature of the 
 ground, under a covering of snow, would be very little below 
 freezing. Thus water in pipes below the surface, and in 
 springs, is never frozen. In the winter, to prevent water 
 freezing in pipes which are above ground, they are wrapped 
 round with straw or some bad conducting substance, &c. Ice- 
 houses with double walls — rooms with double windows, are 
 all instances of the same kind. The application of a kettle- 
 holder, having wood or ivory handles to teapots made of metal, 
 &c., belong to the same principle. 
 
 The following, by way of a lesson on one of the metals, 
 iron, with the experiments which follow, will convey some 
 idea to the teacher of the mode of proceeding here, and may 
 serve as a model for the way in which he would treat the other 
 metals : 
 
 Iron — found in the earth as a mineral — how obtained from 
 the ore? — is a metal, a solid? — can it be made fluid ? Yes, 
 sir, by great heat. — Have you ever seen it fluid? — At the little 
 foundry at the blacksmith’s shop. — How does it become solid 
 again ? By cooling. — What eflect has heat upon metals ?* It 
 expands them, makes them longer — it would make an iron ring 
 larger. — Have you ever seen this property of expanding by heat 
 turned to a useful purpose ? Yes, sir ; the village blacksmith 
 
 * The difference between the heat of summer and winter will cause 
 such a variation in the length of the ordinary seconds pendulum as to 
 
96 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 hooping wheels ; he makes the hoop a little too small, heats it 
 red liot, which makes it larger, and it just fits the wheel — he 
 then pours water upon it ; it immediately contracts and makes 
 the joints of the wheel close up and crack, and so it fits tight — 
 riveting bolts,* &c. — the experiment of iron bars bringing the 
 opposite sides of a building to an upright position from leaning 
 outwards. 
 
 The teacher will point out the various uses to which iron 
 can be applied — how useful from its extending under the ham- 
 mer — ^welding (which most other metals do not), and other 
 properties. What is welding ? Heating two pieces of iron to 
 a very great heat (called a white heat), then placing them to- 
 gether on the anvil, and beating them with a hammer, they 
 unite as one piece ; — silver and gold will not do this. Platina 
 welds. 
 
 Cast-iron — melted and run into a mould for shape, for grates, 
 saucepans, boilers, tea-kettles, parts of the plough, rollers, 
 door-latches, gate-latches. 
 
 Did you ever in winter, in frosty weather, find out that it was 
 colder to the hand to touch iron than wood ? Yes, sir. — Why ? 
 Do not know, sir. — Teacher (making the children touch sub- 
 stances of different conducting powers, a piece of marble, stone, 
 wood, wool, flax, cotton, &c., pointing out to them that all 
 have the same temperature as the room, which is below that of 
 the hand, and ought, so far as this is concerned, to afiect it 
 equally) : Because iron is a better conductor of heat than wood 
 or any of the others ; being very cold in frosty weather, and 
 much colder than your hand, it carries away the heat much 
 more rapidly than wood, and it has very little to give back in 
 return : this rapid loss of heat causes a very unpleasant sensa- 
 tion ; if you hold the iron long enough, it will get the same 
 degree of warmth as the hand, and the unpleasant eflfect will 
 
 affect its time of vibration ; and in the building of iron bridges, allowance 
 is obliged to be made for what is called the play of the iron, between 
 summer and winter heat, or the whole would come down, and I believe in 
 some of the large tubular structures of iron lately erected over rivers, 
 allowance has been made for the unequal expansion of the metal on the 
 sunny and shady sides. 
 
 * I am told, in testing the anchors in the Dockyard at Portsmouth, that 
 the largest anchors having a strain on them of perhaps 150 tons, and 
 being in length about 30 feet, and as thick as the body of a man, that 
 immediately the strain is taken off they will collapse as much as an inch, 
 and that this shrinking is visible to the eye of a looker-on. 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 97 
 
 cease ; the stream of heat from the iron to the hand, and the 
 hand to the iron, will exactly balance each other ; that is, the 
 two substances, your hand the one, and the iron the other, will 
 then impart equal heat to each other. 
 
 They may also be told to touch the different substances, 
 marble, wood, stone, iron, &c., with their lips, which, as they 
 are much more sensible to cold, will point out to them more 
 strikingly how much the sense of touch deceiyes them. 
 
 Experiment* The teacher, taking a polished cylindrical 
 piece of iron, with a piece of white paper held tightly over it, 
 holds it in the flame of a candle, and observes it does not char — 
 the same on a piece of wood, and, exposing it in the same way, 
 it immediately turns black; — the iron being so good a con- 
 ductor does not allow the heat to rest with the paper, but 
 immediately takes it away, &c. ; the wood not conducting it 
 so rapidly causes the paper to burn. 
 
 On this principle water may be made to boil in a paper 
 kettle, or in an egg-shell —when boiled away, both substances 
 would immediately burn. 
 
 Experiment* Metallic rods of equal lengths and substance, 
 one of each smeared with bees’ wax, and immersed in a heated 
 fluid, the heat travels along each rod, from particle to particle,* 
 and the one on which the wax melts flrst is the best conductor, 
 the one on which it next melts the second best, and so on — 
 the order in which the wax melts being the order in w’hich 
 the rods conduct the heat. 
 
 Glass — a solid, can be softened by heat, so as to be drawn 
 out into a flne thread — allows light to pass through it; in 
 what way does man turn this property to his use ? Windows, 
 lanterns, spectacles, telescopes, &c. ; does not allow the heat 
 of the fire to pass through it — the heat of the sun does. — 
 What other substances allow light to pass through them? 
 Water, horn, air, &c. 
 
 * The following experiment, which is easily tried, shows the way in 
 which a fluid, as water, is heated by a flame placed under it ; take a glass 
 tube, open at one end, and about an inch or so in diameter ; pour water 
 into it, so that there may be a column of several inches in length, and 
 place it over a spirit lamp. As the flame heats the water, drop sand 
 into it, and a double current will be observed, one downwards along the 
 sides of the vessel, the other upwards through the centre of the fluid : 
 apply the heat to the surface on the sides of the vessel, and the currents 
 will be reversed. The reason of all this to be pointed out. 
 
 9 
 
98 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS, 
 
 Why will a glass sometimes break by pouring hot water in it ? 
 
 Answer : Solids convey heat from particle to particle, and 
 some solids do this more slowly than others ; glass conveys it 
 very slowly, and the hot water in contact with the inner surface 
 causes the inside surface of the glass to expand, but the outer 
 one, not being so hot, will not follow it, and so snaps, being 
 very brittle. Thin glass will not break so readily as thick, 
 the distance between the two surfaces being smaller, the heat 
 gets through sooner, and the inner and outer surface are al- 
 most instantaneously raised to the same temperature — hence 
 chemists use thin retorts. 
 
 On the subject of Metals used for the various purposes of 
 social life, the class of teachers for whom these pages are 
 intended may give a great deal of useful instruction. 
 
 They might draw attention to the different ores, showing 
 specimens of them, and mentioning the kinds of earths and 
 other substances with which they are generally mixed — where 
 found in our own and other countries— -the per centage of 
 metal found in an ore, in one case making it what is called a 
 rich one, in another so small as to scarcely make it worth 
 working — anything peculiar in the way in which metallic 
 veins run, not being stratified, &c. — depth of mines — the 
 number of workmen employed in the mining of any particular 
 ore, the method and necessity of transporting it from the place 
 where it is found for the purposes of smelting, either from the 
 people not knowing how, or for want of coal, &c. — great in- 
 convenience of this in a commercial point of view, from having 
 to transport so large a proportion of the ore which is useless* 
 
 * When a mass of matter is to be removed, a certain force must be 
 expended ; and upon the proper economy of this force the price of trans- 
 port will depend. A country must, however, have reached a high degree 
 of civilization before it will have approached the limit of this economy. 
 The cotton of Java is conveyed in junks to the coast of China, but from 
 the seed not being previously separated, three quarters of the weight thus 
 carried is not cotton. This perhaps might he justified in Java by the want 
 of machinery to separate the seed, or by the relative cost of the operation 
 in the two countries. But the cotton itself, as packed by the Chinese, 
 occupies three times the bulk of an equal quantity shipped by Europeans 
 for their own markets. Thus the freight of a given quantity of cotton 
 costs the Chinese nearly twelve times the price to which, by a proper 
 attention to mechanical methods, it might be reduced.’’— Babbage on the 
 Economy of Machinery. 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 9y 
 
 (there may be other substances mixed with it which are 
 useful) . 
 
 Again, the mode of separating the metal from the different 
 ores — in some cases brealdngit into small pieces and roasting 
 it — thus driving off volatile substances, which become vapour, 
 at a comparatively low temperature — why breaking it before 
 this process — smelting — that when a mass of any particular 
 ore is heated to the point at which the metal fuses, it sinks 
 down in this fluid state to the bottom of the furnace ; — to 
 point out how certain other substances are sometimes used, 
 called fluxes, to assist in the fusion of minerals ; — that when 
 a sufficient quantity has accumulated in a fluid state, and sunk 
 down from the earthy and other matter in the ore, the furnace 
 is tapped, and it runs off into moulds — called pigs, sows, &c., 
 by the workmen. 
 
 Swansea, in Wales, a place where a good deal of ore is 
 carried for this purpose — from Ireland, and also foreign ores 
 are taken there. 
 
 One mode of separating silver from the other substances in 
 the ore is by pouring in quicksilver, which unites with the 
 silver, and is afterwards pressed out. 
 
 The metals themselves, pointing out those which are called 
 precious metals, those which are most useful — the particular 
 properties which make them so useful, such as being fusible, 
 ductile, malleable, and the different degrees in which they are 
 so ; their melting point, and the temperature at which they do 
 melt, showing a very wide range (by calling their attention to 
 these extremes, the instruction becomes more striking, and is 
 more attended to) — their specific gravities, which may be 
 pointed out from a table, making them handle the substances — 
 platina and gold, how heavier than any of the others — twice, 
 three times, &c. heavier than some — the property of welding 
 only belonging to iron and platina — how much this increases 
 the usefulness of the former. 
 
 It is easy to see the rougher- and more every-day purposes 
 of life for which the metals are used, but it will be also useful, 
 more particularly in the schools in our large towns, to call 
 their attention to their uses in the arts ; why one metal 
 oxidizing rapidly in the atmosphere or in water, and another 
 not, would, in certain cases, make the latter preferable, as in 
 the copper sheathing of ships, &c. 
 
100 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Again, a union ot metals is called an alloy — when one is 
 quicksilver, an amalgam ; — an instance of the former, bronze, 
 consisting of copper, with a small proportion of tin, and some- 
 times other metals, and used for casting statues, cannon, bells, 
 &c. ; of the latter, an amalgam of tin, with which looking- 
 glasses are covered on the back surface ; mercury very readily 
 combines with gold, silver, lead, tin, bismuth, and zinc, but 
 more difficultly with copper, arsenic, and antimony, and 
 scarcely at all with platina and iron. Mercury, from the cir- 
 cumstance of its dissolving completely many of the less valu- 
 able metals, is very often adulterated. 
 
 Some metals have so little of affinity for each other that 
 they have never yet been known to form an alloy, and even 
 many whose fusing point is nearly the same will not unite ; 
 the density of an alloy is sometimes greater than the mean 
 density of the two metals of which it is made up, which shows 
 that a decrease of volume has taken place, as bronze others 
 again are lighter, showing an increase of bulk. 
 
 Alloys which consist of metals that fuse at different tem- 
 peratures will often be decomposed by heating them to a 
 temperature at which one of them melts ; this is practised in 
 extracting silver from copper. The copper containing silver 
 in it is melted with three and a half times its weight of lead, 
 and this alloy of three metals is exposed to a sufficient heat — 
 the lead carries off* the silver in its fusion, and leaves the cop- 
 per in a spongy lump — the silver is afterwards got from the 
 lead by another operation. 
 
 Alloys containing a volatile metal may be decomposed at a 
 strong heat, driving off the metal which is volatile, as water is 
 driven off at a less temperature from any salt it may contain. 
 
 The specific gravity of an alloy is a means of finding out the 
 proportion of two metals in a given substance. 
 
 The substances used for soldering are instances of alloys ; 
 they are mixed metals for the purpose of uniting metallic 
 bodies, but it will be necessary that the solder should melt at 
 a lower temperature than the bodies to be soldered. 
 
 Those which are called hard solders will bear hammering, 
 and are generally made of the same metal with the one to be 
 soldered, mixed with some other which makes it more fusible. 
 
 Soft solder, such as tin and lead in equal parts, used by the 
 glaziers, melts easily, and cannot be hammered : tin, lead, and 
 bismuth, in equal parts, melt still more easily. In the opera- 
 
NATURAL, PHILOSOPHY^ 
 
 101 
 
 tion of soldering, the surfaces should be made clean, otherwise 
 they would not unite so well. The glaziers use resin with the 
 solder, to prevent the metals rusting, uniting with the oxygen 
 of the air. 
 
 A bar (whose length at 32° is taken as unity) of the fol- 
 lowing substances will, when heated to 212°, the boiling point 
 of water at the ordinary pressure of the atmosphere, expand : 
 glass of its length ; steel, about J ; iron, ; copper, 
 
 ; silver, 3-^^ ; tin, ; lead, ; or a rod of iron whose 
 length (temperature 32°) is 846 inches, will, at the heat of 
 boiling water, expand one inch, and become 847 ; tin, length 
 462 inches, would become 463.* 
 
 In consequence of this expansion of iron by heat, it is neces- 
 sary to make allowance for it in building bridges, otherwise 
 the difference between winter and summer heat might cause 
 an expansion which would bring the bridge down. 
 
 Again, on the absorption and radiation of heat by different 
 substances a few useful lessons may be given, and the simple 
 and well-known experiments of Leslie, which are easily tried, 
 may be made very instructive. 
 
 From these it is shown that smooth polished surfaces of 
 metal reflect heat, and absorb comparatively little ; that 
 scratching or in any way roughening the surface of a metallic 
 body increases its power of absorption, and blackening it with 
 anything increases it still more. 
 
 Experiment, Take, for instance, three circular pieces of 
 metal, as tin, nine inches in diameter, and raised on a stand 
 of a few inches high — one smooth, another scratched and 
 roughened, the third blackened — the back of each being 
 smeared with tallow, or some substance which melts at a low 
 temperature ; then placing a red-hot ball of iron at equal 
 distances from any two of them, it will be found that the 
 tallow on the blackened one will very soon melt, that on the 
 roughened surface next, while the smooth surface would re- 
 main nearly at the temperature of the room ; of course this 
 experiment might be tried with different substances, and 
 metals scratched and blackened in different degrees. 
 
 Another of Leslie' s experiments. Take a cubical vessel, made 
 of tin, one surface blackened, a second scratched, the third 
 more roughened, and the last smooth ; fill it with boiling 
 * See Appendix (B). 
 
102 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 water, and place his differential thermometer near it, and, 
 turning each side in succession towards it, it will be found 
 that the quantity of heat radiated, or thrown off from the 
 different surfaces, will be in the order mentioned above. Pro- 
 fessor Leslie covered the surface of the vessel with thin plates 
 or layers of different substances of different colours, and noted 
 the number of degrees which the thermometer rose, and thus 
 ascertained the radiating power of each particular covering. 
 
 Lamp-black 
 
 . 100' 
 
 Writing paper . 
 
 98 
 
 Tarnished lead . 
 
 45 
 
 Clean lead 
 
 19 
 
 Iron, polished 
 
 15 
 
 Tinplate 
 
 12 
 
 He then, instead of blackening or otherwise meddling with 
 the faces of the tin vessel, made it perfectly smooth, and 
 covered the bulb of the thermometer with the different sub- 
 stances, and found by the way in which it was affected that 
 they absorbed heat much in the same way as they had before 
 radiated it when on the tin vessel. 
 
 His experiment of heat reflected from parabolic reflectors is 
 a very curious one, and they are well worth the expense of 
 purchasing, in order to try the experiment, from the instruc- 
 tion it gives. A pair of these reflectors is a useful apparatus 
 in a school. 
 
 As an instance of roughened bodies absorbing heat and then 
 radiating it again, and of polished surfaces reflecting it — take 
 the case of a blackened rough fender and polished fire-irons— 
 the latter are generally nearer the fire than the fender, touch 
 them and they will be found much the coolest ; the fender 
 having absorbed the heat, the irons reflected it. 
 
 The different degrees in which bodies absorb heat depends 
 also on colour. 
 
 Dr. Franklin observed that when he laid pieces of differently 
 coloured cloth upon snow, it melted more rapidly under the 
 dark colours than the light. And black and red inks, for ex- 
 ample, when exposed to the sun, become heated in different 
 degrees from their absorbing the light which falls upon them, 
 and consequently the heat in different degrees ; while pure 
 water seems to transmit all the rays equally, and is not 
 sensibly heated by the passing light of the sun. 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 103 
 
 The teacher should also note the difference between the 
 radiation of heat from the sun and that from any other bodies 
 — that from the sun passing through air and glass, water, &c., 
 the other not, or if so, in a very slight degree. 
 
 The following experiment, attended with no expense, affords 
 a good practical hint — two old teapots will serve, one of white 
 metal, the other of black earthenware. 
 
 Fill them with boiling water, or with hot water from the 
 same kettle — after standing a given time, place a thermometer 
 in them, and it will be found that it will stand much higher 
 in the metal one than in the other ; showing that for the pur- 
 poses of making tea the metal one is the better, not radiating 
 the heat so rapidly ; but if placed before the fire the black one 
 will absorb heat better than the other. A black earthen 
 teapot loses heat by radiation, in the proportion of 100 ; while 
 one of silver or other polished metal loses only as 12. 
 
 Thus hot water running in a blackened pipe or rough one, 
 will give out its heat more rapidly than in a polished smooth 
 one. 
 
 A solid, when changed into a fluid state, absorbs heat — 
 some solids soften in melting, as wax, tallow, butter, and then 
 become fluid ; others, as ice, change at once. 
 
 In changing from a fluid to a state of vapour, heat also is 
 absorbed ; on the contrary, bodies in passing from vapour to 
 fluid, and from fluid to solid, give out heat. 
 
 Water in freezing gives out heat, while in the melting of 
 snow and ice heat is absorbed ; hence the chilling cold felt in 
 a thaw, after there has been a great fall of snow ; also the 
 gradual melting, in consequence of the latent heat in changing 
 from snow into water. 
 
 Fluids become vapour also at different temperatures, their 
 boiling point depending upon the pressure of the atmosphere, 
 which varies with the altitude above the level of the sea, as 
 well as from other causes ; they may also be heated beyond 
 their boiling point in the atmosphere, by subjecting them to 
 artificial pressure. 
 
 The following questions will suggest a few important things, 
 on which the teacher who wishes to understand this subject 
 may inform himself. 
 
 Why, as water in boiling becomes vapour, and as it were 
 boils away, does its temperature not rise above 212° ? When 
 
104 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 all converted into steam at 212°, what would take place if 
 immediately condensed? What has become of all the heat 
 required to convert the water into vapour, and how would it 
 show itself when the steam is condensed ? 
 
 If the steam were heated above 212°, how is its expansive 
 force increased? Simply as the temperature, or in a higher 
 ratio 
 
 Why, when a mass of ice is dissolved from the heat of a 
 room, or in a vessel on the fire, does the temperature of the 
 water not rise, so long as any ice remains undissolved — (test 
 this by placing a thermometer in melting ice), and why does 
 it rise as soon as it is all melted ? 
 
 Water being kept perfectly still, may be cooled many de- 
 grees below the freezing point, but if shaken, ice would imme- 
 diately be formed. The extent to which it freezes at once when 
 shaken depends upon this, whether the quantity of heat given 
 out on freezing is sufficient to raise the temperature of the rest 
 higher than 32°. If, for instance, the mass is cooled to 10° 
 below the freezing point, then only -J^th is immediately frozen, 
 and in becoming solid it has given out sufficient heat to raise 
 the temperature of the rest up to the point of freezing. 
 
 The circumstance of water, when cooled below 39° of 
 Fahrenheit, expanding when further reduced in temperature, 
 should be noticed — this is shown from ice being lighter than 
 v/ater — from the bursting of water-pipes when frozen. 
 
 How beautiful the design of Providence in this arrange- 
 ment, that when the surface water is near the freezing point, 
 being lighter than that which is underneath, it cannot sink. 
 If it had followed the general law, rivers would begin to freeze 
 from the bottom, and become a solid mass of ice — fish and all 
 the other inhabitants of the water would be destroyed : ice also 
 a bad conductor. 
 
 Why can the human body bear to be brought in contact with 
 air at a much higher temperature than with a fluid — with a 
 fluid than with a solid, such as hot iron ? 
 
 A fluid boils, when its temperature is raised to such a point 
 that the elasticity of its vapour is sufficient to overcome the 
 pressure which is acting upon it ; whether from the cohesive- 
 
 * The disruption of vegetable substances produced by the passage of the 
 electric fluid through a tree is caused by the intensity of the momentary 
 heat converting the fluid of the wood into steam. 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 105 
 
 ness of the substance itself, the pressure of the atmosphere, or 
 any other artificial pressure. 
 
 This explains the principle of a vessel called Papin’s 
 Digester, made to extract all the nutritive matter from bones. 
 
 It is a cylindrical vessel, capable of resisting great pressure ; 
 closed by a stopcock, which will resist a pressure of many 
 atmospheres. Of course, in this, water may be heated far 
 above the ordinary boiling point, and from its greater heat, 
 most animal substances are made to dissolve. 
 
 The boiling point is not changed by bodies mechanically 
 mixed in a fluid — as sand in water ; but it is by all those che- 
 mically united with it. All soluble salts retard the boiling 
 point of water.* 
 
 The processes in the arts and manufactures carried on by 
 distillation and evaporation should be noticed. The continual 
 evaporation going on at all temperatures from every part of 
 the surface of the globe — land and water, animal and vege- 
 table — increasing the transparency of the atmosphere, some- 
 times when most charged with vapour it is most transparent — 
 at others forming clouds, descending in rain to supply our 
 rivers and springs, and to sustain the whole animal and vege- 
 table world. 
 
 Formation of vapour absorbs heat, and therefore produces 
 cold— instance a wet towel applied to the temples in case of 
 headache — sometimes wrapped round a bottle containing any- 
 thing which requires to be cooled — damping the mats in a 
 doorway — a damp bed a very dangerous thing, for want of 
 exercise to generate heat in the body, so as to counteract the 
 cold in drying, &c. That evaporation produced cold had 
 been known in warm climates from an early period, but this 
 had escaped notice in the more temperate ones, until after 
 the invention of the thermometer, when it was soon perceived 
 that on the bulb being wetted, the mercury immediately fell 
 in the stem. 
 
 The following may be taken as a way of applying this 
 knowledge to the teaching of children : 
 
 Sugar from the sugar-cane. The juices are pressed out by 
 
 * The reader will see some interesting tables on the freezing and boil- 
 ing points of liquids, &c., on the melting points of solids, such as fat, 
 metals, &c., at the end of the volume on Heat in Lardner’s Cyclopaedia ; 
 as also on their expansions at different temperatures. See Appendix (B). 
 
106 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 passing the cane between heavy rollers ; this contains, besides 
 sugar, a great deal of water — the water is driven off by boil- 
 ing — will go away slowly by evaporation. 
 
 A current of air over anything that is wet takes the mois- 
 ture up in vapour, as it passes over the surface ; this changing 
 the wet upon anything into vapour is called evaporation, and 
 produces cold ; — dip your finger in water, when there is so 
 little wind that you do not know from what quarter it comes, 
 and you will find the finger colder on one side than the other, 
 this is the side on which the wind blows, and it is colder be- 
 cause there is a greater evaporation on that side of the finger 
 than on the other. The sailor knows this, and when he is 
 becalmed at sea, and does not know from what quarter the 
 wind blows, he wets his finger in his mouth, and holds it up 
 to the air, the cold side is the wind side. 
 
 After a shower of rain on your clothes, and whilst they are 
 drying on your back, do you not feel much colder than you 
 did before? — this is the cold arising from the wet on your 
 clothes becoming vapour — and for this reason you should not 
 sit in your wet clothes after you get home. 
 
 Why does your ink get thick by standing in the inkstand ? 
 This, after what you have heard, you can answer yourselves. 
 
 In cold weather you will sometimes observe a quantity of 
 water collected at the bottom of the panes of glass in a room — 
 you recollect warm air holds up more vapour than cold — the 
 warm air of the room coming in contact with the glass, which 
 is cold from being in contact with the cold air of the atmo- 
 sphere, is immediately made cooler; this causes the vapour 
 in it to condense on the surface of the glass — become water — 
 it then runs down, and collects in large drops on the wood. 
 
 With the aid of a sectional model of the steam-engine, and 
 knowing something of the elastic power of vapour — that its 
 force of elasticity increases in a much higher ratio than that 
 of its temperature — that when reduced below a certain tem- 
 perature it is immediately condensed — the teacher would be 
 able to explain many of the more important parts of the 
 machine, showing how steam may be adapted to the purposes 
 of man as a moving power. 
 
 He would explain how the steam enters alternately below 
 and above the piston rod, and is carried off — by its elasticity 
 giving an up and down motion to the large beam which sets 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 107 
 
 the machinery in motion — pointing out the parallel motion at 
 the end of the beam, causing the piston rod always to move 
 in the same vertical plane — the up and down motion of the 
 beam causing two dead points, one at its highest, the other at 
 the lowest point of its motion — how the contrivance of a fly- 
 wheel, by its momentum when once set in motion, carries the 
 machinery over the dead points, &c. 
 
 Then again — the importance of having a great quantity of 
 fire surface in the boiler, in order to generate steam rapidly — 
 the saving of fuel by this-— the different kinds of boilers in 
 order to effect it — the nature of safety-valves — that a safety- 
 valve is, in fact, a weak part of the boiler made to give way 
 when the elastic force of the vapour, from increased tempera- 
 ture, becomes so great as to endanger its bursting — the valve 
 opens (or ought to do), at a pressure much below that w^hich 
 would burst the material of which the boiler is made — gauges 
 for measuring the pressure on every square inch of surface at 
 which the engine is working — nature of an atmospheric safety- 
 valve opening inwards, and why wanted, &c. ; that if the 
 steam inside the boiler is suddenly condensed, the boiler would 
 have a tendency to collapse, and an atmospheric valve would 
 guard against this. 
 
 Again, when the water in the boiler is very low, the fire 
 surface of the boiler above the w^ater would become heated in 
 a very high degree ; danger from this, in an engine not sta- 
 tionary, as in a steam-boat, of the water being thrown over 
 the heated surface, and all converted into steam, and an ex- 
 plosion take place — not perhaps immediately, but after the 
 heated surface was cooled down to a certain temperature. 
 
 The boiler of the locomotive steam-engine is of a tubular 
 kind, in order to expose as much surface as possible to the 
 fire ; and in this engine, as there can be no fly-wheel to get 
 over the dead points, there are in each machine two engines at 
 work, the dead points of which are at right angles to each 
 other, so that they never occur together. 
 
 The following, from ^ Herschel’s Discourse on the Study of 
 Natural Philosophy,’ will give the reader some idea of these 
 hidden powers of nature when called into action, and show 
 him how much they are perhaps beyond anything he may 
 have been in the habit of imagining them. 
 
 It is well known to modern engineers that there is virtue 
 
108 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 in a bushel of coals, properly consumed, to raise serenty 
 millions of pounds weight a foot high. This is actually the 
 average effect of an engine at this moment working in Corn- 
 wall. Let us pause a moment and consider what this is 
 equivalent to in matters of practice. 
 
 ‘‘ The ascent of Mont Blanc from the valley of Chamouni 
 is considered, and with justice, as the most toilsome feat that 
 a strong man can execute in two days. The combustion of 
 two pounds of coal would place him on the summit. 
 
 “The Menai Bridge consists of a mass of iron, not less 
 than four millions of pounds in weight, suspended at a me- 
 dium height of about 120 feet above the sea. The consump- 
 tion of seven bushels of coal would suffice to raise it to the 
 place where it hangs.’’ 
 
 It will, perhaps, be difficult to understand the following 
 description of what may be called the mechanical effects of a 
 jet of steam without having recourse to diagrams ; but they 
 are curious, and as the same thing may in some measure be 
 tried by a current of air blown or sent rapidly through a hollow 
 tube, this may suggest simple things of an interesting kind. 
 
 A jet of steam issuing outwards in any direction, but sup- 
 pose vertically from an orifice, will ascend into the air, with 
 greater or less force, according to its temperature and elas- 
 ticity, and will by its momentum displace the air which it 
 meets with in its upward course. The jet will be rendered 
 visible by the steam being condensed, and the effect of this 
 jet upon the flame of any burning substance— or any light 
 substances brought near to the axis of it— by its attract- 
 ing them (a current of air setting in on all sides towards the 
 axis of the jet), is striking and worthy of attention. 
 
 Take a piece of tow, dipped in spirits of wine and placed 
 at the end of a rod, set it on fire, and approach the flame 
 near the axis of the steam jet ; when held a little above the 
 orifice from which the steam proceeds, the flame will be at- 
 tracted in a slanting direction, and the angle which the flame 
 makes with the axis of the jet increases as the distance from 
 the orifice increases, up to a certain point, when it becomes a 
 right angle ; elevated above this it again assumes the position 
 it had below this point, until it is elevated beyond the influ- 
 ence of the jet, when it of course assumes a vertical position. 
 
 This is better shown by taking a circular piece of iron. 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 109 
 
 with a handle attached, and wrapped round with tow : moisten 
 it with spirits of wine and kindle it, then place the circle of 
 flame across the axis of the jet — up to a certain point above 
 the orifice the flame will assume a conical appearance, here 
 it will set itself at right angles to the jet, and appear a flat 
 disc of flame — above this point the flame will again become 
 a conical surface, until being farther elevated, it gets beyond 
 the influence of the jet, and assumes an undisturbed po- 
 sition. 
 
 Light bodies when placed in the jet, or heavy bodies within 
 certain limits, when placed in it, will be supported, or a 
 flat surface of any kind held in the hand at a certain distance 
 from the orifice will be forced upwards ; but brought close to 
 it, or in contact with the surface in which is the orifice of the 
 jet, it will be held down with considerable force. 
 
 It is from these properties of a jet of steam, that it has 
 been proposed to ventilate coal and other mines, by creating 
 a strong current of air up one shaft, to be supplied by a 
 down current from another, which could be regulated at 
 pleasure, and in such a way as to produce even a gentle breeze 
 or a perfect hurricane in the mine. 
 
 The same principle may be shown by taking a hollow tube 
 of glass, or of tin, having two arms at right angles to each 
 other for the convenience of blowing through, otherwise, 
 a straight tube would do as well, and one end terminating 
 in a perforated pasteboard, or tin disc, of a few inches diame- 
 ter, through the centre of which the tubular opening runs, 
 then blowing violently through it, and placing another 
 piece of pasteboard, or tin, over the opening from which the 
 air proceeds, it will be found to adhere, and to be violently 
 attracted — if the apparatus be turned downwards, so that the 
 current instead of ascending is blown towards the ground, the 
 under surface will be lifted up. 
 
 If water is poured into a bent glass tube, open at both 
 ends, and a current of air is blown violently across one end, 
 the water in it will be found to rise. 
 
 On the subject of light there are many simple things easy 
 of explanation, connected with experiments of so simple a 
 kind, that the teacher may with advantage turn them to ac- 
 count in his teaching. 
 
 That some bodies, such as the sun — the stars — flame of all 
 
 10 
 
no 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 kinds — bodies heated to a red heat, are self-luminous, pos- 
 sessing in themselves the power of throwing off light ; others 
 again, not being themselves the source of light, reflect that 
 which they receive from self-luminous bodies. The flame of 
 a candle is seen by the light which proceeds directly from it ; 
 the things in the room are seen by the light thrown upon 
 them from the candle, and reflected back to the eye. 
 
 Light is sent off from luminous bodies in every direction, 
 and proceeds in straight lines*. 
 
 Instance. A ray of light admitted or finding its way through 
 a small hole into a dark room — if there is dust or smoke in 
 the room its progress will be distinctly observed proceeding 
 in a straight line — if it is received on a dark surface, at the 
 opposite side of the room in which it enters, most of the light 
 is absorbed, and the room scarcely lighted at all by it — if on 
 a white surface, such as a sheet of paper, much more light is 
 reflected on the objects around. 
 
 Also beams of light from the sun, passing through the 
 opening in a cloud, darting in straight lines to the ground — 
 the outline of a shadow, being always that of the object seen 
 from the luminous point, shows the same. 
 
 Hold a flat object between a candle and the wall, the image 
 is of the exact form of the outline of the object — the image 
 of a globe — of a flat circle of the same diameter, held parallel 
 to the wall and to the flame of the candle — of a cylinder, 
 with its end towards the centre of light, is the same, and these 
 different bodies would not be distinguished from each other 
 by their shadows. 
 
 * Why does the light passing through a window light the whole room, 
 and not appear a mere column of light, the base of which is equal to the 
 size and figure of the window, and why any light on each side of this column ? 
 Or, rather, why is it not a set of separate columns, as many in number as 
 the panes of glass, and having circular, or square bases, &c. according as 
 the panes may be circles, squares, diamonds, &c. with dark spaces of the 
 thickness of the bars of the window between each column of light ; so that 
 a person walking from one side of the room to another would pass through 
 alternate sections of light and darkness — the same, also, vertically, from 
 the bottom to the top, caused by the cross bars : each column of light, 
 supposing the floor to be horizontal, and the window at right angles to it, 
 would be inclined to the plane of the room, at an angle equal to the angle 
 of incidence on the glass. 
 
 In bringing candles into a room during twilight, whether would there 
 be more or less light in the room by closing the window -shutters ? 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The shadow of flat circle, when held slantingly, would 
 difler, &c. How ? what would it be when the circle is held 
 with its plane perpendicular to the surface on which the 
 shadow is cast ? The darkness of a shadow will not be in 
 proportion to the real darkness, but in proportion to the quan- 
 tity of light on the surrounding objects ; try the shadow of a 
 hand on the wall, as made by one candle, and then place 
 another so that the shadows from the two candles coincide ; 
 it will be seen that thi-s appears much darker than the former 
 one, and why? Vary the position of the candles so that part 
 of one shadow rests on the other — the comparative darkness 
 will be very visible. 
 
 When the body from which light comes is less than that 
 which causes the shadow, the shadow will be greater than the 
 body — the shadow of a hand on the wall (luminous body, 
 flame of a candle), of a small paper figure of a man, may be 
 made of any size greater than itself, by varying the distance 
 of the candle and object from the wall. 
 
 When the body from which light comes is greater than the 
 body causing the shadow, the latter will always be less than 
 the object; — this is the case with the shadows of all the 
 planets and of the earth, because less than the sun — the 
 nearer to the body causing the shadow, the greater the sha- 
 dowed surface. 
 
 When light falls upon anybody whatever, part of it is reflected, 
 part of it absorbed, and either lost in it, or proceeds through it ; 
 when on a brightly polished surface, most of it is reflected, and 
 the remainder lost, — when on glass or water, very little is re- 
 flected, and the greater part transmitted through it.* 
 
 A given quantity of light or heat, such as that from a 
 candle or from the sun, will be less intense the greater the 
 space it is spread over — the intensity of both diminishes as 
 
 * “ The quantity of light which is reflected by a substance of any kind, 
 depends not only on the nature of the substance, but also on the obliquity 
 of its incidence ; and it sometimes happens that a surface which reflects a 
 smaller portion of direct light than another, reflects a greater portion when 
 the light falls very obliquely on its surface. It has been found that the 
 surface of water reflected only one fifty-fifth part of the light falling per- 
 pendicularly upon it — that of glass one fortieth, and that of quicksilver 
 more than two thirds : but when the obliquity was as great as possible, 
 the water reflected nearly three fourths of the incident light, and the glass 
 about two thirds only.” — Young’s Lectures, 
 
112 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 the square of the distance increases ; a person standing near | 
 a fire (the heat given out remaining constant), if he remove 1 
 to twice the distance, will only receive \ of the warmth, at 
 three times only h at four times ; the same of light. i 
 
 Light falling on polished metals or any polished surfaces 
 is reflected at an angle made between the reflected ray, and a 
 perpendicular to the reflecting surface, which is equal to the 
 angle which the incident ray makes with the same perpen- 
 dicular. 
 
 When a ray oyight falls perpendicularly, it is sent back 
 in the same line. 
 
 The image of an object, placed before a plane mirror, ap- 
 pears to be at an equal distance from the glass with the ob- 
 ject, but on the opposite side of it. Place a boy or hold an 
 object in such a position that the rays fall obliquely on the 
 mirror ; a person, in order to see it, must stand in a direction 
 making the same angle with the other side. 
 
 Place two looking-glasses parallel to each other, and a 
 lighted candle between them, and observe an infinite number 
 of images, each in succession dimmer than the one before it, 
 and why. Explain also the distances from each other and 
 from the glass. 
 
 Light passes through some substances, as glass, water, ice, 
 rock-crystal, &c., but, on entering, is bent at the surface; 
 and in going out, if it passes through, is again bent at the 
 other surface. 
 
 A ray of light entering from air into water is bent down- 
 wards — in passing from water into air, it is bent from the 
 perpendicular to the surface of the water ; so that a body in 
 the water, as a fish, or the bottom of the river appears ele- 
 vated, and the fish higher, or the water less deep than it really 
 is — people not knowing this, mistake the depth of water ; if 
 looking perpendicularly downwards the object appears in its 
 true place. 
 
 Exp, Put a shilling into an empty basin, place it on a 
 table, and recede until the eye entirely loses sight of the 
 shilling, or in fact of any particular point in the bottom of 
 the basin, keep the head in that position, and let some one 
 pour water into the basin, and the shilling will gradually ap- 
 pear — parts of the bottom surface of the basin will come in 
 sight which before were not visible. 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 . 13 
 
 The ray having unce entered one of these transparent sub- 
 stances, passes on in a straight line, and, when coming out 
 on the other side, its direction is parallel to that in which it 
 first entered.* 
 
 A ray of light from the sun, when it enters the atmosphere, 
 which increases in density the nearer the earth, moves in a 
 curve which is concave towards the earth, this causes the 
 sun to appear to us in the horizon before he is actually 
 above it. 
 
 Light proceeding from the sun, as well as heat, the more of 
 the atmosphere they have to pass through before they reach 
 us, the less intense they will be — much of both being lost in the 
 passage. The stratum of air, also, in the horizon is so much 
 more dense than that in the vertical, that the sun’s light is di- 
 minished 1300 times in passing through it, which enables us 
 to look at him when setting without being dazzled. The loss 
 of light and of heat by the absorbing power of the atmosphere 
 increases with the obliquity of incidence. There is no known 
 substance which is perfectly pervious to light : all transparent 
 substances absorb in different degrees the light falling upor 
 them. The clearest crystal, the purest air or water, stop somt 
 of the rays of light on its passage through them, and of course 
 the thicker the medium the greater the quantity of light 
 absorbed ; on this account objects cannot be seen at the bot- 
 tom of very deep water, and there are more stars visible to the 
 naked eye from the tops of mountains than from the valleys : 
 the quantity of light incident on any transparent substance is 
 always greater than the sum of the reflected and refracted rays. 
 Bodies which reflect all the rays appear white, those which 
 absorb them all seem black, but most substances after decom- 
 posing the light which falls upon them reflect some colours 
 and absorb the rest, and appear of that colour the rays of 
 which they reflect, for they all receive their colour from their 
 power of stopping or absorbing some of the colours of white 
 light and transmitting others. 
 
 From the quantity of watery vapour i^i the atmosphere 
 
 * The diiFerent refractive powers of transparent liquids vary, but so 
 constant is it in the same substance, that the purity of oils can be tested 
 as a matter of commerce by their refractive powers, and that this mode of 
 examination is had recourse to, in order to test whether an oil has been 
 adulterated or not. 
 
 10 § 
 
114 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 objects s,t the sfirne distRnce &t one time iippeflr more 
 distinct and larger than at another. 
 
 The experiment of letting light from the sun fall on a tri- 
 angular prism of glass, will interest — seeing the separation t| 
 into the different prismatic colours — let them observe the order '• 
 in which they follow — the image being white, excepting when 
 the rays proceed from the prism at a particular angle ; cover 
 first one side of it with paper and then another, which shows 
 to them on which side it enters and which it goes out at — 
 otherwise they will not understand. This separation of colours 
 by refraction is perhaps the most striking thing which can be 
 brought before them belonging to this class of experiments. 
 
 Tell them when they see a rainbow to observe tbe order of 
 the colours— the order in the secondary bow. Calling their 
 attention to things of this kind even in this simple way is of 
 great service. 
 
 Many of them have seen a heated coal, or the red-hot end 
 of a stick whirled rapidly round, or moved quickly in a | 
 straight line; — show them that the fiery end cannot be in 
 every point of the circle or of the line at the same time ; and 
 that it must be moved with such rapidity, that the impression 
 of it on the eye while at any particular point must rest until 
 it comes there again ; the stick in one case appearing a cir- 
 cle, in the other a line of fire. * 
 
 The impression of light lasts on the retina about one sixth 
 of a second, therefore it must whirl round six times in a se- ? 
 cond, or come from any one point in the line to the same ' 
 again in one sixth of a second, as the least velocity which 
 would produce this effect. 
 
 Of the same kind a meteor, called a falling star, which is a 
 luminous point in rapid motion — the motion of a rocket, &c. 
 
 The following is a very instructive experiment : Take a cir- 
 cular disc of white pasteboard, or perhaps better, paste white 
 paper on a circular piece of board, and having divided the ^ 
 surface into sections of proper proportions, and painted on 
 them the prismatic colours — when made to revolve rapidly 
 it will appear white— if whirled round in a dark room, and 
 with the same rapidity which before produced white, when 
 lighted by an electric spark, all the colours are as distinctly 
 visible as if the wheel were at rest ; in this case the wheel has 
 moved through no visible angle, while the light lasted, and 
 
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 115 
 
 may be taken to have been at rest ; — if lighted by a flash from 
 gunpowder, they will be less distinct, but here the duration 
 of light is longer.* 
 
 Transparent substances, as glass, may be made into such 
 forms that the light falling on them, after passing through, 
 may be brought to a point at particular distances. 
 
 The eye is of this nature, and it collects the light which 
 falls upon it from objects around, and brings them to a point 
 on what is called the retina — when they are exactly brought 
 to a point there, the sight is good ; —when the surface of the 
 eye is too round, the image is not in its proper place, and as 
 people get older, in the generality of cases, the eye becomes 
 too flat ; — to assist them in both cases, lenses (when used in 
 this way called spectacles) are had recourse to, and by the as- 
 sistance of these, the image is formed at the proper point ; — 
 when the eye is too flat, the image is behind the retina, when 
 too round, between the retina and the eye ; but in neither 
 case can people see well. 
 
 Short-sighted people have the eye too convex, long-sighted 
 too flat ; this latter defect comes with age, or increases as 
 people get older, which is the reason why they cannot read 
 without spectacles. 
 
 This does not increase the quantity of light, as light is lost 
 in passing through the spectacles. 
 
 The eflbrt which every one whose sight is beginning to fail 
 feels himself making in order to read, or see anything which 
 is indsitinct, is to bring the lens of the eye into such a form, 
 that the image may be formed in its proper place. 
 
 * “ It has generally been supposed, since the time of Newton, that 
 when the rays of light are separated as completely as possible by means 
 of refraction, they exhibit seven varieties of colour, related to each other 
 with respect to the extent that they occupy in ratios nearly analogous to 
 those of the ascending scale of the minor mode in music. The observa- 
 tions were, however, imperfect, and the analogy wholly imaginary. Dr. 
 Wollaston has determined the division of the coloured image or spectrum 
 in a much more accurate manner than had been done before ; by looking 
 through a prism, at a narrow line of light, he produces a more effectual 
 separation of the colours than can be obtained by the common method of 
 throwing the sun’s image on a wall. The spectrum proved in this manner 
 consists of four colours only, red, green, blue, and violet, which occupy 
 spaces in the proportion of 16, 23, 36, and 25, respectively, making toge- 
 ther 100 for the whole length ; the red being nearly one sixth, the green 
 and violet each about one fourth, and the blue more than one third of the 
 length.” — Young's Lectures. 
 
116 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Then a teacher would ask them if they had never observed 
 the effect of going out from a lighted room on a dark night, 
 how little they could see at first, and the sort of muscular 
 action going on in the eye, so as to adjust it to collect more 
 light ; — the contrary, going from dark to great light, as in 
 opening the shutters of a bedroom window on a bright 
 morning, causing a sort of involuntary effort of the eye to 
 contract, and exclude part of the light — reflection of light 
 from snow causing pain, &c. 
 
 Owls, &c., and animals which see well at night having tli« 
 power of dilating the pupil of the eye, so as to take in more 
 light. 
 
 To have a perfect sight, the lens of the eye must be so 
 shaped that the image is formed exactly on the retina. 
 
 ASTRONOMY. 
 
 There are a few facts connected with Astronomy, and, when 
 properly explained, not very difficult to comprehend, which 
 ought to form a part of the instruction given in our schools. 
 
 The apparent motion of the heavenly bodies — that this is 
 caused in part by a real motion of the spectator, which he 
 himself is not aware of — that the movements we see of the 
 sun, and among the stars, are not all real ones, but owing to 
 our point of view changing every moment. 
 
 That all these bodies appearing to be in a blue concave 
 sphere, in which we see them on a fine night, and at nearly 
 equal distances from us, are not really so— that some are 
 millions and millions of miles farther from us than others — 
 some are fixed, and do not change their position with respect 
 to each other, and called fixed stars — others, again, are moving 
 in circular orbits round the sun, in the same manner as the 
 earth does, of which a certain number are known — their dis- 
 tances from the sun — the time of revolving in their orbits 
 accurately calculated ; that is, the time from one of these 
 bodies leaving any one point in its orbit until it comes to the 
 same point again — these are called planets — some of them, 
 again, having satellites or moons revolving round them, in 
 the same way as the moon round our earth. 
 
 Again, that some of them are self-luminous bodies, like the 
 sun, as the fixed stars — others, like our moon, are not in 
 
ASTRONOMY. 
 
 117 
 
 themselves luminous but appear to be so by reflecting the 
 light thrown upon them by the sun — this explains the various 
 phases of the moon, new moon, full moon — otherwise, if 
 she were a luminous body, she would always appear the 
 same, &c. 
 
 These and similar things which they may be taught are no 
 doubt quite opposed to their preconceived notions, so far as 
 they may have notions at all, or have ever thought on the 
 subject ; but I can say, from my own experience, that when 
 explained in a simple way they excite a very lively interest, 
 and are not only highly instructive as to the facts themselves, 
 but may be made a means of imparting to the youthful mind 
 strong feelings of a religious character. 
 
 “ I saw the glorious sun arise 
 In morning’s early gray ; 
 
 I saw him light the eastern skies, 
 
 And melt the shades away. 
 
 “ Who made the sun to shine so bright, 
 
 The heavens to adorn ? 
 
 Who turn’d the darkness into light. 
 
 And gave us back the morn ? 
 
 “ ’Twas God who made the sun so bright, 
 
 The heavens to adorn ; 
 
 ’Twas God who made the darkness light. 
 
 And gave us back the morn.” 
 
 Sung in the school by the children. 
 
 Having become acquainted with the different lines on the 
 surface of a terrestrial globe,* they should be made to under- 
 stand the two motions of the earth, one in its orbit causing 
 the variation of the seasons, the other of rotation, causing 
 day and night, and that this motion on its axis from west to 
 east causes an apparent motion of the sun and stars from east 
 to west. 
 
 Turning the globe from west to east (having first elevated 
 the pole to the latitude of the place), it is easily understood 
 that a point on the surface near the pole describes a very 
 
 * This earth of ours is a huge mass, self-poised, supported upon 
 nothing, hung upon nothing — enveloped by the air which we breathe, and 
 surrounded by the space of the heavens. 
 
 “ How many thoughts does the mind embrace in this idea !” 
 
 Moseley’s Astro-Theology, 
 
118 
 
 SXTGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 small circle, and that every point which is more distant de- i 
 scribes a larger one, till we reach the equator, any point on ji 
 which describes a great circle, and that from the equator to 
 the south pole these circles go on decreasing. 
 
 Hence the teacher w^ould call attention to the tendency 
 which a body would have to fly off from the surface of the 
 earth, caused by this rotation — that the more rapid the mo- 
 tion, the greater this tendency — that the motion being greatest 
 at the equator and decreasing towards the poles, this tendency 
 to fly off, would be greater there than at any other point ; 
 and would in all cases diminish the weight of bodies, and that 
 this was found by experience to be the case ; a body at the 
 equator loses from this of its w^ eight. 
 
 This tendency to fly off is always at right angles to a per- 
 pendicular to the axis of rotation, and at the equator is at 
 right angles to the direction of gravity.* 
 
 Why is a bird in its flight not left behind by this rotation of 
 the earth on its axis ? or, why does not the lark soaring in the 
 sky find the field moved from under her when she descends ? 
 
 He might then instance the dirt or wet flying from a cart, 
 or carriage-wheel in rapid motion over dirty roads — the water 
 from a w'et mop when twirled round — from a grindstone when 
 the blacksmith is grinding tools ; — then to show how easy it 
 is, from knowing the properties of a circle, to calculate the 
 absolute space moved through by any point on the surface of 
 the earth in tw^enty-four hours, or in any given time; that any 
 point must revolve from wxst to east, and will in a complete i 
 revolution describe the parallel of latitude in which it is ; — * 
 giving them the length of a degree of longitude in that lati- 
 tude, they w^ould work out the arithmetic of it, and for one, 
 two, three, &c. hours, as the case may be; ask— w^hat points 
 on the earth’s surface describe the greatest space, and what 
 the least, in twenty-four hours ? 
 
 The difference between the polar and equatorial diameter. ; 
 
 * The centrifugal force at any point on the earth^s surface acts at right • 
 angles to a perpendicular let fall from that point on the axis of rotation, 
 and varies in magnitude as that perpendicular which is the cosine of the f 
 latitude ; at the equator this force is at right angles to the direction of 
 gravity, and is a maximum, the latitude being 0, and the cosine equal to 
 radius : at the pole it is nothing, the latitude being 90°, and cosine of 
 90° is 0. 
 
ASTRONOMY. 
 
 119 
 
 Again, pointing out that every section of a sphere must be a 
 circle, and that knowing the circumference they can find the 
 diameter— or the line which would reach from any one point 
 to the one differing in longitude 180° from it — also the area 
 of the section or slice of the earth which the plane of a paral- 
 lel of latitude makes. 
 
 The following questions may interest a teacher who has a 
 tolerable knowledge of the subject, and suggest others. 
 
 (1) The length of a degree of longitude in our latitude is 
 37*76 geographical miles : compare the velocity of a point on 
 the earth’s surface here arising from the motion of rotation, 
 with the velocity of a point on the equator. 
 
 (2) If the earth’s diameter were only one half what it is, 
 what proportion would the mass, the surface, and the dif- 
 ferent land divisions of this new globe bear to those of the 
 present one, and what would be the size of each in square miles ? 
 
 The teacher should work this question out numerically to 
 its final results ; it only requires a knowledge of the proper- 
 ties of a circle and of a globe, that the circumferences of cir- / 
 cles vary as their diameters, the areas as the squares ; and 
 that the solid contents of spheres are as the cubes of their 
 diameters. 
 
 Archimedes* more than two thousand years ago discovered 
 that the superficies of a sphere is equal to the convex surface 
 of the circumscribing cylinder, or to the area of four of its 
 great circles ; and that the solidity of the sphere is to that of 
 its circumscribing cylinder as 2 to 3. He was so pleased 
 with this discovery, that he ordered a sphere inscribed in a 
 cylinder to be placed on his tomb, and the numbers which 
 express the ratio of these solids. 
 
 As a means of giving correct ideas of the apparent motions 
 of the heavenly bodies, a celestial globe will be necessary. 
 This, to an unpractised eye, seems a mass of confusion, but 
 by confining the attention at first to a few particular stars, 
 particularly those near the pole, and by degrees extending it 
 to others, it will be found very simple. 
 
 It is essential to make them understand how the elevation 
 of the pole, or the apparent place of the pole-star, varies — 
 that at the equator the poles are in the horizon, and at the 
 poles directly over head. 
 
 * See Appendix B, Table 1. 
 
120 
 
 SUGGESTIVK HINTS. 
 
 Having elevated the pole according to the latitude, and 
 otherwise regulated it for any particular day and hour in the 
 year, they may conceive the equinoctial and ecliptic as the 
 corresponding lines of the terrestrial globe swollen out to the 
 blue vault of the sky — the teacher would point out, for in- 
 stance, the constellation of the Great Bear, and how to find 
 the pole-star from it; others, as Capella in Auriga, &c., which 
 never get below the horizon— that the stars near the pole- 
 star appear to move in circles round it from east to west — 
 that this is in consequence of their own motion with the sur- 
 face of the globe from west to east— that the farther a star is 
 from the pole-star, the greater the circle it describes, until 
 you get to those which rise due east — that such a star would 
 describe a greater circle than one rising either to the north or 
 south of east, and that stars rising further to the south will 
 appear to describe smaller and smaller arcs in the heavens, 
 until you get to those which only just make their appearance 
 on the horizon— such as a star of the first magnitude (Fomal- 
 thaut) in Piscis Australis — those further south not rising to us 
 at all, but describing circles round the south pole, in the same 
 way as the stars in the Great Bear and others do round the 
 north. 
 
 Then by degrees to call the attention to others, such as a 
 star (Vega) of the first magnitude in Lyra — Arcturus, Begulus, 
 Antares in the Scorpion, &c., marking those in and near the , 
 ecliptic— point out also the direction of the Milky Way, and 
 the particular stars near it on each side, east or west of it. 
 
 Then turning the globe from west to east, show the rising, i 
 &c., or particular parts of the heavens where the more remark- ^ 
 able stars are to be found, at hours when they may themselves 
 observe them — where they will be at eight, nine o’clock, &c., 
 near the horizon in the east — or that they must turn their faces 
 to the south, the west, &c., to see them; as also their apparent 
 distance from the pole-star ; and they will have the greatest ( 
 pleasure in hunting them out and watching their motions. ! 
 
 When a right conception of the apparent motion of a few of i 
 the more important stars is formed, that of the rest scattered ^ 
 among them becomes an easy matter of reasoning which is - 
 soon filled up, always bearing in mind their apparent distances 
 from the pole-star — watching those which never set in their 
 highest and lowest points, beginning with them in the east ; 
 
ASTRONOMY. 
 
 121 
 
 conceive how the observers must turn in order to see them in 
 the different parts of the circle they appear to describe, until 
 they come to the same point again. 
 
 That if they can observe any of those stars to change its 
 position with respect to any star which they know to be fixed — 
 if they find its angular distance from a fixed point increase or 
 decrease — that this is called a planet — that the planets move 
 in orbits inclined to the plane of the ecliptic, but that their 
 path is never far from that of the sun — some nearer the sun — 
 some farther from it than the earth — the difference this must 
 cause in the quantity of heat and light falling upon them — 
 that in one it would melt iron and lead — that they would not 
 be known as solids, water only as an elastic vapour — while in 
 another, perhaps, quicksilver, water, &c., would be solid sub- 
 stances, capable of being quarried out in blocks like Aberdeen 
 granite — gases would become solid, &c. 
 
 Then to point out their respective distances from the sun — 
 their periods of revolution in their orbits — their satellites, &c . — 
 the exactness with which astronomers are able to make all 
 these calculations — changes of the moon and her different 
 phases. 
 
 That if the plane of the orbit in which the moon moves 
 were extended, it does not lie in the plane of the ecliptic, but 
 inclined to it, at an angle of about 5° ; that at new moon, the 
 sun, moon, and earth are in a straight line, and that side of 
 the moon which receives light from the sun is turned entirely 
 from us, so that none of her reflected light can reach the earth — 
 that by her motion in her orbit she separates herself, moving 
 to the east, about 13° daily from the sun — that a day or two 
 after the change we see a small crescent of light, concave to- 
 wards the east ; this goes on increasing daily with her angular 
 distance from the sun, until she appears in the part of the 
 heavens directly opposite to him, when it is full moon — the 
 whole enlightened surface of the moon being turned towards 
 the earth. She now goes on decreasing, rising later on suc- 
 cessive evenings, the waning side being convex towards the 
 west. 
 
 Call attention also to the points of the horizon on which 
 she rises — when due south — the arc described in the heavens — 
 her varying distance from particular stars — and why the dif- 
 ference in time between successive risings of what is called 
 
 11 
 
122 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 the Harvest Moon, is less than at any other time of the year. 
 That the orbit in which the earth moves is not a circle, but 
 an oval or ellipse with the sun in one of the foci — show how 
 an ellipse may be described — that the sun is nearer the earth 
 in winter than in summer — how the point of the horizon on 
 which he rises varies, being farthest to the south in winter, 
 and to the north of east in summer — how his altitude when 
 on the meridian varies, being much greater in summer than 
 in winter ; the effect of this, so far as heat is concerned — that 
 the length of time between sunrise and sunset varies, as you 
 leave the equator, all the way up to the pole — the duration of 
 twilight short at the equator, longer at other places as the 
 latitude increases, and why ? The sun not getting so high in 
 the heavens in winter as in summer, the rays fall in a more 
 slanting direction on the earth’s surface, and on this account 
 at this season, as well as from his not being so long above the 
 horizon, less warmth is communicated to the earth than in 
 summer. On fields with an aspect to the north, the rays will 
 fall still more slantingly than on those turned to the south or 
 on a horizontal plain, and in such situations less warmth will 
 be given to the soil or to any substances upon it; hence vege- 
 tation in the spring is not so forward in a northern as in a 
 southern aspect — the hoar frost in autumn remains up till 
 noon, or even the whole day, in aspects turned to the north, 
 but vanishes early in those to the south — the same of snow ♦ 
 remaining on the north side of hills — other reasons also, such 
 as cold winds from the north. What must be the inclination 
 towards the north, on any given day, that the rays may fall ] 
 parallel to the surface? What the inclination to the north 
 beyond which the surface would be entirely in the shade? 
 What the aspect to the south, that the rays of the sun may 
 fall perpendicularly to the surface on any given day ? 
 
 Light travels from the sun to the earth in 7^ minutes, at _ 
 the rate of 192,500 miles in a second of time. 
 
 It moves through a space equal to the circumference of the [ 
 earth in ^th. part of a second— a space which would take the 
 swiftest bird three weeks to fly over. 
 
 AgaiUj point out the difference between sidereal and solar ? 
 time — day — year : how a solar day is not always of the same 
 length — clocks regulated by mean solar time, &c. : how the 
 period of time we call a year does not consist of an exact 
 
ASTRONOMY. 
 
 123 
 
 number of days, as 365 ; and hence the difficulty in regulating 
 the calendar.* 
 
 That the sidereal day, or the time between any meridian 
 leaving a particular star, and coming to it again, is always the 
 same, the star not having moved in the interval — that this is 
 not the case with the sun — that in the interval between any 
 two successive passages of the same meridian under him, he 
 has moved on towards the east, and this daily motion being 
 unequal, causes the length of a solar day to vary. A clock 
 tells mean time, and is therefore sometimes before, and some- 
 times behind solar time. 
 
 That the time of the earth’s making a complete revolution 
 in its orbit is 365 days 5 hours and 48 minutes; so that if 
 leap-year is made to occur every four years, this would be too 
 often, and require correction. 
 
 On the subject of Eclipses, There is no phenomenon con- 
 nected with the appearances and motions of the heavenly 
 bodies which creates so much astonishment among those who 
 have never thought on the subject, as an eclipse of the sun and 
 moon ; and that the time of their having happened, or of their 
 happening for the future, can be so exactly computed, is a 
 subject of no less wonder. 
 
 It is familiar to every one, that an opaque body of sufficient 
 size may be so placed between a luminous body and the eye of 
 an observer, as to stop all the light proceeding from it, and in 
 this case the luminous body becomes invisible. 
 
 * “ Hipparchus, the most celebrated astronomer of antiquity, and who 
 lived about a century and a half before Christ, first paid great attention to 
 the rising and setting of the stars ; he discovered that the period of 365 
 days 6 hours, which had been considered as the true length of the solar 
 year, was too great by about five minutes, and observed that the four parts, 
 into which the year is divided by the solstices and equinoxes, are by no 
 means equal, the sun occupying 94^ days in passing from the vernal equinox 
 to the summer solstice, and ouly 92^ from the same solstice to the autumnal 
 equinox, and that therefore the sun remained 187 days in that part of the 
 ecliptic which lies north of the equator, and only 178 in the other part.’’ — 
 Encycl. Brit. 
 
 Laplace concludes that the mean heat of the earth cannot be altered 
 by 1° of Reaumen since the time of Hipparchus, inasmuch as the dimen- 
 sions of the globe would be thereby changed in a small amount, its angular 
 velocity increased or diminished, and a sensible difference be made in the 
 length of the day — and this is found not to be the case. 
 
124 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 Now an eclipse happens in consequence of one of the opaque 
 bodies, the earth and the moon, being so placed as to prevent 
 the light falling upon the other. 
 
 The moon coming between the sun and earth causes an 
 eclipse of the sun, and this happens at new moon, when she 
 is between the earth and sun, and hinders the rays of light 
 from falling upon the earth. 
 
 The earth coming between the sun and moon causes an 
 eclipse of the moon, and happens at the same instant of abso- 
 lute time to all observers — longitude calculated from this. 
 
 The shadow of the earth or moon is conical, having the area 
 of a great circle for its base. The length of the earth’s shadow 
 is 216*511 semi-diameters of the earth. 
 
 What is meant by the transit of a planet over the sun’s 
 disc? How is it that the transit of Mercury, on the 9th of 
 November, 1848, could not be seen to its termination by an 
 observer in Paris, but would by one in Ireland ? 
 
 Facts of this kind, when understood, many of which they 
 will be able afterwards to verify by their own observation, will 
 to many, I have no doubt, be a source of rational enjoyment 
 in their homes, and make them feel that they belong to a class 
 of beings of an intellectual kind : instead of being unmoved 
 or stupefied by the grandeur of the appearances about them, 
 they will turn their thoughts to that God who made them, and 
 call to mind the lessons they have learned at school in their 
 childhood. 
 
 Child of the earth ! oh ! lift your glance 
 To yon bright firmanent’s expanse ! 
 
 The glories of its realm explore, 
 
 And gaze, and wonder, and adore ! 
 
 Doth it not speak to every sense 
 The marvels of Omnipotence ? 
 
 Seest thou not there the Almighty name. 
 
 Inscribed in characters of flame ? 
 
 Count o’er those lamps of quenchless light, 
 
 That sparkle through the shades of night ; 
 
 Behold them ! — can a mortal boast 
 To number that celestial host ? 
 
 Mark well each little star, whose rays 
 In distant splendour meet thy gaze ; 
 
 Each is a world, by Him sustain’d. 
 
 Who from eternity hath reign’d. 
 
CHEMISTRY. 
 
 125 
 
 Each, kindled not for earth alone, 
 
 Hath circling planets of its own, 
 
 And beings, whose existence springs 
 From Him, the all-powerful King of kings. 
 
 Haply, those glorious beings know 
 No stain of guilt, nor tear of woe ; 
 
 But raising still the adoring voice. 
 
 For ever in their God rejoice. 
 
 What then art thou^ oh ! child of clay ! 
 
 Amid creation's grandeur, say ? 
 
 E'en as an insect on the breeze. 
 
 E'en as a dew-drop, lost in seas. 
 
 Yet fear not thou — the sovereign hand. 
 
 Which spreads the ocean and the land. 
 
 And hung the rolling spheres in air. 
 
 Hath, e'en for thee, a Father's care. 
 
 Be thou at peace ! the all-seeing eye. 
 
 Pervading earth, and air, and sky. 
 
 The searching glance which none may flee. 
 
 Is still, in mercy, turn'd on thee. 
 
 Mrs. Hemans. 
 
 CHEMISTRY. 
 
 The subject of Chemistry is one which may be made both 
 interesting and useful, perhaps more so than almost any other 
 of a secular kind, in the class of schools for which these pages 
 are written, whether in towns or in the rural districts. 
 
 About two years ago, the subject of chemical agriculture 
 was introduced in this school, with Professor Johnston’s 
 Catechism as a text-book, and sufficient apparatus for the 
 experiments required to illustrate it. What has been done, 
 and the way in which it has been received, is a sufficient proof 
 that instruction in this, might form an important feature at 
 the larger class of schools in our rural districts, where the 
 teachers are qualified to give it, or where those interested in 
 the school have an inclination to introduce it ; this would at- 
 tract the attention of the farmer as regards his own children, 
 not that I think that is wanted ; when the education in our 
 parish schools is in other respects good, they will, in the end, 
 avail themselves of it. The difficulty is in finding qualified 
 
 H§ 
 
126 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 teachers, but let them once be properly remunerated, and 
 society made to feel and estimate at its proper value the real 
 worth of a sound practical education, preparing them for the 
 duties of this life as well as for a future existence, this diffi- 
 culty will cease, and qualified teachers will soon be found : 
 nor is it too much to expect from the most advanced nation 
 in the world, as to its political and social constitution, science 
 and wealth, that it should grant a liberal allowance to the 
 education of its youth : were it to do so, the gain, even in a 
 pecuniary point of view, would in the end be great, indepen- 
 dent of those moral considerations which ought never to be 
 lost sight of. 
 
 The first object of the farmer is to produce food for man 
 and beast in the cheapest way he can — to get the most pro- 
 ductive crops, at the least possible expense ; and although ex- 
 perience is not to be despised, yet, assisted by science, much 
 more may be done than without it — this it is difficult to per- 
 suade the farmers ; some knowledge of manures, they think, 
 maybe of service, but beyond the ^Muck Manual,’ in the way 
 of book-learning, very few of them are inclined to go — still 
 they are on the march, and when they see their way, through 
 experiments successfully tried, prejudices will give way; there is 
 something of wisdom in not abandoning a tolerably good plan, 
 unless you have confidence in the one which is recommended 
 being better, and the road to confidence is practical proof. 
 
 One of the first questions naturally would be — of what are 
 all these plants composed ? — On inquiry, they are all found to 
 consist of two classes of substances, varying with different 
 plants, one of which is volatile, called organic, the other, v/hich 
 remains after combustion, in the form of ashes, and called in- 
 organic — these again are analysed into their separate elements, 
 and it is thus seen what the plant is made up of. 
 
 Now, it is evident that if the seed, after it is sown and germi- 
 nates, as w^ell as grasses, during their growth, cannot find such 
 substances as they are composed of, the crop must necessarily 
 be an unproductive one, and that in proportion to the de- 
 ficiency of the substances required. The next question is — 
 
 Where are they to find all the things which enter into their 
 composition ? — which of them can be supplied by the industry 
 of the farmer ? — and which of them must he trust to atmo- 
 spheric influences to supply ? 
 
CHEMISTRY. 
 
 127 
 
 To this science gives an answer — the farmer judges from ex- 
 perience — the agricultural chemist would analyse the soil, and 
 find out its separate elements — he knows the elements of the 
 crop he wants to grow, and knowing which of these are to be 
 found in the soil, and for which he must trust to the atmo- 
 sphere, he would use that kind of manure which would supply 
 the rest — and that such substances as any particular crop is 
 known to take away must be supplied in the shape of manure, 
 otherwise the land will be worn out. 
 
 A knowledge of the particular substances which a crop of 
 any kind, as wheat, barley, &c., takes out of the ground, and 
 of what is wanted by the crop which is intended to follow, 
 would point out a good rotation of cropping ; and, in addition 
 to this, knowing the composition of the soil, would lead to a 
 proper economy in not casting useless substances upon the 
 land as manure — such substances as did not contain the par- 
 ticular things wanted. 
 
 This does not apply merely to grain-crops, but to all others ; 
 and although long experience may have taught the farmer a 
 right course as to the ordinary crops, yet, take the case of a 
 new plant, a grass, or other plant which is recommended, he 
 is then at a loss as to the soil he ought to try it in ; he there- 
 fore goes by guess — if he hits upon a favorable soil he pro- 
 nounces in its favour, if not it is condemned, and it will only 
 be after a long time, and after many successful or unsuccessful 
 trials and much expense, that it is found out what soil will suit 
 this plant and what will not. Now, here science might help to 
 a speedier and less expensive mode of trying it — by burning 
 the plant, examining the ashes, and analysing the soil in which 
 it is intended to be tried, this would show whether they suit 
 each other or not. 
 
 Thus science, with caution, may at once point out a right 
 course, when it would take years of experience to find it out. 
 
 Then again, with respect to manures, although a substance 
 thrown on the ground may contain the ingredient wanted, it 
 may not contain it in such a form that the plant can avail itself 
 of it. Here, again, science steps in, and teaches that the nou- 
 rishment which plants take up by the roots must necessarily 
 be in a fluid form — that they cannot assimilate to themselves 
 any substance in a solid state, although it may be the very thing 
 they like best, and that therefore it will be necessary to use 
 
128 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 such manures as are soluble in water — by the rains which fall 
 or which, from exposure to the atmosphere, become so — that 
 after decomposition every animal and vegetable substance re- 
 turns in one shape or other— the. organic parts through the 
 atmosphere in a gaseous form — the inorganic as solid sub- 
 stances thrown upon the ground, for the future nourishment 
 of plants, and, through them, of animals. 
 
 Also, with respect to the food of animals, chemistry points 
 out what particular food is best fitted for a required purpose ; 
 the proximate principles of fleshy matter, such as form the 
 muscles, fat, are formed in the plants, the stomach of ani- 
 mals dissolve the compound substances into their proximate 
 principles, they circulate through the blood, and are thus assi- 
 milated to the different parts of the body. 
 
 For instance, the farmer wishes the calf, the lamb, or colt 
 to become a well-grown animal, to have muscle, bone, and 
 sinew ; the cow to give milk which will yield a great deal of 
 butter and cheese, excepting in large towns, where they want 
 quantity and not quality ; the ox he wants to feed on such 
 substances as will leave the most of fat on his bones. 
 
 In all these cases, from knowing the composition of the dif- 
 ferent vegetable substances, such as turnips, swedes, mangel- 
 wurzel, different kinds of hay, &c., there is something of a guide 
 as to what plants would be best suitedfor anyparticular purpose. 
 
 The farmer knows that one grass field is better than another 
 for young stock, for milk, for fattening, &c., which is nothing 
 more than that the grasses in one field are of that kind which 
 has more in them of those substances of which bone, muscle, 
 &c., is made — in another more of the substance of milk — and 
 in the third of fatty matter ; here experience has taught that 
 which science would confirm, if the agricultural chemist were 
 to analyse the grasses which most abound in such pastures. 
 
 Calling attention, also, to the influence of light— heat- 
 moisture, &c. in the atmosphere— wet and cold seasons, &c., 
 on vegetation — that a great deal of rain has a tendency on many 
 soils to produce more straw in our cereal crops than dry wea- 
 ther, &c. ; in fact, calling the thinking faculties of man more 
 into action in the business of agriculture, and not making it in 
 the same degree that mechanical routine sort of thing which, 
 of all other occupations carried on in this country, it has 
 hitherto been, and thought to require less of intellect than any- 
 
CHEMISTRY. 129 
 
 I thing else. Of all occupations it is that which is most natural 
 I to man, and that without which we cannot exist. 
 
 When a knowledge has been obtained of the simple ele- 
 ments of which vegetable matter is composed, and of the sub- 
 stances, starch, gluten, oil or fat, and inorganic matter, which 
 a healthy animal ought to derive from its food, it will be 
 found useful and instructive to call attention to the ascertained 
 quantities of each of these in given weights of particular kinds 
 of grain — or other substances of a nutritive kind, such as the 
 following : — 
 
 According to Johnston, in his ‘Chemical Catechism,’ 
 “100 lbs. of wheaten flour contain about 50 lbs. of starch, 
 10 lbs. of gluten, and 2 or 3 lbs. of oil. 
 
 “ In 100 lbs.* of oats there are about 60 lbs. of starch, 1 6 lbs. 
 of gluten, and 6 lbs. of oil. 
 
 “ In 100 lbs. of potatoes, about 75 lbs. of water, and from 
 15 to 20 lbs. of starch; and in 100 lbs. of turnips there are 
 about 88 lbs. of water. 
 
 “ And of animal substances, 100 lbs. of butter contain from 
 10 to 12 lbs. of water, about 1 lb. of curd ; the rest is fat. 
 
 “ 100 lbs. of cheese contain from 30 to 45 lbs. of water; 
 skim-milk cheese from 6 to 10 lbs. per cent, of butter; full 
 milk cheese from 20 to 30 lbs. per cent, of butter, and about 
 as much pure curd.” 
 
 Tables also, similar to the following, connected with the 
 chemistry of food and of nutrition, and which is taken from 
 Brandt, may be made a means of suggesting most useful ob- 
 servations. This shows the change which takes place in the 
 proximate elements of barley, in the process of malting : 
 
 Composition Composition 
 of Barley. of Malt. 
 
 Stareh 
 
 
 
 598 
 
 
 
 431 
 
 Gluten 
 
 
 
 57 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 Albumen . 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 Diastasse . 
 
 
 
 0 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Sugar 
 
 
 
 46 
 
 
 
 154 
 
 Gum 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 
 
 150 
 
 Oil 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 Salts 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 Husk 
 
 
 
 136 
 
 
 
 136 
 
 Water 
 
 
 
 106 
 
 
 
 106 
 
 1000 1000 
 
 * An exact knowledge of the nutritive properties of vegetable sub- 
 
130 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 The most remarkable change being of a large quantity o; 
 starch into the substances sugar and gum, i 
 
 That great permanent benefit will be conferred upon the i 
 farming classes by the introduction of this kind of instruction I 
 into our schools there can be no doubt, not only in an increase 
 of produce arising out of improved modes of culture as regards 
 the soil, but, in addition to this, it will lead to an improved 
 culture of the mind in the rising generation of agricultural 
 youth, and make them, as a body, a much more intelligent class 
 of men than they are at present. 
 
 The village schoolmaster who attempts anything of this kind 
 should, in addition to a general knowledge of the particular 
 substances which constitute the ordinary crops, be able to ma- 
 nipulate in a few of the common routine things in general 
 chemistry— in making the ordinary gases, hydrogen, oxygen, 
 caibonic-acid gas, &c, — to show that this last is not a simple 
 but a compound substance, and constitutes nearly one half of 
 all the chalk, limestone, marble, &c. on the earth let them 
 feel the weight of a piece of chalk or limestone before and after 
 being burnt into lime — the different specific gravities of these 
 gases that one is combustible — another is a supporter of it, ! 
 and to such a degree that iron will burn in it — that carbonic- 
 acid gas extinguishes flame, destroying animal life when 
 breathed into the lungs — danger of sleeping in a close room \ 
 where charcoal is burning, or near a lime-kiln, &c.f To show ‘ 
 that all these, although the same to the eye, may in other ways 
 
 stances — food for man and beast — and the exact proportions both quan- 
 titative and qualitative in each, is of great importance to an agricultural 
 people, as having a tendency to induce them to cultivate the most nutritive 
 kind ; and one can scarcely conceive a people having such knowledge, and 
 bringing their mind to bear upon it — cultivating, for instance, the potato — 
 as food for man— considering also its perishable nature, to the extent w^hich 
 the Irish have done, in preference to crops of a cereal kind. 
 
 * The quantity of carbonic-acid gas locked up in every cubic yard of 
 limestone has been estimated at 16,000 cubic feet. The quantity locked ' 
 up in coal, in which its basis carbon forms from 64 to 75 per cent, must 
 also be enormous ; if all this w^ere set free, extinction of animal life, &c. ; 
 to suggest any mode of approximating to the w^eight of carbonic-acid gas 
 locked up in a given weight of chalk— a cubic foot for instance— by weigh- 
 ing it before being converted into lime and w^eighing it afterwards — diffe- 
 rence in weight arising from the gases driven off. 
 
 t Five per cent, of this gas in the atmosphere would be highly deleterious, 
 and ten per cent, would be entirely destructive to animal life. 
 
CHEMISTRY. 
 
 131 
 
 be tested and made out. That ammonia consists of two gases, 
 nitrogen and hydrogen, and how formed in the decomposition 
 of plants and animals. 
 
 To make out by experiment that air is not a simple body, by 
 burning a taper under a bell-jar over water, &c., or a piece of 
 phosphorus, but is made up of oxygen and nitrogen, about ^th 
 in bulk being oxygen and ^ths nitrogen, also the different 
 compounds which this forms with oxygen, &c. 
 
 That water is not a simple substance, but is composed of two 
 elements, oxygen and hydrogen, in the proportion of 1 to 2 in 
 volume and 8 to 1 in weight, and when analysed, that the two 
 simple elements can be again reunited to form water. 
 
 The hot iron which the blacksmith plunges into his water 
 trough decomposes the water — the oxygen of the water uniting 
 with the iron and forming an oxide of iron, which is sometimes 
 seen as a flaky substance on the surface, the hydrogen being 
 set free, mixed with some impurity which gives it an offensive 
 smell : the same when the kettle boils over or water is thrown 
 into the fire. 
 
 That salt is made up of a vapour called chlorine and a metal 
 called sodium — that sulphur — mercury, and the metals, as 
 far as is yet known, are simple substances, and to point out 
 the more common ones — to explain and make them understand 
 what is meant by a salt made up of a base and an acid, &c.— 
 the way in which acids and alkalies act upon vegetable colours 
 — how they neutralize each other — tests for them, &c. 
 
 In order to form definite notions of the relative weight and 
 substances of such bodies as the gases, of matters the existence 
 of which is not evident to the sight, it will be necessary to 
 have recourse to the balance : this, in the case of common air, 
 may easily be done by exhausting the ordinary brass bottle, 
 the volume of which is a quart, by means of the air-pump ; 
 in the case of the following the weights would be found — 
 
 
 Weight 
 
 Weight of 
 
 
 of quart. 
 
 cubic foot. 
 
 Atmospheric air 
 
 21fgr. 
 
 lioz. 
 
 Hydrogen 
 
 . , 
 
 • • T3 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 • 23^ . . 
 
 • U 
 
 Nitrogen 
 
 • 21f . . 
 
 . 
 
 Carbonic acid . 
 
 . 32,* . . 
 
 1ft 
 
 The simple fact of showing how these invisible substances 
 
132 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS, 
 
 I 
 
 can be handled — those which are heavier than common air 
 poured from one vessel to another, like water-can be pumpec 
 out, and even, by a dexterous manipulator, ladled out by th« 
 hands, proving that the transfer is really made bv testing ir 
 the ordinary way, is of itself most instructive. ' ^ 
 
 The teacher might easily show this in the case of carbonic- 
 acid gas, by taking a quantity of bruised chalk or limestone 
 powdered marble, or bruised oyster shells — place them in the 
 bottom of an open vessel (a rather tall glass one would be 
 best), then pour sulphuric acid diluted with water upon them 
 when this gas would be copiously given off— would rest at the 
 lower part of the vessel, rising as the quantity increased— then 
 letting a lighted taper be gradually lowered, the point to 
 which the gas had risen would soon be seen by the taper be- 
 coming dim, and when sunk a little further it would entirely 
 go out. ^ 
 
 To know that the gas given off from the substances above 
 IS actually carbonic acid, it would not be sufficient merely to 
 know that it is heavier than common air; but it must also be 
 shown that it will not support combustion — will make lime 
 water turbid — and is an acid, by turning vegetable blues red. 
 
 It is also instructive to collect this gas by displacement 
 
 making it in a vessel into which a bent tube will fit, giving it 
 a direction into any vessel into which the gas can descend 
 and thus displace the air of the atmosphere. * 
 
 Also, show that it is a compound substance formed by the 
 chemical union of carbon, a solid, with oxygen — that one atom 
 of carbon unites with two of oxygen, the chemical equivalents 
 of which are 6 and 16, forming a compound substance of 
 which 22 is the equivalent— the resulting gas not being an 
 increase in volume over the oxygen with which the carbon 
 united, but an increase of specific gravity, by the interpene- 
 tration of the substances. 
 
 For instance, if the exact quantity of carbon were burnt in 
 a jar containing the exact quantity of oxygen with which the 
 carbon would unite, the result would be carbonic acid, equal 
 in volume to the volume of oxygen, but of course specifically 
 heavier, and having all the properties of the former, the solid 
 carbon thus united having become invisible. 
 
 This carbon may be thrown down again, and would show 
 itself in a volume of smoke — the hlack and restored carhon. 
 
CHEMISTRY. 
 
 133 
 
 The following experiment, which is easily made, would show 
 the change which atmospheric air undergoes by being passed 
 through the lungs. 
 
 Take ajar with an air-tight stopper, and such as used for 
 pneumatic purposes — if open at the lower end it must be placed 
 over water — take out the stopper and place the mouth over the 
 opening — inhale* and exhale the air several times by breathing 
 with the mouth over the opening, and taking care that no air 
 from the atmosphere gets in ; put in the stopper, and then 
 test the air — it will be found to have all the properties of car- 
 bonic acid — will put out a light, make lime water turbid, &c. 
 
 The same may be done by breathing through a bent tube 
 into an inverted jar, the upper end of which is closed ; this, 
 after having passed through the lungs and breathed out, will 
 ascend, being heated and mixed with watery vapour, and on 
 raising a lighted taper towards the top of the vessel, or de- 
 pressing the vessel upon the taper, it will be extinguished. 
 
 The reason why this gas breathed out by animals ascends, 
 the gas itself at the temperature of the atmosphere being 
 heavier than common air, is, that it comes from the animal 
 heated, and is mixed with watery vapour. 
 
 As a curious result of the chemical inquiries of the present 
 age, it has been ascertained that the quantity of carbonic acid 
 breathed out by a healthy man in 24 hours is about 13| oz., 
 of which about 7 oz. is solid carbon ;f about 63 oz. by a cow, 
 and about 70 oz. by a horse ; and that an approximate calcu- 
 lation founded on this would give about 500 tons, breathed 
 out by the population of London ; and that the quantity of 
 carbon breathed out by the whole animal race w^ould he suf- 
 ficient to supply all the vegetable world on the surface of the 
 globe. 
 
 * It is found that lungs of an ordinary capacity will take in about 
 160 cubic inches of air, and the greatest about 295. A man of five feet 
 I one inch takes in about 160, and eight additional cubic inches for every 
 t inch in height is found to be a very near approximation to what really 
 ! takes place in life. 
 
 t It has been ascertained by a Swedish philosopher experimenting on a 
 I healthy man about thirty-five years of age, confined in a small chamber into 
 1 which air entered by a hole on one side, and examining it after it passed 
 i through at the other, that the carbon ejected per hour was 105 grs. fast- 
 I ing; 190 grs. after breakfast; 130 when hungry; 165 two hours after 
 I dinner; 160 after tea; and 100 sleeping; making about 7oz. daily. 
 
 12 
 
134 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 The mode of making common coal gas — the process which 
 is going on in the burning of the gas, or of a candle — how the 
 water which is formed during the combustion — the carbonic 
 acid, &c. — is returned through the atmosphere again to assume 
 the form of vegetable life, &c. — that a given weight of wood, 
 for instance, or of any other combustible body, when con- 
 sumed, if all the parts were collected, would weigh more even 
 than the wood, and why ?*— that when they burn wood on their 
 owm fires, elm will leave more ashes than beech— beech than 
 oak — oak than willow, &c., and that consequently these trees 
 during their growth carry away different quantities of inor- 
 ganic matter from the soil — that leaves make more ash than 
 straw — straw than grain. 
 
 These are things not difficult to understand, but they ought 
 to be taught by experiment, and all that is required may, by 
 a person at all well acquainted with the subject, be done at 
 very little expense. There are numberless ways of showing 
 the principle of many of these things, not only in the arts, 
 &c., which would apply more particularly to towns, but in 
 the common every-day things of life, whether in town or 
 country, and calling attention to them when an experiment is 
 performed, is of more service in an educational point of view 
 than those without experience are at all aware of. 
 
 Many examples might be brought forward where even the 
 remarks of ordinary workmen have led to discourses of a 
 most important kind; but the two following, from Sir John 
 Herschel’s ^ Discourse on Natural Philosophy,’ are particu- , 
 larly striking : A soap manufacturer remarks that the re- 
 
 siduum of his ley, when exhausted of the alkali for wdiich he 
 employs it, produces a corrosion of his copper boiler, for ? 
 which he cannot account. He puts it into the hands of a * 
 chemist for analysis, and the result is, the discovery of one of 
 the most singular and important chemical elements, iodine. 
 Curiosity is excited : the origin of the new substance is traced 
 to the sea-plants, from whose ashes the principal ingredient 
 of soap is obtained, and ultimately to the sea-water itself. ' 
 It is thence hunted through nature, discovered in salt mines, 
 springs, &c., and pursued into all bodies which have a marine ' 
 origin : among the rest, sponge. A medical practitioner then ' 
 calls to mind a reputed remedy for the cure of one of the ; 
 most grievous and unsightly disorders to which the human 
 
CHEMISTRY. 
 
 135 
 
 species is subject — the goitre — which infests the inhabitants 
 of mountainous districts, and which was said to have been 
 originally cured by the ashes of burnt sponge. Led by this 
 indication, he tries the effect of iodine on that complaint, and 
 the result establishes the extraordinary fact that this singular 
 substance, taken as a medicine, acts with the utmost prompti- 
 tude and energy on goitre (of course, like all medicines, 
 with occasional failures) as a specific against that odious 
 deformity.” 
 
 Another instance affording a safeguard of human life, and 
 a remedy for a most serious evil ; “ In needle manufactories, 
 the workmen who point needles are constantly exposed to 
 excessively minute particles of steel which fly from the grind- 
 stones, as the finest dust in the air, and are inhaled with their 
 breath ; this in time produces a constitutional irritation de- 
 pendent on the tonic properties of the steel, which is sure to 
 end in pulmonary consumption : insomuch, that persons em- 
 ployed in this kind of work, used scarcely ever to attain the 
 age of forty years. In vain was it attempted to purify the 
 air, before its entry into the lungs, by gauzes or linen guards ; 
 the dust was too fine and penetrating to be obstructed by 
 such coarse expedients, until some ingenious person bethought 
 himself of the motions and arrangements of a few steel-filings 
 on a sheet of paper held over a magnet. Masks of magne- 
 tized steel are now constructed, and adapted to the faces of 
 the workmen. By these the air is not merely strained, but 
 searched in its passage through them, and each obnoxious 
 atom arrested in its progress.” 
 
 Also Davy’s safety lamp, lightning conductors, &c., are all 
 instances of the application of sciences to the most valuable 
 purposes of social life. 
 
 Of the great usefulness of being acquainted through experi- 
 ment with facts in science which are of a practical kind, a 
 knowledge of which, from experience, I am convinced is at- 
 tainable in our best elementary schools, the following striking 
 instance occurred while these pages were going through the 
 press. The philosophy of it is very interesting, and on this 
 account, as well as from its being an important practical 
 lesson, I give it here ; it shows also, that the very means we 
 take to protect both life and property may, through ignorance, 
 increase the danger we wish to avoid, and is an instance 
 
136 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 where a knowledge of science prevented what might other- 
 wise have been attended with most serious results. Being in 
 London, I went with a friend to the Royal Institution, to hear 
 a lecture which had been announced on the manufacture of 
 glass, and on the application of various metallic substances in 
 colouring it, &c. ; on arriving there, we found there was no 
 lecture, some danger of fire having arisen from the furnaces 
 erected for the occasion. On the subsequent Friday, Pro- 
 fessor Faraday gave a very interesting account of this acci- 
 dent. The heat of the furnaces and fire resting on the bricks 
 of the fire-place in the lecture-room, had so heated the bricks, 
 as to char the ends of some joists on which the floor rested, 
 and the ends of which ran up nearly to the fire-place, and 
 were in contact with the bricks ; this caused a smell of fire, 
 water was thrown on the fire in the fire-place to extinguish it, 
 and while this was being done, a workman went into the room 
 below, and broke the ceiling at a distance from the fire-place, 
 and spying every now and then a flame issuing out, thought 
 nothing could stop it. This being pointed out to Professor 
 Faraday, he immediately saw that the water thrown for the 
 purpose of putting out the fire, falling on the heated bricks, 
 was decomposed, and the hydrogen, by the pressure of the 
 steam above, was forced downwards, and coming in contact 
 with the charred beams, took fire, the beam ends being suffi- 
 ciently hot to ignite it, so that the very means taken to extin- 
 guish it was adding to the danger. He then directed the 
 water to be thrown on the heated substances near the fire, 
 and these being cooled down below the point which would 
 cause the gas to ignite, there was of course no further danger 
 in throwing water on the fire. 
 
 The facts of a scientific kind connected with this are by 
 no means difficult to understand, and are such as an experi- 
 enced workman, who had seen experiments on the composition 
 and decomposition of water, — how the compound substance 
 could be separated into two others, by coming in contact 
 with a heated surface, like the bricks, and that one of them, 
 hydrogen, was very inflammable, and would ignite at a low 
 temperature — that the oxygen would assist the combustion — 
 would easily understand : the lesson taught him would be 
 that, in a case of this kind, instead of continuing to throw 
 water on the fire and on the bricks, he would immediately 
 
GEOLOGY. 
 
 137 
 
 direct it to be poured on the heated materials around, and 
 then pour water again on the fire ; when, even if gas were 
 evolved, there would be nothing near it of a sufficiently high 
 temperature to ignite it. 
 
 Facts in scien^ such as these have a direct practical bear- 
 ing, and when it is seen how much of property in towns, nay, 
 of life itself, may depend upon a knowledge of them among 
 w hat are called our more experienced workmen, their import- 
 ance will be understood. 
 
 GEOLOGY. 
 
 There are many interesting facts in Geology, particularly 
 such as apply to the locality in which a school is situated, or 
 which have reference to agriculture, to which attention might 
 be called. 
 
 Boys may be easily made to understand what is meant by 
 stratified and unstratified rocks ; that the order of superposi- 
 tion of the different strata is found to be the same in every 
 country, and in every part of the globe ; and there are a few 
 leading features which might be mentioned, without going 
 into detail as to the fossils that distinguish one set of beds or 
 one formation from another — such as where a stratum is 
 found to abound in fossils of a marine character — animals that 
 must have lived in the sea — that these denote a submarine 
 foundation ; — that one abounding with those of a fresh-water 
 character denotes a fresh-water formation ; — and, having 
 formed an idea of the order in wdiich the different strata rest 
 one upon another, to notice the strata which prevail in their 
 own neighbourhood — for instance, in this part of Hampshire — 
 the chalk — that this is divided into two, the upper and the 
 lower — the one containing flints, the other without flints* — the 
 soil resting on the upper not so good for arable purposes as 
 for pasturage — that on the lower chalk partaking of the cha- 
 racter of a good soil, and being of a marly nature, is better 
 for the purposes of agriculture. 
 
 * These nodules of flint when broken, will many of them appear inside of 
 a spongy or porous texture, and the chalk being a submarine formation, 
 they are supposed to have been formed by a deposit of the siliceous matter 
 in sea-water around the sponge, the substance of which gradually going 
 away, has been replaced by this flinty deposit. 
 
 12 § 
 
138 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 That the unstratified rocks form hills, mountain chains, 
 &c., often one mass of the same material, as granite — that the 
 stratified rocks rest upon the other, but that the hills of gra- 
 nite have been upheaved through these primary rocks, as is 
 shown by laying bare the strata, where they rest on the moun- 
 tain sides. 
 
 That the mineral ingredients of a soil partake very much 
 of the character of the rocks in the neighbourhood, and of 
 those on which they are superposed ; if, in digging through 
 the surface-bed of soil, we come at chalk as the prevailing 
 substratum, the soil itself, when analysed, would be found to 
 contain a great deal of this substance — if a limestone, it 
 would be of a calcareous nature, &c. 
 
 Of the nature of this degradation and crumbling away, it 
 would be easy to refer to instances in almost any neighbour- 
 hood — such as chalk cliffs, limestone rocks, deep pits, &c. — 
 how the atmosphere is the chief agent in this — by the action 
 of heat and cold — of frost and thaw, &c. Thus the depth, 
 &c., of soil will depend much on the rock being easily de- 
 composed, or of a soft nature. 
 
 Then, again, the practical purposes to which a knowledge 
 of this superposition of the different strata may be turned. 
 If they come in the order 1, 2, 3, 4, &c., and you live upon 
 No. 2, it is of no use attempting to find No. 1 below it, or 
 No. 2 below No. 3 — to point out the use of this knowledge 
 in boring for water — in looking for beds of coal— -and in all 
 mining purposes — the needless and immense expenditure of 
 money which a want of this knowledge has sometimes 
 led to. 
 
 That alluvial deposits at the mouths of rivers, in cases 
 where the sea has receded, will be found containing a soil 
 which has been transported from great distances, as the an- 
 nual overflowings of the Nile, the Ganges, &c. These gradu- 
 ally deposit an accumulation of soil over large extents of 
 country ; and although this soil may differ from the character 
 of the rocks in the neighbourhood, yet the fact, when in- 
 quired into, admits of easy explanation by the geologist. 
 
 From what has been said on the absorption and radiation 
 of heat in some of the preceding pages, it will easily be seen 
 that the degree of warmth which a soil will acquire from the 
 sun’s heat will depend very much upon its nature, and this 
 
STATISTICS. 
 
 139 
 
 will again very materially alFect the vegetation. Professor 
 Johnston says, that when the temperature of the air in the 
 shade is no higher than 60*^ or 70°, a dry soil may become so 
 warm as to raise the thermometer to 90° or 100°. The tem- 
 perature in wet soils rises more slowly, and never attains the 
 same height as in dry by 10° or 15°. Hence, wet soils are 
 called cold, evaporation causing it. This to be corrected by 
 draining. ‘‘ Dry sands and clays, and blackish garden mould 
 become warmed to nearly an equal degree under the same 
 sun ; brownish-red soils are heated somewhat more, and dark- 
 coloured heat the most of all.” 
 
 The farmer, hitherto, never seems to have thought much 
 about the analysis of soils, but it is one deserving of great at- 
 tention, and can only be done by those who are well skilled in 
 this department of chemistry, and can pay great attention to it. 
 
 A geological map of England, on a tolerably large scale, 
 pointing out the extent of country over which any particular 
 formation extends — whether chalk, red sandstone, &c. ; also 
 the coal fields — districts where the iron and other ores are 
 found — slate, tin, lead, copper — and this coloured for the 
 purpose, with references at the side, is a most useful piece of 
 school apparatus it not only gives a teacher an opportunity 
 of pointing out where those minerals are to be found — how 
 they affect the agriculture of a district — the character of its 
 population and their employments — attracting an agricultural 
 or a manufacturing class — but the children get a great deal of 
 information by examining the map themselves. I have very 
 often found a boy answering questions on this subject of 
 which I had no notion that he had any idea, and have found 
 that he had got at the knowledge himself, from the inspec- 
 tion of a geological map on the walls of the room. 
 
 There are many things of an ordinary statistical kind, 
 connected with our social economy, our manufactures, &c., 
 which might be made subjects of useful lessons to the boys in 
 a school ; such as the population of the different parts of the 
 United Kingdom at periods when a census has been taken — 
 the decennial increase, the average annual increase, and this 
 whether greater in the manufacturing or' agricultural dis- 
 tricts — the average number to a house, in 1831, in Great 
 Britain 5*62, in 1841, 5*44, so that, at the latter period, there 
 would seem to have been an increase of houses in a greater 
 ratio than the increase of population. 
 
140 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 The average consumption of each person in some of the 
 common articles of life would also be interesting, as affording 
 ideas of a definite kind as to the average consumption of a 
 family in a village, a town, a county, &c. 
 
 This was for the United Kingdom : 
 
 Of sugar in 1840 . 
 
 lbs. 
 
 . 15*28 for each person. 
 
 „ 1841 . 
 
 . 17*65 
 
 >> 
 
 Of coffee in 1831 . 
 
 lb. oz. 
 
 . 1 5*4 
 
 >» 
 
 „ 1841 . 
 
 . 1 7*55 
 
 
 Of tea in 1831 . 
 
 . 1 3*93 
 
 »> 
 
 „ 1841 . 
 
 . 1 5*96 
 
 If 
 
 in 1831, 6*231bs. 
 
 each, and in 
 
 1841, 9-21bs, 
 
 showing that the nation is progressing in the use of soap in 
 a greater ratio than in an increase of population, and that, 
 if there is not an increased consumption of it in the arts, we 
 are progressing in cleanliness. 
 
 Then, again, the consumption of coal as fuel, and the extent 
 of our coal fields, how this enables us to turn large tracts of 
 land to arable purposes, which, in this climate, must otherwise 
 have grown wood ; — coal, for smelting purposes — for making 
 gas to light our towns — this mode of lighting introduced at 
 no great distant period, and better for the purpose than oil. 
 
 In England the coal field is about J^th of the whole sur- 
 face, in Belgium ^^oth, in France 
 
 Different kinds of coal differ in their heating powers. 
 
 Table showing the relative heating powers of certain combustible materials}^ 
 
 Best turf . . 1 
 
 Beech-wood . . 0*862 
 
 Danish coal . . 1*275 to 1*524 
 
 Swedish coal . . 1*611 
 
 Faroe coal . . 1*672 
 
 English Newcastle 2*256 
 Scotch . . 2*387 
 
 Economy of a Coal Field. — Johnstone. 
 
 The great improvement of late years in the habits of till 
 upper and middle classes in this country, more particularly 
 as to drunkenness — but not a corresponding improvement in 
 the lowTr and working classes in this respect— -this much U 
 be regretted. 
 
 
STATISTICS. 
 
 141 
 
 On manufacturing subjects. The number employed in each 
 particular class of manufacture — the potteries — cotton, silk 
 manufactures, &c. — cutlery, and working in metals, &c. — 
 where all these are carried on — the increased value given to 
 the raw material when worked up — this partly in proportion 
 to the time and skill required. 
 
 There is on this subject some very instructive information, 
 in a tabular form, in Babbage on the ‘Economy of Machinery,’ 
 but the calculations are made for the year 1825, and therefore 
 would not exactly apply at present. 
 
 The following are a few of them : 
 
 Lead, of the value of £1, when manufactured into — 
 
 Sheets or pipes, of moderate dimensions . 
 
 . 
 
 £1-25 
 
 Ordinary printing characters . 
 
 . 
 
 4-90 
 
 The smallest type 
 
 Copper, worth £1, became, when manufactured into 
 
 28-30 
 
 copper-sheeting .... 
 
 . 
 
 1-26 
 
 Household utensils 
 
 Woven into metallic cloth, each square inch of which 
 
 4-77 
 
 contains 10,000 meshes . 
 iron, worth £1, when manufactured into — 
 Agricultural implements, became 
 
 
 52-23 
 
 . 
 
 3-57 
 
 Barrels, musket „ . 
 
 . 
 
 9-10 
 
 Blades, razor, cast steel „ . 
 
 . 
 
 53-57 
 
 Blades, of table knives „ . 
 
 . 
 
 35-70 
 
 Door-latches and bolts, from . 
 
 4*85 to 8*50 
 
 Files, common, became 
 
 
 2-55 
 
 Horseshoes „ .... 
 
 
 2-55 
 
 Saws, for wood „ .... 
 
 
 14*28 
 
 Needles of various sizes, from . 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 . 17-33 to 70-85 
 
 The above are given simply for the purpose of suggesting 
 inquiry as to the value of labour compared with that of the 
 material in manufactured products ; — other instances of a 
 domestic kind would occur — such as the value of the raw 
 material wool, of different qualities, compared with the price 
 of a pair of stockings — a yard of flannel — of a coat of the 
 kind ordinarily worn — of a hat, &c. 
 
 The increased value given to the skins of animals, when 
 manufactured into shoes, gloves, harness, saddlery, or any other 
 thing made of leather, &c. 
 
 Increase of value in flax when manufactured into linen, 
 tablecloths, made into sheets, &c., — pointing out the ad van- 
 
142 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 tages to a country in being able to manufacture its raw pro- 
 ducts, whether of a mineral or a vegetable kind, over one 
 which is obliged to export them in a raw state for the purpose 
 of being worked up : — also to what causes it is owing that 
 particular manufactures are located in particular districts — as 
 that of cotton in Lancashire — woollen at Leeds — cutlery at 
 Sheffield, &c. 
 
 Too much attention cannot be given to all these things of 
 an industrial character, from which they can form a definite 
 idea of the comparative money value which society pays for 
 the various branches of industry, of skilled and unskilled 
 labour, &c. 
 
 Of the extent to which internal communication and rapid 
 modes of conveyance may increase the power and aflect the 
 productive industry of a country, the following passage taken 
 from Babbage may give the reader some idea : 
 
 ‘‘On the Manchester railroad, for example, above half a 
 million of persons travel annually ; and supposing each person 
 to save only one hour in the time of transit between Manchester 
 and Liverpool, a saving of five hundred thousand hours, or of 
 fifty thousand working days, of ten hours each, is effected. 
 Now this is equivalent to an addition to the actual power of 
 one hundred and sixty-seven men, without increasing the 
 quantity of food consumed ; and it should also be remarked 
 that the time of the class of men thus supplied is far more 
 valuable than that of mere labourers.” | 
 
 The above was written when the Manchester railroad was ‘ 
 the only one established ; the present state of things adds 
 greatly to the interest of the observation. i 
 
 A teacher ought to have a general knowledge of the ordi-^ 
 nary things of life, so as to give a character of usefulness to 
 his teaching, which will interest those who are taught, and 
 also interest the parents who send them. 
 
 Short Conversational Lectures, about fifteen or twenty i 
 minutes long, will be found a very effective means of instruc-^‘ 
 tion. Subjects like the following would naturally suggest^ 
 themselves : 
 
 Truth and falsehood-— industry and idleness — sobriety and' 
 drunkenness— honesty and the reverse, &c. 
 
CONVERSATIONAL LECTURES. 
 
 143 
 
 In natural history; habits of birds — of animals, their in- 
 stincts, &c. ; or on subjects connected with the occupations 
 of the district— agricultural employments— mining, manufac- 
 turing, &c. ; on any particular application of substances with 
 which they are acquainted, &c. And when a master is quali- 
 fied, he might take such as the following : 
 
 The atmosphere — as a vehicle of heat and moisture — as a 
 vehicle of sound ; rain and clouds, &c., mist and fogs, &c., 
 dew, &c. 
 
 To give an idea what is meant by conversational lessons, 
 the following may be taken as illustrations : 
 
 A loaf of bread , — The teacher would go on to explain that, 
 the different substances of which it is composed are — the flour 
 of wheat, water, barm, salt ; that these again are not simple, 
 but each made up of many elementary substances into which 
 they can be separated. 
 
 Flour contains gluten, starch, &c., which form the nutritive 
 part of it as food. 
 
 Water can be decomposed into its elements, oxygen and 
 hydrogen— two gases, which can be again reunited to form 
 water. 
 
 Salt, of a gas, not colourless like the other gases, but yellow, 
 which cannot be breathed, and a metal, sodium. 
 
 Barm, a froth which rises to the top of beer during fermen- 
 tation. That if the smallest crumb of bread be taken, Sv. 
 small as to be only just visible, it will contain something of 
 all these different elements; — that if they divide this again 
 into a thousand pieces, so as not to be visible even to the 
 naked eye, each of these would contain something of all the 
 different elements of the loaf. 
 
 Again, when the loaf is cut we see a number of cells of 
 various sizes — how came these there? The barm causes a 
 vinous fermentation to take place in the dough, by which an 
 air, heavier than common air, and called carbonic-acid gas, is 
 formed ; this, as the dough warms, expands, tries to escape, 
 but the dough, by its tenacity, retains it, and in this way these 
 cells are formed. 
 
 Then, again, the number of people it has given employment 
 to before it became bread ; from the ploughboy up to the 
 farmer — from sowing up to threshing — from the farmer 
 
144 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 who takes it to market — the corn-dealer — the miller — the 
 baker. 
 
 How beautiful this provision of the Almighty for man’s 
 happiness, in making necessary that employment of mind and 
 body which is required for his sustenance, and without which 
 he could not live !— what an interest this gives to life! “If a 
 man will not work, neither shall he eat,” does more for man’s 
 happiness than the thoughtless are aware of ; and the labourer 
 who has to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow is, in many 
 instances, a much more happy man than he who, from want of 
 employment, whatever his condition in life maybe, spends his 
 time in listless indolence or in frivolous amusement. 
 
 The cottage fire , — The fire once lighted : this heat sets 
 free the hydrogen and other gases in the wood and coal; 
 the hydrogen, as it is disengaged, takes fire, is supplied 
 with oxygen from the atmosphere, heats the carbon of 
 the fuel to such a heat that it readily unites with the 
 oxygen of the fuel and of the atmosphere, and forms carbonic 
 acid. This carbonaceous matter in the flame, heated to a 
 red heat, is the principal cause of its giving out so much j 
 light. The flame of hydrogen unites with the oxygen, and 
 produces water — the carbonic acid which is formed, being 
 rarefied, ascends through the chimney into the atmosphere, and 
 then mixes with it —is taken up by the leaves of trees and of 
 plants, or descends with the rains, and is again taken up by , 
 the roots — the oxygen of it is again given out by the plants to 
 the atmosphere to support animal life — the carbon retained in 
 its solid state, and assimilated to themselves by the trees, 
 adding to their solid matter, and again comes back when the ^ 
 trees are cut down to supply us with timber, fuel, &c. 
 
 The heat of the fire not being sufiicient to cause all the car- 
 bon of the fuel to combine with oxygen, the combustion is, as 
 it were, incomplete — the uncombined carbon rises in the shape 
 of smoke, and is partly deposited on the sides of the chimney, 
 and is collected for manuring our lands, and again used up 
 for vegetable life ; that part of it which ascends into the at-' 
 mosphere is washed down by the rain, and so feeds the' 
 plants again. , 
 
 How beautiful to watch the ascent of the smoke on a calm 
 summer’s evening — sometimes ascending merrily, denoting 
 
CONVERSATIONAL LECTURES. 
 
 145 
 
 fine weather, at another descending the moment it has left it : 
 ascending because the specific gravity of the air is greater than 
 that of the smoke ; standing still, and in a sort of stable equi- 
 librium on a calm evening, when the stratum of air in which it 
 is floating is of the same specific gravity as itself ; and descend- 
 ing when the specific gravity of the air is less than that of the 
 smoke ! 
 
 Here we see, in this apparent destruction of vegetable mat- 
 ter, that nothing is lost ; the gaseous part which went up the 
 chimney, and which forms a very great proportion of the 
 whole, returns again to nourish vegetable and animal life ; the 
 ashes which remain, and contain the inorganic part of the fuel, 
 are spread upon the ground to be dissolved through the agency 
 of water and of the atmosphere, and so carried into the roots 
 for the nourishment and support of fresh vegetable matter. 
 Not the slightest particle is lost, and if all the products of the 
 combustion were collected — the water, carbonic acid, smoke, 
 ashes— and weighed, their weight would be found greater 
 than that of the fuel, having been increased by the oxygen 
 taken from the atmosphere during the combustion. 
 
 The flame of a candle might be the subject of two or three 
 conversational lectures of the kind — showing the way in which 
 the tallow or wax, when reduced into a fluid state by heat, 
 ascended by capillary attraction up the wick, a length of which 
 between the candle and the flame will be seen to be moistened 
 with it ; a higher degree of temperature changes this out of a 
 fluid into a gaseous state, consisting of the different elements 
 of the substance of the candle, one of which, hydrogen, ignites, 
 the oxygen of the atmosphere supporting the flame, and the 
 carbon another element ascending in the flame, and being 
 heated, increases the quantity of light. The products of this 
 combustion, water and carbonic acid, may be collected by 
 placing a funnel-shaped glass tube, with the larger end over 
 the flame of the candle, and the smaller one bent and com- 
 municating with a glass cylinder kept cool, in passing into 
 which the watery vapour arising from the flame would be 
 deposited, and the carbonic acid passing on might be collected 
 by an apparatus properly arranged at the other end of the 
 cylinder and then tested. 
 
 It has been found that the water produced by the burning of 
 
 13 
 
146 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 a candle is nearly equal in weight to that of the candle con- 
 sumed; the collected products would be greater than this 
 weight, but it will at once be seen that the oxygen of the 
 atmosphere consumed explains this : — the gas collected when 
 properly tested will be shown to be carbonic acid. 
 
 That the vapour arising from the burning of a candle or a 
 jet of hydrogen contains a great deal of water is easily shown, 
 by holding a cold glass in such a direction that the ascending 
 vapour may pass into it — the glass immediately becomes dim 
 and wet — the same may be shown by holding a cold glass over 
 a burning piece of cotton — of paper — or a splinter of wood. 
 
 Keason why the glass should be cold. 
 
 Again, that metals, such as lead, iron, &c., in a minute state 
 of division, are much more inflammable than tallow, oil, fat, 
 &c., or even than gunpowder, taking fire at the temperature 
 of the atmosphere — sodium and potassium igniting the moment 
 they come in contact with water or with ice — and if spirits of 
 wine in a saucer or similar vessel be set on fire, iron filings 
 thrown on the flame will burn and fall into the saucer, when 
 they can be examined and will be found oxydized, but grains 
 of gunpowder thrown into the flame in the same way will not 
 ignite. 
 
 Tallow, oil, and fat require to be heated up to a certain 
 point, when they readily burn, but must wait to be artificially . 
 heated before they do so — how beautiful this provision in ^ 
 order that they may be turned to the purposes of mankind — j 
 lighting their dwellings — enabling them to read — to work ; — 
 how important all this to civilized life — and while we consider , 
 all these things ‘^do not let us forget Him who made them.’’ i 
 
 In giving a short conversational lecture on birds, for in- * 
 stance, the teacher might speak of the way in which they ‘ 
 build their nests — whether in trees, or on the ground — the ’ 
 greater degree of skill shown by some in doing this, than by ' 
 others — but that all birds of the same kind build in the same 
 way — that a bird builds its nest by instinct — man builds a : 
 house from reason, improves and profits from what others ; 
 have done in that way before him — but that birds build now ' 
 as they always have done, &c. ^ 
 
 The striking difference of the state of their young, when ' 
 hatched and leaving the egg — the chickens of the barn-door 
 fowl, and of others of that class, will run about, and seek their ^ 
 
CONVERSATIONAL LECTURES. 
 
 147 
 
 own food, the moment they leave the egg — want but little as- 
 sistance from the parent birds, that of the mother alone for a 
 short time being quite sufficient, and the care of the male bird 
 is not wanted in assisting to bring up a brood of chickens — • 
 the same with the duck — young ducks take to the water, and 
 look out for themselves immediately. 
 
 Others, again, such as birds of prey, the eagle, the hawk — 
 all our small birds — the young of these, after leaving the shell, 
 are in a helpless state for some weeks, and depend entirely for 
 support upon the parent birds, and require the assistance of 
 both, in order to find a sufficient supply of food : these are 
 always found in pairs, and want the assistance of both the 
 parent birds to bring them up. 
 
 Then the structure of the bones — being hollow tubes, 
 and full of air-cells — caused by little, strengthening, bony pro- 
 cesses, which go from one side of the hollow tube to the other — 
 (this would be seen by splitting the bones of fowls) — the out- 
 side bony substance of the tube being thickest at the extre- 
 mities, where strength is wanted — all this required for the 
 purposes of flight ; but in the bones of animals moving on the 
 ground, these hollow parts of the bone are fllled with marrow — 
 fewest air-cells in the bones of those birds whose habits do 
 not require long flight, &c. The mechanical structure of 
 the wing — the pinion-bone moving in order to stretch out 
 the feathers in the same plane with the one to which it is at- 
 tached — if it admitted of an up and down motion out of that 
 plane, the wingAvould be much less strong, and a much greater 
 muscular power required to produce the same eflect in 
 flight, &c. 
 
 Again, on fish for instance — some breathing by means of 
 gills, so as to get at the oxygen contained in the air of the 
 water, all water containing air, it being necessary to the life 
 of fish. Air contained in water being richer in oxygen by 
 about 25 per cent, than the air of the atmosphere — this is im- 
 portant to fishes — although cold-blooded animals do not re- 
 quire by any means the same amount of oxygen in a given 
 time as hot-blooded ones of the same size — perhaps not more 
 than 5 ^gth. 
 
 Some fish, such as the whale, &c., breathe by means of 
 lungs, and take in air, for which purpose they are obliged to 
 come up to the surface of the water. 
 
148 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 All air-breathing fishes have a broad fiat tail — a horizontal 
 tail, giving them a mechanical advantage in rising to the sur- 
 face — fishes breathing through the gills have the tail vertical, 
 perpendicular to the water in which they fioat — thus to propel 
 them forward and direct their motion — fishes gelatinous masses, 
 breathe at all points of their surface. 
 
 One reason why some fish live longer than others out of 
 water, seems to arise from their having a different kind of 
 gill, one which retains a quantity of w^ater, and so long as 
 they can get oxygen from this water in the gills they continue 
 to live. 
 
 ^ Any one wishing to give short conversational lectures of this 
 kind, if unaccustomed to do so, will find it of assistance to 
 read from a book any striking passage which may occur to 
 him, or which he may happen to meet with in his owm reading, 
 embracing facts easy of illustration, or describing the manners 
 and customs of other nations ; such, for instance, as the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 “ Certain insects can run about on the surface of the water. 
 They have brushy feet, which occupy a considerable surface, 
 and if their steps be viewed with a magnifying glass, the sur- 
 face of the water is seen depressed all around, resembling the 
 footsteps of a man w^alking on feather-beds. This is owing to 
 a repulsion between the brush and the water. A common fly 
 cannot walk in this manner on water. Its feet are wetted, 
 because they attract the water instead of repelling it. A steel ; 
 needle, slightly greased, will lie on the surface of water, ' 
 make an impression as a great bar w^ould make on a feather- \ 
 bed, and its weight is less than that of the displaced water, i 
 A dewdrop lies on the leaves of plants, without touching them ^ 
 mathematically, as is plain from the extreme brilliancy of the 
 reflection at the posterior surface ; nay, it may sometimes be 
 observed, that the drops of rain lie on the surface of water, 
 and roll about on it, like balls on a table. Yet all these sub- i 
 stances can be wetted ; that is, water can be applied to them i 
 at such distances that they attract it.” ; 
 
 How easy to make interesting remarks on a passage like ' 
 this, and how delighted children are to have the philosophy of ^ 
 such things as flies walking on water, or needles floating on it, . 
 explained to them — or of any facts which come frequently 
 under their own observation. 
 
CONVERSATIONAL LECTURES. 
 
 149 
 
 I have been very much pleased with the interest I have 
 found the children would take in having any graphic passage 
 read to them, descriptive of the modes of life, occupations, &c., 
 of other nations or people, and have occasionally read pas- 
 sages of that kind myself, and am in the habit of pointing out 
 such to the school-teachers to read. I will instance the fol- 
 lowing : while reading ‘ Hochelaga,’ a description of Canadian 
 life, the following passages occurred to me as giving a lively 
 picture of what it is their object to describe, and one quite 
 coming home to the minds and capacities of children. I took 
 the book into the school, and read them, and the interest with 
 which they were listened to, with a few observations I made 
 myself, would have convinced any one of the usefulness of this 
 suggestion. On an occasion like this, the teacher would, as an 
 economy of time, unite all the intelligent part of his school. 
 
 “ ^or about three weeks after Christmas, immense numbers 
 of little fish, about four inches in length, called ‘tommy-cods/ 
 come up the St. Lawrence and St. Charles ; for the purpose 
 of catching these, long narrow holes are cut in the ice, with 
 comfortable wooden houses, well warmed by stoves, erected 
 over them. Many merry parties are formed, to spend the 
 evening fishing in these places ; benches are arranged on 
 either side of the hole, with planks to keep the feet off the ice ; 
 a dozen or so of ladies and gentlemen occupy these seats, each 
 with a short line, hook, and bait, lowered through the aper- 
 ture below into the dark river. The poor little tommy-cods, 
 attracted by the light and air, assemble in myriads under- 
 neath, pounce eagerly on the bait, announce their presence 
 by a very faint tug, and are transferred immediately to the 
 fashionable assembly above. Two or three Canadian boys 
 attend, to convey them from the hook to the basket, and to 
 arrange invitations for more of them, by putting on bait. As 
 the fishing proceeds, sandwiches and hot negus are handed 
 about, and songs and chat assist to pass the time away. 
 Presently, plates of the dainty little fish, fried as soon as 
 I caught, are passed round, as the reward of the piscatorial 
 labours. The young people of the party vary the amusement, 
 by walking about in the bright moonlight, sliding over the 
 patches of glassy ice, and visiting other friends in neighbouring 
 cabins ; for while the tommy-cod season lasts there is quite 
 a village of these little fishing-houses on the river St. Charles. 
 
 13 § 
 
150 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 ‘‘Although the temperature is usually kept very high within 
 doors, by stove-heat, people never seem to suffer by sudden 
 tiansition to the extreme cold of the open air. I have often- 
 seen young ladies, when the thermometer was below zero, 
 leave a hot room, where they had been dancing, and walk 
 c^uietly home, with very little additional clothing; the great 
 dryness of the air preserves them from danger. In the very 
 low temperatures, a razor may be exposed all night to the air 
 without contracting a stain of rust. Colds are much less fre- 
 quent in winter than summer.’’ 
 
 “ The winter markets at Quebec are very curious : every- 
 thing is frozen. Large pigs, wuth the peculiarly bare appear- 
 ance which that animal presents when singed, stand in their 
 natural position on their rigid limbs, or upright in corners, 
 killed, perhaps, months before. Frozen masses of beef, sheep, 
 deer, fowds, cod, haddock, and eels, long and stiff, like walk- 
 ing-sticks, abound on the stalls. The farmers have a great 
 advantage in this country, in being able to fatten their 
 stock during the abundance of summer, and by killing them 
 at the first cold w^eather, keeping them frozen, to be disposed 
 of at their pleasure during the winter. Milk is kept in the 
 same manner, and sold by the pound, looking like lumps of 
 white ice.” 
 
 The above passages will suggest many interesting observa- 
 tions on the habits of the people, climate, &c. ; that, although 
 ice is ice, yet it varies in its temperature, and that a mass of, 
 ice (milk) at a low temperature (zero, for instance) would do ' 
 more for cooling purposes, than the same mass at a tempera- ; 
 ture near the melting point. Canadian ice is better than ' 
 English ice, and why? * 
 
 Then, again, these frozen animals, &c., how is it that the 
 animal body, while alive, is not cooled dowm to the temperature - 
 of the atniosphere, and of the objects around it? — what is it 
 w^hich maintains this internal heat that resists the cold? — a 
 degree of cold in some climates far below the zero of Fahren- : 
 heit, and preserves an internal temperature in warm-blooded i 
 animals, varying but little on either side of 96°— remaining also ' 
 about the same in the hottest climates — refusing to be cooled ■ 
 down by surrounding objects below that internal heat which is i 
 necessary for this class of anin^l life, or to be heated by those ' 
 above it ; but the moment life is extinct yielding itself up to 
 
CONVERSATIONAL, LECTURES. 
 
 151 
 
 the influences of either — in the one case becoming a solid 
 frozen mass, and while in that state not decomposing— and, 
 in the other, rapidly dissolving into its simple elements. 
 
 And again : Is every kind of animal life equally affected by 
 lieat ? — are those termed cold-blooded animals affected in the 
 same w^ay as the warm-blooded by the surrounding media? 
 — No: these submit themselves within certain limits to the 
 influence of the surrounding objects, and the internal heat 
 of their bodies varies between 35° and 85° — when cooled down 
 to the former point many of them become torpid, and revive 
 ^gain with increased w^armth, but all refuse to be cooled below 
 this, the principle of animal life supporting the heat of the body 
 at this temperature — how curious this is, when, for months 
 together, no new fuel is added to support this heat. In hot 
 climates, if they submitted to a heat greater than about 85°, 
 they w ould, many of them, dissolve and become extinct — these 
 preservative conditions are indeed beautiful. 
 
 What myriads of organisms necessary for the chain of 
 existences in the world would be destroyed if either of these 
 principles were violated ! 
 
 The SINGING of the children here has been a good deal re- 
 marked upon, as being better than is usually found in schools 
 of this kind, particularly in the country. I have myself wit- 
 nessed, with great pleasure, the good moral effect, and at the 
 same time cheerful feeling, which this gives rise to among 
 them. They are taught by one of the parishioners, who, 
 although busily engaged in other things, finds time to instruct 
 the children of his neighbours ; and has that pleasure in doing 
 good to others which every w^ell-regulated mind ought to feel. 
 During the winter they meet every Wednesday evening at the 
 class-room, which is well lighted and warmed, where I occa- 
 sionally attend myself, and always with feelings of satisfaction, 
 in seeing sixty or seventy children (which is the number of 
 the singing class) spending the evening in so rational a man- 
 ner. In addition to Psalmody, they sing in parts many of the 
 moral pieces in Hullah’s books, as well as others, not forget- 
 ting Rule Britannia, and God Save the Queen, and have as loyal 
 hearts as any in her Majesty’s dominions. 
 
152 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 SCHOOLMASTERS. 
 
 Having spoken of the kind of knowledge which I conceive 
 is the most useful to be introduced into our schools, and the 
 mode of teaching it, I will add a few observations bearing 
 upon the duties of the schoolmaster, and the course of educa- 
 tion, which I trust may not be altogether without interest. 
 
 At present I fear these duties are not sufficiently understood, 
 and that society at large does not attach the importance to 
 them which it ought to do ; but as the people become better 
 educated they will, it is to be hoped, attach greater value to 
 the services of the schoolmaster. In the meantime he must 
 expect to meet with difficulties, and to find hinderances where 
 he might have looked for support, and altogether to find the 
 road not so smooth as he had calculated upon. 
 
 So long as there are those who prefer darkness to light — 
 an ignorant peasantry to an enlightened one — who look upon 
 the labourer as a machine which sleep wfinds up at night, to 
 be set again in motion in the morning, and again run down 
 on doing its daily w^ork — who think he has sufficient know- j 
 ledge of the world if he knows the order of succession in 
 which the days of the week come — and that although God has 
 given to the labourer a mind, it was not intended he should 
 exercise it, it is only the body which was made for his use — ; 
 so long will there be hinderances in the way of education, and i 
 it will have to struggle against opinions, and against difficulties 
 arising out of them, which may for a time impede its progress, ; 
 but must in the end give way. ? 
 
 But it is not learning alone which will make an efficient ■ 
 schoolmaster and overcome these difficulties ; there are many 
 other requisites of a personal nature, which, if he does not 
 naturally possess, he must endeavour to acquire. He must not 
 only teach by precept but by example ; anything he can say 
 will have comparatively little effect, if he is an example of the ■ 
 direct contrary in his own conduct. ; 
 
 With respect to punishment, the less of severity the better ' 
 — he should endeavour to win over the children by kindness J 
 and good temper, reasoning wfith them in a cheerful way, and ; 
 always endeavouring to discriminate, as far as possible, betw een 
 idleness and want of ability. When tw o children are set to do 
 
SCHOOLMASTERS. 
 
 153 
 
 the same thing, such as getting by heart a piece of poetry for 
 instance-^it may be a very unequal task — he should not be 
 angry with a child which has done its best : this is an error I 
 have often seen in schoolmasters. 
 
 On this point there is an anecdote in Stanley’s interesting 
 ‘ Life of the late Dr. Arnold,’ which ought to be registered in 
 the mind of every schoolmaster in England. At Laleham (the 
 place where he lived), he had once got out of patience and 
 spoken sharply to a pupil, who was a plodding boy, and had 
 taken great pains ; when the pupil looked up in his face, and 
 said, “Why do you speak apgriiy, sir? indeed, I am doing 
 the best I can.” Years afterwards he used to tell this story 
 to his children, and said, “ I never felt so much ashamed in 
 my life ; that look and that speech I have never forgotten.” 
 This requires no comment, it speaks both to the feelings and 
 to the understanding. Mr. Stanley adds, that he used to sa]', 
 “ If there be one thing on earth which is truly admirable, 
 it is to see God’s wisdom blessing an inferiority of natural 
 powers, where they have been honestly, truly, and zealously 
 cultivated.” 
 
 In teaching children habits of cleanliness, the schoolmaster 
 will have great difficulty if he does not set an example in his 
 own person ; he should not go into the school unshaved, as I 
 see many do : this has a dirty and a slovenly appearance. 
 
 He should endeavour to make them open and straight- 
 forward in their conduct, and on all occasions to speak the 
 truth — to get rid of all those feelings of low cunning which 
 are too prevalent in the labouring classes — to be an example 
 himself of open, manly, and straightforward conduct. He 
 must not attempt to despise others for conduct which he him- 
 self is guilty of. 
 
 He should set an example of industry, thriftiness, and good 
 management in his own household ; by this he will gain the 
 good opinion of those around him, and very much increase his 
 power of doing good. 
 
 In his religious teaching he should impress upon them, and 
 show it in his own conduct, that Scripture truths are not in- 
 tended as mere idle words, always in their mouths and little 
 thought of, but are intended to be acted upon. 
 
 The following passage from a paper of Addison’s in the 
 
SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 154 
 
 Spectator conveys an instructive lesson, and requires no com- 
 meiit : 
 
 It is of unspeakable advantage to possess our minds with 
 an habitual good intention, and to aim all our thoughts, 
 words, and actions at some laudable end, whether it be the 
 glory of our Maker, the good of mankind, or the benefit of our 
 own souls. 
 
 A person who is possessed with such an habitual good 
 intention, enters upon no single circumstance of life without 
 considering it as well pleasing to the great author of his 
 being, conformable to the dictates of reason, suitable to human 
 nature in general, or to that particular station in which Pro- 
 vidence has placed him. He lives in a perpetual sense of the 
 Divine presence, regards himself as acting, in the whole course 
 of his existence, under the observation and inspection of that 
 Being, who is privy to all his motions and all his thoughts, 
 who knows his ‘ down-sitting and his up-rising, who is about 
 his path and about his bed, and spieth out all his ways.’ In 
 a word, he remembers that the eye of his Judge is always 
 upon him, and in every action he reflects that he is doing what 
 is commanded or allowed by Him who will hereafter either 
 reward or punish it. This was the character of those holy | 
 men of old who in that beautiful phrase of Scripture are said 
 to have ^ w'^alked with God.’ ” :j 
 
 Some of these observations may appear trite and common- ♦ 
 place, and I will not go on adding to them. The school- 
 master ought to see and feel that life is made up of little 
 things — that man is a ‘‘bundle of habits,” and that it is'^ 
 theretore ot importance he should acquire good ones in youth, ' 
 and that although each single thing may not of itself appear . 
 of importance, it is only by attending to each separately that , 
 good as a whole, and in the aggregate, can be produced — that , 
 it is only by impressing upon the minds of children over and : 
 over again, by example and by precept, the importance of i 
 these little things and these little duties (in addition to other | 
 instruction wdiich he has to give), that he can work out a good 4 
 result, and discharge those duties to society wdiich are expected | 
 from him, j 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 155 
 
 CONCLUDING EEMARKS. 
 
 In having put forward these views on the subject of secular 
 instruction in our schools, I hope it will not be supposed that 
 I am either indifferent, or would give less attention than ought 
 to be given, to those Scriptural truths which are the foundation 
 of all sound teaching, and without which an education of a 
 mere secular kind may be a very delusive guide. 
 
 In the middle and educated classes a religious foundation 
 may generally be laid at home, but with the labouring and 
 uneducated classes this can hardly be said to be the case. My 
 own experience tells me that the more they have of secular 
 knowledge — the more they know of their own language, the 
 grammar of it, &c., so as to get at the construction of a sen- 
 tence, the better they will understand, and the greater inter- 
 est they will take in those fundamental truths of Christianity 
 which it is essential for them to know, and without which, 
 they cannot even be called Christians — truths which they 
 ought to know and believe for their souls’ health ; the more 
 also they will feel that the precepts of the Gospel are intended 
 for their guidance through life — to be acted upon, and not 
 merely to be talked about — to guide their thoughts and words 
 and actions — and that, if they do not take them as their 
 guide, and, by God’s help, endeavour to act up to them — 
 whether they belong to the Church or dissent from it — they 
 are merely nominal Christians, and might as well be called by 
 any other name. That if religion does not make them better 
 in all the relations of life, as parents doing their duty to their 
 children and all around them — as children* obedient to their 
 
 * And canst thou, mother ! for a moment think 
 That we, thy children, when old age shall shed 
 Its blanching honours on thy drooping head, 
 
 Could from our best of duties ever shrink ? 
 
 Sooner the sun from his high sphere should sink, 
 
 Than we, ungrateful, leave thee in that day 
 To pine in solitude thy life away. 
 
 Or shun thee, tottering on the grave’s cold brink. 
 
 Banish the thought ! — where’er our steps may roam. 
 
 O’er smiling plains, or wastes without a tree, 
 
 Still will fond Memory point our hearts to thee, 
 
 And paint the pleasures of thy peaceful home ; 
 
 While Duty bids us all thy griefs assuage, 
 
 And smooth the pillow of thy sinking age. 
 
 II. K. White. 
 
156 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 parents, grateful to them in after-life, truthful and honest i: 
 all they do — so far as they are concerned, it has failed in it 
 intention, and that they are not doing what they profess the 
 ought to do. That practical good conduct is the best proo 
 which they can give that they believe what they profess — tha 
 the same' substance of Christianity is contained in that beauti 
 ful passage from St. Paul, which cannot be too often or to< 
 deeply impressed upon their minds, “ The grace of God tha 
 bringcth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching u; 
 that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should liv« 
 soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world ; looking 
 for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the greai 
 God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for m 
 that he might redeem us from all iniquity, might rescue uj 
 from the power and dominion of sin, and purify unto himsel; 
 a peculiar people, zealous of good works and that the} 
 ought to endeavour to acquire the virtues, the temper, anc 
 disposition of a real Christian. 
 
 It has been asserted, ‘‘ that man acts more from habil 
 than from reflection,” and of the truth of this no one can 
 doubt — but how important then that, in the education oi 
 youth, the training of the mind should be such as to influ- 
 ence for good the habits which are then formed, and on 
 which the character of the man so much depends ; not onl} 
 should he be made to feel that, in a worldly point of view, his 
 success and his respectability in after-life depend upon th^ 
 habits of industry, of manly virtue, and of honest, straiglit- 
 forward conduct, the groundwork of which is laid at this 
 period of life— but that all his actions and all his feelings 
 should partake of the spirit and of the devotional feeling 
 which sees, as one of our sweetest poets has beautifully ex- 
 pressed it — 
 
 “ There lives and works • , 
 
 A soul in all things, and that soul is God. \ 
 
 Happy who walks with him ! whom what he finds { 
 
 Of flavour, or of scent, in fruit or flow^er ; j 
 
 Or what he view^s of beautiful or grand | 
 
 In nature, from the broad majestic oak j 
 
 To the green blade that twinkles in the sun, . J 
 
 Prompts w ith remembrance of a present God.’* 
 
 Not that children should be made to feel that there is any^ 
 thing gloomy in religion, or in those feelings which spriiij 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS* 
 
 157 
 
 from tiewing the works of nature in a devotional spirit ; on 
 the contrary, I should wish to have them taught to look on the 
 cheerful side of things, and to find lessons of happiness in the 
 works of nature which are around them — 
 
 Behold ! and look away your low despair — 
 
 See the light tenants of the barren air : 
 
 To them nor stores nor granaries belong ; 
 
 Nought but the woodland and the pleasing song^ 
 
 Yet, your kind heavenly Father bends his eye 
 On the least wdng that flits along the sky. 
 
 To Him they sing when spring renews the plain,. 
 
 To Him they cry in winter’s pinching reign ; 
 
 Nor is their music nor their plaint in vain — 
 
 He hears the gay and the distressful call, 
 
 And with unsparing bounty fills them all. 
 
 Observe the rising lily’s snowy grace, 
 
 Observe the various vegetable race ; 
 
 They neither toil nor spin, but careless grow ; 
 
 Yet see how warm they blush, how bright they glow* 
 
 What regal vestments can with them compare — 
 
 What king so shining, or what queen so fair ? 
 
 If ceaseless thus the fowls of heaven he feeds ; 
 
 If o’er the fields such lucid robes he spreads ; 
 
 Will He not care for you, ye faithless, say ? 
 
 Is He unwise ? — or are you less than they ? Thomson. 
 
 Paley, in liis ‘ Natural Theology,’ after having inquired into 
 the works of nature, comes to the conclusion that the world, 
 after all, is a happy one and, in the sense in which he intend- 
 ed it, this view is perfectly right, and it ought to be the duty of 
 every teacher to train up the young to see and contemplate the 
 goodness of the Almighty in the designs of creation — to see in 
 everything that happiness is the rule, and misery the excep- 
 tion” — to contemplate with pleasure the air, the earth, the 
 water teeming with delighted existence he goes on to say, 
 
 ‘‘ In a spring morn or summer evening, on whichever side I 
 turn my eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd upon my view ; 
 the insect youth are on the wing : swarms of new-born fl.ies are 
 trying their pinions in the air ; their sportive motions testify 
 their joy, and the exultation which they feel in their lately- 
 discovered faculties. A bee amongst the flowers in spring is 
 one of the most cheerful objects that can be looked upon ; its 
 life appears to be all enjoyment — so busy and so pleased; yet 
 it is only a specimen of insect life, with which, by reason of 
 the animal being half domesticated, we happen to be better 
 
 14 
 
158 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 acquainted than we are with others. The whole winged insect 
 tribe, it IS probable, are equally intent upon their proper 
 employments and under every variety of constitution gr^ti- 
 fied by the offices which the Author of Nature has assigned to 
 them. But the atmosphere is not the only scene of eniov- 
 ment; walking by the sea-side, in a calm evening, upon a 
 sandy shore, and with an ebbing tide, I have frequently re- 
 marked the appearance of a dark cloud, or rather very thick 
 mist, hanging over the edge of the water, to the height, per- 
 haps, of half a yard, and of the breadth of two or three yards 
 stretching along the coast as far as the eye could reach, and 
 always retiring with thetvater: when this cloud came to be 
 examined it proved to be nothing else than so much space 
 filled with young shrimps, in the act of bounding into the air 
 from the shallow margin of the water or from the wet sand 
 It any motion of a mute animal could express delight it was 
 this ; if they had meant to make signs of their happiness, they 
 could not have done it more intelligibly. Suppose, then, what 
 I have no doubt of, each individual of this number to be in a 
 state of positive enjoyment, what a sum, collectively, of grati- 
 iication and of pleasure have we here before our view. 
 
 “ The young of all animals appear to me to receive' pleasure 
 of their limbs and bodily faculties. 
 A child IS delighted with speaking, without having anything 
 to say, and wuth W'alking without knowing where to go • and 
 prior to both these, I am disposed to believe that the waking 
 hours of infancy are agreeably taken up with the exercise of 
 vismn, or perhaps, more properly speaking, withlearning to see.” 
 
 How desirable, nay, how enviable is that frame of mind 
 which can reason thus, and find sources of happiness in 
 watching the habits of the animal and vegetable world around 
 them that can see only happiness in an action, which appears 
 at farst sight to have no meaning, the leaping of a cloud of 
 shrimps from the water ; and where an uninquiring mind, or 
 one of a gloomy temperament, would merely say, this is to 
 avoid the danger of falling into the jaws of some fish-monster 
 which IS below the surface. 
 
 “ These are thy wondrous works, first source of good ! 
 
 Now more admired in being understood.” 
 
 Who can listen to the carol of the lark as she soars in the 
 air, and seems so happy, without feelings of delight antV 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 159 
 
 without reflections rising in his mind which tend to make him 
 both a better and a happier man? — Who can witness the 
 familiar habits of the robin, and see how contentedly he will 
 perch himself on a neighbouring bush close to your side, and 
 pour forth his song, without having his own feelings tempered 
 down into harmony with nature ? — How can man in the midst 
 of all this, which points out the intention of an all-wise Creator, 
 think that he of all God’s creatures is the only one intended 
 to be unhappy ! 
 
 No ! — let him learn to admire the beauties of nature — let 
 him learn to occupy his hours of leisure in trying to under- 
 stand them — to find 
 
 Tongues in trees — books in the running brooks— 
 
 Sermons in stones — and good in everything'^ 
 
 Nature never did betray 
 The heart that loved her ; Tis her privilege, 
 
 Through all the years of this our life, to lead 
 From joy to joy : for she can so inform 
 The mind that is within us, so impress 
 With quietness and beauty, and so feed 
 With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, 
 
 Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men, 
 
 Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all 
 The dreary intercourse of daily life 
 Shall e’er prevail, that all which we behold 
 Is full of blessings. Therefore let the mom 
 Shine on thee in thy solitary walk ; 
 
 And let the misty mountain winds be free 
 To blow against thee ; and, in after years. 
 
 When these wild ecstasies shall he matured 
 Into a sober pleasure, token thy mind 
 Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms, 
 
 Thy memory be a dwelling-place 
 
 For all stoeet sounds and harmonies ; oh ! then 
 
 If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, 
 
 Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts 
 Of tender joy wilt thou remember me, 
 
 And these my exhortations !* Wordsworth. 
 
 * Nature, enchanting Nature, in whose form 
 And lineaments divine I trace a hand 
 That errs not, and find raptures still renew’d, 
 
 Is free to all men — universal prize ! 
 
 Strange that so fair a creature should yet want 
 Admirers, and be destin’d to divide 
 
 With meaner objects ev’n the few she finds ! Cowper, 
 
im 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 How important the bearing and influence which such trains 
 of thought, inculcated in youth, might have in every class oi 
 life it would be wise to consider ; how little they have 
 hitherto had, is humiliating to think. A dry remark, manj 
 years ago, in a college lecture-room occurs to me as full oi 
 meaning, although at the time intended for sarcasm. Asking 
 an undergraduate a question on the refraction of light, with 
 w'hieh he was not acquainted, and who answered, “ he did not 
 know much about refraction,” the lecturer drily added, “ nor 
 about reflection either, I am afraid.” I hope this will not be 
 lost upon the schoolmaster ; not that I wish liim to make his 
 remarks in the same spirit. 
 
 That the sphere of enjoyment of the labouring and middle 
 classes might be enlarged by education there can be no doubt, 
 and it has been observed by a celebrated moralist, more than 
 a century ago, that ‘‘man in all situations in life should 
 endeavour to make the sphere of his innocent pleasures as 
 wide as possible, that he may retire into them with safety, and 
 And in them such a satisfaction as a wdse man would not blush 
 to take ; for although the W' orld may not be so happy as that 
 y\e should be always merry, neither is it so miserable as that | 
 w^e should be always melancholy.” 
 
 With respect to that part of the instruction in the foregoing 
 pages which is of a scientific kind, I would say, and I do so 
 from a feeling of conviction which experience gives, that in no 
 way can the teachers in our higher class of elementary schools , 
 give such a character of usefulness to their instruction, as by 
 qualifying themselves to teach in these subjects ; introducing 
 simple and easy experiments, which illustrate the things hap- ? 
 pening before their eyes every day, and convey conviction wdth ■ 
 them the moment they are seen and explained. It is a great 
 mistake to suppose that boys of twelve and thirteen years of 
 age cannot understand elementary knowledge of this kind, 
 when brought before them by experiment ; — seeing the w ay in 
 which the bigger boys were interested in it here, and the ten- ■ 
 deucy it had to raise the standard of teaching, and to give rise ; 
 to a wish for information, it has proceeded further than I at 
 first contemplated — the result has been, that the school is pro- ' 
 vided with sufiicient of a philosophic apparatus for all the 
 common experiments of a pneumatic and hydrostatic kind, a 
 small galvanic battery, an electric apparatus, &c. One little 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 161 
 
 book used as a text-book is a volume of Chambers’s Edinburgh 
 books, ‘ Matter and Motion/ and this is illustrated by ex- 
 periment. 
 
 The end of all education ought to be, to prepare them for 
 those duties and those situations in life they are called upon to 
 fulfil—whether they be “ hewers of wood or drawers of water,” 
 of those who belong to the labouring, the middle, or the upper 
 classes in life, to make them in their respective stations good 
 citizens and good Christians ; and I think it will be found that, 
 according as a teacher keeps this in view, making his instruc- 
 tion bear upon the ordinary duties of life, or loses sight of it 
 (I am speaking of a teacher compeVent to his work), he will 
 succeed, or the contrary. I am perfectly convinced that many 
 well-meaning efforts have not been attended with the success 
 expected from them, entirely owing to their leaving out all 
 instruction relating to the occupations by which they were, 
 in after life, to earn their bread. 
 
 Although these hints are addressed to the schoolmaster, I 
 am not without hope that they may be of some use to many 
 in my own profession, and to others who take an interest in 
 advancing the happiness and respectability of the uneducated 
 classes in this country. 
 
 The schoolmaster, especially in the present state of things, 
 is not able to do all that is wanted. He is very often insuili- 
 ciently educated himself— his social position is not what it 
 ought to be — the poor are inclined to resist his authority over 
 their children — to send impertinent messages through them, 
 &c., so that, at first, he wants strengthening in these respects. 
 Then, again, the more wealthy do not place him in that scale 
 of society that he ought, from his usefulness, to be placed in. 
 
 In saying this, I am not seeking for him a better position 
 than the interests of society require that he should have, and 
 which, in the end, his own usefulness will work out for him ; 
 — there is no doubt that the schoolmaster who conducts him- 
 self well — who can succeed in raising the standard of education 
 in his school, and in making it what it ought to be, and what 
 it hitherto has not been, a benefit to all classes around him — 
 will establish claims upon all, the labourer, the tradesman, and 
 the farmer, and upon all in his locality, which will cause him 
 to be estimated in a very different w^ay, and place him in a very 
 different position from that which he has hitherto held. At 
 
 14 § 
 
162 
 
 SUGGESTIVE BINTS. 
 
 present, ignorance, and jealousy arising from it, produce in 
 many of the uneducated a sort of dislike to all the instruments 
 of education — a sort of jealous feeling, the result of which is 
 to endeavour to bring all those leaving school to a level with 
 themselves — to make them mere masses of clay, animated, 
 it is true, but in every other respect a mere “bundle” of 
 ignorance. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the difficulties with which education is 
 beset, but which must prove less and less every year, I hope 
 many of those who persevere in this useful work may live to 
 see the labouring classes of this country much more enlight- 
 ened than they are at present — much more respectable in their 
 conduct — honest, manly, and straightforward in everything 
 they have to do — not looking upon insolence as independence, 
 which ignorance does, but feeling that it is a duty which they 
 owe to themselves to be respectful to their superiors, civil and 
 obliging, neighbourly and kind to all about them, and that, 
 when they fail in these things, they are wanting in their duty 
 both to God and man. 
 
 It is painful to observe how the uneducated classes, the 
 labourer and those above him, will sometimes, from pure 
 ignorance of wdiat is due to themselves, go out of their way 
 to insult others, from a feeling that this is, as they call it, 
 showing their independence, "^dien I see this, I am always 
 sorry that it does not occur to them that in doing so, they are 
 only lowering themselves in the scale of humanity and of 
 civilization, and that feelings of self-respect ought to deter 
 them from it ; education will teach that it does not, at least 
 ought not, to belong to civilized life. 
 
 As a means of animating those who, from their situation in 
 life — from their education or their position, may have it in 
 their power to assist in advancing the cause of education in 
 their own neighbourhoods, I can only say, if they once expe- 
 rience the heartfelt satisfaction which arises in contrasting the 
 state of the educated child with that of the totally uneducated 
 one — the intelligent countenance of the one, with the stolid, 
 unmeaning countenance which ignorance produces in the 
 other— the good effect of education on their industrial habits 
 — on their social habits — (in fact, so far as my own experience 
 here goes, and judging from those who have left school, it 
 makes them, generally speaking, a totally different race of 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 163 
 
 beings), — they Vvill not hesitate as to the course they ought 
 to pursue. 
 
 It may not be consistent with the occupations of those en- 
 gaged in a very busy and active life to pay much attention 
 to the education of those among whom they live, yet there are 
 many ways in which they may give encouragement to it and 
 to the schoolmaster without much encroachment upon their 
 time. They are many of them alive to the beauties of Nature 
 — they can enjoy the growth and expansion of a flower — watch 
 each petal unfold itself, and look with pleasure to its full 
 opening and beauty — watch it from its blossom to its fruit — 
 v/hy not, then, take some interestdn the opening and expan- 
 sion of the human mind What can be more gratifying to the 
 feelings, than seeing its gradual improvement under your in- 
 fluence, and that you are rendering it capable of using those 
 reasoning powers with which it is endowed, and which are 
 intended as the source of its highest gratification ? 
 
 That there are many among those who have paid attention 
 to the subject of education, both of my own profession and 
 others, who have fears of doing too much — some for one rea- 
 son and some for another — there is no doubt ; but if they will 
 
 * “ The natural state of man must be reckoned, not that in which his 
 intellectual and moral growth are stunted, but one in which his original 
 endowments are, I will not say brought to perfection, but enabled to ex- 
 ercise themselves, and to expand like the flowers of a plant; and especially 
 in which that characteristic of our species, the tendency towards progres- 
 sive improvement, is permitted to come into play. 
 
 “ A plant could not be said to be in its natural state which was growing 
 in a soil or climate that precluded it from putting forth the flowers and 
 the fruit for which its organization was destined. No one who saw the 
 pine growing near the boundary of perpetual snow on the Alps, stunted 
 to the height of two or three feet, and struggling to exist amidst rocks 
 and glaciers, would describe that as the natural state of a tree which, in a 
 more genial soil and climate a little lower down, was found capable of 
 rising to the height of lifty or sixty yards. In like manner, the natural 
 state of man must, according to all fair analogy, be reckoned, not that in 
 which his intellectual and moral growth are, as it were, stunted and per- 
 manently repressed, but one in which his original endowmients are, I do 
 not say brought to perfection, but enabled to exercise themselves and to 
 expand like the flowers of a plant ; and especially in which that character- 
 istic of our species, the tendency towards progressive improvement, is 
 permitted to come into play. Such seems to have been the state in which 
 the earliest race of mankind were placed by the Creator.” — Auchbishop 
 Wh ATE ley's Introductory Lectures on Political Economy. 
 
164 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS* 
 
 only look a little further into it, and see what can practically 
 be done, and what, in those instances where most has been 
 doing, is the good effect upon their conduct, I am well assured 
 they will find no ground for fear. 
 
 The cry that it is teaching too much— it is teaching them 
 astronomy, mathematics, &c., is very high sounding, and im- 
 plies much more than can be done, or even is attempted ; then, 
 again, consider the small number who remain even for this ; — • 
 but the fact is, it is not teaching them astronomy, &c., but it 
 is merely making them acquainted with facts in those sub- 
 jects of a scientific kind which they are capable of under- 
 standing—which will be verified afterwards by their own ex- 
 perience — which open their minds, and bear upon their occu- 
 pations in life — facts most useful and interesting to them, and 
 which, even independent of their usefulness, give a greater 
 interest to education than can be given in any other way. 
 
 It might as well, and with as much truth, be said that 
 floating a small paper boat on a tub of water was teaching 
 them navigation ; — besides, why assume that knowledge, when 
 communicated to the lower orders, must necessarily have a 
 tendency to evil ? — why imagine that a boy who is told how 
 the sailor steers by the compass, and who knows a little of 
 geography, will run away to sea and become a Paul Jones, a 
 buccaneer, or a pirate, rather than, if he does so, that he will 
 run in a right course — go to China, or join Mr. Brooke in 
 Borneo, and help to civilize the world. But even in Shak- 
 speare’s time there seems to have been those who objected to 
 much being done in this way, although I think there are few 
 at present who would quite adopt the words which he puts 
 into the mouth of Jack Cade, in his Henry the Sixth : Thou 
 
 hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in 
 erecting a grammar school ; and whereas, before, our fore- 
 fathers had no other books than the scpre and the tally, thou 
 hast caused printing to be used ; and thou hast built a paper- 
 mill. It will be proved to thy face that thou hast men about 
 thee that usually talk of a noun and a verb, and such abo- 
 minable words as no Christian ears can endure to hear.” 
 
 In presenting this outline of secular teaching in our ele- 
 mentary schools, I have done it with a view to its helping to 
 an improved system, and towards what I think most important 
 at the present time, the establishing schools combining the 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 155 
 
 education of the labouring classes with those of the employers. 
 This has been the aim which I had in the one here, and it is, 
 in my opinion, one of its most important and leading features, 
 and has in this respect been completely successful. 
 
 The number in the school when visited by the Kev. H. 
 Moseley, her Majesty’s Inspector, in March, 1847, was 1/3, 
 and their average ages throughout the school — boys, ten years 
 and three months — girls, ten years and eight months; and 
 although many of the labourers’ children remain consider- 
 ably beyond the usual ages in schools of this kind, yet, gene- 
 rally speaking, they leave between ten and eleven, and many 
 even before that. It appears from the report of Mr. Moseley, 
 in 1845, that the average age of the monitors in the numerous 
 schools which he inspected is not more than eleven years. 
 
 The number of children at present (iVpril, 1848) in the 
 school is upwards of 180, in addition to which there is a 
 small infant school of about thirty children, kept in a cottage 
 hard by, and managed in turn by the girls who are pupil- 
 teachers : from this it would appear that a very large propor- 
 tion of the population is at school, being upwards of a sixth 
 of the whole, but about thirty are from neighbouring pa- 
 rishes. 
 
 The proceeds of the school for the year from Christmas 
 1846, to Christmas, 1847, were £152 2^. 2//., this includes 
 books, the payments for which during the year by the chil- 
 dren amounted to £29 14^. 6//. This is a sure test of the 
 value which the parents attach to the education their children 
 are getting. 
 
 It is now advanced in its sixth year, and, having watched 
 the working of it in all its bearings, from the first, with a great 
 deal of attention, I feel that I may, with some degree of con- 
 fidence offer a few observations, in addition to those I published 
 in a pamphlet entitled Hints towards a Self -Paying System of 
 Education, 
 
 The reception the pamphlet met with, and the number of 
 attempts which are being made in the same direction, and 
 which I hope may meet with the same success, have in some 
 measure led to this publication. I there stated, that schools 
 for the education of the children, both of the labourer and 
 employer, might be very extensively established in the larger 
 parishes throughout England, by the assistance of the clergy 
 
166 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS, 
 
 and others interested in the education of the poor : this I still 
 repeat, and with increased conviction of its truth, I repeat 
 this passage from knowing that it has been misquoted and 
 reasoned upon as if I had said in all parishes — a thing mani- 
 festly impossible in small ones — but these ought, and no 
 doubt would, for the bigger children, take advantage of the 
 neighbouring schools. 
 
 Increased experience has confirmed what I then stated, that 
 the better the labouring classes are educated, the better they 
 will become in all the social relations of life, and that no 
 great improvement can be effected in the manners of the 
 people but by the education of the rising generation. 
 
 It is difficult, if not impossible, to change the habits of 
 men whose characters are formed and settled. The prejudices 
 of ignorance that have grown up with them will not yield to 
 new impressions, whilst youth and innocence may be moulded 
 into any form you may choose to give them.” 
 
 There is one class of men in our rural districts, and no 
 doubt a similar class in towns, to whom schools of this kind 
 are the greatest possible boon, that is, the tradesmen and 
 smaller farmers. Hitherto they never have had an education 
 for their children within their reach, but when it is so, they 
 show themselves willing and anxious to profit from it. 
 
 With respect to the more wealthy farmers, and also pro- 
 fessional men living in the country, many of them will, as ; 
 they do here, send their children to these schools, if well con- \ 
 ducted, when they see it is an advantage to them to do so. 
 
 It would be folly to suppose that any prudent parent would 
 hesitate to send his children when a good education is to be ^ 
 had at them, at a comparatively small expense, merely because ' 
 their primary object was the education of the poor, and when 
 he sees clearly that the interests of both classes may be ad- 
 vanced by his doing so. 
 
 The gradual improvement of the labouring classes will be 
 such, and also of the class immediately above them, that each ; 
 will see their true interests in a better light than they have ^ 
 hitherto done, and there will be no longer that fear of coming 
 in contact with each other in early life which there has been, ^ 
 and which has been productive of anything but good. ; 
 
 That the occupying farmers as a class, and I speak of them 
 more particularly from not having much knowledge of the 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 167 
 
 employers of labour in towns, are against the education of the 
 labourer, there is no doubt ; for they seldom speak of it in 
 any other terms than as ‘^a parcel of stuff, a parcel of non- 
 sense ; what do they mean by attempting to teach the children 
 all this ? —we shall not be able to get labourers,” &c. All this 
 is mere prejudice, and will soon die away. 
 
 One objection running in the minds of many of them is this 
 (a most ungenerous one it is true), that the children of the 
 labourer in schools like the one here — for I know it has 
 been urged against this — are getting, at a cheap rate, a better 
 education than those of the farmer. Now this would be true, 
 supposing that the class above the labourer were to remain 
 stationary as to education, a thing they will not do, as they 
 will no doubt, in the end, act upon the principles of common 
 sense, and take advantage of such schools, where they are 
 established in their parishes or in their neighbourhood. 
 
 For w^hat is the way in which it operates here ? From the 
 above averages as to age, it is evident that the children of the 
 labourer leave between ten and eleven, many of them earlier ; 
 those who stay after that age are exceptions to the general 
 rule. 
 
 Now surely this is not staying to an age at which any one 
 can justly take alarm ; yet I know that, even at this age, some 
 of them are better educated than the children of many of the 
 farmers have hitherto been ; but in keeping their children at 
 school to the age of fourteen or fifteen, the latter would secure 
 to themselves their proper place in the social scale, and as it 
 is in their power to do so, if they do not, they have no busi- 
 ness to find fault. It has been said, that every class above 
 another teaches that below it, and the establishment of good 
 and cheap schools will not reverse this ; on the contrary, 
 strengthen it. 
 
 I feel, from my own experience, how much the classes 
 above the labourer and mechanic are interested in a good and 
 efficient system of education in our parish schools, and I 
 wish to open their eyes to the importance of them, and to the 
 good results which would arise, if all would unite in trying to 
 establish schools with a view to meet the educational wants of 
 the age in which we live. 
 
 The farmer, and those of the same class in our rural dis- 
 tricts, may rest assured, that until it is brought home to them 
 
168 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 into their own parishes or neighbourhood, they never will, as 
 a class of men, get that education it is desirable they should 
 have ; and, that by standing aloof, and feeling no interest in 
 that of the labourer, they only augment the evil which they 
 dread — the one is advancing in intelligence, and it is time it 
 should — the other is standing still ; and I cannot but think, 
 that in a very few years, the employers of labour will be the 
 class which, of all others, will take the greatest interest in 
 those very schools of which they now think so little. 
 
 It is a remark sometimes made, that the physical condition 
 of the labouring classes, particularly as regards the crowded 
 state of their cottages, is such as to render attempts to edu- 
 cate almost fruitless, or at all events to be a very great 
 hinderance to it. 
 
 In this there is no doubt much truth, for it will generally 
 be found, that when families are crowded together into a 
 small space — all ages and sexes sleeping in the same room — 
 that they lose all sense of decency and respectability, and that 
 education in such cases has great difficulties to contend with. 
 
 The remedy for this, with regard to the cottages in our 
 rural districts, rests with the landlords rather than any one 
 else — the farmer is indifferent to it — one sleeping-room for a 
 family, however large, satisfies him. 
 
 The system of letting cottages in a wholesale way with 
 farms, beyond what is necessary for farm servants, and of 
 letting out leasehold and lifehold cottages for the purpose of 
 subletting, is one very much to be condemned, and which, 
 calls for the consideration of the landlords of this country.; 
 They have it in their power to do much good in this, and the 
 mischief has arisen from want of attention on their part, and 
 not in any feelings of indifference as to the welfare of the poor. 
 
 Ecclesiastical and collegiate bodies have much to answer: 
 for in this respect, and one can only hope they will make up^ 
 for the past by better attention to it for the future. i 
 
 There is also another mischief in letting cottages to a| 
 greater extent than is absolutely necessary with the farms ; it; 
 introduces a sort of truck system, and is very often a means 
 of oppressing the labourer ; the employer deducting more^ 
 than a reasonable weekly rent from his wages on a Saturday 
 night. The difficulty of getting cottages sometimes obliges 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 169 
 
 the labourer to submit to this, although he may have work 
 oifered him on better terms elsewhere. 
 
 On this subject of crowded cottages, and the immorality it 
 leads to, I will quote the following words of Mr. Justice Cole- 
 ridge, addressed to a Labourers' Friends Association in Devon- 
 shire, andwdiich I read in the public journals some time ago. 
 Coming from such authority and experience, they are de- 
 serving of the highest attention. 
 
 I beg to impress upon you the importance of improving 
 the moral and social condition of the labouring classes, with 
 whose w^ell-being your own interest is very closely identified. 
 Many amongst them are wretchedly lodged. From my own 
 experience as a judge, the painful conviction has been forced 
 upon my mind, that very much of the crime which disgraces 
 our country is mainly attributable to the mixture of sexes and 
 of ages in the dwellings of the poor ; a practice that debases 
 and demoralizes the human mind, and which, unless counter- 
 acted, must effectually neutralize every effort made towards 
 the elevation or improvement of the people.” This is a very 
 strong opinion ; but it is the opinion of one who has had the 
 best opportunity of inquiring into crime, and he speaks of it 
 as being forced upon him, and it is one to w hich every in- 
 quiriug mind must come that has witnessed the low and de- 
 grading habits to which such practices lead. It is the duty 
 of owners of property to do all they can to remedy it, as it is 
 no less the duty of the poor to second their efforts in doing 
 so ; but such is the force of habit, that in many cases wdiere 
 the landlord has attempted a remedy, the cottagers themselves 
 have taken in lodgers ; or when a son or daughter marries, 
 let them have a part of their cottage, — a proof that any great 
 improvement in this way must be a work of time, and can 
 only be accomplished by degrees, as the rising generation be- 
 come better educated, and more alive to social comforts, and 
 feel that such habits lead to vice and misery, and make them 
 every way as a class less respectable, not only in their own 
 eyes, but in the eyes of their employers. 
 
 The present generation of children of the labouring class, 
 now leaving school, have great difficulties and temptations to 
 contend with ; they are immediately thrown with companions 
 who have not had the same advantages in this respect as 
 themselves — having confirmed habits of a kind which educa- 
 
 1.5 
 
170 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 tion is intended to correct— jealous of those who have had 
 any education whatever, and anxious to bring them in every 
 way to a level with themselves — so that they have, in fact, 
 more than ordinary temptations to resist. 
 
 Nor does this apply merely to their companions and fellow- 
 labourers working in the same occupation with themselves, 
 but to a very great number of others— the jeerers and scoffers^ 
 who are continually saying, what do we want with this or 
 with that ? a little reading and writing is all that the labour- 
 ing man can want;” so that, for the present, the better edu- 
 cated can only be looked upon as a leaven to leaven the mass, 
 and that from the numerous temptations they meet with, there 
 may be those, and no doubt will, who fall into the low and 
 degrading habits of those about them ; but every succeedino* 
 year will, in this respect, bring a brighter prospect with i^ 
 and education will in the end lead to that improvement in 
 society at large which its friends have reason to expect : every 
 one now leaving our schools at all educated as a pioneer 
 among these rough samples of humanity, smoothing the way 
 for a better order of things, and gradually making it smoother 
 with each succeeding year. 
 
 The ignorance of some in the labouring classes can scarcely 
 be understood by those who have not examined into it ; and I 
 have met with instances myself, particularly of lads just 
 growing into manhood, whose ignorance is greater than I 
 could have imagined possible. The parents, after the age of 
 twelve or even before that, lose all control over them ; they 
 have nothing to guide them beyond mere animal impulse, and 
 of course this guides them wrong — to improve them at this* 
 age and with such habits is almost hopeless, and in whatever 
 light you view them, it must be with feelings of pity and 
 commiseration. Characters of this kind are in such a state, 
 and their minds are become so completely inactive, that they; 
 work wickedness mechanically and from habit, having no idea; 
 whatever of the light in which it appears to the respectable^ 
 part of society about them. ( 
 
 In extending education, and introducing it into our schools 
 in such a way as to reach the classes above the labourer, we 
 might hope that more of intelligence would be brought to bear? 
 on parochial management — in those things of a civic kind, 
 which regard our living together in small separate commu- 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 171 
 
 nlties — the parts of a whole, and working together for the 
 general good, and having to carry into effect those internal 
 arrangements among ourselves which the law requires for the 
 happiness of the whole — things in which society at large is 
 deeply interested ; but, notwithstanding this, they are too ge- 
 nerally transacted in away which loses sight of every business 
 principle, as well as of every principle of common sense. 
 
 In matters of this kind, it is painful to see the low standard 
 of moral feeling which prevails in the agricultural districts, 
 and the little regard which is* paid — that the public-houses, 
 beer-houses, &c., and those places to which the labouring man 
 resorts, should be kept within the bounds of decency, so that 
 from the character of those who keep them, the poor man 
 may in some measure be protected from falling into the de- 
 graded and mischievous courses, into which many of them 
 have been led by frequenting ill-conducted places of the kind. 
 It has been thought somewhat of a safeguard to the morals of 
 a parish, that the keeper of a beer-house should, in order to 
 get a license from the excise, produce a certificate signed by 
 six inhabitant rate-payers, rated above £6 per annum, and in 
 theory this might seem to read well, but in practice it is found 
 to be no protection whatever, as to regulating the number of 
 beer-houses, and proportioning them to the population, or as 
 to the respectability of the party to be licensed ; and I can 
 state from my own experience, as well as from the evidence 
 of others, that there is no character however bad, where six 
 rate-payers in a moderate-sized parish may not be found to 
 sign such certificate — either from w^hat they please to term 
 good nature — or from a thorough indifference as to the mis- 
 chief wdiich may arise from it — or from a kind of bribery 
 among the parties. I know instances annually occurring, 
 where one might have supposed scarcely six men could be 
 found in a whole county to sign such a recommendation, 
 much less in a parish. The mischief which this leads to, and 
 the demoralizing effect which such practices have upon the 
 more ignorant class of labourers, and particularly among the 
 young men, is most deplorable, and a better state of things 
 can only arise by the class immediately above the labourer, 
 as well as the labourer himself, being from education brought 
 to feel that such conduct is discreditable to themselves, and 
 is looked upon as such by the respectable classes immediately 
 
172 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 above them, and by thus being made to see their own conduct, 
 in somewhat the same light as others see it in— in the words 
 of the poet of Scotland — 
 
 Oh, wad some power the giftie gie ^em 
 
 To see themselves as others see ’em.’^ 
 
 In general, the rule of conduct in such matters seems 
 to be — if a man can get a living, that he is justified in 
 doing anything which puts a penny into his pocket, no 
 matter how much his doing so may bring into temptation and 
 into mischief those about him. The poor labourers are many 
 of them, in the winter, led to the beer-house by the warmth 
 which it affords, and the result is, a starving wife — ragged 
 and uneducated children^ — a brutalized peasantry — and many 
 other evils, which might at ail events be materially mitigated 
 by a different conduct on the part of their employers, and by 
 their taking a proper interest in the moral well-being and 
 respectability of those around them, and towards whom they 
 are, as beings, responsible to a higher power, and from a 
 duty both to God and man, called upon to act in a very dif- 
 ferent way from that in which the generality of them do. 
 
 The peasantry, in the south of England more particularly, 
 have lost all feeling of self-dependence, and are by no means . 
 characterised by those feelings of manly reliance on their own 
 exertions, for the support of themselves and those who are 
 dependent upon them, which belong to the better educated • 
 peasantry of Scotland, and in one particular thing the con- ' 
 trast has struck me very forcibly — that is, with respect to 
 those of their children, male or female, who may happen to j 
 be in any way disabled in body from following what may be ? 
 called hard work ; in the south of England, where this is the 
 case, there is scarcely one parent in ten, nay, one in a hun- 
 dred (at least 1 have found it so in my own parish, and hear 
 of it in others), who does not, at the time his child is about ; 
 sixteen, go to the clergyman of the parish for a certificate of j 
 its baptism, to lay before the board of guardians as soon after ) 
 the child is sixteen as possible, in order to ask relief ; — in i 
 Scotland the feeling is, that parent and child, child and pa- i 
 rent, should mutually assist each other. In England, on nei- ' 
 ther side does this feeling exist, and in conversing with Scotch ' 
 people on this subject, there is nothing in which I have found ' 
 
 / ' 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 173 
 
 them so much astonished, as in this difference of feeling 
 among the peasantry of the two countries. 
 
 As an instance of the very strange notions which the poor 
 have as regards the social relations existing between them- 
 selves and the parish, the following, although it may appear 
 somewhat ludicrous, gives a very graphic and a very true idea. 
 Being asked by an old man to send in his name as a claimant 
 of a prize from the Local Agricultural Association, from his 
 having been a number of years a member of what is called a 
 Benefit Society, I did so, stating to him I did not think the 
 case likely to succeed. I happened to see him soon after, and 
 told him tliat he had not succeeded, and his answer to me 
 was — Why, sir, there’s ne’er a man in the parish desarved 
 it half so well as I did ; I have had three wives, and I mar- 
 ried them all out of the workhouse.” Now, this man was of 
 respectable character — of average intelligence, and well con- 
 ducted, and his answer was meant in all earnestness ; he 
 really thought he had done the parish a service, in relieving 
 it of the expense, at the time of his marriage, of his respective 
 wives. 
 
 This is but one of many cases which I could relate, evi- 
 dencing the great want of better instruction on economic sub- 
 jects — not only among the labourers, but among the classes 
 above them in our rural districts, and if any one thorouglily 
 acquainted with them would bring before the public a fair, 
 honest, and, as far as possible, a graphic description of the 
 real social evils of rural life, he would render great service to 
 the cause of civilization, and would, by laying bare those vices, 
 many of which arise from mere ignorance, advance, at the 
 same time, the cause of that better education among the la- 
 bouring masses of this country, wdiich all but an unanimous 
 feeling in the public mind seems at the present moment to be 
 in favour of. 
 
 That these evils have arisen to the extent to which they now 
 prevail, one reason among others is, 1 think, the erroneous 
 view which many of the clergy have taken, that to correct and 
 expose evils of this kind is not within the sphere of their duty 
 — that it is of too secular a nature, and on that account that 
 they ought not to interfere. In answer to this I would ask, 
 is it a part of the clergyman’s duty to try and make men 
 honest or is it not ? — to make them tell the truth both in 
 
 15 § 
 
SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 1/4 
 
 speaking and acting, and not to allow them to imagine them- 
 selves to be acting a charitable and a kind part, when in reality 
 they are doing no such thing? — to see the poor crowded into 
 cottages in such a way as to bid defiance to any possibility of 
 their practising habits of decency, or of being brought up in 
 them? — to see men nominally employed on the parish roads 
 under a plea of humanity, when, in fact, it is to run them on in 
 a sort of straw-yard* during the wdnter at a small expense, until 
 their services may again be wanted?-— in short, to allow the 
 most erroneous notions on all subjects of a social kind to pre- 
 vail without any attempt at amendment, from a fear, perhaps, 
 of being classed among those taking too great care of earthly 
 things, when the doing so might be the means of checking 
 some of the most demoralizing inhuences which prevail among 
 our labouring poor in the agricultural districts ? 
 
 I know parishes where, for a long series of years, at least 75 
 per cent, of the money spent on their roads has been absolutely 
 thrown away, the value of the work actually done not being 
 25 per cent, of the expenditure, the road rate having become 
 a poor rate for the able-bodied, who are employed at a rate of 
 wages varying with the number of their families, the term 
 roadman being used for and in every w^ay synonymous with the 
 word pauper — and what is almost unaccountable, is, the rate- ^ 
 payers themselves being perfectly persuaded, or at least ap- 
 pearing to be so, that they are doing what is right, and the 
 surveyor making oath every year before the magistrates that 
 he has expended the parish money in such a way as the ' 
 statutes relating to the highways direct. The effect of all this 
 where it prevails, and in a greater or less degree it prevails ^ 
 extensively, is bad beyond description, and it is almost impos- : 
 sible to imagine the mischief to which it leads — in demoral- 
 izing the labourers as a class — in unduly keeping dowm the 
 rate of wages and the proper remuneration of labour, and the 
 in every way low and degraded social state to wdiich it leads. 
 
 Now if the object of religion be (what I think every one ^ 
 must confess it is) to make men practically good, then I think 
 it must be allowed by all that its teachers are by no means . 
 exceeding their duty, in endeavouring to give clearer and 
 
 * A parish workshop — a sort of Louis Blanc-ism on a small scale — 
 carrying out in a parish what he wished to carry out in a nation, and with 
 like result. 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 175 
 
 better views in those matters nominally of a civil kinrl, 
 having so intimate a relation and so direct an influence on 
 the morals of a people, and in the healthy administration 
 of which, almost all the links in our social chain are equally 
 interested. 
 
 There is no subject on which both the labourer and the 
 employer in our rural districts require more to be enlightened 
 than on their mutual relations with respect to the remunera- 
 tion of labour — ^a thing necessary before there can be any 
 great change in the character of the labourer in this country — 
 before he can feel that it is a sort of moral degradation for a 
 healthy able-bodied man to throw himself (and in the present 
 I state of things he is obliged to do so) upon the parish the 
 ^ moment he is out of work. Nor can the farmer think, nor 
 
 does he in fact tliink, that the labourer is wrong in doing so. 
 Now, in blaming the labourer for doing this, and for having 
 ' so little of a spirit of independence as to throw himself un- 
 scrupulously upon the parish the moment he is sick or out of 
 work — every one must feel that it is in reality a part of his 
 wages, and this is implied bet\reen both parties — the employer 
 and the employed — the present system of wages always sup- 
 poses a third party to the contract — the parish, and never 
 contemplates anything beyond getting on from one Saturday 
 night to another, and in case of sickness or work failing, the 
 parish to do the rest. A system like this necessarily leads (and 
 we all know wdiat in past times it has led to) to an unhealthy 
 state of society ; each individual employer is willing to save 
 himself as much as possible, in order to throw the rest on the 
 general rate-payer — the labourer trom ignorance has lost 
 sight of his true interests, and of what constitutes respecta- 
 bility and self-dependence; he is become improvident, with- 
 out forethought, these being in his case not at all necessary, 
 and is quite as contented to take part from his employer and 
 part from the parish, as if he had the whole at once ; per- 
 haps more so, as in the one case it would imply he must take 
 care of himself in case of sickness, w^ant of employment, 
 &c . ; and in the other, he is taken care of by others ; but 
 at all events, the present system treats the labourer through 
 life as a child that cannot take care of itself — as one that 
 neither reflects upon the past, nor looks forward to the 
 future. 
 
176 
 
 SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 
 
 The following passage from Mrs. Marcet’s ' Conversations 
 on Political Economy’ well expresses what ought to be the 
 tendency of the education given to the labouring classes ; she 
 says : — 
 
 I would endeavour to give the rising generation such an 
 education as would render them not only moral and religious, 
 but industrious, frugal, and provident. In proportion as the 
 mind is informed, w^e are able to calculate the consequences 
 of our actions ; it is the infant and the savage who live only 
 for the present moment; those whom instruction has taught 
 to think, reflect upon the past and look forward to the future. 
 Education gives rise to prudence, not only by enlarging our 
 understanding, but by softening our feelings, by humanising 
 the heart, and promoting amiable affections. The rude and 
 inconsiderate peasant marries witliout either foreseeing or 
 caring for the miseries he may entail on his wife and children ; 
 hut he who has been taught to value the comforts and decen- 
 cies of life, will not heedlessly involve himself and all that is 
 dear to him in poverty and its long train of miseries.” 
 
 It certainly appears to me to be the true theory of a healthy 
 state of society, and certainly more consistent wdth honest, 
 sti aightforward conduct in all parties — (for the other leads to 
 a great deal of low cunning) — more consistent with the riglits 
 of industry that the wages of labour should, in the case of 
 the industrious man, be equal to all the decent wants of his 
 class— house-rent, food, clothing, education ; and in all cases 
 of ordinary sickness, medical attendance — that the labourer ; 
 should feel that it belongs to himself and to his own character 
 as an honest man to provide all these things for himself and 
 for his family to feel happy in providing them every com- 
 fort within his reach ; but tiien it is equally necessary that 
 the employer of labour should view the matter in the same 
 light. And although it may be difficult to arrive at this, yet 
 I hope it will be the tendency of education to point in this 
 direction, and to enlighten both as to their true interests— ■ 
 that the one will respect the rights of honest industry— that ^ 
 the other will no less duly estimate what is owing to the em- ; 
 ployer wdio acts on this straightforward, manly, and honest 
 principle (and which ought to he the commercial principle) ; 
 which, although making the labourer earn his living by the 
 sweat of his brow, would place him in a situation of decent 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 177 
 
 comfort — liappy in himself and in his family around him — 
 happy in the blessings which this life affords him,* and 
 equally happy in looking forward to leave it, when it shall 
 please God to call him. 
 
 * “ The common benefits of our nature entirely escape us ; yet these 
 are the great things. These constitute what most properly ought to be 
 accounted blessings of Providence ; what alone, it* we might so speak, are 
 worthy of its care. Nightly rest and daily bread, the ordinary use of our 
 limbs and senses and understandings, are gifts which admit of no com- 
 parison with any other. Yet because almost every man we meet with 
 possesses these, we leave them out of our enumeration. They raise no 
 sentiment : they move no gratitude.” — Paley's Natural Theoloyy, 
 
178 
 
 APPENDIX (A.) 
 
 The following extracts are from an Educational Tour in Germany liy 
 Horace Mann, Esq., Secretary to the Board of Education, Mass., U.S.; 
 they are made for the purpose of recommending linear drawing to school 
 teachers, a thing not much practised in our schools, but of the usefulness 
 of which there can he no doubt. 
 
 Speaking of one of the first schools he entered, he says: “ The teachers 
 first drew a house on the black board, and here the value of the art of 
 drawing- — a power universally possessed by Prussian teachers— became 
 manifest. 
 
 “ The excellence of their writing must he referred, in a great degree, to 
 the universal practice of learning to draw contemporaneously with learning 
 to write. I believe a child will learn both to draw and to write sooner, 
 and with more ease, than he will learn writing alone. I came to the con- 
 clusion that, with no other guide than a mere inspection of the copybooks, 
 
 I could tell whether drawing were taught in the school or not — so uni- 
 formly superior was the handwriting in those schools where drawing w^as 
 taught in connexion with it. 
 
 “ I never saw a teacher in a German school make use of a ruler, or any 
 other mechanical aid, in drawing the most nice or complicated figures. I 
 recollect no instance in which he was obliged to efface a part of a line 
 because it was too long, or to extend it because it was too short. If 
 squares or triangles were to be formed, they came out squares or triangles 
 without any overlapping or deficiency. Here w^as not only much time 
 gained or saved, but the pupils had constantly before their eyes these ' 
 examples of celerity and perfectness, as models for imitation. No one 
 can doubt how^ much more correctly, as well as more rapidly, a child's 
 mind will grow in view of such models of ease and accuracy, than if only ; 
 slow, aw^kward, and clumsy movements are the patterns constantly held i 
 before it." 
 
 The following passage on the subject of teaching geography, as taught 
 in the Prussian schools, is well worthy of the teacher's attention : “ Here i 
 the skill of the teacher and pupils in drawing does admirable service. I ; 
 will describe, as exactly as I am able, a lesson which I heard given to a 
 class a little advanced beyond the elements, remarking that, though I 
 heard many lessons on the same plan, none of them were signalised by 
 the rapidity and effect of the one 1 am about to describe. 
 
 “ The teacher stood by the black board with the chalk in his hand. 
 After casting his eye over the class, to see that all were ready, he struck 
 at the middle of the board : with a rapidity of hand which my eye could 
 hardly follow, he made a series of those short divergent lines, or shadings, 
 employed by map engravers to represent a chain of mountains. He had 
 scarcely turned an angle, or shot off a span, when the scholars began to 
 cry out ‘Carpathian Mountains, Hungary; Black Forest Mountains, Wur- 
 temberg ; Giants’ Mountains (Riesen-gebirge), Silesia ; Central Mountains 
 (Mittel-gebirge), Bohemia,’ &c. 
 
 “ In less than half a minute the ridge of that grand central elevation, 
 
APPENDIX (a.) 
 
 179 
 
 which separates the waters that flow north-west into the German Ocean 
 from those that flow north into the Baltic, and south-east into the Black 
 Sea, was presented to view — executed almost as beautifully as an engraving. 
 A dozen wrinkled strokes, made in the twinkling of an eye, represented 
 the head waters of the great rivers which flow in different directions from 
 that mountainous range ; while the children, almost as eager and excited 
 as though they had actually seen the torrents dashing down the mountain 
 sides, cried out, ‘ Danube, Elbe, Vistula, Oder,’ &c. The next moment 1 
 heard a succession of small strokes or taps, so rapid as to be almost in- 
 distinguishable, and hardly had my eye time to discern a large number of 
 dots made along the margins of the rivers, w^hen the shout of ‘ Linz, 
 Vienna, Prague, Dresden, Berlin,’ &c., struck my ear. With a few more 
 flourishes, the rivers flowed onwards towards their several terminations, 
 and, by another accession of dots, new cities sprang up on their banks. 
 Within ten minutes from the commencement of the lesson there stood 
 upon the black board a beautiful map of Germany, with its mountains, 
 principal rivers, and cities, the coast of the German Ocean, of the Baltic 
 and the Black Seas, and all so accurately proportioned, that I think only 
 slight errors would have been found, had it been subjected to the test of a 
 scale of miles. A part of this time was taken up in correcting a few 
 mistakes of the pupils, for the teacher’s mind seemed to be in his ear as 
 well as in his hand; and, notwithstanding the astonishing celerity of his 
 movements, he detected erroneous answers, and turned round to correct 
 them. Compare the effect of such a lesson as this, both as to the amount 
 of the knowledge communicated, and the vividness, and of course the per- 
 manence of the ideas obtained, with a lesson where the scholars look out 
 a few names of places on a lifeless atlas, but never send their imaginations 
 abroad over the earth ; and where the teacher sits listlessly down before 
 them to interrogate them from a book in which all the questions are 
 printed at full length, to supersede, on his part, all necessity of knowledge.” 
 — Mann’s Educational Tour in Germany, 
 
 The following from an article in the ‘ Quarterly Review,’ on Physical 
 Geography, affords an instructive hint. 
 
 “ Of the thirty-eight millions of square miles, forming in round numbers 
 the total area of land, nearly twenty-eight millions lie to the north of the 
 equator ; and if we divide the globe longitudinally by the meridian of 
 Teneriffe, the land on the eastern side of this line will be seen greatly to 
 exceed the western : another manner of division into two hemispheres, 
 according to the maximum extent of land and water in each, affords the 
 curious result of designating England as the centre of the former, or 
 terrene half — an antipodal point near New Zealand as the centre of the 
 aqueous hemisphere. The exact position in England is not far from the 
 Land’s End; so that if an observer were there raised to such height as 
 to discern at once one half of the globe, he would see the greatest possible 
 extent of land; if similarly elevated in New Zealand, the greatest possible 
 surface of water. 
 
 “ An increase of land above the sea between the tropics raises the mean 
 temperature, in higher latitudes depresses it ; and every such vicissitude 
 must be attended with some corresponding change in the nature and con- 
 ditions of organic life.’' 
 
ISO 
 
 APPENDIX (B.) 
 
 The arithmetical constants given beiow, with the tahulnr matter on the 
 different subjects to which the tables relate, will, i„ the higher class of 
 schools, be found of great service. Some of the walls of thi class-room 
 in the Kinp Somborne School are plastered, and the following matter 
 in a tabulated form, written upon them, in letters and figures of about an 
 inch in size. They not only suggest observations during the prooress of 
 a lesson connected with the subject of them, but they accustom theteacher 
 to something like arithmetical accuracy in making such observations, and 
 enable the children to form ideas of a definite kind, and make the subiects 
 perfectly intelligible ; in fact, knowledge communicated in this wav makes 
 them close and accurate reasoners, and it is astonishing to see how much 
 they get interested in it. These tables also suggest numberless questions 
 in arithmetic which may be given by a teacher. In giving them here it is 
 merely to suggest the same thing to others, and in schools, where ’such 
 information is not a part of their teaching, tabular matter, connected with 
 the ordinary weights and measures— the number of cubic inches in a solid 
 yard, in a quart, and other measures, might supply its place on the walls 
 of the schoolroom. 
 
 , J comparing the rapidity of the motion of a cannon- 
 
 ball with that, for instance, of the swallow, the teacher would point out 
 the necessity of reducing them to spaces passed over in the same time 
 when It will be found that the cannon-ball moves at the rate of more 
 than 1300 miles per hour, the swallowq 90; that one is a velocity so great 
 that the eye cannot see the object moving; that there is an intermediate 
 velocity between the two, with which, if the ball moves, it ceases to be 
 invisible, and that it will be gradually reduced to this before its motion 
 ceases— after striking the ground— which is called a spent ball • that the 
 flight of a bird may be supposed to be so increased, as not to be seen in 
 passing from one point of S)iace to another, &c. 
 
 The outline of Table VIII, which is only partially filled up, would 
 suggest many observations of a meteorological kind— why points of equal 
 temperature on the surface of the earth do not follow the simple rule of 
 distance from the equator; how affected by sea, land, mountains; account- 
 ing for the zig-zag nature of isothermal lines, &c. It would also be found 
 very useful to draw on the ceiling of the school- or class-room lines 
 running in the direction of the four cardinal points, with a line repre- 
 senting the magnetic meridian in degrees, and the magnitude of the angle ■ 
 of variation written between them. ° 
 
 N 
 
 W. 
 
Table I . — Numerical Constants, 
 
 3*14159 
 •7854 
 
 (3-14159) D 
 (•7854) D2 
 •008726645 
 = (-7854) IP 
 = (•5236) 
 
 (3*14159) D 
 16y’5feet in V' 
 
 (16^g in t" 
 
 Length of a pendulum vibrating 1 ^ g 
 
 seconds in lat. 51 31 . s 
 
 Velocity of sound .... 1142 feet in V' 
 
 of a cannon-ball , . 2000 feet in 1'' 
 
 of light .... 200,000 miles in 1" 
 of a brisk wind . .10 miles per hour, 
 
 of a high wind, about . 40 „ „ 
 
 of a hurricane . . 80 „ „ 
 
 Most rapid flight of a swallow, about 80 to 90 miles per hour.* 
 
 Table II. — Specific Gravity, Distilled Water = 1*000. 
 
 0ce of a circle, dia. 1 
 Area of do. . 
 
 0ce of a circle, dia. D 
 Area of do. . 
 
 Length of arc 1® dia. 1 
 Sol. cylinder D and dia. of base D ; 
 
 „ of sphere = f of cylinder 
 Surface of do. dia. D 
 A body falls by gravity . 
 
 Metals, 
 
 Organic Bodies (continued). 
 
 And other Inorganic Bodies. 
 
 Dry Cork 
 
 •240 
 
 Platinum 
 
 
 22*069 
 
 „ Ivory 
 
 1-826 
 
 Gold . 
 
 
 19*258 
 
 „ Bones of Oxen 
 
 1*656 
 
 Mercury 
 
 
 13*586 
 
 LiauiDs. 
 
 
 Lead 
 
 
 11*352 
 
 Sea Water 
 
 1*026 
 
 Silver 
 
 
 10*474 
 
 Milk . . . . 
 
 1*030 
 
 Copper . 
 
 
 8*788 
 
 Oil of Olives . 
 
 0*915 
 
 Steel 
 
 
 7*812 
 
 Alcohol 
 
 0*792 
 
 Iron (bar) 
 
 
 7*788 
 
 Ether .... 
 
 0*715 
 
 Iron (cast) 
 
 
 7*207 
 
 Nitric Acid . 
 
 1*503 
 
 Tin . . . 
 
 
 7*291 
 
 Sulphuric Acid 
 
 1*845 
 
 Zinc 
 
 
 7*100 
 
 Ammonia 
 
 0*960 
 
 Sodium . 
 
 
 0*973 
 
 Weight, in ounces, of a I 
 
 
 Potassium 
 
 
 0*865 
 
 cubic foot of water, V 
 
 997*136 
 
 Chalk . 
 
 
 2*784 
 
 temp. 63° . . J 
 
 
 Limestone 
 
 
 3*179 
 
 Ditto in lbs. . 
 
 62*321 
 
 Marble . 
 
 
 2*742 
 
 
 
 Flint and Spar 
 
 
 2*594 
 
 Gases. 
 
 
 Common Glass 
 
 
 2*642 
 
 Atmospheric Air 
 
 1*000 
 
 
 
 
 Oxygen .... 
 
 1*111 
 
 Organic Bodies. 
 
 
 Nitrogen 
 
 0*972 
 
 Dry Oak 
 
 
 •925 
 
 Hydrogen 
 
 0*069 
 
 „ Beech 
 
 
 *852 
 
 Chlorine 
 
 2*500 
 
 „ Ash 
 
 
 •845 
 
 Ammonia . . . 
 
 0*590 
 
 „ Elm 
 
 
 •600 
 
 Carbonic Acid 
 
 1*527 
 
 Cedar 
 
 
 •561 
 
 Weight, in ounces, of 1 
 
 1*24642 
 
 Larch 
 
 
 •498 
 
 a cubic foot of air j 
 
 
 Poplar . 
 
 . 
 
 •383 
 
 Ditto in lbs. . 
 
 *0779 
 
 * Velocity (mean) of rivers 3 or 4 feet per second. 
 
 ,, quick train railroad 88 ,, 
 
 ,, of rotation of point at equator 1520 feet per second. 
 
 Hi 
 
182 
 
 APPENDIX (b.) 
 
 Table III * 
 
 Height of 
 
 
 Corresponding temperature 
 
 Barometer. 
 
 
 at which water boils. 
 
 Inches. 
 
 
 I'ahrenheit. 
 
 26 
 
 
 . 201-91° 
 
 26-5 
 
 
 . 205-79° 
 
 27 
 
 
 . 206-67° 
 
 27-5 
 
 
 . 207-55° 
 
 28 
 
 
 . 208-43° 
 
 28-5 
 
 
 . 209-31° 
 
 29 
 
 
 . 210-10° 
 
 29-5 
 
 
 . 211-07° 
 
 300 
 
 
 . 212-00° 
 
 30-5 
 
 
 . 212-88° 
 
 31-0 
 
 
 . 213-76° 
 
 lese inches of mercury measure 
 
 also the elastic force of the vapour 
 
 of water at the same temperature. 
 
 Table IV, 
 
 
 Table V. 
 
 
 Melting Points of different 
 
 Boiling Points of different 
 
 Substances. 
 
 Fah. 
 
 Liquids. 
 
 Fah. 
 
 Heat of common fire 
 
 . 790° 
 
 Water 
 
 . 212° 
 
 Iron red in the dark 
 
 . 750° 
 
 Ether 
 
 . 96° 
 
 Beeswax . 
 
 . 136° 
 
 Alcohol 
 
 . 176° 
 
 Lard* 
 
 97° 
 
 Most essential oils 
 
 . 212° 
 
 Tallow 
 
 . 127° 
 
 Water saturated with 1 
 
 . 225° 
 
 Tin, 3. Lead, 2 . 
 
 . 334° 
 
 common salt . J 
 
 Tin, 1. Lead, 4 
 
 . 460° 
 
 Oil of Turpentine 
 
 . 316° 
 
 Lead 
 
 . 612° 
 
 Sulphuric Acid . 
 
 . 590° 
 
 Zinc 
 
 . 680° 
 
 Linseed Oil 
 
 . 600° 
 
 Antimony 
 
 . 809° 
 
 Mercury 
 
 . 660° 
 
 Brass 
 
 . 3809° 
 
 Nitric Acid 
 
 . 248° 
 
 Copper , 
 
 . 4587° 
 
 Phosphorus 
 
 . 554° 
 
 Silver 
 
 . 3937° 
 
 Sulphur 
 
 . 570° 
 
 Gold 
 
 . 5237° 
 
 
 Soft Nails 
 
 . 21097° 
 
 
 
 Iron 
 
 . 21637° 
 
 
 
 Platinum 
 
 . 23177° 
 
 
 
 Table VL — Freeing Points of Liquids. 
 
 Water freezes . 
 
 Fah. 
 . 32° 
 
 Mercury . 
 
 Fah. 
 . —39° 
 
 Milk 
 
 30° 
 
 Vinegar . 
 
 . +28° 
 
 Olive Oil 
 
 . 36° 
 
 Oil of Turpentine . 
 
 . + 16° 
 
 Salt Water, 1 
 
 
 Sulphuric Acid 
 
 . +46° 
 
 1 part salt, 4 parts water j 
 
 ’ / 
 
 Human Blood 
 
 . +25° 
 
 Brine, 1 part salt, 3 water 
 
 4° 
 
 Brandy . 
 
 . — 7° 
 
 ^ Tables III, IV, V, VI, 
 
 from Lardner^s Cyclopaedia, volume on Heat. 
 
Al’PENDIX (b.) 
 
 183 
 
 Table VII. 
 
 Linear Dilatation, 
 
 Of Solids hy Heat. 
 
 Dimensions at 212° of a bar whose length at 32° is 1-00.* 
 
 Vulgar Fractions. 
 
 Glass Tube 
 
 . 1-00082800 . 
 
 
 
 TlSs 
 
 Platina . 
 
 . 1-00088420 . 
 
 
 
 ri3T 
 
 Cast Iron 
 
 . 1-001111 
 
 
 
 
 Steel 
 
 . 1-00118980 . 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 Iron Wire 
 
 . 1-0014401 . 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 Iron (Dulong) 
 
 . 1-00118203 . 
 
 
 
 gk 
 
 Gold . 
 
 . 1-00146606 . 
 
 
 
 6S2 
 
 Copper . 
 
 . 1-00172244 . 
 
 
 
 5«T 
 
 Silver . 
 
 . 1-00190974 . 
 
 
 
 S2T 
 
 Tin . . . 
 
 . 1-00217298 . 
 
 
 
 452 
 
 Lead 
 
 . 1-00284836 . 
 
 
 
 35T 
 
 Zinc 
 
 , 1-00294200 . 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 Of Liquids by Heat. 
 
 From 32° to 212°. 
 
 Mercury 
 
 Alcohol (Dalton) . 
 Water „ 
 
 Water, saturated with 
 common salt 
 Fixed Oils 
 
 Oil of Turpentine . 
 Sulphuric Acid 
 Nitric Acid 
 Whale Oil 
 
 O'OISOO 
 0-1100 
 0*04444 ^ 
 
 0-0500 
 
 0-0800 
 
 0-0700 
 
 0-0600 
 
 0-1100 
 
 0-08548 
 
 Vulgar* Fractions, 
 ss 
 
 * From Ure’s Dictionary of Chemistry. 
 
184 
 
 APPENDIX (b.) 
 
 London . . 
 
 Edinburgh 
 Paris . . . 
 
 Madrid . . 
 
 Vienna . . . 
 
 Petersburgh . 
 St. Bernard . 
 Cape of Good ^ 
 Hope \ 
 
 Calcutta . . 
 
 Quito . . . 
 
 Pome . . . 
 
 North Cape . 
 Jakutyk onl 
 the Lena J 
 
 PLACES. 
 
 o to CO 
 
 to H- 't-^oto CO (C’OQOOQOCiH-i 
 
 O OOOO O OOOOOOO 
 
 'CO CO cidi— 'tooicico 
 
 " or OCJC0C^O*^O 
 
 ^ C/i ^ 
 
 Latitude. 
 
 1—^ 
 
 to toi— ‘OOOO ' COH-I 
 
 O CJitOCOOO 00 *<TOaiGOtO«<tO 
 o OOOO o OOOOOOO 
 
 H-* O^CO^iftO CO i-itoto^to^ 
 
 Longitude. 
 
 1 
 
 218-5 
 
 288*71 
 
 193-3 
 
 2175-19 
 
 518-81 
 
 8606-00 
 
 9560-34 
 
 173-88 
 
 383-857 
 
 Elevation in 
 feet above 
 Sea Level. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 5 & 6000 
 
 6 & 10,000 
 10,000 
 
 6 & 10,000 
 5000 
 
 6 & 10,000 
 10 & 14,000 
 
 17,000 
 
 16,000 
 
 . 
 
 1 & 5000 
 
 Snow Line. 
 Between 
 
 to 
 
 to 
 
 o 
 
 C3 
 
 o 
 
 4 
 
 Variation of 
 the Needle. 
 
 23 
 
 16 
 
 81 
 
 38 
 
 Inches of Rain 
 in the Year. 
 
 t— ' COCICSO *<r COCOCnCiCnCnCJi 
 o t^a5>^TCi ay nyoaywc^i-yc^ 
 i-j tocit-^i-j o bocb«<icowwai'‘ 
 QOC^CnOtO*<tCr«C;n cn 
 
 Year. 
 
 Cn tO<dCi*<t Oi 1— 1|— 'Coas^CObt^OS'' 
 
 oi h-oqscs or ny.cytooy'tooi-y 
 
 «^TtOCs*^T OO oL|.li,;Lc5a^hje4- 
 
 to cn ot ...T Cl O cn lO ' C* 
 
 Winter. 
 
 t—‘ too^ci«o tocciC'^asciHP^ci 
 
 cy cOCO^Tt^ CO -<fc^(yicoc^«oc^ 
 
 CO oo:icbto do cidbcsoi-^i-^co 
 
 COOOtOtOd totoci’^t -<1 
 
 Spring. S 
 
 P 
 
 •<t rfi^Qoaso 00 as.o^-<rQO’<ta5-<t 
 
 o C5toy»05 ay oico*<taytoayo 
 cic^h^i-^ C5 •'^ocsdi'^a^ai. 
 oo to too*<tc«to -<t 
 
 Summer. ^ 
 B 
 
 H-i COOi'<lO *<t COOi^CiCiCiC^C^ 
 
 yr to<ypH-o tococ^to^tooi 
 
 oocb-^ cf> oocidbooo 
 c» oo^tto C^ OtOtOtOtO^T 
 
 Autumn. ^ 
 
 «rt- 
 
 C 
 
 38-75 Jan. 
 38*5 Jan. 
 36-05 
 
 28*6 
 
 9*00 Jan. 
 11-00 Jan, 
 
 64*17 Aug. 
 
 73*4 Jan. 
 65*3 July 
 47-75 Jan. 
 20*75 Jan. 
 
 41-0 Feb. 
 
 1 
 
 d 
 
 Coldest 2, 
 
 Alonth. g. 
 
 CB 
 
 72 05 July 
 65-75 July 
 74*52 
 
 68-57 
 
 70*25 July 
 47*5 Aug. 
 
 86*9 Jan. 
 
 99-27 May 
 68-67 Mar. 
 86 00 July 
 50-2 July 
 
 77*75 July 
 
 Hottest 
 
 Month. 
 
 Table VIII. 
 
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