E
3\facfad Ernest Sa
Ttmversi
Chfiri
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
Ex Libris
SIR MICHAEL SA
ACQUIRED 194
WITH THE HELP OF ALUM
SCHOOL OF EDUCA
SUGGESTIVE HINTS
TOWARDS
IMPROVED SECULAR INSTRUCTION,
MAKING IT BEAR TTPON
PRACTICAL LIFE:
INTENDED FOR THE USE OF
SCHOOLMASTERS AND TEACHERS IN OUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS,
FOR THOSE ENGAGED IN THE PRIVATE INSTRUCTION OF
CHILDREN AT HOME, AND FOR OTHERS TAKING
AN INTEREST IN NATIONAL EDUCATION.
BY
EICHARD DAWES, A.M.,
DEAN OF HKBEFOBD.
"MEWS SIBI CONSCIA EECTi." Virg,
A GOOD INTENTION.
(Ebitiutt,
LONDON:
GEOOMBEIDGE AND SONS,
5, PATERNOSTER ROW.
LONDON:
IHOKAS HAKBILD,
FLEBT ST8CKI.
.uage
LS *"**
CONTENTS.
PAGT.
IJJTHODUCTION . xv
Introductory remarks 1.
Grammar . . *. 9
Poetry 16
Questions on materials of food, clothing, etc. . . 23
Exercises for children to write on their slates at
school, and on paper in the evening ... 28
Geography 30
Physical Geography . . . . 40
Natural History . 44
English History '. 46
Arithmetic 48
Algebraic formula 50, 57
Questions on the economic purposes of life . 52, 56
Solid measure ...... 59
Examples for practice . . , . . 64
Geometry 66
Diagrams 70, 71
Land measuring 73
Words ending in ometry and ology . . 74
Elementary drawing 75
Mechanics 80
Natural Philosophy 86
Experiments 88
Barometer ....... 90
Specific gravity . . . ' * 92
Table of the velocity and force of the wind . 93
Questions . . 94
Experiments . 98
Metals . .106
Experiments. . .. . . . . 115
Light 130
Astronomy . . . '. . ' . . . 138
Eclipses . 146
Chemistry .148
CONTENTS.
A knowledge of common things
Sources of domestic health and comfort
Knowledge of mechanic's and labourer's work
Explanation of natural phenomena
Geology
Statistics .........
Value of labour in manufactured products .
Conversational Lectures ......
A loaf of bread
The cottage fire
Singing .........
Observations on the duties cf a schoolmaster
Concluding remarks. State of the cottages of the
poor. Mr. Justice Coleridge's opinion. Ignorance
of the rural districts. On wages .
The Arithmetical Constants
TABLE.
1. Numerical Constants
2. Time of light travelling
3. Specific gravity .......
4. Barometrical height, and corresponding tempera-
ture at which water boils
5. Melting points of different substances .
6. Boiling points of different liquids ....
7. Freezing points of liquids
8. Linear dilatation .......
of solids by heat
of liquids by heat
9. Latitude and longitude, etc., of different places, and
mean temperature of the seasons
A list of some of the philosophical and other apparatus
used in the school
PREFACE.
THE. reader must not expect anything like perfection in the
following pages, or that the matter which they contain is
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 have saved him much trouble ; however, without
apologizing 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 unmixed, he is willing to hope, with
some wheat also, which may be 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 quite sure that he did
not prefer a speckled axe to a bright one ; so I feel myself
obliged to let ray axe go forth with many specks upon it ;
however, such as it is, take it, reader ! profit from, the bright
spots, if it has any, and be lenient to the specks.
KING'S SoMBORNa, April 18, 1847.
PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION.
A NEW Edition of this little work having been called for,
i avail myself of the opportunity of adding a few remarks
on subjects of interest, arising out of the altered and vary-
ing conditions of our educational wants, and which are
given in this prefatory chapter, as being the most conve-
nient form in which to give them.
The observations in former editions on the supply of
books to schools by the Committee of Council are omitted,
the conditions on which grants are now made rendering
them unnecessary, and a new book list, with the altered
conditions, has been lately issued ; also a revised list of
scientific apparatus for the use of elementary schools, with
b
IV PBEFACK.
a special report, by the Rev. F. Temple, Her Majesty's
Inspector of Training Schools.
The changes which have taken place in regulating the
admission of persons to the civil service of the crown, and
the adoption of an educational test for all the lower offices,
and of limited competition for some, might also seem to
render it unnecessary to continue the remarks on this
subject; but I have allowed them to remain, as they are
brief, and, in some measure, sho\v the progress of opinion
which has led to this important change.
A Board of Commissioners, under whom the necessary
examinations are conducted, has been in operation for some
time, and their report laid before Parliament last Session, .
ought to be in the hands of all schoolmasters and others in-
terested in the education of youth ; not from its pointing
out the way to Government situations, but from its showing
what are the useful and necessary educational requirements
for business life, whether in the civil service of the country
or in general commerce.
This Report, to which I have written a preface, has been
reprinted in a cheap form, by Messrs. Groombridge and Sons,
in order to facilitate its circulation as widely as possible. ' It
contains tabular statements of the requirements for the various
offices in the different departments of the public service
limits of age between which candidates are admissible, etc.,
with other information interesting to the public at large.
Educational tests, as passports to employment, are not
only necessary in the departments of the Civil Service of the
Crown, but there is also a growing feeling in favour of them
in mercantile life, when good writing, correct spelling, and
a good knowledge of arithmetic are important requisites.
As a proof of this, when the Society of Arts were
about to establish a system of examination of members of
Mechanics' Institutes in connection with them, giving
certificates of proficiency to deserving candidates after
examination, a declaration of confidence in such certifi-
cates and of attaching a value to them as n commendations
to employment, was signed by a large number of the leading
commercial firms and employers of labour in different parts
* " Manual of Educational Acquirements necessary for the Civil
Service," etc. Messrs. Groombridge and Sons. Price 8rf.
PKEFACE. T
of the countiy, and by many of our most eminent scientific
men ; thus giving a commercial value to education, as well
as a moral one, which when once generally recognized by
all classes of society will settle the education question.
The first examination took place last June, and the
results in every way justified the expectations of those who
established it. A similar examination is intended for this
year, both in London and at Huddersfield ; audit is much
to be regretted that the Council declined to comply with
the request of the Hants and Wilts Association to extend
the sume benefit to the South which they had offered to
the North, by holding an examination at one of the three
towns, Winchester, Southampton or Salisbury.*
As the ignorance which still prevails, bjth among clergy
and laity of the various ways in which assistance is given
by the Committee of Council in support of scho ,1s is still
great, notwithstanding the information contained in the
Blue Books, the following brief statement of the principal
of them may be useful to many into whose hands this book
may fall, although, to give this information does not always
encourage others in the way one expects it to do. I men-
tioned them to a wealthy farmer not long ago, and also a
large grant made towards building a school in a neighbour-
ing parish, thinking it would encourage him to promote one
in his own ; but instead of this, to my surprise, it had a
contrary effect, and he wondered " how Government could
venture to spend public money in that way."
The assistance from, the Committee of Council is not
only in building, which is given under certain conditions,
to the extent of one-half the cost of building schools and
teachers' houses ; but what is of still greater importance,
assistance in the following ways is given for making the
schools effective when bu. ; lt :
1. Augmentation of salaries to certified masters and
mistresses, varying in amount according to the class of
certificate, from 15 to 30 per annum for masters and
from 10 to 25 per annu 11 for mistresses.
* T.iesii examinations have now assumed a very important cha-
racter, and are held annually in the spring <>:' ihu year in n.ore lima
sixty different places in England. Any i,i formation relating to them
may be had by application to tae secretary of the Society of Arts
(1860).
VI PREFACE.
2. Stipends to public teachers, beginning with 10 for
the first year, and increasing 2 10s. each year to 20 in
the last, and at the end of their apprenticeship they have
an opportunity of going to a Training School as a Queen's
Scholar, for one or two years, free of expense or nearly so.
3. Gratuities to masters and mistresses for instructing
their pupil teachers during apprenticeship, 5 per annum
for the first, 4 for the second, and 3 for every additional
apprentice.
4. Capitation grants of 6s. per head in boys' schools,
and 5s. for girls, for all children who have attended 176
days in the year, and are paying at least one penny per week
to the school, and not more than 4d. per week : an annual
attendance of eighty-eight instead of 176 whole days in
school in the rural districts, will be accey.ted for boys over
ten years of age, provided a scheme shall have been ap-
proved, to provide for the alternation of lessons in school
with ordinary labour.
5. Assistance in the purchase of school books, and of all
useful educational apparatus, which are to be had at reduced
prices, and which may be applied for once a year ; and the
advantage of being made acquainted with what is best in this
way,* no small advantage, particularly in a rural district.
2. Annual inspection and published results of it, which
are necessary to any school system expecting to be efficient.
* A revised list of apparatus for scientific instruction, in a Special
Report, by the Rev. F. Temple, has just been issued by the Council
of Education, to which is added, in an appendix, a list of maps,
diagrams, models, etc., approved of by the Department of Science,
:md Art, with the prices. It gives all the information on this head
which, can possibly be wanted.
The Committee of Council will grant to schools, in which pupil-
teachers are apprenticed, pecuniary assistance to the extent of two-
thirds of the cost, and of suitable cabinets to instruct them. Ap-
paratus may be selected to the amount of 10, 15, or 20.
The master must be examined in order to give proof of his
qualification to use the apparatus selected lor any school.
The text-books of examination are named under each of the
divisions of the list, and the term of examination is the same as for
certificates or for registration.
In the case of masters already holding certificates of merit, spe-
cial examination is waived, if the selection be made from the revision
of mechanical and geometrical parts of the list, or from some of the
more elementary parts of the physical science list.
KtEFACE. Vll
These things may be known to certified teachers ; but it
is desirable they should be able to point them out in a brief
form to those among whom they live.
A very important change has lately been made by the
Committee of Council in the conditions of being eligible
to Queen's Scholarships in the Training Schools. Hitherto
it has been limited to those who had been pupil-teachers ;
but the examination is now thrown open to others ; young
persons of both sexes, who may be well qualified by ac-
quirements and disposition, are now eligible. To use the
words of Mr. Lingen's letter to Her Majesty's Inspector
of Schools :
" Their Lordships have thrown open the examination
for Queen's Scholarships to a new class of competitors,
and they anticipate that a considerable supply of candidates
may be found among young persons who are now assist*
ants in private schools among untrained schoolmasters
and schoolmistresses desirous of improving their attain-
ments among Sunday-school teachers and generally
among all those individuals with a natural aptitude for the
work of instruction, who become known, from time to time,
to the clergy and other promoters of education ; and who,
with a little preparatory assistance in their private studies,
may readily be made to reach the standard of examination.''
There is a prevailing opinion, that in the examination of
teachers for a certificate of merit, by the Committee of
Council, a knowledge of subjects far beyond those of an
elementary kind is expected ; and that, in consequence of
this, many deserving and well-qualified schoolmasters and
schoolmistresses will not venture into the examination.
Now, this impression about the difficulty of the exami-
nation, I believe to be quite an erroneous one, judging
from my own experience and knowledge of many school-
teachers who have had the courage to go up for cer-
tificates of merit, and have succeeded; and Mr. Lingen,
the secretary to the Committee of Council, writing in
<tns\ver to observations of this kind, has said " It may be
stated, that any one who is fit to continue to hold the
office of teacher, may, by a moderate degree of private
study, under the guidance of an educated person, pass the
needfnl examination, on which the high marks assigned to
Vlll PEE FACE.
real proficiency in the elementary subjects ensure success
to those candidates who have mastered them, although
such candidates may be less well prepared in some of the
other branches." And he further adds :
"By elementary subjects are understood
1. Religious knowledge.
2. Heading.
' 3. Writing.
: 4. Arithmetic.
5. Grammar and Composition.
' 6. The Theory and Practice of Managing Schools.
" In addition to which, a teacher, in order to be able to
conduct the instruction of pupil-teachers ought to have a
fair knowledge of English History and of Geography, and
(if a master) of Euclid.
" It is, however, to be repeated that, by the scale of
marks in use, a teacher Avho obtained the maximum in each
of the first six subjects, might receive a high certificate ; or
might, although the number of marks attained previously
were considerably lower, be registered, if qualified by age."
So that I think it rr.ay be fairly assumed, that any one
with a competent knowledge of what may be deemed abso-
lutely necessary subjects, and a fair teaching-power in
them, has a very reasonable chance of success in these
examinations. It may be observed, there are two classes
of registered teachers. A school having a teacher of the
first class is entitled to have both pupil-teachers and the
capitation grants the lower division, the capitation
grants only, and any one who does not possess the re-
quisite amount of knowledge for the last, can hardly be
looked upon a 1 ? qualified for the office of a teacher.
I hope this may be an encouragement to many deserv-
ing teachers, who, from diffidence, are prevented offering
themselves, and on this account lose the advantages of
being either certificated or registered teachers of schools
under the Committee of Council. Those who make ob-
jections to supposed difficulties, ought to recollect that
" little is gained for the advancement of education, until
good teachers are placed in our schools."
With a view to encourage people to remain at school
longer than they generally do at present, the Committee of
VKEFACE. IX
Council recommend that certificates of creditable attain-
ments and of good conduct should be granted by the
managers of schools to such as deserved them. ; and have
prepared forms, on a neatly-devised card, to be filled up
with the name and other particulars applying to the indi-
vidual case, signed by the managers and by the school-
master, and countersigned by the school inspector to be
given to children in schools under a registered or certificated
teacher ; but no certificate to be filled up for a child under
twelve years of age, and who has not been in the school
for 176 days (exclusive of Sundays), at the least, in each
of three consecutive years; the morning school and the
evening school are respectively understood to be each
half a day. It is also a condition, that irregularity
in attendance, want of cleanliness in person, or neat-
ness in dress, or any single act of gross disobedience or
immoral conduct, be considered as entirely disqualifying a
child for any claim to a school-certificate. The managers
to be answerable that the particulars stated in the certifi-
cate are correct.
With the same end in view, Mr. Norris, Her Ma-
jesty's Inspector of Schools, in Staffordshire, has re-
commended a scheme of registration of school children
above a certain age, and of good conduct. A register is to
be kept of the names of all children of whom the managers
can certify that they had attended school regularly for
two complete years subsequently to their ninth birth-day,
regular attendance being defined to mean, as above, 1 76
days in the year, exclusive of Sundays. The Honorary
Secretary to the Board of Education for the Archdeaconry
of Stafford, and the Clerk of the Peace, have undertaken,
to register such names in a book for that purpose.
To each child a neat card, properly filled up, is given ;
and which I have no doubt will, in many instances, be
much prized. Mr. Norris very properly urges upon em-
ployers of labour the duty of requiring all children seeking
employment (in manufactories, in mines, in shops, in farm-
work, in domestic service, etc.), to produce these tickets of
registration; and adds, "Whenever it were possible, it
would be desirable that employers of labour should sign an
agreement to this effect."
X I'KEFACE.
The keeping an accurate account of weekly payments
and of attendance, is a very important element in conduct-
ing a school, and is not sufficiently attended to by the
managers. I will add here a form for this which has fallen
under my observation, and is grounded on business princi-
ples well worthy of imitation in our schools,* and offers a
good lesson in book-keeping for those who master it. It is
a form adopted by a gentleman connected with commerce, in
a school which ho has established at a distance from the
place where he lives. He requires one of these weekly
forms to be duly filled up by the master, and sent to him
every week ; showing an amount of interest in the success
of schools in a district with which he is connected by pro-
perty, which one cannot but admire, and which many of
our country gentlemen would do well to imitate.
With reference to the subjects taught in our schools.
there is one of great importance, to which I wish to draw
the attention of schoolmasters, as I fear it is one of which
they have not much knowledge, and is but little attended
to in our Training Schools. I mean a knowledge of those
branches of political economy which bear more immediately
on industrial life, and on that kind of conductwhich is the
foundation of ' social well-being."
There are some elementary lessons bearing on this
lessons on money-matters in the Irish reading-books, and
published separately also, which are very good ; but I find
these even less attended to than lessons on other subjects :
and I may mention a small book, edited by myself, Lessons
on Industrial Life, which is more especially written and in-
tended for the use of teachers in our schools and for class-
teaching in Mechanics' Institutes.
My attention was more particularly called to this subject
and its importance, from visiting, some time ago, the Bilk-
beck Schools at Peckham, in Surrey, established by Mr. Ellis.
and witnessing there the knowledge which the upper boys
had of it. These and the object lessons given by the mas-
ter, Mr. Shiels, in these schools are models of instructive
teaching, and well worthy of imitation in other schools.
The master or teacher may not only by his lessons in
school, but also in his intercourse with the parents of the
* Form in the Appendix.
PREFACE. XI
children, among whom he lives, do much to promote their
social well-being, by conversing with them on such things
as the accumulation of small savings, the placing them
in the Savings' Bank and facilitating their doing so, the
respectability of character which generally attends it ; many
in our rural districts are hindered from doing so by sheer
ignorance of the way to set about it, and from not
having their attention called to it. Of this the following
is a very strong confirmation :
My friend, Mr. Herbert, our excellent County Court
Judge, living in the retired rural parish Goderich, with a
population of about 750, circulated ,a short address among
the labourers of his parish, in January, 1855, offering to
receive, on the first Saturday in every month, at eight
o'clock in the morning, such sums monthly (not exceeding
10s. each, but as low as 6d.) as any of the labourers in
the parish might choose to bring, and to repay them, at
the end of the year, with interest a very little over five
per cent. In addressing them, he says " Each depositor
will receive only his own money again, with interest at a
rate not very much exceeding the current rate. He
will, therefore, be under no obligation to me for any
pecuniary sacrifice on my part, beyond the loss arising from
that small excess of interest which I choose to incur for
the sake of simplicity in keeping the accounts. Some,
then, among you may ask, ' How shall we be benefited by
availing ourselves of this offer ?' The answer is obvious to
every thinking mind : You will be benefited in the only way
in which any real and permanent benefit can accrue to the
worldly condition of working-men, by learning to rely on
your own industry, the use of your own right arm, and the
exercise of your own skill, and by practising habits of pru-
dence, sobriety, and self-denial."
At the end of the year fifty-two persons had deposited
85 6*. 6d., which was repaid them with 2 6s. 6d. in-
terest. At five per cent., the amount of interest due on
the deposits would be 2 5s. 4d. ; the scheme, therefore,
had only cost Is. "2d. beyond the current rate of interest.
And he was able to say to them, " You may now consider
you have only received what is entirely your own. You
have now the advantage of a year's experience, to enable
Xll J'KEFACE.
you to decide whether it is worth while to continue your
subscription during next year. You know the amount of
self denial necessary to keep up the small monthly payment.
You enjoy to-day the benefit of having in hand a compara-
tively large sum, large enough either to place in the
Savings' Bank for future accumulation, or to lay out to
advantage in the purchase of warm clothing, or other
durable necessaries for your own families. Is the V'enefit,
then, worth the cost ?" They thought so, and continued ;
and the gentleman was so pleased with the result, that he
extended it to two small neighbouring parishes, at the re-
quest of some of them who wished to be depositors. In
this way, the Savings' Bank becomes a matter of daily con-
versation with them, and its benefits are extended.*
Another subject of importance is, Instruction in Ele-
mentary Drawing. In this, as a branch of instruction in
our popular schools, I had no experience until within the
last three years ; but it has been introduced in Hereford
during that time, where we have a master from the Board
of Science and Art, who gives instruction to evening classes
and attends on common day-schools once a-week, for which
he receives from each school 5 per annum, and a higher
sum for other schools which he attends.
The little instruction which the boys get in this is most
useful to all; they learn to draw a straight line, instead of a
crooked one to jucge of measures of length and of volume
with accuracy : the eye and the hand are in some degree
trained the hand can execute with tolerable accuracy what
the mind designs, and accuracy of mind leads to accuracy of
thought. All this, even in a small way, is most useful.
Since this drawing- school commenced it has been self-
supporting, which is partly owing to the facility of moving
about which railroads offer. This enables the master to
attend part of the week at Ludlow ; and, when there is this
facility of moving, the same master can attend two, or even
three small towns at no great distance from each other.
There can be no doubt, however, if instruction in this subject
* On this subject, a very admirable little book, called Good Times,
or the Savings' Bank and the Fireside, by Jlr. Sikes, of the Hudders-
field Banking Company, is well deserving of being widely circulated
among the Industrial Classes. Price 4d. Groonibridge and Sons.
PREFACE. XU1
is to be introduced generally in our schools, it must be by the
schoolmasters being taught the principles of it in our Train-
ing Schools, and which of late years has been done.
The success of the morning classes here has not been
what was expected, and the greater number of those in
the evening classes had learnt a little of drawing in the day-
school an evident proof that if elementary drawing
schools, either for evening or morning classes are to succeed
in our towns, it will be where this instruction has been
commenced in the primary school.
A subject of great national importance, and of more
than national importance if grounded on an international
basis, is the introduction of a decimal system of money,
weights, and measures'into this country ; and it is one on
which our schoolmasters ought not to be ignorant, as they
may do more to prepare the way for it, and also to promote
its success when introduced, by teaching well the arithmetic
of decimals in our popular schools, than any other class of
men among us.
It has of late attracted the attention of many of our
leading mercantile and scientific men, who have called the
attention of Government to it. Mr. Gladstone, when this
question was discussed in the House of Commons, speaking
of it, says, " I cannot doubt that a decimal system of
coinage would be of immense advantage in monetary
transactions : the weight of authority on that head is
altogether irresistible." And The Times, in an article, June
15th, 1855, on this, says: "The man who shall abolish the
distinction between simple and compound arithmetic, wall
be a benefactor to the present and all future generations,
so long as man shall continue a ciphering animal."
Space does not allow of any detail here, to show how
much, on any assumed basis, the arithmetic of cominerce
would be shortened and facilitated by a decimal system ;
but Professor De Morgan (and it would be difficult to find
better authority on such a subject) says, " It would \ educe
arithmetical teaching of accounts to one-fourth in point of
time, and to one-twentieth in point of complexity."
In confirmation of this, the following, from one of the
Liverpool Financial Reform Tracts, is very strong evi-
dence :
XIV PREFACE.
" Mr. Miller, one of the cashiers of the Bank of Eng-
land has shown that the process of ascertaining the duty
on three butts of currants, weighing 5 cwt. 1 qr. 16 Ibs., at
15$. per cwt., takes 172 figures, which have to be checked
by five or six hands ; and that, in decimals, it may be done
with 24 figures only. According to Mr. Hankey, of the
same establishment, the mere substitution of 100 Ibs. for
the cwt., and a decimal scale of weights, would save the
labour of 200 clerks in the Custom alone, and salaries to
the amount of at least 10,000 a-year."
If such, or anything like such advantages are to result
from a decimal system, its introduction can only be a ques-
tion of time ; that it would greatly simplify the arithmetic
to be taught in our schools, there can be no doubt, and
it comes peculiarly within the province of the schoolmaster
to facilitate it.
The following extract from the address of Sir John
Pakington to the members of the Manchester Athenaeum,
is a striking evidence of the extent to which the people of
this country are interested in having good and cheap schools
within their reach, and his remarks throughout are well
worthy of consideration : He says " I doubt whether it
is at all generally known how immense is the numerical
proportion of our countrymen who are interested in the
question of National Education. I doubt if it is known,
tt.at out of a population of 18,000,000, in England and
"Wales, there are only (according to the best sources of
information to which we have access) about 480,000, who
derive from any source, an income of 100 a-year, or
more : Take the number of 500,000, and allowing the
usual average of five persons to a family, there will then
remain 15,000,000 of men, women and children, who are
dependent upon incomes of less than 100 a-year : and
all present, I trust, will agree with me, that every man
whose income is less than 100 a-year, must look to a
cheap and good education for his children as amongst the
primary necessaries of life. It follows, therefore, that this
question is not limited to the poor man, or the labouring
man. There ought to be, in every town and village, schools
in which the children of the small tradesman and small
farmer, in common with the children of the labourer, might
PREPACK. XV
receive the blessings of elementary instruction. It is so in
other countries; why should it not be so in this?" *
It was intended to have added further remarks on the
subject of secondary education, and on the means of self-
improvement after leaving school, through the medium of
such Institutions as the Hants and Wilts Association, and
others of a similar kind now rising up in different parts of
the country, but having published them in a separate form,
the reader is referred to a little work " Effective Primary
Instruction," etc., etc. B. D.
Deanery, Hereford, Jan. 1857.
INTRODUCTION.
THE following, with some slight alterations and omissions,
formed the introduction to the earlier editions of this little
work.
Addison, in one of his numbers of the Spectator, tells us
that the common people of his day were very fond of a littie
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 un-
less 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 Teach-
ing," 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 use-
fulness 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 in-
dustrial 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
* Sir John Pakington's address, published by Hatchard, Piccadilly.
XVI INTBODUCTION.
ought to be the guide of every one who lays claim to the
character 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 have remained
longest at school have generally turned out the best, and have
given a proof, that the longer they remain the greater is the
security of tneir 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
tendency which such knowledge has, to make them alive to
the humanities of life, to fit them for their industrial occu-
pations, 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 suffi-
cient; and it should be the aim of the schoolmaster, as far as
he lias it in his power, to give the children a knowledge ot the
structure 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 or-
dinary book without difficulty, little use will, 1 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 to-
gether in a Saxon cement ; the fragments of the Latin being
partly portions introduced directly from the parent quarry,
with all the 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
himself, 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
INTBODITCTIOX. XV11
of the different words of a sentence how words of a Saxon or
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 a jout in different chan-
nels, have had " their rough and sharp edges" rubbed off
the fcrce and origin of the prefixes, etc.
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
teach tlie schoolmaster the subjects he ought to have a know-
ledge of; its object is rather to point out to teachers, both
in our elementary schools and in private families, common-
sense modes of applying their knowledge, and of bringing it
to bear upon their teaching ; but without particularizing the
leading features of it, it is an attempt to introduce into our
elementary schools more of science, and a know ledge of scien-
tific 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, \vho 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 admi-
nistering to the wants of social life, truths easily understood
when explained by experiments, and so important in them-
selves 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 hpw much the progress of
civilization, and of the great interests of mankind have been
advanced by it, which makes it the more strange that it
should have had so small a part in the education of youth.
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, diffi-
cult 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 has four equal sides, and (our 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, sim-
plicity, 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 na-
ture ;" an acquaintance with the common rnles of arith-
xviii IXTB'ODUCTIOX.
metic, and of the measures of quantity, wliicli 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 where the mind is concerned ; but why should not
the miner, whose life may hare been saved over and over again
by the safety lamp of Sir Humphry .Davy, know something
of the principle to which he owes his safety, and of the philo-
sophy of it many of the accidents which occur from mere
carelessness would be avoided by it ; or the plumber, whose
business it is to make a pump, be taught, however much the
sense of sight may mislead him, that air arid gaseous sub-
stances, which he cannot see, have weight ; and that these and
iluid substances press equallyin 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 labouring
classes have it shown to them during their education at school,
that the burning of charcoal, or of chalk and limestone into
lime, etc., gives rise to a kind efsubstance 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 application
of science to the occupations of the country in our own neigh-
bourhood, during the autumn of last year, a course of six
lectures on Chemistry and 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 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
neighbourhood, 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.
M^any of the gentlemen took a considerable interest in
them; and although the farmers, I have no doubt, felt they
* For these lectures I have to thank Mr. Edmonson, the head of
the Queenwood Agricultural College, and Mr. Frankland, the che-
mical lecturer there, by whom they were given ; both these gentle-
men entered into the subject from the same motives as myself, viz., a
wish to promote the education of the neighbourhood. [847-]
INTRODUCTION. Xix
could not carry away so muck 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 desirable
to effect. It is not to bs 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 them-
selves that such knowledge is good for their children, and in
this way an influence for good on the education of the rising
generation is likely to spring up.*
In the school-rooms here, these lectures were 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.
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, j^ow, many of these are carried away by their
prejudices against such instruction, without knowing or con-
sidering 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 in-
animate, 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 different productions of nature as
XX INTEODUCTION.
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
different 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 occupation, 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 ; and it is acknowledged that the better educated work-
men 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.
Of the necessity of an improvement in their social habits
among the labouring classeg of this country, whether mining,
agricultural, or manufacturing, no one can doubt. The
Report of the Rev. H. Moseley on the State of Education in
the Midland Districts for the year 1846, addressed to the
Council on Education, discloses many features in the charac-
ter of the mining population in and about Bilston, and which
belong to other mining districts, that one cannot read it with-
out 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, in 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, " whenever ignorance is associated
with 'high wages,' 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."*
Prom the Report which has lately been published on the
* The opportunity alluded to was a course of winter lectures, esta-
blished 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 Heports, is well deserving the attention of those more par-
ticularly who are engaged in education in populous districts.
INTRODUCTION. XXI
State of Education in Wales, there is one thing which appears
very remarkable, independent of the lamentable state of ig-
norance 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 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 nature of sin : this is no doubt a state of gross ignorance
greatly to be pitied, and which -nil! in the end be corrected by
the influence of a better educated class, which is rising up
among them ; but the singular and almost unaccountable part
of it is, that this apparent knowledge of Scripture should
have so little influence on their moral conduct ; that it should
never enter intp their minds, or, if it does, they do not re-
gard it, that Scripture truths are intended as rules of life ;
whether the sort of familiarity which they have with Scrip-
ture phrases, and the constant kabit of interweaving them
into their conversation, can have led to this I do not know,
but such is the fact.
ISTor is this even in England confined to the labouring class ;
there are many in the class above them 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 texts in Scripture to support his views, at the
same time knowing that the very principle upon which he
acts towards those whom he employs makes it almost im-
possible for them to do so, cannot be said to make the proper
application of his religious knowledge.
I observed another thing in the same Keport, 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 ft. Wales, the number of small farmers,
tradesmen, etc., would be particularly favourable 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 well
calculated for the state of society there, is endeavouring to
introduce it throughout the island ; and it appears from a
Keport lately .made by Mr. Moseley to the Council on Educa-
* Now Bishop of Bath and Wells. "
XXII INTBODTTCTION.
tion, that some plan of the kind had been thought of by the
good Bishop "Wilson, for whose memory the inhabitants retain
so lively an affection, that its renewal now will be received
with the greater interest. The general feeling in favour of
education,as shown by "the framework," as Mr. Moseleyterms
it, in their laws regarding schools, and in the feelings of all
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 Somborne School, 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 neighbouring 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, is an improvement
in the quality as well as in the quantity of instruction, and
the mere extension of the Sunday-school to week-day teach-
ing 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, numerously spread
about the country, and to which the bigger children in the
small parishes would resort. 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, individuals
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 im-
mense importance, whether it is the result of an individual
effort, or not. It is good, not only as regards the locality in
which the school is, but good as an example practically worked
out, and which has much more influence than a thing merely
INTBODUCTION. XX111
carried out on paper. Example is better than precept. Every
one who reflects will see, that perfect and general plans of
education must, like most things of human contrivance, rise
gradually, and cannot, 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 landlord
consider the interest he has in bringing a cheap education
within the reach of his tenants, and how much they would
rise in respectability as a class, by being better educated-
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 ; and if all would reflect in
this way, the progress of education and of sanitary measures
would meet with less difficulty than they have hitherto done,
and would very soon be felt 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
being 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 have a schoolmaster, he
has been appointed, not from any fitness for the office, but
because he had failed in everything else, or some labourer
able to read and write 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 worst 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 get the best schoolmaster they can the best qualified in
every respect, 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 : oj\-ing to a deficiency of these, and to a want of
a fitting apparatus, etc., 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 school-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
XXIV INTKODUCTION.
many which are good, published by them all ; and I have
introduced 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 read-
ing, and add to their stock of knowledge.
I am aware that prejudices have hitherto existed, more
particularly in my own profession, with regard to the books
published 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 ele-
mentary schools, they are very good not only good in sub-
stance 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 Nos. 2 and 4 ; the price of the former is 9d., 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
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," etc. 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,
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 education. Although it may not be the best
according to their own ideas, yet it certainly unites in its
favour a great part of the common-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.
* They have, since this was written, been reduced in price.
INTBODTJCTION. XXV
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 characterized
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 qualifications for
pupil-teachers are too high.* With respect to the acquire-
ments of pupil-teachers, I feel persuaded, if the general
standard were below what is fixed upon, and what in practice
the inspectors seem to require, we should soon find a nume-
rous 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 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 defective, inasmuch as it does not make sufficient inquiry
into the state and efficiency of the school of which the can-
didate 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, etc. will, as the
examination is conducted, do much better than many of the
really good, practical teachers, and whose usefulness as teach-
ers has been proved by the state and efficiency of 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 se useful when tried in the school. I think, un-
less 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 pro-
mise of good, will 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 connection between them.
* These regulations, as regards piipil-teachers, arc by experience
found to work extremely well, and have been in operation ten
years.
XXVI INTEODUCTION.
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 their patient training and
happy influences are invaluable.) Faithful teachers, of steady,
hard-working, painstaking habits, with a tolerably good
English education, well informed in common every-day mat-
ters, 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." JS"ow, 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.
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 the employed, in the
end be the cheapest schoolmasters ; inasmuch as 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 school-
master.
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 know-
ledge 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 wants of life.
The kind of knowledge which appears to be most useful
in our schoolmasters, is sufficiently 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
INTRODUCTION. XXV11
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 : tmt when
once they can draw their supplies from the hest pupil-
teachers in our elementary schools, a very different state of
things will commence ; they will then he 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 admis-
sion, than many of those who had been trained there, had
after a residence of two or three years in the institution ;
and instead of three years, it will be quite unnecessary that
any of them should remain so long. Until lately I was of
opinion that the Training Institutions were slow in making
their usefulness 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 con-
fident, 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 attach-
ing 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 efficient 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 at p. 40 a few short extracts from an
interesting " Educational Tour in Prussia and Holland," by
an American, Mr. Mann, Secretary to the Board of Education
at Boston ; they relate chiefly to the importance of the school-
master 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 in which, by means of the black-board it will give life to
his teaching, make it a thing of great importance, and one
which every schoolmaster, having the slightest taste for it,
ought to cultivate.
The same writer, who clearly does not admire the ordinary
way of teaching the alphabet, gives the following anecdote,
taken from an American prize essay on Education :
" A Mr. Ottiwell Wood, at a late trial in Lancashire, Eng-
land, giving his name to the court, the judge said, ' Pray,
Mr. Wood, how do you spell your name ?' To which the
* This is now found to be the case.
XXV111 INTRODUCTION.
witness replied : ' O double T, I double U, E double L, double
U, double O, D.' The learned judge at first laid down his
pen in astonishment ; and then, after making two or three
unsuccessful attempts, declared he was unable to record it."
That schools should be able to get the best elementary
books at a cheap price, is a thing of the utmost importance.
The regulations under which books are now supplied by the
Committee of Council have been very much improved; anew
and extended book-list has lately been issued.
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 pauperizing
as possible. The exclusively eleemosynary" character which
many attempt to give to the education of the labouring
classes, is to be regretted. One cannot but admire the con-
duct of those who are at great expense in doing this entirely
gratis in their own localities ; still I conceive much greater
good would result by establishing moderate payments even
in such cases, and any saving from this might be given to
school-building where 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 the 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 effect on the education of the labouring and
middle classes.
Ifeel persuadedthat a child educatedfrom 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.
]N"o one, unless he has had experience of children in the
matter of education in schools of this kind, can form an idea
INTRODUCTION. XXIX
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 purchasing their
school-books ; a thing which, when once established and the
instruction good, there is no difficulty whatever in main-
taining.
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, and to an
extent limited only by their wants, and allowing them to
apply at reasonable intervals.* The dividing the list into
two parts might be worthy of consideration : one of school-
books used in the school, for 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 educa-
tional 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
fettered, may probably in some measure arise from the book-
sellers and publishers being averse to this mode of supplying
our elementary schools, and, of course, it is not to be ex-
pected that they can sell books at a price which is not re-
munerating ; 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 su pplied 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.
* This has been done.
XXX INTEODUCTION.
The supplying our schools with educational books of the
highest character, and at the lowest prices, is no doubt a
great 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 be best effected by the
Council endeavouring to put into effective operation the
talent of the- country, in writing books in all those depart-
ments of knowledge which it is desirable to introduce into
our schools, and be their own 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 encourag-
ing to the former plan, and the increasing demand for books
once well-established, would enable the booksellers 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 it ; 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
Earr 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, than any other conceivable application of
the same amount of money.
The mode inwhichbenevolent 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 poor shall be sent
free ; but, however well endowments may have operated in
Scotland (and in many instances, also, in the north of Eng-
land), where a strong feeling in favour of education pervades
all classes of society, and where they mix and blend harmo-
niously together at school, yet in this country, where such
endowments exist, they have become, in nine cases out of ten,
a positive hindrance, rather than a benefit, to the object they
were intended to promote.
In some counties in Scotland, such bequests have been so
INTBODUCTIOJf. XXXI
large, that the salary of the master has been very considerably
increased in almost every parochial school in the country, and
this chiefly from 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 humanizing
effects of education upon their children, to see that bequests
so left, would be properly administered.*
Mr. Moseley, in his Report 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 gene-
ral " the consideration of means for providing for support 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 conducted under
the auspices of the Council on Education, would be an inesti-
mable 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 infirmity,
he is unfit for the duties of it ; aud school-managers will find
some plan of this kind the only security against incompetent
teachers, who have become so from age or sickness, 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
to secure a provision, for instance, of from 20 to 30 per
annum, to commence at the age of fifty-five or sixty ; 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. 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
* The Dick Bequest for the counties of Aberdeen, Banff and
Moray, a Report of which, of twenty-one years' experience of it,
has heen published, appears to me a more useful educational charity
than any I have read of; and affords a good example on which to
remodel many of our useless ones in this country.
XXXU INTEODTTCTIOK.
them in their employment : and in many ways, the plan
seems to be so important to the cause of education, and so
necessary to its ultimate success, as to make it well deserving
the consideration of those who have the power to carry it out.
The public have so great an interest in it, that the Committee
of Council may reasonably be expected to give some assist-
ance towards doing so ; and when grounded on the principle
of every man being his own insurer, no Chancellor of the
Exchequer 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.*
In a letter published some years ago. as an appendix to
Mr. (now Archdeacon) Allen's Eeport, I alluded to Lord
Ho wick, 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 for-
gotten 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 as 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 be held out, and an educational test be
established throughout what is termed " the lower ranks of
the public service," and any system be adopted of selecting
* The fact of its being alluded to by Moseley, in his Eeport, 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. Watkins's inspection alone a strong proof of
the importance which the masters themselves attach to such a plan.
INTBODUCTION. XXXlll
from the schools in which this class of society are educated
those best fitted by education and character for such situa-
tions, many boys would be found to remain longer at school
than at present, and to be well qualified for them. Many
belonging to this class, who now find their way into the very
situations in question on easier terms, would remain longer
at school ; and thus a wholesale channel for supplying this
part of the public service would be opened out. There is a
class in our rural districts, just above the labourer, who would
find great encouragement in it ; but who from being, as it
were, above daily labour, and finding 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 Beve-
nue Board, who is in no way connected with this part of the
country, and to whom 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, 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.f
The minister who would endeavour to introduce an educa-
tional test in all cases of this kind, and do his utmost to
* Written in 1849.
j- A system of examination is now adopted in all branches of
the Civil Service, in some of which a limited competition is in-
troduced ; but in the greater number the test is only a qualificational
one.
XXXIV INTBOD0CTION.
carry it out, would deserve well of his country ; lie 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 them remain so, is by making them places of educa-
tion, 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 ex-
perience 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.
So far from establishing mixed schoolsbeing a boon to 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,
etc., 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.
The reception which former editions of this little work
have met with, leads me to think they have been found useful
for the purposes for which they were intended ; and I hope
the present one, with the additions which have been made,
will not 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 condi-
tion 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, by its being brought
E ractically home to them ; it is only in this way that the
ibouring classes can be made what they ought to be, and
what we ought to endeavour to make them.
SUGGESTIVE HINTS,
ETC.
HAVING taken a considerable interest for some years in
the daily teaching of ray 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 experienced among them, and perhaps
not altogether useless to those whose qualification 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 take a lively interest in it himself,
he will find no difficulty in doing, even when teaching what
is looked upon as the mechanical part of reading ; particu-
larly if he know how to mix with it oral instruction of
a conversational kind, and has any judgment in selecting
subjects to talk to them about, such as the domestic
animals, birds, etc., and other things with which they are
brought in contact in their earliest years the cat and dog,
how they differ in their habits, manner of living, and how
useful to man, the one attaching itself to places, the other
to persons ; 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, from
the countenances of the children, whether he was inte-
resting them or not, and would go on, or leave off, accord-
ingly.
And again, if a cow or horse is mentioned drawing
them into a description, leading them to contrast them,
a child will perhaps say : A cow is a four-footed animal.
2 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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,
and will lead them on into things in which the cow and
horse really do differ such as the hoof; the ow 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 ani-
mals do ? sheep, deer, etc. "What difference in their
teeth ; has a cow front teeth in the upper jaw ? a sheep ?
a horse ? etc. What do you call a number of cows toge-
ther ? what of sheep ? of deer ? of swine ? of bees ?
"What are the habits of animals going many together ? men-
tion 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, etc. ? bleats, bellows, neighs, 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 question,
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
connection with my giving to a class of boys a lesson of
the following kind, which was suggested by some obser-
vations in a book on Natural History, by the Rev. L.
Jenyns, on the difference 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, etc.? Some will answer rightly, some wrongly; 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-
SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 3
chewing animals and that if it is trtje that in one, two,
' three, lour, etc., 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 do the horse, the pig, the dog, etc.,
rise ? hind- feet or fore-feet first ? do they ruminate ? have
they front teeth in the upper jaw? The teacher would
point out how they differ from the ox, the sheep, etc.
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
taiight, and commencing 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 on 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 num-
bers 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 conversa-
tion arising as to whether a sheep or a cow had a double
row of teeth in front, similar to the horse, 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
4 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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
occasionally to call their attention to the number of letters
in a word pointing out which are vowels, and which are
consonants ; for instance in 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 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 ques-
tion 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 beginning, a consonant ; and then ask them to quote
all the words they know beginning y 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 a 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 very soon will gather that when the page is de-
noted 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 ail even numbers are divisible by two
Avithout 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 common sense of a teacher
might be called forth.
SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 5
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 direction at noon ? in the evening? In what direc-
tion 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 lengthening or shortening ? Will to-morrow be
longer or shorter than to-day ? In what direction is such
and such a parish or striking object ? How the parish in
which they live is bounded on the different sides, etc. In
this way children may be made to get correct ideas as to
east, west, north, and south, and the intermediate points.
The teacher should also occasionally call one of them
forward, and, putting a piece of chalk into his hand, tell
him to draw a line on the floor running north and south.
"What is 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, etc. 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 vaiy 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 increasing : he then returns
6 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 sunset what it would be if the sun were over their
heads, etc.
The following verse, from one of the Lessons, will illus-
trate this :
Trudging as the ploughmen go
(To the smoking hamlet bound) ;
Giant-like the shadows grow,
Lengthen' d o'er the level ground.
Questions like the following are also instructive : If the
sun rise at five o'clock, half-past four, three, etc., in the
morning, at what time will he set ? getting them o under-
stand 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 endea-
vour to give them correct ideas of the measure 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, etc., are also measures
of time, but of less duration than the year ; of course they
SUGGESTIVE HINTS. 7
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 pur-
poses 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 dimen-
sions in their cottages, but of a size which came within the
compass of their paper on which they placed them, and
they ran 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 i^thof the whole;
and when it had gone twice round, the hour-hand had
arrived at two o'clock, or Aths ; when three times, at three
o'clock, or Aths, and so on; and when the minute-hand
had gone twelve times round, the hour-hand would have
moved over twelve of these divisions, or Jlths : in this
way they by 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, etc.,
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 ; that the yard
is the. measure by which we buy calico, flannel, fustian,
cloth, cordage, etc., all things for the purpose of clothing :
8 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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, etc., 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 ueed,
from a ton downwards, or from an ounce upwards, speak-
ing 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 put-
ting them into the form of some regular solid, and then
taking its dimensions, etc. A friend of the author's, speak-
ing Avith a large farmer in the neighbourhood on the
importance of giving the agricultural labourer a better edu-
cation, observed that he thought it very probable there was
not one of the farmer's 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 educa-
tion, and thought none of his labourers so ignorant as this ;
but agreed to ask them the question on Saturday night,
when he paid their wages, and, to his own great astonish-
ment, there was not one who could answer it.
When a class is able to read without spelling, the teacher
should endeavour to interest them in what they are read-
ing, by showing them specimens of anything which may
be mentioned; 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 themselves, or of their parents ;
connected with the mechanic trades, or with farming occu-
pations ; in short, calling their minds into exercise in every
way he may have it in his power to do so.
GRAMMAR.
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 behind ? 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, etc., 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, etc.
Also in the same way the manufactured articles of ordi-
nary clothing, how made, and whether the raw material is
animal or vegetable leather, how prepared, etc. ; their
stockings, knit or woven ; carding, spinning, knitting.
GRAMMAR.
Grammar is taught here almost entirely through the
reading lessons, and in this way, far from being the dry
subject many have supposed it to be, it becomes one in
which children take great interest. Any attempt by giving
them dry definitions of parts of speech and rules of gram-
mar 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 ; a deer and the deer : whether they would
say a house or an house ; a hare or an hare ; an heir, an
hour ; drawing attention to exceptions as they occur.
The next and easiest thing would be the nouns, point-
ing out all the things which they see around them ; such
as book, table, map, etc. : and thus they immediately know
that the names of all visible substances are called nouns.
10 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
This being once fixed, they are soon led to the idea, that
the name 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 s ; house,
houses ; map, maps, etc. ; 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 as, as church,
churches ; arch, arches ; match, matches ; while in ch hard
they follow the general rule, as monarch, monarchs, etc. ;
in sh, as dish, dishes ; fish, fishes, etc., adding es ; 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 follow the general rule.
The difficulty of pronouncing s at the end of nouns ending
in ch, sh, and #, show the reason for adding *es.
I would strongly recommend to all our school teachers a
small book by Professor Sullivan, called "The Spelling
Book Superseded," on this subject, as well as his other
books, "Geography Generalized," his "Geography and
History," and his "English Grammar," published by
Marcus and John Sullivan, School and Educational Pub-
lishers, Dublin, and by Messrs. Longman, in London.
They are all excellent in their way, and have done good
service here.*
The teacher would do well to exercise the children in
forming the plural of any particular class of nouns as they
occur ; for instance, nouns ending in f, as leaf ; spell it in
the plural, leaves ; potato, potatoes ; negro, negroes ; echo,
echoes ; and make them quote all the nouns ending in /
and in o they could possibly 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 (Hamp-
* The circulation of these excellent books of Professor Sullivan
is become enormous, and now exceeds 130,000 copies a year.
GRAMMAR. 1 1
shire) ; everything alive or dead, male or female, coming
under the denomination he, never by any chance changed
into him.
They would now he able when sitting down, and with-
out 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 of 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, etc. ; by the blacksmith ; of all the imple-
ments used in agriculture, or in their trades and occupa-
tions.
What are the names of all the tools made of iron used
in the village ?
The names of all the trees of the vegetable and animal
products of the parish of such vegetables as are food for
man, for beasts, etc. of all articles of home consumption,
etc. of the materials of which the houses are built, etc.
Describe a dog, cat, barn-door fowl : write the names
of all the singing birds of the birds of prey, etc : 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, etc. 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, etc., old it was; so as to give its age in all
the different measures of time.*
Being now able to point out the nouns, etc., they should
advance to such words as qualify them adjectives.
The teacher holding up an apple, for instance, will ask,
* I have been sometimes much amused in asking children their
ages, when more than one happens to answer the same number of
years, 8, 9, or 10, in getting them to reason out among themselves
the exact ages of each a thing to them by no means easy, but
which may be made a very instructive lesson to the class.
12 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
Do all apples taste alike? No, sir; some are sour and
some are sweet, bitter, etc. Do apples differ in any other
way ? Some are large and some are small this is differ-
ing 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 ai-e 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, etc.
Then to get the degrees of comparison : The teacher
will observe the different sizes of the children, taking two
of them out and making them stand side by side. "When
I say that this boy is taller than the one next to him, what
am I comparing ? The height of the two boys. This boy
has got darker hair than the one next to him the colour of
their hair : you have got cleaner hands than the boy next
to you the cleanness 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 I compare ? His or her
height with the height of all the rest; his or her reading,
etc. In this way, they will very soon understand what is
meant by degrees of comparison, and should be told how
to form them : tall, taller, tallest ; great, greater, greatest,
etc. ; taking about half-a-dozen adjectives at a time, the
children repeating them, and occasionally being set to write
them on their slates, lleasoning 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 thein 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, 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
OBAMMAR. 13
them that this is the case with all words of one syllable
ending in a consonant, 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, etc. ;
for instance, when /, or lie, or she occurs, to ask them what
they make in the objective casesj what in the. possessive.
If him, or them, or her occurs, what is the form of the nomi-
native ; 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 what is meant by he, unless the noun to which
it refers has been used before.
"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 occasion-
ally 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
participle if they speak of a thing while it is being done
the past form of the verb or the auxiliary verb and past
participle when the action is past : the teacher would write
an example on the black board, such as
I work, We wort,
Thou workest, Ye or you work,
He works, They work :
present participle, working; past, wrought.
I write, etc. 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 sentences 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, etc. It is interesting to observe how much the
14 SUGGESTIVE HINTS,
school is altering expressions of this kind here : the school-
children of any age will all say, my father or mother 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 gives them a great interest in
what they are learning. *
In the same way their attention must he 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, etc. ; then tea, coifee, sugar, wheat, oats,
things connected with their daily occupations ; the qualities
of which being known to them they are more easily got
into the way of knowing what an adjective is. Again, for
verlt, select such words as express some action they are in
the hahit of doing to walk, to ride, to plough, to harrow ;
then point out the difference to them, or ask them to ex-
plain the difference between a plough and to plough a
harrow and to harrow a walk and to walk a ride and to
ride ; and that the noun which is in the nominative 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 at-
tended to in the personal pronouns, etc. To notice such
expressions as I saw he, I saw she, which they would in-
variably 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 pro-
nouns properly by making little sentences of their own
to illustrate them how verbs are made into nouns by
adding er, as do, doer ; walk, walker ; talk, talker ; plough,
GRAMMAR. 1 5
plougher, etc.' nouns into adjectives by adding al, as
national, etc.
Compound words may be made very instructive and very
amusing to them : bird-cage, pen-knife, etc. 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 im-
mediately see that their definition comes short of what was
wanted; then show them that a "word made up of two o\
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 oak, 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 explain-
ing for what the table is used.
Tell them to bring, to-morrow morning, neatly written,
six compound nouns, names of things about your houses.
They will probably bring such as fire-side, bed-post, house-
door, tea-pot, sugar-basin, milk-pail. In the morning the
class to be arranged 'according to their merits, the teacher
to interest them by showing how the meaning of the com-
pound 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 over-rated; it leads to a fire- side conversa-
tion 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 pub-
lished by the Irish National Board, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
and those of Professor Sullivan in connection with it : a
list of them is given at the end.
16 SUGGESTIVE HIXTS.
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 conceive that small things keep heat a shorter time
than those that are large. The eggs of small birds," etc.
Point out the vowels in the first line the consonants in
the word build what is ui? a diphthong, and build pro-
nounced 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 sin-
gular number, the sentence would be : We cannot but admire
the way in which a little bird builds its nest and tales care of its
offspring. Then the class will sit down and occupy them-
selves in writing on their slates all the nouns in the lesson.
The pieces of poetry they learn by heart, having first
made each piece the object of one or two reading lessons ;
they then write down from memory, either on their slates
or as an exercise on paper, about one half of the short pieces
at a time ; at first they will run all the lines together, per-
haps, as in prose, or begin the lines with small letters,
write i for the pronoun I, 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) :
OX HUMAN lEAlLXY.
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.
GBAMMAK. 17
Weak and irresolute ; what parts of speech ? Adjectives.
What word .do they qualify ? Man. What does the prefix
ir mean ? Not. Can you quote any other words with the
same prefix meaning not? Irregular, irreparable, etc. Is;
-.vhat part of speech ? An auxiliary verb. In what way
does it differ from have, as to the case which comes after
it ? It always takes the nominative case both before and
after it; it was I, it was 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, etc. 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 icarp of
life ? Yes, Sir. Quote it.
Tims 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, means what? With trouble. His plan ; his, what
part of speech ? A possessive pronoun, referring to man ;
possessive case of lie; 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 con-
veyed 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 cor-
rectly, the sense conveyed to their minds of a sentence in
prose or verse.
In teaching a lesson, such as the following two verses
from Lesion Book, No. 3 ;
o
18 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
Thus far, on life's 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,
la 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 prose order, tiie 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 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 Avhat ?
save ; and the noun ? safety. What does the fourth line
mean ? does it mean that waters are suspended over our
heads? And then read to them the plain meaning of the
lines in something like the following words :
The Lord hath led our steps, thus far, on the trouble-
some path of life ; protecting us from the pursuing wrath
of the world uninjured, notwithstanding dangers have sur-
rounded 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 Egyp-
tians 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 1 3th chapter of Exodus
" And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of
GRAMMA.B POETKY. 19
a cloud, to load them the way; and. by night i:i 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
tire 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
Avhich 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
mention any others of a similar kind which they can call
to mind ; for instance
Words with a prefix or affix, such as ungodly, unholy,
inhospitable, incorrigible, irregular, occur; they should
then be told to quote all the words they know with un, in,
and ir, as prefixes 'meaning not when in is changed into
im, as in the words improper, imperfect, etc., and why ; or
such words as leaflet, etc., with an affix ; ask if they know
any others streamlet, ringlet, etc. A noun ending in
ist, as chemist; quote any others, as botanist, druggist,
mechanist, copyist, etc. ; or an adjective in al, ive,
etc., such as national, local, vocal, destructive quote
others ; extensive, positive, etc., and the nouns made from
them.
I merely mqntion a few cases that occur to me at the
moment of writing ; but these 'are quite sufficient to show
what is meant.
After having heard the lesson, the monitor or teacher
should tell them to sit down and write on their slates a
certain number (or as many as they know) of words, nouns,
adjectives, etc., 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 occxirs which has a common root with
many others, the teacher ought to ask what others we have
from the same root ; for instance, the word extent occurs as
a noun ; what is the word we use as a verb ? extend ; ex-
tending, present participle ; past participle, extended : as
20 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
au adjective? extensive; adverb ? extensively ; also exten-
sion and ejttensiveness 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, etc. :
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 dif-
ferent 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 parti-
cular passage?, 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, etc. ; such as Scott's
Caledonia ! stern and -wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child ;
Lriiul of brown heath and shaggy wood
Land of the mountain and the flood.
Or
Dear to my spirit, Scotland, thou hast heen
Since infant years, in all thy glens of green :
* # *
Land of wild heauty and romantic shapes,
Of shelter' d valleys and of stormy capes.
T. GHAT.
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 he found,
Shall be constrairied to love thee. Though thy clime
Be tickle, and thy year most part deform'd
With dripping rains, or wither'd by a frost,
I would not yet exchange thy sullen' skies
And fields without a flower for warmer Franca
With all her vines : nor for Ausonia's groves
Of golden fruitage and her myrtle bowers.
.UMMAR POETRY. _ 21
And most of the upper children here can repeat the poetry oi'
their Beading 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 Beading 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. He-
mans, 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 ad- .
vanced 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 no-
thing else could have done, and shed a softening influence
over their minds which will last through life.
The folio wing may be taken as a specimen how children
may be amused into instruction if the teacher is well up to
his work (Lesson Book, 3\o. 3, page 204.) :
O'er the hcatli the heifer strays
Free (the furrow'd task is done) ;
Now the village windows blaze,
Burnish'd by the setting snn.
Now he hides behind a hill,
Sinking from a golden sky ;
Can the pencil's mimic skill
Copy the refulgent dye ? ,
Trudging as the ploughmen go
(To the smoky hamlet bound) ;
Giant-like their shadows grow r
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 direc-
tion do you observe your shadows ? before you or behind
22 SUGGESTIVE HINXS.
you ? Before us. Did you ever observe them as you came
to school in the morning ? In what direction are you walk-
ing 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. Docs it lengthen or shorten as
you are going home ? Lengthen, because the sun is get-
ting 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. Is this the case to an inhabitant on the tropics ?
Kow can you .explain, " Giant-like their shadows grow,"
etc. ? 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 ploughman goes,
Giant-like Ms 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
(the window is in the west-end of the school-room). Does
the sun shine upon it when it sets ? Did you ever observe
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 atten-
tion 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 might also be given !
passages of this kind occurring, which may be so strik-
ingly illustrated by things around them, a good teacher
never would let slip; they give Mm an opportunity of
QUESTIONS. . 23
making strong and lasting impressions on the mind, and
add an interest to his teaching which almost commands
success.
The teacher should call attention to the adverbs of time
and place, in such expressions as when and wht:re, then and
there, etc. ; 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
Ho writes well an adverb qualifying a verb,
x He writes very well the adverb very qualifying another
adverb.
That was extremely wrong an adverb qualifying an
adjective.
The following hints of a suggestive kind may be useful
when a lesson happens to be on the material of clothing,
of food, etc.
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 mate-
rial un worked up, just as it comes from the plant. From
what country do we chiefly get it ? America. It is then
called an export or import from that country ? Ex means
from, and im 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 principal manufac-
24 SrGGESTIVE HINTS.
taring towns for cotton ? Point them out on tlie map. Do
you think "William the Conqueror used to wear shirts made
of cotton from America ? leading them to recollect that
America was not known at that time : then to show them
a piece of calico, to point out the different 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 those 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 manufac-
turing it how in the transport of the material con-
sequent cheapness the numbers to which it gives
employment, etc.
, Flax showing them the plant : of course they see it is
vegetable ; but in this case it is the stalk, the fibre which
runs the long way, that we use laying a few fibres toge-
ther lengthwise 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 favourable to it its uses when manufactured,
for shirting, tablecloths, smock-frocks, etc.*
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, etc.
Silk, animal or vegetable- on what particular leaf the
worm feeds, and the countries we get it from, and the kind
of manufactures. The uses of different dyes, animal, vege-
table; and mineral.
Wool, leather their shoes, etc. ; animal products to
explain 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.
* A sort of museum of the raw and manufactured products of
theseand a uch like, should be in every school.
QtTESTIOXS. 25
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, etc.
Tea, sugar, coffee the countries they come from, what
particular parts of the plant, and how prepared for the
market ; 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 Prance 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
earned on.
In the same way the things they are in the habit of
using which are home-made, cutlery, knives, scissors, etc. ;
pottery, soap, etc. 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 without 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, etc.
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 concerned ; for it is only by means
26 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 know-
ledge possessed by the community, instead of growing,
generally diminishes with time. If we except the abso-
lutely necessary arts of life, which are in daily use, and
cannot be forgotten, 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 dis-
covered the country in 1642, as they were when Cook
visited it, 127 years after."
Then again, soap made of animal fat, vegetable oils
its importance to our personal comfort and cleanliness in
washing 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 hew
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 clean-
liness of person and dress in the children of a school is a
thing of some difficulty, and requires attention. Opportu-
nities 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 elementary 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 oui' Lesson Books. I give it here, as, I think it may
siiggest many useful hints to the village schoolmaster :
" In our cities now, and even in an ordinary dwelling-
QUESTIONS. 27
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 how the
corn falls into his manger ? A general diffusion of know-
ledge is changing the condition of man, and elevating the
human character in all ranks of society. Our remote fore-
fathers 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 suc-
ceeding 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 com-
forts which even a king could not command some centuries
ago. Ships are crossing the seas in every direction to
bring what is useful to me from all parts of the world.
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 silk- worms 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 protecting 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,
28 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 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
declaim 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 the Soinborne 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 descrip-
tions 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 will ask for pet animals of
their 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, etc.
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, etc. ; about the cuckoo, etc.
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.
QUESTIONS. 29
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, etc.
Describe a waggon and its uses a plough harrow
an axe, a saw, etc.
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 in-
crease our comforts, civilize us, etc. 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, etc.
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 which does not? point
out any of them that 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 ?
John of Gaunt used to live where this school stands.
Do you think he had tea and coffee with sugar for break-
fast ? 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, harrow-
ing, and what the ground undergoes in preparing for a
crop of wheat, of turnips, of barley, etc.
The different ways in which milk of the cow is pre-
sented to us for food.
The oak and the elm, their properties as timber, and how
30 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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, hark, hardness of wood, etc.
Describe wheat from its being sown until it is bread
how the grain sprouts, making one shoot dowmvards, Avhieh
is the root; another upwards, which is white until it reaches
the surface 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 ? point-
ing 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 well fixed on their minds the cardinal points,
and having made them, acquainted with the different bear-
ings of particular objects of a local kind of the towns and
villages in the neighbourhood how the parish is bounded,
etc., 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
convenient, 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 toAvards form-
ing correct ideas ; and as they generally become familiar
with the map of England before any other, it is well to
draw their attention at first to those counties on the extreme
east or west, extreme north or south, showing them how
they lie between particular meridians, or between particular
parallels of latitude, to show them between what extremes
of latitude and longitude the whole country is, of which the
map is a representation ; in this way, 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
GEOGRAPHY. 31
wanted. They should then, for instance, pay attention to
all the countries on the coasts, noting the river mouths,
etc. ; 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.
Jtlvery 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 will 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 3 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 difference of counties in physical
character, in mineral wealth whether agricultural or
manufacturing why the seats of our manufacturing in-
dustry should be in those counties where coal and iron are
found ; how the agriculture or commerce of a country is
likely to be affected by geological character ; 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 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 how a degree in longitude corresponds to four
minutes in time, etc. ; the arithmetic of it they must of
course be made to work out.
32 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
In the school here there are several mechanical con-
trivances for giving them a correct idea of the two mo-
tions of the earth, on its axis, and in its orbit, and its
different positions 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 every-
thing they learn ought to be. They ought to be made to
understand 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 counties 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 latitude, 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 dis-
tance between the two places to apply this to the degrees
of latitude, and point out why we cannot apply it to de-
grees of longitude.
If a school is provided with a variety of maps, then
attention 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 questions as, why is not the equator found 011
the map of Europe ? Why does not a map of England
GEOGRAPHY. 33
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 wonder 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 carpenter'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
instructive 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 Yar-
mouth 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
the map of which they may be looking at ? 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, 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
directions, 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, projecting arms from the sea running far into it
showing them the advantages of England, Scotland,
Ireland, Holland, etc., 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
34 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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, etc. ; the reasons
why they do this. Also such things as the quantity of
water discharged by them, compared, for instance, with the
Thames, taking this as unity, that by the Danube is 65, the
Volga 80, the Nile 250, the Amazon 1300. etc. ; then
the land of reasoning which such facts suggest to the
mind.
Again, explain the two motions of the earth one of
rotation on its axis, the other of progress in its orbit;
what would be the effect, as regards day and night, if the
rotation on its axis were stopped at any given time for a
day for a week for a year, etc. how it would affect the
vegetable world the stability of bodies on the earth, etc.
"What would be the effect on the seasons if the progress in
its orbit were to cease for a time for a continuance ? all
this would suggest a multitude of questions.
Such lessons as these a teacher dught to be able to give,
as they not only interest and exercise their minds, but are
highly useful to them.
. But in order that children may get an accurate know-
ledge 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 sufficient
accuracy where you live. Oh ! in Hampshire. Well, but
the English counties are subdivided (what is meant by sub-
'divided ? 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
Prance and Spain. The teacher : How are the two coun-
tries situated with respect to each other ? in what part of
Europe ? separated by what chain of mountains ? Are
the Pyrenees the highest mountains in Europe ? What
GEOGBAPHY. 35
is tneir height compared with the highest mountains in
England ? Between what two seas do they run, and in
what direction? How do you get oat of the Atlantic
into the Mediterranean ? Passing through the Straits of
Gibraltar, what country is on your right hand ? what on
your left ? Do 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 Constan-
tinople, 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
whom ? Are all the states of Europe Christian ? any other
exception besides Turkey ? What do we get from Smyrna,
Constantinople, etc. ? and 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 St.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 Kussia? then to tell them about
Moscow being burnt in 1812 to point out the course of
the Volga, Yistula, 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 Sea, conse-
quently the mouths of them frozen up during great part of
the year.
The following may be taken as an example of question-
ing 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 sub-
divisions 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 mos'j
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
36 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
world, are admirably placed for intercourse with the West
India Islands, and with Europe, etc.
In what direction from Europe is America ? By whom
discovered, and about what time ? In the service of what
nation was Columbus, and what were tbe names of its sove-
reigns ? the teacher telling them his difficulties, and inte-
resting 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 Mediter-
ranean previously the attempts made at discovery by
England about the same time Newfoundland Sebastian
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 James-
town, 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
* The teacher, placing the compass before them, should show what
is meant by the directive power of the needle what by its variation,
dip, etc. " The variation was unknown until the time of Columbus,
who observed on his first voyage that the needle declined from the
meridian as he advanced across the Atlantic. The dip of the mag-
netic 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."
GEOGRAPHY. 37
mountain chain in the two Americas its direction, and
how it runs into the Hocky 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 pro-
bably rapid, and not navigable those into the Atlantic,
as the Amazon, of great length, lazy, sleepy, running
through a flat country, and therefore likely to divide into
many branches slow, navigable the character and em-
ployments 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
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 A/ores, 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 connection of North America with this country,
when declared independent, etc., and in like manner, how
other divisions of this large continent were, at an earlier
period, connected with other European nations Canada
with France the Brazils, etc., with Portugal Mexico,
etc., 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
38 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
at the beginning of their lessons : " Soon after it was dis-
covered, each nation, etc. ; 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, etc., 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 purpose 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
difference between a great and a small circle on the same
sphere ? "What sort of a 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 tropics ? Explain why he would
appear north or south of him at noon, according to the
time of year ? To an observer in a higher southern
latitude than 23i, where would he appear at noon ? Al-
ways north.
Explain how and why the rising and the setting points
of the sun shift on the horizon every day during the course
of a year.
"What arc of a circle would measure the angle between
the point of the horizon on which he rises on the 21st of
June, and that on which he sets on the 21st of December ?
To the question, if the sun rises at five or at seven o'clock
in the morning, what time will he set ? in nine schools
out of ten you will get in answer, At five and seven in the
evening : explaining that there are as many hours from sun-
rise to noon as from noon to sun-set, at once opens their
eyes on the subject.
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
GEOGRAPHY. 39
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, etc., days at
the end of 360 days ? When would they meet a first,
second, third, etc., 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 in the same me-
ridian, 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 latitude ? 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 ? f ths of the
equator is in seas th 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 the men 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 direction 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 of Capricorn, seeing the
sun to the north of them at noon would appear as some-
thing supernatural.
Now, we find in a book written before the time of our
Saviour, that in the time of Pharo Necho, king of Egypt,
40 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
some Egj-ptians 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 pass-
ing which they would have, with their faces to the west,
the sun on their right hand and to wards 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 equa-
tor 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 produc-
tions, and why on high mountains, even within the tropics,
those of all climates, from the equator to the pole, may be
found, etc., showing the effect which elevation above the
level of the sea has upon climate illustrating the explana-
tion 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 in-
creased, an increased temperature of climate would arise
if those of the polar regions, the temperature of the climate
would be diminished.
The following extracts from an Educational Tour in
Germany, by Horace Mann, Esq., Secretary to the Board
* See p. 217.
41
of Education, Mass., U.S., are given 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 be no doubt.
Speaking of one of the first schools he entered, lie
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 be 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 uniformly superior was the
handwriting in those schools where drawing was taught
in connection 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 was 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, awkward, and
clumsy movements are the patterns constantly before it."
The following passage on the subject of teaching geogra-
phy, as taught in the Prussian schools, is well worthy of
the teacher's attention : " Here 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
42 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
plan, none of them were signalized by the rapidity and
effect of the one I 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 band which my eye could hardly fol-
low, 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, Wurtem-
burg; Giants' Mountains (Eiesen-gebirge), Silesia; Cen-
tral Mountains (Mittel-gebirge), Bohemia,' etc.
" In less than a minute the ridge of that grand central
elevation, 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,' etc. The
next moment I heard a succession of small strokes, or taps,
so rapid as to be almost indistinguishable, and hardly had
my eye time to discern a large number of dots made along
the margins of the rivers, when the shout of ' Linz, Vienna,
Prague, Dresden, Berlin,' etc., struck my ear. "With a
few more flourishes, the rivers flowed onwards towards
their several terminations, and, by another succession 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 cor-
recting a few mistakes of the pupils, for the teacher's mind
GEOQBAPHY. 43
seemed to* be in his ear as well as in his hand ; and, not-
withstanding the astonishing celerity of his movements,
he detected erroneous answers, and turned round to cor-
rect 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 permanence 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 know-
ledge." MANN'S " Educational Tour in Germany."
The following, from an article in the fl 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 Tene-
riffe, 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 !N"ew Zealand as the centre
of the aqueous hemisphere. The exact position in Eng-
land 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 conditions of
organic life."
44 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
NATURAL HISTOEY.
The subject of Natural History, both of plants and
animals, so far as they differ from each other in external
form, in habits, etc., may be 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 belong to a higher depart-
ment of knowledge : 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
for learning and knowing, which is natural to mankind."
The children here are in the haftt, as the spring and
summer advance, of bringing to the school plants and
flowers when they first come out small twigs of the diffe-
rent 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, etc. running through the same class of
plants ; difference 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, etc. : the different kinds of soil on which they find
the wild plants showing that the soil on which any par-
ticular 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 observation),
are only found in shady places ; while others will not grow
NATURAL HISTORY. 45
at all in the shade ; that, when a flower or leaf withers,
it is from the juices making their escape into the atmo-
sphere, and the plant, heing separated from its roots, cannot
get a fresh supply; . how aquatic plants, differing in struc-
ture from those on dry land in their air-cells, are calcu-
lated to float.
Then again, the small twigs of the different trees or
shruhs 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
uniformly 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, alter-
nating on opposite sides of the stem ; point out the frame-
work 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, etc. In this way they become
acquainted with all the trees in the parish. That when a
tree is cat 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,
etc., 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, etc., 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
46 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
and habits the migrating of birds and their return, get-
ting 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 beautifully adapted to the purposes of
night 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, etc.
But more particularly will a teacher interest his school
in this department by making observations of this kind
and comparisons, etc., among the birds they are in the
habit of seeing, such as the cuckoo, swallow, torn-tit, sky-
lark, 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 happiness and to their usefulness, inasmuch as all
these things have a practical bearing on social life.
These are thy glorious works, Parent of good
Almighty ! Thine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair : Thyself how wondrous then,
Unspeakable ! who sitt'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.
In teaching ENGLISH HISTOKY, the Outlines by the
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge have been used
here, being the only book on the 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 invading another, and remaining among them, is
likely to affect their language, manners, etc. traces of
this are shown in our language ; the manners and customs
NATURAL HISTORY. 47
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, etc. there might even
be famine in one county and abundance in the adjoining
one ; how such evils are remedied by roads, canals, etc. ;
the different inventions in science, etc., and dwelling
upon the more remarkable ones, bringing with them great
social improvements : paper printing, 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 off how-
rapid the progress of colonies from the mother country in
consequence ; the improvements attending the introduc-
tion of turnpike-roads post office ; application of wind,
water, steam, etc., 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 families, doing away with spinning, carding, knitting,
etc., as home occupations ; comparing the employments of
a family in agricultural life at the present day with what
they TV ere 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, etc., and in other ways;
the number and extent of our colonies, giving them
such proper explanation of the nature of the constitution,
one part of the legislature being hereditary, another elec-
tive, etc., Q.S is within the comprehension of children;
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 chrono-
logical 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.
Dr. Johnson observes in the Rambler, " That not a
washerwoman sits down to breakfast without tea from the
East Indies, and sugar from the West."
48 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 Swan in Holbourne, in London;
and to the Black Swan in Coney-street, York, at each of
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.
ARITHMETIC.
Arithmetic should be made an exercise of the mind, and
not merely an application of rules got by heart ; in fact, it
ought to be taught on a sort of common-sense principle,
beginning 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, etc., should be connected with visible objects;
such as books, boys, girls, etc., 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 units must run through-
out ; that in a class of children each child is a 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 a 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
ARITHMETIC. 49
a hundred head of cattle, when half were sheep and half
were cows, but we could not say one hundred sheep
or a hundred cows. In the same way the sportsman
Miys a hundred head of game, meaning hy that hares,
rabbits, etc., 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 different 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, 876, etc. : that
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 unit's to the ten's
place, and so on ; as 6 by placing on the right hand
becomes 60, and so ou, and from this to infer that by
placing a 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 we would point out that any other
figure placed on the right hand of a number multiplies
that number 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, etc. : thus 95, placing 6 on the right hand, be-
comes 956, or 900 + 50 + 6 ; placing 65, becomes 95G5,
or 9000 + 500 + 60 + 5. That 5, 6, etc., are always so
many units, but the unit of value rises in a tenfold propor-
tion every place the figure is advanced to the left.
AVhen they know a little of numeration, the teacher
should write on a black board, and make them thoroughly
understand writing down numbers in the following way :
69, or 60 + 9; 756, or 700 + 50 + 6; 1050, or 1000 +0
hundreds + 50 + units ; 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.
50 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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
63
have gone; perhaps he says, Yes. "Why? because =9,
or seven added nine times to itself gives 63 : and the pro-
bability is they are right, and one would generally con-
clude 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 1 1 ;
then go on a little further ; and a boy says, for instance, 99 :
divide, there is a remainder of one ; it was right at 77 when
the eleventh boy answered, therefore the error must be
with the last three boys.
They should always be practised in asking such questions
as : How many divisors has the number 12 above unity ?
how many 1 5 ? thus 12 = 2X3X2, or 15 = 5X3, splitting
the number into its factors : that all even numbers are
divisible by 2, and that no odd number is. This seems
simple, but if constantly repeated has a good effect.*
* 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 (2)
Every odd number by ..... (2/i-j-l)
giving to in each of these forms its successive values, 0, 1, 2, 3.
(2w) becomes 0, 2, 4, 6, etc., all the even numbers.
(In -f-1) 1, 3, 5, 7, etc., all the odd numbers.
Now it is clear ( ) giving tne quotient (M) that all even num-
bers are divisible by 2 without a remainder,
("' ) = M-f _, therefore the odd ones are not.
2 / ^2
ARITHMETIC. 51
3 may be -written 1 + 1 + 1, or 3
4 2 + 2
1 + 1 + 1 + 1 +1, or 5
6 2+2+2, or 3 + 3
9 in separate units, or 3 + 3 + 3 ;
that a class of nine children may be 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 with-
out 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 car-
rying 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 instance, can be broken, such as
24 = 2X12, or 3X8, 3X2X4, or 3X2X2X2.
This subject of the number divisors without a remain-
der, would lead the teacher to speak of the subdivisions of
a 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 remainder, and therefore of more sub-coins with-
out fractions.
Having made them well acquainted with the first four
rules, they must then be made to understand the coinage,
the measures of space, time, and volume.
To get a correct idea of the comparative length of an
inch, a foot, a yard, etc., and how many times the shorter
measure is contained in the longer, the common carpenter's
Again, the square of (2) = 4n 2 .
the square of (2w+l) = 4 2 +4+l.
4n*
Or, =
Therefore the square of every even number is divisible by 4 with-
out a remainder.
The square of an odd number is not.
52 SUGGESTIVE BINTS.
two-foot rule is of great service show them by actual
measurement on the floor what is meant by two, three,
four yards, etc., as far as the dimensions of the school will
permit.
The motions of the hands on the face of the clock should
be 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. Many of the labour-
ing class in agricultural districts, even when grown up to
manhood, cannot read the clock face.
When the children understand these things, it will be
found most useful to practice them in little arithmetical cal-
culations connected with their own domestic consumption,
or applying personally to themselves, such as :
Supposing each person in a family consume 16| Ibs. 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 5^d. per pound,
and how much would be saved if at 4%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 355,004 ?
Each boy adapting the first 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 themselves, and ask
questions if they are at a loss.
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, etc. a washing bill, etc.,
m;iy 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
ARITHMETIC. 53
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 iV on their slates.
How many twopences in a shilling threepences, etc.?
Then what part is twopence, threepence, etc.? , J, etc.
Again, how many shillings in a pound ? Then what
part of a pound is one, two, three .... nineteen shillings ?
d& TOI 2%) and so on to 5> 18) or a -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 equal
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 J L showing
5<r 51
that a degree, which here represents the unit, is divided
into twelve equal parts and then reckoning and writing
down
rV, TI T\> TV, -ft, A (* *), T\, T"I T\, iS, iii *!> 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 fraction depends upon the relative, and not
upon the absolute value of the numerator and denominator;
as T \ and , ^ aQ d J, T * r and $, -ft and , etc.,
have in each case the same absolute value.
In casting his eye round a well-furnished school-room,
the teacher will see numberless ways in which he may make
54 . SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 uniform thickness, each will be -5? of the
whole height placing the two-foot rule against the wall
and seeing how many courses go to making one foot, two
feet, etc., there will be such and such fractions or sup-
posing 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 denomi-
nator, and the reason of all this. In this way, and by
continually calling their attention to fragments of things
about them and putting these together, children get a cor-
rect 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 questions connected with their reading.
What are the proportions of land and water on the
globe ? $ land, I water. What do you mean by ? A
whole divided into three equal parts, and two of them
taken. Here the teacher would put a piece of paper into
a boy's hand, 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
contain? i. What Asia? i. Africa? i. Europe? &.
And Oceanica? T V 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, i or T \ ;
Europe and Oceanica, each being &, these with Africa
will be -fs, or -}. America and Asia together are f , and
adding i to this gives 3, 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 of 500 at 5 per cent, for two years ?
ARITHMETIC. 55
5 per cent, means -what? the interest on a hundred
pounds for a year: then the interest of 1 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, etc. Having the interest for
one year, the interest for any number of years will be the
interest of one multiplied by that number, etc.*
Children sometimes get into the way of working out
questions of this kind, without having any definite idea of
what is meant by so much per cent, etc. ; this they should
be made thoroughly to understand, as bearing upon many
other questions besides those on interest, as will be seen
* 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, etc., P will be twice as much, etc.
or 2r, 3r, 4r . . . . Pr interest for one year.
The interest for 2, 3, 4 .... n years will be
2 Pr, 3 Pr, 4 Pr, . . . . n?r.
(1) the interest = rP,
we have the amount, being the principal added to the interest,
M = P+wrP. 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 five per cent.
Here P = 250
5
> = = -05.
100
n = 2 = 2-5.
/. I = 250 X (05) X (2-5) = 31-25,
andM = 250 + 31-25 = 281-25.
But the ab >ve formula is mucQ 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 10s.; 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, etc., are fractional, are
quite as easy as the rest, except in having a few more figure* to
work out.
56 8T7GGESTIYE HINTS.
from the examples given ; also what is meant by so much
in the shilling, so much in the pound, etc., that if a per-
son spends twopence in the shilling in a particular way,
and lays out two, three, ten shillings, he spends 4<Z., 6d.,
2Qd., etc., in that particular thing.
A penny in the shilling is twenty-pence in the pound,
The whole expenditure of a family in a year is A, of which a
per cent, is spent in hread, b in tea, c in clothes, d in house rent, e in
taxes, etc., what part of the whole income is spent in each of these
articles, and give an expression for the whole.
a Art
= part of every spent in bread, and = what is spent in a year,
100 100
b A.b
the part of each in tea, and of the whole income.
100 Ac 100
In the same way that in taxes in the year,
100
A<z A5 Ac
Therefore 1 j 1- etc. =: A.
100 100 100
A
Or, (a -\- b -\- c -\- etc.) =: the whole expenditure.
100
And if the annual income of a family is P per annum, P JQQ
( -\- b + c + etc.) will he 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, * per
cent, silver, and g per cent, gold ; how much of each.
Me
= the copper.
100
M*
= the silver.
100
Mg
the gold
100
M
Or, M (c + s).
103
ABITHMETIC. 57
twenty pence in one pound is a 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
Suppose the mass 1000 Ibs., of which 25 per cent, copper, 40
per cent, silver, and the rest 34 gold : how much of each?
Here M 1000, c = 25, * = 40'5, etc.
Me 1000 X 25
/. = = 250 Ibs. of copper,
100 100
M* 1000 X 40-5
:=. 405 Ibs. of silver,
100 100
M<? 1000x34-5
= 345 Ibs. of gold.
100 100
The skilful teacher, who knows a little algebra, may see a very
extensive application of it in this way, and the satisfaction and in-
struction 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 calculations of this kind. The merely being able to substitute
numerical values for the different letters in an algebraical formula is
of service.
For instance, that
(1.) (a -}- b] (a 5) = a? b 2 : 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- S) 2 = a- + 2ab + i-, or that the square of the sum
of two numbers is equal to the sum of their squares, increased by
twice their product.
(3.) That (a b)- = a- lab -f- b~ a 2 -}- i 2 2ab, and the square
of the difference of the numbers is equal to the sum of the squares
of the two numbers diminished by twice their product.
In each of these case?, let a = 6, and = 4 ; then (a + 4) (a 6)
would become (6 -\- 4) X (6 4); or 10 X 2 = the square of 6, or
36, diminished by the square of 4 or 16, or (6 2 4 2 ) = 20.
(2.) (6 + 4)-" or 10 2 = 6 2 + 4 3 + 2 X 6 X 4.
or 36 + 16 -f 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 = 2- or 4 = 6 2 + 4 3 2 X 6 X 4.
or 36 + 16 48 = 4.
58 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
teacher should do, is, instead of saying as 1 yard : 2s. 6?.,
: : 50 yards to the answer ; he should say, if one yard cost
2s. Gd. 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
section, may be useful to the teacher, as bearing upon the
economic purposes of life, and will suggest others of a like
kind :
The population of the parish in 1841 was 1040, at the
census of 1841 it had increased 7 per cent., 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 per cent, were born in the county, 14-2 in other parts
of England, 0'5 in Scotland, and 0-9 in Ireland; what
number were born in each country ? how many in num-
ber, 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, etc.
These questions ought also to be the vehicle of a good deal
of instruction 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 population in adjoining column, according to the census
of 1831 and of 1841, is to be had for a shilling, and offers
great facility to a master for making questions of this
kind; as well as affording useful statistical information.*
* I have not seen a table of this kind made from thu last census
of 1851 ; but it is an educational want which ought to be supplied.
In general, children, even of advanced ages, have no definite icba of
the amount of population in the towns or villages which surround
them, and will speak of hundreds where there are thousands, and of
thousands where are hundreds. In the same way, they have no idea
of their different bearings, and will tell you in set phrases, what is
meant by latitude and longitude, who have no idea whether any
particular town near which they live, is East, "West, North, or South
of their own homes.
ARITHMETIC. 59
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, etc., 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 different ground four times, and in doing this
it would have occupied the whole square, one of three
inches, nine times : thus showing clearly what is meant by
a surface containing a certain number of square feet, etc.
The same illustration with an oblong, say nine inches
by two, three, etc., two or three drawings or diagrams 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 under-
stand; 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 superficial inches on one side by the number of slices.
To apply this :
The master tells one of the boys to take the two-foot
rule (a necessary thing in a village school), measure the
length and breadth of the school-room. Yes, sir.
Length 26 feet, breadth 16 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 a board. Nine inches. Reckon the
number of boards. "What is the area of the room ? Does
60 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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, etc., but always making them do the actual
measurement, 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
Liebeg says the balance is to the chemist.
Another practical application, which works well in
giving fixed ideas of linear measure, is the following :
Take a hoop, say of two feet diameter ; apply a string
to the circumference ; measure it. Rather over six feet.
Another of three will be found to be nine, and by a sort of
inductive 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. That a child should feel and understand this mode
of inductive reasoning is very important, and is one of the
most useful school-lessons he can have.
ARITHMETIC. 61
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, etc. And the hoop has been round
how many times at each mark ? One at the first, twice at
the second, three times at the third, etc. 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 zigzag. The teacher should point out the sources
of error. The philosophy of common life and every- day
things is most attractive to children, 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 in-
structs, and gives a sort of certainty to their knowledge,
and fixes 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, etc., 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, etc., a square and a rectangular parallelogram,
divided into linear inches. These figures are easily re-
* 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 suc-
cessive contacts with 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, ia the curve iu which the pendulum keeping true time
vibrates.
62 SUGGESTIVE H1XTS.
ferred 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 he
called into use in almost numberless ways.
What is the shape of the room of the door of a hrick
of a book table, etc. ? a square or parallelogram on
Series B, No. 1, No. 2. Look at the beam running be-
tween 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 smoke ? 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 ? etc. 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 enclosed 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 sugar-loaf. 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, etc., inches apart,
would trace out a solid ring. What figure would the door
trace out, if, instead of revolving round its hinges, it were
made to revolve 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, taking 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
ARITHMETIC. 63
a circle is equally distant from the centre explain what is
meant hy circles being in different planes what hy con-
centric circles and then the teacher will ask them, if the
strings were 2, 3, 4 feet, etc., long, what the circumference
would be ; at first some of them would say six feet, nine feet,
etc., not seeing that their piece of string was the radius
and " not the diameter ; difference 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
radius diameter
circumference -f or the circumference -| ,
2 4
and since 3' 141 59 is the circumference of a circle whose
diameter is unity, 3'14159 + i = -78539 is the area, and
that the areas of circles are to each other as the squares of
their diameters ; this expression they can work with prac-
tically afterwards, in measuring timber, etc.
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, etc. ; 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 subtracting 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, etc., 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,
64 ' SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
('78539) d'^ = area of inner circle;
and (-78539) (d 3 rf' 2 ) = area of section of the ring j
and if h denote the height, the solid contents will be
(78539) (d* d 1 -} h; then to give particular values
to d, d' and h, and work out the results.
Examples for Practice.
A boy at the age of 15 begins to save 1\d. per week,
what will he have saved at the end of one, two, three, etc.,
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 pei r
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 ?
Such questions ought to have their bearings and appli-
cation to every-day life explained to the children.
A goes to the village shop and lays out 10s. 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 10 per cent, more than for
ready money. How much does .4 lose by this in the year ?
or how much more does he pay than the ready-money
customer ?
Supposing the whole expenditure of a parish in rates to-
be 920 10s. 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 250 10s. Gd. per annum; of this 3s. in the
pound is paid for house rent, 9s. 8d. in food, 3s. 4.d. in
clothing, tho 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
ARITHMETIC. 65
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 up-
wards 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 7 2
King's judges, etc., and other departments of state . 10
Interest of the national debt 12
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 lOd. per pole ?
How many trees to plant an acre at such and such
distances, etc. ?
A pole or perch of land is 16 feet square, the usual
measure, 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
1*. 6d. per cubic yard, what would his work come to ?
A pair of horses plough f 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 ?
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
often windows?
How many panes, each nine inches by twelve inches,
and what would the cost be at per foot.
The following extract from " An Educational Tour in
Germany," etc., affords a very useful , and practical hint to
the schoolmaster :
" In Holland I saw what I have never seen elsewhere, lut
that which ought to be in every school the actual weights and
of the country. These were used not only as a
66 SUGGESTIVE HIXTS.
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. Sometimes he would
allow it to be passed along by the members of the class,
that each one might have an opportunity to handle it, and
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 capaci-
ties 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 relief face and reverse
of all the current coins of the kingdom. The represen-
tatives 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.
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 books
GEOMETEY. 67
of Euclid, 'with a few propositions out of the other
books. Many of the propositions in the first three hooks
are of easy application to the mechanic arts ; particularly
to the carpenter's shop, to the principles of land -measuring,
etc., and an edition of these, pointing out such propositions
and their application, with a few practical deductions,
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 geome-
trical and so easy of proof, as to be easily learned, and the
workman who knows them instead of being a machine,
becomes an intelligent 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 tiling, are equal to
one another."
" If equals be added to equals the wholes are equal."
" If equals be added to unequals, the wholes are un-
equal," etc., suggest modes of reasoning, which are ex-
tremely 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.
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
perpendicular to the floor, etc. ; the beams, rafters, etc.,
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 un-
derstood ; the number of degrees in a quadrant, etc. ; 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.
68 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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.
The following is a very interesting and useful applica-
tion of this proposition in showing how a meridian line
may be laid down by it :
Tell the boys to stick in the ground, and in the
direction of the plumb-line, a straight rod, to obc-erve 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 to the extremities of the shadows, and on the
line which joins them, which is the basis of an isosceles
triangle, describe an equilateral triangle on the contrary
side of the line to that of the stick ; a line drawn from the
point where the staff 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, etc.
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 a object is seen, diminishes
as you recede from, and increases as you advance towards it.
The proposition about the areas of triangles and pacal-
lelograms, 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 other two sides. All these from the first book are
particularly of practical application.
It will be found very useful for fixing on their minds
any particular geometrical truths likely to be of use to them
afterwards, if the teacher tests it by application to actual
measurement, and not to rest satisfied with proving it
GEOMETRY. 69
merely as an abstract truth ; for instance, in this school-
room 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 containing
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
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
multiple of an inch, a foot, a yard, etc., any lengths of the
other lines are.
It is recorded, then, that at 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.
A teacher with a little knowledge of geometry -will see
70 .SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
numberless ways in which these lines may be made useful.
I feel a difficulty in entering further into this without
having recourse to diagrams, which in the printing of this
book I did not contemplate.
The following occur to me as simple : Tell a boy to
measure 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 correspond ; the same for his book, slate,
a table; etc. 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 Avail, say four feet high, and another
extend it to any point towards the middle of the floor .
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. The testing of theory by
practice gives them a great interest in what they arc 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 oif with his compasses
on each side of it, CA and CB,
equal to each other, he then
places his rule in the direction
B CD, as nearly perpendicular as
he can guess, and draws a line,
CD, along it ; from the point D
he stretches a string to A, and if turning it on D he finds
the same length exactly to 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.
71
D G F
If he take his 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, etc.
Again, another very easy application of a simple proposi-
tion in the first book, to show that if AB is a straight line,
from C a point without it, the
perpendicular CD is the shortest
line from C to D : any other line
CF. CG, etc., would be greater
-B 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 AD goes on increasing as that
point gets further 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 proposi-
tions 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 that the difference be-
tween the area of the square
and the inscribed circle is the
sum of the four irregular corners
AEKF, etc., contained between
the sides of a triangle and the
arc in each side.
Find this difference, divide it by four ; that will give any
one corner AEKF : then inscribe a square in the circle : the
72 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
difference between this and the first square will be the four
triangles AEF, etc., and which will be found equal to the
inscribed square FEHG. Dividing by four will give one
of the triangles.
Let the side of the square = a, which will also be the
diameter of the circle :
Then the area of the square will = a",
area of the circle = (3-14159)-;
4
= (-78539) a~,
. . the area of the four corners, FBEGr, etc.,
= <r(l -78539),
= a? (-21461);
and area of one of them = (-051365) a 2 .
a 2 a" <&
Again, EF 2 = AE 2 +AF 2 = + = , which is the
442
area of the inscribed square, and isonehalf of ( 2 ), thecircum-
a~
scribing one ; and any one of the triangles AEF will = .
8
AE.AE or
Again, the area of the triangle AFE = = +
2 2
a? a?
, and this divided by two, or , as by the other method.
2 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 of 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 object above the surface of the ground ; if,
GEOMETBY. 73
when the observer takes his station, the angle is ahove 45,
he must recede from the tower if less, he must advance.
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 look-
ing along a line drawn from the centre through the middle
of the arc.
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 and the angles being equal the sides are
equal.
A stick 5 feet 3 inches high is placed vertically at the
equator, what is the figure traced out by its shadow during-
the 1 2 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.
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 triangle, squares, and paral-
lelograms ; 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,
etc. ; that a triangle is half the parallelogram on the same
base and altitude, etc., and not to do everything mechani-
cally, 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."
74 SUGGESTIVE HIKTS.
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 any-
thing positively wrong in teaching trigonometry ; but that
it is wrong to teach it to that class of boys usually attend-
ing our parish schools. Now, one of the leading features
of the school here, and in my opinion, one of the most im-
portant, 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 taught, as applying to practical pur-
poses connected with their after-life.
However, I have myself no objection that this or any
other ometri/, a knowledge of which may be likely to advance
the interest and the civilization of mankind, half as much
as trigonometry 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 who have acquire-
ments 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
quantitive kind ; so demonstratively true, that there is no
chance of getting wrong no possibility of their being anti-
anything whatever. There may be something of wrong-
ness 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, become bold and speculative to a degree
which may startle those of a more sober-minded tempera-
ment, and who have not paid attention to the subject on
which they treat ; still, I think we may rest satisfied that
where theories are advanced not based on truth, they will
be but short-lived, and not do much mischief in the end.
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 Encyclopedia Bri-
tannica, when it was placed on the table for sale, a man
ELEMENTARY DEAWTKG. 75
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.
ELEMENTARY
This is a subject not mentioned in former editions of this
work ; but as it is most desirable it should be taught in our
elementary schools, the following observations will, I trust,
be useful to those for whom the book is intended :
Hitherto drawing hasbeen a branch of instruction mainly
confined to schools for the upper classes, in which it nas
too often been loosely and inefficiently taught as an accom-
plishment merely but there is no reason why it should iiot
form a recognized and most useful part of the routine
of instruction of every school. By the aid of the appli-
ances and opportunities of instruction now offered by the
Department of Science and Art, any teacher may make
himself master of as much of the theory and practice of
drawing as will enable him to impart an extent of know-
ledge in this direction, better digested and really greater
in amount than has been hitherto, in nine cases out of ten,
given in schools in which it has formed an expensive extra.
Efficient examples and illustrative manuals, following each
other in proper sequence, are now supplied, on well-devised
terms, by the new department of the Board of Trade ;
and by the aid of these the study of drawing may, in
almost every case, be introduced to a certain extent.
By the term drawing, however, we must, in the outset,
clearly understand that the end of the study, as introduced
into elementary schools, is not necessarily " fine art" in the
production of pictorial manifestations. Drawing, strictly
speaking, should be looked upon as a mechanical exercise,
analogoiis in fact to writing, and regarded, if I may so
express it, as graphic language that as ideas are expressed
by words or in writing, so they may be embodied by drawing.
76 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
It would be useless to enlarge on the utility of this
study; every person must have experienced either the
benefit, or the want, of a knowledge of drawing, at some
period or other of his life. In many trades a proper
grounding in this art will obviously make a man a more
efficient workman, enabling him to perform various manipu-
lations with greater certainty and quickness, and, conse-
quently, to obtain higher wages. But even if, as in the
majority of cases, its use is but to sharpen and improve
the perceptive faculties generally, a great good will have
resulted. In this sense, it will do for the mechanical instru-
ment of the will what logic does for the mind, teaching the
hand and eye to work in unison with the judgment ; and
when these are thus trained to act together, the judgment
itself is strengthened and a sense of power induced, giving
increased certainty and command to all manual operations.
Our limits will not allow of as complete an illustration
of drawing as could be wished, especially as there is a
difficulty in the study in the necessity for explanatory
engravings, of which the plan of this book will not admit.
An abstract of the main features of the system promulgated
by the Board of Trade may, however, be given, premising
that it has evidently been an endeavour, in framing the
course, to give it a thoroughly practical and unambiguous
character, leaving nothing to the imagination, and provid-
ing full and complete appliances for every stage.
The Department divides the course of elementary draw-
ing for common schools as follows :
First stage free hand outline-drawing from flat ex-
amples; second rudiments of geometry as applied to
drawing; third drawing from solid models; fourth
theoretic perspective; fifth advanced outline-drawing of
ornament and the figure from flat examples and from casts
in relief ; sixth shading ; seventh rudimentary instruc-
tion on the theory of colour.
The first, second, and third of these divisions may be
taught in every school, and by the help of the "Illus-
trative Manual" and examples, any schoolmaster may
speedily qualify himself to commence the study. In the
first stage, a set of twelve sheets of examples, containing
ELEMENTARY DBA.WING. 77
a great variety of rectilinear and curved figures, is issued,
accompanied by an illustrative manual, which minutely
describes the method of procedure to be adopted in copy-
ing each figure. Nothing can be simpler and easier than
this first step ; the examples follow each other in due
order, both of subject and relative difficulty, and have the
great advantage, with respect to children, that each figure
is a representation of some known object, thereby awaken-
ing and keeping alive the interest of the scholar, in a much
more effective manner than would be the case if mere
abstractions were placed before him. At the same time,
the objects chosen are such as are either quite flat, or at
least do not obviously require the aid of perspective for
their correct delineation, it being thought advisable to
separate, as far as possible, the simple geometrical delinea-
tion of figures from that of solid bodies, to represent
which properly would be impossible, at this early stage,
the pupil as yet knowing nothing of those fundamental
facts of perspective, a knowledge of which would be indis-
pensable.
The examples are drawn on a large scale, so that they
may be pinned up on a board before the entire class, and
the pupils copy them first with white chalk on a slate or
black canvas, the latter being preferable, and afterwards on
a smaller scale with lead pencil on paper. The first few
copies chiefly consist of the right-lined letters of the alpha-
bet, such as the letters | H X V etc., the doubled lines
of which, and the various angles, are useful exercises on
parallels, vertical and horizontal lines, perpendiculars, and
angles. The various examples will be found, from the first,
to suggest many useful geometrical definitions, of which the
experienced teacher will know how to avail himself, and
explain to his scholars.
The result, with pupils who have gone through this first
stage, will be evident in the increased command of hand,
which I have no doubt will be perceived in their simul-
taneous writing exercises in a juster and more acute per-
ception of the forms, proportions, and dimensions of all
objects, whilst a certain facility in imitating natural objects
wUl be the first evidence of, as we have before termed it,
78 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
the new language acquired. At the conclusion of this
stage, proper manuals and text-books on geometry, in re-
ference to drawing, are provided; and the pupil, after going
through as nmch geometry as will at least enable him to
understand the various terms and definitions which occur
in drawing and perspective, will next proceed to draw from
solid models of simple geometrical forms. At this point of
his studies he enters upon perspective, the most obvious
facts of which are, by model-drawing, made familiar to him
in an easy and insensible way so that by degrees, almost
as it were intuitively, he acquires such a knowledge and
familiar habit of appreciating the various changes in the
appearance of solid objects to the eye, that theoretic per-
spective, which will afterwards be an important considera-
tion, is thereby rendered of easy comprehension. Model-
drawing, hitherto frequently held up by its advocates as the
sole method of judicious teaching, will be found, I believe,
to occupy its proper position as an essential part of a com-
plete system of instruction, not, as hitherto, a substitute for
all other modes.
The number of models used, then, has been very much
reduced : they now consist of a few only of the most obvious
and useful forms of lines and geometrical solids, such as a
straight wire line, solid cube, pyramid, cylinder, sphere,
wire circle, disk, cone, etc. : these, with the stand and
universal joint, proper for displaying them to the class,
form a set of apparatus which may now be procured, at
such a reasonable cost, as to be within the reach of the
most humble means ; * whilst an accompanying manual,
shortly to be issued by the Department, will afford the
necessary assistance and information in putting them in
use.
Having described the system thus far, I may here say,
that to this extent drawing may certainly be taught, in
ordinary schools, without the aid of a special master; for,-
as I have said before, there is nothing up to this point that
* Public schools may obtain complete sets of the solid models
and accompanying stand from the Department of Science and Art at
half the cost price, by making proper applications ; the cost being 1
13., the cost to ordinary schools being 3 12s. Gd.
ELEMENIAKY DKA.W1KG. 79
may not be speedily mastered by any person, who
devote some little time and attention to the subject ; and
it ought to be the case of every teacher in future to master
thoroughly these elements.
The succeeding stages touch more or less on the province
of fine art, and will require in the teacher more decided
special knowledge, to acquire which time and study will
be necessary. Theoretic perspective, it is true, offers no
great difficulty, it is a definite study which, by the aid of
the necessary works, may soon be mastered in its broad
features.
Free hand-drawing from the round, and shading, however,
offer greater difficulties : these, to be effectually taught,
will demand experience in the teacher, obtainable only by
long practice. Here, however, the being in the possession
of good copies and examples will be of great use, and, at
any rate, beneficially supersede the random chance-medley
copies, often far too elaborate and difficult, at which we
now so often see unfortunate children labouring with such
ill-directed zeal. Besides, the examples in the advanced
lists of the Department" of Science and Art being beautiful
and interesting objects in themselves, will, when properly
arranged and kept before the eyes of the pupils in their daily
cla?.s -rooms, necessarily exert a most beneficial influence
on them. Casts from beautiful antique works in sculpture,
world-renowned works, for purposes of art as good as the
originals in marble, cannot be made familiar as household
objects to the young intelligence without powerfully mani-
festing their refining power, which is a virtual teaching.
Lastly (and of great importance), the subject of colour
should be mooted in our schools, and will most appropriately
form a part of all art-teaching. Children may soon be
taught as much of the laws of colour as will enable them
to avoid those glaring errors which we every day see per-
petrated by those who are ignorant of such elementary
knowledge ; familiar demonstrations, assisted by collections
of coloured papers and other aids, will soon render the sub-
ject quite familiar. A most excellent and useful little ma-
nual on this subject has been prepared for the Department
by Richard Redgrave, Esq., R. A., and should be in the hands
80 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
of every teacher : by the aid of this, and of the coloured
diagrams issued along with it, all that is requisite may be
accomplished.
Prom this short sketch of what is doing in the cause of
elementary teaching in art by the Board of Trade, it will
be seen that the publications of that department will form
the best possible texts in aid of drawing in all its branches ;
and the simple practical character which pervades all of
them will, I have no doubt, tend greatly to remove that
feeling of uncertainty and dubiousness which has hitherto
deterred numbers of intelligent teachers from introducing
the study injo their schools, though fully alive to its im-
portance.
MECHANICS.
The teacher should understand the more simple pro-
perties 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, etc. 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 that the power multiplied by the distance from
the fulcrum equals the weight multiplied by the distance, he
might take a rod four feet in length and divide into feet
and inches ; at one end he fixes a weight, and placing the
fulcrum at different distances from the weight, shows how
the theory and practice agree, by actually testing each par-
ticular case, showing that the calculated weight produces
an equilibrium. This is a sort of proof by testing it in par-
ticular cases, and then by a process of induction assuming
it to be generally true.
Then instance tueir own attempts at moving a block of
MECHANICS. 81
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 palling at the handle in a direction perpendi-
cular 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 em-
ployed in forcing the spade deeper into the ground ; if at
an obtuse angle with the handle, or an acute angle with
the handle produced, power is again lost, part of it being
employed in dragging the spade out of the ground ; that
pressing at 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.
The poker in stirring the fire a pronged hammer in
drawing 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 a pair of scales,
the steelyard drawing water from a well by means of the
windlass the pump-handle, scissors, etc.
The knife the blow of an axe in cutting down a tree
the coulter of a plough, etc., 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 formulae of this kind, where a little
algebra is required, and this with a knowledge of a few
elementary propositions in geometry, which the boys who
82 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
remain longest at school are getting here, that 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 ar-e, and
besides these, others of a more striking kind, such as wind,
water, steam, etc.
On this subject, the following, taken from Babbage on
the " Economy of Machinery," and given as an experiment
related by M. Ronclelet, " Sur 1'Art de Batir," offers con-
siderable instruction. A block of squared stone was taken
for the subject of experiment :
Ihs.
1. Weight of stone 1080
2. In order to drag thia stone along the floor of the quarry,
roughly chiselled, it requires a frrce equal to ... 758
3. The stone dragged over fl.mr <>f planks required . . . . 6o2
4. The pfime Ftone placed on a platform of wood, and dragged
over a flour of plunks required 608
5. After soaping the two surfaces of wood, which slid over
each other it rt quired 182
6. The same s'one WHS no\v planed upon rollcis of three
inches diameter, when it. required to put it in motion
along the floor of the quarry 34
7. To drag it by these rollers over a wooden floor .... 28
8. When the stone was mounted on a wooden platform, and
the same rollers placed between that and a plunk floor
it required 22
From this experiment it results, that the force necessary
to move a stone along
Tart of
Us weight.
The rotigri chiselled floor of its quarry is nearly . . ^
Along a wooden floor $
By wood upon wood
If the wooden surfaces are soaped -fc
With rollers on the floor of the quarry *fa
On rollers on wr od T ' 5
On rollers between wood ^
Prom 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.
MECHANICS. 83
Care should be taken in introductory books containing
fonnuUe to work from, the proofs of which the teacher per-
haps does not understand, that the expressions are correct.
1 am led to make this observation from the following cir-
cumstance : 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 of 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 conceive why
master, boys, etc., 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 base,
H
and P = "W , when the base became nothing
length of base
and the plane vertical, the power, instead of being equal to
H
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
H H
P = W W0 uld become P + W - "W,
length of plane H
as 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
for;iiula given in the note to the lesson ; the confidence of
ths boys 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
itstlf would be supported, might scarcely be intelligible to
them ; but showing them that a regular figure, like one of
their slates, would balance itself on a line running down
84 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
the middle, the lengthway 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 he where they cross ; and, accordingly, if
this line he 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 intersection 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,
etc., and what are called light substances, not falling so
rapidly as heavy masses smoke, vapour, balloons, etc.,
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 describe 16r\ feet in one
second, in 2, 3, 4, etc., seconds it will describe 4, 9, 16,
etc., multiplied into 16-rV.
To show that while the spaces described in one, two,
three, etc. seconds are as the numbers 1, 4, 9, 16, etc.,
those actually described in the second, third, fourth, etc.,
successive seconds are as the odd numbers, 3, 5, 7, 9, etc.,
showing very strikingly the accelerated motion of a falling
body.
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 effect
MECHANIC'S. 85
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
between supports, such as the walls of a building these
coming under the principle of the lever, etc.; also such
simple things as the following might be asked : Why is it
easier to break a two-foot rule flatwise than edgewise ? and
why joists are now always made thin and laid edgewise ?
which our forefathers did not understand. Although the
reasons are sufliciently simple, very few even amongst the
tolerably well educated c. 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 dimensions in direction of the pressure,
multiplied into the dimensions transverse to it, when the
, breadth x depth 2
length is given, or generally as the j IT - -
It is a curious fact, but completely proved by experi-
ment, 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 particularly in those of birds' and the larger quadru-
peds, 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, etc., the following simple experiment, which I wit-
nessed, by the late Professor Cowper, of King's College,
London, is very instructive :
He placed a length of one inch of wheat straw in a ver-
tical 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 part upon it.
This he loaded with .a load of sixteen pounds, without any
appearance of breaking, and stated that he had known a
straw bear as much as 35 Ibs. placed in this position
before it broke.
86 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
NATURAL 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
position, then in another, and trying it in all the various
ways which its senses admit of in fact, making a variety
of experiments with it, and this is generally looked upon as
a mere amusement : but children when thus employed, arc,
as has been observed by Dr. Rci* " acquiring the habits of
observation, and by merely indulging an undetermined
curiosity, are making themselves acquainted with surround-
ing 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 jing-
ling noise is sure to follow his throwing down the spoon,
and goes on repeating it till he is tired."
" Such," observes the same philosopher, "is the educa-
tion of kind Nature, who, from the beginning to the end of
our lives, makes the play of her scholars their most instruc-
tive lessons, and has implanted in our mind the curiosity
and the inductive propensity 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
experience here in introducing this kind of teaching into
XATUBAL PHILOSOPHY. 87
the school, I am confident that, with those who have been
able to remain to an age to profit from it, it has given an
interest in what they are learning, and a kind of practical
character to it, which no other teaching could give.
I recollect many years ago, going into a school in Ger-
many, and a German gentleman with whom I was, observed
of something they were teaching, " das ist kein practicables
ding," that is no practicable thing the impression made
at the time has remained on my mind ever since. We
look upon the Germans as a people fond of theories, but
this appeared to me a sensible remark.
The following hints are intended to show to our school-
masters, of the class for which this book is intended, the
importance 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 imme-
diately 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, ao 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,
increasing, 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 bring-
ing it to bear upon their teaching. They will also point
out to others some things with which they may easily make
themselves 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 proper-
ties enable man to turn them to useful purposes, such as
windmills, watermills, etc.
Civilized man is able to take advantage of these proper-
tis, 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 Avinds, stones and rubbish carried down
88 SVGGESTIYE HINTS.
by mountain torrents, but is unable to turn this observation
to any useful purpose.
Archbishop AVhately, 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
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 invented.
" 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 incomplete experi-
ments. It has often occurred to me that the longevity of
the antediluvians may have been a special provision to meet
this difficulty 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 respect of discoveries over a suc-
cession of individuals ; because he will recollect, when the
occasion arises, many of his former observations, and of the
ideas that had occurred to his mind, which, at the time, he
had not thought worth recording. 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."
And first, of the atmosphere a sphere of air surround-
ing the earth has substance and weight, but is invisible
elastic, can be squeezed into a less space by pressure ex-
pands again when the pressure is removed expands by
heat and contracts by cold. This may easily be made in-
telligible 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
horizontally on the surface of the water, in a pneumatic
trough, or in any vessel of sufficient depth, having a shelf
for support, show them, by letting them feel it, the difficulty
XATUKAL PHILOSOPHr. 89
of pressing the jar down it offers resistance increase the
pressure, the air occupies less and less space, hut the water
inside the glass does not rise so high as on the outside ;
difference owing to what ? point out. Diminish the pres-
sure, 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 hy its own weight,
proving clearly that the resistance was offered hy the air.
Again, allow the jar to fill with water, put in the stop-
per, and raise the jar nearly to the surface of the water in the
trough explain why the column of water is supported, and
would he supported if the jar were 33 feet high at the ordi-
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.
"Why is it necessary to have a vent-peg in a barrel ? or
how does it happen that the tea-pot sometimes will not
pour? etc.
Air expands by heat. Experiment : a half-blown bladder
placed before the fire, the wrinkles disappear, the air ex-
panding it ; remove it, the air again contracts.
Place the same under the receiver of an air-pump, it ex-
pands from diminished external 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 weight 31-0117 grains, being for a
cubic yard 4| oz. Balance the bottle when full of air at one
end of the scale-beam ; then take it off and exhaust it by
means of the air-pump, and when again suspended, the other
end of the beam will preponderate ; restore the equilibrium
by pieces of paper, etc.
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
90 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
draw out the air the water immediately rises, and why ?
What takes place if a hole is made in it 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 immediately rises again. Reasons for all this,
which, if they comprehend, they will at once understand
the barometer and common pump.
A model in glass of a common pump will be found a
very instructive piece of apparatus, and if fitted into a
small glass cylinder which can be made air-tight at pleasure
by means of a screw, it becomes a much more useful and
perfect instrument for teachers, as the pump will work or
not, according as the vessel in which the water is, is made
air-tight, or not air-tight.
Again, a piece of wet leather with a string attached,
called a sucker ; press it with the foot against a stone
remove the air between the leather and the stone, leather,
say a square piece three inches on a side, ought to support
9X15 pounds, only supports, say 80 Ibs. reason whyr
The vacuum not complete. Then take a circular piece, three
inches diameter, 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 pop-gun they are in the habit
of making out of apiece of the elder-tree how, by pressing
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
separated 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
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 91
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 ? the temperature at which water 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 ascertain-
ing the height of mountains by means of the barometer.
Why this method is more to be relied on in tropical
climates than in high latitudes, etc.
Pascal, in France, about the year 1647, was the first to
make this experiment, which he did at the summit and
foot of a mountain in Auvcrgne, called Le Puy-de-D6mc,
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 convinced him. of the weight of the atmo-
sphere.
To register the daily altitudes of the barometer, and
the thermometer, would be a very useful exercise for the
pupil-teacher and in its bearings branches out into a great
many things.
The principle of the common pump might now be ex-
plained how the atmospheric pressure which supports
the mercury enables them to pump up water having
a model of a pump, or even with paper and pasteboard,
showing 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, etc.
Supposing the atmospheric pressure about 15 Ibs. 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 recourse to the two-foot rule ; pressure on the animal
body, etc., and how counteracted. A fish under water has
the pressure of the air, 1 5 Ibs. on the 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.
92 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
Children 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 prin-
cipally 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 diffusion 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 atmospheric air ;
a cubic inch of water at the common atmospheric pressure
forming about 1 700 cubic inches of vapour : therefore a
cubic inch of vapour of water is about -rrW of the weight
of a cubic inch of water a cubic inch of common atmo-
spheric air about -g&v.
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 ;
arranging 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 stands
still and does not rise higher ; the principle on which a
balloon ascends, a soap-bubble, etc.
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 ?
The kind of resistance offered by the air to a falling body
this increases with the density that, under the re-
ceiver of an air-pump, a guinea and a feather would fall at
the same time.
XATTJRA.L PHILOSOPHY.
93
As a simple experiment, showing the effect of rarefac-
tion of air, the teacher might light a piece of paper, and
while burning, place it in a tea-cup, and invert the cup in
a saucer of water the water will immediately be driven
into the cup with a gurgling noise.
Again, in the practice which cooks' have of putting an
inverted tea-cup 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 becomes rarefied, and is 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 its being put in motion
a breeze, a hurricane, etc. ; 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
10
20
40
80
123
492
1-968
7-872
31-488
Gentle wind.
Brisk gale.
Very brisk.
High wind.
Hurricane.
It will be easy to calculate the force of the wind acting
on a given surface, doing so in particular cases will be in-
structive.
Air as a vehicle of sound.
A bell under the receiver of an air-pump when ex-
hausted, is not heard.
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, etc.
Here having to do with the instruction of children en-
94 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
gaged in country occupations, I hare called their attention
in this, as in other subjects, to things coining 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 se-
conds to get to your ear as when multiplied by 1 142, would
give the number of feet between you and the man cutting
down the tree.
For instance, if it were 2", his distance would be
1142ft. x 2 ; if 3", 1142 x 3, and so on.
Did you ever see a man firing a gun at a distance, and
after seeing the flash, wonder 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 off? 5 x
1142 ; 6", how far?- 6 X 1142, 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 betwixt this and Portsmouth ?
Supposing a man was standing where you could see
him a 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 dis-
turbs the air immediately about it, or the hatchet causes a
vibration or tremulous motion in the wood, which sets the
air in motion all round about ; and this makes a sort of cir-
cular wave, beginning from a point which gradually en-
MTU UAL PHILOSOPHY. 05
largos, one circle of the air of the atmosphere strikicg
against another, until it reaches the ear, unless it meets
with some hindrance in the way ; just as when you throw
a stone into a smooth pond, a wave, beginning 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 hoy
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
carpenter's shop, set one of the boys to scz-atch 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, etc.
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 \vilh a ham-
mer 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 distance, and hear sooner than through the air.
Did you ever hear what is called an echo ?
Supposing you were to clap your hands violently toge-
ther, 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 rock, or any obstacle in its way, it is checked and
96 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
beaten 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 at-
mosphere. 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 becomes ice ? Water from the tempe-
rature of about 39, expands 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 pul-
verizing and making them fit for vegetation good for
gardens, etc.
" That water contracts in reducing the temperature to
about 40, and below that again expands, is easily shown,
by taking two equal thermometers, 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 are adjusted,
is 62 of Fahrenheit." Daniel's " Chemical Philosophy."
Quicksilver, unlike water in this respect, contracts and
becomes 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
SAUJRAX PHILOSOPHY. 97
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 raised up in winter by the 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 moisture, split after frost parts of
buildings peel off, etc.
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 machinery for spinning and
weaving, of steam-boats, etc., and as a motive power on.
our railroads, carrying us forty or fifty miles in an hour.
If cooled below 212 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 tea-kettle, 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, ^o 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.
98 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
Did you ever see sugar or salt melted in water ? !N"o,
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 un dissolved. If the tem-
perature of the water were increased, it would take up
more; in the same way the air 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, etc.
the quantity of watery vapour in the air in hot climates
greater than in cold, hence torrents of rain when it is
suddenly cooled, etc.
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 temperatm-e it is
held up, and is not so sensible to us. 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
absorbed by the soil or to evaporate.
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 ? Drives 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
NATUIUL PHILOSOPHY. 99
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 : fill a small phial with water, leaving
room for a bubble of air, 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
division full of mercury, the other of water, and the par-
tition suddenly withdrawn, what happens ? The mercury
immediately 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 bed-room. 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 themselves, expand as they rise, come
suddenly to the top, the water being of equal tem-
perature throughout. Why does the bubble expand
as 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
are then lost before coming to the surface.
The air in that part of the water in contact with the
bottom of the saucepan, immediately begins to feel addi-
tional warmth, forms a bubble, rises up a little way, and
although the pressure is diminished, it becomes again com-
pressed, in consequence of coming in contact with cooler
water as it rises. This it is, I 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 chalk or salt in it ?
100 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
The water would go into vapour, and the chalk or salt be
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 niters as it
is a fluid in which many things are soluble ; thus, we get
water with chalk in it when you boil it, the 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 car-
bonic 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, etc.
Two fluids mixed together, which become vapours at
different 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
JfATTJEAL PHILOSOPHY. 101
137 that a difference of 1 in the boiling-point corre-
sponds 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 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 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 con-
densed, 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 ap-
plication of cold makes the water boil.
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.
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 differ-
ence in the process, in attempting to heat water by placing
the fire above and not under the vessel containing it. The
conducting power of fluids is very small, and it has been
found that water may be made to boil in the upper part of
a tube, without imparting much heat to the water below it,
and that it maybe brought to the boiling-point within one
fourth of an inch of ice, without the latter immediately
melting ; and that ice is melted eighty times slower when
it is fixed at the bottom of a cylindrical vessel with water
above it, than when it floats upon the surface of warm
water.
Salt is got from sea- water by exposing it to the air in
102 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 hetter than
deep, and why ? Do you not observe the water lessen very
much iu 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 rapidly dries the hay,
corn, and 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, etc. ;
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 solu-
tion 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 saltpetre 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.
Dew. When it is once understood that the air of the
atmosphere 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 it-
self, that it will throw down some of its moisture.
During the daytime the earth, plants, etc., 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
XATDKAL PHILOSOPHY. 103
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. 2fow, some plants and
some leaves and earths give off heat faster than others ; on"
such a more copious dew will be deposited. On the con-
trary, gravelled walks, stone, etc., give off heat less ra-
pidly, and on them little or no dew falls.
This all know from experience, or at least may easily
ascertain 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, etc. "Why they
disappear in the morning, again becoming vapour.
Little or no dew on cloudy nights : why ? An umbrella
overhead in an evening prevents the falling of dew on the
person, on the clothes : the philosophy of this the clouds
are an umbrella, and the reason why no dew falls on a
cloudy night applies to the umbrella held over the head.
Any schoolmaster taking an interest in this subject will
see some very simple but curious and instructive experi-
ments in Griffiths's " Chemistry of the Four Seasons."
They consist in taking equal portions of dry wool, of a
given weight, and placing 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 sun-
rise 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 phenomena connected with this
subject easy of explanation such as the mists, the fogs
rising in damp, marshy places, following the course of a
river, and many appearances of a like kind, which those
living in the country are in the habit of witnessing, 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.
The force with which the absorption of moisture by
porous bodies causes them to expand, is much greater
104 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
than those who have never thought on the subject have an
idea of.
As an instance of this, and of turning it to practical
purpose, 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 sufficiently large is found, it is cut into a cylinder
several feet high, and the question then arises how to sub-
divide this into horizontal pieces, so as to make as many
millstones. For this purpose horizontal indentations or
grooves arc chiselled out quite round the cylinder, at dis-
tances 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 pro-
cess : 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
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 105
fracture. Square blocks of six feet in the side, and up-
wards of eighty feet in length, are sometimes detached by
this method.
The following practical way of giving an insight into the
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 :
They* 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 dis-
charge 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 which 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, etc., 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 immediately begins to flow into the smaller vessel,
and when it has ceased to do so, the height at which it
stands is observed. They then calculate the number of
cubic inches of water displaced.
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, temperature about 62, is 1000 ozs., and
why it is necessary to specify the temperature they cal-
culate, for instance, the weight of a cubic inch, by dividing
1000 by 1728, the number of inches in a foot.
Then multiplying the weight of one inch by the number
of inches, this gives the weight of water displaced, and the
weight of the wood.
* This is speaking of the boys in King's Somborne school.
106 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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.
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, etc.
Also in winter, pieces of ice aiford a teacher who under-
stands the subject an opportunity of giving a useful lesson
pointing out how water becomes solid at a particular
temperature 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, etc., than one at 32, and so on.
The teacher might ask such a question, 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 loading 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 vessel 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.
JfATUEAL PHILOSOPHY.
107
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 thickness 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 regard to safety being had), 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, etc. ; 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, etc.
The number of things which the principles connected
with floating bodies may be called upon to illustrate is
very great.
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, etc., suspended on a cord 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 T
Sea water is.. 1-028
Platina 22-069
Gold 19-258
Mercury 13-586
Standard silver 10-474
Lead 11-352
Brass . , , 8-396
8'788
Coal
. 1-250
Tin .
7-291
Oil
. . . -940
Iron (cast)
7-207
Oak . ...
. . . -925
Iron (bar)
7-788
Ash
. . . -845
Zinc
7-100
Maple . . .
. . . -765
Flint glass
3-329
Elm ..
. . . '600
2-700
Fir
. . . -550
Ivorv .
1-825
Cork..
240
108 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 difference
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 com-
paring one thing with another makes them think. Also why
distilled water is a standard that water varies in weight
with the substances it 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
1000
them show that the weight of a cubic inch = , and
1728
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=11,352 ozs.,
of iron 1000 ozs. X 7'788, or 7788 ozs., o*f 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, etc.
The following questions of a practical kind may suggest
others :
What is the weight of a block of marble, granite, etc.,
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.
NATUKAL PHILOSOPHY. 109
A given number of feet of oak, elm, ash, etc. ? 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 the scholar will be easily made to calculate
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 practice, contrive accordingly
strengthening their machinery, etc., adapting it to the work
required to be done.
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 in-
creased 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, etc.
Having given the volume and the specific gravity of the
fluid in which they are moving, to calculate 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 is 11,352, and deducting 1000 ozs.,
the weight of a cubic foot of water, which is the weight
lost by the lead, gives 10,352, 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 ofi\ supposing
no resistance from friction on the pile ? About y'sths of its
own weight.
From this to explain how it is that the sand, stone,
110 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
sliingle, etc., are so easily tossed about on the sea-shore
how the human body floats, etc.
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 quick-
silver, and causes six cubic feet to run over, what is its
weight? Would it sink? "Would a statue offcast 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 connection 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 connection ?
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 Ibs. when weighed
in air ; the weight of a cubic inch of air being about -g^th
part 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, etc., is a good exercise.
How many cubic inches in a pint? 34-659.
in a quart ?
in a gallon, etc. ?
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 os a
PHILOSOPHY. Ill
standard instead of water, the weight of which is ahout 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 a f<S? or 1-25 oz. ; ten feet will be 12-5 ozs., 100 feet
125 ozs., etc.; 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, etc.
In the Boys' school at Somborne there is a barometer
and a thermometer, which they are in the habit of observ-
ing ; registering the height when they go in, and noticing
the course of 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, etc.
The subject of heatf is one of great interest, and one
on which the teacher may bring to bear a variety of expe-
riments not attended with much expense, and having this
additional recommendation, that they have an intimate
relation with many of the comforts and conveniences of
life.
* I was told by an experienced fanner in the county of Cambridge,
that he believed the average period of harvest in that county was
earlier by ten days, within the memory of man, owing to improved
drainage.
f The volume on heat in Lardner"s " Cyclopaedia" will be found
a very useful book for the schoolmaster, and as an introduction to
practical science for pupil teachers.
112 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 eifect 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 tempe-
rature varies in different kinds of matter ; air and the gases
expand most, fluids next, and then solids.
Instances of each have been mentioned as a full kettle
swelling and flowing over 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 for 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 iu
this the sense 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 con-
fined are veiy bad conductors ; metals varying in degree
among each others 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, etc., are bad ones, so that a
NATTTEA.L PHILOSOPHY. 113
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, heing rather a thick and a porous substance com-
pared 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 bed-rooms of those covered with slate
are in the summer extremely hot, and in winter equally
cold.
Slate, again, would be better than iron.
The teacher would do well to observe the variety of fur
and hair in animals, varying with the climates they inhabit ;
in warm climates the hairy coat of animals being short and
thin, in the cooler ones becoming thick and woolly. The
birds of colder regions that live in the air, have a much
greater quantity of plumage than those of the warmer ones ;
water fowl, such as ducks, geese, etc., have the interstices
between their feathers filled up with down, more particu-
larly 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 con-
sequence 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.
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 pre-
served. "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 potato-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 potato spoiled ; hence the
necessity of covering them with bad conductors not to
make the soil over them a solid, but as light as possible.
i
114 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
On the same principle, a covering of snow is a great
protection, 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 thermometer is even down to zero, yet the tem-
perature 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, etc. 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 tea-pots made of metal, etc., belong to the same prin-
ciple.
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 effect 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 hooping wheels ; he makes
the hoop a little too small, heats it red hot, 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 rivetting
bolts, etc. the experiment of iron bars bringing the oppo-
site sides of a building to an upright position from leaning
outwards.
I am told, in testing the anchors in the dockyard at
Portsmouth, that the largest anchors have a strain on them
of perhaps 150 tons, and being in length about 30 feet, and
* See p. 215.
NATPEAL PHILOSOPHY. 115
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.
A bar (whose length at 32 is taken at unity) of the
following substances will, when heated to 212, the boiling-
point of water at the ordinary pressure of the atmosphere,
expand : glass, TiVe of its length ; steel about -g&r ; iron,
Trb; copper, &; silver, ^; tin, ^; lead, ji r ; or a
rod of iron whose length (temperature 32 D ) is 846 inches,
will, at the heat of boiling water, expand one inch, and
become 847 ; tin, length 462 inches, would become 463.
The difference between the heat of summer and winter
will cause such a variation in the length of the ordinary
seconds pendulum as to 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 un-
equal expansion of the metal on the sunny and shady sides.
The teacher will point out the various uses to which iron
can be applied how useful from its extending under the
hammer 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 together 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, part 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 substances of different conducting powers, a
piece of marble, stone, wood, wool, flax, cotton, etc., point-
ing 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 affect it equally) : Because iron is
a better conductor of heat than wood or any of the others :
116 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
;eing very cold in frosty weather, and much colder than
/our 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 sensation; if
you hold the iron long enough, it will get the same degree
of warmth as the hand, and the unpleasant effect will 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, etc., 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 deceives
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 a piece of wood, exposed in the same way im-
mediately turns black ; the iron being so good a conductor
does not allow the heat to rest with the paper, but imme-
diately takes it away, etc. ; 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 sub-
stances would immediately burn.
Experiment. Metallic rods of equal lengths and sub-
stance, one end of each smeared with bees' -wax, and im-
mersed in a heated fluid, the heat travels along each rod,
from particle to particle, and the one on which the wax
melts first 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 which the rods conduct the
heat.
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
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 117
water, drop sand into it, and a double current will be
observed, one down-wards 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.
Glass a solid, can be softened by heat, so as to be
drawn out into a fine thread allows light to pass through
it ; in what way does man turn this property to his use ?
"Windows, lanterns, spectacles, telescopes, etc. ; 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, etc.
"Why will 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 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 almost instantaneously
raised to the same temperature hence chemists use thin
retorts.
On the subject of metals used for the various pur-
poses of social life, the class teachers for whom these
pages are intended may give a great deal of useful instruc-
tion.
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
* The following question is very suggestive, as an application of a
domestic kind: one joint of meat is roasted, another is baked on a
hot metallic plate heated by connection with the bars of the kitchen
fire, and a third is boiled ; in what way is the heat transmitted in
each case by which these joints are cooked?
118 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
what is called a rich one, in another so small as scarcely to
make it worth working anything peculiar in the way in
which metallic veins run, not being stratified, etc. depth
of mines the number of workmen employed in the mining
of any particular ore. the method and necessity of trans-
porting it from the place where it is found for the purpose
of smelting, either from the people not knowing how or
for want of coal, etc. great inconvenience of this in a
commercial point of view, from having to transport so largo
a proportion of the ore which is useless (there may be
other substances mixed with it which are useful).
"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 transport will depend. A country
must, however, have reached a high degree of civili-
zation 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 be 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}.
Again, the mode of separating the metal from the diffe-
rent ores in some cases breaking it into small pieces and
roasting it thus driving off volatile substances, which be-
come 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 olt'
into moulds called pigs, sows, etc., by the workmen*
XATTTKAI, PHILOSOPHY. 119
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 tempe-
rature 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, etc.,
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 pur-
poses 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 the 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, etc.
Again, a union of 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
sometimes other metals, and used for casting statues,
cannon, bells, etc; of the latter, and 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 circumstance of its dissolving completely
many of the less valuable 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
120 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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-
perature 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 suf-
ficient heat the lead carries off the silver in its fusion, and
leaves the copper in a spongy lump the silver is after-
wards 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 hammer-
ing, 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 operation 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.
Again, on the absorption and radiation of heat by differ-
ent substances a few useful lessons may be given, and the
simple and well-known experiments of Leslie, which are
easily tried, may be made veiy instructive.
From these it is shown that smooth polished surfaces of
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 121
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 black-
ening 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 sur-
face would remain 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 water, and place the 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. Professor 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 ther-
mometer rose, and thus ascertained the radiating power of
each particular covering.
Lampblack 100
Writing-paper 98
Tarnished lead 45
Clean lead 19
Iron, polished 15
Tin-plate 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
* See List of Apparatus at the end of the volume.
122 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
substances, 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 reflec-
tors is a very curious one, and they are well worth the
expense of purchasing, in order to try the experiment,
from the instruction it gives. A pair of these reflectors is
a useful apparatus in a school.
Although heat is emitted from every point in the sur-
face of a hot body in all directions, it is not emitted in all
directions with the same intensity. The intensity of the
heating ray is as the sine of the angle which it makes with
the surface, and therefore those rays have the greatest
heating power which are emitted at an angle of 90.
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 de-
pends 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 example, 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.
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, etc., 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 tea-pots 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 ther-
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 123
mometer 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 purposes 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 tea-pot 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-points 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 3 ?
When 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 expan-
sive force increased ? Simply as the temperature, or in a
higher ratio ?
124 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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.
At what temperature does water vaporize ?
What do you mean by saying that a liquid boils ?
Describe the relation between the boiling power of a
liquid and the pressure of the atmosphere above it
specify the effect on this boiling-point.
1. By artificially attenuating") ,,. atmoBT)lMire
2. By artificially condensing J
What is high-pressure steam ?
"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
degrees below the freezing-point, but if shaken, ice would
immediately 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 in-
stance, the mass is cooled to 10 below the freezing-point,
then only T\th is immediately frozen, and in becoming
solid it has given out sufficient heat to raise the tempera-
ture of the rest up to the point of freezing.
The circumstance of water, when cooled below 39 of
Fahrenheit, expanding when further reduced in tempera-
ture, should be noticed this is shown from ice being
lighter than water 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 is also a bad conductor.
Why can the human body bear to be brought in contact
NAjrtTBAL PHILOSOPHY. 125
with air at a much higher temperature than with a fluid
with a fluid than with a solid, such as hot iron ?
A fluid hoils, when its temperature is raised to such a
point that the elasticity of its vapour is sufficient to over-
come the pressure which is acting upon it : whether from
the cohesiveness 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
chemically united with it. All soluble salts retard the boil-
ing point of water, and substances, such as starch, mechani-
cally mixed with it, retard its cooling.*
The processes in the arts and manufactures carried on
by distillation and evaporation should be noticed. The con-
tinual evaporation going on at all temperatures from every
part of the surface of the globe land and water, animal
and vegetable increasing the transparency of the atmo-
sphere, sometimes 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 vegetable world.
Formation of vapour absorbs heat, and therefore pro-
duces cold instance a wet towel applied to the temples in
case of headache sometimes wrapped round a bottle con-
taining anything 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, etc. That evaporation pro-
* The reader will see some interesting tables on the freezing and
boiling points of liquids, etc., on the melting-points of solids, such as
fat, metals, etc., at the end of the volume on Heat in Lardner's " Cy-
clopaedia;" as also ou their expansions, at different temperatures.
See pp. 214216.
126 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
duced 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 mer-
cury 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 passing the cane between heavy rollers ; this contains,
besides sugar, a great deal of water the water is driven
off by boiling will go away slowly by evaporation.
A current of air over anything that is wet, takes the
moisture up in vapour, as it passes over the surface ; this
changing the wet upon anything into vapour is called eva-
poration, 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 because there is a greater evapora-
tion on that side of the finger than 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 ink-
stand ? 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 in the room coming in contact with the
glass, which is cold from being in contact with the cold air
of the atmosphere, 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
NA1TJRAL PHILOSOPHY. 127
drops on the wood. What becomes of it ? Point out how
it is perhaps first absorbed by the wood is changed again
into vapour again mixes with the atmosphere reappears
in rain fertilizes the fields, etc.
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 temperature it is immediately condensed the
teacher would be able to explain many of the more impor-
tant 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 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, etc.
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 temperature, becomes so great as to endanger
its bursting the valve opens (or ought to do), at a pressure
much below that which 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, etc. ; 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-
128 StTGGESTlVE HINTS.
surface of the boiler above the water would become heated
in a very high degree ; danger from this in an engine not
stationary, as in a steam-boat, of the water, from the rolling
motion of the boat, being thrown over the heated surface,
and all converted into steam, and an explosion taking 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 in a bushel of coals, properly consumed, to raise
seventy millions of pounds weight a foot high. This is
actually the average effect of an engine at this moment
working in Cornwall. Let us pause a moment and con-
sider 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 combus-
lion 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
medium height of about 120 feet above the sea. The con-
sumption of seven bushels of coals 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 inte-
resting kind.
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 129
A jet of steam issuing outwards in any direction, but
suppose vertically from an orifice, will ascend into the air,
with greater or less force, according to its temperature and
elasticity, 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 attracting
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
attracted in a slanting direction, and the angle which the
flame makes with the axis of the jet increases as the dis-
tance 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 influence of the jet, when it of course
assumes a vertical position.
This is better shown by taking a circular piece of iron,
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 ap-
pearance ; here it will set itself at right angles to the jet,
and appear a flat disk of flame. Above this point the flame
will again become a conical surface, until, being further ele-
vated, it gets beyond the influence of the jet, and assumes
an undisturbed position.
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 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
130 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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. disk, of a
few inches diameter, through the centre of which the
tubular opening runs, then blowing violently through it,
and placing anotfier piece of pasteboard, or tin, over the
opening from, which the air proceeds, it will be found to
be violently attracted ; if the apparatus be turned down-
wards, 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
account in his teaching.
That some bodies, such as the sun, the stars, flame of
all kinds, bodies heated to a red heat, are self-luminous,
possessing in themselves the power of throwing oif 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.
Why does the light passing through a window light the
whole room, and not appear a mere column or 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,
etc., according as the panes may be circles, squares, dia-
monds, etc., with dark spaces of the thickness of the bars
of the window between each column of light ; so that a
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 131
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 ?
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 the 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 shado\vs.
The shadow of a flat circle, when held slantingly, would
differ, etc. How ? what would it be when the circle is
held with its plane perpendicular to tbe 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 quantity 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
132 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
coincide ; it \vill be seen that this 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
shadowed surface.
When light falls upon any body whatever, part of it is
reflected, part of it absorbed, and either lost in it, or pro-
ceeds through it ; Avhen on a brightly polished surface,
most of it is reflected, and the remainder lost, when on
glass or water, very little is reflected, and the greater part
transmitted through it.
" 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 some-
times 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 waters reflected only one fifty-fifth
part of the light falling perpendicularly 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.
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 square of the distance increases ; a person standing
near a fire (the heat given out remaining constant), if he
NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 133
remove to twice the distance, will only receive } of the
warmth, at three times only , at four times -rV ; the same
of light.
Light falling on polished metals, or any polished sur-
face, is reflected at an angle made between the reflected
raj, and a perpendicular to the reflecting surface, which is
equal to the angle which the incident ray makes with the
same perpendicular.
A glass mirror reflects the light while the heat is
absorbed; but a metallic mirror reflects both light and
heat, so that it is not quickly warmed, unless its surface is
blackened.
When a ray of light falls perpendicularly, it is sent
back in the same line.
The image of an object, placed before a plane mirror,
appears to be at an equal distance from the glass with the
object, but on the opposite 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 direc-
tion 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 num-
ber 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, etc., but, on entering, is bent at the sur-
face ; 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
downwards 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 ap-
pears elevated, 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
134 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
the basin, keep the head in that position, and let some one
pour water into the basin, and the shilling will gradually
appear parts of the bottom surface of the basin will come
in sight which before were not visible. If spirits of wine
were used for this experiment, the shilling will appear
more raised, and if oil still more ; but in none of these
cases will it be thrown aside to the right or to the left of
its true place, however the eye be situated.
The ray having once entered one of these transparent
substances, 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. The different 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.
A ray of light from the stm, when it enters the atmo-
sphere, 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 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 1hat in the vertical, that the sun's
light is diminished 1000 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 dif-
ferent degrees the light falling upon them. The clearest
crystal, the purest air or water, stop some 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 bottom of very
deep water, and there are more stars visible to the naked
eye from the tops of mountains than from the valleys : the
JfATTJEAL PHILOSOPHY. 135
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 decomposing 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 in the atmosphere
varying, objects at the same distance at one time appear
more distinct and larger than at another.
The experiment of letting light from the sun fall on a
triangular prism of glass, will interest seeing the separa-
tion 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 par-
ticular 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 the 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 circle, 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 second, 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.
136 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
Of the same kind a meteor, called a falling star, which
.is a luminous point in rapid motion the motion of a
rocket, etc.
The following is a very instructive experiment: Take
a circular disk 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 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.
" It has generally been supposed, since the time of
Newton, that when the rays of light are separated as com-
pletely as possible by means of refraction, they exhibit
seven varieties of colour, relating 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 observations were, however, imperfect, and the analogy
wholly imaginary. Dr. "Wollaston has determined the divi-
sion 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 together 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.
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
NATITBAL PHILOSOPHY. 137
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 assistance 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 effort which every one whose sight is beginning to
fail feels himself making in order to read, or see anything
which is indistinct, is to bring the lens of the eye into such
a form, that the image may be formed in its proper place.
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 bed-room window
on a bright morning, causing a sort of involuntary effort of
the eye to contract, and exclude part of the light reflec-
tion of light from snow causing pain, etc.
Owls, etc., and animals which see well at night, having
the 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.
Sir John Herschel, in his " Discourse on the Study of
Natural Philosophy," mentions, among others not less
striking, the following instance of theory and pure mathe-
matical analysis leading to results such as no ordinary
practical reasoning would be able to get at, being contrary,
as it were, to one's every-day experience.
138 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
<l An eminent living geometer had proved by calcula-
tions founded on strict optical principles, that in the centre
of the shadow of a small circular plate of metal, exposed in
a dark room to a beam of light emanating from a very
small brilliant point, there ought to be no darkness in
fact, no shadoiv, at that place; but on the contrary, a
degree of illumination precisely as bright as if the metal
plate were away. Strange and even impossible as this con-
clusion may seem, it has been put to the trial and found
perfectly correct.
" Cases like this," he justly adds, " are the triumph of
theories." HERSCHEL'S Discourse on Nat. Phil.
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 heavenlj- bodies that this
is caused in part by a real motion of the spectator, which
lie 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 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 are 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 distances 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
ASTEONOMT. 139
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 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 ; other-
wise, if she were a luminous body, she would always appear
the same, etc.
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 im-
parting 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 1'ght,
And gave us back the morn r
'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 terrestial globe,* they should be made to
understand the two motions of the earth, one iu its orbit
causing the variations of the seasons, the other of rotation,
causing day and night, and that this motion on its axis from
* " 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.
140 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
west to east causes an apparent motion of the sun and stars
from east to west.
Turning the globe from west to cast (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
small circle, and that every point which is more distant
describes a larger one, till we reach the equator, any point
on which describes a great circle, and that from the equator
to the south pole these circles go on decreasing.
Hence the teacher would call attention to the tendency
which a body would have to fly off from the surface of the
earth, caused hy this rotation that the more rapid the
motion, 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 Avould 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 vfa of its
weight.
This tendency to fly off is always at right angles to a
perpendicular to the axis of rotation, and at the equator is
at right angles to the direction of gravity.
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 per-
pendicular which is the cosine of the latitude; at the equa-
tor 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.
"Why is a bird in its flight not left behind by this rota-
tion 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- wheels in rapid motion over dirty roads
the water from a wet 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
ASTRONOMY. 141
any point on the surface of the earth in twenty-four hours,
or in any given time ; that any point must revolve from
west to east, and will in a complete revolution describe the
parallel of latitude in which it is ; giving them the length
of a degree of longitude in that latitude, they would work
out the arithmetic of it, and for one, two, three, etc., hours,
as the case may be ; ask what points on the earth's surface
describe the greatest space, and what the least, in twenty-
four hours ?
The diiference between the polar and equatorial diame-
ter. 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 parallel 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
different 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 pro-
perties of a circle and of a globe, that the circumferences
of circles vary as their diameters, the areas as the squares ;
and that the solid contents of spheres vary 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 sur-
face 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
142 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
/
pleased with this discovery, that he ordered a sphere in-
scribed 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 eleva-
tion 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 overhead.
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 instance, the constellation of the Great Bear, and how
to find the pole-star from it ; others, as Capella in Auriga,
etc., 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 surface 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 ri$^ 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 (Eomalhaut) 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 Acturus,
Kegulus, Antares in the Scorpion, etc., marking those in
ASTEONOMY. 143
and near the ecliptic point out also the direction of the 1
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, etc., or particular parts of the heaven where the
more remarkable stars are to be found, at hours when they
may themselves observe them where they will be at eight,
nine o'clock, etc., near the horizon in the east or that
they must turn their faces to the south, the west, etc., 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 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 appa-
rent distances from the pole-star watching those which
never set, in their highest and lowest points, beginning in
the east ; 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 one 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
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, etc., would be solid substances, capable of being
quarried out in blocks like Aberdeen granite gases would
become solid, etc.
Then to point out their respective distances from the sun
their periods of revolution in their orbits their satellites,
etc. the exactness with which astronomers are able to
make all these calculations changes of the moon and her
different phases.
That tf the plane of the orbit in which the moon moves
144 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 en-
tirely 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 1 3 daily from the sun
that a day or two after the change we see a small crescent
of light, concave towards the east ; this goes on increasing
daily with her angular distance from the sun, until she ap-
pears 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 successive 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 difference in time between successive risings of
what is called the Harvest Moon, is less than at any other
time of the year. That the orbit in which the earth moves
is noi^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 direc-
tion 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 fall still
more slantingly than on those turned to the south or on a
horizontal plain, and in such situations less warmth will be
ASTBONOMY. 145
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 in-
clination 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 8| 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 the |th part of a second a space which would
take the quickest bird three weeks to fly over.
Again, 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, etc. :
how the ^jriod of time we call a year does not consist of
au exact 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 abvays
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 some-
times before, and sometimes behind solar time.
That the time of the earth's making a complete revolu-
tion 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.
" Hipparchus, the most celebrated astronomer of an-
tiquity, and who lived about a century and a-half before
Christ, first paid great attention to the rising and setting of
146 SUGGESTIVE HIKTS.
the stars; tie 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 5 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 only 92-^ from the same sol-
stice, to the autumnal equinox and that therefore the sum
remained 187 days in that part of the ecliptic which lies
north of the equator, and only 1 78 in the other part."
Laplace concludes that the mean heat of the earth can-
not be altered by 1 of Keaumur since the time of Hippar-
chus, inasmuch as the dimensions of the globe would be
thereby changed in a small amount, its angular velocity in-
creased or diminished, and a sensible difference be made in
the length of the day and this is found not to be the case.
On the subject of Eclipses. There is no jjtcnomenon
connected with the appearances and motions of the hea-
venly bodies which creates so much astonishment among
those who have never thoiight on the subject, as an eclipse
of the sun or moon. ; and that the time of its huving hap-
pened, or of its 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 suffi-
cient 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.
Now an eclipse happens in consequence of one of the
opaque bodies, the earth and the moon, being so placed as
to prevent a 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 ab-
solute time to all observers longitiide 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,
147
What is meant by the transit of a planet over the sun's
disk ? 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 ?
Pacts of this kind, when understood, many of which,
they will be able afterwards to verify by their own obser-
vation, 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 ! lift your glance
To yon bright firmament'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.
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, child of clay!
Amid creation's grandeur, say ?
E'en as an insect on the breeze,
3?en as a dew-drop lost in seas !
148 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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.
CHEMISTEY.
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 the
teachers of 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 attract 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 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 prac-
tical education, preparing them for the duties of this life
as well as for a future existence, this difficulty 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, independent of
those moral considerations which ought never to be lost
sight of.
CHEMISTRY. 149
The first object of the fanner is to produce food for man
and beast in the cheapest way he can to get the most
productive crops, at the least possible expense; and al-
though experience is not to be despised, yet assisted by
science, much more may be done than without it this it
is difficult to persuade the farmers; some knowledge of
manures, they think, may be 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 suc-
cessfully 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,
which remains after combustion, in the form of ashes, and
called inorganic 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 the seed, after it is sown and
germinates, as well 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 pro-
portion to the deficiency 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 atmospheric influences to supply ?
To this, science gives an answer the farmer judges from
experience 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 atmosphere, 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.
150 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
A knowledge of the particular substances which a crop
of any kind, as wheat, barley, *tc., 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 sub-
stances on the land as manure such substances as did
not contain the particular 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 therefore goes by guess if he hits upon a
favourable soil he pronounces in its favour ; if not, it is con-
demned; 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 expen-
sive mode of trying it burning the plant, examining the
ashes, and analysing the soil in which it is intended to
be tried, 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 sub-
stance thrown on the ground may contain the ingredient
wanted, it may not contain it in such a form that the plant
can avail itse]^ of it. Here, again, science steps in, and
teaches thatthe nourishment which the 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
therefore it will be necessary to use such manures as are
soluble in water by the rains which fall, or which, from
exposure to the atmosphere, become so that after decom-
position every animal and vegetable substance returns in
one shape or other the organic parts through the atmo-
sphere in a gaseous form the inorganic as solid substances
thrown upon the ground, for the future nourishment of
plants, and through them, of animals.
CHEMISTRY. 151
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, etc. ; are formed in the plants ;
the stomachs of animals dissolve the compound substances
into their proximate principles, they circulate through the
blood, and are thus assimilated 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 fat on his bones.
In all these cases, from knowing the composition of the
different vegetable substances, such as turnips, swedes,
mangel-wurzel, different kinds of hay, etc., there is some-
thing of a guide as to what plants would be best suited for
auy particular purpose.
The fanner knows that one grass field is better than
another for young stock, for milk, for fattening, etc., which
is nothing more than that the grasses in one field are of
that kind which have more in them of those substances of
which bone, or muscle, etc., is made in another more of the
substance of milk and in the third of fatty matter j 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, etc., in the atmosphere wet and cold seasons, etc.,
on vegetation that a great deal of rain has a tendency on
many soils to produce more straw in our cereal crops than
dry weather, etc. : 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 anything else. Of all occupations it
is that which is most natural to man, and that without
which we cannot exist.
152 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
When a knowledge has been obtained of the simple ele-
ments of which vegetable matter is composed, and of the
substances, 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 Johnson, in his "Chemical Catechism,"
"100 Ibs. of wheaten flour contain about 50 Ibs. of starch,
10 Ibs. of gluten, and 2 or 3 Ibs. of oil.
" In 100 Ibs. of oats there are about 60 Ibs. of starch,
16 Ibs. of gluten, and 6 Ibs. of oil.
"In 100 Ibs. of potatoes, about 75 Ibs. of water, and
from 15 to 20 Ibs. of starch; and in 100 Ibs. of turnips
there are about 88 Ibs. of water.
" And of animal substances, 100 Ibs. of butter contain
from 10 to 12- Ibs. of water, about 1 Ib. of curd ; the rest
is fat.
"100 Ibs. of cheese contain from 30 to 45 Ibs. of water ;
skim -milk cheese from 6 to 10 Ibs. per cent, of butter ;
full-milk cheese from 20 to 30 Ibs. 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 observations. This shows the change which takes
place in the proximate elements of barley, in the process
of malting :
Composition Composition
of Barley. of Malt.
Starch . ... 598 431
Gluten 57 12
Albumen 4
Diastasse
Sugar 46 154
Guin 44 150
Oil 4 4
Salts 5 5
Husk 136 136
Water 106 106
1000 1000
CHEMISTEY.
153
The most remarkable change being of a large quantity of
starch into the substances sugar and gum.
The following, showing the functions of animals and
vegetables, suggests many useful hints :
AN ANIMAL IS AM
Apparatus of combustion
Is locomotive
Burns carbon
,, hydrogen
,, ammonia
Exhales carbonic acid
water
., ammonia
,, nitrogen
Consumes nitrogenous matter
., fatty matter
., starch, sugar
gum, alcohol, etc.
oxygen
Produces heat
electricity
Restores to the air and earth
its elements
Changes organized into mineral
matter
A VEGETABLE IS AV
Apparatus of reduction
Is fixed
Reduces carbon
hydrogen
ammonia
Fixes carbonic acid
water
ammonia
nitrogen
Produces nitrogenous matter
fatty matter
starch, sugar
gum, alcohol, etc.
oxygen
Absorbs heat
electricity
Takes from the earth and air
its elements
Changes mineral into organized
matter
An exact knowledge of the nutritive properties of vege-
table substances food for man and beast and the exact
proportions, both quantitative 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
which the Irish have done, in preference to crops of a cereal
kind.
That great permanent benefit will be conferred upon
the farming classes by the introduction of such instruction
into our schools, there can be no doubt, not only in an
increase of produce arising out of improved modes of culture
154
SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 following table, which is an analysis by Dr. Xyon
Playfair of different kinds of food, offers useful hints on
the properties of food, and shows how a mixed diet may
be both more nutritive and healthy than one which is con-
fined either to animal or to vegetable substances only :
Substances used in
Dietary.
Nitrogenous
ingredients.
Substances
free from
Nitrogenous
ingredients.
Mineral
matter.
Carbon.
Bread
07
49
02
25
Cooked meat ....
Carrots
22
01
14
12
oo
01
22
05
Turnips .
02
10
01
05
Potatoes
01
22
01
12
Oatmeal
14
70
'03
44
Barleymeal
14
69
02
41
Peas
23
GO
03
36
Rine
05
85
01
36
Wheat flour
17
GO
00
46
Sugar
00
1-00
00
43
Suet, fat, or btiltei
Milk
00
05
1-00
08
oo
01
79
07
Bacon
08
62
GO
54
Parsnips
02
18
01
09
Cabbage
02
04
02
03
Fish
14
07
01
09
Indian meal
11
75
01
36
Mangold wurzel . .
Cheese
02
31
12
25
01
05
06
37
Cocoa
10
86
03
69
Beer
00
09
00
04
Broth liquor
10
18
. -16
09
This table may also suggest more exact and instructive
methods of teaching other useful lessons, which a teacher
might wish to bring before his school ; and very admirable
CHEMISTRY. 155
and well-executed diagrams, illustrating the properties of
food and other subjects in a similar manner, have been
published by the Board of Science and Art, Kensington,
and are to be had at very reasonable prices, for the use of
schools.
The village schoolmaster who attempts anything of this
kind should, in addition to a general knowledge of the par-
ticular substances which constitute the ordinary crops, be
able to manipulate in a few of the common routine things
in general chemistry in making the ordinary gases, hydro-
gen, oxygen, carbonic-acid gas, etc. to show that this last
is not a simple but a compound substance, and constitutes
nearly one half of all the chalk, limestone, marbles, etc.,
on the earth ; show the weight of a piece of chalk or lime-
stone before and after being burnt into lime the different
specific gravities of the gases that one is combustible
another is a supporter of combustion, and to such a degree
that iron will burn in it that carbonic-acid gas extin-
guishes flame, destroying animal life when breathed into
the lungs danger of sleeping in a close room where char-
coal is burning, or near a lime-kiln, etc. To show that all
these, although the same to the eye, may in other ways be
tested and made out. That ammonia consists of two gases,
nitrogen and hydrogen, and how formed in the decomposi-
tion of plants and animals.
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 enor-
mous ; if all this were set free, extinction of animal life,
etc. ; to suggest any mode of approximating to the weight
of carbonic-acid gas locked up in a given weight of chalk
a cubic foot, for instance by weighing it before being con-
verted into lime, and weighing it afterwards difference in
weight arising from the gases driven off.
Five per cent, of this gas in the atmosphere would be
highly deleterious, and ten per cent, would be entirely de-
structive to animal life.
To make out by experiment that air is not a simple
156 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
body, by burning a taper under a bell-jar over water, etc.,
or a piece of phosphorus, but is made up of oxygen, and
nitrogen, about ^th in bulk being oxygen and Iths nitro-
gen ; also the different compounds which this forms with
oxygen, etc.
That water is not a simple substance, but 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 yet known, are simple substances, and to point out
the more common ones to explain and make them under-
stand what is meant by a salt made up of a base and an acid,
etc. the way in which acids and alkalies act upon vege-
table colours how they neutralize each other, tests for
them, etc.
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 ordi-
nary 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 of quart. Weight of cubic font.
Atmospheric air 21 gr H oa.
Hydrogen IJf -fa
Oxygen 23| 1
Nitrogen 21 1
Carbonic Acid 32 J l/s
CHEMISTRY. 157
The simple fact of showing how these invisible sub-
stances can be handled those which are heavier than
common air. poured from one vessel to another like water
can be pumped out, and even, by a dexterous manipulator,
ladled out by the hands, proving thatthe transfer is really made
by testing in the ordinary way, is of itself most instructive.
The teacher might easily show this in the case of car-
bonic-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 becoming dim, and when sunk a little
'farther it would entirely go out.
To know that the gas given off from the substances
above-named 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. It
will be found very instructive to perform this experiment in
the following way: Balance a glass jar at one end of a scale-
beam, and then allow the carbonic acid to displace the air
of the atmosphere; the end of the beam on which the jar
is suspended will very soon begin to descend, thus showing
the pouring in a heavier air than the one which previously
occupied it a thing not evident to the sight, but made so
in this way : restore the equilibrium by means of pieces of
paper test the height to which the carbonic-acid gas has
risen, by dipping in a lighted paper.
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
SUGSES'i'IYE lil.Vi'S.
equivalents of which are G 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 interpenetration 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 spe-
cifically 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 black and restored carbon.
The mode of weighing a gas lighter than the air of the
atmosphere, would be by inverting the jar, having the
open mouth downwards, and placed at the end of the
balance as before ; in the case of hydrogen, for instance,
allowing it to ascend the inverted jar, it will soon be
shown by the other end of the balance descending it may
be shown to be hydrogen by ladling it out und bringing a
lighted taper into contact with it.
The following experiment, which is easily made, would
show the change which atmospheric air undergoes by being
passed through the lungs :
Take a jar with an air-tight stopper, and such as is 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 carbonic acid will put out a
light, make lime water turbid, etc.
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 one inch takes in about 160, and
eight additional cubic inches for every inch in height is
found to be a very near approximation to what really takes
place in life.
The same may be done by breathing through a bent tube
CHKMISTJU". 159
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 depressing the vessel upon the taper, it will be extin-
guished.
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
13f oz., of which about 7 oz. is solid carbon ; about 63 oz.
by a cow, and about 70 oz. by ahorse ; and that an approxi-
mate calculation founded on this would give about 500
toas, breathed out by the population of London ; and that
the quantity of carbon breathed out by the whole animal
race would be sufficient to supply all the vegetable world
on the surface of the globe.
It has been ascertained by a Swedish philosopher experi-
menting on a healthy man, about thirty-five years of age,
confined in a small chamber into which air entered by a
hole on one side, and examining it after it passed through
at the other, that the carbon ejected per hour was 105 grs.
fasting; 190 grs. after breakfast; 130 when hungry ; 165
two hours after dinner; 160 after tea; and 100 sleeping;
making about 7 oz. daily.
- 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, etc. is returned through the atmosphere
again to assume the form of vegetable life, etc. that a
given weight of wood, for instance, or of any other com-
bustible body, when consumed, if all the parts were col-
lected, would weigh more even than the wood, and why?
that when they burn wood on their own fires, elm will
leave more ashes than beech beech than oak oak than
willow, etc., and that consequently these trees during their
growth carry away different quantities of inorganic matter
160 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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. These are numberless ways of
showing the principle of many of these things, not only in
the arts, etc., which would apply more particularly to
towns, but in the common every-day things of life, whe-
ther 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 discoveries of
a most important kind ; but the two following, from Sir
John Herschel's " Discourse on Natural Philosophy," are
particularly striking : " A soap-manufacturer remarks that
the residuum of his ley, when exhausted of the alkali for
which 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 dis-
covery 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, etc., 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 dis-
orders to which the human species is subject the goitre
which infest the inhabitants of mountainous districts, and
which is 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 promptitude and energy on
goitre (of course, like all medicines, with occasional failures),
as a specific against that odious deformity."
CHEMJSTKY. 161
Another instance affording a safeguard of human life,
and a remedy for a more serious evil : "In needle manu-
factories, the workmen who point needles are constantly
exposed to excessively minute particles of steel which fly
from the grindstones, as the finest dust in the air, and are
inhaled with their breath ; this in time produced a consti-
tutional irritation dependent on the tonic properties of the
steel, which was sure to end in pulmonary consumption :
insomuch, that persons employed 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 magnetized steel
are now constructed, and adapted to the faces of the work-
men. 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, etc.,
are all instances of the application of science to the most
valuable purposes of social life.
So indifferent, from habit, do the miners become, in the
midst of danger, that to those unaccustomed to this class
of life, their conduct appears almost unaccountable. The
following was told me, by a scientific friend, as having
occurred when visiting a mine of a very dangerous cha-
racter :
" The workman carrying the light, when he came to a
particular part of the mine, stopped, and coolly said, ' Now,
sir, if I were to elevate the light a few inches higher, we
should be blown to atoms.' " Meaning the light would
then come in contact with the carburetted hydrogen which,
from its comparative lightness, was floating in the upper
part of the diggings.
This dangerous gas, issuing from fissures in small quan-
tities, and sometimes from beds below those the men are
working, by means of boring is employed as a gas-jet to
light the veins above. Sometimes it is carried to the
162 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
surface of the ground, and a continual fire kept up by it at
the surface.
Of the great usefulness of being acquainted, through
experiment, with facts in science which are of a practical
kind, a knowledge of which, from experience, I am con-
vinced is attainable in our best elementary schools, the
following is a striking instance. The philosophy of it is
very interesting, and 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 where a knowledge of science prevented what
might otherwise 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 an-
nounced on the manufacture of glass, and on the application
of various metallic substances in colouring it, etc.; 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, Professor Faraday
gave a very interesting account of this accident. 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 fireplace, and
were in contact with the bricks; this caused a smell of
fire; water was thrown on the fire in the fireplace to
extinguish it, and while this was being done, a workman
went into the room below, and broke the ceiling at a dis-
tance from the fireplace, 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 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 sufficiently hot to ignite it,
so that the very means taken to extinguish it were adding to
the danger. He then directed the water to be thrown on
the heated substances near the fire, and these being cooled
CHEMISTRY. 163
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 expe-
rienced workman, who had seen experiments on the com-
position 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 kjpd, instead of con-
tinuing to throw water on the fire and on the bricks, he
would immediately 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 science such as these have a direct practical
bearing ; and when it is seen how much of property in
towns, nay, of life itself, may depend upon a knowledge of
them among what are called our more experienced work-
men, their importance will be understood.
A knowledge of elementary chemistry, and of what has
been termed the philosophy of common things, is becoming
every day more and more necessary in the schoolmaster,
and greater facilities for acquiring it are placed within his
reach.
The Training Colleges make it a part of their course of
instruction. The managers of schools are now seeing its
importance ; and influential individuals who take an inte-
rest in promoting a good practical education for the indus-
trial classes, are proposing to institute prizes in their own
counties and districts for those schoolmasters who show
the greatest knowledge of such subjects, and its applica-
tion to the comforts of life with regard to food and its
cookery ventilation of cottages, and sanitary condition of
them a knowledge of mechanic! and labourer's work, etc. :
such prices to be adjudged after examination in writing,
164 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
and viva voce, by competent persons in the required sub-
jects : and, I would add, as shown in their application of
it, in the state of their schools.
The Committee of Council on Education will aid in
providing the necessary apparatus for instruction in ele-
mentary physical science, in schools where the teachers are
competent to use it ; and the Board of Trade* Department
for the encouragement of Practical Science and Art, at
which Dr. Lyon Playfair is secretary for the former, is
instituted for the purpose of promoting it, both in schools
and other local institutions.
The demand for apparatus connected with this depart-
ment of teaching is likely to be very great compared with
what it has been ; and those employed in its production
are turning their attention to simplify and cheapen it.
I am told if such instruction be made in common schools,
that a very great reduction in price will be the conse-
quence.
Philosophical instruments are not essentially more ex-
pensive than tools for tradesmen, or utensils for domestic
use. They are dear because the demand is small ; but if
made in large quantities they will, according to the common
results and experience in other matters of trade, be made
more cheaply.
I have received, with reference to the class of prizes
already alluded to, a synopsis of what is called a knowledge
of common things. It is inserted here with the permission
of the promoters, and is a good outline of the practical
* The Treasury Minute establishing this department of the Board
of Trade, says : " My Lords concur in the views expressed by the
Lords of Committee of Trade, that every means should be used to
render these institutions as much self-supporting as possible, and that
in the plans adopted, that object should always be borne in mind.
My Lords adopt this view, not only because they feel it incumbent
upon them to confine the public expenditure to the lawest limit, but
also because they entertain a belief that the utility of such institu-
tions is great in proportion as they are self-supporting." This re-
mark applies equally to all our schools; and school managers would
do well to aim at this in all possible cases, as a result which their
efforts ought to lead to, and in the end attain.
A, KNOWLEDGE OP COMMOX THINGS. f 165
turn which the schoolmaster ought to give to the know-
ledge he possesses on this subject. It may also, in some
measure, direct him in bringing to bear what he knows on
his every-day teaching.
A KNOWLEDGE OF COMMON THINGS.
I. SOTOCES OF DOMESTIC HEALTH AND COMFORT.
A With regard to food. The value of different kinds
of food, both vegetable and animal the kinds best adapted
for keeping up the strength of the body, and those fitted
for preserving animal heat the mixing of different kinds
of food so as to give really nutritious food cheaply the
best kinds of food for hard muscular exertion the diet of
young people and of the sick the value of various kinds
of foreign food, such as Indian corn (maize), rice, arrow-
root, sago, etc., and the mode of using them separately or
of blending them with home products so as to render them
nourishing and palatable the advantage of variety in food,
and the best mode of cultivating a cottage-garden so as to
secure a regular succession of crops of vegetables for
domestic use without exhausting the soil the effects of
excess in drink and grossness in living.
B With regard to cookery. The best modes of making
common things cheap and palatable the different modes of
boiling beef if soup be required, or if it be wanted as boiled
beef the relative advantages of boiling, roasting, stewing,
and baking the best forms of fire-places, stoves, ovens,
boilers, etc., for domestic use the baking of bread, etc.
C With regard to the healthy state of a house. The
cheapest and most effectual mode of draining, warming, and
ventilating the houses of the poor the importance of
avoiding all collections of refuse and decaying matter.
The connection of the common diseases of the poor, such
as rheumatism, fevers, inflammations, and contagious mala-
166 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
dies, with the dampness, bad ventilation, want of personal
or domestic cleanliness, and the retention of decaying
matter in or about their dwellings, and the best means of
avoiding these causes of disease.
D With regard to personal health. The importance of
personal cleanliness and the most convenient and cheap
expedients for procuring ifc the precautions to be taken in
peculiar sedentary and in-door manufacturing employments
for the preservation of health the clothing appropriate to
different forms of labour to the season, etc. the impor-
tance of vaccination the urgency of attending to pre-
monitory symptoms of cholera and other contagious
maladies. The permanent injury to health by the use
of sleeping mixtures to secure quietness in children.
E With regard to domestic comfort. The uses of do-
mestic order, neatness, convenience, and comfort; and with
this view, a knowledge of the expedients which may be
resorted to for washing, drying, etc., so as to occasion the
least discomfort the economy of soap the means of
softening hard water, so as to adapt it for washing, and
to save soap the household arrangements at night re-
quired by decency, health, or good feeling the economy
and proper distribution of the wages of the working man,
whereby his family may enjoy the fair share of his earnings,
and the education of the children may be provided for
savings-banks sick-clubs, etc.
II. KNOWLEDGE OP MECHANIC AND LABOURER'S WORK.
A Tools for hand use. The various forms of those in
general use such as the various planes, chisels, hatchets,
or adzes, hammers, files, picks, spades, mallets, saws,
pincera, or tongs, shears, drills, punches.
B The cutting edges of tools. Such as the various plane-
irons, chisels, saws, gouges, shears the guide-principle in
tools and its value modes of compensating for its absence,
C With regard to matters of household arrangement.
Viz., the common pump the common clock the gas-
meter the gas-pendant the gas-cock the gas-burner
the bell its cranks and wires the common lock and latch
GEOLOGY. 167
the forms of hinges and castors the common scales
both those for standing on a table and those for being sus-
pended the common bellows.
III. EXPLANATION OF NATURAL PHENOMENA.
A Stones and Hocks. What they are made of the
manner in which they have been formed the metals, etc.,
found in them petrified plants, shells, and bones the
arrangement of rocks, or the places in which different kinds
are found.
B Animals and Plants. The kinds of animals those
with bones and limbs those with hard skins and limbs
those with shells those with soft bodies animals in-
visible to the naked eye animals that live upon animal
food animals that live upon vegetable food plants with
flowers plants without flowers the parts of flowers the
kinds of trees plants and animals used for food by man.
C The Weather. The four seasons trade winds
changing winds revolving storms and whirlwinds land
and sea breezes rain hail snow ice mists and clouds
dew and hoar frost.
D Natural Geography. The ocean ocean currents
tides and their variations in different parts of the world
rivers lakes volcanoes earthquakes glaciers and ice-
bergs wasting powers of the sea rivers and glaciers on
the land.
E The Stars. The sun and its planets the year
leap-year and months the changes of the moon- comets
meteors fixed stars.
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 rock ; that the order of super-
position of the different strata is found to be the same in
every country, and in every part of the globe ; and there
168 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 formation that one abounding
with those of a fresh-water character denotes a fresh-water
formation; and, having formed an idea of the order in
which the different strata rests 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 con-
taining flints, the other without flints the soil resting on
the upper part 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.
That the unstratified rocks form hills, mountain-chains,
etc., often one mass of the same material, as granite that
the stratified rocks rest upon the other, but that the hills of
granite have been upheaved through these stratified rocks,
as is shown, by laying bare the strata, where they rest on
the mountain 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 analyzed, would be found
to contain a great deal of this substance if a limestone, it
would be of a calcareous nature, etc.
Of the nature of this degradation and crumbling away,
it would be easy to refer to instances in almost any neigh-
bourhood such as chalk cliffs, limestone rocks, deep pits,
etc. how the atmosphere is the chief agent in this by
GEOLOGY. 169
the action of heat and cold of frost and thaw, etc.
Thus the depth, etc., of soil will depend much on the rock
being easily, decomposed, or of a soft nature.
Then, again, the practical purposes to which a knowledge
of this superposition of the different strata may he turned.
If they come in the order 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., and you live upon
No. 2, it is of no use attempting to find No. 1 helow 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.
The 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
annual overflowing of the Nile, the Ganges, etc. These
gradually 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 inquired 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 will again very materially affect 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 temperature 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 is 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 j but it is one deserving of great
170 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
attention, 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 particu-
lar formation extends whether chalk, red sandstone, etc.;
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, it 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 attract-
ing an agricultural or a manufacturing class but the chil-
dren 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 know-
ledge himself, from the inspection 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, etc.,
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 decimal increase, the average annual increase,
and this whether greater in the manufacturing or agri-
cultural districts 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.
The average consumption of each person in some of the
common articles of life would also be interesting, as afford-
ing ideas of a definite kind as to the average consumption
of a family in a village, a town, a county, etc.
STATISTICS. 171
This was for the United Kingdom :
Ibs.
Of sugar in 1840 15-28 for each person.
1841 17-65
Ibs. oz.
Of coffee in 1831 15-4
1841 1 7-55
Of tea in 1831 1 3-93
1841 1 5-96
Soap, in 1831, 6'23 Ibs. each, and in 1841, 9*2 Ibs. each,
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 ; that every combustible
substance may be considered a store of light and heat
treasured up for the use of man coal, for smelting pur-
poses for making gas to light our towns this mode of
lighting introduced at no very distant period, and better
for the purpose than oil.
In England the coal-field is about a\yth of the whole
surface, in Belgium s^th, in France a^oth.
Different kinds of coal differ in their heating powers.
Table showing the relative lieating 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. JOHNSTOX.
The great improvement of late years in the habits of the
upper and middle classes in this country, more particularly
as to drunkenness but not a corresponding improvement
172 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
in the lower and working classes in this respect this much
to be regretted.
On manufacturing subjects. The number employed in
each particular class of manufacture the potteries cotton,
silk manufactures, etc. cutlery, and working in metals,
etc. 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 informa-
tion, 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 28-30
Copper, worth 1, became, when manufactured
into copper sheeting 1 '26
Household utensils 477
Woven into metallic cloth, each square inch of
which contains 10,000 meshes
Bar iron, worth 1, when manufactured into
Agricultural implements, became 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
Horse-shoes 2-55
Saws, for wood 14 - 28
Needles, of various sizes, from 17'33 to 70 - 85
etc., etc.
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, etc.
The increased value given to the skins of animals, when
STATISTICS. 173
manufactured into shoes, gloves, harness, saddlery, or any
other thing made of leather, etc.
Increase of value in flax when manufactured into linen,
tablecloths, made into sheets, etc. pointing out the ad-
vantages to a country in being able to manufacture its raw
products, 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 parti-
cular districts as that of cotton in Lancashire woollen at
Leeds cutlery at Sheffield, etc.
Too much attention cannot be given to all these things
of an industrial character, from which the children can
form a definite idea of the comparative money value which
society pays .for the various branches of industry, of skilled
and unskilled labour, etc.
Of the extent to which internal communication and
rapid modes of conveyance may increase the power and
aifect 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 thou-
sand hours, or of fifty thousand working days, of ten hours
each, is effected, ^ow 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.
A teacher ought to have a general knowledge of the
ordinary things of life, so as to give a character of usefulness
to his teaching, which will interest those who are taught,
and also the parents who send them.
174 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
Short CONVERSATIONAL LECTURES, about fifteen or twenty
minutes long, will be found a very effective means of in-
struction. Subjects like the following would naturally
suggest themselves :
Truth and falsehood industry and idleness sobriety
and drunkenness honesty and the reverse, etc.
In natural history : habits of birds of animals, their
instincts, etc.; or on subjects connected with the occupa-
tions of the district agricultural employments mining,
manufacturing, etc. ; on any particular application of sub-
stances with which they are acquainted, etc. And when a
master is qualified, he might take such as the following :
The atmosphere as a vehicle of heat and moisture as
a vehicle of sound ; rain and clouds, etc., mist and fogs,
etc., dew, etc.
To give an idea of 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 sub-
stances into which they can be separated.
Hour contains gluten, starch, etc., which form the nu-
tritive 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 with impunity, and a
metal, sodium.
Barm, a froth which rises to the top of beer during fer-
mentation. That if the smallest crumb of bread be taken,
so 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
CONVERSATION AL LECTUKES. 175
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 employ-
ment to before it became bread : from the ploughboy up to
the farmer from sowing up to threshing from the fanner
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 may be, 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 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 state, and again comes back
when the trees are cut down to supply us with timber,
fuel, etc.
176 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
The heat of the fire not being sufficient to cause all the
carbon 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 as-
cends into the atmosphere 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, de-
noting fine weather, at another descending the moment it
has escaped from the chimney ; ascending because the spe-
cific gravity of the air is greater than that of the smoke ;
standing still, and in a sort of stable equilibrium on a calm
evening, when the stratum of air in which it is floating is of
the same specific gravity as itself; and descending when the
specific gravity of the air is less than that of the smoke !
Here we see, in this apparent destruction of vegetable
matter, 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 crater, 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 this 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,
CO:NTERSA.TIOS;AL LECTURES. 177
one of which, hydrogen, ignites, the oxygen of the atmo-
sphere supporting the flame, and the carbon, another ele-
ment, 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 communicating
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 a candle is nearly equal in weight to that of a 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 good 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.
Reason why the glass should be cold.
Tallow, oil, and fat will not ignite.
Again, that metals, such as lead, iron, etc., in a minute
state of division, are much more inflammable than tallow,
oil, fat, etc., or even than gunpowder, taking fire at the
temperature of the atmosphere sodium and potassium ig-
niting 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 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
178 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
lighting their dwellings enabling them tp 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."
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, etc.
The striking difference of the state of their young when
hatched and leaving the egg the chickens of the barndoor
fowl, and 'of others of that class, will run about and seek
their own food, the moment they leave the egg want but
little assistance 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
processes, which go from one side of the hollow tube to
the other (this would be seen by splitting the bones of
fowls) the outside bony substance of the tube being
thickest at the extremities, 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 filled with marrow fewest air-cells in the bones
of those birds whose habits do not require long flight, etc.
The mechanical structure of the wing the pinion-bone
CONVEBSA.TIOKA1 LECTURES. 179
moving in order to stretch out the feathers in the same
plane with the one to which it is attached if it admitted
of an up-and-down motion out of that plane, the wing
would be much less strong, and a much greater muscular
power required to produce the same effect in flight, etc.
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 important to fishes although cold-blooded animals do
not require by any means the same amount of oxygen in a
given time as hot-blooded ones of the same size perhaps
not more than ^th.
Some fish, such as the whale, etc., breathe by means of
lungs, and take in air, for which purpose they are obliged
to come up to the surface of the water.
All air-breathing fishes have a broad flat tail a hori-
zontal tail, giving them a mechanical advantage in rising to
the surface fishes breathing through the gills have the
tail vertical, perpendicular to the water in which they float
thus to propel them forward and direct their motion
some fish, 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 water, and so long as
they can get oxygen from this water in the gills they con-
tinue to live.
Any one wishing to give short conversational lectures of
this kind, if unaccustomed to do so, will find it of assist-
ance to read from a book any striking passage which may
occur, or which he may happen to meet with in his own
reading, embraoing facts easy of illustration, or describing
the manners and customs of other nations ; such, for in-
stance, as the following :
"Certain insects can run about on the surface of the
water. They have brushy feet, which occupy a consider-
able surface, and if their steps be viewed with a magnifying
glass, the surface of the water is seen depressed all around,
180 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
resembling the footsteps of a man walking 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
would make on a feather-bed, and its weight is less than
that of the displaced water. 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. Tet all these substances can
be wetted ; that is, water can be applied to them 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 fre-
quently under their own observation.
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,
etc., of other nations or people, and have occasionally read
passages of that kind myself, and am in the habit of point-
ing out such to the school-teachers to read. I will instance
the following : 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.
" For about three weeks after Christmas, immense num-
bers 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
CONVEBSATIOXAL LECTT7KES. 181
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 aperture below into the dark
river. The poor little tommy-cods, attracted by the light
and air, assemble in myriads underneath, 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 invita-
tions 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 caught, are
passed round, as a 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.
" Although the temperature is usually kept very high
within doors, by stove-heat, people never seem to suffer by
sudden transition 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 quietly 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 frequent in winter than summer.
" The winter markets at Quebec are very curious : every-
thing is frozen. Large pigs, with 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, fowls, . cod, haddock, and eels, long and stiff,
like walking-sticks, abound on the stalls. The farmers
182 SUGGESTIVE BINTS.
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 weather, 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 obser-
vations on the habits of the people, climate, etc. ; that,
although ice is ice, yet it varies in its temperature, and that
a mass of ice (milk) at a low temperature (zero, for in-
stance), would do more for cooling purposes, than the
same mass at a temperature near the melting point. Cana-
dian ice is better than English ice, and why ?
Then, again, these frozen animals, etc., how is it that
the animal body, while alive, is not cooled down to the
temperature of the atmosphere, and of the objects around
it ? what is it which maintains this internal heat that
resists the cold ? a degree of cold in some climates far
below the zero of Fahrenheit, and preserves an internal
temperature in warm-blooded" animals, varying but little on
either side of 96 remaining also about the same in the
hottest climates refusing to be cooled down by surround-
ing objects below that internal heat which is necessary for
this class of animal life, or to be heated by those above it ;
but the moment life is extinct, yielding itself up to the in-
fluences 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 heat? are those termed cold-blooded animals affected
in the same way 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 again with increased warmth, 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 sub-
CONVERSATIONAL LECTTTKES. 183
mitted to a heat greater than about 85, they would, 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 !
" TEMPERATURE OF THE BODIES OF VARIOUS ANIMALS.
Fahr.
Adult man 99-5
Child 102
Ox, sheep, elephant, hare, rabbit, dog ...99... 100
Narwhal (lowest temperature of any mam- ")
mal) . j
Ape and bat (highest temperature of any | . _,
mammal) )
BIRDS ....... 104-5
Gull (lowest temperature) . . .100
Great titmouse (highest temperature) . Ill
" Cold-blooded animals have a temperature three or four
degrees above the medium in which they exist.
" All animals, strictly speaking, are warm-blooded ; but
in those only which possess lungs is the temperature of the
body quite independent of the surrounding medium."
The SINGING of the children here has been a good deal
remarked upon, as being better than is usually found in
schools of this kind, particularly in the country. I have
myself witnessed, 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 parish-
ioners, 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 well-
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 occasionally attend
myself, and always with feelings of satisfaction, in seeing
sixty or seventy children (which is the number of the
184 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
singing-class) spending the evening in so rational a manner.
In addition to Psalmody, they sing in parts many of the
moral pieces in Hullah's books as well as others, not for-
getting Rule Britannia, and God Save the Queen, and have
as loyal hearts as any in Her Majesty's dominions.
SCHOOLMASTERS.
Having spoken of the kind of knowledge which I con-
ceive 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 education, which I trust may not be altogether withoiit
interest.
At present I fear these duties are not sufficiently under-
stood, and that society at large does not attach the im-
portance 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 hindrances 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 winds up at
night, to be set again in motion in the morning, and again
run down on doing its daily work who think he has suf-
ficient knowledge 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 was only the body which
was made for his use so long will there be hindrances in
the way of education, and 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
SCHOOLMAS1EBS. 185
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 ; any-
thing 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 and good temper, reasoning with them in a cheer-
ful way, and always endeavouring to discriminate, as far as
possible, between idleness and want of ability. When two
children are set to do the same thing, such as getting by N
heart a piece of poetry for instance it may be a very un-
equal task he should not be angry with a child which has
done its best : this is an error I have often seen in school-
masters.
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 Lale-
ham (the place where he lived), he had once got out of
patience, and spoke 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 angrily, sir V
indeed, I am doing the best I can." Years afterwards he
used to tell the 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 say, " 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 school-
master will have great difficulty, if he does not set an ex-
ample 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 among the labouring classes to be an
186 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
example himself of open, manly, and straightforward con-
duct. He must not attempt to despise others for conduct
which he himself 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 intended as mere idle words, always in their mouths,
and little thought of, hut are intended to be acted upon.
The following passage from a paper of Addison's in the
" Spectator" conveys an instructive lesson, and requires no
comment :
" 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 Providence 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-sittings 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
' walked with God.' "
Some of these observations may appear trite and com-
mon-place, and I will not go on adding to them. The
schoolmaster ought to sec and feel that life is made of
CONCLUDING EKMABKS. 187
little things that man is a "bundle of habits," and that
it is, therefore, of importance he should acquire good habits
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 pre-
cept, the importance of these little things and these little
duties^ (in addition to other instruction which he has to
give), that he can work out a good result, and discharge
those duties to society which are expected from him.
" Think nought a trifle, though it small appear;
Small sands the mountains, moments make the year ;
And trifles life."
CONCLUDING KEMA11KS.
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 merely secular kind may be a very
delusive guide.
In the middle and educated classes, a religious founda-
tion 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, etc., so as to get at the
construction of a sentence, the better they will understand,
and the greater interest 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 updn^ and not merely to be talked about to
188 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
guide their thoughts, and words, and actions -and that, if
they do not take them for 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 Chris-
tians, 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 parents, grate-
ful to them in after-life, truthful and honest in all they do
so far as they are concerned, it has failed in its intention,
and that they are not doing what they profess they ought
to do. That practical good conduct is the best proof which
they can give that they believe what they profess that
the same substance of Christianity is contained in that beau-
tiful passage from St. Paul, which cannot be too often or too
deeply impressed upon their minds, " The grace of God that
bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us
that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world ; look-
ing for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of thu
great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself
for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity, might
rescue us from the power and dominion of sin, and purify
unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works ;" and
that they ought to endeavour to acquire the virtues, the
temper and disposition of a real Christian.
It has been asserted, " that man acts more from habit
than from reflection," and of the truth of this no one can
* 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. H. K. "WHITE.
CONCLUDING BEMARKS. 189
doubt but how important then that, in the education of
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 only
should he be made to feel that, in a worldly point of view,
liis success and his respectability in after-life depend upon
the habits of industry, of manly virtue, and of honest,
straightforward 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 beauti-
fully expressed 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 flower ;
Or what he views of beautiful or grand
In nature from the broad majestic oak
To the green blade that twinkles in the sun,
Prompts with remembrance of a present God."
Not that children should be made to feel that there is
anything gloomy in religion, or in those feelings which
spring from viewing 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 woodlands and the pleasing song.
Yet your kind heavenly Father bends his eye
On the least wing 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.
190 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 his "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 intended 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 the creation to see in everything " that
happiness is the rule, and misery the exception" to con-
template with pleasure " the air, the earth, the water teem-
ing with delighted existence;" he goes on to say, "In a
spring morn or a 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 flies 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 do-
mesticated, we happen to be better 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 gratified by the offices
which the Author of Nature has assigned to them. But
the atmosphere is not the only scene of enjoyment; walk-
ing by the sea-side in a calm evening, upon a sandy shore,
and with an ebbing tide, I have frequently remarked the
appearance of a dull cloud, or rather a very thick mist hang-
ing over the edge of the water, to the height, perhaps, 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 the water : when this cloud came
to be examined, it proved to be nothing else than so much
CONCXTOING REMAEKS. 191
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. If any motion of a umte animal could express
delight it was this ; if they had meant to make signs of
their happiness, they could not have done it more intelli-
gibly. Suppose, then, what I have no doubt of, each
individual of this number to be in a state of positive en-
joyment, what a sum, collectively, of gratification and of
pleasure have we here before our view.
" The young of all animals appear to me to receive
pleasure simply from the exercise of their limbs and bodily
faculties. A child is delighted with speaking without
having anything to say, and with walking 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 vision, or perhaps, more pro-
perly speaking, with learning 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 first 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 wond'rous works, first Source of good !
Now more admired in being understood.
Who can listen to the carol of the lark as he soars in
the air, and seems so happy, without feelings of delight and
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 feel-
ings tempered down into harmony with nature ? How can
man in the midst of all this, which points out the intention
192 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
of an all- wise Creator, think that he of all God's creatures
is the only one intended to be nnhappy !
No ! let him learn to admire the beauties of nature
let him learn to occupy his hours of leisure in trying to
understand 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 man,
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 morn
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 ecstacies shall be matured
Into a sober pleasure, when thy mind,
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
Thy memory l>e a dwelling-place
For all sweet sounds and harmonies ; oh ! then
If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,
Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts
Of tender joy Avilt 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 reneVd,
Is free to all men universal prize !
Strange that so fair a creature should yet want
Admirers, and be destined to divide
With meaner objects e'en the few she finds. COWPEE.
How important the bearing and influence which such
trains of thought, inculcated in youth, might have in every
class of life it would be wise to consider ; how little they
have hitherto had, is humiliating to think. A dry remark,
many years ago, in a college lecture-room, occurs to me as
CONCLUDING REMAKES. 193
full of meaning, although at the time intended for sarcasm.
Asking an undergraduate a question on the refraction of
light, with which he was not acquainted, and who answered,
" he did not know much about refraction," the lecturer
dryly added, " nor about reflection either, I am afraid."
I hope this will not be lost upon the schoolmaster ; not
that I wish him 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 was 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 find in them such a satisfaction as a wise
man would not blush to take ; for although the world may
not be so happy as that we should be always merry, neither
is it so miserable as that we should be always melancholy.
With respect to that part of the instruction in the fore-
going 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,
Avhich illustrate the things happening before their eyes
every day, and convey conviction with them the moment
they are seen and explained. It is a great mistake to sup-
pose that boys of twelve and thirteen years of age cannot
understand elementary knowledge of this kind, when
brought before them by experiment ; seeing the way in
which the bigger boys were interested in it here, and the
tendency 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 provided with sufficient of a philosophic appa-
ratus* for all the common experiments of a pneumatic
and hydrostatic kind, a small galvanic battery, an electric
apparatus, etc. One little book, used as a text-book, is a
* Sec end of volume.
194 SUGGESTIVE HI2TTS.
volume of Chambers' s Edinburgh books, "Matter and
Motion," and this is illustrated by experiment.
The end of all education ought to be, to prepare the
rising generation 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 instruction bear
upon th,e ordinary duties of life, or loses sight of it (I am
speaking of a teacher competent to his work), he will suc-
ceed, or the contrary. 1 am perfectly convinced that many
well-meaning efforts have not been attended jvith the suc-
cess 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 insufficiently 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, etc., 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. 1 ,
and which, in the end, his own usefulness will work out for
Jiinj ; there is no doubt that the schoolmaster who con-
ducts himself 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
CONCLUDING Ktil-VRKS. 195
his locality, which, will cause him to be estimated in a very
different way, and place him in a very different position
from that which he has hitherto held. At present, igno-
rance, and jealousy arising from it, produce in many of the
uneducated a sort of dislike to all the instruments of edu-
cation 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 enlightened than they are at present much more
respectable in their conduct honest, manly, and straight-
forward in everything they have to do not looking upon
insolence as independence, which ignorance does, but feel-
ing 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
those things, they are wanting in their duty both to God
and man.
It is painful to observe how the uneducated classes, the
labourer and t ose above him, will sometimes, from pui'i;
ignorance of what is due to themselves, go out of tlidv
way to insult others, from a feeling that this is, as tirjy cau
it, showing their independence. When 1 see this, I am
always sorry that it does not occur to them, that iu doinjr
so they are only lowering themselves in the scale, of
humanity and of civilization, and that feelings of self-re-
spect 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, ni ay have i'c
in their power to assist in advancing the cause of education
in their own neighbourhoods, I can only say, if they once
experience the heartfelt satisfaction which arises in con-
trasting the state of the educated child wi;h that c? the
totally uneducated one the intelligent countenance of the
196 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
one, with the stolid, unmeaning countenance which igno-
rance produces in the other the good effect of education
on their industrial habits on their social hahits (in fact,
so far as my own experience here goes, and judging from
those who have left school, it makes them, generally speak-
ing, a totally different race of heings), they will not hesi-
tate as to the course they ought to pursue.
It may not he consistent with the occupations of those
engaged in a very busy and active life to pay much atten-
tion to the education of those among whom they live, yet
there are many ways in which they may give encourage-
ment to it and to the schoolmaster without much encroach-
ment 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 why not, then, take some
interest in the opening and expansion of the human mind ?
What can be more gratifying to the feelings, than seeing
its gradual improvement under your influence, 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 ?
Archbishop Whateley, in his " Introductory Lectures
on Political Economy," says :
" 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 rock 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 fifty or sixty yards. In like manner, the
natural state of man must, according to all fair analogy, he-
reckoned, not that in which his intellectual and moral
growth are, as it were, stunted and permanently repressed,
but one in which his original endowments are, I do not say
brought to perfection, but enabled to exercise themselves
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 197
and to expand like the flowers of a plant ; and especially
in which that characteristic of our species, the tendency
towards progressive improvement, is permitted to come
into play. Such seems t > have been the state in \\ hich
the earliest race of mankind were placed by the Creator."
That there are many among those who have paid atten-
tion to the subject of education, both of my own profession
and others, who have fears of doing too much some for
one reason and some for another there is no doubt ; but
if they will 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, etc., is very high-sounding
and implies 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, etc., but it is merely making them ac-
quainted with facts in those subjects of a scientific kind
which they are capable of understanding which will be
verified afterwards by their own experience which open
their minds, and bear upon their occupations in life facts
most useful and interesting to them, and which, even inde-
pendent of their usefulness, give a greater interest to edu-
cation 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 in 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 Shakspeare's time there seem 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
198 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
Cade, in his Henry the Sixth : " Thou hast most traitor-
ously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a gram-
mar school ; and whereas, before our forefathers had no
other hooks than the score and the tally, thou hast caused
printing to he used ; and thou hast huilt 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 abomi-
nable 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 com-
bining the education of the labouring classes with those of
the employers. This has been the aim which I had in es-
tablishing the Sombofne School, 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 Rev.
H. Moseley, her Majesty's Inspector, in March, 1847, was
173, 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 considerably beyond the usual ages in schools of
this kind, yet, generally 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 (April, 1848) in the
school is up wards of 180, in addition to which there is a
small infant school of about thirty children, kept in a cot-
tage hard by, and managed in turns by the girls who are
pupil-teachers : from this it would appear that a very large
proportion of the population is at school, being upwards of
a sixth of the whole, but about thirty are from neighbour-
ing parishes.
The proceeds of the school for the year from Christmas, *
1846, to Christmas, 1847, were 152 2*. 2d., this includes
* See the note on next page.
CONCLUDING BEilARKS. 199
books, the payments for which, during the year, by the
children, amounted to 29 14s. Qd. 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 confidence, offer a few ob-
servations, in addition to those I published in a pam-
phlet 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 the employer, might be very extensively esta-
blished in the larger parishes throughout England, by the
assistance of the clergy and others interested in the educa-
tion of the poor : this I still repeat, and with increased
conviction of its truth. I repeat this passage from know-
ing that it has been misquoted and reasoned upon as if I
had said in all parishes a thing manifestly 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
* The school goes on with the same satisfactory results, both
pecuniary and moral, and an increasing conviction of its usefulness
to all classes : the quarterly payments and pence for the year
ending with Dec. 1848, were 115 19*. 2d. ; and for books
for the same time, 25 9s. ; for the year ending with Dec. 1849,
123 7s. 7d., and for books, 39 18*. Id. ; in addition to which
during the last year, the children have purchased tooth-brushes,
hair-brushes, combs, scissors, etc., to the amount of 2 14*. 2d.
It is now in its eleventh year, continues perfectly self-paying,
and, in all respects, is going on in the most satisfactory
This was written ia 1853.
200 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 preju-
dices 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, the tradesmen and
smaller farmers. Hitherto they never have had an educa-
tion 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
conducted, when they say 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 advanced 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 employers of labour in towns, are against the educa-
tion 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 nonsense ; what do they mean by attempting to
teach the children all this ? we shall not be able to get
labourers," etc. All this is mere prejudice, and will soon
die away.
One objection running in the minds of many of them is
CONCLUDING BEMAKKS. 201
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 what is the way in which it operates in the Som-
borne school? From the above average 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 has it in their power to do so ; if they
do not, they have no business 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 educa-
tional wants of the age in which we live.
The farmer, and those of the same class in our rural
districts, may rest assured, that until it is brought home to
them in 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,
202 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
and it is time it should the other is standing still ; and 1
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 Con-
dition of the Labouring Classes, particularly as regards the
crowded state of their cottages, is such as to render attempts
to educate almost fruitless, or at all events to be a very
great hindrance to it.
In this there is no doubt much truth, for it will generally
be found, that when families are croAvded together into a
small space all ages and sexes sleeping in the same
that they loose 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 purposes
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 the future.
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 some-
times obliges the labourer to submit to this, although he
may have work offered to him on better terms elsewhere.
CONCLUDING BEMARKS. 203
. On this subject of crowded cottages, and the immorality
it leads to, I will quote the following words of Mr. Justice
Coleridge, addressed to a Labourers' Friends Association
in Devonshire, and which I read in the public journals some
time ago. Coming from such authority and experience,
they are deserving 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 well-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 which debases and demoralizes the human
mind, and which, unless counteracted, must effectually
neutralize every effort made towards the elevation or im-
provement 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 which every inquiring mind must come that
has witnessed the low and degrading 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 where 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 im-
provement in this way must be a work of time, and can
only be accomplished by degrees, as the rising generation
become 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 temp-
tations to contend wiJi ; they are immediately thrown with
companions who have not had the same advantages in this
204 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
respect as themselves having confirmed habits of a kind
which education 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 labouring man can want." So that,
for the present, the better educated can only be looked
upon as a leaven to leaven the mass, and that from the
numerous temptations they meet with, there may, and no
doubt will be, some who fall into the low and degrading
habits of those about them ; but every succeeding year
will, in this respect, bring a brighter prospect with it, 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, smooth-
ing 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,
from 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 mechan-
ically and from habit, having no idea whatever of the light
in which it appears to the respectable part of society about
them.
CONCLTTDIKG EEMAKKS. 205
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 communities 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 generally transacted in
a way 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 agricul-
tural districts, and the little regard which is paid that the
public-houses, beer-houses, etc., 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 pro-
tected from falling into the degraded and mischievous
courses, into which many of them have been led by fre-
quenting 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 what they please to term good-nature or from a
thorough indifference as to the mischief which 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 count}-
206 SUGGESTIVE
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 imme-
diately above them, and by thus being made to see their
own conduct, in somewhat the same light as others see it ;
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 wile ragged
and uneducated children a brutalized peasantry and
many other evils, which might at all events be materially
mitigated by a different conduct on the part of their em-
ployers, 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 different 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 characterized by those feelings of manly reliance on
their own exertions, for the support of themselves and those
who are de-pendent upon them, which belong to the better
educated peasantry of Scotland; and in one particular thing
the contrast has struck me very forcibly that is, with
respect to those of their children, male or female, who may
happen to be in any way disabled in body from following
COXCiUDIXtt HEJIAliES. L>07
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 hundred (at least I have found it so in my
own parish, and hear of it in others), v.ho does not, at the
time his child is about sixteen, go to the clergyman of the
parish for a certificate of its baptism, to lay before the
board of guardians as soon after the child is sixteen as
possible, in order to ask relief. In Scotland, the feeling
is, that parent and child, child and parent, should mutually
assist each other. In England, on neither side does this
feeling exist, and in conversing with Scotch people on this
subject, there is nothing in which I have found 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
themselves 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 Asso-
ciation, 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 that 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 married them all out of the workhouse."
Is'ow, this man was of respectable character of average
intelligence, and well conducted 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 relato.
evidencing the great want of better instruction on ecqnpmk
subjects not only among the labourers, but among the
classes above them in our rural districts, and if any one
thoroughly acquainted with them would bring before the
public a fair, honest, and, as far as possible, a graphic de-
scription of the real social evils of rural life, he would
render great service to the cause of civilization, and would,
208 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
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 labouring masses of this coun-
try, which 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, I 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 an-
swer 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 speaking and in acting, and not
to allow them to imagine themselves to be acting a cha-
ritable 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 winter 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 prevail without any attempt at amend-
ment, 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 demo-
ralizing influences 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 ab-
solutely 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 em-
ployed at a rate of wages varying with the number of their
families, the term roadman being used for, and in every way
synonymous with the word pauper and what is almost
unaccountable, is, the rate-payers themselves being per-
fectly persuaded, or at least appearing to be so, that they
CONCLUDING ItEMAEKri. 209
are doing what is right, and the surveyor making oath
every year before the magistrates tha the 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 impossible to ima-
gine the mischief to which it leads in demoralizing the
labourers as a class in unduly keeping down the rate of
wages and the proper remuneration of labour, and the in
every way low and degraded state to which it leads.
Now if the object of religion be (what I think every
one mast 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 better views in those matters nominally of a civil kind
having so intimate a relation and so direct an influence
on the morals of a people, and in the healthy administra-
tion 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 enlight-
ened, than on their mutual relations with respect to the
Remuneration 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 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 think, 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 unscrupulously 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
thie is implied between 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 Satur-
day night to another, and in case of sickness, or work
210 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
failing, the parish do the rest. A system like this neces-
sarily leads (and we all know whafc in times past it has
led to) to an unhealthy state of society; each individual
employer is Avilling to save himself as much as possible,
in order to throw the rest on the general ratepayer
the labourer, from ignorance, has lost sight of his
true interests and of what constitutes respectability and
self-dependence ; he is become improvident, without fore-
thought, these being in his case not at all necessary,
and is quite as contented to take part from his em-
ployer and part from the parish, as if he had the whole
at once; perhaps more so, as in ihe one case it would
imply he must take care of himself in case of sickness,
want of employment, etc. ; and in the other, he is taken
care of by others; Taut 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.
The following passage from Mrs. Marcet's " Conversa-
tions on Political Economy," well expresses what ought to
be the tendency of the education given to the labouring-
classes ; she ?ays :
" 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 pro-
portion as the mind is informed, we 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 i'uture. Education gives rise to pru-
dence, not only by enlarging our understanding, but by
softening our feelings, by humanizing the heart, and pro-
moting amiable affections. The rude and inconsiderate
peasant marries without either foreseeing or caring for the
miseries he may entail on his wife and children ; but he
who has been taught to value the comforts and decencies
of life, will not heedlessly involve himself and all that is
dear to him in poveity 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
COXCLUDIXG KEJIAEKS. 211
with honest, straightforward conduct iii all parties (for
the other leads to a great deal of low cunning) more
consistent with the rights 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 comfort
within his reach ; but then 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 it is to be hoped the tendency of education will be 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 employer who acts on this straight-
forward, manly, and honest principle (and which ought to
be 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 comfort happy in him-
self 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 arithmetical constants given below, with the tabular
matter on the different subjects to which the tables relate,
will, in the higher class of schools, be found of great
* " The comniju 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, if we
might so speak, are worthy of its care. Nightly rest and daily
bread, the ordinary use of our limb-!, and senses, and understandings,
are girts which admit of no comparison with any ocher. 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 Tkeolof/y.
212 ST7GGESTIVE HINTS.
service. Some of the walls of the class-room of the King's
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 observa-
tions during the progress of a lesson connected with the
subject of them, but they accustom the teacher to some-
thing like arithmetical accuracy in making such observa-
tions, and enable the children to form ideas of a definite
kind, and make the subjects perfectly intelligible ; in fact,
knowledge communicated in this way 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 things 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
school-room.
From Table I. In 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 swallow, 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, wilh
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 the bird may be supposed to be so in-
creased, as not to be seen in passing from one point of
ypace to another, etc.
The outline of Table VIII., which is only partially filled
up, would suggest many observations of a meteorological
kind why points of equal temperature an the surface of
the earth do not follow the simple rule of distance from the
equator ; how affected by sea, land, mountains ; accounting
for the zig-zag nature of isothermal lines, etc. 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 representing the magnetie
meridian in degrees, and the magnitude of the angle of the
variation written between them.
\\-
TABLE I. Numerical Constants.
ce of a circle, dia. 1
Area of do.
ce of a circle, dia. D
Area of do.
Length of Arc 1 dia. 1
3-14159
7854
(3-14159) D
(-7854) D-
008726645
Sol. cylinder TLt D and dia. of Base D = (7854) D 3
of sphere = of cylinder
Surface of do. dia. D
A body falls by gravity
" M ' -
Length of a pendulum vibrating?
seconds in lat. 51 31' $
Velocity of sound
of a cannon-ball .
of light
= (5236) D 3
(3-14159) D 2
. 16 T V feet in 1"
( 16 TV) & ia ?'
= 39-1386 inches.
. 1142 feet in 1"
. 2000 feet in 1"
200,000 miles in 1"
of rotation of point at equator 1520 feet per second.
of a point in lat. 51
of a musket-ball
of a rifle .
of a 24 Ib. shot .
of quick train railroad
(mean) of rivers . '
rapid river ......
of a brisk wind -
of a high -wind, about
of a hurricane
Most rapid flight of a swallow, about
830
1280 ;;
1600
2400
88
3 or 4
13
10 miles per hour.
40
80
80 to 90
214
SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
TABLE II. Time of Light travelling from the Sun to
Hrs. Mins. Sees.
Mercury
Venus
Earth .'.
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn 1
Uranus 2
Neptune -4
Fixed stars .
12
42
18
37
6
57
13
20
29
8
45
24
TABLE III.* Specific Gravity, Distilled Water I'OOO.
MET
And other Ino
Platinum 22-069
Gold.. .. 19-258
Mercury. 13-586
Lead 11-352
Silver ..10-474
Copper.. 8-78*
Steel.... 7-812
Iron (bar) 7788
Iron (cast) 7 '207
Tin 7-291
ALS.
rganic Bodies.
Zinc 7-100
Sodium. . 0-973
Potassium 0-856
Chalk. . . . 2-784
Limestone 8 179
Garble . 2- 742
F*lint and
Spar . . 2-594
Common
Glass.. 2-642
LIQUIDS.
Sea "Water
1-026
1-030
0-915
0792
0-715
1-503
1-84/1
09-60
997-136
62-321
1-000
1-111
0-972
0-060
2-500
0-.092
1-527
1-24642
0779
Milk
Oil of Olives
Alcohol
Ether..
Nitric Acid
Sulphuric Acid
Ammonia
"Weight, in ounces, of a 1
cubic foot of water,
temp. 63 j
Ditto in Ibs .
ORGANIC BODIES.
Dry Oak -925
Beech -852
GASES.
Oxvcen
Ash .... -845
Nitrogen . . ....
Elm -600
Hydrogen
Cedar ... -56]
Chlorine
Larch -498
Poplar . . '383
Cork -240
Weight, in ounces, of a )
cubic foot of air . . )
Ditto in Ibs.
Ivory 1-826
Bones of Oxen . . 1-656
* Tables of this kind in large print, and on pasteboard, would be
very useful in schools ; such as those arranged hy Mr. Tegetmeier,
and published by Messrs. Groombridge.
FREEZING POINTS OF LIQUIDS.
215
TABLE IV.*
Height of Corresponding temperature
Barometer. at which water boils.
^ Inches. Fahrenheit.
26 204-91
26-5 20-5 79
27 206-67
27-5 207-55
28 208-43
28-5 209-31
29 210-10
29-5 211-07
30 212-00
30-5 212-88
31 213-76
These inches of mercury measure also the elastic force of the
vapour of water at the same temperature.
TABLE V.
Melting Points of different
Substances.
Heat of Common Fire . .
Iron red in the dark ....
Bees'-wax
Lard
Tallow
Tin, 3. Lead, 2 ,
Tin, 1. Lead, 4
Lead ,
Zinc
Antimony
Fah.
790
750
136
97
127
334
460
612
680
809
Brass 3809
Copper 4587
Silver 3937
Gold 5237
Soft nails 21097
Iron 21637
Platinum 23177
TABLE VII. Freezing Points of Liquids.
TABLE VI.
Boiling Points of different
Liquids.
Fah.
Water 212 1
Ether 96
Alcohol 176
Most Essential Oils 212
Water saturated Avithi
common salt J
Oil of Turpentine 316
Sulphuric Acid 590
Linseed Oil 600
Mercury 660
Nitric Acid 248
Phosphorus 554
Sulphur 5"0
225
Fah.
Water freezes 32
Milk 30
Olive Oil 36
Salt Water, ) 7
1 part salt, 4 parts water )
Brine,! part salt, 3 water .. 4
Fah.
Mercury , 39'
Vinegar -^-28
Oil of Turpentine -j-16
Sulphuric Acid +46
Human Blood -f 2 3
Brandy +7
* Tables IV., V., VI., VII., from Lardner's Cyclopaedia, volume
on Heat.
16 SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
TABLE VIII.
Linear Dilatation.
Of Solids by Heat.
Dimensions at 212 of a bar whose length at 32 is l-00. c *
Vulgar Fractions.
Glass Tube 1-000828000 n^
Platina 1-00088420 T1 Vr
Cast Iron 1-0011110
Steel 1-00118980
Iron Wire 1-00144010
Iron (Dulong) T0011&203 ^
Gold 1-00146606 ^
Copper 1-00172244 ^
Silver 1-00190974 ^
Tin 1-00217298 ^. r
Lead '. 1-00284836 -^
Zinc 1-00294200
Of Liquids by Heal.
From 32 to 212'.
Vulgar Fractions.
0-01800
i
Alcohol (Dalton)
0-11000
j.
Water
0-04444
i
Water saturated with >
0-05000
i
common salt S
Fixed Oils
0-08000
Oil of Turpentine ....
07000
_J
0-06000
Y
Nitric Acid
0-11000
i 7
Whale Oil
0-08548
* From Ure's Dictionary of Chemistry.
Mean Temperature of the
Hottest
Month.
Jj^ >tp G t-> J2 >> t- t>,
1
g
s:
<M
<u
na
'S
f
1
d
C
*
CNIlO-^ CO O J>- CO O500COO *~-
Coldest
Month.
c H e* c' &b B , c c .a
*O *O O O 4 s * *O *O c*>
CO CO CO CM ^-t CO t- CO -^H CN *
Autumn.
O O O CO CO O Ci CD t~COOO i 1
*O *O ^O CO *O ^ CO t- Qi i> CO CO i *
Summer.
^Tficocoo?i co 2-ngg ^
ScoSoot^S^ oc cfS^S S
Spring.
"Winter.
t- t~S<N<N 3 (N'MOO CO
COOSCO>O3t~ CO '!7>t>.COO CO
5 Ol U3 O >O t 5 >O <N ~
5c?^22; S 52S?S ?
\ Year.
Tjt CO OO O5 t 00 (N C5 i ( F-< CO <M i <
S Si CO S CO CO ^1 COCO 2
Inches of Ruin
in the Year.
CO CO i 1 CO
<M i-H 00 CO
Variation of
the Needle.
CO
CO
IM
Snow Line.
Between.
. Ioi ? s oo
1/5 CO CO CO 2 *"*
Elevation in
feet above
Sea Level.
rH Ci ^H O ^ CO -t^-
O^COr-(OO O COCO 'O
cbsbcb'boo cb oco *P
c co o> b- -H o cot-- co
^ CN CO OJ *
Longitude.
^w^'w
10 c^ S ^ **^ 1 ^ ^^ ^*** **** *~*
Ot-(Mco2g^- 3 cSS?2S
Latitude.
K ri &<&
CO l O*C'C < li-HiO l 'O CO CO i IO ^-^ * '
<
^ " "' ^ *S di ti **" * " ^."^
218
SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
A figure like the following, in the Somborne School, on
the wall at the east end of the class-room, showing the
meridian altitude of the sun on the shortest and longest
days, and at the equinoxes, maybe made the means of giving
children a good idea of his varying meridian altitude at
different times of the year varying influence arising from
this on the vegetable and animal kingdom, etc.
A List of some of the Philosophical and other Apparatus
used in the King's Somborne School.
A geological map of England.
A pair of globes.
A compass, a spirit-level, a measuring chain, and models
of the simple .geometrical solids.
A set of mechanical powers, lever ? wheel, and angle,
etc., apparatus for illustrating centrifugal force, etc.
A pair of common bellows.
Glass model of a common pump.
Glass model of a diving-bell.
Air-pump and receivers, etc., with other apparatus for
various experiments.
Brass bottle-balance for weighing air, gases, etc.
Apparatus for finding specific gravity of bodies.
Apparatus for showing elasticity of steam.
A sectional model of a steam-engine.
Apparatus on heat, etc. barometer, thermometer,
pyrometer.
PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS, ETC. 29
Apparatus for showing the different conducting powers
of metals.
Leslie's parabolic reflectors.
Three plane circular disks of white metal, on stands, one
smooth, one scratched, one blackened, for experiments 011
the absorption and radiation of heat.
A vessel in the shape of a cube, with faces of different
kinds for ditto.
Leslie's differential thermometer.
A magic lantern, with astronomical and other slides.
Glass prisms, lenses, etc., of different kinds.
A small chemical apparatus.
Pneumatic trough, bell-jar, etc., with stop-cock, etc.,
for collecting and decanting gases, retorts, etc.
Spirit-lamp, argand-larnp, oxy-hydrogen blowpipe,
Davy lamp.
A voltaic battery apparatus for showing Oersted's
experiment the principle of the electric telegraph
magnets, etc.
A small electric cylindrical machine, glass, and sealing-
wax, rods, and j ith-balls, stools, with glass legs, Ley den
jars, discharging rods, electrometers, etc.
A number of small things, which it would be tedious to
make a list of, but which have grown up here by degrees,
would suggest themselves to a teacher as he proceeds.
The list given is for the purpose of suggesting to others,
things which have been found by experience highly useful ;
but the instruction is not in the instruments themselves, but
in the use which is made of them.
A teacher having a knowledge of these subjects may give
a great deal of useful instruction illustrative of everyday
life, by means of siffiple apparatus of no very expensive kind.
This should be added to as the wants of the school require,
for fear of incurring expense by the purchase of things
which the teachers might not be able to turn to good account.
The Committee of Council on Education will grant to
Elementary schools in which pupil teachers are apprenticed
pecuniary assistance to the extent of two-thirds of the cost,
in purchasing the articles enumerated in a list of apparatus
for scientific instruction, which has lately been revised by
the Rev. F. Temple, Inspector of Training Schools.
U20
SUGGESTIVE HINTS.
Apparatusmay be selected to the valueoflO,l5,or20.
The master must be examined in order to give proof of
his qualifications to use the apparatus, but in case of masters
already holding certificates of merit, the examination is
waived with regard to a limited part of the catalogue.
Ending Friday the
SCHOOL WEEKLY REPORT.
day of
186
DAY.
ATTENDANCE OF BOYS.
ATTENDANCE OF GIRLS.
MORNING.
AFTERNOON.
MORNING.
AFTERNOON.
Present.
AljM.ll.
Total
j
Present.
Absent.
rotal.
Prenent.i Absent
ToUl.
Pre.ent.
Abient.
Ml
Monday ....
Tuesday ....
Wednesday .
Thursday ..
Friday
Saturday . .
Total
|
I
f
Average
il
ii
CASH ACCOUNT.
Arrears of Fees at the end
of last week
Amount of Fees for the
current week
1st Scale. One in a Family
Boys at 2d each . .
3d
4d
Girls at 2d
3d
4d
Total
Jnd Scale. Two or more
in a Family
I Joys at lAd. each. . &
2d ..
3d ..
C. iris at Ijd ..
?<1 .-
3d
Total
CASH Accorvr.
Amount of Arrears Re-
ceived
Amount of Fees Received
for the current week. .
1st Scale. One in a Family
Boys at 2d each . .
3d ..
4d ..
Girls at 2d . .
3d ..
4d ..
Total
2nd Scale. Two or more
in a Family
Boys at l^d each. .
2d ..
3d ..
Girls at lid . .
2d ..
3d :
Total
Amount still in arrcar
THE END.
t' V
A 000 962 908 o
>^X *
" ATINI
ROWERS
IB
15
D32s
I