Daniel Webster, in his Autobiography, speaks thus of his entering upon the study of law: "I was put to study in the old way—that is, the hardest books first, and lost much time. I read Coke on Littleton through without understanding a quarter part of it. Happening to take up Espinasse's Law of Nisi Prius, I found I could understand it; and arguing that the object of reading was to understand what was written, I laid down the venerable Coke et alios similes reverendos, and kept company for a time with Mr. Espinasse and others, the most plain, easy, and intelligible writers. A boy of twenty, with no previous knowledge on such subjects, can not understand Coke. It is folly to set him on such an author. There are propositions in Coke so abstract, and distinctions so nice, and doctrines embracing so many conditions and qualifications, that it requires an effort, not only of a mature mind, but of a mind both strong and mature, to understand him. Why disgust and discourage a boy by telling him that he must break into his profession through such a wall as this? I really often despaired. I thought that I never could make myself a lawyer, and was almost going back to the business of schoolkeeping. Mr. Espinasse, however, helped me out of this in the way that I have mentioned, and I have always felt greatly obliged to him."

Here is most graphically depicted a defect which is now, as it was then, very prominent in all departments of education. It is even more so in early education than in that of the college and the professional school. Even in tender childhood pupils are put to studying books of which, as was true of Webster with his Coke on Littleton, they do not understand "a quarter part." If the rule is not "the hardest books first," there are many things in the books that it is not only hard but impossible for them to understand. And the hardest things are often put first. For example, in a very popular primary geography which lies before me the pupil is introduced to the world and its grand divisions at the outset, while he is taught about his own state and country only at the conclusion of the book. And this unnatural mode is the one very commonly pursued. Similar criticism can be passed upon most of the books used in teaching young children. Some of them are wholly useless. This is true of the grammars for primary schools. The formal statements, called the rules of grammar, are beyond the understanding of very young scholars, and therefore are useless burdens upon their memories. They are as useless to them as the three-fourths of Coke which Webster could not understand was to him.

If we follow education, upward from the primary school we find the same defect throughout the whole course. In the books which are used in teaching natural science it is especially prominent. Even in the elementary books, or compendiums, so called, formal propositions and technical terms render the study uninviting, and to a great extent unintelligible. The pupil is apt to be disgusted and discouraged, as Webster was with Coke on Littleton, and for the same reason.

Another defect intimately connected with that of which I have spoken is the very sparing and late introduction of the physical sciences. They are generally postponed to the latter part of the course of education, and then but little time is devoted to them. Generally, when a pupil designs to go through college, the study of these sciences is wholly neglected in his preparation, because a knowledge of them is not required for admission. Then in the college they are not attended to till the latter part of the course, and in the short time allotted to them there is so much to be learned that the teaching of them is a failure. Especially is this true of Chemistry and Geology.

This defect is a radical one. A thorough change should be effected in this respect in the whole course of education. The natural sciences should be made prominent from the beginning to the end, not only because they are of practical value, but also because they are as useful in their way for mental discipline as the study of mathematics and of language. They can be taught to some little extent to the youngest pupils. There are facts about air, water, and the various objects that they see around them, which they can understand if they be presented in the right manner. And the busy inquiries which they make after the reasons of the facts, and their appreciation of them if stated simply and without technical terms, show the appropriateness of such teaching. Children are really very good philosophers in their way. They have great activity not only of their perceptive but of their reasoning faculties also, to which due range should be given in their education.

Beginning thus, not a year should pass during the whole course when the pupil shall not be engaged in studying some one of the physical sciences to some extent. This continued attention to such studies in a reasonable amount, so far from interfering with the due prosecution of the other studies deemed so essential, will so promote the pupil's advance in them as to more than make up for the time that is taken from them. It will do this not only by the genial influence which such studies exert upon the mind, but by the contributions which they make to the knowledge of language and mathematics; for language is largely built up from natural objects and from the acquisitions of science, and there is an abundance of interesting applications of portions of the mathematics in the facts which the physical sciences develop to us.

I have said that the teaching of the natural sciences in our colleges is generally a failure, and it always will be so as long as the present plan is continued. In order to have it successful there must be the same gradation in teaching them that we have in teaching language and the mathematics. The college student needs to be prepared for the lectures which he hears on natural philosophy, chemistry, etc., and for his study of those branches, by previous familiarity with the simpler portions of them acquired in the school-room.

There is another very important reason for the early introduction of the physical sciences into education. By far the larger portion of pupils in our schools stop short of the college, or even the academy and high school. That they should go forth into the world with no knowledge of the principles that lie at the basis of the arts in which so many of them are to engage is a shame and a wrong, if the communication of such knowledge be indeed practicable, as it undoubtedly is. Even those who are not to engage in these arts will be greatly benefited by this knowledge, because in addition to its constant practical applications in the management of life, it will contribute to their mental power, and, what is no small consideration, to their enjoyment; and it is in fact requisite to constitute them well-informed persons.

If the views which I have presented be correct, there should be a series of books on the natural sciences carefully adapted to the different periods of the course of study. Those intended for the young beginner should be exceedingly simple, and should not attempt to present any thing like a full view of the subjects treated. They should deal largely with familiar facts or phenomena. The terminology of science and formal statements of principles, such as we often see in so-called compendiums, should have no place in them, but should be gradually introduced as the series advances, and should be made complete only in the concluding books.

It has been the object of the author to supply a part of such a series. The first book in the series is the "Child's Book of Common Things," intended to teach the observation of familiar facts, or, in other words, the beginnings of philosophy, to children as soon as they have got well started in reading. Next comes the "Child's Book of Nature," which in its three parts (Part I., Plants; Part II., Animals; Part III., Air, Water, Light, Heat, etc.) extends considerably the knowledge of the philosophy of things which the child has obtained from the first book in the series. Then follows the "First Book in Chemistry." On a level with this is my "First Book in Physiology." The next step in the gradation brings us to three books under one title, "Science for the School and the Family;" Part I., Natural Philosophy; Part II., Chemistry; Part III., Mineralogy and Geology. On a level with these is another book, "Natural History," and another still is to be written, an "Introduction to Botany."

The three books, of which the present is one, are intended for the older scholars in what are commonly called grammar-schools. At the same time they are suited to scholars who are advanced to a higher grade who have not gone through the previous books of the series. The preparation of books especially adapted to high schools and colleges I have left to others, except in one branch of science, Physiology, on which I some years ago published a work entitled "Human Physiology."

All of these books are from the press of Harper and Brothers except the two works on Physiology, published by Sheldon and Co., New York, and the "Child's Book of Common Things," published by Peck, White, and Peck, New Haven.

The general plan and style of these books are very different from what we see in most of the books for schools on the same subjects. The order of the subjects and the mode of developing them differ from the stereotype plan which has so generally been adopted. One prominent feature is the free use of illustrations from familiar phenomena. This leads the pupil to reason or philosophize about common things, thus giving an eminently practical character to his knowledge. At the same time it makes the books suitable for use in the family as well as the school, between which there should be more common ground than the present mode of education allows.

The style which I have chosen for all the books I have written for use in teaching is what may be called the lecture style. There are three other kinds of style which are more commonly used in school-books. The most common is what I term the formal statement style. In this principles and rules are stated, and then illustrations are given. This makes a formal and uninviting book. The bare skeleton of the science is generally for the most part presented, and the young pupil is apt to learn the statements by rote without understanding them. It is a style fitted only for books intended for advanced scholars. Another style is the catechetical. This is an unnatural mode of communicating knowledge; and besides, it encourages learning by rote as the formal statement style does. In the third style, the dramatic, conversations are held between the teacher and some learners. The chief objection to this is that it undertakes to put in permanent shape what should be extemporized in the recitation. What is needed in the book is simply clear and concise statement in an interesting style, and the living teacher and his scholars can best furnish the conversational element as the recitation goes on.

In the lecture style there may be and should be as much precision of statement as in the formal statement style, while it is more interesting, because it is the natural mode of communicating knowledge. In this style the facts are ordinarily so stated as to develop principles; while in the other the order is reversed, the principles being first stated and the facts given afterward. One of the most successful books ever used in our colleges—"Paley's Natural Theology"—is in the lecture style, and it is a matter of surprise that this fact has had so little influence with those who have prepared books for instruction.

Whatever may be true of advanced scholars, in teaching the young student in science bare, dry statement should be avoided, and the subjects should be presented in all their attractive features. I would not be understood as advocating the dressing up of science in adventitious charms. This is not necessary. Science possesses in itself an abundance of charms, which need only to be properly developed to attract the young mind; and the lecture style furnishes the best vehicle for such a development.

One grand essential for giving interest to any study is the presentation of the various points in the natural order in which they should enter the mind. They should be so presented that each portion of a book shall make the following portions more interesting and more easily understood. This principle, which is so commonly transgressed, I have endeavored to observe strictly in the preparation of these volumes.

Questions are put at the end of this book for those teachers who desire to use them. There is also an Index.

W. Hooker.

January, 1863.