ideas, to smite his enemies "hip and thigh," either through a public journal, or in a pamphlet of 365 pages. During our entire career we have opposed the Doctor; but we are fully aware how difficult it is to make headway against a man of his ability, holding but one idea and resolved to win. We have often wished that a Ryerson would present himself as a representative of our Catholic masses to fight as determinedly for us as he has for his Protestant fellow-countrymen, a man who would endeavour, under all circumstances, to procure what his Eminence Cardinal Cullen and the Irish Hierarchy are now labouring to attain, a Catholic, purely Catholic education for Catholic people.

Secular Instruction, in spite of all that has been said to the contrary, does not do away with crime; if, however, combined with religious teaching, it certainly does. An educated rascal is infinitely more depraved and bad than an illiterate evil doer. To make a man Christian, you must rear him up in Christian principles, otherwise it will require a miracle, or direct action on the part of God to convert him; therefore, the first and most essential point in educating is to lay the foundation on the sure basis of Catholicity; after this, teach anything you please, provided it is not opposed to the religion of Christ. The Doctor's pet theory is non-religious instruction at School, Religious ditto at home, which would, of course, answer were all Parents equally well informed; but suppose, as is frequently the case, that the Parent, although sufficiently well grounded in his own faith, has not the gift of being able to instruct others, then the superiority of our system is shown, as the School supplies the deficiency. Faith first is our motto, and better an illiterate lout of the lowest class who has faith, than the most accomplished and refined of aristocrats without it. The ordinary godless School will train up an amiable and may be even learned person, but if moral and the possessor of lofty principles, it is not from love of his Creator. We might hold forth on this subject to an indefinite extent, did time or space permit. The Canadian Freeman has always been to the best of our humble abilities a consistent advocate of Catholic education, and in retiring from its management we would, as previously stated, wish to offer the right hand of fellowship to all we have encountered, either lukewarm friends or foes, to part on amicable terms with all from whom we have differed. Foremost among these is the Chief Superintendent of Education, and we have therefore devoted this, our last article, to him. We have written column upon column against him, for the past fifteen years. We have tried with all our might to put him down, and yet he is a man for whose talents, resolution and dogged perseverance we have the highest respect, for whose courtesy and gentlemanly bearing towards our co-religionists we offer our acknowledgments, and for whom the Protestant people of this Province will, at some not very distant period, do what a learned American historian stated, the North West would do for Marquette, "build his monument." -The Editor of the Canadian Freeman.

CHAPTER XXVII.

ONTARIO TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION, 1873.

At the Thirteenth Annual Convention of the Ontario Teachers' Association, held in the Theatre at the Normal School Buildings, Prayer was offered up by Dr. E. Crowle, after which Mr. Robert Alexander, of Newmarket, who presided in the absence of the President, Professor Nicholson, briefly addressed the Meeting. He remarked that the President had left behind him an Address, which would be read by Doctor Wilson.

Incorporation. Mr. McMurchy, in presenting the report of the Incorporation Committee, said the Committee had asked for the incorporation of the Association as a Society. They were aware that the Attorney-General, Mr. Mowat, had introduced a Bill to amend the Upper High School Law of Ontario; but what they asked for was

that the Teachers should be conceded the right to elect three members to the Council of Public Instruction. Mr. Miller, of Goderich, moved, and Mr. Johnston, of Cobourg, seconded, "That the Report be received and adopted." (Carried).

Industrial Schools.-Mr. Samuel McAllister read a paper on the subject of Industrial Schools. Although there had been discussion in the Press upon this subject, yet no attempt to deal with the vagrant class of children in this Country had been made, and they were allowed to grow up in ignorance and crime. According to the School Report there were 38,000 children in Canada between the ages of five and twelve who did not attend School, 5,000 of whom were between seven and twelve years of age. He asked the questions: Where are these children, and what becomes of them? Why are there no means adopted to train them as other children? A considerable portion of those ignorant children grow up and spend useful lives, as shown by many who mark their signature with a cross through their inability to write, but a large portion go to swell the ranks of vice, for vice works hand in hand with ignorance and idleness. According to the Prison Inspector's Report, three-fifths of prisoners had no education, or were very imperfectly educated; two-thirds of these were put down as labourers, or have no occupation. He considered imprisonment had very little good effect on prisoners. Many of the prisoners were in gaol from recommitments. By the Prison Inspector's Report, one-third of the gross committals to prison were recommitments. The plans on which prisons in Canada were conducted were subversive to the reformation of the inmates. It had been asserted by the Toronto gaoler that he had more hope for a boy committed for twenty-four hours than one committed for twenty-four weeks. The question was, how should they reform this class? Compelling them to go to School had been tried, but there remained another plan yet untried; completely withdrawing them from the vice with which they are surrounded, and putting them into an Industrial School, where they could get a proper training and be taught habits of industry. The paper spoke of the satisfactory results of the working at the Western House of Refuge, Rochester, of similar establishments at Philadelphia, Massachusetts, and New York. Seventy-five per cent. of the children sent to these Schools in Massachusetts are reported as doing well; two-thirds of those discharged from Industrial Homes in England and Philadelphia were reported as doing well. This was sufficient to warrant the establishment of such an Institution in Canada. The Reformatory at Penetanguishene did not correspond with the Houses of Refuge mentioned. A model Industrial School should be established here nearly on the same plan as that at Philadelphia; and that each Municipality should be called on to contribute towards it according to the number of children sent, and also collect the cost from the Parents of the children. There was need of an Industrial School in Toronto, so that the children found about the streets might be sent to School. Doctor Kelly asked if the Truant Officer's services were found effective in Toronto? Mr. McAllister said his services had been effective, and satisfactory, so far as to the decrease of truants, and, in his School there had been an increased attendance. After some further discussion, Mr. J. P. Groat moved, and Mr. Scarlett, of Cobourg, seconded, "That this Association have considered the subject of Industrial Schools, and believe that such a School, if established by the Government, would result in doing great good for the people of Ontario." Mr. S. E. Glaisher moved as an amendment, "That this Association having considered the importance of Industrial Schools, hereby appoint the following Committee to wait on the Government and impress on them the necessity of establishing one or more of such Schools in this Province, the Committee to be Messieurs McAllister, Kirkland, and McCallum." The amendment was seconded by Mr. J. H. Smith. (Carried).

THE POSITION OF SCIENCE IN EDUCATION.

The President's Address.-Professor Wilson having briefly stated the reason of the absence of Professor Nicholson, who had gone on a scientific excursion to the United States, read the following Address:

GENTLEMEN, I trust that you will be content to listen for an hour to some scattered thoughts upon a subject upon which I have often reflected, the position, namely, that Science ought to take in Education in general, and more especially in the education of the young. In examining this question, it is very desirable that we should have a clear idea as regards two points of fundamental importance, namely, the meaning to be attached to the word "Science," and the object, or objects, which are to be aimed at by any rational form of Education. Perhaps no better definition of "Science" need be sought than that which simply defines the term as including all those branches of human knowledge, the ultimate data of which are to be acquired solely through the medium of the senses. I am aware that this definition would exclude such so-called sciences as Psychology and Metaphysics, the ultimate data of which can only be acquired by the operation of the internal consciousness of each individual. I am aware, also, that the generalizations of all branches of Science are the result of intellectual operations, and are not acquired by any study of merely sensual phenomena, however profound. Still, for our present purpose, the above definition may be taken as sufficient, since it includes all the Sciences which are ever likely to be taught in Schools. In other words, it includes the so-called Physical and Natural Sciences, embracing all those branches of knowledge which are concerned with the investigation of the phenomena of the inorganic and organic worlds of Nature. We may stop, then, here to note that under this definition the Sciences may be regarded in a two-fold aspect, whether we look at them from an educational, or from any other, point of view. The data of the Sciences, the facts which each comprises, are learnable by the senses, and are not truly or genuinely learnable by any other medium, or channel. It is true that we may learn some or all of the facts of a Science out of a Book, by the exercise of a mental power alone, and without ever having submitted a single one of these facts to the test of the five senses. We may do so; but assuredly no genuine knowledge of sense was ever obtained in this way, and the Sciences, if they are to be learnt, or taught, after this fashion, certainly present no advantages over many other studies. On the other hand, the Scientific, as compared with the Non-scientific knowledges, have the peculiarity that they are grounded in the sensuous and natural life of the human being. They reach the higher spiritual plane of the organism through the senses, and it is properly by "the five gateways of knowledge" that Scientific truths should be imparted to the learner. Hence, the Sciences present, to begin with, the inestimable advantage that they can be taught, as regards their simpler and mere fundamental data, at a time when the higher mental faculties are comparatively undeveloped and in abeyance. Indeed, from the moment when an infant opens its eyes upon the world, it commences a course of Scientific Education, which is carried out exclusively through the senses, and which is none the less complete because it is involuntary and unguided.

Science may, and often is, so taught in later life as to deprive it of this inevitable advantage, but it remains certain that the practical teaching of Science can be commenced at an earlier period of life than can profitably be attempted with the more ordinary branches of Education,-if only upon the ground that the senses attain their working powers much sooner than do the intellectual faculties. Whilst the data of the Sciences are grounded in the senses, the deductions from these data are purely intellectual, and hence Science, in this second aspect of its two-fold constitution, stands in prcisely the same educational position as any non-scientific branch of knowledge. The facts of the Sciences can only be discovered in the first place through the medium of the senses; and even after they have been once discovered, and have thus become common property, they should nevertheless be handed down from individual to individual through the same channel. On the other hand, the generalizations of Science are super-sensual, and are the results of purely intellectual operations. The observation of the Celestial Phenomena which constitute the ground-work of the Science of Astronomy can be carried out solely through the sense of sight, but no acuteness of vision, no complexity of apparatus, no repetition of investigation and research, would lead to

the discovery of the law that the Radius Vector describes equal areas in equal times. We pass here from the region of sense into that of rational mind and intellect. The physical properties and phenomena of a Thistle are presumably as well known to a Donkey as they are to the highest of human beings,-in so far, at any rate, as the senses of the two are equally efficient; but the latter can draw certain deductions from the facts which he knows about the Thistle, which might perhaps embrace the constitution of the Solar System in their scope, and which, at any rate, are entirely undreamed of in the philosophy of the former. Hence, Science is in its essential condition composed of two departments,-one embracing the facts of Science, which are acquired by the use of the senses, the other comprising the deductions and generalizations of Science which are due to the working of the intellect upon the facts previously determined by the senses. Hence also, Science, from an educational point of view, must be regarded as fundamentally a quality,its data being most fitly taught to the young, in whom the senses are most active, whilst its generalizations are most suitable for later periods of life, in which the senses are not so acute, but the intellectual faculties are more highly developed.

This leads us to consider next, very shortly, what are the objects which should be sought to be attained by any form of Education, and we cannot hesitate in arriving at a decision on this point. All conceivable forms of Education must, to be of any value at all, do one of three things, or more than one of these things combined. The conceivable advantages to be derived from any study come under one or more of the following heads:-1. Discipline, or the training and development of the mental faculties; 2. Culture, or the improvement and development of the emotions and higher faculties, together with the unfolding of the natural æsthetic capabilities of the individual; 3. Utility, or the acquisition of certain knowledges, which will be of actual practical value to the individual in his struggle for existence in the particular society in which his lot may be cast, and will secondarily enable him to be of use to his fellow-men.

I do not propose to enter at all into a discussion of the great controversy, whether the above objects of all sound Education are attained more perfectly by a Scientific or a Classical, training, or a judicious intermingling of the two. For my present purpose, leaving other branches of Education to fight their own battle, it will be sufficient to show that Science fulfils at any rate two of these objects,-fulfils them at least as perfectly as any more generally favoured department of knowledge. At the same time there can be no question but that an ideal Education is many-sided; and no knowledge, however rofound, of a single subject entitles a man to the honourable designation of "educated." The learned German Philologist, who did not know what potatoes were when he saw them, in spite of his enormous erudition, was no more an "educated" man, in the proper sense of the term, than is a Man of Science who is totally devoid of literary culture. To be altogether "teres atque rotundus," a man must know something of many things, and everything of something. The only real practical question lies in whether those individuals, and there are, unfortunately, many of them,-who have time and opportunity for examining but one of the facets of the crystal of knowledge, should confine their attention to the Scientific, or the Non-scientific, branches of study. Into this question, as I have already said, I do not intend to enter; but I shall endeavour to point out how far the Sciences fulfil the three great objects of Education, namely, discipline, culture. and utility, and how far they fall short of securing these objects when they are compared with other departments of study.

Firstly, as regards Discipline, I apprehend that I need say very little as to the value of Scientific Studies. That the study of Physical and Natural Science is at least as efficacious in developing and training the mental powers as any other branch of human knowledge, I shall assume, I hope rightly, as being generally admitted. Witness, --if witness be needed, the unchallenged position occupied by Mathematics, at once the handmaiden and the mother of so many of the Sciences. There is, however, one

point of view in which the disciplinary value of Science is especially apparent, as depending upon the two-fold constitution of Science to which I have already alluded. Other branches of knowledge develop more especially the intellectual faculties, but Science, in addition, trains the senses. The labour necessary for acquiring the facts of Science, immensely increases the power of observation, and sharpens and develops the senses; whilst the study of the generalizations of Science constitutes one of the severest forms of intellectual training. It may fairly be claimed then, that the educational discipline afforded by the study of Science presents certain advantages over that afforded by all the Non-scientific branches of study. It cannot, however, be too strongly insisted, that in order to realize these advantages, Science must be taught practically. It is not enough for the Teacher to rely upon Books, either for his own knowledge, or for his teaching. He must himself have some personal knowledge of his subject, and the facts which he brings before his Pupils must be illustrated by actual examples, drawn from the world around him. Any Science which cannot be taught thus practically had better be omitted from School Education.

Every School pretending to teach Science should have a small Museum and Laboratory attached to it. Every Pupil pretending to learn Science should be encouraged to collect and examine Natural Objects for himself; to verify in person all the more important facts which he is asked to believe; and to test by his faithful senses the truth of the statements which he hears from his Teacher, or meets with in his Books. Of course, some Sciences are more susceptible of this mode of treatment than others, and there is nothing invidious in saying that in this most important respect Chemistry has immense advantages, as regards School Education, over other branches of Science. There is no excuse for not teaching Chemistry practically, but there would also be little difficulty in the practical teaching of Geology, Physiology, Zoology, or Botany, in Schools. In any case it is not fair to judge of the value of Science, as an educational agent, from its results, when not taught in this practical manner. All Scientific authorities are agreed in stating that Science can only be taught in one particular way,—that is, practically,—and is it not, therefore, reasonable to condemn the results of Science-teaching, unless the teaching has been carried out on this system? As a matter of fact, however, the introduction of Science-teaching into Schools has invariably proved most successful, in every single instance in which the instruction has been made practical in its character. Under these circumstances Science yields to no other branch of study as a means of mental discipline.

In the second place, as regards Culture, it may at once be conceded that Science is inferior to other branches of study, such as literature,-with, however, the very important proviso that the studies in question cannot claim any superiority in this respect unless they are carried beyond a certain point which is rarely reached in Schools, and not commonly attained even in a University. The literary appreciation of Homer and Eschylus, of Juvenal and Tacitus, of Shakespeare and Tennyson, presupposes a high culture, much higher than could be afforded by the study of Science. But how often and to what an extent can the ordinary educational course of Schools be said to be conducive to literary culture? In England, certainly, in the great Public Schools, it cannot be said that the educational training is favourable to "culture" in the high sense of the term. On the contrary, the tendency of English School-life is to produce what the Germans understand by "Philistines." How many Boys in the highest form of a large English School appreciate the beauties of one of Horace's odes, or would find the smallest difficulty in reading the death of Agricola in the original with an unfaltering voice? However, not to dwell upon this I willingly concede that the prosecution of literature in its higher walks gives rise to a form of culture more elevated, more polished, and more spiritual than is produced by the study of Science. I will also willingly admit that the too exclusive study of Science in certain temperaments, is apt to harden the mind, to close the eyes to the higher and less tangible elements of human life, and to disturb the true balance between the intellectual and emotional