tive creatures, unimpaired through the countless ages of the future? Or is it destined to reach crises in a career of change-finalities which will end its present mode of existence, and terminate all organic life? The mysteries of the future tempt every mind. Human intelligence is unable to hold in its possession the means of unfolding the fortune of the world, and piously refrain from the inquiry. It is perfectly legitimate to reason as to vicissitudes impending in the ages which are to come. Nor is the inquiry fruitless. The general nature of the earth's finalities is as certainly known as the events of its past history-they are both parts of the same current which is sweeping past our doors. But with all these tempting secrets suggested, it is not the purpose of the present paper to disclose them. Attention is directed to them to remind the hearer of the profound interest of the ulterior reasonings of geology, and of the fact that we employ here also the deductive judgment in the legitimate pursuit of geological knowledge. How much is implied and how much recalled in the statement just made. Not only is there here activity for the mind's deductive powers; the conclusions reached startle the soul, and excite imagination to the effort to embody the strange scenes reasoned out. I believe no one who has listened to a faithful word-picture of the high career of a forming world, can fail to have seen with the mind's eye, scenes whose sublimity will rest on his memory as long as consciousness endures. It will be well to recall, therefore, the range of powers of the human intelligence which our science, from the beginning to the conclusion of its pursuit, calls into active exercise. First, it stimulates into action the percipient powers, accompanied by all the pleasure and health which early youth enjoys in the indulgence of Nature's wholesome bent. With this, the young imagination is kindled to a warmth, the memory is drilled to tenacity and alertness; the artistic faculty is tempted to delineations; the powers of description brought into demand; the vocabulary extended and familiarized. As a result, it is quite an education which the purely observational study of geology confers. But with all this, the inductive powers rise by degrees into activity-comparison, abstraction, attention, generalization, higher memory-and again the imagination, the power of language-and if you please, the power of languages, for much that is useful to the student is recorded in other languages. In the higher study, as I have shown, the powers of deductive reasoning are brought into delighted activity; and imagination, memory, gifts of language and graphic delineation, find ample opportunity for exercise. This enumeration embraces all the leading powers of the intelligence; and it remains still to consider the marked ethical influence of geological study, and its applications in the industrial activities of our civilization. Considered merely in its intellectual relations, I propound the question in all earnestness, whether there is another study which awakens into action so wide a range of faculties; another which brings the intelligence such diversified strength and alertness; in short, another so good for general discipline? Is there any power not reached by the demands of geological study? What further can general culture require? In respect to discipline, the study of geology is a complete education. I leave it to your reflections to select another study possessing equal capacity for culture. Interesting as this position is educationally, it is really incidental to my theme. But its application is not remote. If obedience to the prompting of nature, in treating the child to the delights of observational geology, is truly but the threshold to a study of widest culture, most elevated conceptions, and most beneficent influences, is it not a study which calls aloud to every educator for just recognition? But is it possible for those who control the organization of studies to dispute seriously the positions which I have here assumed; or can they yield assent, and then, without stultifying themselves, refuse or neglect to provide for geology the place which it claims in early education? SCIENCE-TRAINING IN PRIMARY AND GRAMMAR GRADES. GUSTAVE GUTTENBERG, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA. "Science-training," as applied to the common schools, means training in the observation of nature. I assume that the teachers before me are as thoroughly convinced as I am of the importance of such training, and I understood, when I received the invitation to address you concerning this subject, that I was simply to open a discussion that might bring out valuable suggestions concerning systems, means and methods for conducting exercises in this direction. I hope that such a discussion will follow; and to make room for it I will try to make my address as short as possible. An ideal system, a system which would enable us to apply our efforts most effectually and wisely, and to secure the very best results, would probably be one which presents the objects of nature, including man, the natural laws and phenomena in their interrelations and connections, and which, with a thorough knowledge of the faculties and powers of the child, arranges the "science" lessons with regard to these powers and with a view to their further development. Such a system, to my knowledge, does not yet exist. I understand that my friend Prof. W. S. Jackman, of Col. Parker's Normal School, is now at work elaborating such a plan; Prof. Jackman is earnest, enthusiastic, energetic, persevering, and no doubt will present us with a very valuable work. There is a boy observing a beautiful flower, with its stem, its leaves, its sepals and petals, stamens and pistils; a bee comes humming, alights upon the flower, attracted by the bright color of the petals or by its sweet fragrance; it inserts its tongue into the nectary to sip the honey. The legs of the bee are yellow from the pollen which it brushed off from some other flower; some of the pollen adheres to the sticky stigma of the pistil and causes fertilization of the ovules. Near the flower are bushes and trees, above it is the blue sky, and in it the sun, supplying the flower with light and heat, which are neeessary for the growth of the plant and for the formation of chlorophyll. The flower grows beside a river, which divides two counties; the shore is strewn with hard, smooth, rounded pebbles; these pebbles were once part of a rock which stands far up the river; the air, the rain, the frost, caused the rock to crumble; the pieces were tumbled and tossed about by the current of the water until they were round and smooth. While the boy is observing these things, and reasoning about them, dark clouds come up and obscure the sky; flashes of lightning dart about and the thunder rolls; the rain comes down in torrents; the boy runs home; he might take shelter under a shed, but he feels chilly, and he knows that under these circumstances he ought to keep the blood in circulation—therefore he makes for home with all possible speed. Arrived there, he strips off his wet clothes, rubs himself vigorously with a coarse towel to bring the blood to the surface and open the pores of the skin; then he puts on dry clothes, and feels not only delightful after his exertion, but has saved himself from a severe cold with its possible consequences of bronchitis, pneumonia, or consumption. This story, which is not to be taken too seriously, which may be greatly amplified, but which includes observation, reasoning, experience, and application, and keeps the things in their natural relations, may serve to suggest the possibilities of an object lesson on an improved system. According to the system now taught in most of the schools, the plant is studied during the term devoted to botany; the bee has to wait until the study of zoology begins; the pebble is treated later on, in the lessons on geology. To get his lightning and thunder, the scholar has to advance to the high school, where physics is taught, while the lessons on the care of the health are reserved for the regular study of physiology. This may be a poor system, but it is vastly better than to have no training at all in the observation of nature. Let us see what our scientists think of this question : There is a committee existing, the members of which are representatives of Harvard and Wesleyan universities, Princeton and Williams colleges, and some others. This committee has been appointed by the American Society of Naturalists, to consider the subject of science in schools. It has submitted a report, which has been accepted by the society. The propositions of this report, as far as they concern primary and grammar schools, are as follows: 1. Instruction in natural science should commence in the lowest grades of the primary schools, and should continue throughout the curriculum. 2. In the lower grades the instruction should be chiefly by means of object lessons; and the aim should be to awaken and guide the curiosity of the child in regard to natural phenomena, rather than to present systematized bodies of fact and doctrines. The following scheme is suggested, subject to changes and variations according to the conditions and surroundings of the schools: In the primary schools and in the lower grades of grammar schools the study of plants and animals should be the main part of the scientific work; the botanical instruction should commence with such simple exercises as drawing and describing different forms of leaves, and should gradually advance to the easier and more conspicuous flowers, and later to the more obscure and difficult forms of flowers, the fruits and seeds. The zoological instruction in the lower schools should not attempt a systematic survey of the whole animal kingdom, but attention should be directed chiefly to the most familiar animals, and to those which the pupils can see alive. The common domestic mammals should first be studied, and later the birds, the lower vertebrates, the insects, crustaceans, and mollusks. While the range of zoological instruction must be limited as regards the number of forms studied, these few familiar forms should be so compared with each other as to give the pupils, very early, some conception of the main lines of biological study-morphology, physiology, taxonomy. Special prominence should be given to the study of plants and animals which are useful to man in any way; and the teacher may advantageously, from time to time, give familiar talks in regard to useful products of vegetable or animal origin, and the processes of their manufacture. Attention should also be given to the more obvious characteristics of the kind of minerals and rocks common in the region in which any school is situated, and to such geological phenomena as are comparatively simple and easily observed. A most important feature of the scientific instruction in the lower grades should be to encourage the pupils to collect specimens of all sorts of natural objects, and to make those specimens the subject of object lessons. The curiosity of the children will thereby be rationally cultivated and guided. The rudiments of the subject of physiology and hygiene should be taught in the primary and grammar schools. Exceedingly rudimentary courses in physics and chemistry may be introduced in the grammar schools, to enable the intelligent study of physical geography and physiology. This scheme does not differ essentially from the plan pursued in most schools where science-teaching has been introduced and carried on as a regular feature ; but it may be a satisfaction to teachers and principals to find how closely the opinion of men who represent one of the foremost scientific societies in the country, agree with their own ideas concerning this matter of science-training in common schools. To be of use to the teacher to whom the subject is entirely new, a detailed plan of proceedings should be given, and methods suggested. This would properly form the subject of a manual of instruction, or could be presented in a school of methods, but cannot be undertaken in an address. A short outline may be attempted of a course which has been tried and attended by good results. The leading thought in devising this course was to develop successively 1 observation, (2) description, (3) investigation, (4) reasoning, (5) general information. Take for instance the lessons on plants: in the primary grade not more is attempted than observation of main features, with the simplest oral descrip tion. The science lessons constitute a part of the general object lessons, and help not only in forming perceptions of number, form, position, color, etc., but direct the attention of the child early to the beauties and wonders of nature. In the intermediate grade, when the scholars have learned to write, they are led to observe and describe systematically. The leaf forms an admirable object for a beginning. The simplest leaves are simple enough not to discourage the untrained powers; from these the exercises may proceed to such a variety of form and features that the pupil's vocabulary is greatly enriched and his power of expression greatly strengthened. Technical terms should be used only where no adequate common term exists. Oral description, written description, and drawing should be equally practiced; the first two should be required in concise and clear sentences; incomplete, ungrammatical expres sions are too much indulged in, too much overlooked, in some of our schools. Pupils who express their ideas clearly at the first attempt are an exception. Drawing is as great a help to correct perception of a thing as it is to the description of a thing. During the exercises on leaves the pupils are encouraged to collect and press leaves of all kinds, and to preserve them in a leaf album in which they are arranged, attached in some manner, and described. The next step is investigation; the scholars are provided with seeds, beans, peas and corn, which they examine and plant. The seeds and their parts and the plants at different stages of growth are drawn and described in a special note-book. Onion sets and potato tubers are studied in the same manner. In winter, branches are collected, and their bark, wood, and pith, their buds, rings, and leaf-scars examined and described. They are placed in jars of water to watch the opening of the buds, and their development into branches or flowers. Before this time the scholars have found out, or ought to have found out, that every part of a plant has some office to fulfill, and that the use or the reason of many peculiarities in plants can be explained; the reasoning powers must now be brought into action; there is a how and a what for and a wherefore to every object in nature, and to every part of an object, and the scholars should be encouraged to inquire into the reasons, uses, causes, and effects. The study of some typical flowers may follow; it should be begun in the spring. There may be a flower day every week or every two weeks, each |