Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση
[blocks in formation]

GEOGRAPHY AND POPULAR
ASTRONOMY.
SECTION II.

2. What countries are separated by the Frith of Forth?

3. What other countries lie between the same parallels of latitude as Great Britain ? In what respects do their climates differ from ours, and why. SECTION III.

1. Name the principal countries of the Torrid Zone.

2. Name the chief West India Islands, the Ionian Islands, and the principal groups of Islands in the Pacific.

3. What are the provinces of Austria, and what are their chief cities? By what different races of men are they inhabited?

SECTION IV.

1. What chief articless of commerce come to us from between the Equator and the latitude of the Straits of Gibraltar; what, from thence to the latitude of London, and what from north of that latitude?

2. What influence has the elevation of a country above the sea level, on its climate and productions? Give examples of this.

3. Why does more rain fall on the West than on the East coast of England?

Name some rainless and some riverless districts of the world. There is a remarkably fertile country where it rarely or never rains; name that country and aceount for its fertility.

SECTION V.

1. Describe some of the most prevalent currents of the air of the ocean

2. Account for the formation of dew

and for its deposition in different quantities on different substances. Why does ice form itself on the surface and not at the bottom of the sea?

3. The Ferroe Islands, St. Petersburgh, and Iakoutsk in Siberia, have nearly equal latitudes; the mean winter temperature of the first is 38°, that of the second 16°. and that of the third38°; account for this difference. SECTION VI.

1. Shew that the earth cannot be an infinitely extended surface. Give one reason only.

2. Why do the northern stars appear to descend as we travel southward? Why do they appear to descend by exactly as many degrees as we change our latitude?

3. Why are some eclipses of the sun partial and some annular? Why are not the same eclipses visible in all parts of the world? Why do they not return every month? How often do similar eclipses return, add why?

[blocks in formation]

The School is opened with Singing and Prayer each morning. A, B, C, refer to Sections, which ae to be divided into small drafts progress in Arithmetic. *The mode of working the Grammar, Composition, and Arithmtic, will be indicated in a future p

GIRLS SE

[ocr errors]

No. 10.

DECEMBER 1, 1851.

Obseruation.

The power of active and minute observation, like the other mental and moral faculties, depends much on use and habit; and its development is a part of education which has been too generally neglected. Men see very much as they have been taught. Fact-teaching, it must be remembered, has not for its end the mere acquirement of facts, it must be handled as an implement by which the mind is assisted in working towards new inferences and results; and is, at the same time, habituated to examine with attention and interest those external objects and materials of information which lie around us in our common life. Fact-teaching, then, (we do not now use the term in its usual sense) has, as its proper scope, to strengthen habits of observation and correct inference.

Useful facts, and such as it is important should be stored within the mind, are now plentiful enough. They will be supplied from the mind of the Teacher and obtained from books. Science, though it has only explored so small a portion of the vast material world, furnishes them in abundance. Physical laws, unknown to Aristotle and Bacon, are now expounded in the school-room, The theory of the planetary movements which baffled philosophers for ages, is now represented in the school map or orrery. The explanation of common physical phenomena,-such as those, for instance, which depend atmospheric pressure, or the properties of fluids, or which are connected with the action of heat and light-opens another large mine of instruction to the Educator. The Natural History Sciences, again, are accessible to all, and are filled with interest and useful matter; while the products employed in our national industrial pursuits, and the processes to which they are submitted, supply a wide range of varied and practical information.

on

Indeed, it is one of the Educator's main difficulties, to select out of this multitude of facts which press round him, such as are most appropriate for his purpose; and it should be his aim to reduce these into a definite and systematic course of instruction. A brief distinct series of lessons on outward objects, into which a thorough insight has been obtained, aud which are occasionally revised, will make impression on the mind, as well as conduce more to methodical

more

habits of thought, than instruction which is more discursive and inCoherent. The latter will only leave a loose residuum of information in the mind, and will not serve to invigorate its powers.

But though facts for the Educator's use are abundant; and though these may be presented to the child's mind, and it may be reminded of the value of observation, it may not, nevertheless, be taught how to observe. All men observe, more or less,—but the great majority are uneducated observers. Put them in possession of facts, they will argue from them correctly; put them in possession of some object within which the same latent facts are contained, and they will be passed over unnoticed. The habit of observation has not been trained out in them, or strengthened by exercise; often, on the contrary, it has been repressed. Take a common case; a child has possessed itself with some object of interest; it scans closely its material and structure; it may even have a notion as to its use. When it has at length completed its own process of observation and childish induction, it goes to the first person who possesses, as it presumes, superior knowledge with the inquiry, either for confirmation or further explanation, "What is this?" Or again, a child hears of some object of interest; it runs over its little store of memories; either recollection fails it, or the object is new; and the inquiry is, "Have I ever seen it ?" But we can most of us recall from experience how often this process has proved indeed "the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties," and how, having had the spirit of inquiry discouraged by frequent repulses, we have gone forth into life, inobservant and inattentive. The faculty which was intended to place within the mind the varied information presented to it from the outer world through the senses, has been dulled with disuse. The sentinel has become dormant at his post.

But let us suppose, on the contrary, that the child instead of being silenced was encouraged in its inquiries; and its observation was commended and fostercd; that peculiarities of structure or arrangement were disclosed which had escaped its notice; and that thus its process of thought was either corrected, or confirmed, or impelled onward. The child would then meet with its next object of interest not merely with an increased desire for information, but with a more vigorous and enlarged capacity of observation. And this process continued throughout the period of education, would lay the foundation of a habit which would constitute a general, an accurate, and

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »