Mills & Boon have in the press a series of letters written by Mr. Stephen Coleridge to his grandson on Science. Mr. Coleridge, as is well known, entertains a strong opinion that the study of Science should never displace in the education of the young the study of letters, agreeing with Dr. Johnson that to acquire a knowledge of Science is "not the great or the frequent business of the mind."
Nevertheless, Mr. Coleridge believes that an ignorance of the laws of nature and of the wonders of the Universe is a condition of vulgarity, and that every child should learn from the world about him, first to recognise the evidences of design patently displayed everywhere in the order and process of nature, and, secondly, to be filled with reverence for the Power that ordained it; accordingly he has written these letters explaining to his grandson the wonderful provisions that cover the earth with devices that not only make it habitable, but spread over it beauty on every side.
The letters inculcate the habit of observation and of curiosity concerning matters of every-day experience which are not often dealt with in school books, such as the causes of the singing of the kettle on the hob, of the blue colour of the sky in the daytime and of the red and gold colours of it at Sunset, of rain and dew, and winds, and many others of the daily experiences about us. But always Mr. Coleridge enforces the principle that scientific knowledge should never for a moment lessen our adoration for the glories of nature; and as an instance of his method we give the following quotation from the 8th letter:—
"XXX. This is the explanation made by scientific people of the blue sky, and of the glorious reds and golds and amber and daffodil depths of the dying day. I do not know there is any particular harm in ascertaining, if it be true information, how these wonders of the world are caused, any more than there is any particular harm in knowing that behind the beautiful face and form of a lovely woman there exist a skull and skeleton made of bone; but those who permit these items of dull knowledge to impair in the slightest degree their reverence for the loveliness of a beautiful woman, or their adoration for the great Spirit of the Universe, 'whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,' had better never have acquired them."
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