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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5266, 8 February 1878, Page 2

At a recent festival in Bristol Dean Stanley delivered a most eloquent and suggestive lecture on Education in after Lite. By this he meant the education which each man should try to obtain for himself after leaving school. This lecture should be read and carefully studied by all young men. We are sorely afraid that most of our young meti think themselves sufficiently educated when they leave school. Wo know that very many of them scarcely read at all, some oven boasting that they have never read a book in their lives. Some, however, there are who do try, in a vague and desultory fashion, to educate themselves ; but their efforts are generally useless because so . ill-directed. They begin to study some subject, grow weary over the details, and throw it aside ere they have learnt enough to interest them. Such young men would gain much if they regularly attended the meetings- of the Philosophical Society. People do not sufficiently value this society. Though now and then the papers are somewhat dreary, yet all are short, and oven from the most technically worded aud abstruse any decently educated young man could glean some useful knowledge. No one could go to its meetings without learning something valuable from the papers or discussions, or from seeing the specimens. Our young men are quite ignorant of the country, of its physiography, its geology, botany, insects, fishes, reptiles, birds, or aboriginal inhabitants. Of all these and many other things they would learn much by attending its meetings, and by so doing they would gain much knowledge which they, would fail to obtain elsewhere. Many of the most interesting and instructive papers are most easy to understand. For instance, Dr. Bhller’s essays on the natural history of Now Zealand birds are not only of high scientific interest but are also attractive to the most unscientific. What could be more fascinating than his account of the gatherings of tho godwits near the North Capo, of their sotting off after sunset in vast crowds arranged in wedge-shape, and winging their way over the vast Pacific to some far off breeding place in the Old World; or of the disappearance of the bellbird from much of tho country, and the habits of many of the wild fowl.- So, too, several of Mr. Kibk’s papers, though couched in technical language, contain many facts which anyone can understand, and which, like his description of tho struggle existing between native and foreign plants, is of great interest. At every meeting Dr. Hector shows some wonderfully curious specimens, and explains them in such clear, plain language that no one can fail to understand. In London, at the Royal Institution, ladies and gentlemen crowd to hear the newest discoveries in science simply told by the most distinguished of ' scientific men. Surely, in a city like ours, which possesses so few educational advantages, tho meetings of this society should bo well attended. When Dr. Hector went Home, he read papers at the Geographical Society, and at the British Association meeting, which were listened to by eager crowds. Here Dr. Hector reads papers to scanty audiences. Mr. Kirk, a paid professor of science in Wellington College, lectures at the Philosophical for nothing. Dr. Hector has been offered a splendid University professorship at Homo to teach science; here he teaches it gratis, but the. young man don’t go in shoals to hear him. Many other members read most instructive papers on their special subjects. Spite of all these advantages,

which they can obtain for almost nothing, the young men prefer to fritter away | their time in billiard-playing,' theatregoing, or flirting. Strange to say, their parents rarely urge them to : choose the wiser course. Even if such a charming paper as “The Simplest Continuous Manifoldness of Finite Space* of Two Dimensions ” is read, of which most of the audience fail to understand a single word, they can at least learn the useful fact that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy. Such papers act as capital antidotes to young men’s foolish conceit of omniscience. People are apt to be repelled from a study of any science by the number of technical terms; as a matter of , fact, this difficulty is soon got over. Formerly scientific men prided themselves on the use of sesquipedalian technical terms, and thought no paper was really scientific unless expressed in involved ambiguous phrases, and couched in a special distinct set of words—the longer and harder to spell or to utter, so much the more learning and marvellous ingenuity ; like that celebrated German metaphysician, Hegel, whose writings were so very learned and mystical that a very able Scotchman wrote two big volumes on them called “The Secret of Hegel.” But Heobl exclaimed, “Of all my followers there is only one who understands me—and he doesn’t.” How, however, this absurd craze is dying fast. Mr. Darwin, Professors Tyndall, Huxley, Proctor, and others, put into plainest words and simplest sentences the most intricate and complicated conquests of science. Most of the young men are following their lead; they see that rery often very grandiloquent technical phrases cover astonishing poverty of thought. It is found that the use of such strange, terms drives people away from the study of science, and that uow-a-days, when educated men are obliged to learn much, it is shear waste of time and labor to learn a fresh language as a necessary introduction to the study of a new science. We heartily urge young men to attend these meetings. Any one of them who wishes to study some science will got much help by attending, and by studying in our extremely valuable Museum.