Tyndall, John

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PREFACE THE FOURTH EDITION. At a meeting of the Managers of the Royal Institution held on December 12, 1825, 'the Committee appointed to consider what lectures should be delivered in the Institution in the next session' reported 'that they had consulted Mr. Faraday on the subject of engaging him to take a part in the juvenile lectures proposed to be given during the Christmas and Easter recesses, and they found his avocations were such that it would be exceedingly inconvenient for him to engage in such lectures.' At a general monthly meeting of the members of the Royal Institution, held on December 4, 1326, the Managers reported 'that they had engaged Mr. Wallis to deliver a course of lectures on Astronomy, adapted to a juvenile auditory, during the Christmas vacation.' In a report dated April 16, 1827, the Board of Visitors express their satisfaction at finding that the plan of juvenile courses of lectures has been resorted to. They feel sure that the influence of the Institution cannot be extended too far, and that the system of instructing the younger portion of the community is one of the most effective means which the Institution possesses for the diffusion of science. Faraday's holding aloof was but temporary, for at Christmas 1827 we find him giving a Course of Six Elementary Lectures on Chemistry, adapted to a Juvenile Auditory. The Easter lectures were soon abandoned but from the date here referred to to the present time the Christmas lectures have been a marked feature of the Royal Institution. In 1871 it fell to my lot to give one of these courses. I had been frequently invited to write on Glaciers in encyclopaedias, journals, and magazines, but had always declined to do so. I had also abstained from making them the subject of a course of lectures, wishing to take no advantage of my position here, and indeed to avoid writing a line or uttering a sentence on the subject for which I could not be held personally responsible. In view of the discussions which the subject had provoked, I thought this the fairest course. But, in 1871, the time I imagined had come when, without risk of offence, I might tell our young people something about the labours of those who had unravelled for their instruction the various problems of the ice-world. My lamented friend and over-helpful counsellor. Dr. Banco Jones, thought tho subject a good one, and accordingly it was chosen. Strong in my sympathy with youth, and remembering the damage done by defective exposition to my own young mind, I sought, to the best of my ability, to confer upon these lectures clearness, thoroughness, and life. Wishing, moreover, to render them of permanent value, I wrote out copious notes of the course, and had them distributed among the boys and girls. In preparing those notes I aimed at nothing less than presenting to my youthful audience, in it concentrated but perfectly digestible form, every essential point embraced in the literature of the glaciers, and some things in addition, which, derived as they were from my own recent researches, no book previously published on the subject contained. But my theory of education agrees with that of Emerson, according to which instruction is only half the battle, what he calls provocation being the other half...