IX
ference in Calcutta) "care was taken to impress on students that education
was a very different thing from passing examinations", and this is really
something very often forgotten by teachers as well as by pupils in this
country. The most valuable information and instruction produce no in
terest, if the matter is not required for the examination in view. With
the intent, that not only school-going people, but also all, who would
like to understand the phenomena surrounding them, might use the book;
the first part of it has been written in Malayālam and almost all the
examples explained in this part are taken from daily life. As to the
instruction in schools the principle of this book is: "at first the matter
and then only the word". We may also say at first the experiment and
then only the abstraction of the physical law ("Experimentia est rerum
magistra"). A rational instruction in science in classes, for which this
book has been written, should never begin with definitions of notions,
but with experiments or the phenomena of daily life. As in these classes
Physics is not yet a professional study but a lesson given for general
education, for enlarging the spiritual hor ton of the pupil and for creating
in him an interest for nature, not much of the mathematical method has
been introduced into his book, for it is a matter of fact, that a great many
students lose their interest and taste for physics by being troubled at the
very beginning with mathematical calculations and problems. Although
the mathematical method is indispensable in an advanced stage of its
study or to such as make physics a professional study, one may perfectly
understand the phenomena surrounding one without one's being a great
mathematician. The simplest experiments are the phenomena of daily
life; on the observation of these the whole science rests as on its base,
and with the explanation of them the Malayālam part of this book chiefly
deals. Beginning with these, discussing them and pointing out the under
lying law in the Vernacular, a solid foundation can be laid. For sup
plying the necessary terminology in English and for adding more difficult
matter which can be mastered after the principles and the facts of daily
life have been understood, the Repertory in English has been added.
It only remains for me to express my most hearty thanks for the kind
permission accorded to me to dedicate the book to Your Highness. It is
