PLACE OF BOTANY IN EDUCATION 19 



ing each mind to expand for itself under a proper 

 combination of nourishment from within and stimulus 

 from without. 



Whether or not the Sciences are inherently as ef- 

 ficient as the Classics in securing Culture is still in 

 debate. The Sciences in these days have many dis- 

 tinguished advocates, of whom the greatest was Hux- 

 ley, and, in this country, President Eliot. In the 

 works of the former and the published addresses of 

 the latter the interested reader may find the fullest 

 satisfaction. As to knowledge, each must judge for 

 himself whether it is not at least as conducive to 

 gentle conduct, to good citizenship, and to sympathy 

 with all grades of humanity, to know something of 

 the forces with which man to-day is subduing Nature, 

 of the processes going on in our own bodies, of the 

 basis of the germ nature of disease, of what moves 

 an electric car, of the meaning of the procession of 

 the seasons with their manifold phenomena, as to 

 know the lore and literature of Greece or the tongues 

 of modern Europe, fine though these things be. And 

 as to training, one may compare the best that can be 

 claimed for the aesthetic value, the facility in expres- 

 sion, the polish of manner that the Languages help 

 to produce, with the following description from Hux- 

 ley of the training value of the Sciences. 



" Science is, I believe, nothing but trained and organ- 

 ised common sense, differing from the latter only as 



