METHODS OF NINETEENTH CENTURY 21 



engineering colleges it was but a step toward the establishment of 

 technological instruction in every line where a profound knowledge 

 of physics or chemistry is necessary to fit a man for the most success- 

 ful prosecution of his work. We have seen the establisnment of 

 schools of art in its various forms. We have in more recent years 

 witnessed the extension of the principle of professional education 

 so as to afford training for the more purely mechanical pursuits 

 which involve no profound knowledge of mathematics or chemistry 

 and no long-continued or exhaustive study such as is necessary for 

 the pursuit of art or letters; schools which take people who are under 

 the necessity of earning a living and have little time to spare in 

 education, in order to give them, in this little time, the opportunity 

 to earn that living more honorably and more successfully. 



And this brings us to another point which distinguishes the pro- 

 fessional education of the nineteenth century from that which pre- 

 ceded it. I refer to the character of the modern technical school 

 as a place where the individual learns to achieve success. The 

 earlier professional colleges were occupisd with the creation and 

 maintenance of standards of thought and of conduct rather than 

 with the practical end of fitting the student for his life work. The 

 old-fashioned school of theology was chiefly concerned to uphold 

 orthodox traditions and to maintain a spiritual atmosphere favorable 

 to the perpetuation of such traditions. Nor was the old-fashioned 

 school of law or medicine very different from this. The student 

 was brought under the influence of a code of professional ethics which 

 helped to uphold the dignity of his calling. If the teacher could 

 inspire the pupil with this class spirit and these special standards of 

 honor inherited from past ages, it was regarded as somewhat im- 

 material whether he taught him anything else. Not a few of the 

 scientific teachers of past centuries have made it their boast that 

 they never did anything so commonplace as a dissection or an ex- 

 periment in their classrooms. To-day the case is far different. We 

 no longer seek to maintain standards; we seek to accomplish results. 

 We try to fit the pupil to do something. If our ideals are high, we 

 wish to enable him to do something to benefit his fellow men. If 

 they are a little lower, we teach him to do something which will 

 increase his reputation. If they are on that low plane which always 

 characterizes a certain proportion of our professional teaching, we 

 are chiefly concerned to prepare him to make money. But whether 

 its purpose be high or low, the nineteenth-century technical school, 

 whether for learned professions or unlearned, is occupied to an 

 overwhelmingly large extent with the teaching of things which will 

 lead each man to accomplish tangible success for himself; and most 

 of them have let the duty of maintaining public standards sink 

 somewhat into the background. 



