70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



endowed educational institutions a man is found with extensive 

 knowledge of educational methods. It is common for a man who 

 has never been trained to teach to take up teaching for a few 

 years, when he changes to some business or profession. These, 

 and thousands of other instances, crowded in our memories, illus- 

 trate the dislike of real competency. 



Imagination anticipates the revolution which must come, and 

 foresees the time when public workers of all kinds shall be chosen 

 first, because they have been properly trained and educated for 

 the work which is to be their lifelong profession ; second, accord- 

 ing to the relative ability of those so prepared. Democracy ap- 

 pears as a permanent factor of steadily increasing influence in 

 social evolution. It has, of course, done much good, but its fail- 

 ure to secure honest government has raised one of the gravest 

 problems of our time. Some persons advocate restriction of the 

 right to vote, but to me restriction of the right to be a candidate 

 offers the practicable solution of the problem. We are a few 

 among millions, but the educational and other offices we hold 

 give us an influence out of proportion to our mere numbers. If 

 we demand within the limits which becomes us that men must be 

 chosen for their competency, we shall uphold effectively a prin- 

 ciple the defense of which is among the foremost duties of every 

 patriotic citizen. 



We have already done something to improve school educa- 

 tion. We should do more, especially in the direction of adding 

 scientific courses to the school curriculum. A man is liberally 

 educated when he has learned to take an appreciative interest in 

 the intellectual life of his time, and a man who has not learned 

 enough of the natural sciences to understand something of their 

 progress can to-day scarcely rank as an educated man. It is true 

 that science is better adapted to serve as a basis of education than 

 the classics, and it is true also that it is easier to give a liberal 

 education without classics than without science ; nevertheless we 

 must urge the claims of science in schools conservatively. A re- 

 form is better than a revolution. A reform saves strength and 

 spares prejudices. We must remember, too, that centuries have 

 been spent in testing and perfecting the classical system of educa- 

 tion, and that it has rendered services which can hardly be over- 

 estimated. The education based on science has scarcely two 

 decades of imperfect and hesitating trial, and the people at large 

 have still to learn that it is feasible and more valuable than the 

 older system. The methods of utilizing science for school courses 

 are still crude. We suffer from an erribarras des richesses. There 

 is here an opportunity for public usefulness for this society. 

 Could we not through a committee prepare a plan for a system 

 of school education in which science should have its place, and 



