SCIENCE AND CULTURE. 163 



in literature. That criticism regards " Europe as being for intellec- 

 tual and spiritual purposes one great confederation, bound to a joint 

 action and working to a common result ; and whose members have 

 for their common outfit a knowledge of Greek, Roman, and Eastern 

 antiquity, and of one another. Special local and temporary advan- 

 tages being put out of account, that modern nation will in the intel- 

 lectual and spiritual sphere make most progress which most thorough- 

 ly carries out this programme. And what is that but saying that we, 

 too, all of us as individuals, the more thoroughly we carry it out shall 

 make the more progress ! " 



We have here to deal with two distinct propositions : The first, 

 that a ci'iticism of life is the essence of culture ; the second, that litera- 

 ture contains the materials which suffice for the construction of such a 

 criticism. I think that we must all assent to the first proposition. 

 For culture certainly means something quite different from learning 

 or technical skill. It implies the possession of an ideal, and the habit 

 of critically estimating the value of things by comparison with a theo- 

 retic standard. Perfect culture should supply a complete theory of 

 life, based upon a clear knowledge alike of its possibilities and of its 

 limitations. But we may agree to all this, and yet strongly dissent 

 from the assumption that literature alone is competent to supply this 

 knowledge. After having learned all that Greek, Roman, and East- 

 ern antiquity have thought and said, and all that modern literatures 

 have to tell us, it is not self-evident that we have laid a sufficiently 

 broad and deep foundation for that criticism of life which constitutes 

 culture. Indeed, to any one acquainted with the scope of physical 

 science, it is not at all evident. Considering progress only in the 

 " intellectual and spiritual sphere," I find myself wholly unable to 

 admit that either nations or individuals will really advance if their 

 common outfit draws nothing from the stores of physical science. I 

 should say that an army without weapons of precision, and with no 

 particular base of operations, might more hopefully enter upon a 

 campaign on the Rhine than a man, devoid of a knowledge of what 

 physical science has done in the last century, upon the criticism of 

 life. 



"When a biologist meets with an anomaly, he instinctively turns to 

 the study of development to clear it up. The rationale of contradic- 

 tory opinions may with equal confidence be sought in history. 



It is, happily, no new thing that Englishmen shotld employ their 

 wealth in building and endowing institutions for educational purposes. 

 But, five or six hundred years ago, deeds of foundation expressed or 

 implied conditions as nearly as possible contrary to those which have 

 been thought expedient by Sir Josiah Mason. That is to say, physical 

 science was practically ignored, while a certain literary training was 

 enjoined as a means to the acquirement of knowledge which was essen- 

 tially theological. The reason of this singular contradiction between 



