PHYSICAL LABORATORY IN MODERN EDUCATION. 507 



act laws of Nature, let them study physics and astronomy, where ob- 

 servation, common sense, and mathematics go hand in hand. The 

 object of education is not only to produce a man who knows, but one 

 who does ; who makes his mark in the struggle of life, and succeeds 

 well in whatever he undertakes ; who can solve the problems of Na- 

 ture and of humanity as they arise, and who, when he knows he is 

 right, can boldly convince the world of the fact. Men of action are 

 needed as well as men of thought. 



There is no doubt in my mind that this is the point in which 

 much of our modern education fails. Why is it ? I answer that the 

 memory alone is trained, and the reason and judgment are used merely 

 to refer matters to some authority who is considered final ; and, worse 

 than all, they are not trained to apply their knowledge constantly. 

 To produce men of action they must be trained in action. If the 

 languages be studied, they must be made to translate from one lan- 

 guage to the other until they have perfect facility in the process. If 

 mathematics be studied, they must work problems, more problems, 

 and problems again, until they have the use of what they know. If 

 they study the sciences, they must enter the laboratory and stand 

 face to face with Nature ; they must learn to test their knowledge 

 constantly and thus see for themselves the sad results of vague spec- 

 ulation ; they must learn by direct experiment that there is such a 

 thing in the world as truth, and that their own mind is most liable to 

 error. They must try experiment after experiment, and work prob- 

 lem after problem, until they become men of action and not of theory. 



This, then, is the use of the laboratory in general education, to train 

 the mind in right modes of thought by constantly bringing it in con- 

 tact with absolute truth, and to give it a pleasant and profitable method 

 of exercise which will call all its powers of reason and imagination into 

 play. Its use in the special training of scientists needs no remark, for 

 it is well known that it is absolutely essential. The only question is 

 whether the education of specialists in science is worth undertaking at 

 all, and of these I have only to consider natural philosophers or physi- 

 cists. I might point to the world around me, to the steam-engine, to 

 labor-saving machinery, to the telegraph, to all those inventions which 

 make the present age the " Age of Electricity," and let that be my 

 answer. Nobody could gainsay that the answer would be complete, for 

 all are benefited by these applications of science, and he would be con- 

 sidered absurd who did not recognize their value. These follow in the 

 train of physics, but they are not physics ; the cultivation of physics 

 brings them and always will bring them, for the selfishness of mankind 

 can always be relied upon to turn all things to profit. But in the educa- 

 tion pertaining to a university we look for other results. The special 

 physicist trained there must be taught to cultivate his science for its 

 own sake. He must go forth into the world with enthusiasm for it, 

 and try to draw others into an appreciation of it, doing his part to 



