EDITOR'S TABLE. 



269 



real dominant forces of the age, are the 

 men of science, the investigators of nat- 

 ural phenomena, not the thinkers, phi- 

 losophers, or metaphysicians who for- 

 merly gave their name to sects, and 

 made all the world their partisans. 

 Nothing is_more remarkable than the 

 profound respect of the scientific con- 

 ception associated with the name of 

 Darwin, not on science only, but on lit- 

 erature, art, morals, and, in short, upon 

 life. Some will tell us that all this is a 

 lamentable result of the materialism of 

 the age ; but we naturally ask how it 

 happens that some centuries of a non- 

 scientific or literary culture left us a 

 prey to the materialism it is supposed 

 to antidote? It is untrue, moreover, 

 that material interest has been the great 

 impelling force. The great discoveries 

 of science have usually been made by 

 men seeking no material reward, and, 

 as a matter of fact, receiving very little. 

 Science pursues her own way for the 

 most part, and her discoveries are after- 

 ward utilized by men eagerly seeking 

 for the means of material enrichment. 

 Even when it is a question of so prac- 

 tical a thing as a new dye, it will be 

 found that the chemist, searching into 

 the properties and combinations of mat- 

 ter, comes upon the secret unawares, 

 while the manufacturer and the dyer 

 reap the profits. It is, indeed, only upon 

 these terms that Nature yields up her 

 secrets." 



Quite in the spirit of the foregoing, 

 though in a different and more special 

 direction, is the article of President 

 Eliot, of Harvard, in the " Princeton 

 Eeview " for May, " On the Education 

 of Ministers." President Eliot declares 

 that the education of the clerical pro- 

 fession has fallen so far behind the age 

 as to be out of relation with it, and to 

 have consequently lost its ancient com- 

 manding influence, and even resulted 

 in the degeneration of the clerical char- 

 acter. In the early part of his able 

 article he shows the eminent position 



formerly occupied by the clergy as in- 

 tellectual leaders. They were founders 

 of colleges, and the largest professional 

 class among the students. While a hun- 

 dred years ago in Harvard, Yale, and 

 Princeton the clerical graduates were 

 respectively 29, 32, and 45 per cent, 

 they have now fallen so far behind that 

 " in the six years from 1871 to 1876 the 

 percentage of ministers among the grad- 

 uates of the same institutions was, in 

 Harvard, 5f ; in Yale, 7; in Princeton, 

 17." President Eliot then glances at 

 the great changes that have gone for- 

 ward in society during the last hundred 

 years, profoundly affecting the beliefs 

 of men on many important questions, 

 and bringing new and extensive knowl- 

 edge to bear upon practical and every- 

 day problems in relation to social affairs. 

 Coincident with these movements, the 

 temper of the public mind has under- 

 gone a wonderful change within a cen- 

 tury upon several points which vitally 

 affect the clerical profession. In the 

 first place, the weight of all authority 

 has greatly diminished, and the sources 

 of recognized authority are quite dif- 

 ferent from what they were a century 

 ago. The priest, like the secular ruler, 

 has lost all that magical or necroman- 

 tic quality which formerly inspired the 

 multitude with awe ; and the divine 

 right of the minister is as dead among 

 Protestants in our country as the divine 

 right of kings. . . . Again, the people 

 in these days question all things and all 

 men, and accept nothing without ex- 

 amination. They have observed that 

 discussion often elicits truth, that con- 

 troversy is useful on many difficult sub- 

 jects, and that in some circumstances 

 many heads are better than one ; hence 

 they have learned to distrust all ex ca- 

 thedra teaching, and to wait for the con- 

 sent of many minds before giving their 

 adhesion to new doctrines. We hardly 

 realize how very recently the masses 

 have acquired these invaluable habits, 

 or how profoundly these habits have 

 affected the position of the minister." 



