SCIENCE IN EDUCATION. 673 



jealousy of the older regime and the strenuous, if sometimes blatant, 

 belligerency of the reformers have not yet been pacified; and, from 

 time to time, within our public schools and universities, there may 

 still be heard the growls of opposition and the shouts of conflict. But 

 these sounds are growing fainter. Even the most conservative don 

 hardly ventures nowadays openly to denounce Science and all her 

 works. Grudgingly, it may be, but yet perforce, he has to admit the 

 teaching of modern science to a place among the subjects which the 

 university embraces, and in which it grants degrees. In our public 

 schools a " modern side " has been introduced, and even on the classi- 

 cal side an increasing share of the curriculum is devoted to oral and 

 practical teaching in science. New colleges have been founded in the 

 more important centers of population, for the purpose, more particu- 

 larly, of enabling the community to obtain a thorough education in 

 modern science. 



The mainspring of this remarkable educational revolution has, 

 doubtless, been the earnest conviction that the older learning was no 

 longer adequate in the changed and changing conditions of our time ; 

 that vast new fields of knowledge, opened up by the increased study 

 of Nature, ought to be included in any scheme of instruction intended 

 to fit men for the struggle of modern life, and that in this newer 

 knowledge much might be found to minister to the highest ends of 

 education. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that utilitarian con- 

 siderations have not been wholly absent from the minds of the re- 

 formers. Science has many and far-reaching practical applications. 

 It has called into existence many new trades and professions, and has 

 greatly modified many of those of older date. In a thousand varied 

 ways it has come into the ordinary affairs of everyday life. Its cul- 

 tivation has brought innumerable material benefits; its neglect would 

 obviously entail many serious industrial disadvantages, and could not 

 fail to leave us behind in the commercial progress of the nations of 

 the globe. 



So much have these considerations pressed upon the attention 

 of the public in recent years that, besides all the other educational 

 machinery to which I have referred, technical schools have been 

 established in many towns for the purpose of teaching the theory as 

 well as the practice of various arts and industries, and making artisans 

 understand the nature of the processes with which their trades are 

 concerned. 



That this educational transformation, which has been advancing 

 during the century, has resulted in great benefit to the community at 

 large can hardly be denied. Besides the obvious material gains, 

 there has been a widening of the whole range and method of our 

 teaching; the old subjects are better, because more scientifically 



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