674 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



taught, and the new subjects enlist the attention and sympathy of 

 large classes of pupils whom the earlier studies only languidly in- 

 terested. Nevertheless, it is incumbent on those who have advocated 

 and carried out this change to ask themselves whether it has brought 

 with it no drawbacks. They may be sure that no such extensive 

 reform could possibly be accomplished without defects appearing 

 somewhere. And it is well to look these defects in the face and, as 

 far as may be possible, remove them. In considering how I might 

 best discharge the duty with which I have been honored of address- 

 ing the students of Mason College this evening, I have thought that 

 it might not be inappropriate if, as a representative of science, I were 

 to venture to point out some of the drawbacks as well as the advan- 

 tages of the position which science has attained in our educational 

 system. 



At the outset no impartial onlooker can fail to notice that the 

 natural reaction against the dominance of the older learning has 

 tended to induce an undervaluing of the benefits which that learning 

 afforded and can still bestow. In this college, indeed, and in other 

 institutions more specially designed for instruction in science, pro- 

 vision has also been made for the teaching of Latin, Greek, and the 

 more important modern languages and literatures. But in such insti- 

 tutions these subjects usually hold only a subordinate place. It can 

 hardly be denied that generally throughout the country, even al- 

 though the literary side of education still maintains its pre-eminence 

 in our public schools and universities, it is losing ground, and that 

 every year it occupies less of the attention of students of science. 

 The range of studies which the science examinations demand is 

 always widening, while the academic period within which these 

 studies must be crowded undergoes no extension. Those students, 

 therefore, who, whether from necessity or choice, have taken their 

 college education in science, naturally experience no little difficulty 

 in finding time for the absolutely essential subjects required for their 

 degrees. Well may they declare that it is hopeless for them to at- 

 tempt to engage in anything more, and especially in anything that 

 will not tell directly on their places in the final class lists. With the 

 best will in the world, and with even, sometimes, a bent for literary 

 pursuits, they may believe themselves compelled to devote their 

 whole time and energies to the multifarious exactions of their science 

 curriculum. 



Such a result of our latest reformation in education may be 

 unavoidable, but it is surely matter for regret. A training in sci- 

 ence and scientific methods, admirable as it is in so many ways, fails 

 to supply those humanizing influences which the older learning can 

 so well impart. For the moral stimulus that comes from an associa- 



