SCIENCE AS AN INSTRUMENT OF EDUCATION. 255 



continents and islands can be traced with an exactness hitherto 

 unknown; that the findings of modern physics have revealed 

 the theoretical laws of vapors and thermodynamics, which are 

 applied daily to supplement and multiply man's labor in all in- 

 dustries ; that the discoveries of chemistry respecting gases, com- 

 bustion, and the preparation of iron and steel, added to the inven- 

 tions of rational and applied dynamics, control the fabrication and 

 operation of our machines, ships, and locomotives. In short, these 

 marvelous advances have been accomplished through science 

 alone, and not through a blind empiricism. I will not here dwell 

 upon the wonderful facilities that have been given to life by such 

 subtle discoveries of the physics of our time as the electric tele- 

 graph, the telephone, photography, and electric lighting ; and I 

 only refer by way of a reminder to the complete modification of 

 the conditions of war effected through the very recent discoveries 

 of science concerning explosive matters. I can not, however, pass 

 in silence over the prolongation of human life, the mean duration 

 of which has been doubled among civilized peoples during the past 

 two centuries by the discoveries of physiology, hygiene, and medi- 

 cine, in which some new advance is marked nearly every day. 



All this progress and all this transformation of life have not 

 been accomplished and will not be continued by chance or acci- 

 dent, but are the fruits of modern science. And this is why pub- 

 lic opinion is every day demanding an increasing intervention of 

 the methods and teaching of science in public instruction. This 

 participation is, furthermore, not destined to be for the profit of 

 the community alone, but by a necessary consequence is prima- 

 rily profitable for individuals to whom, prepared by scientific 

 instruction in their secondary education, it is all the time opening 

 new professional careers. 



While the necessity of science in secondary education is thus 

 demonstrated by the most imperative reasons from the material 

 and social point of view, it must not be supposed that science is 

 less well adapted to the mental and moral education of the indi- 

 vidual, and that it can not form minds capable of elevated concep- 

 tions and develop good citizens. 



There are two courses in science corresponding to different 

 aptitudes, but not contradictory the mathematical course, deduc- 

 tive and rational, and the physical and naturalistic direction, 

 founded on observation and experiment, combined with reason. 

 Mathematics gives the young man a clear idea of demonstration 

 and habituates him to form long trains of thought and reasoning 

 methodically connected and sustained by the final certainty of the 

 result ; and it has the further advantage, from a purely moral point 

 of view, of inspiring an absolute and fanatical respect for the 

 truth. In addition to all this, mathematics, and chiefly algebra and 



