73 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in the good as forever allied to the true, this devotion to duty as the 

 result of such faith and zeal, constitute probably the most needed ele- 

 ment at this moment in the political regeneration of this country, and 

 that, therefore, the example of our little army of true devotees of sci- 

 ence has an exceeding preciousness. 



Said a justly-distinguished senator to me yesterday, in Washington : 

 " The true American idea of education is to give all children a good 

 and even start ; then to hold up the prizes of life before them ; then to 

 say to them : ' Go in and win ; let the smartest have the prizes.' " 



Who of the common herd shall dispute the conclusions of a senator 

 beneath the great cast-iron dome at Washington ? But here, in this 

 presence, I may venture to say that such a theory of education is one 

 of the main causes of our greatest national clanger and disgrace. No 

 theory can be more false, or, in the long-run, more fatal. Look at it 

 for a moment : 



We are greatly stirred, at times, as this fraud or that scoundrel is 

 dragged to light, and there rise cries and moans over the corruption of 

 the times ; but, my friends, these frauds and these scoundrels are not 

 the " corruption of the times." They are the mere pustules which the 

 body politic throws to the service. Thank God, that there is vitality 

 enough left to throw them to the surface ! The disease is below all 

 this ; infinitely more wide-spread. 



What is that disease ? I believe that it is, first of all, indifference 

 indifference to truth as truth; next, skepticism, by which I do not 

 mean inability to believe this or that dogma, but the skepticism which 

 refuses to believe that there is any power in the universe strong enough, 

 large enough, good enough, to make the thorough search for truth 

 safe in every line of investigation ; next, infidelity, by which I do not 

 mean want of fidelity to this or that dominant creed, but want of fidelity 

 to that which underlies all creeds, the idea that the true and the good 

 are one ; and, finally, materialism, by which I do not mean this or that 

 scientific theory of the universe, but that devotion to the mere husks 

 and rinds of good, that struggle for place and pelf, that faith in mere 

 material comfort and wealth, which eats out of human hearts all patri- 

 otism, and which is the very opposite of the spirit that gives energy to 

 scientific achievement. 



The education which our senatorial friend approved leads naturally 

 to just this array of curses. 



On the other hand, I believe that the little army of scientific men 

 furnish a very precious germ from which better ideas may spring. 



And we should strengthen them. We have already multitudes of 

 foundations and appliances for the dilution of truth for the stunting of 

 truth for the promotion of half-truths for the development of this or 

 that side of truth. 



We have no end of intellectual hot-house arrangements for the cul- 

 tivation of the plausible rather than the true ; and therefore it is that 



