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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mental concernment. There has been 

 not only a change here, but a reversal 

 of the order of importance. The ques- 

 tion now is, not of the art of expres- 

 sion in itself, but to what is it subserv- 

 ient. "We grow increasingly impatient 

 of the rhetorician. The casket may be 

 elegant, but what does it contain? The 

 husks and shells of expression have had 

 sufficient attention we have now to 

 deal with the living kernel of truth. 

 The old ideal is discredited by the new 

 developments of knowledge, and the 

 new ideal must contain more substan- 

 tial elements than that which it super- 

 sedes. Under the old ideal of cul- 

 ture, a man may still be grossly ig- 

 norant of the things most interesting 

 and now most important to know ; 

 but an ideal of cultivation begins to 

 be demanded which does not comport 

 with ignorance. Modern knowledge is 

 the highest and most perfected form of 

 knowledge, and it is no longer possible 

 to maintain that it is not also the best 

 knowledge for that cultivation of mind 

 and character which is the proper ob- 

 ject of education. This truth is making 

 its way steadily, and although the tra- 

 ditional ideal of culture is strongly for- 

 tified in existing institutions, and main- 

 tained by old habits and associations, 

 it is undermined on every side, and is 

 certain to give place to more compre- 

 hensive and rational views of what con- 

 stitutes a properly cultivated man. 



The leading criticisms of Professor 

 Huxley 1 s book, as we have said, illus- 

 trate this position decisively. They not 

 only show that the question is upper- 

 most and urgent with the thinking 

 classes, but that science has already so 

 clearly established its main positions 

 that the old resistance is futile, and that 

 a revised and enlarged conception of 

 culture has become inevitable. Pro- 

 fessor Huxley is even reproached by 

 distinguished literary authorities for not 

 fully perceiving the strength of his own 

 case, and how far science has already 

 pushed its educational conquests. It is 



even maintained that the scientific spirit 

 and method have so far penetrated and 

 revolutionized the classical system as to 

 have given it a new lease of life ; so 

 that it will be conserved in future only 

 by virtue of what it has borrowed from 

 the progressive agency which it has 

 hitherto so desperately resisted. The 

 London " Saturday Keview " discourses 

 upon the subject as follows: 



Professor Huxley's position as to the claims 

 of the natural sciences on the one hand and 

 the humanities on the other of the " mod- 

 ern" and the " classical " plan of education, 

 as they are commonly called is, on the whole, 

 if we rightly collect his meaning, something 

 like this : The medieeval system of European 

 universities, which with more or less minor 

 diversity was in substance the same every- 

 where, embraced everything which to the 

 best men of its day seemed best worth a 

 man's knowing, and deserves our thanks and 

 praise according to its time and work. But it 

 became stereotyped and inexpansive. It was 

 too narrow to hold the flood of new knowl- 

 edge and interests let loose upon the world 

 by the revival of classical learning. The 

 Eenaissance, in so far as it affected educa- 

 tion, was the protest of far-sighted reformers 

 against the bondage of medievalism. The 

 humanities fought their pitched battle against 

 the scholastic curriculum, and won it. Our 

 present classical education represents the tri- 

 umph of the lilterai humaniores three cen- 

 turies and a half ago. But the humanities, 

 like the scholastic system before them, have 

 in their turn become stereotyped. Now science 

 has arisen and opened a new world, unfamil- 

 iar to the men of classical traditions, and often 

 scorned by them ; and science is fighting its 

 way to its proper eminence as Greek did in 

 the days of Erasmus. The leaders of science 

 are the true humanists of our own time, and 

 the old-fashioned humanities must give place 

 to them. Now, if we were prepared to as- 

 sume, as Professor Huxley to some extent 

 seems tacitly to assume, that classical educa- 

 tion had reached its final development, and 

 that nothing more was to come out of scholar- 

 ship and antiquities than was got out of them 

 by English scholars forty or fifty years ago, 

 we should entirely agree with Professor Hux- 

 ley's conclusions. But, for our part, we are 

 not prepared to assume anything of the kind. 

 There are matters not adverted to by Profess- 

 or Huxley, and to which, as they certainly lie 

 outside his business, his attention may natu- 

 rally have not been directed, which appear to 



