126 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



as we have already said on other occasions 

 not by ceasing to teach the humanities, but 

 by teaching them better. 



The criticism of the London "Acad- 

 emy " still further illustrates the ad- 

 vance of rational ideas on this subject : 



The address on " Science and Culture," 

 which gives its name to the volume, is a dis- 

 cussion of the place of scientific and of liter- 

 ary training in education. T he form in which 

 the question in debate between the advocates 

 of " science " and of " culture " is presented 

 is not which of these two things is the more 

 valuable, but whether the idea of complete 

 culture does not include within itself that of 

 scientific discipline. This way of stating the 

 question brings out clearly the fundamental 

 agreement that there is if we leave out of ac- 

 count the devotees of " useful knowledge " 

 between the advocates of the classics and of 

 physical science. For it is seen that the' ad- 

 vocates of science admit that every one ought 

 to know something of literature, though they 

 think it possible sufficiently to cultivate the 

 sense of literary form by means of the modern 

 languages alone ; while the advocates of the 

 classics, in maintaining that classical studies 

 give the best possible intellectual training, 

 admit that culture is not complete if nothing 

 but the sense for literary form has been cul- 

 tivated. The questions that are really in de- 

 bate are, therefore, the subordinate ones 

 whether, though real intellectual as well as 

 aesthetic education is given by the study of 

 the classics, physical science is not the typical 

 intellectual discipline, for which anything 

 else is an imperfect subsitute ; and whether, 

 though some literary culture can be got out of 

 modern books alone, a certain knowledge of 

 the classics is not necessary as a preparation 

 for the the full appreciation of European lit- 

 erature in general. Professor Huxley decides 

 both these questions in favor of the advocates 

 of scientific education. He suggests incident- 

 ally that modern men of science have more 

 of the spirit of antiquity than " the modern hu- 

 manists. . . . "We falsely pretend," he says, 

 speaking of the Greeks, "to be the inheritors 

 of their culture,. unless we are penetrated, as 

 the best minds among them were, with an 

 unhesitating faith that the free employment 

 of reason, in accordance with scientific meth- 

 od, is the sole method of reaching truth." 



He points out, near the end of the essay, 

 that the higher sciences, those that deal with 

 man and society, can only be constructed by 

 the application of the methods of physical 

 science. As regards the literary side of edu- 

 cation, he expresses the opinion that " for 



those who mean to make science their serious 

 occupation ; or who intend to follow the pro- 

 fession of medicine ; or who have to enter 

 early upon the business of life ; . . . classi- 

 cal education is a mistake." It is possible to 

 get sufficient culture out of modern literature 

 perhaps out of English literature alone. 



Something might be said against this last 

 opinion, even by those who agree with Pro- 

 fessor Huxley entirely as to the necessity of 

 scientific discipline as part of a complete ed- 

 ucation. But, granting that knowledge of 

 classical literature is not an essential part of 

 culture, there is still a difficulty about omit- 

 ting Greek and Latin from education in some 

 cases and not in others. For, if the classical 

 languages are to be taught at all, it is desir- 

 able that the study of them should begin at 

 an earlier age than that at which a decided 

 preference either for literature or for science 

 usually manifests itself. 



This last remark is very important in 

 its bearing upon the general issue be- 

 tween classical and scientific studies. It 

 is a concession of what we have con- 

 stantly maintained, that, if the study 

 of Greek and Latin is to be worth any- 

 thing at all, it must consume a portion 

 of the time devoted to education that 

 is out of all relation to the value of the 

 acquisitions, compared with others that 

 are necessarily excluded. If that time 

 is not given to them, the acquisitions are 

 so worthless that the effort is wasted ; 

 but, if the full time is taken by the 

 classical tongues, there is no room left 

 for any fullness or thoroughness of 

 scientific study. Hence the need, as 

 the "Academy " remarks, of beginning 

 so early with the Greek and Latin that 

 the pupil is unable to form an opinion 

 of the uses and value of his studies. But 

 this period of immature judgment is ex- 

 actly the proper time for the training of 

 the powers of observation and the ac- 

 quisition of elementary science. These 

 early years, therefore, belong rightfully, 

 and by the laws of the mental constitu- 

 tion, to science and the rudimentary 

 study of natural things. It is a suffi- 

 cient outrage in itself to put children 

 at the dead languages, whereby there 

 is certain to be engendered a hatred of 

 study ; but it is no less an outrage upon 



