54 8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



TEE SLOW PROGRESS OF IDEAS. 



In his recent excellent report to 

 Columbia College, Dr. Barnard says, in 

 discussing the policy of universities, 

 "Newton stands perhaps without a 

 peer in the scientific annals of all time, 

 yet the astronomy of Ptolemy continued 

 to be taught in Newton's own univer- 

 sity of Cambridge for a century after 

 the publication of the 'Principia' had 

 created astronomical science anew." 

 This is an excellent illustration of the 

 power of habit and tradition in educa- 

 tion. In further discussing "Educa- 

 tion as a Science" in the same report, 

 President Barnard quotes the following 

 statement of the Rev. Mr. Quick, the 

 Cambridge lecturer, on the history and 

 philosophy of teaching : " I take it that 

 Jacotot taught more emphatically than 

 any one three great pedagogic truths : 

 first, that a good teacher exercises the 

 searching rather than the receiving fac- 

 ulties of the learner's mind ; second, 

 that all fresh knowledge should be con- 

 nected with what the learner knew 

 before; and, third, that a thorough 

 knowledge of anything is an almost in- 

 exhaustible source of power. However, 

 if his principles were right, there must 

 have been some grave defect in the ap- 

 plication of them, or his system, which 

 at first met with immense success, would 

 not so speedily have lost its ground." 

 To this President Barnard adds, " The 

 grave defect in the application consisted 

 obviously in his pushing the first prin- 

 ciple to an extravagant and unreasonable 

 excess, and in leaving the pupil too en- 

 tirely helpless." 



"We suspect that the reason why 

 those golden truths of Jacotot have 

 not been more generally accepted and 

 practiced, and why his system perished 

 with him, was deeper than is here indi- 

 cated. Badly applied they no doubt 

 were, but it is more significant that they 

 were prematurely thoroughgoing, and 

 involved the cutting up of an old system, 

 root and branch. If it took a hundred 



years for the magnates of Cambridge 

 University to recognize the demon- 

 strated truths of the " Principia," how 

 much longer will it take to introduce 

 something like a law of gravitation into 

 education ? It is hurrying things if a 

 great new principle gets well accepted 

 in a century and intelligently applied in 

 another century, and Jacotot's experi- 

 ment is but half a century old. Science 

 is making progress, but it moves pre- 

 cious slow in old educational establish- 

 ments. Loading the memory with 

 Greek and Latin seems still to be the 

 leading business of Columbia College ; 

 while Dr. Barnard tells us that ; ' zo- 

 ology, botany, physiology, and biology 

 are all unrepresented in our scheme of 

 instruction." As a further illustration 

 of the slowness of collegiate improve- 

 ment and reform, it may be mentioned 

 that, while Columbia College has a 

 strong corps of teachers for drilling in 

 the dead languages, it has no adequate 

 provision for discipline in the correct 

 and elegant use of the living language 

 in which the intellectual life-work of 

 all the students is to be carried on. 

 Dr. Barnard laments that there is no 

 sufficient provision " to practice the 

 learner in the proper use of language," 

 and urges the Board of Trustees to re- 

 pair this and the other omissions re- 

 ferred to. From all of which we infer 

 that, although knowledge goes slow, 

 Columbia College goes slower. 



Dr. Barnard desires to have the 

 ladies patronize his institution, but they 

 may well reply: "Not yet, dear doc- 

 tor; you are too far behind the age. 

 We appreciate ihe honor, and the so- 

 ciety of the gentlemen would not be 

 unpleasant ; but it is a very important 

 question whether the culture you are 

 prepared to give us is the best calcu- 

 lated to qualify us for that sphere of 

 life to which most of us are destined. 

 We have all read that Agesilaus, King 

 of Sparta, upon being asked what 

 things he thought most proper for girls 

 to learn, answered, * Those which they 



