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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and traditions are taught where truth 

 should be explored. We have large and 

 influential schools decrying the use of 

 reason, and we have millions of people 

 to-day trying to think true what their 

 common sense tells them is not true. 

 All this does not make for the world's 

 peace or stability. It will not be really 

 well with society until men generally 

 are brought to recognize that there is 

 such a thing as truth, and that its claims 

 upon them are paramount. Our systems 

 of education need to be revolutionized. 

 "When a young person leaves school or 

 college nowadays, do we expect to find 

 that his or her judgment has been de- 

 veloped in practical things ? Do we ex- 

 pect to find a keen sense of what is true, 

 a quickness in distinguishing shams from 

 realities, and a well-established habit of 

 yielding, upon all disputed questions, to 

 the greater weight of evidence ? Nothing 

 of the kind. We look for a little knowl- 

 edge of arithmetic and mathematics 

 generally, a modicum of geography and 

 grammar, a smattering of literature, a few 

 confused notions of natural science, a dis- 

 continuous skeleton of historical knowl- 

 edge, and not much else. The judgment 

 has not been trained, the sense of truth 

 has not been trained, nor has any insight 

 worth mentioning been given into the 

 realities of life and duty. We do not 

 blame the teaching fraternity for this ; 

 society as a whole is responsible. The 

 want of interest in truth as truth, the 

 lack of perception of its importance, is 

 a broad social characteristic of the time, 

 and floods the schools just as it floods 

 the market-place, the press, and the pul- 

 pit. But, while we do not in any special 

 manner blame the teaching profession, 

 we feel like summoning all serious men 

 to consider whether a very decided and 

 vigorous effort should not be made to 

 place our schools upon a higher level in 

 this respect. No one can doubt that, 

 if our minds were set upon it, a sim- 

 ple gymnastic might be devised which 

 would, from the outset, train childish 

 minds in the perception of truth and 



lead them on from stage to stage in the 

 acquisition, not of sham but of real 

 knowledge. A child in course of edu- 

 cation should never be removed from 

 actual contact with the world about him. 

 He should be made to feel that every 

 general rule given to him is merely a 

 summary expression of a number of con- 

 crete examples. He should be early 

 familiarized with the method of proof, 

 and in every possible way encouraged 

 to ask for proofs. He should be made 

 to realize the activity of his own senses ; 

 to feel that knowledge is coming to him 

 through those avenues ; and that, only 

 as it so comes, is it entitled to be con- 

 sidered real knowledge. 



Such a system of education as we 

 have hinted at would banish the intel- 

 lectual poverty and squalor of our time; 

 and this could not be done without an 

 immense improvement of general social 

 conditions. The sentimentalists of our 

 day bestow a huge amount of sympathy 

 upon the victims of poor wages ; but 

 they do not grieve as they might over 

 the victims of poor thoughts and disor- 

 dered imaginations. The dust and dirt 

 heaps that obstruct the entrance to thou- 

 sands of minds are not visible as material 

 masses ; but they are there all the same, 

 and the injury they cause is greater than 

 any due to mere limitation of material 

 conditions. The land is full of delusions, 

 and scarcely anywhere do we see any 

 clear consciousness of the grand possi- 

 bility open to the human race of co-op- 

 erating in the discovery and application 

 of truth, including, of course, and in the 

 first place, the laws of social well-being. 

 "We too readily resign ourselves to the 

 idea that men's opinions must differ by 

 the whole circle of possible thought, and 

 that a common standard of truth is un- 

 attainable. Well might the reproach be 

 launched against this generation, " O 

 ye of little faith ! " Amid the manifold 

 and ever-widening discoveries of science 

 we resign ourselves to intellectual chaos, 

 as if there were no common heritage of 

 truth for us all, or as if human minds 



