6 7 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



affairs of everyday life proceed upon the very reasonable suppo- 

 sition that such knowledge may be taken for granted. But the 

 question arises as to whether experience shall be permitted to end 

 here, and so superficial a knowledge content us. It has been good 

 for man to learn these more common truths. Would it not, then, 

 be well for him to carry the search somewhat further, and to 

 learn facts less commonly observed, as well as to investigate as 

 far as he is able the cause and significance of all phenomena ? 

 There is but one answer : it is overwhelmingly affirmative. 



It is to this problem that science addresses itself. The value 

 of a study so intimately connected with the conduct of life is 

 attracting an increasing number of students. The old battle be- 

 tween science and the classics in college curriculum does not need 

 to be waged over again. Generations devoted to the pursuit of 

 language have at length evolved a people in whom facility of ex- 

 pression is hereditary. The lack of something to say alone pre- 

 vents universal authorship. The youth of the present day ask a 

 discipline more inspiring than that offered by grammar and lexi- 

 con. It is found that the mind can be both instructed and trained 

 without first killing the natural curiosity and interest of the 

 pupil. It is true that there is a college near Philadelphia where a 

 young woman is not even permitted to take a special course in 

 biology unless she has an intimate knowledge of at least three 

 foreign tongues, but happily such absurdities are rare. As a 

 rule, the colleges and universities of the country have responded 

 generously to the demand for broad scientific culture. In that 

 field the battle has been won. But a little leaven leaveneth the 

 whole. Beginning at the top of our educational system, the tend- 

 ency toward scientific study is gradually making its way down to 

 the very Kindergarten. It would be still more general, and would 

 be a larger factor in individual life, were that important truth re- 

 alized which Mr. Herbert Spencer has so often insisted upon, that 

 scientific knowledge is simply a higher development of common 

 knowledge, and means only more accurate and more extended 

 thinking about our environment. And so, in science, we are to 

 become again as little children, and put more questions to our 

 great mother, Nature. 



The results of this renewed questioning will not be trivial. 

 They serve a dual purpose. They bring a much enlarged expe- 

 rience, and discover to us the relation between widely different 

 phenomena. By the one service, the confines of our apprehended 

 universe are expanded to such magnitudes that they demand for 

 their occupancy the highest intellectual effort of which man is 

 capable. Through the other, no confusion results from this im- 

 mensity. It is a world of harmonies and relations. Man feels 

 himself not oppressed, but inspired, by such a contemplation of 



