SCIENTIFIC CULTURE. 519 



meant by the Baconian method of science, and to give some idea of 

 the nature of that modern logic which within the last fifty years has 

 produced more wonderful transformations in human society than the 

 author of Aladdin ever imagined in his wildest dreams. In tl)is short 

 address I can of course give you but a very dim and imperfect idea 

 of what I have called the Baconian system of experimental reasonino-. 

 Indeed, you cannot form any clear conception of it, until in some hum- 

 ble way you have attempted to use the method, each one for himself 

 and you have come here in order that you may acquire such experi- 

 ence. My object, however, will be gained if these illustrations serve 

 to give emphasis to the following statements, which I feed I ouo-ht to 

 make at the opening of these courses of instruction statements which 

 have an especial appropriateness in this place ; since I am addressing 

 teachers, who are in a position to exert an important influence on the 

 system of education in this country. 



In the first place, then, I must declare my conviction that no edu- 

 cated man can expect to realize his best possibilities of usefulness 

 without a practical knowledge of the methods of experimental science. 

 If he is to be a physician, his whole success will depend on the skill 

 with which he can use these great tools of modern civilization. If he 

 is to be a lawyer, his advancement will in no small measure be deter- 

 mined by the acuteness with which he can criticise the manner in 

 which the same tools have been used by his own or his opponent's 

 clients. If he is to be a clergyman, he must take sides in the great 

 conflict between theology and science, which is now raging in the 

 world, and, unless he wishes to play the part of the doughty knight 

 Don Quixote, and think he is winning great victories by knocking 

 down the imaginary adversaries which his ignorance has set up, he 

 must try the steel of his adversary's blade. Let me be fully understood. 

 It is not to be expected or desired that many of our students should 

 become professional men of science. The places of employment for 

 scientific men are but few, and more in the future than in the past they 

 will naturally be secured by those whom Nature has endowed with 

 special aptitudes or tastes usually the signs of aptitudes to investi- 

 gate her laws. That our country will always ofler an honorable career 

 to her men of genius, we have every reason to expect, and these born 

 students of Nature will usually follow the plain indications of Provi- 

 dence without encouragement or direction from us. It is difierent, 

 however, with the great body of earnest students who are conscious 

 of no special aptitudes, but who are desirous of doing the best thing 

 to fit themselves for usefulness in the world ; and I feel that any sys- 

 tem of education is radically defective which does not comprise a 

 sufiicient training in the methods of experimental science to make the 

 mass of our educated men familiar with this tool of modern civili- 

 zation: so that when, hereafter, new conquests over matter are an- 

 nounced, and great discoveries are proclaimed, they may be able not 



