EDITOR'S TABLE. 



IM 



it in the acquisition of first-hand knowl- 

 edge; the other turns it upon books, 

 and exercises the mind upon verbal rep- 

 resentations which are accepted in the 

 place of actual things. 



This statement, however, though 

 broadly true, requires qualification. 

 Scientific education, of course, neither 

 ignores books nor discredits them for 

 their proper uses ; it only subordinates 

 them to its main object employing 

 them as auxiliaries in the study of 

 Nature. The case is sometimes put 

 extravagantly ; extreme statement be- 

 ing thought needful to counteract ex- 

 treme errors. Prof. Agassiz, for ex- 

 ample, as is well know^n, was often hot 

 in his denunciations of books; but it 

 was their abuse at which his wrath was 

 kindled. He had little patience with 

 the servile habit of learning lessons and 

 quoting books ; and he waxed indignant 

 when he saw students stopping with 

 the manual and interposing it between 

 the mind and Nature. His excellent 

 rule was, first learn to know something 

 directly about the subject yourself, and 

 then you will be competent to deal with 

 the representations of others. He saw 

 that it was of primary and vital moment 

 that the student should first of all come 

 at the living phenomena, and learn to 

 read them and think about them inde- 

 pendently ; and he saw, too, that books 

 are the potent agents by which this de- 

 sirable object is constantly defeated. 

 Scientific education, therefore, only 

 wars with the perversion of books. 

 Scholastic education, on the other hand, 

 does not propose to go beyond the 

 books. Letters, literature, things writ- 

 ten, and the modes of representation, 

 are its ends and its ultimate objects. 

 That the manner is of more account 

 than the matter is the law of gravita- 

 tion in " culture " or literary education ; 

 it governs every thing. The scholar is 

 of course a man, and recognizes as an 

 accident of his being that he is placed 

 in the midst of a system of things which 

 we call Nature. He cannot quite ignore 

 it if he would ; he cannot help know- 



ing something of the world he lives in. 

 But he is not concerned about it. He 

 is satisfied with the knowledge of Na- 

 ture that he picks up inevitably. Nat- 

 ural things, the facts, laws, and order 

 of the world, are not to him objects of 

 mental exercise. He does not recog- 

 nize them as the means of education ; 

 he gives his life to books. 



There is, of course, no antagonism 

 between literature and science as mere 

 pursuits ; but in the field of education, 

 or as representing methods of cultivat- 

 ing the human mind, they are inveter- 

 ate rivals. This was less apparent 

 when education was limited to the fa- 

 vored classes, and the scientists and the 

 litterateurs could go their respective 

 ways in peace. But in the new dispen- 

 sation of popular enlightenment, when 

 everybody is to be educated and every- 

 body is to be taxed for the purpose, a 

 conflict arises as to which of the two 

 systems shall have precedence. The 

 people are to be secured a larger meas- 

 ure of mental cultivation. It is their 

 destiny to be occupied with the matter 

 and forces of Nature, and they are creat- 

 ures of an inexorable system of natural 

 law : shall their education be conformed 

 to these facts, and deal wnth the direct 

 phenomena of experience, or shall it stop 

 with symbols and be predominantly an 

 aff'air of books ? The issue can neither 

 be forced nor escaped ; it belongs to time 

 and the growth of ideas. It is not that 

 Literature is in the saddle and is to be 

 unhorsed by Science ; but the undoubt- 

 ed tendencies of the past must work in 

 future with increasing power, and lead, 

 we believe, to the ultimate ascendency 

 of the study of natural science. 



But, wiiile recognizing the direction 

 of the great mental movement which 

 marks especially the present age, it will 

 be wise to moderate our expectations 

 and recognize also the formidable char- 

 acter of the difliculties which stand 

 in the way of scientific education. 

 Among these is its great expensiveness. 

 Literary education has here an enor- 

 mous advantage. Books are cheap. It 



