LITERARY NOTICES. 



701 



knowledged that intelligence is only 

 stimulated by the perception of general 

 truths, or, in other words, of laws, 

 which again are the great facts of the 

 universe; but the object in education 

 should distinctly be to show that things 

 only exist in relation to one another, 

 and that things out of relation are vir- 

 tually out of existence. Let a man to 

 take an illustration introduce irrele- 

 vant matter into his argument: that 

 matter relatively to the object of the 

 argument has no existence. The case 

 is even worse ; for, in the place where 

 it is found, such matter is a burden and 

 a nuisance; we must put a minus-sign 

 before it. Now, a teacher who is thor- 

 oughly imbued with these ideas, and 

 who neither regards nor accepts any- 

 thing as work that does not show prog- 

 ress in the comprehension of them, will, 

 with an inferior subject, accomplish 

 better results than another man will 

 who, with a superior subject, contents 

 himself with more perfunctory methods. 

 The reason why the teaching of science 

 has so often been comparatively barren 

 is that it has not been broadly taught, 

 and has not, therefore, awakened the 

 true scientific spirit. The reason why 

 language - studies have sometimes ap- 

 peared to produce superior intellectual 

 results is that they have, in these cases, 

 been taught by earnest men who, by 

 dint of their own extensive culture, 

 have connected these studies with wide 

 areas of literature and history, and so 

 obtained a sufficient field for the illus- 

 tration of law ; in other words, for the 

 presentation of their subject in a scien- 

 tific manner. Science, in the true sense, 

 is vindicated as much by success in the 

 one case as by failure in the other. 



This is a matter, it is needless to say, 

 to which too much attention can not 

 be given. The whole progress of socie- 

 ty depends upon the intelligence of its 

 members. But intelligence is formed 

 in the earlier years of life; the habit 

 of taking rational views, and of being 

 alive to the teachings of experience, is 



one which, if not acquired while the 

 intellect is fresh, will probably never 

 be acquired at all. We would therefore 

 urge upon all who are interested in the 

 education of the young to see to it, as 

 far as they possibly can, that by educa- 

 tion is understood the development of 

 the habit of seeking the true relations 

 of things, and of conceiving of human 

 life as a network of relations. Let us 

 banish from education the unrelated 

 word, the unrelated thought; let us 

 proceed according to the principle of 

 evolution, linking step with step, while 

 tending always to a higher unity ; and 

 the intellectual progress of the race 

 will proceed with all the rapidity that 

 is desirable or possible. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Scientific Culture and other Essays. By 

 Josiah Parsons Cookk, LL. D., Profess- 

 or of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Har- 

 vard College. Second edition, with ad- 

 ditions. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 

 Pp. 293. Price, $1. 



We had carefully read the first edition 

 of this volume of essays, and have now re- 

 read it in its expanded form with renewed 

 pleasure. There are but few scientific writ- 

 ers so trained in the skillful use of English 

 as Professor Cooke. Aside from the value 

 and instructiveness of their contents, his 

 essays are a treat to all who appreciate 

 clearness, vigor, and precision in style, 

 while yet the admirable expression is kept 

 subordinate to intense and weighty thought. 

 The work, however, is to be mainly prized 

 as a contribution to the great educational 

 movement of our time, which aims to give 

 larger recognition to science in our higher 

 schemes of study. This new edition must 

 be taken as representing with a high de- 

 gree of authority the broad and solid claims 

 of scientific education. It does not deal 

 with the subject technically, or formally, or 

 even systematically, but is simply a collec- 

 tion of essays " written for special occa- 

 sions without reference to each other," but 

 all having a bearing upon one subject, with 

 which the author has been long occupied 

 both as a philosophic thinker and a prac- 



