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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tical teacher. The first essay, "Scientific 

 Culture," and the eleventh, " Scientific Cul- 

 ture ; its Spirit, its Aims, and its Methods," 

 present directly the predominant idea of 

 the book; but the various other papers 

 present the view taken in an instructive 

 and impressive manner. The several bio- 

 graphical articles are of extreme interest in 

 illustrating the mental training and develop- 

 ment of scientific men ; while the papers on 

 the Greek question are designed to meet 

 immediate issues in relation to collegiate 

 reform. The article on "The Elementary 

 Teaching of Physical Science " is of especial 

 value, for, although Professor Cooke has 

 not devoted himself practically to this field 

 of work, his statement of the scientific prin- 

 ciples it involves is forcible and timely. 



But, while the volume is full of sound 

 suggestions on the general subject of sci- 

 ence-teaching, yet its leading title, " Sci- 

 entific Culture," embodies the fundamental 

 conception which it is designed to bring 

 out ; and this is nothing less than an un- 

 qualified avowal of the extremest claim put 

 forth in behalf of science as a new educa- 

 tional basis. The adherents of the old 

 traditional system of scholarship are ready 

 enough to admit that there is a certain use- 

 fulness and importance in scientific studies, 

 which entitle them to a place in the col- 

 legiate curriculum ; but they strenuously 

 resist the idea that science is to give rise 

 to a new "culture." Ilere they make a 

 stand, and here the battle of progressive 

 education is to be fought, with heavy odds, 

 it must be confessed, against the reformers. 

 For " culture " has come to be a very potent 

 word, representing, as it does, all that is 

 most excellent, dignified, and revered in a 

 system of education that has prevailed for 

 centuries in the leading civilized countries. 

 In fact, the chief capital of the classical 

 party to-day, in their struggle against the 

 new education, is the powerful spell of a 

 single term, which has come mainly to im- 

 ply a critical knowledge of the dead lan- 

 guages, because, by all our scholastic tradi- 

 tions, no man can lay claim to " culture " 

 who is not familiar with Latin and Greek. 

 The term has no doubt become widened in 

 recent times, so as to embrace other lan- 

 guages and the general subject of litera- 

 ture, but the party of tradition is sharply 



jealous of any extension of it that will 

 make the term " culture " applicable to 

 proficiency in distinctively modern studies. 



Professor Cooke takes no narrow view 

 of his subject. He concedes the value of 

 that genuine mental culture, whatever the 

 instruments employed to attain it, which 

 confers intellectual power by the vigorous 

 and systematic exercise of the intellectual 

 faculties ; and he recognizes that this may 

 be secured by the thorough study of lan- 

 guages, and the literatures they contain. 

 He draws a distinction between erudition 

 and scholarship, the former implying the 

 simple accumulation of stores of learning, 

 and the latter a discipline of the intel- 

 lect and an enlargement of mental power 

 through the process of independent inquiry. 

 The same thing holds in science. The 

 cramming of books the erudition of sci- 

 ence is of but little worth ; while the in- 

 dependent exercise of the mind upon the 

 problems of science the assimilation of 

 acquisitions into a real knowledge is the 

 true scholarship of science, and the highest 

 form of mental cultivation. Professor Cooke 

 shows conclusively that the " culture " of 

 science is a broader conception, and in- 

 volves a more varied and a completer men- 

 tal training, than can be obtained from the 

 exclusive study of language and of litera- 

 ture, because science has for its object the 

 study of nature, and the whole scheme of 

 phenomena and law in the midst of which 

 human life is carried on. 



The Religious Aspect of Philosophy: A 

 Critique of the Bases of Conduct and of 

 Faith. By Josiah Royce, Ph. D., In- 

 structor in Philosophy in Harvard Col- 

 lege. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 

 Pp. 484. Price, $2. 



If the test of a system of philosophy is, 

 as Fcrrier says, that it must be " reasoned," 

 then is Dr. Royce's work entitled to this 

 rank, for it is undoubtedly an ably " rea- 

 soned " system. He has written an inde- 

 pendent and suggestive book, lively and 

 vigorous in style, and which is certain to be 

 appreciated by those who have a taste for 

 metaphysical inquiries. 



In his preface the author describes the 

 work better than we can : " This book 

 sketches the basis of a system of philosophy, 

 while applying the principles of this sys- 



