6i8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and tlie times are not greatly changed since he wrote although a 

 great majority of the adult males throughout the kingdom are 

 found to show some interest in the breeding, rearing, or training 

 of animals of one kind or other, it rarely happens that one hears 

 anything said about the rearing of children. I believe the subject 

 is seldom mentioned in school-board debates. Hence it happens 

 that Herbert Spencer's book has had a smaller circulation than 

 many novels, and that the 1893 edition is but the thirty-fourth 

 instead of the three hundred and fortieth thousand. After very 

 fully discussing the question " What knowledge is of most worth ? " 

 he arrives at the conclusion that science is, and eloquently advo- 

 cates the claims of the order of knowledge termed scientific. The 

 following are eminently instructive passages in his essay : " While 

 every one is ready to indorse the abstract proposition that instruc- 

 tion fitting youths for the business of life is of high importance, or 

 even to consider it of supreme importance, yet scarcely any inquire 

 what instruction will so fit them. It is true that reading, writing, 

 and arithmetic are taught with an intelligent appreciation of their 

 uses. But when we have said this we have said nearly all. While 

 the great bulk of what else is acquired has no bearing on the in- 

 dustrial activities, an immensity of information that has a direct 

 bearing on the industrial activities is entirely passed over. For, 

 leaving out only some very small classes, what are all men em- 

 ployed in ? They are employed in the production, preparation, and 

 distribution of commodities. And on what does efiiciency in the 

 production, preparation, and distribution of commodities depend ? 

 It depends on the use of methods fitted to the respective natures 

 of these commodities ; it depends on an adequate acquaintance 

 with their physical," chemical, and vital properties, as the case 

 may be : that is, it depends on science. This order of knowledge, 

 which is in great part ignored in our school courses, is the order 

 of knowledge underlying the right performance of those processes 

 by which civilized life is made possible. Undeniable as is this 

 truth, there seems to be no living consciousness of it : its very 

 familiarity makes it unregarded. . . . That which our school 

 courses leave almost entirely out, we thus find to be that which 

 most nearly concerns the business of life. Our industries would 

 cease, were it not for the information which men begin to acquire, 

 as they best may, after their education is said to be finished. And 

 were it not for the information from age to age accumulated and 

 spread by unofficial means, these industries would never have 

 existed. Had there been no teaching but such as goes on in our 

 public schools, England would now be what it was in feudal 

 times. That increasing acquaintance with the laws of phenomena 

 which has through successive ages enabled us to subjugate Nature 

 to our needs, and in these days gives the common laborer com- 



