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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



defective, and requires scientific culture 

 to correct it. He says : " In propor- 

 tion as the range of science extends, 

 its system and organization must be 

 improved, and it must inevitably come 

 about that individual students will find 

 themselves. compelled to go through a 

 stricter course of training than gram- 

 mar is in a position to supply. What 

 strikes me in my own experience of 

 students who pass from our classical 

 schools to scientific and medical stud- 

 ies is, first, a certain laxity in the ap- 

 plication of strictly universal laws. 

 The grammatical rules, in which they 

 have been exercised, are for the most 

 part followed by long lists of excep- 

 tions ; accordingly, they are not in the 

 habit of relying implicitly on the cer- 

 tainty of a legitimate deduction from a 

 strictly universal law. Secondly, I find 

 them for the most part too much in- 

 clined to trust authority, even in cases 

 where they might form an independent 

 judgment." 



Of such criticisms the literature of 

 modern education is full, so that we 

 may say that the traditional culture is 

 now indicted before the world for 

 breaking down at precisely that point 

 in which it has claimed the greatest 

 strength. That the old method of 

 study disciplined the mind was noth- 

 ing ; the question is, "What kind of dis- 

 cipline did it afford? All prolonged 

 mental effort in any direction gives 

 power and fixes habit, but the effect 

 may be so narrowing and perverting 

 that the discipline becomes an evil in 

 proportion to its thoroughness. The 

 need and value of scientific studies, as 

 a correction of classical discipline, are 

 now generally admitted; but, before any 

 such correction can be intelligently or 

 effectually made, it is necessary to 

 know what sort of discipline the study 

 of science confers. Science is a com- 

 prehensive term ; it means various 

 groups of sciences which exercise the 

 intellect in widely different ways. A 

 discipline may be scientific, and still 



be partial and deficient. "We were, 

 therefore, in need of a thorough analy- 

 sis of the subject, and a statement of 

 what the several sciences are compe- 

 tent to do in the training of the men- 

 tal faculties. This want has now been 

 supplied by Mr. Spencer. 



Obviously the first thing here want- 

 ed is a classification of the sciences, 

 and it is equally evident that such an 

 application of it as is here contem- 

 plated would become a test of its valid- 

 ity. In a true classification, objects 

 are grouped together which are most 

 alike in characters, and only those 

 sciences which are most similar will 

 call forth like mental activities in their 

 pursuit. Mr. Spencer divides the sci- 

 ences into three groups: Abstract sci- 

 ences ; Abstract-concrete sciences ; and 

 Concrete sciences. 



Abstract science is the science of 

 pure relation, with no reference to the 

 nature of the things related. The ab- 

 stract sciences are logic and mathe- 

 matics, and they deal with the abstract 

 relations under which all phenomena 

 are presented. 



Mr. Spencer holds that space and 

 time, the forms of phenomena, " are 

 contrasted absolutely with the exist- 

 ences disclosed to us in space and 

 time ; and that the sciences which 

 deal exclusively with space and time 

 are separated by the profoundest of all 

 distinctions from the sciences which 

 deal with the existences that space 

 and time contain. Space is the ab- 

 stract of all relations of coexistence; 

 time is the abstract of all relations of 

 sequence. And, dealing, as they do, 

 entirely with the relations of coexist- 

 ence and sequence in their general or 

 special forms, logic and mathematics 

 form a class of the sciences more wide- 

 ly different from the rest than any of 

 the rest can be from one another." 

 These sciences are, therefore, better 

 suited than any other to establish in 

 the mind " unshakable beliefs in ne- 

 cessities of relation ; " and Mr. Spen- 



