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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



attempt to prevent it. Already it is 

 taught in the test-books of geology, 

 and it will be more and more seen in 

 the manuals of zoology, botany, psy- 

 chology, philology, and history, when 

 these are revised, and adapted to the 

 advanced condition of knowledge. 



With such tendencies predominant, 

 how grotesque is the spectacle of a man 

 like Virchow planting himself at the 

 doors of the German schools, and flour- 

 ishing his test of what is to be admitted 

 there ! As the scientific men approach 

 with their subjects, they are stopped by 

 the question, " Can you make oath, gen- 

 tlemen, to the truth of what you offer? " 

 And so we have a scientific man ruling 

 out science from the schools by a stand- 

 ard not recognized in education, and 

 which, if rigidly applied, would shut 

 up every schoolhouse in Germany. For 

 what would become of history, philol- 

 ogy, geography, political economy, and 

 the whole round' of studies that are al- 

 ready pursued, if this swearing-test were 

 to be applied to them ? The question, 

 as we have said, is whether something 

 can be got that is better than what now 

 exists, as this is the way all progress is 

 secured. In an address of great power, 

 by Prof. Du Bois-Eeymond, of Berlin, 

 on " Science and Civilization " (which 

 we shall soon have the pleasure of pub- 

 lishing), the professor says of the reli- 

 gious instruction given in the German 

 schools : " In the semi-official plan of 

 studies, more than half a page of fine 

 print is expended in setting forth the 

 subject-matter of this instruction, while 

 five lines suffice to dispatch the mathe- 

 matical programme ! On reading this 

 half-page, and the corresponding half- 

 page for the upper second class, one 

 imagines he has before him the pro- 

 gramme of a theological seminary." 

 So there is a body of dogmatic divin- 

 ity already in the schools, including, of 

 course, a cosmogony, or theory of crea- 

 tion, and traditional hypotheses with- 

 out number. To all this Prof. Vir- 

 chow does not dream of applying his 



test ; but, when the representatives of 

 modern knowledge demand that the 

 teaching shall better reflect the exist- 

 ing state of thought, the admonition 

 comes : " No dogmatism ! Winnow 

 your work, gentlemen nothing but 

 facts are to be admitted here, with their 

 certainties, up to the swearing-point." 



Considered educationally, what else 

 is this but the old, exploded policy of 

 pouring facts into mental pitchers? 

 What are facts good for if not inter- 

 preted, and what is science without 

 explanation that is, theory ? Would 

 Prof. Virchow swear the atomic theory 

 out of chemistry, and the wave theory 

 out of optics, and the nebular theory 

 out of astronomy ; and what would be- 

 come of his own science of physiology 

 if nothing could be taught of it but what 

 he can make oath to ? The highest ob- 

 ject of education is to rouse mental ac- 

 tivity, to set pupils to thinking, to en- 

 courage them to make their own ob- 

 servations and their own independent 

 reflections ; and this can in no way be 

 done so effectually as by linking educa- 

 tional methods to the great movements 

 of thought that are absorbing the world's 

 attention, outside of the schools. To 

 deal only in culture with demonstrated 

 facts, and thus to reduce the process to 

 one of bare acquisition, is a deadening 

 and paralyzing process, not suited to 

 prepare students to use their minds to 

 the best advantage in the conduct of 

 practical life. 



Nothing can be clearer than that the 

 liberty of science and the liberty of edu- 

 cation, the progress of science and the 

 progress of education, are indissolubly 

 linked together. Whewell has shown 

 us how, in the development of the hu- 

 man intellect, the great steps of culture 

 have followed and resulted from the 

 great steps of discovery that have suc- 

 cessively enlarged the sphere of human 

 knowledge. And it was not because 

 certain new facts were poured in at 

 each epoch of discovery, but because 

 new ideas, new methods, new modes of 



