EDITOR'S TABLE. 



495 



opening fresh with the last quarter of 

 the nineteenth century, and free to 

 sliape its course in full harmony with 

 the enlightenment of the age. The 

 spirit of the age and the progress of 

 science, however, mean very little to 

 the " weak foolishness " of the sort of 

 Methodist theologians who have the 

 institution in charge. They hegin far 

 behind the age, and are already old in 

 bigotry and intolerance. They illus- 

 trate that hostility to science which 

 belongs to low theological instincts, 

 and now exhibit before the world the 

 curious spectacle of an educational body 

 into whose hands has fallen the wealth 

 that the labors of scientific men have 

 called into existence, and who use that 

 wealth, not for the promotion and en- 

 couragement of scientific thought, but 

 to hinder, defeat, and crush it. 



AMERICAN INFLUENCE IN CIVILIZA- 

 TION. 



In his masterly discourse on u Civili- 

 zation and Science," the second install- 

 ment of which is herewith printed, 

 Prof. Du Bois-Reymond refers to the 

 question as to how civilization is to be 

 measured, or by what tests we are to 

 determine the height to which humani- 

 ty has attained at any given time. Some 

 say that this standard is furnished by 

 the plastic arts, others by religion, oth- 

 ers by literature, others by forms of 

 government, and others by the diffusion 

 of education. It will no doubt be a 

 long while before parties entertaining 

 different views upon this subject come 

 to agreement ; meantime, we hold, with 

 the German professor, that the best 

 criterion of the position which a na- 

 tion has gained in the scale of civili- 

 zation is the contributions which its 

 men of thought have made toward 

 the understanding and the conquest of 

 Nature, and the popular and public ap- 

 preciation that has been reached re- 

 garding this kind of intellectual labor. 

 How does the community regard a man 



who gives his life to the investigation 

 of the principles and laws, of the order 

 of things, in the midst of which he 

 finds himself placed, under the impulse, 

 first of all, of the desire to know the 

 truth, and, secondarily, to secure those 

 large and benign results which come 

 from the understanding of the method 

 of Nature? What is the feeling enter- 

 tained toward this class of men ? Are 

 they held in high honor, and encouraged 

 in their labors, or are they treated with 

 indifference, neglect, or contempt ? 



The question here is one of the de- 

 gree of intellectual appreciation of dif- 

 ferent objects, and the relative inten- 

 sity of the national feelings by which 

 these objects are secured. In complex 

 modern societies there will, of course, 

 be found men devoted to different 

 ideals, and a certain amount of popular 

 favor or regard will be accorded to them 

 all. But which of them receives the 

 highest consideration, and what are the 

 predominant national passions ? Prof. 

 Du Bois-Reymond, in considering the 

 history of science in relation to civiliza- 

 tion, calls our attention to the growth 

 of the utilitarian spirit, which is grad- 

 ually substituting immediate, practical, 

 wealth-yielding studies for the more 

 elevated, disinterested, and ennobling 

 intellectual pursuits which have been 

 cherished in past times. He points out 

 that there is a decline of interest in this 

 loftier work, under adverse pressures, 

 that are increasing in intensity in the 

 existing age, until they threaten the 

 perversion and degradation of civiliza- 

 tion itself. This influence he recog- 

 nizes as strengthening in Europe, but 

 as so predominating in this country 

 that it is now generally known by the 

 term Americanization. It is not so 

 much that Americans are inappreciative 

 of the real claims of liberal culture, 

 or of the interests and requirements of 

 scientific study, as that they are so over- 

 whelmingly absorbed in material utili- 

 ties that the finer and purer inspira- 

 tions of study are dampened, smothered, 



