BAKER ON GREATER ATTENTION TO THE SCIENCES. 125 



to mankind the benefits and tlie luxuries of the telegraph, the telephone, 

 the electric light, the electric motor, the X-ray, not forgetting the earlier 

 modes of control of fire by the invention of the lucifer match; of the con- 

 trol of water, by means of the turbine wheel; of the air, by means of the 

 windmill; of fire and water as steam, by means of the boiler and steam 

 engine? 



Is it not a fact, that all of the material progress in this world has 

 come about through the advancements of the sciences? I know it is 

 claimed that the arts precede the sciences, but progress has been made 

 not so much by studying the works of man as by studying the works, 

 of the Creator. Great inventions, so many of which are termed "dis- 

 coveries," are not made by persons ignorant of the Creator's laws. To 

 those who intelligently interrogate nature, these great revelations are 

 made. They are not made to minds stored only with the gems and 

 masterpieces of classic literature. They are revealed to those whose 

 habits of thought are in consonance with science, whose thoughts are 

 concerning the facts and general principles of nature. In recent years 

 great discoveries have followed each other with a rapidity before unpre- 

 cedented, because never before in the world's history have there been so 

 many men skilled in the sciences, and also working close to nature. And 

 it is worthy of notice that, as a rule, the great inventions and discoveries 

 have been made not by the teachers, who necessarily have been most 

 skilled in the general facts in the literature of their several sciences, but 

 by those still nearer to nature, those who have been studying nature in 

 one particular line even more closely than those occupied with the litera- 

 ture of the sciences. Thus they have added to the world's useful 

 knowledge, and to its literature on the sciences, what will in time serve 

 as new departures for still more important inventions, discoveries, revela- 

 tions. 



What an impetus would be given toward progress in inventions, if half 

 of those who now are trained in strictly literary studies until they are 

 nearly thirty years of age could have the last ten years of that time 

 devoted to studies of the sciences, first in technological s'chools, and 

 later in actual contact with those parts of the world's work to which the 

 sciences of chemistry, physics, electricity, metallurgy, etc., are so closely 

 related, training not so much to make expert workmen, but with a special 

 view to future inventions and discoveries!- 



If I am right in my belief that the education of most value to humanity, 

 is that which enables us to add to the world's knowledge of the laws of 

 nature and to knowledge of how to control and utilize the physical and 

 social conditions which surround us, for the benefit and pleasure of man- 

 kind, it follows that this is the sort of education which the people, — 

 the State should foster and insist upon. 



And inasmuch as whatever benefits the race, generally benefits the in- 

 dividuals, whose interests are generally parallel to those of the race, 

 therefore, is not the sort of education which is of most value to the 

 individual — that which enables him to add to man's control over exist- 

 ing conditions? 



If I am right in my belief that it is not knowledge of literature, history, 

 grammar or geography, that gives man greatest power to add to the 

 world's knowledge of the laws of nature, and greatest power to control 



