VI SCIENCE AND CULTURE I53 



times is. The native capacities of mankind vary 

 no less than their opportunities; and while culture 

 is one, the road by which one man may l)est 

 reach it is widely different from that which is 

 most advantageous to another. Again, while 

 scientific education is yet inchoate and tentative, 

 classical education is thoroughly well organised 

 upon the practical experience of generations of 

 teachers. So that, given ample time for learning 

 and estimation for ordinary life, or for a literary 

 career, I do not think that a young Englishman 

 in search of culture can do better than follow the 

 course usually marked out for him, supplementing 

 its deficiencies by his own efforts. 



But for those who mean to make science their 

 serious occupation; or who intend to follow the 

 profession of medicine; or who have to enter early 

 upon the business of life; for all these, in my 

 opinion, classical education is a mistake; and it is 

 for this reason that I am glad to see " mere 

 literary education and instruction " shut out from 

 the curriculum of Sir Josiah Mason's College, 

 seeing that its inclusion would probably lead to 

 the introduction of the ordinary smattering of 

 Latin and Greek. 



Nevertheless, I am the last person to question 

 the importance of genuine literary education, or 

 to suppose that intellectual culture can be com- 

 plete without it. An exclusively scientific training 

 will bring about a mental twist as surely as an 



