LITERARY NOTICES. 



115 



ceived from one hundred and twenty- 

 eight endowed schools in all, and, out 

 of this total, 'science is taught in only 

 sixty-three, and of these only thirteen 

 have a laboratory, and only eighteen 

 apparatus, often very scanty.' Even 

 these figures, however, give but a very 

 imperfect notion of the neglect with 

 which science is treated. It will hard- 

 ly be believed that there are no more 

 than eighteen of these schools which 

 devote as much as four hours in the 

 week to scientific instruction, that six- 

 teen actually aflFord no longer time than 

 two hours a week, and seven think an 

 hour suflicient. These, however, are 

 the good examples. There are thirty 

 schools in which no definite time what- 

 ever is allotted to scientific study. 

 Again, out of the one hundred and 

 twenty -eight schools, only thirteen 

 give any place at all to science in their 

 examinations, and ' only two attach a 

 weight to science in the examinations 

 equal to that of classics or mathe- 

 matics.' 



" If, now, we attempt to account 

 for this extraordinary neglect of sci- 

 ence, in a country whose greatness, if 

 not its very independence, depends 

 upon the skill of its population in using 

 the forces of Nature as their servants, 

 we find the blame to rest in a very 

 great measure on the universities. The 

 older universities were founded and at- 

 tained celebrity at a time when natu- 

 ral science did not exist, and they 

 have never admitted science to an 

 equality with classics and mathematics. 

 The feeling of Oxford and Cambridge 

 has naturally guided the public schools. 

 The masters are, almost without excep- 

 tion, even to-day, Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge men, and are penetrated with 

 the Oxford and Cambridge spirit. 

 Moreover, the parents of the boys, 

 and the boys themselves, necessarily 

 attach importance to the studies which 

 will win honors and distinction at the 

 universities, while they disregard stud- 

 ies that will in no way help them in 1 



their careers. Lastly, the neglect of 

 science at the universities causes the 

 schools to suffer from a want of com- 

 petent teachers. Most of the head- 

 masters in their evidence refer to this 

 difficulty, but, at the same time, they 

 are unwilling to look elsewhere for 

 the kind of men they want. Thus the 

 head-master of Eugby says: 'I would 

 here observe that a mere chemist, 

 geologist, or naturalist, however emi- 

 nent in his own special department, 

 would hardly be able to take his place 

 in a body of masters composed of uni- 

 versity men, without some injurious 

 effect upon the position which science 

 ought to occupy in the school. ... In 

 preferring the two older universities, 

 I do so only by reason of their stronger 

 general sympathies with public-school 

 teaching. I am aware that if I merely 

 wanted a highly-scientific man in any 

 branch, I might find him equally in 

 Dublin, London, or at a Scotch univer- 

 sity,' In plain language, trades-union- 

 ism forbids an ugly competition." 



It thus appears that the policy of 

 one hundred and twenty-eight of the 

 leading schools of England, in regard 

 to the admission of scientific studies, 

 is powerfully influenced, if not con- 

 trolled, by the universities, so that, in 

 the foremost nation in the world, there 

 is a vast, compactly-organized educa- 

 tional system which ignores the uni- 

 verse, as disclosed by modern science, 

 and employs as its means of mental 

 cultivation a spurious universe of dead 

 traditions, languages, methods, and 

 opinions. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



First Book of Zoology. By Edward S. 

 Morse, Ph. D., late Professor of Com- 

 parative Anatomy and Zoology in Bow- 

 doiii College. New York : D. Appleton 

 & Co. Pp. 188. Price, $1.25. 



The genius for good school-book making 

 is incontestably American. Our best school- 

 books exemplify art in two directions: in 

 that which goes to the getting up of the 



