01(5 PREJUDICE AGAINST INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. 



of the human mind."* To learn all truth you may begin any- 

 where, and with any one. "All the arts" says Cicero, " which 

 pertain to humanity have a common bond, and are united to each 

 other in close relationship."! 



To do away with the prejudices against scientific courses, it 

 will be necessary in the first place to put them on a par with the 

 classical courses in the same institution so far as amount of pre- 

 vious preparation is concerned. Four years' course with almost 

 no previous preparation, can never be equivalent to a four years' 

 course preceded by three years of preparatory study. The tables 

 would be turned, if the conditions were exchanged. 



Again, the sciences must be taught in a way to make their study 

 truly disciplinary. It is an advantage of ancient languages that 

 they cannot be learned by the memory alone. Geometry may be 

 learned by heart, the construing of Virgil cannot. The charge of 

 teaching the sciences must be committed to those who are enthu- 

 siastic students and investigators, who will take their pupils into 

 their own ardor, and make them learn directly from nature, not of 

 course one out of a thousand of the facts of science, but enough 

 to understand the processes of investigation and principles of 

 classification. 



Again, the students of science must have some general acquain- 

 tance with the affairs of men, and especially must be able to use 

 language well. It is a mistaken economy of time that finds no 

 place for long continued drill in the use of language. Critical 

 reading of standard authors, exercises in the statement of facts, 

 in arrangement of matter, in condensation, illustration, should be 

 insisted upon in scientific schools. Besides the uses of language 

 in communicating ideas, it has an educational one that ought not 

 to be. overlooked. Clearness of expression, and clearness of think- 

 ing usually go together. The attempt to put into language what 

 we know, makes that knowledge more definite, sifts out the vague 

 elements that we thought were clear until we attempted to give 

 them expression. Thought and expression have a reflex influence 

 on each other. 



There is a prejudice against schools of science on the part also 

 of those who think the practical results of an education should be 

 more direct and marked. Men dislike a roundabout way to their 

 purposes, even though it be the surest in the end. Teach us the 



* Meister's Apprenticeship. f Pro Arohia. 



