CARHART ON PPIYSICS IN A LIBERAL EDUCATION. 29 



merce, then more intelli.uent interest will be awakened, and power will 

 be cultivated in other directions than those leading to the legal and 

 clerical ]»rofessi()ns. The voung man who has coni[)Ieted his general 

 training with such a scheme of study, linds himself in harmony with 

 his environment wlien he enters active life, where he must make his 

 own way if it be made at all. The student who gives almost exclusive 

 attention to the strictly classical studies may succeed in getting in 

 touch with the distant i»ast; and if he does, he will probaly tind liim- 

 self out of touch with the present. Even a culture course should be 

 broad enough to take in living human interests. 



One of the decisive tests to be applied to determine tlie educational 

 value of any study is the interest which it excites in the mind of the 

 student. Judged by this criterion physics claims a prominent place in 

 eA'ery curriculum. He must be a dull boy indeed Avhose interest is not 

 awakened by the explanation of the most glorious and the most curious 

 phenomena of nature. His enthusiasm is excited when he learns for 

 himself that the events of the natural world are not fortuitous and in- 

 comprehensible, but are reducible to natural causes and are subject to 

 the reign of law. This interest and enthusiasm are heightened by the 

 knowledge that man has utilized natural forces and laws so as to pro- 

 duce the most beneficent results for the human race. He soon learns 

 that invention follows discovery, and that the real pioneer is he who 

 wrests from nature her secrets, and discovers the causes and relations 

 of things, ^^'e are only just beginning to comprehend that Faraday in 

 his laboratory in the Koyal Institution in London wrought a social and 

 economic i-evolution by his discoveries of greater importance and more 

 enduring than the political revolution of ]S'apoleon, Avhich only tem- 

 porarily changed the face of Europe. Napoleon made and unmade 

 kings as if they were pujipets to do his bidding; but the slate of Europe 

 which he made has long since been wiped ott'. On the other hand, the 

 discoveries of Faraday have changed the civilization of the world within 

 the past thirty years. And every decade only adds new applications 

 of his discoveries, for they underlie every electric generator, motor 

 and transformer. Electric lighting, electric railways, and the transmis- 

 sion of power, as at Niagara, are some of the beneficent results of 

 Faraday's immortal discoveries. And yet there are some who tell us 

 that the study of physics does not touch the secret spring of human 

 interest and human activity with the same certainty as does the study 

 of the humanities; that ])hysics does not offer the persuasiA'e attractive- 

 ness that inheres in the classical languages and literatures. Grant that 

 physics appeals to the immature mind in a different way from the study 

 of language; nev(Mtheless, it appeals strongly in the hands of a live 

 teacher imbued with the dignity and interest of his subject. Testi- 

 mony of ])arents is not lacking that the first notable intellectual 

 stimulus received by their children came through the study of physics. 

 The taste for science is as natural as the taste for language, and both 

 are necessary elements in a healthful intellectual diet. 



Another element which shouhl weigh in an estimate of the educa- 

 tional value of ]thysics is the kind of training which physics furnishes. 

 Its pursuit contributes to exactness of reasoning, of thinking, and of 

 expression. It is an admirable training preparatory to other import- 

 ant subjects. Physics includes a great bodv of laws and relations which 



