CARHART ON PHYSICS IN A LIBERAL EDUCATION. 33 



ol' tlio '•sci'o and yellow leaf" he should retire, lie will neA^er survive the 

 "winter of his discontent'" and revive with new bloom. 



The teacher must also uiiard ai^ainst over-eouHdence. He is ex- 

 l»osed to i»e(uiiar temptations. He has to deal constantly with those 

 who are not liis cnjuals in years and attainments. Hence the tendency 

 lo assume an air of authority and of confidence instead of the humilit}' 

 of mind ilia I shouhl characteiize the teacher of science. H were belter 

 if he found hiuiself frequently face to face with his peers. The stimulus 

 of criticism from one's ecjuals or superiors is a healthful tonic. Com- 

 l>etition w'ith mature minds favors sturdy f^rowth. A large university 

 lias certain advantaues over a small one in this respect. The number 

 on the leachiu.u stall' is hirge enouj;h to give room for the spur of 

 competition and emulation among instructors. H is a mistake to 

 assume that a poor teacher is more easily hidden in a large institu- 

 tion of learning than in a small one. The larger one is likely to make 

 the larger demands. A\'here there are so many efficient teachers it is 

 more diflicult for a poor one to maintain himself. Then too a large 

 coips of instructoi's creates an atmosphere of work, an environment 

 favorable to ])roduction. One must keep in the swim or sink. The 

 modern American university is no cloister, no refuge for the incom- 

 petent of other ]>rofessions. H is a new world, a microcosm in itself. 

 It is alive with ideas, enthusiasms, inventions, discoveries, emulations, 

 awakenings to the higher intellectual life, the vivid foresight of 

 brighter helds of Ihought. excui'sions into the boundlessness of S])ace, 

 or descents into the infinite underworld of the microscopically minute. 

 It is in touch with the realm of thought the wide world round. 



And what mighty movements have come forth from its doors in 

 l)ower during the jiast century! Scarcely a great invention of world- 

 wide interest to humanity that has not seen its birth within walls 

 devoted to education. Since the time when an undue respect for the 

 learning of the past ceased to dominate the present, institutions of 

 learning have become the sources of the most significant advances in 

 ideas. Just at the opening of the last century, Volta pi'esented to the 

 world the voltaic cell, and Davy produced the first electric light. A 

 little later Oersted in the University of Copenhagen uncovered the re- 

 lation between magnetism and the electric current, and so became the 

 ]tioneer in elect romagnetism. Then came Faraday with his mighty 

 insight and his revelation of electromagnetic induction. Henry and 

 ^[ors<' made the electric telegraph before the middle of the century, and 

 Helmholtz exposed to view the law of the conservation of energy, 

 M'liich now dominates all scaence, pure and applied. Then Lord Kelvin 

 1 alight masters of finance and promoters of international commerce 

 how to use a submarine cable, and invented the instruments for it. 

 liunsen and Kirchhoff discovered the laws of si>ectroscopy, and set as- 

 tronomers to investigate the composition of the stars; wdiile Hoffmann 

 evolved new colors out of coal tar and I'evolut ionized the industry of 

 dyeing. Hertz discovered electric waves for future Marconis to utilize, 

 Ferraris in Sunny Italy invente<I the rotating magnetic field; and lastly 

 Roentgen applied ]>liotography to a new and marvelous art, the value 

 of which is not yet fully appreciated. 

 5 



