FAEMERS" IXSTITUTES. 217 



But his tliouglits are not rambling. The sciences he has studied liave method 

 in them. Their principles are not made up. hut discovered; and although 

 hidden at first, and the reward of laborious research, are when found usually 

 simple, always sublime, and far reaching in their relationships. He feels as he 

 looks througli this book of nature that he is reading the very tlioughts of God. 



He knows English, and German, and Freucli — and they have brouglit to his 

 use the observations, the speculations of the foremost ])hilo.-ophcrs of our time. 

 They serve him, too, to express in clear terms facts, theories, and principles. 

 Should he be found ignorant of (irreek and Latin will you term him uneducated I' 



The truth is, he who has not had physical sciences in his course of study lacks 

 si kind of discipline that is very important. The ))roblem of reducing the pro- 

 cess of induction to the form of an aristotelian syllogism is yet unsolved, Tlic 

 power of learning directly from nature herself, of observing, comparing, and 

 inaking an induction cannot be learned bv any use of books. A little ffeoloffv 

 here and a little physiology there in a classical course, cannot serve the uses of 

 science as an educating power. Courses of study must be lengthened, or some 

 studeiits must be allowed to choose the sciences to the neglect, say, of Greek 

 and Latin, and credit must be given for its equal educational power. Classical 

 courses usually contain astronomy, whose higher use. educationally, is in a 

 certain discipline of the imagination, the imjiarting of a power to hold steadily 

 in mind circles great and snrall cutting the sky, while we reason on the relation 

 of their parts and movements. Tlie physical sciences make ;i constant demand 

 on this kind of imagination. Some of the subjects of pliysics — like polarity — 

 cannot be comprehended without this discipline. The same is true of the classi- 

 ticatory sciences vrhen carried l^eyond the rudiments. Properly pursued, a 

 term's studv of science ouo-ht to be worth as niucli educationallv, as a term of 

 Greek. 



DREAD-AXD-BUTTEK SCIIOOLiS. 



Industrial schools have been looked down upon, as of a grade altogether infe- 

 rior to those of a literary, classical, or philosopliical kind. They have been con- 

 sidered as in some sort bread-and-butter schools, whose highest aim was to clothe 

 and feed this miserable body, while literature and science were wont to strike 

 their sublime heads against the stars. 



Let us look a little into this matter of dignity. I freely admit that the edu- 

 cated man finds, or ought to find, in his studies a happiness superior to that of 

 mere bodily comfort and enjoyment. These are not to be despised, but above 

 them are the needs of our intellectual, moral, and aesthetic natures. I spent 

 part of my youth in most intimate association with young men, several of whom 

 now hold high positions in schools of theology, science, and literature, and I 

 know they enjoyed a good dinner as became them. But tlieir delight was in the 

 dramas of Sophocles, and other masterpieces of literature and philosophy. 

 They would have thought themselves insulted by the in.-huTation that they 

 sought truth but for truth's sake, or felt otherwise than that beauty is its own 

 excuse for being. I believe this is the true spirit of the scholar, even in this 

 Avorking world. The dignity of philosophy, of literature, of hi.-tory, I do not 

 deny. What I claim is that these have no monopoly of this true spirit. Pure 

 mathematics and astronomy, indeed, have been long admitted into the select 

 company. Plato was a geometer, and made his science religious by saying God 

 liimself geometrizes. 



But the same spirit that makes pliilosophy food for tlie soul may and doe« 



38 ' . " 



