220 STATE BOAED OF AGEICULTURE. 



kino, and never bo the fuller. But to the generous mind uli knowledge is 

 sacred, and so connected with other knowledge as virtually to be a center of all 

 trnth. A Goethe can say of so meager a thing as book-keeping by donble entry, 

 that '"it is amongst the finest inventions of the human mind."* To learn all 

 trutli you may begin anywhere, 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." f 



To do away with the prejudices against scientific courses, it will he necessary 

 in the first place to jnit them on a par with the classical courses in the same 

 institution so far as amount of previous preparation is concerned. Four years 

 course with almost no previous j)reparation can never Ije 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 disci- 

 plinary. 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 enthusiastic 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 iiivestigation and principles of classification. 



Again, the students of science must have some general acquaintance witli the 

 affairs of men, and especially must be able to use language well. It is a mis- 

 taken 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, illustra-tion, should be 

 insisted upon in scientific schools. Besides the uses of language in communicat- 

 ing ideas, it has an educational one tliat ought not to be overlooked. Clearness 

 of expression, and clearness of thinking 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 attemjjted to give them 

 expression. Thought and exjoression 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 Avay to their purposes even though it be the surest in 

 the end. Teach us the art, the practice at all events, and let principles take 

 care of themselves, they say. I said to a lawyer of a growing practice in one of 

 our cities, you took a course in a law school. Yes, he replied, but I would not 

 do it again, had I my law education to seek. It is a long way into the jiractice 

 and those who passed into the business through the simple training of a law 

 office find themselves ahead. A professor of chemistry, a friend of mine, vis- 

 ited a soda factory in the west and was received by the proprietor with the 

 announcement that chemists were of no use to the world. 



But scientific schools are founded on the principle of faith in the iitility of 

 science. Nothing is more useful than pure science. No one knows where it 

 will reveal its utility. Because Galvani i)layed with the leg of a frog we have 

 the electric telegraph, and because others luive watched the sands upon a plate 

 above sounding strings we can send music from Detroit to Chicago, and are 

 like to be aljle to send several messages at once over the same wire. Hooke waj-> 



*Meister's Apprfiitireshii). 

 t Pro Arcliia. 



