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lion in aiiciont :in»l modorn lan^nafios ciitiroly provonto<l. Nothiiiij; of this now 

 riulownuMit sliouhi -ro to tlu' traditional tonndation stndics. to lii.^licr cdncation, 

 with tiio ('xccption of niatlH'niatics. The history of tlic application of tlio first 

 fiidowniont. that <if ISill'. had shown conclusively that no snixM-structurc would 

 arise on those foundation studies, and that the endowment for agriculture and 

 tht> mechanic arts woidd only go so far as to furnish a vestibule to all kinds of 

 higher education, and es])ecially to education for the learned professions. 



Of course all these things could not have happened unless suggested or at 

 least permitted by current imhlic opinion. Nine out of ten persons desired a 

 general foundation for higher education instead of instruction in specialites re- 

 lating to agriculture ami the mechanic arts. There had been very few ex- 

 amples of learned men in those specialties in this cduntry to attract young 

 men into agricultm-al and engineering careers. 



In the history of the I'nited States since 1SC>-J one of the noteworthy lines 

 of progress reliitcs to mining, another one to railroad building, another one 

 to the manifold uses of electricity, and still another to the jirogress in organic 

 chemistry and the application of inorganic chemistry to various other indus- 

 tries. It has been an era of the unfolding of engineering in manifold directions 

 for the conquest of matter and force in the service of man. 



In the meantime free i)ublic high schools have been foundi'd. mostly at the 

 expense of nuuiicipalities. all over the United States, and the elementary 

 beginnings which Itelong especially to what I have called the vestibule of 

 education have been i)rovided alunKhintly. T.ut oiiportunities for pursuing long 

 courses of study in s])ecial bi-anches of industry have not been furnished so 

 generously for the youth who have completed tlu'ir preparatory studies and 

 who have adopted foi- themselves careers which demand long periods of original 

 investigation, under distinguished experts, with access to well-e(iuii)ped labora- 

 tories. 



Meanwhile the agricultm-al and mechanical colleg*' as it has been has slowly 

 built up a body of doctrine in its specialty and has obtained a sutlicient sur- 

 vey of its course to outline for itself without any serious error the course of 

 future progress in enlarging the scoi)e of its instruction and in perfecting its 

 methods of investigation. 



Many agricultural colleges art' represented here in this audience l>y jtrofessors 

 who have done distinguished work in reducing various branches of their work 

 to a better pedagogical form. A branch is reduced to a pedagogical form when 

 it can be taught in a series of lessons, of which the first lesson is useful if 

 none follow, and tlie first two, or first five, or first ten develop each lesson out 

 of the next preceding one. partly unfolding the consequences of what precedes 

 and partly explaining the grounds of what precedes. Good pedagogical form 

 makes possible systematic instruction in the school. 



My thoughts liave lately been directed toward tlie relation in which the ad- 

 vanced specialized higher studies stand to the body of preparatory branches. 

 In what way are tliose early studies in the high schools and in the freshman 

 classes of colleges and universities related to progress in the mastery of science 

 and to the original investigations which advance science itself and make possi- 

 ble its applications to industry. I will limit myself especially to the old ques- 

 tion which has so many times been thrashed out regarding the use of certain 

 kinds of language study as an essential preparation for the several sciences of 

 nature. 



The interesting and suggestive course of study in horticulture, which is 

 mapped out and exhibited on the walls of this room, furnishes me a text. I 

 notice the words '" agronomy, zootecliny, agrotechny, rural economy, rural eiigi- 

 • iieering, apiculture, viticulture, pomology, olericulture, floriculture, horticulture, 

 botany, zoology, meteorology, mathematics, geology, physiography, biology, bac- 

 teriology, entomologv. veterinary science, agrostology, embryology, cryptogamic 

 botany, 'vegetable cvtology." This course of study before us and the courses of 

 study' published in" the catalogues of the institutions founded on these two 

 endowments of Congress go to prove that Latin and Greek are not dead lan- 

 guages, as they were supposed to be, but are languages that are quite alive in 

 science and tlie arts. Even in agriculture the sciences have borrowed words 

 both from the Latin and from the Greek in order to arrive at a perfect accuracy 

 of expression. fN)lloquial words of Anglo-Saxon roots are well enough to express 

 ordinarv experience, but not at all adapted to the expression of the results of 

 precise "and svstematic investigation. There are two vocabularies in a lan- 

 guage—the coilo(iuial vocabulary and the vocabulary for science, literature, and 

 philosophy. Everybody uses the colloquial vocabulary iu common, but only 



