86 FOPULAB SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the nation would now be much richer than it is, and would have much 

 less to fear from competition. 



SujDpose we were to set about putting our educational house in 

 order, so as to secure a higher quality and greater quantity of brain- 

 power, it would not be the first time in history that this has been done. 

 Both Prussia after Jena and France after Sedan acted on the view : 



" When land is gone and money spent, 

 Then learning is most excellent." 



After Jena, which left Prussia a 'bleeding and lacerated mass,' the 

 King and his wise counselors, among them men who had gained 

 knowledge from Kant, determined, as they put it, 'to supply the loss, 

 of territory by intellectual effort.' 



Wliat did they do ? In spite of universal poverty, three universities, 

 to say nothing of observatories and other institutions, were at once 

 founded, secondary education was developed, and in a few years the 

 mental resources were so well looked after that Lord Palmerston 

 defined the kingdom in question as 'a country of damned professors.' 



After Sedan, a battle, as Moltke told us, 'won by the school-master,' 

 France made even more strenuous efforts. The old University of 

 France, with its 'academies' in various places, was replaced by fifteen 

 independent universities, in all of which are faculties of letters, sci- 

 ences, law and medicine. 



The development of the University of Paris has been truly mar- 

 velous. In 1897-8, there were 12,000 students, and the cost was 

 200,000L a year. 



But even more wonderful than these examples is the 'intellectual 

 effort' made by Japan, not after a war, but to prepare for one. 



The question is, shall we wait for a disaster and then imitate Prus- 

 sia and France? or shall we follow Japan, and thoroughly prepare by 

 'intellectual effort' for the industrial struggle which lies before us? 



Such an effort seems to me to be the first thing any national or 

 imperial scientific organization should endeavor to bring about. 



