202 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



prepare, for examination-day, answers the most of which will be for- 

 gotten a month afterward. 



But we are asked, Is not science the investigation of truth, and does 

 not this imply a love of truth, a disinterested love fruiting in abnega- 

 tion and saci'ifices ? Oh, yes, a great scientific man has said that truth 

 surrenders to the patience of students, to simplicity and devotion as 

 well as to genius. But the search for truth is one thing, and truth 

 already discovered and taught passively is another thing. In scien- 

 tific instruction, as it is commonly given, only acquired results are pre- 

 sented to the pupils, without teaching at the cost of what efforts they 

 have been gained — only truths that have been cooled off, lifeless truths 

 and soulless formulas. For moral effect, we should give the history of 

 science and of scientific men, intermixed with the exposition of the 

 sciences ; but we prefer to teach a hundred more theorems or formu- 

 las, which our pupils hasten to forget. Thus taught, separated from 

 philosophy and history, science has neither moral virtue nor civil im- 

 port. It degrades instead of elevating, makes machines and not men, 

 still less citizens. A considerable part should, then, be given, in teach- 

 ing of every grade, to letters, the arts, and the moral, social, and politi- 

 cal sciences. On this point Mr. Spencer and M. Bluntschli agree in 

 the assertion that there can be no liberty, no vote in democracies, with- 

 out a good political education. The child can hardly grasp the idea of 

 the state, and can only receive extremely vague and dull notions re- 

 specting the political constitution. He should be inspired with ideas 

 of public morals, civic virtues, and patriotism, and rather by examples 

 than by precepts. This political instruction should be continued in a 

 higher and more practical but always unpartisan form for youth who 

 are approaching the time when they will exercise the right of suffrage. 

 It is as dangerous to thrust into political life young persons who are 

 strangers to all political knowledge as it is to send soldiers into battle 

 without having drilled them in military exercises. Defense against 

 the assaults of internal barbarians is as essential in democracies as de- 

 fense against foreign invasions. Examinations have been instituted 

 in Belgium for candidates for admission to participation in the right 

 of suffrage, and the example might be a good one to follow.* 



* The new electoral law of Belgium establishes, as the basis of the electorate, a 

 standard of mental and moral capacity, A jury subjects the candidates to an " elect- 

 oral " examination upon simple questions of morals, Belgian history, constitutional 

 institutions, reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. Before coming to this point, 

 experiments were made upon the results of primary instruction. Cadets, who had been 

 five or six years at school, were put to the test of an extremely simple examination. 

 They were asked, for example, to tell the four large cities of the country, and the rivers 

 on which they are situated. Thirty-five per cent made no answer, and forty-nine per 

 cent only made a partial answer. To the question. By whom are the laws made? fifty 

 per cent had nothing to say ; twenty-eight per cent replied. They arc made by the king, or 

 by the king and queen, or by the ministers, or by the Government, or by the Senate ; 

 and fifteen per cent answered with knowledge. When asked to name an illustrious 



