578 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and the German languages. These three languages, at least, are the 

 necessary tools of the American scholar, whatever may be the special 

 field of his scholarship, and his end is gained if he has acquired thor- 

 ough command of these tools. But if he goes further, and studies the 

 philology of these languages, their structure, their derivation, their 

 literature, the study may occupy a lifetime, and be made the basis of 

 severe intellectual training. More frequently, and as most scholars 

 think more effectually, such linguistic training is obtained by the 

 study of the ancient languages, especially the Latin and the Greek, and 

 no one questions the value and efficiency of this form of mental disci- 

 pline. But obviously such a preparation is not necessary for the use 

 of the modern languages as tools, or in order to acquire a knowledge 

 of ancient history, of the modes of ancient life, or the results of an- 

 cient thought. In recent discussions a great deal has been said about 

 the value of classical learning, and it has been argued that no man 

 could be regarded as thoroughly educated who had never heard of 

 Homer or Virgil, of Marathon or Cannse, of the Acropolis of Athens 

 or the Forum of Rome. Certainly not. But all this knowledge can 

 be acquired without spending six years in learning to read the Latin 

 and Greek authors in the original, or in writing Latin hexameters or 

 Greek iambics. The discipline acquired by this long study is un- 

 doubtedly of the highest value, but its value depends upon the intel- 

 lectual training, which is the essential result, and not upon the knowl- 

 edge of ancient life and thought, which is merely an incident. 



Now, this same distinction, which I have endeavored to illustrate 

 on familiar ground, must not be forgotten in considering the relations 

 of physical science to education. Physical science may also be studied 

 from two wholly different points of view : First, to acquire a knowl- 

 edge of facts and principles, which are among the most important 

 factors of modern life ; secondly, as a means of developing and train- 

 ing some of the most important intellectual faculties of the mind — for 

 example, the powers of observation, of conception, and of inductive 

 reasoning. 



The experimental sciences must often be studied chiefly from the 

 first point of view. If no man can be regarded as thoroughly edu- 

 cated who is ignorant of the outlines of Roman and Greek history ; 

 one who knows nothing of the principles of the steam-engine, or 

 of the electric telegraph, is certainly equally deficient. I do not 

 question that in most of our high-schools the jihysical sciences must 

 be taught, for the most part, as funds of useful knowledge, and in 

 regard to such teaching I have only a few remarks to make. As- 

 suming that information is the end to be attained, the best method 

 of securing the desired result is to present the facts in such a way 

 as will interest the scholar, and thus secure the retention of these 

 facts by his memory. I think it a very serious mistake to at- 

 tempt to teach such subjects by memoriter recitations from a text- 



