654 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



suggested for the betterment of things — science and modern 

 languages in education, payment of research, experimental 

 pathology, town-planning, sanitation — they lift their voices 

 and cry, " Think not of this barren world ; fix your minds 

 upon the absolute. What does anything matter here ? but 

 there, in nirvana, eternal bliss awaits you." And loud applause 

 greets the lofty pose. Thus when an extensive sanitary cam- 

 paign was once proposed to the governor of a certain colony, 

 he, who was suffering from fever at the time, replied sadly 

 but bravely, " After all, what does it matter? We are here 

 to suffer because of our duty ; let us ignore our suffering, and 

 consider only our duty." And his poor people continued to 

 die of the disease in hundreds. Later, in another capacity, 

 he did perhaps more harm to his country during the war than 

 most men who are not politicians. 



The opposition to more science and modern languages in 

 education is principally due to this spirit of fakirism. Children 

 will be debased by being taught useful things : fix not their 

 eyes upon what is of earth earthy ; give them character rather 

 than knowledge, direction rather than force, good intentions 

 rather than capacity ; so shall they win to Heaven. We see 

 much of this caste of thought everywhere in this country, and 

 may mention as an example a brief report in the British Medical 

 Journal of a paper read at the Royal Society of Arts on Decem- 

 ber 20 last. After pointing out, fairly correctly, that the 

 true division of education was, not into ancient and modern, 

 but into literary and scientific (though even this is probably 

 not quite accurate), and admitting that the ideal was a 

 combination of literary and scientific education, the speaker, 

 added that " There was loo great a disposition to think that 

 knowledge in itsell was valuable. It was valuable precisely 

 in so far as it inspired and animated and trained the mind. 

 The mere knowledge of facts was unimportant. ... A thing 

 which was practically useful had not necessarily any educational 

 value." And the Chairman of the meeting summed up by 

 saying that " The great aim of education was to stimulate 

 curiosity and to create the habit of observation. It was not 

 knowledge that was important but the love of knowledge." 



From this we gather that the effort is everything but the 

 result nothing. So also we may say, it is not food which is 

 important but the love of food ; and our great aim should 



