EDITOR'S TABLE. 



699 



the journal Lad been started "to help 

 on the work of sound public education 

 by supplying instructive articles on the 

 leading subjects of scientific inquiry." 

 It was there shown, further, that the 

 meaning of the term science was widen- 

 ing, that it had come to be regarded as 

 applying to the whole of Nature ; " as 

 being, in fact, a method of the mind, a 

 quality or character of knowledge upon 

 all subjects of which we can think or 

 know." This implied a more critical 

 method of inquiry in fields not before 

 so strictly dealt with. Whatever sub- 

 jects involved accessible and observable 

 phenomena came within its range ; it 

 was the common interest of rational 

 beings; and included in the immense 

 extension of its conception all subjects 

 of human interest. There was grow- 

 ing up a valuable literature of popular 

 science in the shape of instructive es- 

 says and lectures from men who were 

 authorities upon the subjects which they 

 treated, for the diffusion of which ade- 

 quate means were not yet provided. 

 The " Monthly " would afford this, and 

 in doing it would appeal not to the il- 

 literate, but to the generally educated 

 classes, and would seek to enable them 

 to carry on the work of self-instruction 

 in science. 



To him may be literally applied 

 what he wrote of Agassiz, on the occa- 

 sion of his death : " He [Agassiz] had 

 great enthusiasm and impulsiveness, 

 and the whole fervor and intensity of 

 his nature was spent in the single- 

 minded pursuit of science. Not con- 

 tent with what he could himself know, 

 and do, and enjoy, he was powerfully 

 impelled to make others the sharers 

 of his knowledge, his activity, and his 

 pleasures. He not only won them to 

 him by his geniality and his cordial and 

 unaffected manners, but he inspired 

 them with his own purposes, and moved 

 them to his own ends." He was not 

 content to be merely a scatterer of his 

 own stores of knowledge ; " he had a 

 profound interest in popular education, 



but the soul of that interest was for 

 improvement in its methods. In the 

 matter of public instruction he was a 

 revolutionist and a propagandist. He 

 warred with current ideas and con- 

 secrated practices, ne condemned in 

 the most emphatic way the wretched 

 lesson-learning routine that prevails in 

 the schools. He denounced our wordy 

 and bookish education as baseless and 

 unreal, and demanded such a change 

 in our systems of instruction as shall 

 bring the pupils face to face with Na- 

 ture herself, and call out the mind by 

 direct exercise upon phenomena — the 

 facts, laws, relations, and realities of 

 the world of experience." All this is 

 true of Professor Youmans ; but it never 

 entered his mind to assail existing sys- 

 tems till he believed he had something 

 better and more effective to put in 

 their place. 



His faith and his heart were in his 

 work, and he executed his self-imposed 

 duties with a vigor, an earnestness, and 

 a thoroughness that are peculiar to 

 those who believe in what they are do- 

 ing, and whose highest satisfaction is ob- 

 tained in the consciousness of benefits 

 conferred. Leaving this work — so per- 

 sistently and so successfully carried on 

 — to other hands, he has left along with 

 it an example of conscientious devotion 

 to principle, of outspoken allegiance to 

 truth, and of unsparing self-sacrifice, 

 that will remain a precious heritage to 

 his friends, and may fitly serve as an 

 inspiration to all who are striving for 

 the general good. 



FUNCTIONS OF TEE STATE. 



IN his article on "Socialism," in the 

 new " Scribner," General Francis 

 A. Walker, of Boston, advances two 

 opinions that seem to us open to the 

 gravest question. In the first place he 

 apparently approves of the exemption of 

 church property from taxation in so far 

 as the practice is grounded on a belief 

 that the interests of public order will 



