46 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY. 



It is not those Avbo desire to unite literature with science who de- 

 grade education ; the degradation is the consequence of the refusal. 

 A violent reaction — too violent to be wise — has lately taken place 

 against classical education in France, where their own vernacular occu- 

 pies the position of dead languages, while Latin and science are given 

 the same time in the curriculum. In England manufacturers cry out 

 for technical education, in which classical culture shall be excluded. 

 In the schools of the middle classes science rather than technics is 

 needed, because, when the seeds of science are sown, technics as its 

 fruit will appear at the appointed time. Epictetus was wise when he 

 told us to observe that, though sheep eat grass, it is not grass but 

 wool that grows on their backs. Should, however, our grammar- 

 schools persist in their refusal to adapt themselves to the needs of a 

 scientific age, England must follow the example of other European 

 nations and found new modern schools in competition with them. For, 

 as Iluxlcy has put it, we can not continue in this age " of full modern 

 artillery to turn out our boys to do battle in it, equipped only with 

 the sword and shield of an ancient gladiator." In a scientific and 

 keenly competitive age, an exclusive education in the dead languages 

 is a perplexing anomaly. The flowers of literature should be culti- 

 vated and gathered, though it is not wise to send men into our fields 

 of industry to gather the harvest when they have been taught only 

 to cull the poppies and to push aside the wheat. 



IV. Science and the Universities. — The state has always felt 

 bound to alter and improve universities, even when their endowments 

 are so large as to render it unnecessary to support them by public 

 funds. When universities are poor, Parliament gives aid to them 

 from imperial taxation. In this country that aid has been given with 

 a very sparing hand. Thus the universities and colleges of Ireland 

 have received about £30,000 annually, and the same sum has been 

 granted to the four universities of Scotland. Compared with imperial 

 aid to foreign universities such sums are small. A single German 

 university like Strasburg or Leipsic receives above £40,000 annually, 

 or £10,000 more than the whole colleges of Ireland or of Scotland. 

 Strasburg, for instance, has had her university and its library rebuilt 

 at a cost of £711,000, and receives an annual subscription of £43,000. 

 In rebuilding the University of Strasburg eight laboratories have been 

 provided, so as to equip it fully with the modern requirements for 

 teaching and research.* Prussia, the most economical nation in the 

 world, spends £391,000 yearly out of taxation on her universities. 



The recent action of France is still more remarkable. After the 

 Franco-German War the Institute of France discussed the important 



* The cost of these laboratories has been as follows : Chemical Institute, £35,000 ; 

 rhysical Institute, £28,000 ; Botanical Institute, £26,000 ; Observatory, £26,000 ; Anat- 

 omy, £42,000; Clinical Surgery, £26,000; Physiological Chemistry, £16,000; Physiologi- 

 cal Institute, £13,900. 



