LITERARY NOTICES. 



125 



do only good, and may, if they come 

 with the requisite preparation, do a 

 great deal of good. Neither Science 

 nor Philosophy has yet spoken its last 

 word ; and all true men of science will 

 be thankful for any help they may get 

 toward throwing aside their errors and 

 rising to fuller and clearer perceptions 

 of the truth. 



DR. PLATFAIB ON STATE SCIENCE. 



We print the first portion of Sir 

 Lyon Playfair's recent inaugural address 

 as President of the British Association. 

 It is unconscionably long, so that we 

 must postpone to next month his con- 

 cluding sections on " Science and In- 

 dustry," and " Abstract Science the 

 Condition of Progress." Sir Lyon fol- 

 lows the precedents of his predeces- 

 sors in discussing what he knows most 

 about, for he is probably the most promi- 

 nent and experienced scientific oflace- 

 holder and engineer of state science gen- 

 erally that is to be found in the British 

 Empire. He was early taken into the 

 royal family, and has ever since been 

 on intimate relations with those upper 

 classes which constitute the governing 

 power of England, and this fact is not 

 without its bearing on his discussion of 

 " Science and Secondary Education." 



Of coarse, he is driven upon the 

 question of science and the classics, and 

 must recognize, as does all the world, 

 that science is scandalously neglected in 

 leading British schools, whUe excessive 

 attention is given to classical studies. 

 This educational issue in England is in- 

 tricately involved with the English social 

 system. Classics and science is a ques- 

 tion of classes : science is for the lower 

 classes, classics for the higher classes. 

 A succession of parliamentary commis- 

 sions has deplored the neglect of sci- 

 ence in the great endowed schools, but 

 with very little eff'ect. The Duke of 

 Devonshire was compelled to report, 

 in 1873, " considering the increasing 

 importance of science to the mate- 

 rial interests of the country, we can 



not but regard its almost total exclusion 

 from the training of the upper and mid- 

 dle classes as little less than a national 

 misfortune." But why should the mid- 

 dle-class schools be here ranked with 

 the upper-class schools? Because they 

 imitate them. Dr. Playfair says, " Un- 

 fortunately, the other grammar-schools 

 which educate the middle classes look 

 to the higher public schools as a type 

 to which they should conform." But 

 the upper-class schools are places where 

 science is despised and the classics wor- 

 shiped. Sir Lyon Playfair, although 

 professedly representing science, is not 

 the man to condemn a settled upper- 

 class English policy. He virtually gives 

 up the contest in saying, "The great 

 public schools of England will continue 

 to be the gymnasia for the upper class- 

 es, and should devote much of their 

 time to classical and literary culture." 

 What is this but yielding everything, 

 and reducing the whole movement for 

 a higher scientific education to a farce? 

 If classics are the superior mental pabu- 

 lum of aristocrats and gentlemen, and 

 science only suited for plebeians, then 

 is the English resistance to scientific 

 education right, as it would be a degra- 

 dation and a step backward toward bar- 

 barism. The aflBliations of classics and 

 aristocracy are old and intimate, and 

 still profoundly cherished in countries 

 like England and Germany; but when 

 eminent scientists like Hoffman and 

 Playfair avail themselves of great occa- 

 sions to indorse them to the damage of 

 science, we say, deliver us from our 

 nominal friends. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Modern Science and Modern Thought. By 

 S. Laing, Esq., M. P. London: Chap- 

 man & Hall ; Philadelphia : Lippincott. 

 Pp. 320. Price, $4. 



Both the plan of this book and the man- 

 ner of its execution will give it a strong 

 claim upon many readers. The first six 

 chapters, comprising more than half the vol- 

 ume, are devoted to summing up the large 



