D E D I C ATC ) R \' A D D R ?:SS. 



SCIENCE AS AN EDUCATIONAL FACTOR. 



When a magnificent building is dedicated to scientific studies, 

 one's thoughts turn naturally to consider the bearing of such studies 

 upon education itself: and so it has come about that Science as an 

 Educational Factor, is the topic upon which and around which I am 

 to speak to-day. 



When patristic philosophy established a tribunal to which should 

 be referred all cjuestions whether of physical science or of theology, it 

 closed the door to individual thought and opened the way to the bond- 

 age of the dark ages. This new philosophy practically proclaimed that 

 investigation beyond what is revealed in Scripture is science falsely 

 so-called — Augustine himself, when discussing the existence of the an- 

 tipodes, said that "it is impossible that there should be inhabitants on 

 the opposite side of the earth, for no such race is recorded in Scripture 

 among the descendants of Adam." Necessarily, the study of nature 

 was forbidden in fact, if not in word, physics being regarded as merely 

 tributary to revealed theology. Monks and schoolmen occupied them- 

 selves largely in making copies of the " Fathers " or in applying the 

 principles of Aristotelian logic to systematization of all things, physical 

 and metaphysical. The revival of learning, though influenced by the 

 Arabian mode of thought, carried into Europe by the Jews, was but a 

 revival of intellectual activity along lines of study pursued for cen- 

 turies. Monasteries yielded stores of ancient literature, which they 

 had preserved as an old chest preserves valuable documents ; authors, 

 known until then only by name or by garbled extracts, became famil- 

 iar accjuaintances, while to them were added hosts of others, previously 

 unknown, whose works afforded full scope for the scholarly acumen of 

 the time. 



The Universities of the middle ages taught only such matters as 

 engrossed the attention of the schoolmen ; disputations respecting mere 

 abstractions occupied most of the time and absorbed most of the en- 

 ergy of learned men. True, the love of money and the fear of death 

 led many to search for the philosoi)her's stone and for the elixir of life, 



