PHYSICS IN 1886. 



By George F. Barker, M. D. 

 Professor of Physics in the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 



GENERAL. 



The address of Professor Eowland upon " The Physical Laboratory 

 in Modern Education," delivered at the tenth anniversary of the Johns 

 Hopkins University, is an important contribution to the discussion now 

 in progress as to the value of scientific methods in education. His 

 ideal man has " full respect for the opinions of those around him, and 

 yet with such discrimination that he sees a chance of error in all, and 

 most of all in himself. He has a longing for the truth, and is willing 

 to test himself, to test others, and to test nature, until he finds it. He 

 has the courage of his opinions when thus carefully formed, and is then, 

 but not till then, willing to stand before the world and proclaim what he 

 considers the truth. Like Galileo and Copernicus, he inaugurates a 

 new era in science, or, like Luther, in the religious belief of mankind. 

 He neither shrinks within himself at the thought of having an opinion 

 of his own, nor yet believes it to be the only one worth considering in 

 tlie world ; he is neither crushed with intellectual humility, nor 3-et 

 exalted with intellectual pride; he sees that the problems of nature and 

 society can be solved, and yet he knows that this can only come about 

 by the combined intellect of the world acting through ages of time, 

 and that he, though his intellect were that of Newton, can, at best, do 

 very little towards it. Knowing this, he seeks all the aids in his power 

 to ascertain the truth; and if he, through either ambition or love of 

 truth, wishes to impress his opinions on the world, he first takes care 

 to have them correct. Above all, he is willing to abstain from having 

 opinions on subjects of which he knows nothing." To form such a mind, 

 says Professor Eowland, is the province of modern education. " So far 

 as I can see," he states, " the unscientific mind differs from the scien- 

 tific in this, that it is willing to accept and make statements of which it* 

 has no clear conception to begin with, and of whose truth it is not as- 

 sured. It is an irresponsible state of mind, without clearness of con- 

 ception, where the connection between the thought and the object is of 

 the vaguest description. It is the state of mind where opinions are 



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