30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



as those supplied by the study of man and his intellectual 

 progress. But the facts of nature are less useful than human 

 documents in cultivating the faculty of introspection. 



These, however, are matters which really lie outside the modern 

 controversy. Many of those who take part in it omit to define 

 their terms. So far as literary and scientific training alike are 

 concerned, the eflorts of the teacher must be largely directed to 

 instruction, this being all that an examination of the modern 

 type can test. Education, as contrasted with instruction, is 

 relegated to the playing-field. It is there that we are left to 

 learn our real limitations ; it is there that we come to realize our 

 duties to our fellows ; it is there that we obtain our opportunities 

 of distinguishing between the amateur and the professional, and 

 of appreciating the peculiar merits of each ; it is there that we 

 are taught to " play the game." Such education may not go 

 far, but so far as it goes it is good. 



The shortcomings of what is popularly described as a ' literary 

 education ' are real ; the masters of science who point them out 

 are shrewd and experienced observers both of men and things. 

 But these shortcomings are not due to any inherent defect 

 in literature. The statute which underlies our bye-law and 

 inspires our pursuits was written when the amount of natural 

 knowledge available was insufiicient to serve as the basis of a 

 liberal education. That statute shows us what a literary edu- 

 cation is capable of. The real difficulty connected wiih the 

 process which is the subject of so much scientific invective, 

 is not that it is ' literary ' but that it is not ' education.' 



Whatever value for purposes of education the results of the 

 philosophical study of nature may possess, these results are not 

 at present being fully utilized. The facts of natural history and 

 other branches of science were at one time tal^en advantage of 

 in the cultivation of the faculty of observation and as a means of 

 widening the intellectual outlook of the pupil. The work of the 

 class-room and the laboratory is now largely confined to the 

 training of experts. Instruction more intensive than ever goes 

 on unremittingly and effectively. This leaves so little time for 

 education that one result is the distemper of scientific thought 

 whose symptoms now disquiet us. 



The consideration of the etiology of this distemper has taken 

 so long that we cannot deal with possible remedies. This is of 

 minor consequence. Our chief concern is to know where we 

 are and how we have got there. Many competent practitioners 

 have offered advice : you have a plethora of prescriptions to 

 choose from. But when selecting a remedy it will be well to 

 adopt one likely to be of benefit both to science and the 

 business of life. Let us put our own house in order. Let us 

 think less of the mote in the eye of the man of letters ; let 

 us give more attention to the beam that may be in our own. 



