328 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 1880. 



given and accepted without ever being subjected to rigid tests, and it 

 may liave some connection witli tliat state of mind where everything 

 has a i)ersonal aspect and we are guided by feelings rather than by 

 reason." In attempting to correct these faults, it is necessary that we 

 briug the mind m direct contact with some standard of absolute truth, 

 and let it be convinced of its errors again and again. " Let the student 

 be brought face to face with nature ; let him exercise his reason with 

 respect to the simjilest physical phenomenon, and then in the laboratory 

 put his opinions to the test; the result is invariably humility, for he 

 liuds that nature has laws which must be discovered by labor and toil, 

 and not by wild flights of the imagination and scintillations of so-called 

 genius." " To train the powers of observation and classification, let 

 students study luitural liistory not only from books, but from prepared 

 specimens or directly from nature ; to give care in experiment and con- 

 vince them that nature forgives no error, let them enter the chemical 

 laboratory ; to train them in exact and logical powers of reasoning, let 

 them study mathematics ; but to combine all this training in one and 

 exhibit to their minds the most perfect and systematic method of dis- 

 covering the exact laws of nature, let them stud^' physics and astron- 

 omy, where observation, common sense, and mathematics go hand in 

 hand." Much of our modern education fails because it trains only the 

 memory, using the reason and judgment merely to refer matters to some 

 authority who is considered final. Worse than all, students are not 

 trained constantly in applying their knowledge. "To produce men of 

 action, they must be trained in action. If the languages be studied, 

 they must be made to translate from one language to the other until 

 they have perfect facility in the process. If mathematics be studied, 

 they must work problems, more problems, and problems again, until 

 they have the use of what they know. If they study the sciences, they 

 must enter the laboratory and stand face to f<ice with nature ; they must 

 learn to test their knowledge constantly, and thus see for themselves 

 the sad results of vague speculation ; they must learn by direct experi- 

 ment that there is such a thing in the world as truth, and that their own 

 mind is most liable to error ; they must try experiment after experi- 

 ment, and work problem after problem, until they become men of action 

 and not of theoi y." " This, then, is the use of the laboratory in general 

 education — to train the mind in right modes of thought by constantly 

 bringing it in contact with absolute truth, and to give it a pleasant and 

 profitable exercise which will call all its powers of reason and of imagi- 

 nation into play." " The special physicist trained there, must be taught 

 to cultivate his science for its own sake. He must go forth into the 

 world with enthusiasm for it, and try to draw others into an apprecia- 

 tion of it, doing his part to convince the world that the study of nature 

 is one of the most noble of pursuits, that there are other things worthy 

 of the attention of mankind beside the pursuit of wealth." (Science 

 June, 1880, vir, 573.) 



