33 
are coming into this inheritance. We all know that the word 
school 1s derived from a Greek word meaning Ieisure; the rela- 
tionship may now be reversed so that leisure may come to mean 
school for many hitherto deprived of that opportunity. Said the 
former Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, to the Banff Con- 
ference of the Institute of Pacific Relations, in 1933, “ The only 
hope of mankind, where adult knowledge is a factor of public 
opinion, 1s a continuous process of education.” To this work the 
Brooklyn Botanic Garden aims to make as large a contribution 
as its facilities and resources will permit. 
The Social Need of Scientific Thinking—* It is not to deny 
that one of the reasons of the incapability of the nations to deal 
successfully with the disastrous consequences of the world crisis 
is the insufficient development of social sciences in comparison 
with that of natural sciences, and the feeble penetration of scien- 
tific thinking into the broad masses of population,” 
The quotation is from the “ Greeting” from the Lithuanian 
University of Vytautas the Great to New York University on 
the occasion of its conference on The Obligation of Universities 
fosthe sociaw Order, 11-1033. 
It would, perhaps, not be an extreme statement to say that the 
oe 
present economic crisis is due in large part to the fact that men 
of big business and men in public office, as well as the much ma- 
ligned “man in the street,’ have been thinking commercially, or 
myopically, or politically, or wishfully—almost any way except 
scientifically, and have been acting accordingly, or even quite 
thoughtlessly, except for the matter immediately in hand. 
Herein is the strongest justification for science in a program 
of public education—its ability to teach, not only information about 
nature, but a way of thought which must become a habit of thought 
if civilization is to advance. This is the essence of science, and 
no scientific institution such as this botanic garden, no school or 
university, can render a more valuable or more needed service than 
to provide such a program of public education as will diffuse a 
knowledge of scientific method; this it is which should permeate 
all elementary and adult instruction until it becomes a habit of 
mind. The program of public education at the Brooklyn Botanic 
Garden is organized with the aim of making some contribution, 
however small, to this result. 
