234 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



solution of the educational problem. Emerson 

 says : — 



"The Ancient Languages, with great beauty of struc- 

 ture, contain wonderful remains of genius, which draw, and 

 always will draw, certain like-minded men, Greek men 

 and Roman men, in all countries to their study ; but by 

 a wonderful drowsiness of usage they had exacted the 

 study of all men. Once (say two centuries ago) Latin 

 and Greek had a strict relation to all the science and 

 culture there was in Europe, and mathematics had a 

 momentary importance at some era of physical science. 

 These things became stereotyped as education, as the 

 manner of men is. But the good spirit never cared for 

 the colleges, and though all men and boys were now 

 drilled in Latin, Greek, and Mathematics, it had quite 

 left these shells high and dry on the beach, and was now 

 creating and feeding other matters at other ends of the 

 world." 



Thus, as the years went on, other sources of 

 culture became more and more emphatic in their 

 claims. The workers in the various fields of 

 science, each year becoming more numerous and 

 more active, opened out great vistas of the works 

 of God, and he who had seen nothing of these 

 might well have his claims to culture doubted. 

 Philology, History, Philosophy, other than that 

 stamped with the approval of the safe old mas- 

 ters, each put in its claims, as also the vast wealth 

 of the literatures of modern Europe. A citizen of 

 the Republic must know something of the laws 

 which govern national prosperity, and a teacher 

 of the people should know something of the theory 

 according to which people are taught. When 



