ADDRESSES 27 
sanity in thought and action, a spirit which is slowly increas- 
ing in its influence, but which as yet does not control the 
majority of citizens. Of course, the methods introduced by 
science are now being developed in connection with other sub- 
jects, but science gives a training peculiar to itself, and it is 
this contribution which expresses the service I wish to empha- 
size. 
I shall assume that any peculiar result of science in educa- 
tion must be obtained, not through information in reference to 
the facts of science, but through contact with the materials of 
science. However valuable information may be, it can hardly 
be regarded as a substitute for knowledge. Information is 
always at least second hand; while knowledge is first hand. The 
real educational significance of personal experience, which is 
a better name for what we call the laboratory method, is very 
commonly overlooked, even by teachers of science. 
We were first told that science teaches the laboratory 
method, the inference being that the content of science is of no 
particular educational advantage of itself, but is merely useful 
in teaching a valuable method. Of course this method holds no 
more relation to science than do algebraic symbols to algebra; 
they both represent merely useful machinery for getting at the 
real results. 
Then we were told that science cultivates the power and 
habit of observation. Of course it does, but this is not peculiar 
to training in science, for it belongs to any subject in which the 
laboratory method is used. Then it was claimed that the study 
of science trains the power of anaylsis. This is certainly get- 
ting the subject upon higher ground, for the power of analysis 
is of immense practical importance; but to imagine that 
analysis is the ultimate purpose of science in education is not 
to go very much further than to say that the ultimate purpose 
is the laboratory method. The latter is the method, the former 
is but the first step in its application, and is by no means 
peculiar to science. 
Beyond analysis lies synthesis, and this certainly represents 
the ultimate purpose of science. The results of our analysis are 
as barren as a bank of sand until synthesis lays hold of them; 
= a al ante Ee _ eS eS oer, 
