PROGRESS IN ENGINEERING 313 



It is Pope who says: 



''A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. 

 Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring, 

 There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, 

 And drinking deeply sobers it again." 

 The condition above referred to can be changed only 

 by degrees. The experience of former generations will tend 

 to correct this fault to some extent in the future, but the 

 opportunity for direct improvement lies within the insti- 

 tutions themselves. Some institutions are at present fairly 

 rigid in regard to requirements in courses of a purely gen- 

 eral character, but with many these requirements are too 

 easil}^ modified, while with some, if not all, the tendency 

 to specialize is so strong that the greater portion of the cul- 

 ture subjects have been forced from the curriculum. 



The results of the excellent work of these progressive 

 institutions are readily seen in the great engineering feats 

 of the past few years, in the growth and prosperity due to such 

 achievements, in the accomplishments due to engineering 

 training in our recent w^ar, and one need only trace these 

 results to their sources to be convinced that the engineering 

 school of to-day is a powerful factor in a nation's civilization 

 and development, as well as in the general progress of the 

 world. For the men who are achieving these results are men 

 whose earnestness of purpose and appreciation and respect 

 for the laws governing existing conditions have been guided 

 and strengthened by these institutions — institutions whose 

 aim has been to develop serious thought, power to weigh 

 facts, ability to probe the reasons and laws producing given 

 conditions, a true respect for the opinions and judgment 

 of others — a comprehension of facts and conditions as they 

 exist to-day, and the power so to modify, improve or take 

 advantage of these facts that new and better conditions 

 and opportunities shall be open to him who enters the world 

 to-morrow. 



Herbert Spencer, in referring to the schools of England, 

 might have referred with equal force to the schools of the 

 United States when he wrote : 'That which our school courses 

 leave almost entirely out we thus find to be that which most 



