92 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



is like a sheet of white paper, on which by education 

 we can write what characters we please. This doctrine 

 assuredly needs qualification and correction. In physics, 

 when an external force is applied to a body with a view 

 of affecting its inner texture, if we wish to predict the 

 result, we must know whether the external force con- 

 spires with or opposes the internal forces of the body 

 itself ; and in bringing the influence of education to 

 bear upon the new-born man his inner powers also must 

 be taken into account. He comes to us as a bundle 

 of inherited capacities and tendencies, labelled ' from 

 the indefinite past to the indefinite future ; ' and he 

 makes his transit from the one to the other through the 

 education of the present time. The object of that 

 education is, or ought to be, to provide wise exercise for 

 his capacities, wise direction for his tendencies, and 

 through this exercise and this direction to furnish his 

 mind with such knowledge as may contribute to the 

 usefulness, the beauty, and the nobleness of his life. 



How is this discipline to be secured, this knowledge 

 imparted? Two rival methods now solicit attention, 

 the one organised and equipped, the labour of centuries 

 having been expended in bringing it to its present 

 state of perfection ; the other, more or less chaotic, but 

 becoming daily less so,, and giving signs of enormous 

 power, both .as a source of knowledge and as a means of 

 discipline. These two methods are the classical and the 

 scientific method. I wish they were not rivals ; it is 

 only bigotry and short-sightedness that make them so ; 

 for assuredly it is possible to give both of them fair 

 play. Though hardly authorised to express an opinion 

 upon the subject, I nevertheless hold the opinion that 

 the proper study of .a language is an intellectual disci- 

 pline of the highest kind. If I except discussions on 

 the comparative merits of Popery and Protestantism, 



