294 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



imbue them with opinions currently deemed 

 wholesome. But science will never prosper in 

 this way. Political economy will gain nothing 

 by one-sided arguments against Malthus and Ri- 

 cardo ; sound biological views will never be fur- 

 thered by undiscriminating abuse of Darwinism ; 

 nor will the interests of religion be ever rightly 

 subserved by threatening heretics with expulsion. 



An endless amount of discussion has been 

 wasted over the question whether a mathemati- 

 cal or a classical training is the more profitable 

 for the majority of students. The comparative 

 advantages of spending all one's time upon one 

 favourite pursuit, and of devoting more or less at- 

 tention to various branches of study, have also 

 supplied the text for much vague and unsatisfac- 

 tory discourse. By the view of university edu- 

 cation here adopted, these questions are placed 

 in a somewhat favourable position for getting 

 disposed of. The office of the university is not 

 to enforce doctrine, but to point out method. It 

 is not so much to cram the mind of the student 

 with divers facts, which in after life it may be 

 useful for him to have learned, as to teach him 

 the proper mode of searching for facts, and of 

 dealing with them when he has found them. As 



