EDUCATION AND RELIGION 79 



education, apart from medical education, belongs 

 almost wholly to the present century. Time was 

 when learning- and religion were synonymous, and 

 culture and scholarship were the exclusive pursuit 

 of the religious orders, who alone could read. The 

 emancipation of learning from religion occurred with 

 the Renaissance, but the two are still confused in 

 the education of the school. I visited this summer 

 a small place in Aberdeenshire, too small to be 

 deemed worthy of a post office, a telegraph or 

 telephone, but boasting two schools, a Roman 

 Catholic and a Protestant school. It reminded 

 one of the lines from lolanthe 



" For every child that's born into- this world alive 

 Is either a little Liberal or a little Conservative." 



Happy is the nation that has already settled such 

 questions as this. It is idle to cry peace where 

 there is no peace. Between the spirit of science 

 which welcomes criticism and knows no finality in 

 its beliefs, or authority to impose them, and the 

 spirit of the old creeds which, to survive, must 

 entwine themselves with the immature intelligences 

 of children, in the name of and in the place of educa- 

 tion, there can be nothing in common and no real 

 reconciliation. 



I now wish to consider one or two of the barriers 

 to the proper growth and development of science in 

 this university. On the educational side the tradi- 

 tions are all in favour of breadth or shallowness as 

 against narrowness or depth, according to which 

 point of view you take. My own view is that 

 education, whether in the classics, mathematics or 

 in science, must be deep before it can be broad. 

 To a man who has plumbed the depths of a single 

 subject the whole world takes on a new meaning. 

 He sees causes at work where another sees only 

 confused effects. His education is only beginning 



