NATURE'S INSURGENT SON 53 



of present knowledge in one or other branch of this 

 knowledge of Nature so as to become makers of new 

 knowledge, and the possible discoverers of enduring im- 

 provements in man's control of Nature. No one should 

 be educated so as to be ignorant of the importance of 

 these things ; and it should not be possible for the 

 greatest talent and mental power to be diverted to other 

 fields of activity through the fact that the necessary 

 education and opportunity in the pursuit of the know- 

 ledge of Nature are withheld. The strongest induce- 

 ments in the way of reward and consideration ought, 

 we believe, to be placed before a young man in the 

 direction of Nature-knowledge rather than in the direc- 

 tion of other and far less important subjects of study. 



In fact, we should wish to see the classical and 

 historical scheme of education entirely abandoned, and 

 its place taken by a scheme of education in the know- 

 ledge of Nature. 



At the same time let me hasten to say that few, if 

 any of us and certainly not he who writes these lines 

 would wish to remove the acquirement of the use of 

 languages, the training in the knowledge and perception 

 of beauty in literary art, and the feeding of the mind 

 with the great stories of the past, from a high and 

 necessary position in every grade of education. 



It is a sad and apparently inevitable accompaniment 

 of all discussion of this matter that those who advocate 

 a great and leading position for the knowledge of 

 Nature in education are accused of desiring to abolish 

 all study of literature, history, and philosophy. This 

 is, in reality, so far from being the case that we should 

 most of us wish to see a serviceable knowledge of foreign 

 languages, and a real acquaintance with the beauties 

 of English and other literature, substituted for the present 



