98 LECTURES 



ignorant of facts of the deepest importance for his own 

 and others' welfare; blind to the richest sources of beauty 

 in God's creation; and unprovided witb. that belief in a 

 living law and an order manifesting itself in and through 

 endless change and variety, which might serve to check 

 and moderate that phase of despair through which, if he 

 take an earnest interest in social problems, be will as- 

 suredly sooner or later pass." (Huxley.) 



But, it may be asked, are we not awakening, indeed, 

 have we not already awakened to the realization of the 

 force and point and truth of all that, is contained in the 

 cogent passage we have just quoted? Have we not very 

 good evidence upon all sides, however slowly it may be 

 advancing or however imperfectly, of just such changes 

 being introduced into the workings of our educational 

 machine, into the very texture of all our educational 

 schemes everywhere? There can be no doubt about it, 

 and one must have his eyes shut, in these da3 r s, with a 

 very tight squeeze, who fails to see that just such 

 changes are coming about; that the present is most em- 

 phatically an age of transition in all such matters, the 

 like of which has never been seen by the world before, 

 since her history first began. No one can doubt for a 

 moment how powerful the influence of such radical 

 changes in our educational methods will prove in the 

 future of the race. Yet, it constitutes nothing more than 

 an evolution of ideas, a growth quite comparable with 

 the evolvement of many other things the world has seen 

 and produced. A passage, as it were, from an age more 

 or less characterized by an intellectual thralldom, to 

 another and higher one, stamped chiefly by an almost 

 universal exercise of common sense, by a universal dif- 

 fusion and absorption of all kinds of knowledge, and a 

 general desire to arrive at the real truth in all things; to 

 expose Nature's true inwardness, and demonstrate her 

 every law; to observe, compare, and verify every new 

 fact acquired, and apply, as far as possible, the digested 

 knowledge thus obtained to the practical ends of human 

 pursuits. 



In short, then, taking the science of biology in its en- 

 tirety, represented by its enormous army of actual work- 

 ers upon the one hand and its innumerable host of sup- 

 porters and believers on the other, one may scrutinize its 

 ranks from the head of the column to the last file closer 

 in the rear, and it will be seen that they advance under 

 but a common standard, and that standard has embla- 

 zoned upon its center field but one motto, and its words 



