60 National Life 



which science is of national value. The one 

 is as a great factor of education. On its 

 facts and its formulae I lay no weight ; you 

 will find them appraised nay, overvalued 

 by the modern apostles of technical instruc- 

 tion. But education is not a communication 

 of knowledge ; it is a drawing out and an 

 exercising of brain power. Here science 

 true science, in the hands of the master-scout 

 can teach us to observe and infer from 

 observation more readily and more effectively 

 than perhaps any other form of mental dis- 

 cipline. It is the trained scout in all fields 

 of our national activity that we need so 

 badly. 



The other aspect from which science claims 

 national value is from the interpretation it 

 puts upon the functions and the historical 

 development of the community. It teaches 

 us to examine the efficiency of the nation 

 from the natural history standpoint. We find 

 that the law of the survival of the fitter is true 

 of mankind, but that the struggle is that of 

 the gregarious animal. A community not knit 

 together by strong social instincts, by sym- 

 pathy between man and man, and class and 



