100 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



of white paper, on which by education we can write 

 what characters we please. This doctrine assuredly 

 needs qualification and correction. In physics, when an 

 external force is applied to a body with a view of 

 affecting its inner texture, if we wish to predict the re- 

 sult, we must know whether the external force conspires 

 with or opposes the internal forces of the body itself; 

 and in bringing the influence of education to bear upon 

 the new-born man his inner powers also must be taken 

 into account. He comes to us as a bundle of inherited 

 capacities and tendencies, labelled ''from the indefinite 

 past to the indefinite future"; and he makes his transit 

 from the one to the other through the education of the 

 present time. The object of that education is, or ought 

 to be, to provide wise exercise for his capacities, wise 

 direction for his tendencies, and through this exercise 

 and this direction to furnish his mind with such knowl- 

 edge as may contribute to the usefulness, the beauty, and 

 the nobleness of his life. 



How is this discipline to be secured, this knowledge 

 imparted? Two rival methods now solicit attention — the 

 one organized and equipped, the labor of centuries hav- 

 ing been expended in bringing it to its present state of 

 perfection; the other, more or less chaotic, but becoming 

 daily less so, and giving signs of enormous power, both 

 as a source of knowledge and as a means of discipline. 

 These two methods are the classical and the scientific 

 method. I wish they were not rivals; it is only bigotry 

 and short-sightedness that make them so; for assuredly 

 it is possible to give both of them fair play. Though 

 hardly authorized to express an opinion upon the sub- 

 ject, I nevertheless hold the opinion that the proper 



