246 Education as a Factor in Civilization. 



the value of a primary one ; if the high-school course 

 which follows furnishes still better preparation for the 

 work of life, why should not the broader culture of the 

 college render the most valuable aid of all ? To do so is 

 its intention and its aim, and, although it has not yet 

 reached this condition of ideal excellence, it is not un- 

 mindful of the responsibilities of its high estate nor 

 unwilling to fit itself to discharge them. To the law of 

 natural selection, which "takes advantage of such varia- 

 tions as arise and are beneficial to each creature in its 

 complex relations of life," we are justified in trusting 

 the future of our colleges as of all our schools. 



The agitation concerning classical study is not of re- 

 cent date ; it has existed in every country where the 

 classics form part of the school course. In Germany and 

 Prussia the contest has been long and bitter; lately the 

 war has been spirited in England ; it was recently revived 

 in Scotland, and began in this country almost a century 

 ago. Greek was welcomed by Christian Europe as the orig- 

 inal of the New Testament. Latin was the ground-work of 

 education simply because it was the language of the edu- 

 cated classes ; it was employed for all public business 

 and for the service of the church, and at one time the clas- 

 sics contained all the history, poetry, and philosophy of 

 any value. The disposition to quarrel with the classics 

 arises solely from the assumption that they crowd out more 

 important matters. No one denies the beauty and the 

 power of the Greek and Latin tongues; thousands of 

 scholarly men enthusiastically testify to the profit and re- 

 creation of the study ; but tlie fatal feature of the situa- 

 tion lies in the great difference between what classical study 

 can do, and what it practically does do, for the majority of 

 students. To be pure, Greek and Roman literature is ac- 

 cessible only throvigh the dead languages ; but the opinion 

 is steadily gaining ground that all wisdom did not die 

 with the ancients. Classical study, limited as to place 

 and proportion, must certainly remain one of the essentials 

 of a liberal education, though the wisdom of long-dead gen- 

 erations is not all that is required by the man of to-day. 

 The retention of the study Avill prove that " descent with 

 modifications" obtains in the intellectual no less than 

 in tlie organic world. 



The study of physical ])n)blems from tlie standpoint 



