272 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of material has been gathered within 

 the college walls, or whether, if the 

 material is all right, the course of 

 instruction and discipline has been 

 what it should have been. But, this 

 consideration apart, has the public 

 learned to recognize in the average 

 college graduate a very intelligent, 

 helpful, and self -helping young man? 

 Or does just a suspicion of greater 

 or less silliness and incapacity attach 

 to the type? That many bright 

 young men emerge from college it 

 would be foolish, even on the general 

 doctrine of probabilities, to doubt, 

 seeing that a young man, if he pos- 

 sesses any brightness, has so good a 

 chance in this country of being sent 

 to college ; but what, we ask, is the 

 effect on those who have no bent 

 toward learning, but who go to sat- 

 isfy a social exigency or to fill up 

 a certain number of vacant years ? 

 We fear that Prof. Petrie might in 

 his haste pronounce some of them 

 manufactured idiots not unlike the 

 Egyptians he had seen spoiled by 

 overmuch reading and writing. 



But, taking a wider view, are we 

 sure that even the public-school edu- 

 cation which we force on all chil- 

 dren alike is always an aid to true 

 intelligence and civilization ? Such 

 as it is, it enfeebles, we greatly fear, 

 rather than strengthens the brains of 

 some who are subjected to it, and 

 who are not intellectually fit for the 

 abstractions with which it largely 

 deals. The whole subject requires 

 to be carefully studied apart from all 

 prepossession, prejudice, and senti- 

 ment. We have been forcing edu- 

 cation for a long time with all the 

 power of the state, but whether the 

 average intelligence of the commu- 

 nity has risen in response to our 

 efforts is a question which it would 

 not be safe to answer offhand. We 

 do not hesitate to say that to us il 

 appears as if our methods of educa- 

 tion were being insensibly adaptec 



;o a lower and lower grade of gen- 

 ral intelligence. In the matter of 

 arithmetic, particularly, it seems to 

 assumed that something like idio- 

 cy is not only the starting point in 

 pupil's mind but a condition of 

 considerable duration. Forty years 

 ago no such elaborate means were 

 resorted to as seem necessary to-day 

 to get a few elementary principles of 

 numerical logic into a child's mind ; 

 and it is a grave question whether in 

 the attempt to devise a system of 

 teaching adapted to the most de- 

 graded type of mind we are not run- 

 ning some risk of impairing the de- 

 velopment of minds of a higher 

 order. Exceeding bitter, we know, 

 has been the cry of many a parent 

 at the tedious drill and senseless 

 repetitions imposed upon his chil- 

 dren and the consequent needless 

 lengthening by two or three years 

 at least of the period of school edu- 

 cation. The philosophy of the whole 

 thing is apparent in the light of 

 Prof. Petrie's remarks. The state is, 

 to a not inconsiderable extent, en- 

 gaged in the manufacture of idiots. 



The discussion which followed 

 the president's address was remark- 

 able in one respect, and that was that 

 among the speakers all men of dis- 

 tinction not one laid any stress, as 

 would certainly have been done a 

 generation ago, on the importance of 

 Christianizing the lower races. It 

 seemed to be assumed that Christian- 

 ity, as a doctrine and to some extent 

 as a moral system, involved too radi- 

 cal a change of ideas to be profitably 

 adopted by heathen tribes, unless in 

 a very gradual manner. The presi- 

 dent himself pointed out that the 

 apostle Paul had not seen it neces- 

 sary to prohibit slavery, polygamy, 

 or even gladiatorial shows. And yet 

 the preaching of Paul prepared the 

 way for " the greatest readjustment 

 of the moral sense that the world 

 has ever seen." We should learn 



