262 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



so. 



Educational 



organisa- 



tions in 



England. 



general stock of ideal possessions, not merely to criticise 

 the shortcomings and failures of separate schools of 

 thought, or separate sources of mental development. 

 Only in the aggregate of these different ideals is to be 

 found the inventory of the intellectual possessions, the 

 outcome of the higher work of the century. 



When the modern scientific methods and their impel- 

 ling force, the mathematical spirit, made their way from 

 France to Germany during the first quarter of the century, 



French models, can be clearly traced. 

 Between 1830 and 1850 his influence 

 exerted itself in two directions, 

 firstly by the publication of his 

 ' History of the Inductive Sciences ' 

 (3 vols. 1837 ; a second edition ap- 

 peared in 1847, a third in 1857), and, 

 secondly, by a series of papers and 

 pamphlets referring to university 

 education. As the ideal and defini- 

 tion of this Whewell adopts the term 

 "liberal education." The first of 

 these papers appeared in the ' British 

 Critic' (No. 17, 1831, "Science of 

 the English Universities"). Then 

 followed in 1836 " Thoughts on the 

 study of Mathematics " ; " Addi- 

 tional Thoughts," 1836; "On the 

 Principles of English University 

 Education," 1837; "Of a Liberal 

 Education in General" (Part 1, 

 1845 ; Part 2, 1850 ; Part 3, 1852). 

 The second part of the little work on 

 Liberal Education gives a history 

 of the various changes previous to 

 1850 through which the University 

 of Cambridge tried to meet the 

 growing demands of the times for 

 a wider and more liberal programme 

 of higher scientific work. In these 

 various writings the work of educa- 

 tion and " original research" (a term 

 introduced by Whewell see Tod- 

 hunter, ' Life of Dr Whewell,' vol. i. 

 p. 50), the nature of " permanent" 

 and "progressive" studies at the 

 university, of " university " and 



" college " education, of " tutorial " 

 and " professorial " teaching, are fully 

 discussed. In the course of thirty 

 years the university of Cambridge 

 added to the examinations for ma- 

 thematical honours the " Classical " 

 Tripos (1822), the " Moral Sciences " 

 Tripos and the " Natural Sciences " 

 Tripos (1848); also a "Board of 

 Mathematical Studies " (1848). Dr 

 Whewell's great influence declined 

 when in 1850 Royal Commissions 

 were appointed to "inquire into 

 the state, discipline, studies, and 

 revenues of the universities of Ox- 

 ford and Cambridge." He "regarded 

 the Commission as an unwarranted 

 and undesirable intrusion into the 

 affairs of the university." The 

 results of this inquiry belong to 

 the second half of the century. 

 Although this movement, which 

 was brought about by many in- 

 fluences, has somewhat changed the 

 issues, the central idea which in 

 England tries to assimilate the 

 higher work and thought of the 

 nation is that of education. The 

 term liberal education, which for 

 twenty years, from 1830 to 1850, 

 formed the banner of university 

 reform, has since somewhat yielded 

 to "scientific," and more recently 

 to " technical," education ; the in- 

 fluence of the universities has gone 

 out in the work of university exten- 

 sion in the provincial towns ; still 



