Sept. 18, 1885.] 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



that in all scliools there arc boys to whom the dead lan- 

 guages are "like thorns and thistles," whicli form a poor 

 nourishment even for asses. If teaclicrs looked upon 

 these classical asses as beings who might receive mental 

 nurture according to their nature, much higher results 

 would follow the bifurcation of our schools. Saul went 

 out to look for asses and he found a kingdom. Surely 

 this fact is more encouraging than the example of 

 Gideon, who " took thorns of the wilderness and briers, 

 and with these he taught the men of Succoth. (Judges 

 viii., IG.) The adaptation of public schools to a scien- 

 tific age does not involve a contest as to whether science 

 or classics shall prevail, for both are indispensable to true 

 education. The real question is whether schools will 

 undertake the duty of moulding the minds of boys ac- 

 cording to their mental varieties. Classics, from their 

 structural perfection and power of awakening dormant 

 faculties, have claims to jirecedence in education, but 

 they have none to a practical monopoly. It is by 

 claiming the latter that teachers sacrifice mental recep- 

 tivity to a Procrustean uniformity. 



The universities are changing their traditions more 

 rapidly than the schools. The via antiqua which leads 

 to them is still broad, though a via moderna, with 

 branching avenues, is also open to their honours and 

 emoluments. Physical science, which was once neglected, 

 is now encoui-aged at the universities. 



As to the seventy per cent, of boys who leave schools 

 for life-work without going through the universities, 

 are there no growing signs of discontent which must 

 force a change ? The Civil Service, the learned pro- 

 fessions, as well as the army and navy, are now barred 

 by examinations. Do the boys of our public schools 

 easily leap over the bars, although some of them have 

 lately been lowered so as to suit the schools ? So diffi- 

 cult are these bars to scholars that crammers take them 

 in hand before they attempt to leap ; and this occurs in 

 spite of the large value attached to the dead languages 

 and the small value placed on modern subjects. Thus, 

 in the Indian Civil Service examinations, 800 marks as 

 a 77iaximum are assigned to Latin, GOO to Greek, 500 to 

 chemistry, and 300 to each cf tlic other physical 

 sciences. But if we take the uviiMur wnrking of the 

 system for the last four years, we iind (li;it while 68 

 per cent, of the maximum were givLU to candidates in 

 Greek and Latin, only 45 per cent, were accorded to 

 candidates in chemistry, and but 30 per cent, to the other 

 physical sciences. Schools sending up boys for competi- 

 tion naturally shun siibjects which are dealt with so 

 hardly and so heavily handicapped by the State. 



Passing from learned or public professions to com- 



I, how is it that 

 foreigners — German, Swiss, Dulch, :ii 

 push aside our Englisli yuuth and lake 

 which belong to them by iialinii;il inln i 

 it that in our colonics, likr (hose i 



How is it tliat we find whole branches 

 when they depend on scientific knowK 

 from this country, in which they orgii 

 engraft themselves abroad, although th 

 remain at home ? The answer to thes 

 our systems of education arc still to 

 increasing struggle of life. Faraday, \; 

 views in regard to education, dipltu-cd 

 youth in the competition of the world, 

 with sadness, "our schoolboys, when 

 .school, are ignorant of their ignorance 

 that education." 



ial centres, 



narrow for the 

 .. l.a.l no narrow 

 lir fulureof our 



t tlic end of all 



The opponents of science education allege that it is not 

 adapted for mental development, because scientific facts 

 are often disjointed and exercise only the memory. Those 

 who argue thus do not know what science is. .No doubt 

 an ignorant or half-informed teacher may prefje.^t E"ience 

 as an accumulation of unconnected facts. At all times 

 and in all subjects there are teachers without sesthetical 

 or philosophical capacity — men wlio can only see car- 

 bonate of lime in a statue by Phidias or Praxiteles ; who 

 cannot survey zoology on account of its millions of species, 

 or botany because of its 130,000 distinct plants ; men 

 who can look at a tree without getting a conception of a 

 forest, and cannot distinguish a stately edifice from its 

 bricks. To teach in that fashion is like going to the 

 tree of science with its glorious fruit in order to pick up 

 a handful of the dry fallen leaves from the ground. 



It is, however, true that as science teaching has had 

 less lengthened experience than that of literature, its 

 methods of instruction are not so matured. Scientific 

 and literary teaching have diilerent methods, for while 

 the teacher of literature rests on authority and on books 

 for his guidance, the teacher of science discards autho- 

 rity and depends on facts at first hand, and on the book 

 of Nature for their interpretation. Natural science 

 more and more resolves itself into the teaching of the 

 laboratory. In this way it can be used as a powerful 

 means of quickening observation, and of creating a 

 faculty of induction after the manner of Zadig, the 

 Babylonian described by Voltaire. Thus facts become 

 surrounded by scientific conceptions, and are subordinated 

 to order and law. It is not those who desire to unite 

 literature with science who degrade education ; the 

 degradation is the consequence of the refusal.* 



A violent reaction — too violent to be wise — has lately 

 taken place against classical education in France, where 

 their own vernacular occupies the position of dead 

 languages, while Latin and science are given the same 

 time in the curriculum. In England manufacturers 

 cry out for technical education, in which classical cul- 

 ture shall be excluded. In the schools of the middle 

 classes science rather than technics is needed, because 

 when the seeds of science are sown, technics as its 

 fruit will appear at the appointed time. Epictetus 

 was wise when he told us to observe that though 

 sheep eat grass, it is not grass but wool that grows 

 on their backs. 



Should, however, our grammar schools persist in their 

 refusal to adapt themselves to the needs of a scientific 

 age, England must follow the example of other European 



nodern schools in 

 Huxley has put it, w 



competition 



nations, and found 

 with them. For, 

 tinue in this ng(^ 



and shield of a;: ■ ■ ■ '::.:•' i ■; :: : ' )id 



keenly comprii; ;-, < ■■■.,.■ , :> ;al 



lantruatres is a j-r; I ■• ;i, r .ia...i: '•, . Tlu' :!..u. :•- . ■ ':;.ra- 

 tuiv slHMild U- niliivatrd and gat'heivd, though it is not 

 Ns isc (o s( lid UK 11 into our fields of industry to gather the 

 liai\,~t win 11 liny liavc been taught only to cull the 

 IKippii's and to push aside the wheat. 



Tlir w Idiuiug of the bounds of knowledge, literary 

 or sriontilic, is the crowning glory of university life. 

 Germany unites the functions of teaching and re- 

 search in the universities, while France keeps them in 

 separate institutions. The former system is best adapted 

 to our habits, but its condition for success is that our 



e students of 



