448 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



here. Not to " fall back," but to press forward should be 

 the motto of American education. Not to escape the 

 present and live in the past, but resolutely to accept the 

 present, thanking God for its opportunities, and to live 

 rather in the future, is the high requirement of mental 

 duty. And herein is the character of the two systems 

 shown, that while the one looks forever backward, the 

 other leads steadfastly forward. Science, therefore, pierc- 

 ing the future, and working toward it through the pres- 

 ent, engages naturally with those great subjects of pub- 

 lic interest which are no longer to be postponed or 

 evaded. 



The classicists are fond of presenting the issue as be- 

 tween liberal culture and money-making, and triumphantly 

 contrast the refined and generous feelings which cluster 

 around the former, with the vulgar and sordid motives 

 which characterize the latter. But the real issue is far 

 different from this. The mind of our age is confronted 

 with a host of urgent questions, such as the Perils of Mis- 

 government, the Limits of Legislation, the Management 

 of Criminals, of the Insane, the Congenially Defective, 

 and the Pauper Class; the operation of Charities, the 

 Philosophy of Philanthropy, the relations of Sex and 

 Race, International Ethics, the Freedom of Trade, the 

 Rights of Industry, Property in Ideas, Public Hygiene, 

 Primary Education, Religious Liberty, the Rights of In- 

 vention, Political Representation, and many others, which 

 inosculate and interfuse into the great total of practical 

 inquiry which challenges the intellect of our times; and it 

 is this which the classical scholar evades, when he shrinks 

 from the present and retires into the past. And well he 

 may; for the mastery of the languages and literatures of 

 Greece and Rome, and culture in unprogressive studies, 

 furnish neither suitable ideas nor mental habits for this 

 kind of work. Science, grounding itself in the order and 



