University Reform. 295 



Jacobs says, " It is of less importance in youth 

 what a man learns than how he learns it." 1 A 

 fact considered in itself is usually a very stupid 

 and quite useless object. Viewed in relation to 

 other facts, as the illustration of a general prin- 

 ciple, or as an item of evidence for or against a 

 theory, it suddenly becomes both interesting and 

 valuable. If the truth is to be told, by far the 

 greater number of facts which are to be encoun- 

 tered in the various departments of nature are to 

 most persons utterly insignificant and unattrac- 

 tive ; chiefly, because they have never been fur- 

 nished with the means of estimating their illus- 

 trative and evidentiary value. Universal logic, 

 therefore, the relations of phenomena to each 

 other, and the methods of investigation and modes 

 of proof applicable to widely different subjects, 

 should occupy an important place in college 

 teaching. And that this end can be secured by 

 studying any one kind of science alone is of course 

 impossible. 



The advocate of the utility of mathematical 

 studies, when confronted with the insurmountable 

 fact that very little use is made of algebra and 

 geometry in ordinary life, is wont to shelter him- 

 self behind the assertion that nevertheless these 



i Vermisckte Schriften, III., 27, p. 254. 



