Some Humbugs of Science 137 



pies he can pass. In a certain school a boy 

 can earn one hundred and fifty points in 

 arithmetic, while perfect spelling counts for 

 only twenty. Is it more important that a 

 person shall be able to write an intelligible 

 letter, or to know what part of three-six- 

 teenths is eight per cent, of six-fifths ? He 

 has daily use for other branches, and for 

 higher mathematics none, unless he is a 

 gauger, astronomer, or engineer. 



Arithmetic has its use as discipline, like 

 other punishments, but the scholar profits 

 as much by his other studies, and it is 

 abominable that he should be kept back 

 in classes that are several years too small 

 for him, because he is unready in his sums. 

 Any study, followed persistently, has its 

 educative and enlarging force and value, 

 but mathematics have become a fetish in 

 the public schools, as have Greek and 

 Latin in the colleges. A moderate amount 

 of Greek and Latin is a good thing, for it 

 betters a man's knowledge of his own 

 tongue, and helps him to speak it purely, 

 as well as to acquire foreign language more 

 quickly ; but to grind away at dead authors 



