198 THE IDEALS OF A SCIENCE SCHOOL 



in their own peculiar jargon as unintelligible to the 

 scholar as Greek to the multitude which they, to 

 a greater or less extent, have themselves discovered, 

 the treasures of modern science. So utterly have 

 these changed the whole mode of living of the world 

 that, not only in science, but in the other great 

 divisions of learning as well, the past has proved 

 rather a millstone round the neck of the future than 

 a source of inspiration and wisdom. One knows 

 from experience in scientific research how easy it is 

 to immerse oneself in a subject that was fascinating 

 to a past generation, and waste time in the minutiae 

 of still ungleaned detail, until one finds oneself in a 

 backwater which the main tide of discovery has left 

 long since, and wherein one can waste a lifetime, 

 which, if spent among the real outposts of knowledge, 

 would have resulted in substantial and permanent 

 progress being made. 



Although science, in the sense it is understood 

 to-day, owes but little to the past, it has already, in 

 its conception of research, contributed to the ideals 

 of a university immensely more than has ever been 

 contributed by preceding ages, and the contribution 

 it has made in its own sphere, if logically applied to 

 the older branches of study, would be productive of 

 the most valuable and far-reaching social conse- 

 quences. The association of scientific research with 

 the universities is mainly due to the exigencies under 

 which it, as distinct from other creative work, can 

 alone be pursued. One may read Parker's " Essay 

 on the History of Classical Education" from end to 

 end in vain to find the remotest parallel to the ideal 

 which science holds up as the most important and 

 the highest function of a university to-day, little as it 

 has yet been realised even in science by actual British 

 universities. From it there follows at once the idea 

 I have here developed of pure Faculties of Art and 



