GERMAN SCIENCE 99 
make people receptive for each and every application of it, 
based on a knowledge of fundamental principles and laws. 
Nothing is more disastrous than that the single idea of 
utility should take root in an educational institution and 
that attempts should be made to convert children at once 
into soap boilers, brandy distillers, or vitriol makers. These 
educational follies squander funds without procuring the 
slightest benefits.’ He alludes to the usual attitude of sons 
of manufacturers who come to him. ‘They desire at once 
to occupy themselves with what they deem to be practical 
problems, and it is usually with timidity and anxiety that 
they yield to my advice, put aside all these futile time- 
frittering attempts, and betake themselves to studying in 
a fundamental way the art and method of solving purely 
scientific questions.’ He remarks how they wake up to 
a real enthusiasm for knowledge and how subsequently they 
find practical applications.easy and natural. 
‘This low condition of scientific instruction explains the 
low level and unscientific character of agriculture, geognosy, 
pharmacy, &c. Prussia with six universities has no place 
for training teachers of experimental sciences, the State 
provides no place where they may have opportunity for 
acquiring skill and practice in the art of interpreting 
phenomena and making experiments.’ 
‘No one can deny, says Liebig, ‘that an overgrown 
humanism stands above all else against the progress of 
natural science and scientific medicine, a thing that will 
be looked back upon half a century hence with shame and 
_a smile of pity.’ | 
He is, however, far from deprecating a true humanistic 
training; he regards it as a necessity and even as the best 
and most purposeful preparation of the mind for all other 
studies. ‘ There is no better means of awakening the mind, of 
sharpening the understanding, and exercising the judgement, 
