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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



economist how we may advance our 

 own material interests or contribute to 

 those of the community. But there i 

 room for a teaching which shall in a 

 manner correlate all these, which shall 

 reveal the sacredness of every duty and 

 the profound significance of life. This 

 is the teaching which especially deserves 

 the name of religious, inasmuch as it 

 awakens in the mind of the individual 

 a consciousness of his relation to the 

 universe as a whole, and an accompany- 

 ing sense of universal law. Who, it 

 may be asked, is sufficient for these 

 things? Not every one assuredly who 

 enters on the clerical profession. It is 

 a vastly easier thing to denounce science 

 as heterodox than to minister in any 

 effective manner to the higher life of 

 one's fellows. The latter, however, is 

 the true function of the religious teach- 

 er, not the former ; and it is a function 

 the need for which was never greater 

 than it is to-day. Science is advancing 

 with giant strides, but discontent is on 

 the increase. Why ? Because the es- 

 sential conditions of happiness are ig- 

 nored ; because rich and poor, however 

 diverse their points of view in other re- 

 spects, join in affirming that life con- 

 sists in material abundance, that char- 

 acter is of little account, that money 

 can do everything. In such a condi- 

 tion of things it is really surprising 

 that religious teachers should find time 

 to attack men of science for any views 

 whatever which they may promulgate, 

 the need being so pressing for a mani- 

 festation of those moral truths which 

 no scientist would think of opposing, 

 and which in point of fact no scientific 

 doctrine can be said to touch. The 

 fields are white to the harvest, but the 

 really competent reapers are few. They 

 would be more numerous perhaps if 

 the needs of the time were better un- 

 derstood, and if men were not required 

 to undergo an apprenticeship to out- 

 worn systems of thought before betak- 

 ing themselves to the work of the min- 

 istry. We ask our religious friends 



to think of this. Science can not be 

 arrested in its investigations, but these 

 need not and do not stand in the least 

 in the way of true religious work. Let 

 the scientists, therefore, occupy their 

 own field without molestation, and let 

 the clergy those who are fit for their 

 high office occupy their own field and 

 labor to promote higher views of the 

 worth and destiny of human life than 

 those ultra-material ones which are so 

 widespread to day, and which are no- 

 where more conspicuous than in the 

 churches. Then we may have peace 

 with progress. 



A DANGEROUS CLASS. 



IN an article on The Unemployed, 

 which appered in last month's Table, we 

 ventured the opinion that one reason 

 why the number of these was so great 

 was that thousands of persons in the 

 present day were receiving an educa- 

 tion which they were not able afterward 

 to put to any satisfactory use ; and from 

 an article by Mr. Gold win Smith, which 

 fell under our eye just as our own was 

 finished, we were able to quote a pas- 

 sage strongly confirmatory of the posi- 

 tion we had taken. Years ago Prince 

 Bismarck had said the same thing in re- 

 gard to Germany, and we remember 

 how sharply a certain college president 

 in this country resented the idea that 

 college classes could by any possibility 

 be too large, or engineers, architects, 

 chemists, lawyers, doctors, etc., qualified 

 or semi- qualified, be in too great pro- 

 portion to the rest of the community. 

 Of course, the financial prosperity of a 

 college depends in a measure on the 

 number of students it can attract, and 

 we can understand why college authori- 

 ties might not like the idea to get abroad 

 that to send a boy to college is not al- 

 ways the wisest thing to do with him. 

 Still, the truth that college education 

 and semi- education can be overdone is 

 one that, in our humble opinion, is des- 

 tined to force itself, despite all that col- 



