672 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Cicero, Demosthenes, or Plato ? Probably not one in a hundred. 

 But formerly, when Emerson, Phillips, Holmes, Everett, and Al- 

 cott were on the lyceum platform, it was necessary for those who 

 heard them to have a knowledge of the classics to intelligently 

 follow them. Times have changed and the natural and physical 

 sciences have taken their place. These offer the greatest advan- 

 tage in holding the student's attention, stimulating thought, and 

 cultivating the spirit of true investigation ; they require the 

 strictest habits of observation, induce concentration, arouse en- 

 ergy, educate the senses, train the hand to delicate manipulation, 

 quicken the faculties of reasoning and powers of judgment ; and 

 the varied and useful information which they afford is given in 

 the clearest and most convincing form. When pleasure and de- 

 sire of learning are fostered together under these influences the 

 amount of knowledge gained will be proportional to the time and 

 opportunity for study. 



In science, the student feels that rules are merely summary ex- 

 pressions of a number of concrete facts ; and he familiarizes him- 

 self with methods of proof, and accepts only that which is sus- 

 ceptible of proof. It is in this way that the sciences become one 

 of the most important means at our command for moral and in- 

 tellectual training. When studied in a reverential spirit they de- 

 velop the most intense desire for truth and inculcate an equal 

 hatred for all pretense and falsity and an intolerance of all dog- 

 matism and bigotry. They offer the same evidence for accept- 

 ance that they demand for conviction ; and in the facts which 

 they discover every theory is tested by being put on trial. All 

 true scientific structures are builded on knowledge and not on 

 faith, on proof and not on current opinion, for all opinions, pre- 

 conceived notions, hypotheses, and even accepted doctrines are 

 held in abeyance until the evidence is in and has been duly 

 weighed. That mind and manhood are thus trained alike in a 

 pre-eminent degree by the systematic study of the sciences is 

 now beyond dispute. Many of the older classical colleges have 

 abandoned some of their traditions to make room for these com- 

 paratively modern studies, which shows how general has become 

 the appreciation of science as a means of intellectual and moral 

 training, when taught by the laboratory method. 



But beyond all these acquirements is the judicial attitude of 

 mind which comes as a supreme characteristic of scientific study. 

 In his investigations the true scientist endeavors to present ab- 

 solute fairness toward all evidence and offers no resistance to its 

 conclusions. His mind thus opens itself to all the avenues of 

 truth, and he welcomes all the results of his investigations with 

 equal cordiality. 



Owing to peculiarities of the eye, ear, and brain, investigators 



