674 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



many of our classical colleges are yearly grinding out their 

 grists of such intellectual chaff, for it would seem that the 

 higher university classical education often unfits its recipients 

 'for anything except routine work, and they crowd into and often 

 dishonor the so-called learned professions, and then make their 

 living in questionable ways, or starve. In the great cities of Ger- 

 many the poor boards are constantly called upon to relieve men 

 of the highest classical training, because they can not make a liv- 

 ing in their chosen field of work, and are unfitted for the trades 

 and arts. Horace Greeley must have had in mind this kind of 

 education when he exclaimed, " Of all horned cattle, deliver me 

 from the college graduate ! " 



The colleges that accomplish the most good turn the students' 

 attention to the demands of the times, and thus fit them for the 

 most honorable walks of life. One of the supreme advantages 

 that is derived from a technical education is that it does not unfit 

 men for labor; but from its very method of acquirement the 

 laboratory it teaches us that labor is the highest application of 

 the intellect, and the only perfect means of acquiring real knowl- 

 edge. Nor are the rewards of scientific education to be under- 

 valued, and the industrial opportunities of the scientist to be 

 overlooked. 



The wonderful progress in the development of the natural 

 and physical sciences has come through the agency of experi- 

 ment and comparison. In this, the scientific method, the student 

 at his home masters the text-books ; in the library and reading 

 room he studies the works of the best authors and investigators ; 

 in the lecture room he is drilled in theory and application ; and 

 in the laboratory he puts questions to Nature and receives her 

 replies ; and thus develops strength in all the faculties of a true 

 investigator. Liebig, in chemistry, was the first to adopt teach- 

 ing by experiment about fifty years ago ; but other scientists, one 

 after another, have since adopted the laboratory method, until it 

 is now advocated in language, philosophy, literature, and even 

 law. 



The exigencies of modern progress in the arts demand that 

 technical institutions of learning shall keep abreast of the times, 

 and this is especially true in regard to schools that profess to 

 turn out practical chemists, geologists, mining engineers, and 

 metallurgists, thoroughly equipped to take immediate charge of 

 important enterprises, or to advise as to investments in new and 

 untried fields. The advances which are now being made in the 

 practice of analytical and industrial chemistry and metallurgy, 

 and in nearly all allied industries, are so rapid that methods de- 

 scribed in text-books written for the use of students often become 

 obsolete by the time the books are published. 



