December 14, 1899] 



NAJURE 



163 



of which science is an important component, therefore, should be 

 retained, provided the science as well as the language be studied 

 by knowledge-making methods. 



Nor need we stop to consider the assertion, made by eminent 

 educational authorities, that in the school at least, such methods 

 cannot be employed in science, or that they have been tried 

 and have failed. Bot+i assertions are suflficiently met by the 

 fact that under favourable conditions, they have been tried and 

 have succfeded.^ But it must be admitted that knowledge- 

 making methods could not be introduced generally with success, 

 under ibe prevalent conditions of the present day. For so long 

 as a large body of varied information is an essential con- 

 dition of academic distinction, so long as the written examin- 

 ation is used as the main test of proficiency, and so long as 

 teachers themselves have not had the investigating spirit de- 

 veloped in them, the school cannot cultivate the knowledge- 

 making power in any large measure. 



Reform, to be radical, therefore, must begin with the 

 universities, and with the leading universities. They only 

 can make the conditions for degrees what they please, and they 

 only can hold the examiner completely in check. The smaller 

 universities and colleges must, in the interests of their students, 

 follow more or less the lead of their bigger sisters ; and though 

 Councils of Public Instruction and other bodies which govern 

 schools may be largely free to modify their curricula and to 

 regulate their examinations, they cannot secure the services of 

 teachers who are imbued with the investigating spirit, until that 

 spirit has become embodied in the universities. 



But while radical reform may not be possible at present, par- 

 tial reform can be carried out even by a college such as ours, by 

 its steering a middle course between encouraging the use of 

 knowledge- making methods and supplying the information de- 

 manded by the larger universities, and by thus cultivating the 

 power and the spirit of investigation to as great an extent as may 

 be possible under present conditions. And the reform thus in- 

 augurated may be extended to the schools of its district, through 

 the teachers supplied by the college, if the governing body of 

 the schools is willing to co-operate •. . 



It is true that as the early investigators in science made 

 progress without the complex and therefore costly appliances 

 which the investigator of to-day in general requires, so students 

 can get an astonishingly large amount of practice in knowledge- 

 making with very simple materials, and that consequently a 

 knowledge-making equipment involves much smaller expendi- 

 ture than that which is required by the up-to-date course. 

 Nevertheless, even for practice in the making of knowledge 

 which was made by others long ago, not to speak of the making 

 of knowledge of a later date, or of new knowlege, our equip- 

 ment is entirely inadequate. 



There is still another aspect in which we are deficient, 

 viz., in the working facilities afforded to professors. That 

 the professor of a scientific subject may cultivate the know- 

 ledge-making power in his students, he must be a know- 

 ledge-maker himself; and to do so in full measure he must 

 be enabled to prosecute original research under favourable con- 

 ditions. His work may be humble, and its value may be com- 

 paratively small ; but provided its value is real, it will help him 

 to kindle in his students the enthusiasm which springs from the 

 conviction that the subject they are studying is a growing 

 subject, and that it is possible for them to assist in its growth. 

 It is not therefore in the interest of the professors, but in the 

 interest of their students, that I hold it to be the duty of the 

 college to give professors both the time and the necessary outfit 

 for research. Giving them the requisite time means the provision 

 of competent assistants. Giving them the requisite outfit means 

 the provision, not necessarily by any means of completely 

 equipped laboratories, but of books and other working appliances 

 sufficient for at least a few lines of research. 



At first sight the considerable expenditure which would be 

 required for this purpose, will appear to most of you to be 

 expenditure on luxury ; and possibly the benefit which a college 

 derives from the fact that its professors are known as original 

 investigators, although undoubtedly great, may be of the nature 

 of a luxury. But when we reflect on the importance of training 

 all our young people to use their experience, and consequently 

 of stimulating our college students, many of whom are to be the 

 teachers of our youth, to acquire the knowledge-making power 

 in the highest possible degree, it becomes apparent that 



* See Armstrong : " The Heuristic Method of Teaching : Speci.il 

 Reports on Educational .Subjects," vol. ii. (London : Education Depart- 



research facilities for our professors are not a mere luxury, but 

 are necessary for the performance of thoroughly successful 

 educational work. ^ 



I have referred so far only to what liberal training requires. 

 In addition, it is desirable, especially from the point of view o» 

 the provision of teachers of higher grade, that those of our 

 students who have shown great promise of power in the making 

 of knowledge, should, without leaving their own country, have 

 ready access to the requisite facilities for research in any depart- 

 ment in which they may wish to carry on special study. In 

 other words, Canada ought to have at least one university 

 thoroughly equipped for investigation in all the main depart- 

 ments of knowledge — and I say one, because, however desirable 

 such equipment would be in all, with our local art schools and 

 agricultural schools and other technical schools undeveloped, 

 the couniry cannot probably afford more than one. And this is 

 desirable, not in order that Canada may take her place worthily 

 among other nations by contributing her share to the growth of 

 knowledge, and not because of the material progress that might 

 result from the advance of science, but mainly because the 

 fruitful investigating work that would be conducted at a fully 

 equipped university, would tend to foster the spirit of investi- 

 gation in all the colleges, and through the teachers they supply, 

 in all the schools, and would thus tend to make even those who 

 never enter a college better knowledge-makers, and therefore 

 more successful men, in whatever department of work they 

 might be engaged. 



It is for this reason that the young people of Canada are to be 

 congratulated, even more than the institution immediately 

 concerned, on the great strides which McGill University has 

 recently been enabled to make towards complete equipment ; 

 and for the same reason, I may express the hope, in which I 

 know you will all join, that she may soon acquire as thorough 

 an outfit in all departments as she has already acquired in some. 

 If but one of our universities is to receive complete equipment 

 at present, it is fitting that the one having its seat in our 

 commercial metropolis should be .selected for the trust. And if 

 McGill University, regarding herself as the trustee of a rich 

 endowment, held for the benefit of the whole Dominion, is 

 able to rise to the level of her opportunity, her influence will, 

 at no distant date, be felt for good in the life work of every 

 Canadian. 



The friends of our smaller colleges must therefore rejoice in 

 the rapid enrichment of their more fortunate sister. Neverthe- 

 less its first effect upon them has naturally been one of depres- 

 sion. It is obviously impossible for them to do for the colleges 

 in which they are interested, what McGill's benefactors are 

 doing for her. And, although in a country of such magnificent 

 distances as Canada, it is obviously desirable that our young 

 men should have colleges, or at least a college, provided for 

 them in their own section of the Dominion, in order that as 

 many of them as possible may enjoy the advantage of the higher 

 forms of education, and also that their own section may retain 

 their services for its own development, those who have hitherto 

 supported the smaller colleges naturally ask : Is it worth while 

 for us to make any further effort ? Indeed, are we justified in 

 encouraging our young people to attend the smaller colleges 

 when a university so much more lully equipped is open to them ? 



Such questions receive their answer from the present dis- 

 cussion. Liberal training does not demand, as the provision of 

 encyclopaedic knowledge does, that students should be supplied 

 with all the books and all the latest contrivances in all depart- 

 ments of knowledge, or even in any department. It demands 

 only, so far as subjects requiring costly equipment are concerned, 

 that they should have access to such equipment in the chief 

 departments as will enable them to have sufficient and 

 sufficiently varied exercise of the knowledge-making power. 

 Complete equipment is requisite only in an institution which 

 aims at furnishing opportunity for original research on all 

 lines, in fact, at the making of specialists rather than the 

 making of men. Only a small part of -such an equipment is 

 necessary for, or can be used in, even the most thorough 

 liberal training. 



It follows that the small college with incomplete equipment 

 can furnish quite as sound and thorough liberal training as the 

 completely equipped university, provided it is not too small to 

 supply the important training which college life affords, and 

 provided its equipment, though comparatively small, is adequate ; 

 and consequently, that if both these conditions are fulfilled, it is 

 completely justified in inviting students to trust their training to 

 its care. 



NO. 1572, VOL. 61] 



