EDUCATION AND ART OF REASONING. 21 



reasoning either from the standpoint of dis- 

 covery or from that of proof. 



This general indictment against the college 

 curriculum needs to be hedged in by many 

 qualifications; but there are none which seri- 

 ously break its force. The graduate student is 

 left largely to his own resources, and must do 

 his own reasoning or go without any. A few 

 of the best laboratory hand -books question and 

 suggest to the student, so that he is kept from 

 dissipating his energy; but they largely compel 

 him to make his own discoveries and develop 

 independence. ' A few teachers habitually, and 

 many teachers occasionally, compel their stu- 

 dents to cast their materials into the order of 

 proof or argument in topical reports ; but those 

 very reports are, as a rule, the best illustra- 

 tion of the utter lack of logical insight on the 

 part of students. 



Before applied logic secures general recog- 

 nition proportionate to its importance, it will 

 have to demonstrate its ability to lay in the 

 mind of the student the foundation of accurate 

 thinking, to furnish him with analyses of mod- 

 els of successful reasoning, and criteria by which 

 to detect false reasoning. 



It is strange that while the study of our 

 mother tongue and of all the sciences has 



