44 UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL. [LECT. 



ourselves or from other people without a rigid scrutiny 

 by negative criticism ; letting no fallacy, or inco- 

 herence, or confusion of thought step by unperceived ; 

 above all, to insist upon having the meaning of a 

 word clearly understood before using it, and the 

 meaning of a proposition before assenting to it ; 

 these are the lessons we learn " from workers in 

 Science. " With all this vigorous management of 

 the negative element, they inspire no scepticism about 

 the reality of truth or indifference to its pursuit. The 

 noblest enthusiasm, both for the search after truth and 

 for applying it to its highest uses, pervades those 

 writers." " In cultivating, therefore/' science as an 

 essential ingredient in education, " we are all the 

 while laying an admirable foundation for ethical and 

 philosophical culture." l 



The passages I have quoted were uttered by John 

 Stuart Mill ; but you cannot hear inverted commas, 

 and it is therefore right that I should add, without 

 delay, that I have taken the liberty of substituting 

 "workers in science" for " ancient dialecticians," and 

 " Science as an essential ingredient in education " for 

 " the ancient languages as our best literary education." 

 Mill did, in fact, deliver a noble panegyric upon 

 classical studies. I do not doubt its justice, nor 

 presume to question its wisdom. But I venture to 

 maintain that no wise or just judge, who has a know- 

 ledge of the facts, will hesitate to say that it applies 

 with equal force to scientific training. 



1 Inaugural Address delivered to the University of St. Andrew 

 February 1, 1867, by J. S. Mill, Rector of the University (pp. 32, 33}. 



