24 SCIENCE AND CULTURE. 



Thus I venture to think that the pretensions of our 

 modern Humanists to the possession of the monopoly 

 of culture and to the exclusive inheritance of the spirit 

 of antiquity must be abated, if not abandoned. But I 

 should be very sorry that anything I have said should 

 be taken to imply a desire on my part to depreciate 

 the value of classical education, as it might be and as 

 it sometimes is. The native capacities of mankind vary 

 no less than their opportunities ; and while culture is 

 one, the road by which one man may best reach it is 

 widely different from that which is most advantageous 

 to another. Again, while scientific education is yet in- 

 choate and tentative, classical education is thoroughly 

 well organised upon the practical experience of genera- 

 tions of teachers. So that, given ample time for learn- 

 ing and destination for ordinary life, or for a literary 

 career, I do not think that a young Englishman in 

 search of culture can do better than follow the course 

 usually marked out for him, supplementing its deficien- 

 cies by his own efforts. 



But for those who mean to make science their seri- 

 ous occupation ; or who intend to follow the profession 

 of medicine ; or who have to enter early upon the busi- 

 ness of life ; for all these, in my opinion, classical edu- 

 cation is a mistake ; and it is for this reason that I am 

 glad to see "mere literary education and instruction" 

 shut out from the curriculum of Sir Josiah Mason's Col- 

 lege, seeing that its inclusion would probably lead to the in- 

 troduction of the ordinary smattering of Latin and Greek. 



