GERMAN SCIENCE 99 



make people receptive for each and every application of it, 

 based on a knowledge of fundamental principles and laws. 

 Nothing is more disastrous than that the single idea of 

 utility should take root in an educational institution and 

 that attempts should be made to convert children at once 

 into soap boilers, brandy distillers, or vitriol makers. These 

 educational follies squander funds without procuring the 

 slightest benefits.' He alludes to the usual attitude of sons 

 of manufacturers who come to him. 'They desire at once 

 to occupy themselves with what they deem to be practical 

 problems, and it is usually with timidity and anxiety that 

 they yield to my advice, put aside all these futile time- 

 frittering attempts, and betake themselves to studying in 

 a fundamental way the art and method of solving purely 

 scientific questions.' He remarks how they wake up to 

 a real enthusiasm for knowledge and how subsequently they 

 find practical applications easy and natural. 



4 This low condition of scientific instruction explains the 

 low level and unscientific character of agriculture, geognosy, 

 pharmacy, &c, Prussia with six universities has no place 

 for training teachers of experimental sciences, the State 

 provides no place where they may have opportunity for 

 acquiring skill and practice in the art of interpreting 

 phenomena and making experiments.' 



* No one can deny,' says Liebig, ' that an overgrown 

 humanism stands above all else against the progress of 

 natural science and scientific medicine, a thing that will 

 be looked back upon half a century hence with shame and 

 a smile of pity.' 



He is, however, far from deprecating a true humanistic 

 training ; he regards it as a necessity and even as the best 

 and most purposeful preparation of the mind for all other 

 studies. * There is no better means of awakening the mind, of 

 sharpening the understanding, and exercising the judgement. 



