230 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [ December, 
the main facts and their meaning, liberated a man from a state of bondage 
to his fellow-men. This is education, the process of lifting a mind above the 
domain in which it accepts everything on the authority of some source, in 
which case it is subservient to that source of authority, into a higher realm 
where its vision is not hindered and where it can be trusted to see for itself. 
Thus education is freedom, first of thought then of body. No higher tribute 
to the power of science to elevate the intellect and make man free can be found 
than the action of the Russian ministers of state who are trying to exclude it 
from the schools because, unlike linguistic studies, it tends to make men think. 
This sentence from the article on Russia in the November Century Magazine 
puts it well. 
Professor Whitman, in an article to which we have already alluded,* touches 
upon the same ground when he shows that for a teacher no better training can 
be had than original work which will fit him to be the intellectual guide of his 
students who, like him, must learn to go for knowledge, not to dusty books, 
but to the objects of matane themselves ; by no means “despising the work of 
others, but not trusting to their work and failing of the individual benefit of 
first her knowledge. 
As a thoughtful nation and a free people we have not, as Americans, as yet 
fully measured up to our privileges in regard to educational matters. We 
are doing much which make us proud to look upon. An expedition like that 
the United States Fish Commission Steamer A/éatross is making now should 
be justly viewed with pride as a great scientific event, and we are glad that 
our Government, with no niggard hand, maintains so well her scientific enter- 
prises; among which we are glad also to recall the zoological station at Woods 
Holl, the National Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Geological 
Survey, with its various lines of activity. And our great institutions of learn- 
ing and some of our cities are doing ‘much for the cause of general liberty 
by public libraries, public lectures, “public museums, public zoological and 
botanical gardens. And when we reflect on all this we are glad for the cause 
of know ledge. Last summer, at Boston, we found the wonderful museum of 
Prof. Agassiz and the great one of the Boston Society of Natural History, 
and at ine little town oF Salem a natural history museum, and while there we 
saw it visited by crowds of people ; many there from idle curiosity, but many 
also to learn. Whenenterprise pushes out, and a new work like the Journal 
of Morphology enters on its career, we are again proud, because it is one 
step further, and we shall regard it as a still better sign if it thrives, as we 
hope and trust it may. 
It would be no difficult task to show that science is a good genius, that 
for every favor shown it, it heaps tenfold benefits on its friends in return, and 
that to neglect its teachings is hopeless retardation of improvement or even 
failure. Those who sing loud the praise of science are no fanatics ; they are 
rational believers of what has ever proved to be the guide to man from misery 
to happiness, whether in his home, in his social relations, i in health and dis- 
ease, or in any conceivable situation where he comes in contact with his 
phy eal surroundings ; ; and we think that every advance of science means one 
more step in the wonderful progress which has attended the course to which 
Prof. Agassiz referred—the Bheeenon of facts and study of their meaning 
rather than the acceptance of notions or authority without any test. 
O——— 
Apropos of ourremarks on the demand for improvementin medical courses, 
we quote the following extract :— 
‘ The demand for a three years’ course of lectures and medical study is be- 
*See ante, page 199. 
