THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1897. 
THE NEED OF ORGANISING SCIENTIFIC 
OPINION. 
Il. 
HATEVER may be the deductions from statistics, 
it cannot be denied that, as a rule, the attitude 
of our manufacturers has hitherto been antagonistic to 
the introduction of a scientific element into our indus- 
tries ; and it is beyond question that the country at large 
has never learnt to favour the introduction of such an 
element into our affairs generally. 
Admitting that our strongly-marked individuality, our 
insular habits and prejudices, over-reliance on our 
powers, and our prosperity and unchallenged commercial 
preeminence throughout a long period, in some or even 
a large measure account for our worship of King Rule 
of Thumb and our apathy as a nation to science, we 
must go further to find the full explanation. 
There can be no doubt that such apathy arises from 
the fact that “the idea of sctence has been absent from 
the whole course and design of our education ”’—words 
used thirty years ago by Matthew Arnold. It is still 
true that, as the same writer said, ‘‘ we hardly even know 
the use of the word science in its strict sense, and 
only employ it in a secondary and incorrect sense.” We 
are, in fact, an uncultured nation ; which is mainly, if not 
entirely, the fault of our Universities—for although but a 
small proportion of English attend the Universities, it 
is from the Universities that the teachers, as well as the 
heads of our public schools, are taken, and these set 
an example which permeates our whole educational 
system. 
Whilst, however, our Universities have fazled to help 
us, Germany undoubtedly owes her success to her Uni- 
versities ; but hers are real Universities, not “superior 
boarding-schools”—“ places where the youth of the 
upper class prolong to a very great age, and under 
some very admirable influences, their school education.” 
They are Universities in which “ Lehrfretheit and Lern- 
freiheit, \iberty for the teacher and liberty for the 
learner, and Wissenschaft, science, knowledge system- 
atically pursued and prized in and for itself are the 
fundamental ideas.” 
Although, in comparing the condition of education in 
the two countries, Arnold recognised that our Univer- 
sities were in the main but superior schools, he failed to 
point out the origin of the difference—that long before 
he wrote, at the beginning of the century, in fact, they 
had succumbed to the colleges, so that we had no 
Universities in the German sense; whilst Germany, 
happily, was without colleges. But this fact was re- 
cognised over fifty years ago by Charles Lyell, who drew 
special attention to it and discussed the consequences 
in a most interesting chapter in his “Travels in North 
America,” published in 1845. 
Higher education in Germany, in.so far as secondary 
schools are concerned, may be said to date from the 
1 Continued from page 411. 
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433 
reforms introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt during the 
brief period (1810-12) in which he was Prussian Minister 
of Education. Although less well known than his re- 
nowned younger brother Alexander, he appears to have 
been a man of remarkable philosophical power and in- 
sight, whose administration of public instruction was 
clearly based on the fullest understanding of its immense 
importance, and who recognised that it must be con- 
ducted scientifically. We should probably be well satisfied 
even now if we could secure a Minister of Education, 
and he were no more than an animated phonograph ; one 
who could repeat with understanding words the Prus- 
sian Minister of Education used near ninety years ago 
—“ The thing is 7o¢ to let the schools and Universities 
go on in a drowsy and impotent routine ; the thing is, 
to raise the culture of the nation ever higher and higher 
by their means ”—words so striking that Arnold attaches 
them as a motto to his report, would throw the whole 
body of educational enthusiasts among us into wild 
delirium, but the country at large would certainly rate 
him unpractical, if not as a lunatic. 
Probably the greatest service to education rendered 
by von Humboldt was the establishment of a State ex- 
amination for all schoolmasters ; he also, as Arnold points 
out, took the most important step towards making the 
Abiturienten or school-leaying examination—which plays 
so vital a part in the German system—what it now is. 
But von Humboldt was not the only statesman in Ger- 
| many to take the most enlightened and active interest 
in the affairs of higher education, and those who followed 
him in the work of organising public secondary educa- 
tion were able to achieve success because German 
Universities generally had laid the necessary foundation : 
otherwise, a satisfactory system could not have been 
called into life. In witness of this, take the following 
passage in Carlyle’s review of Heeren’s “‘ Life of Heyne,” 
in reference to the celebrated scholar’s activity, now a 
century ago, at Gottingen :— 
“We have long details of his procedure in managing 
the Library, the Royal Society, the University generally, 
and his incessant and often rather complex correspond- 
ence with Minchhausen, Brandes, or other ministers who 
presided over this department. Without detracting from 
Heyne’s skill in such matters, what struck us most in 
this narrative of Heeren’s was the singular contrast 
which the ‘Georgia Augusta,’ in its interior arrange- 
ments, as well as its external relations to the Government, 
exhibits with our own Universities. The Prime Minister 
of the country writes thrice weekly to the director of an 
institution for learning! He oversees all; knows the 
character not only of every professor, but of every pupil 
that gives any promise. He is continually purchasing 
books, drawings, models ; treating for this or the other 
help or advantage tothe establishment. He has his eyes 
overall Germany ; and nowhere does a man of any decided 
talents show himself, but he strains every nerve to acquire 
him. And seldom even can he succeed ; for the Han- 
overian assiduity seems nothing singular ; every state in 
Germany has its minister for education, as well as 
Hanover. They correspond, they inquire, they negotiate; 
everywhere there seems a canvassing, less for places than 
for the best men to fill them. Heyne himself has his 
Seminarium, a private class of the nine most distinguished 
students in the University; these he trains with all 
diligence, and is in due time most probably enabled, by 
his connexions, to place in stations fit for them. A 
U 
