NATURE 



529 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 7, 18S0 



THE PLACE OF SCIEAXE IN EDUCATION 



THERE has been a great deal said and written on the 

 subject of education during the past weelc. First 

 of all we have the important address of Prof. Huxley at 

 the opening of the Mason College, Birmingham, which we 

 give in full on another page ; then there is the brief but 

 significant address of Sir Stafford Northcote at Tiverton ; 

 and lastly, the summary of Sir Charles Reed of the ten 

 years' work of the London School Board. All this has 

 furnished ample food for comment in the daily papers, 

 and their misconceptions as to the real drift of Prof 

 Huxley's address must be amusing to those who know 

 what science really means, and what are the opinions held 

 by reputable men of science as to what constitutes sound 

 and complete education. With regard to the institution 

 which has been so generously founded and handsomely 

 endowed by Sir Josiah Mason at Birmingham, it should 

 be remembered that there was no intention to start it as a 

 university. Its founder has had to push his way through 

 life, and notwithstanding the unusual success of his 

 career, he confesses that he has but little faith in the rule- 

 of-thumb method, which was often his only guide. At 

 every step, he admits, he was hampered and hindered by 

 the want of scientific knowledge, by his ignorance of 

 those exact methods, those laws and facts, which can only 

 be satisfactorily acquired and utilised by a preliminary 

 scientific training. Even at his advanced age the con- 

 sciousness of this want is so strongly impressed upon 

 him that, with true benevolence and rare generosity, he 

 has founded the magnificent institution at Birmingham 

 which was opened last Friday, in order that succeed- 

 ing generations of boys may have a chance of equipping 

 themselves at the outset with those weapons of pre- 

 cision, the want of which he who has fought successfully 

 the battle of life had to deplore at every step. The 

 Mason College at Birmingham is not a mere technical 

 institute, as may be seen from our article in Nature, 

 vol. x.\ii. p. 514, in which the course of instruction pro- 

 vided is described. All departments of science are 

 provided for, as well as certain special applications of 

 some of them ; the great principles and facts of these 

 sciences first, and their special application afterwards. 

 Wisely also the founder has provided for instruction in 

 the English, French, and German languages ;- and even, 

 as Prof. Max Midler stated in his brief but admirable 

 address at the luncheon, for Greek and Latin. The deed 

 of foundation makes ample provision for the widening of 

 the programme, the extension of the subjects taught, and 

 the adaptation of the institution to the times. Special 

 reference is made to art, which will no doubt be added. 

 At the same time the founder excludes from his pro- 

 gramme "mere literary education." It is, we suppose, 

 this exception — which looking at the progiamme of the 

 College, seems to us somewhat vague — that has led 

 the daily press to misc6nceive Prof. Huxley's address 

 as a defence of science as a means of education, to the 

 entire exclusion of literature. What Prof Huxley main- 

 tains, as we read his address, and as we read his other 

 utterances on the same point, is, that if a man is to 

 Vol. XXII. — No. 571 



have an education in only one aspect of things, then by 

 all means let it be the scientific aspect ; on the other side 

 he can educate himself at his leisure, whereas, as Sir 

 Josiah Mason forcibly testifies, when a man gets into the 

 thick of the fight, it is all but impossible for him to make 

 up for the want of scientific training in his youth. As a 

 mental discipline and a means of culture science by itself 

 is as good an implement as literature by itself, and 

 probably a great deal better, as the former takes us into 

 the very heart of nature in its widest sense, while the 

 latter only deals with the outside of things. At the same 

 time Prof Huxley expressly states that exclusive training 

 in either the one direction or the other is essentially lop- 

 sided, and not to be encouraged ; that it is essential to 

 the completeness of a man's culture that it should have 

 an assthetic and literary, as well as a scientific side ; and 

 what other opinion could be held by one who himself 

 seems familiar with " the best that has been said and 

 thought" in all the languages of culture. We are much 

 mistaken if Prof. Huxley would not endorse every word 

 spoken by Prof. Max Miiller, on the necessity for the study 

 of the science of man, the science of thinking and of speak- 

 ing, to a completely liberal education. The truth is 

 that there is a widespread misconception as to what 

 science really means ; we have been so long accustomed 

 to apply the term to certain groups of concrete facts, that 

 we forget that it may be applied, and indeed is now 

 frequently applied, to any branch of knowledge investi- 

 gated on the method which has been so fruitful in 

 the study of physical phenomena. Science indeed 

 is merely the counterpart of sentiment; each of them 

 has its proper place, and each of them is indispen- 

 sable to the complete development of the human 

 mind. To neglect training on either the one side 

 or the other must produce an imperfect, a lop-sided 

 result ; but there is no reason why either should be 

 neglected. Let the programme of elementary education 

 only be developed in the direction so long advocated 

 by Sir John Lubbock and those who think with him, 

 and let the whole of the education of the country up 

 to our colleges and universities be carried out on the 

 same lines, and every side of the human constitution 

 and every aspect of human learning will have fair play. 

 Prof Huxley did well to defend science as a method of 

 mental discipline certainly equal to the old and merely 

 literary methods which so long prevailed at our uni- 

 versities, and which have been so abused ; but his address 

 will be strangely misread if any idea of suppressing the old 

 learning is attributed to him. It is interesting to notice 

 th.at Sir Stafford Northcote, in his short address at 

 Tiverton, followed the plan of that of Prof Huxley, be- 

 ginning by strenuously advocating the spread of scientific 

 education in the country as the only means by which we 

 can be able to cope with our neighbours, and concluding 

 by maintaining that it would be a serious mistake to sup- 

 press literary training entirely. This is what we have all 

 along maintained in these pages, and we are sure that 

 Prof. Huxley is on our side. Science has had a hard 

 fight to obtain a place in the education of the countr>-, 

 and she has not yet obtained the place she is entitled to ; 

 she will only have done so when in all our educational 

 institutions she holds a position>f perfect equahty along- 

 side of the subjects which until recently monopolised our 



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