2 W. C. Langivorthy Taylor 



venture to hint in what it is that pr&gress essentially consists. 

 This paper is no exception to the general tendency to make 

 these assumptions. 



The present age is characterized by some sociologists 1 as the 

 economic-ethical. It has left in the rear the ponderous debate on 

 constitutionality, the closet speculations of metaphysics, and the 

 bloody contests of religious schism — ah stages of activity that 

 were doubtless necessary, but could hardly he looked upon as 

 rapid means of solving the problems of life. In the economic- 

 ethical age, we find less casuistry and greater definiteness. The 

 discussions of previous ages have rendered many distinctions 

 simple that then seemed novel and fine-spun. With such a foun- 

 dation laid, there seems room for unlimited activity. The manifold 

 phenomena of life are no longer confounded, and hence a vastly 

 greater number of separate paths are opened. These paths soon 

 have tracks laid upon them, and instead of walking we find our- 

 selves carried at railroad speed. In some such way it is that the 

 present age is characterized as one of motion. 



The new philosophy finds the end and well-being of man as of 

 Nature, in energy. Function is more important than structure. 

 In the public eye it is doing, not wealth or rank, that occupies the 

 foreground. The man of action wins admiration. The doctrine 

 of the strenuous life is undoubtedly extremely popular and may 

 even turn the balance in favor of a political candidate against the 

 preferences of the party machine and of the party boss. Hence, 

 progress is the watchword and keynote of the day. In science and 

 in education, those closely allied phases of life, we must expect 

 to find it, and we shall be lacking in our assumed duty of har- 

 monizing ourselves with the spirit of the age if we do not seek 

 to work out its principles. The task in hand, therefore, is that 

 of analysis of life rather than of living itself. We seek to under- 

 stand and to explain. 



The close connection of science with education causes them 

 mutually to affect each other. The methods of science must de- 

 pend to a certain extent upon those of education. It is in the 

 field of education that we come most closely in contact with the 



J Cf. Professor F. II. Giddings, The Pnvcip/cs of Sociology, p. 302. 



