438 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1451 



remaining third should he used to reveal the 

 wonder and the power and the poetry of seien- 

 tifle work and thought; to be an introduction 

 to the rain'how-tinted world of nature as well 

 as provide notes and a vocabulary which will 

 make classical and contemporary scientific lit- 

 erature intelligible. If there must be a test of 

 attention and understanding in connection with 

 such descriptive lessons, because of the spirit 

 of indifference inherent in many minds — young 

 as well as old — let it be such as will show com- 

 prehension of the main facts and ideas pre- 

 sented and knowledge of the meaning of the 

 words and terms used. In this way descriptive 

 lessons may be used to provide material for 

 work and active thought, and light dalliance 

 with scientific subjects avoided. 



It may be urged that no knowledge of this 

 kind has any scientific reality unless it is de- 

 rived from first-hand experience, and this is 

 no doubt right in one sense; yet it is well to 

 remember that science, like art, is long while 

 school life is short, and that though practical 

 familiarity with scientific things must be lim- 

 ited, much pleasui'e and profit can be derived 

 from becoming acquainted with what others 

 have seen or thought. It is true that we learn 

 from personal experience, 'but a wise man 

 learns also from the experience of others, and 

 one purpose of a descriptive science course 

 should be to cultivate this capacity of under- 

 standing what others have described. As in 

 art, or in music, or in literature, the intention 

 of school teaching should be mainly to promote 

 appreciation of what is best in them rather 

 than to train artists, musicians or men of 

 letters, so in science the most appropriate 

 instruction for a class as an entity must be 

 that which expands the vision and creates a 

 spirit of reverence for nature and the power of 

 man, and not that which aims solely at training 

 scientific investigators. It should conform with 

 Kant's view that the ultimate ideal of educa- 

 tion is nothing less than the perfection of 

 human nature, and not merely a goal to be ob- 

 tained by the select few. 



The sum and substance of this address is a 

 plea for the expansion of scientific instruction 

 in this humanizing spirit, for widening the 

 gateway into the land of promise where the 



destinies of the human race are shaped. It is 

 the privilege of a president to be to some 

 extent pontifical — to express opinions which 

 in other circumstances would demand qualifica- 

 tion — and to leave others to determine how far 

 the doctrines pronounced can be put into prac- 

 tice in daily life. I do not, therefore, attempt 

 to suggest the outlines of courses of science 

 teaching for pupils of different ages, or for 

 schools of different types; this has been done 

 already in a number of books and reports, 

 among the latter being the report of Sir J. J. 

 Thomson's committee on the position of natural 

 science, the report of the British Association 

 committee on science teaching in secondary 

 schools, Mr. 0. H. Latter's report to the Board 

 of Education on science teaching in public 

 schools, the "science for all" report and sylla- 

 bus issued by the Science Masters' Association, 

 a Board of Education report on "Some Expe- 

 riments in the Teaching of Science and Hand- 

 work in Certain Elementary Schools in Lon- 

 don," and one prepared for the toard by Mr. 

 J. Dover Wilson on "Humanism in the Con- 

 tinuation School." What has been said in this 

 address as to the need for extending the out- 

 look of customary scientific instruction beyond 

 the narrow range of manual exercises, manipu- 

 ilative dexterity, experimental ritual or incipi- 

 ent research, can be both amplified and justi- 

 fied from these reports. I want science not 

 only to be a means of stimulating real and 

 careful thinking through doing things, but also 

 a means of creating interest and enlarging the 

 working vocabulary of the pupils and thus 

 truly increasing their range of intelligence. So 

 may scientific instruction be made a power and 

 an inspiration by giving, in the words of the 

 Book of Wisdom (vii: 16-20) : 



an unerring knowledge of the things that are, 

 To know the constitution of the world and the 



operation of the elements; 

 The beginning and end and middle of times, 

 The alternations of the solstices and the changes 



of seasons. 

 The circuits of years and the positions of stars; 

 The nature of living creatures and the raging of 



wild beasts, 

 The violences of wind and the thoughts of men. 

 The diversities of plants and the virtues of roots. 



