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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 955 



pressions, language material must be worked 

 over repeatedly in various ways, thereby in- 

 suring permanence of the impressions. The 

 natural association of name and object must 

 be made use of. That is, the learner shall not 

 be taught to think from the foreign symbol 

 to the symbol of the mother tongue, and from 

 that to the object, but he shall be taught to 

 think in the foreign language from the thing 

 to the name and vice versa, just as he does in 

 the mother tongue. 



6. The ideal of persistence must be en- 

 forced by accomplishing set tasks, tasks suffi- 

 ciently difficult, and including not merely 

 memory work but reasoning as well, as, for in- 

 stance, translation and " free composition," 

 in which he compares and discriminates, 

 chooses and rejects. 



The imagination, the esthetic and the moral 

 feelings must be fed by reading literature of 

 high moral and esthetic standard, and by lay- 

 ing emphasis on the qualities which are to be 



inculcated. ^ _. .„ 



Charles Hart Handschin 



academic freedom 



To THE Editor op Science: In the current 

 issue of Science is a letter on the subject of 

 academic freedom, in which is given a quota- 

 tion from an address delivered some years ago 

 by President Schurman. Tour correspon- 

 dent regards the statements in the address as 

 highly commendable, but it seems to me that 

 the address contains within itself the 

 " enzym " of its decomposition. 



Academic freedom is like friendship " but 

 a name that lures the soul to sleep." Free- 

 dom of teaching is permitted only so long as 

 no serious attack is made on widely received 

 opinions. As the " Professor " says, in Mal- 

 lock's " New Paul and Virginia," " Opinions 

 can only be tolerated when they lead to no 

 possible consequences." Let us suppose, for 

 instance, that when Professor Schurman's ad- 

 dress was published, a subordinate instructor 

 in the university had spoken as follows : 

 " When President Sehurman speaks of ' God's 

 truth ' he speaks of something about which 

 he knows no more than a gibbering idiot in 



the nearest asylum. God, if he exists, has ap- 

 parently not declared himseK to anybody. 

 All such allusions are either mere catering 

 to popular superstitions, or are on the same 

 plane as the beliefs of the lowest savages." 

 How long would this instructor retain his 

 place in the university? I would be pleased 

 to hear what your correspondent would advo- 

 cate concerning a person who should so ex- 

 press himself. A hundred other examples can 

 be selected. What would become of a sub- 

 ordinate instructor who should at a Wash- 

 ington's birthday address say that Washing- 

 ton was a traitor and should have been 

 hanged by the British, if they had caught 

 him. 



Henry Leffmann 



When the necessity of freedom for univer- 

 sity teachers and investigators is empha- 

 sized, it is never assumed that this freedom 

 carries with it a license to do or say anything 

 and everything. University teachers do not 

 claim that they constitute a class with spe- 

 cial privileges. But as a body of men with 

 serious and important work to do, they claim 

 the freedom that is necessary to enable them 

 to perform this work and to fulfill their obli- 

 gations to society. Freedom in this field, as 

 everywhere, is a reasonable freedom, involv- 

 ing law, responsibility and due regard for 

 others. Academic freedom has its roots and 

 its justification in the duty which the teacher 

 owes to his students and to the community. 

 It may well be that at times it is just as im- 

 portant to emphasize this duty and responsi- 

 bility as to call attention to the necessity of 

 freedom. But one side is the counterpart and 

 complement of the other : where there is no 

 freedom there can be no responsibility, and 

 where there is no feeling of responsibility 

 there can be no genuine freedom. If this is 

 true, it would seem to follow that the limits 

 of a reasonable freedom can not be fixed by 

 any abstract definition. What are the rea- 

 sonable limits in any particular case must be 

 decided by the whole set of circumstances, as 

 judged by reasonable men living in a reason- 



