June 7, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



551 



regents, so that to some vigorous procedure 

 resort must be made. 



Offering themselves for our trial or con- 

 sideration are two such procedures, namely 

 the method of exaggeration and the method 

 of education. 



The first of these consists in an effort to 

 make the patron, who in the case of the 

 state university is the common man, feel 

 that the pursuit of pure science will soon 

 and in some way contribute to his physical 

 well-being. Science, it is said, must be cul- 

 tivated because of its useful application, 

 and so, under the segis of a useful applica- 

 tion of some science or other, the rest of the 

 pure sciences hurry to place themselves, 

 like the acquaintances of a man with an 

 umbrella. The method of exaggeration is 

 in all instances unfair and in the case of 

 the state universities undemocratic. It as- 

 sumes that the attainment of truth by our- 

 selves is of more importance than its ap- 

 preciation by the patrons, an assumption 

 which is especially pernicious in the state 

 universities, where the patron is the com- 

 mon man, the people of the state. The 

 method tends to create an intellectual aris- 

 tocracy on the one hand and a suspicious 

 commonalty on the other. It is a hard say- 

 ing that those who believe they are investi- 

 gating purely for "the glory of God and 

 the benefit of man's estate" are often 

 damaging society. But they are when they 

 give to others the material benefits of their 

 labors and keep to themselves the glory of 

 God which has been revealed to them. 



But even when we emphatically reject 

 the method of exaggeration and seek to 

 create a real appreciation of the higher 

 values for which the university stands, if, 

 in other words, we set about employing the 

 method of education, even then through 

 force of habit we are very prone to empha- 

 size the lesser and more obvious at the ex- 



pense of values which, though actually far 

 greater, we consider to be less obtrusive. 



As an example in this connection I recall 

 a plea which I once encountered for the 

 study of Latin. The plea consisted in show- 

 ing the vast numbers of English words hav- 

 ing Latin origins. From these data the 

 thoughtless observer was expected to infer 

 a great practical advantage in learning 

 Latin! The common man is quite suscept- 

 ible to a better and truer argument. He is 

 quite ready to admit the value to the 

 Chinese of a familiarity with our culture ; 

 it is not difiScult to persuade him that he too 

 might derive much benefit from a knowl- 

 edge of the culture of the Chinese ; it is but 

 a small step from a people living to-day to 

 a people who lived long ago, but who pos- 

 sessed a remarkable culture; and having 

 gone so far, is the common man likely to 

 balk when he finds that the language should 

 not be separated from the literature, the 

 art and institutions of this interesting and 

 instructive people? The common man will 

 admit the advantage of seeing himself as 

 others see him, of viewing our own times 

 and institutions as one freshly arrived from 

 Mars. But such an advantage is possible 

 only to those who have acquired a second 

 culture, that of another race or of another 

 time, in the light of which our times can be 

 less naively regarded. 



Be it reiterated, then, that we intellectual 

 aristocrats are onh' too prone to lower our 

 tone to the supposed level of the common 

 man. "We should rather encourage him to 

 demand that what he does not understand 

 be made at least partlj' intelligible to him 

 and we should ever stand ready to disclose 

 our real motives and to share with him our 

 real joys. 



In the informal and personal application 

 of this method of education of the common 

 man, the patron of the state university, 



