482 
education would agree, with the proviso that 
applications of science unknown to the an- 
cients determine the conditions of health and 
of economic stability in modern life, and that 
a “belief in knowledge” and “method” in 
pursuing it are best inculeated by the study of 
law in the natural world. 
The great merit of Sir Joseph Thomson’s 
Report is that it discloses the present causes 
of the weakness of science in our education. 
The universities as a whole now show a bias in 
favor of science teaching, but there is a de- 
plorable lack of students due partly to weak- 
ness in the schools and partly to the influence 
of scholarship examinations in which classics 
predominate. Thus the old universities, by 
their scholarship systems, tend to discourage 
science teaching in the public schools, and the 
public schools react upon the preparatory 
schools. It follows that many of the most in- 
telligent boys are deterred from entering upon 
a scientific career. It is also possible that some 
class prejudice, based upon long tradition, 
dating back to the Rennaisance, may still 
operate against science training. The recom- 
mendations of the committee are wise and far 
reaching; but I can only give the barest indi- 
cation of their objects and scope. Nature 
study in primary schools up to the age of 
twelve is to be the foundation, and instruc- 
tion in science up to the age of sixteen is en- 
joined upon all secondary schools, physics and 
chemistry to be taught, because all other sci- 
ences, to which they should be treated as pass- 
ports, require some knowledge of them. 
Mathematics should be connected with science 
at an early period. The general aims of a sci- 
ence course at school age are defined with a 
view to secure two educational objects of pri- 
mary importance: (1) To train the mind to 
reason about things the boy observes himself, 
and to develop powers of weighing and inter- 
preting evidence. (2) To develop acquaint- 
ance with broad scientific principles and their 
application in the lives of men and women. 
No better foundation for the training alike 
of the statesman, the leader of commerce and 
industry, and the manual worker, can be laid 
down. The committee were strongly im- 
SCIENCE 
[N. S. Vou. XLVIITI. No. 1246 
pressed with the importance of manual work 
at school age, and speaking from personal ex- 
perience I am certain that I owe much to the 
handling of the file and the lathe before I en- 
tered the army, although mechanical pursuits 
at one time caused me to neglect other stud- 
ies. I believe that if all classes underwent 
gome manual training there would be a better 
understanding of the dignity of labor. Rightly 
distrusting examination tests of conventional 
type, the committee recommend the inspection 
of all schools. 
Higher standards of teaching power, coordi- 
nated training from the primary school to the 
university and to the post-graduate stage, with 
a lowering of fees and a liberal allocation of 
scholarships to be awarded for “ intellectual 
merit and promise,” and not in accordance 
with the results of set examinations—such are 
the educational ideals which are set before the 
country. By these means we may hope in 
time to develop intelligence now wasted, as the 
committee point out, to supply our present 
deficiency of experts in all branches of science, 
and to secure more orderly methods of admin- 
istration and a higher standard of leadership. 
. ‘The American Declaration of Independence 
unfortunately proclaimed without qualification 
that all men are born “ equal,” and this theory 
has proved very harmful. In physical, as in 
intellectual capacity, men show the extremes 
of inequality. From the technically entitled 
“ feeble-minded ” to the intellectual giant there 
is an infinitely graduated range of ability in 
all classes. Heredity may confer some ad- 
vantage; but genius generally mocks at hered- 
ity, and the frequent rise by sheer ability of 
men from the ranks of manual workers seems 
to prove that brain power in the case of a fairly 
homogenous race exists in due proportion in 
all classes. The object of national education 
must be to provide, so far as possible, equal 
chances for natural talent wherever it is to be 
found. Otherwise, there must be loss of na- 
tional efficiency. At the same time, it must be 
remembered that marked intellectual power 
will always be the possession of a minority, 
that real leadership will always be rare, and 
that training in all classes may be wasted if 
