Septembeb 28, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



397 



in their relationship to the rest of human 

 history and endeavor, he is certainly cheat- 

 ed out of one of the most valuable of the 

 endowments which he has a right to de- 

 mand from that institution. As I have 

 already indicated, scientific method is dom- 

 inant not only in the study of nature, but 

 in the study of all the social subject-mat- 

 ters, in religion, politics, in all social insti- 

 tutions. Scientific discoveries have made 

 over the answer even to the fundamental 

 question of who is my neighbor. Science 

 is responsible for the view of the universe 

 as a whole which must be the background 

 of our theology as well as our philosophy 

 and much that is finest in our literature. 

 Science has changed sentiment to intelli- 

 gence in divine charity, and has substituted 

 the virtue of reformation of evil for that 

 of resignation thereto in religion. And yet 

 a large percentage of our students leave 

 the university without having any better 

 opportunity of coming to close quarters 

 with this science than those who are outside 

 the university. They are compelled to get 

 their science from the extension platform, 

 or from the popular magazine. There 

 should be unspecialized science for those 

 who do not specialize in science, because 

 they have the right to demand it of an 

 educational institution. 



There is still another demand that should 

 be made upon the science faculties of the 

 university, and that is that they should so 

 organize the courses which their students 

 take, that they will get the unity which 

 every college course ought to give. 



That unity of the social sciences which is 

 given in subject-matter and human nature 

 itself, is, as has been pointed out, absent 

 from modern sciences which have become 

 largely what Professor Wundt calls con- 

 ceptual sciences. The interconnections are 

 not apparent to the students who are in the 

 special groups. Their attention is fixed 

 within too narrow boundaries, the demands 



of their own subject is so great that they 

 have no time to go beyond. They have a 

 wealth which they can not realize because 

 they can not put it into circulation. 



Through the history of science, especially 

 of the other sciences which they do not 

 specialize in, through lecture courses which 

 give them the results of these other sciences 

 they should be able to get the unity of 

 Weltanschauung, which is requisite for any 

 college course. 



It is requisite at the end as at the begin- 

 ning that the student should see his world 

 as a whole, should take up into it what he 

 has acquired, and should get the mutual 

 interpretation which the relation of his 

 subject-matter has to what lies beyond it. 



There is certainly no agent that can 

 carry more profound culture than the sci- 

 ences, but our science curriculum is poor in 

 what may be called culture courses in the 

 sciences, and the import of science for cul- 

 ture has been but slightly recognized and 

 but parsimoniously fostered. 



George H. Mead. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 An Introduction to Astronomy. By Forest 

 Eay Moulton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of 

 Astronomy in the University of Chicago. 

 New York, The Macmillan Co. 1906. 8vo. 

 Pp. xiii+ 557 ; 201 figures, including 50 

 photographic illustrations. $1.25. 

 This book is an elementary, descriptive text, 

 suited to those who are approaching the sub- 

 ject for the first time, and from this point of 

 view the selection of material is quite satis- 

 factory, though not always presented in logical 

 order. At the outset Professor Moulton gives 

 a preliminary outline of the entire subject, 

 followed by chapters which treat in greater 

 detail of the topics usually considered in ele- 

 mentary works, such as systems of coordinates, 

 the constellations, the classes and uses of as- 

 tronomical instruments, and the leading facts 

 and theories relating to the various bodies 

 composing the solar and sidereal systems. 



