284 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 295. 



evident that this spirit is diametrically 

 opposed to intolerance, and that it can find 

 no common ground with those who confi- 

 dently and sometimes violently affirm that 

 the present organization of society is as 

 good as it can be ; that the present repub- 

 lics of the world represent the highest pos- 

 sible expression of man in reference to gov- 

 ernment ; that the past has discovered all 

 that is best in education ; that the mission 

 of religion is to conserve the past rather 

 than to grow into the future. This is not 

 the spirit of unrest, of discomfort, but the 

 evidence of a mind whose every avenue is 

 open to the approach of truth from every 

 direction. Like the tree, it is rooted and 

 grounded in all the eternal truths that the 

 past has revealed, but is stretching out its 

 branches and ever renewed foliage to the 

 air and the sunshine, and taking into its 

 life the forces of to-day. 



Dogmatism still finds numerous victims, 

 for education has not yet touched the ma- 

 jority, but everyday the possible victims 

 are becoming fewer in number, and those 

 who seek to lead opinion must presently 

 abandon the method of bare assertion. The 

 factors in this general intellectual progress 

 are perhaps too subtle and interwoven to 

 analyze with certainty, but conspicuous 

 among them is certainly the development 

 of scientific training. 



For fear of being misunderstood, I hasten 

 to say that this beneficent result of scien- 

 tific training does not come to all those who 

 cultivate it, any more than is the Christ- 

 like character developed in all those who 

 profess Christianity. I regret to say that 

 even some who bear great names in science 

 have been as dogmatic as the most rampant 

 theologian. But the dogmatic scientist 

 and theologian are not to be taken as exam- 

 ples of ' the peaceable fruits of righteous- 

 ness,' for the generel ameliorating influence 

 of religion and of science are none the less 

 apparent. It is not the speech of the con- 



spicuous few that is thus leavening the 

 lump of human thought, but the quiet 

 work of thousands of teachers. 



(2) The scientific spirit demands that there 

 shall he no hiatus between an effect and its 

 claimed cause, and that the cause claimed shall 

 be adequate. — It is in the laboratory that one 

 first really appreciates how many factors 

 must be taken into the count in consider- 

 ing any result, and what an element of un- 

 certainty an unknown factor introduces. 

 In the very simplest cases, where we have 

 approximated certainty in the manipulation 

 of factors to produce results, there is still 

 lurking an element of chance, which simply 

 means an unknown and hence uncontrolled 

 factor. Even when the factors are well in 

 hand, and we can combine them with rea- 

 sonable certainty that the result will ap- 

 pear, we may be entirely wrong in our con- 

 clusion as to what in the combination has 

 produced the result. 



For example, we have been changing the 

 forms of certain plants at will, by supply- 

 ing in their nutrition varying combinations 

 of certain substances. By manipulating 

 the proportions of these substances we pro- 

 duce the expected results. It was per- 

 haps natural to conclude that the chemical 

 structure of these particular substances 

 produces the result, and our prescrip- 

 tion was narrowed to certain substances. 

 Now, however, it is discovered that the re- 

 sults are not due to the chemical nature of 

 the substances, but to a peculiar physical 

 condition which is developed by their com- 

 bination, a condition which may be de- 

 veloped by the combination of other sub- 

 stances as well ; so that our prescription is 

 much enlarged. In this operation we are 

 thus freed from slavery to particular sub- 

 stances, and must look only to the develop- 

 ment of a particular physical condition. It 

 seems to me that there is a broad applica- 

 tion here. In education, we are in danger 

 of slavery to subjects. Having observed 



