288 



SCIENCE. 



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



saying that the study of science trains in 

 the power of analj^sis. This is certainly 

 getting the subject upon higher ground, and 

 suggests a result which is worthy of every 

 eifort. The power of analysis is one of im- 

 mense practical importance, and the value 

 of its cultivation will not be denied. To 

 imagine, however, that analysis is the ulti- 

 mate purpose of science, is not to go very 

 much farther than to say that the ultimate 

 purpose is the laboratory method. The lat- 

 ter is the method, the former is but the first 

 step in its application. But even this step 

 is by no means peculiar to science, for it is 

 the initial one in the teaching of every sub- 

 ject. In our search, therefore, for the pe- 

 culiar benefits of science in education, we 

 are again compelled to look further. 



Beyond analysis lies synthesis, and this 

 certainly represents the ultimate purpose 

 of science. The i-esults of analysis are as 

 barren as a bank of sand until synthesis 

 lays hold of them. It is just here that a 

 large amount of science teaching fails, for 

 to many teachers the accumulation of un- 

 related facts seems to be the end of scien- 

 tific studj', and the results of the laboratory 

 may be represented by a chaotic pile of 

 brick rather than some definite structure 

 dominated by an idea. Almost anyone 

 may accumulate facts, but to relate them, 

 to distinguish the significant and the insig- 

 nificant, to recognize that they are merely 

 external expressions of something general, 

 belongs to the highest stretches of scientific 

 training. May I be permitted to say, with- 

 out being misunderstood, that the potent 

 influence of the German laboratories upon 

 American establishments has resulted in 

 general in making our best investigators 

 and our worst teachers. The influence is 

 beneficent to the last degree in so far as it 

 lays hold of a disposition to careless work 

 and hasty generalization and holds it down 

 to the patient collection of facts and their 

 very cautious collection ; but when it re- 



sults in mere Gradgrind teaching all inspi- 

 ration has evaporated, and the laboratory 

 touches no more the finer mental powers 

 than does a factory. The difference indi- 

 cated finds its illustration in some of our 

 best known texts, which are merely expres- 

 sions of styles of teaching. In the one case 

 the facts are presented in the helter-skelter 

 fashion, solid and substantial enough, but 

 a regular mob, with no logical arrangement, 

 no evolution of a controlling idea. Details 

 are endless, no emphasis brings out certain 

 things into prominence and subordinates 

 others, and the whole subject is as feature- 

 less as a plain, where the dead level of 

 monotony kills off every one but the drudge. 

 It is the spirit of analysis, a dead body of 

 facts without a vitalizing spirit. In the 

 other case fewer facts are presented, but 

 they are the important ones, and marshal- 

 led in orderly array, battalion by battal- 

 ion, they move as a great whole towards 

 some definite object. The facts may fade 

 away, even the battalions may grow dim, 

 but the great movement remains definite 

 and clear as a memory which is an inspira- 

 tion. Instead of a level plain, there are 

 mountain peaks and valleys, there is a per- 

 spective and there are vistas from every 

 point of view. This is the spirit of syn- 

 thesis, which vitalizes the great body of 

 facts and makes them glow. To the teacher, 

 in his work of training, an unrelated fact is 

 worse than useless. 



But even synthesis is not peculiar to sci- 

 ence. To pass by the incidental and tem- 

 porary and reach the real and permanent 

 contribution of science to education is to 

 discover that it lies not in teaching the lab- 

 oratory method, in developing the power of 

 observation, in cultivating the spirit of 

 analysis, or even in carrying one to the 

 heights of synthesis ; but in the mental at- 

 titude demanded in reaching the synthesis. 

 In this regard the demands of science are 

 diametrically opposed to those of the hu- 



