August 9, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



163 



people. "What are some of the other inven- 

 tions which Europe has contributed to edu- 

 cational history^ I mention only a few of 

 them and with little thought for sequence 

 of any sort. There is the educational sys- 

 tem of the Jesuits, particularly in its 

 seventeenth and eighteenth century form. 

 There is the English university, made up 

 of federated colleges. There is the semi- 

 nar, which has been such an instrument in 

 the making of German university instruc- 

 tion. There are two recent contributions 

 of the Swedish people, the Sloyd system of 

 hand-work and the Ling system of educa- 

 tional gymnastics. Let us add the semi- 

 nary for teachers, the school garden, the 

 Hilfsschule or school for backward chil- 

 dren, the system of higher institutions for 

 commercial education, the Gouin method 

 and various other successful methods in 

 the teaching of modern languages, the 

 English system of university extension. 

 And doubtless many others will occur to 

 you. When we come to think over the list, 

 it appears that much has been accom- 

 plished; and that European education has 

 not only been greatly widened since the 

 Middle Ages, to reach a manifold larger 

 constituency, but has also been improved 

 to a wonderful degree by the progress of 

 educational invention. 



When we would institute a comparison 

 between European and American contribu- 

 tions to such improvement, it is well that 

 we consider first the wider range of in- 

 vention. The world at large gives to the 

 Americans the credit of being a highly in- 

 ventive people as regards mechanical de- 

 vices. The attention of our people was 

 early turned in this direction. Certain 

 conspicuous successes fired the national 

 imagination, and the stress of economic 

 need drove us to the same end. The 

 Patent Office became a center of national 

 pride. To take out a patent or buy the 

 right to sell a patented article or at least 



to buy something with the magic patent 

 label attached thereto, became a well-nigh 

 imiversal ambition. And in sober truth 

 our record in the making of useful inven- 

 tions is really wonderful. At first thought 

 and without an effort you can recall the 

 lightning rod, the steamboat, the cotton 

 gin, the whole series of reaping machines 

 down to the latest combination harvester, 

 the sewing machine, the telegi-aph, the tele- 

 phone, the arc and the incandescent electric 

 light, the phonograph, and twenty other 

 things that are now counted among the 

 necessaries of modern life. It is a dazzling 

 list, and may well make us forget the 

 things we have not ourselves invented, but 

 have borrowed from other lands. On 

 second thought, however, we recall those 

 notable creations, the steam engine, the 

 balloon, the power loom, the locomotive 

 engine, the daguerreotype— first-fruit of 

 modern photography— the spectroscope, 

 wireless telegraphy, and many others that 

 the wit of Europe has devised. However 

 much we may lead in the number and 

 variety of our cunning contrivances, there 

 is enough for which we are indebted to 

 other lands to cheek our conceit and as- 

 sure us that we have competitors. 



On the whole, however, in the domain 

 of mechanism we are undoubtedly in the 

 lead. The fact that the number of patents 

 issued annually in the United States is 

 now only a little less than the whole num- 

 ber issued in all of the rest of the civilized 

 world is not without significance. But 

 when we turn to creative literature and 

 the other arts the case is changed. Here, 

 on the whole, the leadership rests with 

 Europe. We have done good work in this 

 field and are rapidly doing better, but not 

 yet with that confident leaderahip which 

 we display in mechanical invention. Many 

 of the best short stories are ours. We 

 have a score and more of writers of credit- 

 able verse— and even Europe does not seem 



