March 4, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



333 



schools, a work which they can do better 

 than the university. I hope ere long to see, 

 in one of our greater colleges, the establish- 

 ment of the first graduate school devoted 

 to the training of these interpreters of 

 knowledge. 



But now I have reached the bounds 

 which custom and courtesy allow to a 

 speaker for this kind of address, and al- 

 though I think with regret of the many 

 large matters I fain would include to make 

 my account of this subject complete, I must 

 come to a close. I shall add but one thing, 

 which is this— a summary of the objects for 

 which we should work. 



1. A continuous and adequate system of 

 nature study in the schools, so complete and 

 so good as to send every student into the 

 high schools with no prejudice against sci- 

 ence, and with a solid foundation of natural 

 fact knowledge. 



2. A four-years' course in the high school 

 in the standard sciences, upon exactly the 

 same basis of efficient teaching and educa- 

 tional dignity as any other subjects what- 

 ever, being required in so far as they are 

 required, and elective in so far as they are 

 elective. 



3. A system of education in the college 

 which will presei-ve the golden principle of 

 the elective system— viz., the fact that the 

 mind like the body derives greater good 

 from an exercise in which it can take an 

 interest than from one in which it does not 

 —while pruning away the absurdities that 

 have been allowed to graft themselves 

 thereon. The logical system is the group 

 system, in which the student is free to 

 choose his group, but having once chosen it, 

 finds his studies arranged on a plan ap- 

 proved as wise by educational experience. 

 We must not expect a majority ever to 

 choose the science groups, but those who do 

 should receive a training qualitatively 

 equal to that in any subjects whatever, and, 



above all, thoroughly but humanistically 

 scientific. 



4. A critical review and retesting of our 

 present educational methods and material, 

 with a view to the elimination of the im- 

 practicable, the replacement of the medi- 

 ocre, and the introduction of better, to be 

 sought through critical educational re- 

 search. 



5. A system of training of teachers which 

 shall recognize that college teachers and 

 university investigators are not one and 

 the same, but fellow craftsmen, entitled to 

 equal honor for equal achievement. The 

 ti'aining of the university investigator be- 

 longs to the university, but of the college 

 teacher to the college, which should estab- 

 lish the suitable instruction in the practical 

 and humanistic phases of the subject. And 

 since the college teacher is from his pro- 

 fession primarily an interpreter of knowl- 

 edge, he should make that his particular 

 field; and the colleges should cherish and 

 develop, as their particular function, all 

 activities connected therewith. 



These things, I believe, will make the 

 sciences free from their present educational 

 disabilities. It is true they will not give 

 us perfection. But what is perfection, and 

 who wants it? Perfection, so I fancy, for 

 I never have seen it, is in this like truth, 

 that there is more pleasure in seeking than 

 in finding it. Besides, man, for whom we 

 are doing it all, is imperfect, though the 

 extent thereof depends upon the point from 

 which we view him. If one were to look 

 down upon him from the place of the 

 angels towards which he likes to believe he 

 is ascending, he must seem a very poor 

 creature, deserving only of pity. But if 

 one looks up after him from the place of 

 the beasts from which we know he has risen, 

 then he looms as a very grand figure, 

 worthy of credit and honor. After all, 

 perfect or imperfect, good, bad or indif- 



