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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 1 



casions — one unchanging and eternal law 

 of motion, the uniform character of which 

 is disguised by the infinite variety of its 

 temporary manifestations, the result of its 

 force being modified by being transmitted 

 through ever changing local conditions. 

 Now in the case of a physical river, it is a 

 far more difficult and a far more valuable 

 thing for the mind to perceive that its mo- 

 tion is a manifestation of a force that is 

 universal wherever there is matter, than it 

 is to learn an endless number of special 

 facts bearing on the causes of individual 

 variations. Furthermore, all the special 

 facts the most conscientious and painstak- 

 ing study of the river alone can ever ac- 

 cumulate, will be insufficient to give any 

 but a very deceptive notion of what this 

 basic force really is ; for to obtain that we 

 must study, not the river alone, but to some 

 extent at least, all matter, including even 

 the most distant stars. 



The figure of the river may seem too 

 simple a representation of the complex 

 problem of education, or one that views it 

 from a standpoint that is visionary rather 

 than practical. It affords, however, a very 

 accurate illustration of the most character- 

 istic weakness of American education — a 

 disposition to deal with facts and to neglect 

 principles. As is to be expected from this, 

 American scholarship, where it has made 

 itself at all conspicuous, has done so by 

 exhibitions of minute or mechanical ac- 

 curacy, or by extensive command of de- 

 tails. The inclination towards sensational 

 philosophy of course makes its conclusions 

 tend towards materialism, but this is curi- 

 ously modified by the analogies of com- 

 merce, the creation of human caprice as 

 much as of human necessity; so that all 

 sorts of will-o-the-wisps are mistaken for 

 fixed luminaries. This makes it the servile 

 imitator of the most futile type of German 

 pedantry, whose wide range of knowledge 



it can not hope to approach, but whose 

 ridiculous indifference to the commonest 

 demonstrations of experience it often sur- 

 passes. 



It is, of course, unfair to say that all 

 these faults are exclusively American ; they 

 are nearly all, to some extent, universal 

 characteristics of the academic mind, or 

 qualities that distinguish our age. It is 

 fair, however, to say that they are more 

 pronounced in America than elsewhere; 

 for modern qualities have had a more 

 favorable field for their development in this 

 country than in older lands. On the other 

 hand, however, modern tendencies have 

 already run their couise in America, and 

 the reaction against them is already set- 

 ting in; while in Europe their influence is 

 still on the increase and is rapidly reduc- 

 ing education to a basis as commercial as 

 that of this country. The opportunity for 

 educational improvement is therefore 

 greater in America than elsewhere, but so 

 also is the need. Within fifty years the 

 capital of the world will be on the North 

 American continent, where also the stage 

 is now being set for the most tremendous 

 and the most momentous social struggle 

 that civilization has ever faced. No longer 

 can this country pay heed to nothing 

 but immediate economic advantage; en- 

 ergy may have been sufficient initia- 

 tive and shrewdness sufficient guidance 

 for it when it was new and its oppor- 

 tunities unlimited, but now duty must 

 lead and wisdom direct it when its eco- 

 nomic and social situation has become 

 so complex. The problem of conserv- 

 ing the physical resources of the coun- 

 try is a vast one, but a far vaster one is the 

 development of the national intelligence 

 to an extent that will fit it to deal with the 

 infinitely complicated social and economic 

 problems that the last century has devel- 

 oped. The present administration of edu- 

 cation produces a one sided and inharmoni- 



