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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1036 



cording to tte abilities of the students. I can 

 think of no better means than that which the 

 history of general science affords of making 

 the accumulated wisdom of the race tell on 

 the active American life of to-day. 



The problem of presenting this subject ade- 

 quately would be greatly simplified if there 

 were in English a good book of four or five 

 hundred pages on the Evolution of Scientific 

 Thought. Let us add, since we are merely ex- 

 pressing a pious wish, that it should be a 

 model of concise and logical exposition 

 written with the charm and lucidity of a Hux- 

 ley. It should rest on a background of general 

 ideas, and be a philosophy of the sciences; at 

 the same time it should not neglect the appli- 

 cations of science, and should incite an inter- 

 est in industry and invention. 



Some such work is needed by the scientific 

 world as a sort of confession of faith, or 

 canon of the truth it holds and teaches. 

 Without some summary of what investiga- 

 tion has demonstrated the professor has less 

 authority than the clergyman in the minds of 

 young men and women. He is held in general 

 to be an unbeliever, because he is negative 

 rather than positive, destructive rather than 

 constructive, a cold critic of what others teach 

 rather than an enthusiastic exponent of the 

 faith he holds. The professors fail to express 

 what they really think and feel. The mind of 

 the learned world has traveled far from the ag- 

 nosticism of the middle of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury. It is not merely that in reference to 

 traditional faiths scholars do not believe, or 

 believe not; they believe something else. It is 

 too general to say that they believe in educa- 

 tion and enlightenment and simple goodwill. 

 It is merely intellectual to proclaim: I be- 

 lieve in the law of gravitation, the nebular 

 hypothesis, the circulation of the blood, the 

 cellular structure of the tissues, organic evo- 

 lution, the continuity of germ-plasm, the de- 

 pendence of human thought on nerve tissue, 

 the evolution of mind, and the cure of disease 

 through the development of antitoxins. But 

 when hundreds of such truths are presented 

 historically as the fixed points in a cosmos es- 

 tablished by the combined efforts of men, the 



cumulative effect is to take us beyond a cold 

 intellectual formulation of an ordered uni- 

 verse to an enthusiastic affirmation of the 

 reign of law to be widened by the energies of 

 the generations. Moreover, within its scope 

 come social and ethical as well as physical and 

 other mental phenomena, and through the his- 

 torical study of ethics and sociology the stu- 

 dent is led to see the gradual triumph of 

 beneficent customs and legislation, supported 

 on principles of justice, equity, freedom and 

 good wiU. 



Such a philosophical summary of the his- 

 tory of science introducing the best minds of 

 the continent, perhaps the foremost million of 

 the population, to the vital ideas of the time, 

 seems an almost imperative need of American 

 culture. For in the realm of ideas there is no 

 such thing as spontaneous generation. Those 

 who seem the originators of great movements 

 are those who have been brought under great 

 influences. Apparent exceptions to this rule, 

 like Shakespeare or Darwin or Lincoln, prove, 

 on examination, excellent examples. There is 

 little difficulty in tracing historically the con- 

 tinuity of human thought. It follows that we 

 can not hope for a generation of original 

 thinkers unless we immerse our students in 

 the stream of the world's thought. The most 

 inventive mind must have material on which 

 to react, and can not strike out in a vacuum. 



The more or less friendly foreign critics who 

 discuss American culture complain of our ex- 

 elusive devotion to practical aims, our lack of 

 conversation, and a certain narrowness in our 

 outlook. From one point of view these so- 

 called faults seem as fair as others' virtues. 

 But it is wisdom to recognize the just element 

 in these strictures. Practical considerations 

 alone warn us against narrowness of training. 

 It can be shovtm from a history of the indus- 

 tries that frequently progress has been op- 

 posed by men whose experience has confined 

 them to one department, or to one section of 

 one department. Advances have come here as 

 in the sciences from outsiders. Rightly 

 understood this is a further argument, not for 

 lack of culture, but for breadth of culture. 

 Such freedom of outlook, without any impair- 



