916 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1043 



great public interest in England, Sir Wil- 

 liam Huggins emphasized before the Eoyal 

 Society the importance of science in educa- 

 tion.i" We need not dwell upon his argu- 

 ments regarding the value of scientific 

 training in developing the power of accu- 

 rate observation and the habit of correct 

 and cautious reasoning. But a more 

 neglected phase of science in education — 

 its power of awakening and expanding the 

 imaginative faculty — may be referred to in 

 his own words: 



Surely the master-creations of poetry, music, 

 sculpture and painting, alike in mystery and 

 grandeur, can not surpass the natural epics and 

 scenes of the heavens above and of the earth be- 

 neath, in their power of firing the imagination, 

 which indeed has taken its most daring and en- 

 during flights under the earlier and simpler con- 

 ditions of human life, when men lived in closer 

 contact with Nature, and in greater quiet, free 

 from the deadening rush of modern society. Of 

 supreme value is the exercise of the imagination, 

 that lofty faculty of creating and weaving 

 imagery in the mind, and of giving subjective 

 reality to its own creations, which is the source of 

 the initial impulses to human progress and de- 

 velopment, to all inspiration in the arts, and to 

 discovery in science. 



Of all the teachings of science, the prin- 

 ciple of evolution makes by far the strong- 

 est appeal to the imagination. Isolated 

 phenomena, however remarkable, acquire 

 a new meaning when seen in its light. 

 Minute details of structure in animals or 

 plants, slight differences of the relative 

 intensity of lines in the spectra of stars, 

 may become of intense interest even to the 

 elementary student if explained as steps 

 in a great process of development. But, 

 after all that has been said and written 

 since the time of Darwin, we fail to take 

 full advantage of our opportunity. Prop- 

 erly presented, a picture of evolution in its 

 broadest aspects would serve better than any 



10 Huggins, "The Boyal Society," p. 109. 



other agency to stimulate the imagination, 

 to awaken interest in science, and to demon- 

 strate that its cultural value is in no wise 

 inferior to that of the humanities. To the 

 average student, even physics and chemis- 

 try are distinct branches of science, each 

 occupied with its own problems. Astron- 

 omy, he knows, concerns itself with the 

 heavenly bodies, botany with plants, zool- 

 ogy with animals. But if he studies these 

 subjects at all, he almost invariably fails 

 to realize their relationship, because no 

 binding principle, like that of evolution, is 

 brought prominently to his attention or, at 

 the best, is restricted in its application to 

 some single organic or inorganic field. 



When Humboldt wrote "Cosmos" and 

 Huxley lectured on "A Piece of Chalk" 

 and other subjects, they showed what might 

 be accomplished in picturing the problems 

 of science in a broad way. The National 

 Academy is better qualified than any other 

 body in America to demonstrate what can 

 be done in the same direction with the rich 

 store of knowledge acquired since their time. 

 A course of lectures on evolution, beginning 

 with an account of the constitution of mat- 

 ter, the transformation of the elements, 

 and the electron theory ; picturing the heav- 

 enly bodies and the structure of the uni- 

 verse, the evolution of stars and planets, 

 and the origin of the earth; outlining the 

 various stages of the earth's history, the 

 formation and changes of its surface fea- 

 tures, the beginning and development of 

 plant and animal life; explaining modern 

 biological problems, the study of variation 

 and mutation, and the various theories of 

 organic evolution ; summarizing our knowl- 

 edge of earliest man, his first differentiation 

 from anthropoid ancestors, and the crude 

 origins of civilization; and connecting with 

 our own day by an account of early Orien- 

 tal peoples, the rise of the Egyptian dy- 

 nasties, and their influence on modem 



