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SCIENCE 



[N. a Vol,. XLII. No. 1088 



well the highest stakes are paid, with that sort of 

 overflowing generosity with which the strong de- 

 light in strength. And one who plays ill is check- 

 mated — without haste, but without remorse. My 

 metaphor will remind you of the famous picture m 

 which a great painter has depicted Satan playing 

 at chess with man for his soul. Substitute for the 

 mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel 

 who is playing for love, as we say, and would rather 

 lose than win, and I should accept it as an image 

 of human life. . . . 



Well, what I mean by education is learning the 

 rules of this mighty game. In other words, educa- 

 tion is the instruction of the intellect in the laws 

 of nature, under which name I include not merely 

 things and their forces but men and their ways, 

 and the fashioning of the affections and the will 

 into an earnest and loving desire to move in har- 

 mony with their laws. 



And a little farther on it is added that a 

 liberal education should teach us to love all 

 beauty, whether of nature or of art, to hate 

 all vileness, and to respect others as our- 

 selves. 



Huxley here formulates his view of edu- 

 cation in words that breathe the very es- 

 sence and spirit of scientific inquiry. The 

 end of education, obviously, is not the mere 

 acquisition of knowledge; it is the attain- 

 ment of a point of view. And the value of 

 science in this respect, as I think, depends 

 mainly upon the attitude of the scientific 

 investigator towards the study of nature. 

 For he, too, is like a player in a great game. 

 He is quite aware that he can never bring 

 it to a conclusion or sound all of its depths. 

 Nevertheless, he throws himself into it 

 without hesitation, certain of its inexhaust- 

 ible interest and of possibilities of achieve- 

 ment that are past all reckoning. 



I will say but a passing word concerning 

 the work of our professional and technical 

 schools of science. More and more in the 

 future the practical efficiency of our civili- 

 zation will depend upon that work — in 

 medicine and sanitary science, in agricul- 

 ture and forestry, in the many branches of 

 engineering — in all those practical disci- 



plines that we speak of as the applied sci- 

 ences. But civilization does not live by 

 practical efficiency alone, neither is educa- 

 tion merely a matter of vocational train- 

 ing. Something larger is here involved. 

 What is the greatest service of science to 

 our intellectual and spiritual life? And 

 this, I take it, is only another way of ask- 

 ing: What is the value of science in gen- 

 eral or liberal education? 



There are certain obvious aspects of the 

 question that will detain us for a moment 

 only. Science should teach us to keep an 

 open mind; to look facts straight in the 

 face. It should help to deliver us from the 

 deadly vice of thinking we know things of 

 which we are really ignorant. It should 

 lead us to place a higher valuation on ob- 

 servation and experiment than on author- 

 ity and precedent. We should, of course, 

 acquire some definite information concern- 

 ing the material world; we should become 

 aware of the fundamental order that is dis- 

 coverable among natural phenomena; we 

 should gain an intelligent view of man's 

 place in nature. The biologist is apt, per- 

 haps too apt, to emphasize the bearing of 

 his work on problems of human life — psy- 

 chological, social, political, ethical. No one 

 supposes that all the intricacies of the so- 

 cial organism are at present within the 

 reach of biological searchlights; far from 

 it. Nevertheless, we are ourselves objects 

 in nature and a product of natural proc- 

 esses. No man, I venture to think, can be 

 called liberally educated who has been left 

 indifferent to the issues that are here in- 

 volved. 



But these things, too, let us pass by ; they 

 are plain to demonstration. I ask atten- 

 tion to something that is, perhaps, less ob- 

 vious but to my way of thinking is more 

 important still. The main service of sci- 

 ence to our intellectual life is to help pre- 

 serve us from a certain disorder of the 



