DECEMBER 10, 1897.] 
quainted, there are not more than one-half 
who have had any training whatever in the 
natural sciences, with the exception of 
about ten weeks in physics and as many in 
chemistry, and perhaps a smattering of 
physiology. The simplest facts in natural 
history are as utterly unknown to them as 
is the prosody of the Hebrew language. A 
little, a very little, of biological science has 
‘been absorbed in the reading of fiction, of 
history and the newspapers. 
The simplest functions of their own 
bodies remain for the most part sealed mys- 
teries, the commonest laws of nature in- 
scrutable. In fact, the ignorance of nature 
as a whole among the majority of the 
graduates of the so-called liberal colleges is 
usually abysmal in its profundity, stygian 
in its opacity. In the rules of philosophy 
they may be able to ‘ distinguish and divide 
a hair betwixt south and southwest side,’ 
but are unable to tell the difference between 
granite and limestone, a polywog and a por- 
poise. In the laws of political economy 
they may talk learnedly and dogmatically, 
but are unable to locate the liver in their 
own body or to tell its functions. I verily 
believe that a third of the graduates in arts 
of our universities and a fourth of their in- 
structors could not tell whether the pan- 
creas is located above or below the dia- 
phragm, or whether or not they have either 
pancreas or diaphragm at all. Grant Allen, 
in the Cosmopolitan, says: ‘‘ Quite well-in- 
formed people will speak of a porpoise or a 
lobster as a fish; such grotesque blunders 
ought to be made impossible; they ought to 
be considered far more damnatory evidence 
of ignorance and ill-breeding than ‘you 
was’ or‘meand him went there.’” With 
such a standard how many college gradu- 
ates are there who are educated ? 
President Dwight, in the same periodical, 
says: ‘In any future development of the 
college system the chief purpose of general 
culture should not give way or be subordi- 
SCLENCE. 
869 
nated to any purpose of special culture with 
a view of some special work in future 
years.” Itis this spirit of culture for cul- 
ture’s sake that has dominated Yale College 
so thoroughly in past years and which 
makes the institution to-day the best type 
of the non-utilitarian education in America. 
The same conservatism is evinced in Pro- 
fessor Peck’s attitude toward education. 
The classical student with him is a ‘gentle- 
man and a scholar,’ while the scientific 
student is a ‘sublimated tinker.’ No won- 
der that he urges the unwisdom of a higher 
education for the masses of the people. 
There is much in favor of the primary 
importance of mind-building in education, 
and no education can be the best that 
makes it subordinate to the mere acquisi- 
tion of knowledge. But the position is 
assumed, by those who favor the classical 
education, that utilitarian studies may not 
be at the same time cultural ; that one may 
not get useful knowledge and mind-build- 
ing at the same time. 
To use President Andrews’ words: “ Our 
strictures upon classical studies in college 
would have less weight were it not that 
these subjects crowd from the curriculum 
numerous others which would at least be 
equally suitable for college drill and incom- 
parably more valuable later. The common 
opinion seems to be that, to be useful in dis- 
ciplining the mind, matter for study must 
be useless for the purposes of life. There 
could be no greater error. Studies like 
social, political, physical and _ biological 
science, and modern literature and history, 
all of which are vitally important for intel- 
ligent men and women who must live and 
act their part to-day, are precisely the ones 
best calculated to enlarge, cultivate and 
strengthen the intellect.”’ 
The mistake that President Dwight and 
those who think with him make is in as- 
suming that all men are capable of the 
broadest and highest culture, or that a 
