78 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 446. 



accuracy and elegance; therefore linguis- 

 tic training has had great importance in 

 the idea of cultivation. The conditions of 

 the educated world have, however, changed 

 so profoundly since the revival of learning 

 in Italy that our inherited ideas concern- 

 ing training in language and literature 

 have required large modifications. 



In the year 1400 it might have been said 

 with truth that there was but one language 

 of the scholars, the Latin, and but two 

 great literatures, the Hebrew and the 

 Greek. Since that time, however, other 

 great literatures have arisen, the Italian, 

 Spanish, French, German, and, above all, 

 the English, which has become incompara- 

 bly the most extensive and various and the 

 noblest of literatures. 



Under these circumstances it is impos- 

 sible to maintain that a knowledge of any 

 particular literature is indispensable to 

 culture. When we ask ourselves why a 

 knowledge of literature seems indispens- 

 able to the ordinary idea of cultivation, we 

 find no answer except this — that in litera- 

 ture are portrayed all human passions, 

 desires and aspirations, and that acquain- 

 tance with these human feelings and with 

 the means of portraying them seems to us 

 essential to culture. The linguistic and 

 literary element in cultivation therefore 

 abides, but has become vastly broader than 

 formerly, so broad, indeed, that selection 

 among its various fields is forced upon 

 every educated youth. 



The store of Imowledge. The next great 

 element in cultivation to which I ask your 

 attention is acquaintance with some parts 

 of the store of Imowledge which humanity 

 in its progress from barbarism has ac- 

 quired and laid up. This is the prodig- 

 ious store of recorded, rationalized and 

 systematized discoveries, experiences and 

 ideas— the store which we teachers try to 

 pass on to the rising generation. 



The capacity to assimilate this store and 



improve it in each successive generation 

 is the distinction of the human race over 

 other animals. It is too vast for any man 

 to master, though he had a hundred lives 

 instead of one; and its growth in the nine- 

 teenth century was greater than in all the 

 thirty preceding centuries put together. 

 In the eighteenth century' a diligent stu- 

 dent with strong memory and quick pow- 

 ers of apprehension need not have de- 

 spaired of mastering a large fraction of 

 this store of knowledge. Long before the 

 end of the nineteenth century such a task 

 had become impossible. 



Culture, therefore, can no longer imply 

 a knowledge of everything — not even a 

 little knowledge of everything. It must 

 be content with general knowledge of some 

 things, and a real mastery of some small 

 portion of the human store. Here is a 

 profoimd modification of the idea of culti- 

 vation which the nineteenth century has 

 brought about. What portion or portions 

 of the infinite hiunan store are most proper 

 to the cultivated man? The answer must 

 be— those which enable him, with his indi- 

 vidual personal qualities, to deal best and 

 sympathize best with nature and with other 

 hiunan beings. 



It is here that the passion for service 

 must fuse with the passion for knowledge. 

 We have learned from nineteenth century 

 experience that there is no field of real 

 knowledge which may not suddenly prove 

 contributory in a high degree to human 

 happiness and the progress of civilization, 

 and therefore acceptable as a worthy ele- 

 ment in the truest culture. 



Imagination. The only other element 

 in cultivation which time will permit me 

 to treat is the training of the constructive 

 imagination. The imagination is the 

 greatest of human powers, no matter in 

 what field it works— in art or literature, 

 in mechanical invention, in science, gov- 

 ernment, commerce or religion, and the 



