134 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 448. 



doing will soon be the rule in medical edu- 

 cation. And not only will the course 

 from the high school to the doctor of medi- 

 cine degree be a fixed one, with only such 

 variations as may lead to diverse ends in 

 the profession, but I believe that the course 

 will reach back into the high school, even 

 as the engineering course already does 

 to some extent. Furthermore, not only 

 will such methods be accepted as most 

 fitting in these professions, but similar 

 methods will eventually become the rule 

 for all the more important professions and 

 vocations in life. Is there not, then, a 

 grain of reason in the protest of the busi- 

 ness man that the college education does 

 not prepare for business life? How, too, 

 can Professor Thorndike expect to see any 

 material increase in the proportion of Phi 

 Beta Kappa scholars in such professions 

 unless the mountains come quite to Ma- 

 homet by the admission that the profes- 

 sional scholar may be the equal of the cul- 

 tural scholar? 



I would not for a moment have it in- 

 ferred that I have aught to say in depre- 

 cation of that general cultural education of 

 which Phi Beta Kappa has been for so 

 long the honored exponent, but I do say 

 that such an education is in large part a 

 special education, and not to be desired 

 for all men. Though such men as Pro-' 

 fessor Peck may still continue to assert 

 that the graduate of the liberal arts course 

 is a 'gentleman and scholar,' while the sci- 

 entific man is only a 'sublimated tinker,' 

 the world in general is ceasing to look upon 

 the scientist as being only half educated, 

 and the sooner the last vestige of such 

 pedantry has disappeared the better it will 

 be for American higher education. 



I do insist that for either the literary or 

 the scientific student the education should 

 widen his sympathies and broaden his out- 

 look. A few cranks may be endured, but 

 a world of cranks would be a dreary place 



to live in. But one may have broad sym- 

 pathies without being a jack of all trades, 

 and the intermingling of many men of 

 many minds does more to teach us toler- 

 ance than all the book education that can 

 be compressed into the cranium of the 

 pedant. The best remedy for intolerance 

 is the habit of thinking accurately. 



I urge only that every lad or every lass 

 should be early guided into the pathway 

 along which his future lies, that he should 

 have a motive for all he does. A motive, 

 indeed, is more important than much 

 knowledge, for it brings zeal, ambition and 

 earnestness, so often, so deplorably often, 

 lacking in the college undergraduate. In- 

 deed, I care less for the kind of a prepara- 

 tion a student has if he clearly knows what 

 he wants — he will remedy his faults in the 

 course of time. As college men I firmly 

 believe that we are too careful as to the 

 kind and amount of preparation a student 

 has when he enters college and too care- 

 less of the work he does while in college. 

 Some of the best and most successful stu- 

 dents I have ever known have been those 

 whom the college rules would have ex- 

 cluded, while many a one who fulfills aU 

 technical requirements is a dismal failure. 



It was but six years ago that President 

 Dwight of Yale University said: 'In any 

 future development of the college system, 

 the chief purpose of general culture should 

 not give way or be subordinated to any 

 purpose of special culture, with a view of 

 some special work in future years. ' It has 

 been but a few weeks since the educational 

 world has been startled by the announce- 

 ment that Greek would no longer be re- 

 quired of the Bachelor of Arts graduate 

 of Yale. Nor is this all. "Whereas to-day 

 Yale College requires eight or ten years' 

 study of the ancient languages as a pre- 

 requisite for the B.A. degree, next year 

 it will require not more than four, and 

 none of them in the college. Such con- 



