164 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 449. 



perative restrictions are that we must not 

 prescribe the same curricuhim for all stu- 

 dents, and that we must not entertain in- 

 vidious distinctions with respect to any of 

 the curricula. According to this view, 

 then, the formal education of schools and 

 colleges does not consist, as many well-edu- 

 cated people seem to think, in the pursuit 

 of certain studies, but rather in the pursuit 

 of some studies thoroughly well. Herein, 

 it seems to me, is the theoretical as well 

 as the practical solution of the whole mat- 

 ter of the conflict of studies. Provisionally, 

 we have pretty generally reached this con- 

 clusion in America. It only remains to 

 replace the narrowness which is willing 

 to accept the traditional limits of learning 

 by a breadth which would hesitate to set 

 any such limits. 



If we accept this enlargement of our 

 inteUeetual horizon, and there seems to be 

 no doubt that we shall soon do so, it will 

 be easy to brush away the distinctions 

 which have long clouded our minds, and 

 still affect our judgments, in the classifi- 

 cation of studies. The ad,jeetives liberal, 

 technical, humanistic and professional, as 

 commonly used to denote differences or to 

 mark invidious distinctions, will be found 

 to be, usually, misleading or meaningless. 

 All studies conscientiously and laboriously 

 pursued will be seen to be liberalizing and 

 humanizing, whether they be pursued with 

 or without a technical or professional end 

 in view. That it is any more creditable to 

 study the works of Dante and Shakespeare 

 than it is to study the works of Galileo and 

 Darwin will be found to be a frail figment 

 of the imagination, growing out of the sup- 

 posed holiness of metaphysics and the sup- 

 posed unholiness of physics. 



In the educational transformation that 

 has come about in the last three decades, 

 our schools of science and technology have 

 played an important role. It goes without 



saying that they have demonstrated their 

 right to existence, that they have come to 

 stay, and that they should play a still more 

 important educational role in the future. 

 They have won their way to prominence in 

 spite of all opposition ; and I think it may 

 be justly said that in thoroughness of work 

 and in the development of the spirit of 

 energy and independence essential to the 

 successful and useful citizen they have 

 already surpassed the older classical col- 

 leges. But the strength of their position 

 is measured not so much by academic 

 standards as by the achievements of their 

 graduates. The world no longer asks 

 where and how men have been trained; it 

 goes straight to the point and enquires what 

 they can do. This is the supreme test. 

 That the graduates of our technical schools 

 have met this test successfully is proved 

 by their eifieiency in nearly every walk of 

 life. The prominence of their work is es- 

 pecially noteworthy in the great industrial 

 progress of our times. The civil, the chem- 

 ical, the electrical, the mining, the metal- 

 lurgical, the naval and the sanitary 

 engineer have established a claim to recog- 

 nition among the learned professions. 

 Astronomers, botanists, chemists, geologists, 

 geodesists, phj'sicians, zoologists and other 

 so-called specialists have also demonstrated 

 by actual achievements that a scientific 

 training fits men well for the work of the 

 world. 



In the meantime great changes have 

 likewise taken place in the curricula and 

 in the attitude towards science of our 

 classical colleges. Most of them have 

 given place in their required or elective 

 studies for the principal sciences. Many 

 of them have limited the requirements in 

 the classical languages to a minimum ; while 

 a few of our leading institutions have gone 

 so far as to give the degree of A.B. with- 

 out any requirement in Latin or Greek. 



