230 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 451. 



story, while we accept every word of the 

 latter. 



It is of course a matter of association. 

 Sir Leicester Deadlock, in Bleak House, 

 could not endure a man who experimented 

 with a steam engine and who seemed quite 

 at home with a coal-burning furnace. He 

 drew inferences as you and I do. Sir 

 Leicester inferred that the man who un- 

 derstood engines and power houses must 

 be ignorant of polite learning and un- 

 familiar with the ways of good society. So 

 you jump to the conclusion that the man 

 who knows all about Edison and the gener- 

 ation of electricity is probably ignorant of 

 Greek mythology and not proficient in 

 spelling. 



Well perhaps you are right and perhaps 

 you are wrong. But this is certain: It 

 is no longer safe to assume that your 

 engineer or your electrician is an unedu- 

 cated man, or that he lacks culture. There 

 is more than one kind of culture. Emerson 

 speaks of 'having a mechanical craft for 

 culture.' By culture I mean a knowledge 

 of some of the best things that have been 

 done and said in the world; a certain re- 

 fined and gracious spirit; a soul of honor; 

 a depth of human sympathy; a wise and 

 understanding heart; an all-pervading love 

 for what is useful and true, and therefore 

 good and beautiful. That kind of culture 

 can be gained with or without much ancient 

 literature; with or without much mathe- 

 matics; with or without the physical, bio- 

 logical or dynamic laboratory; with or 

 without the art room or the drafting room ; 

 with or without the theory of typical tools 

 and correct methods of construction. There 

 is no necessary divorce between the skilled 

 hand and the cultured mind; both are 

 needed for the highest cvilture. 



I am not pleading to-day for the minority 

 who are already in our secondary and 

 higher schools. I am not asking that vou 



deny the 'classics' to those who ask for 

 them. Get the classic arts and the me- 

 chanics too if possible; but I am pleading 

 for that vast majority who are not in sec- 

 ondary schools but who are coming, many 

 of whom will inevitably go on to our 

 colleges and technical schools. I beseech 

 you, set up no narrow aims, no insufficient 

 motives in managing these schools. Then 

 let us broaden the spirit and scope of the 

 colleges and universities. Nine out of ten 

 of them assume that the college curriculum 

 is for students aiming at five professions or 

 occupations, including teachers and 'people 

 of leisure. ' The last are those who inherit 

 wealth, and are, therefore, not under the 

 necessity of earning their own living. 

 '\A^^en Hawthorne got throiigh college he 

 carefully scrutinized the occupations which 

 seemed to be open to him. He reported his 

 conclusions as follows in a letter to his 

 mother : ' I can not become a physician and 

 live by men's diseases; I can not be a 

 lawyer and live by their quarrels ; I can not 

 be a clergyman and live by their sins. I 

 suppose there is nothing for me to do but 

 write books.' 



Now the majority who are coming will 

 inherit no wealth; they expect and desire 

 to earn their own living. We do not need 

 them as lawyers, or ministers, or doctoi-s: 

 we hope they won 't all write books ; we do 

 need them as teachers, as engineers, as ac- 

 complished workmen in our industries and 

 in oi;r iinhistorical methods of trade and 

 commerce. Let us persuade them that 

 education and skill dignify and adorn every 

 occupation, every calling; that the legiti- 

 mate fruit of a combination of literary and 

 scientific culture and technical skill in 

 dealing with materials and forces will be a 

 generation of stronger, abler and more suc- 

 cessful men in industrial, commercial and 

 political life. 



Let us begin, if you please, by training 



