648 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 434. 



"If this doctrine had as strong in- 

 fluence," continues Rankine, "over the 

 actions of men as it now has over their rea- 

 sonings, it would have been unnecessary 

 for me to describe so fully as I have done 

 the great scientific fallacy of the ancients. 

 I might, in fact, have passed it over in 

 silence, as dead and forgotten; but, un- 

 fortunately, that discrepancy between 

 theory and practice, which in sound phys- 

 ical and mechanical science is a delusion, 

 has a real existence in the mind of men; 

 :and that fallacy, though rejected by their 

 .judgments, continues to exert an influence 

 over their acts. Therefore it is that I have 

 endeavored to trace the prejudice and prac- 

 tice, especially in mechanics, to its origin; 

 ■ mid to show that it is the ghost of a defunct 

 fallacy of the ancient Greeks and of the 

 jmediaval schoolmen." 



Enough has been said to illustrate my 

 ■point. The influence of schools of applied 

 science is vast and far-reaching, and 

 every dollar spent in the establishment and 

 maintenance of well-considered schools not 

 only returns abundantly to the states in 

 which the schools are centered, but their 

 usefulness may extend to the nation and 

 the world at large. Patriotism now needs 

 no better object than the founding of such 

 schools. 



We may now justly turn to enquire into 

 the character of the education for the indi- 

 vidual that may be derived from such 

 schools. Herbert Spencer names in a 

 sentence the true criterion by which to 

 judge of the adequacy of an educational 

 process, and I can not refrain from a 

 quotation: "To prepare us for complete 

 living," says he, "is the function which 

 education has to discharge; and the only 

 rational mode of judging of any educa- 

 tional course is to judge in what degree it 

 discharges such function." 



Here arises the query. What is complete 



living? Spencer answers this, but we may 

 each likewise answer for himself out of 

 his personal consciousness and experience: 

 An education for complete living includes 

 training the faculties of self-preservation, 

 the faculties of self-support, the faculties 

 of proper parentage, the faculties of proper 

 citizenship, including the betterment of our 

 political and social relations, the faculties 

 of properly enjoying one's leisure and lend- 

 ing enjoyment to others. Education, to 

 use the words of Huxley, 'ought to be 

 directed to the making of men,' and must 

 include 'things and their forces, but (also) 

 men and their ways.' We can not, we 

 must not, cultivate one to the exclusion of 

 the other. 



The study of science and its applications, 

 in the atmosphere of our better engineer- 

 ing schools, certainly lends largely to each 

 of the faculties and powers which are re- 

 quired for complete living. It has been 

 asserted that it lends more immediately to 

 the earlier and less disinterested ones ; but 

 this assertion I must deny. The profession 

 of the engineer demands a creative imagin- 

 ation cultivated to the sober, clear sight 

 which sees things as they are; and a quick 

 appreciation of the effect of sentences and 

 their combinations; which make him akin 

 to the creators of art and literature, and 

 give him in large degree the more disin- 

 terested faculties named. I am willing to 

 yield to no one in an appreciation of art, 

 literature and music as an element of the 

 highest importance in the education which 

 goes to relieve the strain of an over- 

 arduous professional existence and to 

 smooth the relations between fellow men; 

 and I can not but regret that these liberal 

 branches must be omitted from the cur- 

 ricula of the engineering schools. But I 

 also can not fail to remember that an edu- 

 cation in applied science brings keenness 

 of perception, and recognition of truth and 



