204 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 8. 



day, the present, in advance of all past 

 ages. Not only by having subjugated the 

 forces of natui'e to the dominion of mind, 

 but also by its intellectual influence, science 

 is remodelliag the life and thought of mod- 

 ern humanitj'. 



Thoiigh science is the piirest knowledge, 

 yet even our estimate of knowledge has 

 been changed by science. Mere acquire- 

 ment is now considered an unworthy end 

 or aim for endeavor. Action, production 

 alone now receives our homage, now gives 

 a life worth living ; and, therefore, each 

 must aim either at the practical application 

 of his knowledge, or at the extension of the 

 limits of science itself. For to extend the 

 limits of science is really to work for the 

 progress of humanity. This is a fitting 

 crown to the sweet and symmetrical evolve- 

 ment which true teaching aids — ^the unfail- 

 ing spring of pure pleasure which it affords. 

 The laws of physical, but, above all, of 

 mental health, made clear by science, let 

 every one realize how now our truest edu- 

 cation stands ready to aid, to save, to sat- 

 isfy endangered or craving bodies or minds. 

 Nothing is more beautifully characteristic 

 of young children than the desire to know 

 the why and wherefore of everything they 

 see. This natural spirit of inquiry needs 

 only proper direction and fostering care to 

 give us scientists. But no one can teach 

 science who does not know it. For a 

 teacher, however subordinate, to have the 

 true informing spu-it to vivify his book- 

 knowledge, even of the very elements, it is 

 found almost uniformly essential that he 

 should have been in direct personal contact 

 with some one of those great men whose 

 joy it is to be able to advance the age in 

 which they live, and lead on mankind to 

 unexpected victories in the progressive con- 

 quest of the universe. But it is the highest 

 function of a university to help the gifted 

 young man on his way toward becoming 

 one of these glorious creators, these men 



who make and who honor the age in which 

 thej^ live. A universitj' should wish to 

 feed the mental leaders of the next genera- ~ 

 tion. For this nothing can take the place 

 of contact with the living spirit of research, 

 original work, creative authorship. 



Without fostering and requiring such 

 work of students and still more of all its 

 professors, no institution can be a univer- 

 sitj^ of the first class. Intimate contact 

 with a producer of the first rank is worth 

 more than the whole world of so-called 

 training by use of retailed convictions. 



The most inspii-ing teacher must have 

 known how to acquire conviction where no 

 predecessor had ever been before him; to 

 show others how to conquer new regions, 

 he must himself have broken barriers for 

 human thought. As Eector of the Univer- 

 sity of Berlin, Helmholtz said: "Our ob- 

 ject is to have instruction given only by 

 teachers who have proved their owa power 

 to advance science." There is no honest 

 test or proof of scholarship or acquirement 

 but production. The characteristic quality 

 of all the highest teaching lies in the fact 

 that it comes from a creator. 



No more convincing demonstration of 

 my thesis could be wished for than the 

 work of Sylvester for America. On page 

 233, I., of his Hohere Geometi-ie, 1893, 

 Felix Klein, as high an authority as any 

 living, says: "Sylvester hat noch 1874 als 

 60 jahriger Mann den Mut gehabt an die 

 Johns Hopkins Universitj^ in Baltimore 

 ueberzusiedeln und durch eine ganz specif- 

 ische durch 10 Jahre fortgesetzte Lehrthii- 

 tigkeit hohere mathematische Studien auf 

 amerikanischen Boden zu initiiren." 



The birth of higher mathematics in 

 America will always date from Sylvester's 

 advent at the Johns Hopkins. There and 

 then with his mighty head he raised the 

 whole western continent, and made it a 

 worth jr associate in the profoundest thought- 

 life of our world. But few know that this 



