398 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 15. 



to be deprecated that scientific men do not 

 generally pay more attention to the forma- 

 tion of a correct English style, and do 

 not oftener acquire the ability to ex- 

 press the results of their studies in more 

 elegant English diction. On the other 

 hand, an exclusive training in the so- 

 called humanities leaves the student 

 unsymmetrically developed. The elemen- 

 tary study of language is largely a study of 

 the forms and symbols of speech ; to the 

 young student, at least, the thought is alto- 

 gether a secondary consideration. Mathe- 

 matics furnishes a training in the relations 

 of abstract number, and in the manipulation 

 of symbols invented to facilitate operations 

 expressing the relations between related 

 quantities. It is not only a valuable agency 

 in mental development, but it is a powerful 

 instrument for the investigation of phenom- 

 ena in those branches of science to which 

 applied mathematics is indispensable. Sci- 

 ence has more to do than either language 

 or mathematics with objective phenomena. 

 The student of science soon finds that he 

 has a new set of relationships with which 

 to deal. He may be familiar with mathe- 

 matical theorems and solutions, but his first 

 difiiculty is to see the points of attachment 

 of mathematics to the facts of physical sci- 

 ence. He is armed with a weapon of most 

 modern design and exquisite workmanship, 

 and he has possibly obtained some skill in 

 target practice, but he has no eye for game. 

 He may be too short-sighted to see that 

 there is any game even. 



Skill in the use of scientific methods of 

 reasoning and acquirement comes only 

 after the mind has been kept for some time 

 in contact with science, so that it has ac- 

 quired the scientific spirit and aptitude. 

 The preparation for the scientific work of 

 the university should therefore begin in 

 the secondary schools. Continuity in scien- 

 tific acquisition is as essential as in that of 

 language or mathematics. While six, or 



even eight, years are given to language in 

 the high school, counting the four years 

 with three studies each as twelve, it is 

 thought bj' some to be an evidence of great 

 magnanimity if two years out of the twelve^ 

 are given over to the mere elements of 

 physical and biological science. It is 

 obvious to any careful observer that 

 much improvement has been made in the 

 teaching of science in secondary schools 

 within the last few years. More competent 

 teachers are employed, laboratory facilities 

 have been provided, better manuals have 

 been written, and the tone of the science 

 department has been improved by the fact 

 that preparation in science at last leads to 

 something further in the university. This 

 continuity in the pursuit of scientific studies 

 has already furnished qualified teachers for 

 the lower schools. What wonder if the 

 teaching of science in the schools should 

 not have proved as fruitful as was once 

 hoped ! Till recently language and mathe- 

 matics have had the training of the teachers 

 throughout our whole educational historj', 

 and if science secured entrance to a second- 

 ary school at all it got there in a secondary 

 place. All that science asks is to be placed 

 on equal footing with other lines of study. 

 It demands no preferences and is strenuous 

 that no ultimate bounties shall be extended 

 to other branches. There should be no 

 favored nations in the world of education. 

 It recognizes no excellences in language or 

 literature to justify superior awards at 

 graduation. There are no sacred vessels in 

 education which science maj'^ not touch, 

 no shibboleth which she cannot pronounce, 

 no holy of holies which she should be for- 

 bidden to enter. The ideal culture course 

 is not all science, not all language, and not 

 all mathematics, but a judicious combi- 

 nation of these and other branches. It 

 would be no less logical for one to make 

 one's course chiefiy science than to make it 

 chiefly language ; but when the student has 



