May 17, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



539 



especially in pedagogics, between the scien- 

 tific method and the intellectual life of the 

 individual, one cannot but reaffirm in the 

 light of experience what has long been main- 

 tained b_y those who advocate the funda- 

 mental position of science in every educa- 

 tional system. In the domain of reason, 

 breadth, grasp and clarity are developed as 

 under no other discipline, Sanitj' in emo- 

 tion is secured, and vigor, together with 

 modesty and a reasonable deliberation, 

 tends to distinguish the active life of the 

 man who has brought himself into what 

 may be styled a scientific frame of mind. 

 The accumulation of any mass of facts, if 

 the search be tireless, must stimulate the 

 growth of a certain cosmopolitanism. The 

 Scarabean doubtless found more foreign let- 

 ters in his mail than did the Autocrat. 

 When one goes farther and attempts an in- 

 duction or an hypothesis he must hold 

 firmly the facts he has, his eye must be un- 

 clouded, his step steady, or he will fail. 

 Still more certainlj- will his office remain an 

 humble one if, when he ventures to make 

 known to others his discoveries or conclu- 

 sions, he want in transparency and pre- 

 cision. Nor will the man whose life is truly 

 illuminated by the sun of science lack some- 

 what of self-control ; under less favorable 

 conditions this equipoise may take the guise 

 of unenthusiasm, but at its best it is activity 

 — sympathic, tolerant, enlightened. Such 

 being their recognized educational produc- 

 tivity, the so-ailled sciences have taken 

 masterful positions in the schools of Europe 

 and America. It will not be necessary here 

 to point out in detail the precise pedagogic 

 adaptability and the importance of the 

 various sciences in a general educational 

 scheme ; it will suffice to inquire whether 

 it be not true that whatever branch of learn- 

 ing popularly classed outside of the sciences 

 maintains itself in school curricula, it does 

 80 by Aartue of the scientific method being 

 possible in its presentation. 



Although clearly not so fundamental in 

 their eftect upon the individual character 

 as must be these simple reactions where the 

 scientific method is brought into an alem- 

 bic with nascent intellect, there are some 

 relatively subtle yet far-reaching influences 

 that should not be overlooked. From a 

 number that might be chosen I will bring 

 forward three, A just appreciation and 

 personal application of the scientific method 

 tends to discourage introspective and meta- 

 physical habits of thought, to counteract 

 the insidious pessimism with which so much 

 of modern life is tinged, and to impel one 

 unmistakably toward a rational and sober 

 altruism. I would not be understood to 

 regard metaphysics as altogether pernicious. 

 At its worst it may be as Walter Pater 

 thought it, ' the art of methodically mud- 

 dling one's self,' but it has its place and its 

 mission. Yet there is an individualLstic 

 and almost a selfish tendency in much of 

 what passes for philosophy. One need not 

 pursue the thorny path of dialectics to the 

 end that one denies the existence of all but 

 himself Whatever intellectual attitude de- 

 mands, an attentive scrutiny of one's own 

 mental, moral or physical mechanism can 

 not but be self-centered. For this reason, 

 if for no other, the failure of deductive phi- 

 losophy to carry its influence lieyoud the 

 lecture room or semiuarium might easily 

 have been predicated in advance. The stu- 

 dent of the history of philosophy is scarcely 

 more impressed by the cumulative intricacy 

 of philosophic speculation than by its pro- 

 gressive futility as a guide in the every-day 

 aftairs of life. Employment of the scien- 

 tific method discourages on the whole that 

 naive self-inspection which was the badge 

 of the older intellectual cultiig, just as on the 

 other hand it lends encouragement to the 

 open-ej'ed, outward searchings of the mod- 

 ern investigiitor. This objectivity, whether 

 or not it be an indication of intellectual 

 maturity in a nation, is distinctly charac- 



