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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 83. 



grandeur is increased. He is then led to 

 entertain broader vie^vs of Nature and to 

 see more clearly the relations of part to part. 

 Finally he is led to a proper appreciation of 

 his place in nature: possibly he is humbled 

 by the certainty of his individual insignifi- 

 cance in the vast organism, but he is 

 strengthened by the equal certainty that in 

 his race he is the inheritor of all that makes 

 for progress and advancement. 



Men of this department of Natural 

 Science Instruction, shall we not make of sci- 

 ence a help to higher culture, rather than an 

 aid to more material success ? Let us give 

 it wings, so that it may carry our pupils 

 above mere earthly things, and not doom it 

 to do no more than turn our spindles, haul 

 our goods and coin our money. While we 

 rejoice in these material achievements of 

 science, let us bear in mind that these are 

 not of supreme importance. When we 

 stand by the mighty Niagara we realize 

 that it has an infinitely higher significance 

 for man than the mere turning of wheels. 

 Just as the solemn flood of water speaks to 

 and stirs man's deeper thoughts, and makes 

 him forget the wheel-turning power of the 

 rushing torrent, so the profound contempla- 

 tion of nature through enlightened and un- 

 trammeled science leads him away from 

 sordid things up to the higher planes of 

 thought and experience. 



Chas. E. Bessey. 



TBE HVMANISTIC ELEMENT IN SCIENCE* 

 The time has happily passed when the 

 rival supporters of literary studies on the 

 one hand and of scientific studies on the 

 other slept on their arms or engaged in 

 open combat. Both sides were intent on 

 victory, with no disposition to give quarter 

 or to concede that the truth might not all 

 be on one side. But when opponents have 

 come to know each other better they not 



*Eead at the Buffalo Meeting of the N. E. A., 

 July 9, 1896. 



infrequently abide by at least a tacit agree- 

 ment to live as friends. We have now ar- 

 rived at such a stage in educational history 

 and practice. An occasional note of dis- 

 cord still comes from the few who refuse to 

 be reconstructed ; but the prominent figures 

 in the old conflict are fast passing over to 

 the majority, and the new generation is 

 born with a more pacific spirit. The pur- 

 suits of peace are more liberalizing than the 

 devastations of war. Hence the origin at _ 

 first of a spirit of toleration, and then of || 

 equality and fraternity. It is now time to 

 inquire about a common ancestry and com- 

 munity of aims and interests. The spirit 

 of the times does not sanction narrow 

 bigotry or unseemly dissension. Educa- 

 tional intolerance is now as much an an- 

 achronism as religious intolerance or mar- 

 tyrdom for conscience. It has come to be 

 recognized that no one system of theology 

 contains all the truth, and no one branch 

 of human learning is the sole instrument of 

 culture, nor does it possess the exclusive 

 capacity of imparting power. 



At the time of the revival of learning in 

 the Middle Ages the apostles of the Eenais- 

 sance, who introduced the study of classical 

 literature, were called humanists. Hence 

 humanism has often been called ' the cul- 

 ture derived from classical training.' But 

 more broadly, humanism is a system of 

 thought in which the human element or in- 

 terest predominates . The humanities there- 

 fore include much more than classical Ian- 

 guage and literature. They stand for«i 

 philology, poetry, rhetoric, grammar and 

 archaeology, as well as for the Greek and 

 Eoman classics. Philological studies, says 

 G. P. Marsh, "were called literce humaniores, 

 the humanities, by way of opposition to the 

 literce divince, or divinity, the two studies, 

 philology and theology, then completing 

 the circle of scholastic knowledge, which, 

 at the period of the introduction of the 

 phrase, scarcely included any branch of 



