308 SCIENCE TEACHING. 



between the knowledge that all factors must be collected and classified, and 

 tbe ability to collect and classify them. In the light of Ihese facts science 

 studies again appeal to iis for a change o± venue from the "oj)tional " to 

 the "required" course in the curriculum of education. Reservation of 

 judgment is almost unknown, and he who practices it is considered mulish 

 and intolerably ignorant. So ver}^ common is the unconsidered judgment 

 that it is very probable we need not leave the town of Sedalia to find bun. 

 dreds who accept or reject the theory of Darwin with equal certainty and 

 confidence, neither of whom pretends to know anything of embryology, 

 structural differences and affinities of geologic history. So thorough is this 

 popular delusion that we must have some settled opinion, that most any of 

 our unprofessional neighbors, at the first request, will not hesitate long before 

 expressing his opinion upon the fluidity of the earth's interior, the result 

 of the eastern war, the nature of the sun's heat supj)ly, or Snell's discovery 

 of the relation of incidence to the trigonometrical properties of the line. The 

 time is not far distant when it will be considered that he who makes asser- 

 tions ought to be competent to investigate them. These evils — not harmless 

 in their character — cannot be corrected until a radical change is effected in 

 our course of instruction. The order of mental processes is based upon the 

 perceptions ; from these perceptions, manifold in variety, conceptions are 

 formed ; the consideration, comparison and discrimination of concej)tions 

 from the reasoning process, and from this is derived the final judgment or 

 conclusion. If any of these proces&es have been incomjjlete or wanting, to 

 that extent is the conclusion vitiated or worthless. From a mistaken view 

 of the antecedents and character of knowledge, we have the popular delu- 

 sion that by simply reading definitions and generalizations in science, we 

 thereby become scientific men, in full possession of scientific minds, 

 able to see the fall scope and bearing of scientific research, en- 

 dowed with full authority to draw its boundary lines and make 

 all needful and necessary restrictions. But the result of simj)ly 

 reading science is far different from this. The convincing power of 

 a conclusion drawn from the domain of science is felt and known by an ex- 

 perimental knovfledge of the data upon whicli the generalization rests. It is 

 he only, who has had this experience, that knows the intricate and obscure 

 phenomena, the grand evidences and the mazy labyrinth leading up the 

 luminous track track to knowledge. The real and potential value of knowl- 

 edge obtained by the developing effects of experience clashing watli the 

 alternately hopeless and treasured theory of a loved ancestry, obtained by 

 the tortuous and tentative ways of truth-loving zeal, can not be picked up 

 by the purposing nut gatherer of knowledge. Simple memorization of 

 facts or their relations is neither the acquisition of science nor scientific 

 power. If science includes the classification of facts it equally includes the 

 classification of experiences. When, then, a public sjoeaker expresses his 

 opinion quite confidently upon a conclusion in science, before even a lim- 

 ited amount of confidence can be given, the listener is compelled to ask, 



