SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION. 421 



upon certain material conditions. Food for the stomach, clothes for the 

 back and a cover for tlie head, are the individual's first needs. Due attain- 

 ment of these in a greater or less degree is necessary before the receptivity 

 of the mind is such as to appreciate the idea that a man is two sided, intel- 

 lectual as well as animal. The intellect, like the body, grows by what it 

 feeds upon, and if this food of which it partakes, consists of an active partic- 

 ipation in the affairs of commerce, of mines, or manufacture, it is not to be 

 wondered that its legitimate craving becomes a search after the facts and 

 phenomena of nature, the proper appreciation of which is so essential to still 

 higher social advancement. As civilization progresses, the luxuries of one 

 age, imperceptibly become the necessities of the next, and any given gen- 

 eration would deem it a hardship to be compelled to return to the practices 

 of their forefathers. The railway, steamship and telegraph have made the 

 whole world kin, and year by year draw the nations of the earth together, 

 through a community of interest and an enlargement of sympathy. _ 



Before the age of steam, the experiences and observations of men, were 

 limited to the narrow surroundings of their localities. Now the experiences 

 of the world are brought to their feet, and they realize that so far from being 

 independent factors in the guiding of events, they are so many units in the 

 ocean of humanity, with a definite part to play in the scheme of development 

 and of an importance just in proportion to their power and wealth, both 

 intellectual and material. Glorify the ]3i'esent as we will, we must not 

 despise the past. There are names in antiquity associated with such com- 

 manding genius, and almost divine j)rescience, that they will live so long as 

 literature is studied or science cherished. Emerson says, the "world has 

 alwa3^s been equal to itself," and take it at any part of its unquestioned 

 history, it only has produced that which its intellectual soil and material 

 condition was capable of nourishing. In the highest sense, the greatest tri- 

 umph of science has been the reflex action upon culture and morals, as 

 evinced in the emancipation of the minds of men from baneful superstitions, 

 witchcraft, terrors of the untaught imagination, and a harmful reverence 

 for tradition. Omens and auguries, long potent in influencing the actions 

 of men, no longer held sway except among the ignorant and unlettered. 

 Such mental fetters could not last under a system that teaches men that 

 truth alone is worthy of study, to, observe nature and follow her teachings. 

 It is this contact with pure truth that elevates mankind, clears the head and 

 purifies the heart. That broadens the sympathies until they take shape in 

 efforts for the amelioration of mankind, and inculcates the idea that the 

 welfare of society is that of the individual.. This spirit of science, which 

 is truth, through self interest and sympathy, finds scope for expression in 

 the building of hospitals, in the organizing of charities, in the improve- 

 ment of laws, in the extension of the benefits of life insurance ; in the ele- 

 vation of the laborer, and in efforts towards adjusting his relations to his 

 employer. The spirit of science is a great leveler of caste, teaches the 

 equality of men before the law, and shows nations the conditions xmder 



