SCIENTIFIC ED UCA TI ON. 423 



not been spared a few years longer to complete his investigations of the 

 Greek particle a, to the studj^ of which he had devoted his life. The most 

 far-reaching consequence of the general acceptance of the scientific meth- 

 od of investigation, and the latter day broadening of its scope, is its eifect 

 mpon such speculative and practical questions regarding life, as have pro- 

 foundl}^ interested men from earliest times. It is pretty plain to most 

 thinking men, that the idea of intellectual freedom is spreading among 

 cultured nations, and with it a broad humanitarian view of men's relations 

 to each other. Under the light of science, old landmarks are being swept 

 away with a remorseless hand, and doctrines and ideas that once seemed as 

 unchangeable as the everlasting hills are being questioned with a pene- 

 trating earnestness. What were suj)posed to be historical facts are either 

 discovered to be no facts at all, or must be so modified in their interpreta- 

 tion, as to have an entirely new significance. Opinions are formed more 

 slowly now than of old, just in proportion as the amount of evidpnce to be 

 weighed is so much greater now than them. History must be re-reviewed 

 in the light of modern discoveries, which have followed each other during 

 the last quarter of a century, so thick and fast as to task the intellectual 

 strength of a generation to arrange and classify in their scientific bearings. 

 There are mpre gifted men than over before, more specialists in every realm 

 of human thought, and more searchers after truth, who, in all parts of the 

 world, are accumulating facts and data, on which the generalizations of 

 future philosophers are to be based. So far as new discoveries and methods 

 bear upon material matters, our only interest is one of present use. "VVe 

 take a new idea to-day, only to throw it off to-morrow for one better adapt- 

 ed to our needs, and so advance from day to day to greater prosperity and 

 comfort. But when we come to estimate the effect of new ideas and dis- 

 coveries upon speculative matters, and apply the modern scientific method 

 of analysis by induction, we shrink from the inconoclasm thereby involved 

 and often deliberately shut our eyes with stubborn persistence, rather than 

 contemplate for an instant the possibility of error in the cherished teach- 

 ings of our 3^outh, or in the convictions of mature age. This is perfectly 

 human, is therefore natural, and should not involve the calling of hard 

 names. Being natural, this tenacity in matters of opinion, or of convic- 

 tions having all the force of truth, play an important part in the scheme 

 of intellectual development, must be weighed as a factor thereof, and not 

 treated simply as an obstinate superstitious phase of human nature to be 

 banished by cynical sneers. Whatever may be the outcome of what may 

 be termed an age of intellectual unrest, through which we are traveling, 

 one thing we can take calm contentment in, and that is in the final exalta- 

 tion of truth, which is the highest aim of science. That end may be a long 

 way off, but so surely as all nature is subject to the law of development and 

 change in some form, so surely will some future generation attain the beati- 

 tude of perfect intellectual rest. If, indeed, we ourselves do not find it 

 beyond the experiences of this life — the mysteries of which neither the 

 chemist's crucible nor the biologist's microscope can solve. 



