476 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 352. 



But, putting aside pseudo science, the 

 modern thought of the creation is that it 

 was and is a part of the all- wise plan to 

 fill the earth with unsolved problems, the 

 study and solution of which should develop 

 our best powers, and at the same time cul- 

 tivate our highest instincts of reverence for 

 the Creator and of love and devotion for 

 His creatures. 



It has taken many centuries for the 

 world to discover that the great forces of 

 nature are neither sacred nor profane, 

 neither kind nor cruel, that they neither 

 love nor hate, and that they are more un- 

 changeable than the stars ; that shrines 

 and temples, priests and priestesses, tripods 

 and oracles, have been in vain, except so far 

 as they reacted upon the human heart and 

 satisfied its natural craving for the worship 

 of the Superior Being. Instead of building 

 a temple to the far- darting Apollo or to 

 Zeus, the Thunderer, we now stretch over 

 our cities a network for artificial lighting ; 

 and all the winds that blow and all the 

 waters that flow are made to furnish their 

 tribute to our comfort and pleasure. We 

 tap the sources of endless energy and trans- 

 mit it through all the ramifications of our 

 social order, relieving mankind from heavy 

 burdens and creating hundreds of occupa- 

 tions hitherto unknown. 



Out of this vast extension of the horizon 

 of human activities, and a corresponding 

 multiplication of occupations, has come an 

 imperative demand for more education and 

 for technically educated men. In our 

 industrial system the crying want has been 

 and is for men who can both plan and exe- 

 cute. The secret of our unparalleled com- 

 mercial and industrial success lies in the 

 fact that we have put educated brains into 

 our work. Hence a score of professions 

 unthought of 100 years ago have been 

 called into being, and the standards of these 

 new professions are of the highest order. 



It is this grand movement towards a 



study of the materials and the forces of 

 nature and the problems of modern life, 

 sociological, commerical and industrial, 

 that constitutes the change of front in edu- 

 cation. This does not mean that we must 

 abandon altogether the old education. We 

 must preserve all that is permanently fine 

 and essential to high thinking and well 

 doing. The great epics of Homer, like the 

 book of Job and the Psalms of David, will 

 live forever, imperishable monuments of 

 the youth of the world, but we shall not 

 perpetually care for Aristotle's speculations 

 about the origin of matter, or the con- 

 ceited discussions of Cicero at Tusculum. 

 Modern life in all its details has so far de- 

 parted from the ancient that neither the 

 moralizings nor the tragedies have a lively 

 and sustained interest for us. We are 

 deeply interested in the affairs of today, 

 in a civilization not based upon human 

 slavery, nor upon a blooded aristocracy 

 buttressed and supported by millions of 

 laborers ground down in ignorance, poverty 

 and superstition, but based upon the prin- 

 ciple of human equality before the law, 

 and of equal rights to life, liberty and the 

 pursuit of happiness. 



In turning from an inherited scheme of 

 education which faced backward, which 

 concerned itself largely with the thought, 

 the deeds and the theories of the past, and 

 in proclaiming the universal need, as well 

 as the universal opportunity, of education, 

 we must not fail to preserve the dignity 

 and the nobility of our educational 

 standards. In spite of frequent assump- 

 tions to the contrary, modern education is 

 becoming more and more ' liberal. ' The 

 defenders of the Johnsonian programs 

 delight in the use of unworthy epithets 

 with which to characterize the tendency of 

 modern education ; they plead for ' human- 

 ities ' as though anything human was for- 

 eign to our curriculum. What can be 

 more human than human life as we see it 



