54 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 263. 



It is clear that loss in one direction might 

 be counterbalanced by gain in another, but 

 the true university must ever remain a 

 place where the student can obtain knowl- 

 edge of past discoveries, and of the sciences 

 based thereon, together with that broad 

 training which helps to make the educated 

 man. In other words, the university can- 

 not escape from its responsibility as an edu- 

 cational center for the diffusion of knowl- 

 edge, and any attempt to transform the 

 university into an institution for research 

 alone would be detrimental to the best in- 

 terests of higher education. 



Shall the university, on the other hand, 

 limit itself to routine instruction? To this 

 there can be but one answer, and that is 

 most emphatically, no. The true teacher 

 of science, for example, must ever be a stu- 

 dent, not only familiar with the past, but 

 ever on the alert to interpret such signs as 

 nature may make, quick to seize the oppor- 

 tunity to add to man 's knowledge, to broaden 

 and extend the limits of his chosen science, 

 to keep in touch with the advances of the 

 present and to harmonize these advances 

 with the knowledge of the past, bearing 

 clearly in mind that whatever is gained by 

 scientific inquiry or research is never lost. 

 As Sir Michael Foster has well said ia a 

 recent address, " what is gained by scientific 

 inquiry is gained forever ; it may be added 

 to, it may seem to be covered up, but it can 

 never be taken away." 



The teacher of science who is content to 

 devote himself entirely to the exposition of 

 that which is known will never make an 

 ideal teacher. He can never hope to arouse 

 that enthusiasm among his students which 

 comes from the man who adds to his power 

 of teaching that love for his science and its 

 advancement which prompts to steady, 

 courageous application in the unravelling 

 of nature's secrets. This influence for good 

 upon the man himself is not to be over- 

 looked, for I take it that the university has 



a selfish interest, if no other, in the intel- 

 lectual development and advancement of 

 the teacher who presides over this or that 

 department of science. The pursuit of 

 scientific inquirj', under proper conditions, 

 tends to the development of moral courage 

 and steadfast endurance ; it is a school of 

 discipline which leads to the acquisition of 

 strength and power, which helps to make a 

 man master of himself and at the same time 

 obedient to nature's ways. As Professor 

 Foster has said, men of science, though in 

 themselves no stronger or better than other 

 men, "possess a strength which is not their 

 own, but is that of the science whose servants 

 they are. Even in his apprenticeship the 

 scientific inquirer, while learning what has 

 been done before his time, if he learns it 

 aright, so learns it that what is known may 

 serve him not only as a vantage ground 

 whence to push ofi" into the unknown, but 

 also as a compass to guide him in his course. 

 And when fitted for his work he enters on 

 inquiry itself, what a zealous, anxious guide, 

 what a strict, and, because strict, helpful 

 schoolmistress does nature make herself to 

 him ! Under her care every inquiry, whether 

 it bring the inquirer to a happy issue or 

 seem to end in nought, trains him for the 

 next eiibrt. She so orders her ways that 

 each act of obedience to her makes the 

 next act easier for him, and step by step 

 she leads him on toward that perfect obedi- 

 ence which is complete mastery. Indeed, 

 when we reflect on the potency of the dis- 

 cipline of scientific inquiry, we cease to 

 wonder at the progress of scientific knowl- 

 edge. " 



May we not, therefore, claim, from this 

 standpoint alone, that the university should 

 look with favorable eye upon scientific in- 

 vestigation within its boundaries, since its 

 encouragement must lead to the develop- 

 ment of strength and power in its teachers ? 

 Indeed, may we not urge that this recogni- 

 tion of the indirect advantages of scientific 



