482 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 274. 



even if the adversary does not think them 

 very hard. I had spent several years in mas- 

 tering a certain amount of Latin, Greek, 

 mathematics and a few other subjects of 

 supposed minor importance. In regard to 

 educational values my opinions were soon 

 very decided ; and the decision was by no 

 means in favor of the curriculum through 

 which I had been guided by my respected 

 but mistaken friends, the professors. It is 

 a familiar saying that "history repeats 

 itself." Having stepped some years ago out 

 of the'young man's shoes into those of the 

 professor, I am now at liberty to wonder 

 how many students will go forth from this 

 institution next summer, ready to prove 

 that not onlj' I myself, but all of my 

 esteemed friends, my colleagues in this 

 faculty, are old fogies. 



The world cannot get along without 

 young men. Perhaps it could, but it does 

 not; get along without the old fogies. We 

 have all heard of the man who was born 

 tired. I have actually seen a good many 

 men who were born old fogies, and who 

 became superannuated before reaching mid- 

 dle age. I have seen others who had passed 

 their three score years and ten without losing 

 the passion for progress, the willingness to 

 take in new ideas, the intellectual alertness 

 of their youth. But certain it is that most 

 of us need contact with j'oung men to keep 

 us from becoming too self-satisfied. The 

 college professor has other duties besides 

 pouring out knowledge and testing his stu- 

 dents by written examinations. He must 

 be tested by them ; he must let them see 

 that the reciprocity is not all on one side. 

 As soon as he begins to think that he has 

 nothing to learn from them, it becomes the 

 proper time for him to step aside. They 

 ai'e his teachers so long as he retains the 

 capacity to learn. They may make mis- 

 takes; but so does he. They are generally 

 disposed to be progressive, if their inde- 

 pendence has not been stifled hj too great 



success in acquiring the habit of depending 

 upon authority. If there is any one char- 

 acteristic by which the scientific education 

 of to-day is conspicuously in contrast with 

 the so-called liberal education of two genera- 

 tions ago, it is found in the modern incul- 

 cation of the duty to be independent and 

 manly, to use authorities as means and not 

 as ends, and to accept no authority what- 

 ever as beyond question. 



Let us go back for a moment then into 

 ancient history and inquire into the origin 

 of the worship which some of us were 

 taught to oifer to the fair goddess of liberal 

 culture, the worship of a name while the 

 actual culture was anything but liberal. 

 It is not my wish to criticise our own con- 

 ditions here ; for happily the Washington 

 and Lee University of to-day is so different 

 from the Washington College of our grand- 

 fathers that they would find themselves 

 much puzzled, perhaps even shocked, if 

 they could step forth from their graves and 

 visit us. The idea with which they were 

 saturated was that the chief end of all 

 education was discipline, and that a certain 

 small number of subjects were inherently 

 better for discipline than all else that re- 

 lated to human interests. If the young 

 man were drilled until he could memorize 

 a Greek play, a Latin oration, and a chap- 

 ter of calculus, he was conventionally the 

 possessor of liberal culture. The allowance 

 was, as we now believe, very illiberal ; but 

 it was all that he could get. There were 

 three liberal professions, divinity, law, and 

 medicine, one of which he must select, but 

 not one of which involved any special ap- 

 plication of what he had studied in college. 

 Vicarious discipline was, therefore, the sa- 

 cred means by which he was to attain his 

 earthly salvation. 



Such an idea of education was accepted 

 quite generally and cheerfully, because it 

 was traditional and therefore respectable. 

 It had been usual not only during the pre- 



