802 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 282. 



somewhat narrow limits by professional 

 surroundings. Their knowledge of chem- 

 istry and physics is bounded by the curric- 

 ulum of thirty or more years ago in the 

 larger colleges or by that of some of the 

 younger institutions with limited resources; 

 while their knowledge of biology, geology 

 and modern psychology has been derived 

 from magazine articles, popular summaries 

 or from controversial works of not wholly 

 friendly character. 



American workers in pure science, who 

 have passed middle age were trained, with 

 few exceptions, in the studies of the old 

 curriculum, so that they understand thor- 

 oughly its nature and its advantages. But 

 the exigencies of their work have compelled 

 them to recognize the deficiencies also. The 

 great majority of those laboring in pure 

 science have a working knowledge of 

 French, German, and Italian and many add 

 Spanish and Russian ; some require in ad- 

 dition a good knowledge of the oriental 

 languages as well as of numerous dialects 

 — in every case a knowledge much more 

 exact than the knowledge of Greek and 

 Latin possessed by the ordinary college 

 graduate ; and all of this merely as prepa- 

 ration for their work. Such study neces- 

 sarily brings men into touch with a great 

 rauge of knowledge, so that, especially 

 among naturalists, many are well read in 

 various branches of philosophy and almost 

 all have a broad acquaintance with litera- 

 ture. These are the men who assert delib- 

 erately that the older system of education 

 is a survival of conditions which meu have 

 outgrown and that it is no longer fitted to 

 our needs. 



In one sense, education, as training, is an 

 end in itself, being a course in mental gym- 

 nastics ; but in the true sense it is far more, 

 embracing not merely mental training but 

 also the imparting of knowledge. 



In another place, the writer likened the 

 college course to emery used in polishing 



metal and held that, as one has no concern 

 for the emery after the metal has been pol- 

 ished, so, if the youth be developed, it mat- 

 ters little whether or not his college studies 

 disappear from memory. But this is a 

 narrow view, regarding mere training as 

 the single end, not considering that this 

 strengthening, developing process consumes 

 the j'ears when the power of acquiring and 

 that of retention are most efficient. Those 

 years ought not to be expended in training 

 to the exclusion of learning. Youth in 

 America is shorter now than formerly ; 

 manhood's responsibilities come earlier and 

 are heavier; one cannot ignore the utili- 

 tarian side of education — utilitarian, not in 

 the sense of dollars and cents but in that of 

 preparing the man for usefulness. There 

 should be more than mere robustness to 

 show for the labor of the early years, some 

 capital should be accumulated with which 

 to utilize the robustness. 



Study of classical tongues retained its very 

 prominent place in college curricula long 

 after necessity for it disappeared. Until 

 little more than one hundred years ago? 

 classical languages were studied for use — 

 the study was as purely utilitarian in pur- 

 pose as is that of the Calculus to-day- 

 Latin, as the language of the medieval 

 church, was the language of educated men 

 until the latter part of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury ; university lectures were delivered in 

 Latin ; scientific, theological and philo- 

 sophical works were written in it. At the 

 revival of learning, the sources of knowledge 

 were classical and early Christian writers : 

 to reach them, acquaintance with Greek and 

 Latin was essential ; those tongues were 

 learned by students at that time as anatomy 

 is learned by the medical student of our 

 time and for the same reason. There were 

 but two learned professions, Law and The- 

 ology, with Medicine as a coming third. 

 Education was for the few, to enable them 

 to enter a profession, not to develop them, 



