i^'EBRUABT 18, 1887.] 



^CIEJS/CMJ. 



169 



has three primary objects : 1", it should give men- 

 tal training ; 2°, it should give a certain amount 

 of practical knowledge ; 3°, it should place the 

 student in such contact with philosophical thought 

 that he may be able to understand the trend of 

 thought at the present time. The new science of 

 dynamical biology claims attention as assisting in 

 the accomplishment of all three of these objects. 



The value of biology as a means of mental dis- 

 cipline is chiefly in exercising the powers of obser- 

 vation. No course in this study is in any way 

 complete without an accompanying course in labor- 

 atory work, though the amount of such work 

 may be sometimes very small. There is nothing 

 better adapted to teach the student to use his eyes 

 accurately than a couri^e in laboratory work upon 

 living things, including microscopic study, dissec- 

 tion, and analysis. The value of this sort of edu- 

 cation is, indeed, too jjlain to require more than a 

 notice. 



There is undoubtedly a growing demand in this 

 country that studies should have a practical 

 value ; and for any new study to force its way 

 into wide acceptance, it must be able to show that 

 it has some direct utility. Now, biology is by no 

 means a ' bread-and-butter ' study, unless, per- 

 chance, it be to those who aim to teach it. But 

 it does give the student knowledge in those direc- 

 tions which Spencer calls the essentials of educa- 

 tion, and which are too often neglected. It 

 teaches him to be a good animal. Aside from its 

 value as a prelimijiary medical training, biology 

 gives an education which every one needs. There is 

 hardly a discovery of the century which bids fair 

 to produce more influence upon the human race 

 than the gerni' theory of disease. This discovery 

 is rapidly modifying methods of dealing with 

 contagious diseases ; and it is an injustice to the 

 student to send him into the world without a 

 knowledge of these general facts, the signiticance 

 of sanitary precautions, and the methods of avoid- 

 ing disease. But aside from such facts, it is 

 hardly possible to overestimate the value to every 

 one of a study of the laws of life. The student 

 learns that he, too, is an animal, and under the 

 influence of the same laws which he finds else- 

 where, and comes slowly to realize the meaning of 

 many of these laws with a vividness which can be 

 produced in no other waJ^ He learns of the effect 

 of surroundings upon the growth of living things, 

 and that animals are largely what circumstances 

 make them. He gains a strong impression of the 

 lasting effects of habits, sees that nothing is too 

 small to be without its influence. He is brought 

 face to face with the degrading effects of para- 

 sitism in all its forms ; sees that inactivity is uni- 

 versally followed by degradation, and that only 



active animals can rise in nature ; learns that 

 luxury is always the precursor of degradation, 

 while adversity, if it be not so great as to destroy, 

 is sure to exalt the animals under its influeppe. 

 All of these factors, together with the physio- 

 logical laws which he must obey, and hundreds of 

 others of smaller import, are or should be forced 

 upon a student who has taken a good course in 

 biology ; and these facts, though not teaching men 

 to earn a living, do teach them to make better use 

 of their lives. 



But, after all, the chief reason why biology is 

 obtaining a greater recognition as a necessary 

 branch of education, is none of these, but rather 

 because of i^s relations to philosophical thought. 

 Modern biology represents to us a final step of the 

 belief in the universality of law. A comprehension 

 of its import is therefore necessary to one who 

 wishes to keep abreast of modern thought. From 

 the time when the curiositi? of early man was 

 aroused concerning nature around him, he has 

 been constantly asking for causes. At first the 

 only sort of causality of which he had any con- 

 ception was that of personality, and he therefore 

 conceived that behind every phenomenon of na- 

 ture there was a personality. The explanation of 

 causes was thus polytheism. Slowly and irregu- 

 larly there arose from this belief the nobler con- 

 ception of monotheism. But all through the 

 past centuries the God of monotheism was 

 regarded as forming no part of nature proper, but 

 as holding aloof from it, and interfering now 

 and then to perform miracles. Indeed, even to- 

 day we find not a few who still retain this con- 

 ception, and scarcely see any room for God ex- 

 cept to explain mysteries. But these mysteries 

 have been disappearing. Little by little did more 

 extended observations show that nature acts with 

 uniformity, and there thus arose, vaguely at first 

 but more clearly afterwards, the idea of natural 

 law. Since the time of Newton's discovery of the 

 first grand law of nature, there has been inaugu- 

 rated a new method of research. Science, as we 

 now understand the terra, has arisen, and has been 

 trying to reduce the varied phenomena of nature 

 to an order, to discover the laws regulating them, 

 and to investigate the former mysteries of nature, 

 and explain them by the simple application of dis- 

 covei-ed law. One after another have the various 

 realms of nature been studied, and one after an- 

 other have they been comprehended under the 

 universal reign of law. Nature's mysteries have 

 been constantly uncovered and rendered intelli- 

 gible. The thunder is no longer a bolt thrown by 

 an angry deity, nor is the north wind the breath 

 of an avenging god ; but each falls in with the 

 general order of nature, and is explained by the 



