14 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
superior to all other means in mental discipline. Advocates of the Greek and 
Latin languages " claim that their disciplinal value is in the ratio of the naked 
retentive power which they call into exercise." Without detracting in the least 
from these, we simply ask what can be a greater tax upon the memory than to re- 
tain the names, classification, structure, and habits of the hundreds of thousands 
of animals and plants upon the earth ? It is also claimed that language disciplines 
memory and strengthens judgment by a study of its grammatical structure. But 
does It require more of the mental effort that promotes these than does the deter- 
mination of minerals, the analysis of complex chemical substances, or the deter- 
mination of the proper position in the scale of life to which any animal, or plant be- 
longs, or the exact horizon of a disputed stratum of rocks ? The study of mathe- 
matics has the credit, and justly too, of giving great power to the reasoning facul- 
ties. But whether it is superior in this regard to what is called moral reasoning, 
admits of question. What can require greater depth of thought or strength of rea- 
son than to study out the plan of God in forming and controlling the material uni- 
verse? The study of nature has for its object the solution of this great problem 
with all its corollaries. What problem or problems in mathematics can require 
more profound research ? Mathematics is generally regarded as dealing with 
facts upon which the mind can rest ; but scientific reasoning is more a balancing 
of probabilities. The latter requires constant exercise of reason and judgment to 
see that the opinion held has a preponderance of probabilities in its favor ; 
while the former demands less mental exertion and hence affords less intellectual 
power. 
Again, the notion is manifestly prevalent that geography, grammar, reading, 
spelling, the classics, and especially mathematics, are of more practical use than 
science to the majority of mankind. That they are of use to all, and in more 
and higher ways than is commonly supposed, and that science is one of the largest 
beneficiaries, is gratefully admitted. But in the ordinary acceptation of their use 
in common life, we beg in all candor to know and challenge a satisfactory an- 
swer, what real use ninety-nine in every hundred have for any more of mathe- 
matics than the four fundamental rules of arithmetic, or of classics than can be 
obtained from an unabridged English dictionary and a literal translation; and 
what real use nine hundred and ninety-nine in every thousand have for more of 
mathematics than can be found in an intermediate arithmetic, or of ancient clas- 
sics than can be acquired in a single year; also how much real proficiency axiy or\Q 
attains in geography, grammar, history, reading, speUing, and the like till after 
he has left school and finds a need of a thorough knowledge of these things in 
the practical affairs of life? Who, except those who have never tested it, has 
any reasonable expectation of obtaining a satisfactory solution of a question re- 
quiring independent thought, or even the correct statement of a fact, on any of 
these subjects, from those yet in school, who have there glibly recited the princi. 
pies involved over and over again ? 
The growing popularity of natural science, at least among those who give 
any adequate consideration to its claims, its increasing value and demand in all 
