138 



less than poetry, music, art or religion. Not only is the feeling of 

 elation which comes to the scientific investigator with the dawning 

 of new truth just as keen, just as lofty just as uplifting as that 

 given by any poetry, any music, any art, any religous fervor, but 

 they are, in my opinion, the same in kind. There is but one 

 music heard by the spirit, and that is in us, whether it seem to 

 come from the spheres, from the lyres of the muses, or from the 

 voices of angels, and it gives forth when the last supremest chord 

 in the soul of man is touched, it matters not by what hand. 



We come now to the third of the causes which make our teaching 

 of science defective, and it is this — ive put our trust too much in 

 systems and not enough in persons. And of this there are many evi- 

 dences. For one thing we rely too much on a supposed virtue 

 in buildings and equipment, though in this we but share the spirit 

 of our machinery-mad day and generation. It is much easier for 

 us Americans to obtain great laboratories and fine equipment than 

 to make good use of them afterwards, and nowhere among us do 

 I see any signs of a Spartan pride in attaining great results with 

 a meager equipment. Moreover, we make a deficiency of equip- 

 ment an excuse for doing nothing. As one of the most brilliant 

 of American botanists once said, some persons think they can do 

 nothing in the laboratory unless provided with an array of staining 

 fluids which would make the rainbow blush for its poverty. A 

 second evidence of our confidence in systems is found in the easy 

 insouciance with which university professors proceed to write 

 text-books for high schools. The only qualification the most of 

 them have therefor is a knowledge of their subject, and they seem 

 to regard any personal acquaintance with the peculiarities of young 

 people, and with the special conditions of high school work, as 

 comparatively negligible. In consequence these books are neces- 

 sarily addressed to some kind of idealized student, usually a 

 bright-eyed individual thirsting for knowledge. This kind does 

 exist, but in minority, whereas the real student with which the 

 high school must deal is one of a great mass wilHng to learn if it 

 must. Confirmation of the correctness of my view that knowl- 

 edge of students is as important as knowledge of subject for the 

 writing of a high school book is found in the fact that the author 



