Martin. — On the Claims of Science in National Education. 171 



forces of nature, and success in any station of life requires an acquaintance 

 with these subtle powers. The highest rewards are held out to those who can 

 best master these wonderful agencies and bring them into their service. It 

 is, therefore, of supreme importance to the State that children should be made 

 acquainted with the mighty energies which modern enterprise commands to 

 do the bidding of man. The elements of physical science known as the 

 " Erdkiinde " of the German schools form a most important and interesting 

 branch of preparatory study. It treats of the exhaustless treasures of our 

 material earth in its mineral wealth, its vegetable productions or its mineral 

 life, with the natural phenomena and climatic changes of constant occurrence. 

 These subjects have received so little attention that the daily waste through 

 ignorance is a serious loss in every country, which will become more and more 

 apparent as population increases and civilization extends. How little is 

 generally known of the air we breathe or of the food we eat, the nature of the 

 soil and the crops it is best suited to produce, or of any of the necessary 

 conditions of animal and vegetable life. Nature is the book from which our 

 life's lessons are to be taken, in which we must study daily for success in 

 business speculations, farming operations, manufacturing industry, mining 

 adventure, or profitable thought and recreation. It is a book, the interest of 

 which is ever increasing, and the teaching of which is of the highest 

 importance. God's book, the Bible, can be taught at home, God's book of 

 nature should be taught at school. 



The prosperity of a country and the harmony and perfection of its laws 

 will depend upon the spread of knowledge among its people. Self-government 

 is the cry of the present age, the success of which as a whole rests upon the 

 comprehension by each individual of the first j^rinciples of political or social 

 economy. If a rifle is to be placed in a soldier's hands, military discipline 

 requires that he shall be trained to use it ; and so, if political power is to be 

 placed in the hands of the people, it becomes the duty of the State to train 

 them to use their influence for the common good. 



Upon the testimony of the highest authorities the most important posi- 

 tion in the education of the judgment, in the culture of the powers of 

 observation, and in developing the resources of the mind, is assigned to the 

 study of science, and no national system of education can be complete where 

 it is omitted from the curriculum of its public schools. 



3. The demand for technical education, or that systematic training neces- 

 sary for every profession or calling, is felt in every trade and occupation, and 

 the State should, for its own material prosperity, provide necessary instruction 

 in the most important departments of practical education. 



Commercial business now requires a scientific knowledge of the productions 

 and resources of the World and an acquaintance with the history of modern 



