399 



B.-THE VALUE OF THE STUDY OF EUCALYPTUS IN A 



SCHEME OF EDUCATION. 



Scientific and Humanistic Studies. 

 The Industries Parasitic on Science. 

 How to Further the Study of Botany. 



Scientific and Humanistic Studies. 



I would suggest to my readers that in the many aspects of Eucalyptus, the 



opportunity presents itself to teachers to offer to the student an intellectual discipline 



comparable in its value as a stimulus to thought with that of the Greek and Latin 



classics. I am aware that the claim has been made for science in a wider sense, fo 



example— 



The gospel of Spencer and Huxley is that the study of science is not merely useful, but liiay be 

 made the basis of a culture alternative and even superior to the older linguistic culture (p. 157). . . 

 Scientific culture, made universal and exclusive, would become, it was seen, as oppressive a tyrant as the 

 culture it sought to dethrone, and would not fail to develop an equally narrowing pedantry (p. 158). . • 

 (" The New Teaching," by John Adams, LL.D., chapter on " Science," by T. Percy Nunn, D.Sc, 1918.) 



The " gospel " of Spencer and Huxley, as Dr. Nunn puts it, refers only to the 

 ' basis " of a culture " alternative " to linguistic culture. He then proceeds to refe r 

 to scientific culture, " made universal and exclusive," and I think that most scientific 

 men (who really know most about science) would repudiate such a suggestion. They 

 are, as a class, widely read and broad-minded, and to suggest that they desire to impose 

 a narrowing system of education appears to be unfair. If the study of science, which 

 is another name for truth, does not make its votaries tolerant and well informed, it 

 fails to accomplish one of its primary functions. 



We naturally turn to the journal Nature (our safe guide in regard to the 

 philosophy of science) in a discussion of this sort, and are not disappointed. For 

 example, take vol. 109, 1922 — 



(a) It was claimed that instruction in classical languages was particularly valuable in developing 

 accuracy, training reasoning powers, improving the memory, and cultivating all the faculties necessary 

 to make the best use of life in any field. Psychologists have, however, destroyed the educational concept 

 upon which this claim is based, and it is no longer believed that the exercise of the mind on one kind of 

 material, improves the faculty to deal with other kinds. No subject can therefore be put forward as 

 affording unique general training in mental faculties or powers, (p. 33, 12th January). 



(b) '' The value of acquaintance with Greek learning is not in the material knowledge itself, but in 

 the spirit which created it. The Greeks possessed to a high degree the spirit of scientific curiosity, and 

 the desire to find a natural explanation for the origin and existence of things which is the ground motive 

 of progress in science. The aim of Greek thought was the unification of disconnected knowledge. This 

 laid the foundation of synthetic science, but carried with it the tendency to reduce natural phenomena 

 to a rigid geometrical or logical system. It is possible that the modern science student would be all 

 the better if given a trend in the same direction, as experimental inquiry alone is apt to be narrow 

 and must be specialised. Even neglecting this philosophical aspect of science, the early Greeks 

 manifested supremely the characteristics of true apostles of science. Passionate regard for truth, dis- 

 interested research, imagination, acute reasoning, and creative intelligence were the essence of the 

 Greek spirit, and they are elements of the unalterable germ-plasm which transmits the scientific temper 

 throughout the ages (p. 34). 



This, of course, carries one away somewhat from linguistic culture as such, 



