434 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tution •which has done so much to encourage the sentiment of 

 worship. The liberal movement, the impulse toward Christian 

 unity, the substitution of ethical for dogmatic teaching, the appeal 

 to the soul of man rather than to his credulity, all seem to indi- 

 cate that the Church, which Jias been so much in the past history 

 of the race, is yet to adapt herself to the changed conditions of 

 the times, and still be an important factor in its future. 



But of even greater importance are those changes which seem 

 imminent in the school. Its influence comes at an age when the 

 mind is particularly plastic, and when life is new and fresh. It 

 occupies the attention during the greater portion of at least five 

 days in the week, and even during the remainder it is seldom 

 absent from the thoughts for any considerable length of time. 

 One can scarcely overestimate the importance of establishing so 

 pervasive an institution upon the right basis. 



It may seem a trite thing to particularize again the function 

 of an old institution like the school, yet it is only by keeping this 

 very constantly in mind that one can appreciate its present posi- 

 tion, or pass intelligent judgment upon those innovations which 

 have been proposed for its improvement. 



The school, in the first place, then, is a means and not an end. 

 It serves a purpose. It is not, like the state or the church, an 

 organism and possessed of life. One can construct no pleasing 

 ideal of what the perfect school ought to be. He can at best only 

 specify what results it should produce. Like all other tools, its 

 function is to form and to fashion. A machine is not valued for 

 its proportions, its color, its material, but for its subserviency to 

 the work required, and for the character of its products. The 

 point demands emphasis, for educators too frequently look to the 

 symmetry of the school itself instead of to the harmony of its 

 results. They forget that different materials require different 

 tools for their working. 



It is a curious thing that the human mind should so delight in 

 the idea of stability, and should attempt to attain it, when such 

 an idea finds no place in all nature. Even the crystal, the most 

 unchanging object of our admiration, has undergone innumerable 

 births and deaths. All nature is in a state of solution and of flux. 

 There is no stability, even comparative, except where there is no 

 life. Yet we, who believe ourselves to live best when we are in 

 the most perfect communion with that infinite intelligence whose 

 manifestation we call Nature, are constantly denying our faith by 

 the profane effort to give permanence to that which is essentially 

 transitory. Our laws seem to us good. We crystallize them into 

 a code, and so burden the generations to come with an evil mort- 

 gage upon their justice. Our faith seems to us divine. We kill 

 it by formulating it into a creed, and so starve the souls of our 



