LIBERAL EDUCATION. 23 



ment of training — one which performs certain disciplinary functions 

 which no other instrument can perform so well ; but it is only live 

 mathematics, not dead mathematics, mathematical in vital connection 

 with physical science, not prematurely thrust as an ugly skeleton alone 

 upon the youthful mind, upon the pretense that its sole object is their 

 mental discipline. And, on the other hand, it is only for the study of 

 physical science, pursued by vigorous scientific methods, and in rigor- 

 ous, logical, and mathematical ways, that we can claim for it a place 

 as a disciplinary, that is, a real study. As the mere becoming ac- 

 quainted with a string of scientific results, it may well be left to the 

 contempt of the Rev. Mr. Hawtrey. 



But the chief influence of modern science upon liberal education 

 will be its ethical influence. Its discoveries are transforming man's 

 conception of the earth he lives on, and of his history and his work 

 upon it. Before man acquires the control of matter, through ascer- 

 tainment of the laws that govern it, his life on earth is poor, narrow, 

 and full of hardship, and his earthly relations full of pain. So long as 

 that state continues, life on earth must seem to him a small matter, 

 and its opportunities for growth not much worth considering ; it is 

 only here and there that a philosopher in his closet attains to some 

 realization of the capacities that lie hidden in it. War and savage 

 occupations consume the days of the mass of men, and no culture is 

 possible save the perverted culture of the cloister. But the advent 

 of physical science means the emancipation of the masses into the 

 privileges of intellectual life. From a battle-ground, the earth is trans- 

 formed into a school-room, written all over with hieroglyphics, no 

 longer mysterious, but to which mankind have found the key : and, 

 with the right use of the secrets thus unfolded, will come to the mass 

 of men that accession of material wealth which will give the leisure 

 and opportunities that have heretofore been the monopoly of privi- 

 leged classes. 



It is not wonderful that men, at first, are carried away with the con- 

 templation of its lower uses, even sometimes to the making them the 

 sole end of education. It is but a reaction from the opposite extreme, 

 only a dazzling of eyes with a flood of new light. Presently we 

 shall look about us, and find the old relations of things not greatly 

 altered. Matter is not going to supplant mind because we are learn- 

 ing so much more about it ; whether we understand or do not under- 

 stand the laws that govern it, matter remains the servant of mind, to 

 educate it and do its bidding. The higher uses of science will still 

 be spiritual uses. It has not come into the world merely to carry us 

 faster through space, merely that we may sleep more softly and eat and 

 drink more luxuriously, nor will education become the mere teaching 

 how to do these things. It is with the spiritual educating function 

 alone that we have to deal when we consider it as an element in lib- 

 eral education. 



