26 THE LEWIS BROOKS MUSEUM. 



Taken in due measure, all these guides and controllers of 

 unfledged thought are good, but may they not, are they 

 not, too exclusively applied in the education of youth ? 



Do we, in our schedules for a liberal education, encour- 

 age sufficiently independence and originality of thought ? 



Do we train students to observe and use their observa- 

 tions ? 



The constant appeal to authority, the repeated applica- 

 tion of rules, and a persistent comparison with standards of 

 perfection, must develop unduly the tendency, already 

 strong in the youthful nature, to lean on others, to follow 

 example, and obey precept. 



The study of a descriptive science, and especially of 

 Geology, gives a young man training in just the habits of 

 thought which make successful men — i. e., habits of close 

 observation, nice discrimination and skillful combination. 



The study of books on Geology will not accomplish 

 this. The student must examine nature in the field, the 

 museum and the cabinet. Students of books have to use 

 the material gathered by others. They may construct ge- 

 netic theories, and thus perform a useful work, but they 

 miss the inspiration of contact with nature, and can rarely 

 feel the pure joy of adding to the sum of knowledge. 



The scientific method, which is "to prove all things, 

 and to hold fast to that which is good/' is hostile to bigot- 

 ry, surperstition and all forms of narrowmindedness. Where 

 its true spirit governs, isms cannot flourish. 



These are the weaknesses of the wow-scientific mind. 

 Let us take a single example for illustration. Belief in 

 spiritualism prevails in many parts of our country, to an 

 extent far beyond the conception of most persons. Minds 

 of the highest order have fallen victims to its delusions. 



This form of superstition, which has the impudence to 

 claim to be a branch of Natural Science, denies, by its as- 

 sumptions the basis of all Natural Science. Natural Sci- 



