Jaxuaey 13, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



43 



contemporary thought, students may best 

 tit themselves for the- world of contempo- 

 rary life ; and while they may justly esteem 

 it a great privilege to graduate from an 

 historic college, or from a professional 

 school of international reputation, they 

 should esteem it a far higher privilege to 

 graduate from a great university. 



It should be observed also that the re- 

 sultant ideal which has been attained in 

 our best universities is not fixed but pro- 

 gressive, not inflexible but subject to im- 

 provement. It is a development whose 

 sources are seen in the earliest civilizations, 

 whose growth was dimly perceived during 

 the middle ages, and whose conscious ap- 

 preciation is a realization of the century 

 just past. The method which characterizes 

 this development is the method of science. 

 It dates essentially from the epoch of Gali- 

 leo and Huygens. It rose to a maximum 

 of brilliancy in its interpretation of ma- 

 terial phenomena during the epoch of New- 

 ton and Leibnitz, and during the epoch of 

 Laplace and Lavoisier; and it has recently 

 illuminated ■ a new domain through the 

 labors of Darwdn and Spencer. Galileo, 

 Newton and Laplace gave us a system of 

 the inorganic world ; Darwin and Spencer 

 have given us a system which includes the 

 organic world as w^ell. 



The method of science has permeated all 

 regions of thought and animated all of the 

 commercial, industrial, political, social and 

 religious activities of men. "Whether w'e 

 welcome it, deplore it, or indifferently ac- 

 quiesce in it, the fact seems undeniable 

 that the method of science and the doctrine 

 of evolution are the most effective sources 

 of the intellectual enterprise of our day. 

 Through anthropology this method and this 

 doctrine have given a transcendent interest 

 to the study of man ; for they show that 

 man may not only investigate the rest of 

 the universe, but that he may, by the same 

 means, investigate himself. Consciously or 



unconsciously, the terminology, the figures 

 of speech and the modes of thought of sci- 

 ence are being applied to all subjects and 

 objects of human concern. They have 

 penetrated the depths and the darkness 

 even of the polite literature of our times. 



But while the ideal thus outlined appears 

 to be the effective, or working, ideal at 

 which we have arrived, it goes without say- 

 ing that it is not the only ideal entertained 

 by those whose opinions on academic ques- 

 tions are worthy of regard. On the con- 

 trary, many eminent minds deplore present 

 tendencies and write and speak regretfully 

 of the vanishing ideals of the past. Grave 

 publicists, accomplished men of letters and 

 subtle philosophers see little but danger in 

 the educational readjustments of recent 

 times. They deplore especially the decline 

 in popularity of those ancient studies long 

 called the humanities and the contempo- 

 rary rise and increasing recognition of the 

 newer studies. Culture, they seem to 

 claim, comes inevitably through the pur- 

 suit of the former, never through pursuit 

 of the latter. They go so far in some cases 

 as to decide at what point the study of a 

 subject ceases to be liberal and begins to 

 be illiberal, or professional. Give a student 

 by the ancient formula, their facile editors 

 say, that modicum of learning which would 

 otherwise be dangerous, stamp him with the 

 degree of A.B., and he becomes an aristo- 

 crat. They take a gloomy view of the rest- 

 less present and they are little hopeful of 

 the future ; for they hint darkly of ' the 

 bankruptcy of science ' and of disasters im- 

 pending if we do not retiirn to ancient 

 ideals. 



Argument concerning these matters is 

 fruitless. Logic avails as little in an edu- 

 cational campaign as political economy 

 avails in a presidential campaign. Appeal 

 must be had to our sense of humor and to 

 the arbitrament of time. It may be ob- 

 served, however, that these apostles of 



