Atkinson — On the Function of an Academy. 53 



of the argument that definite knowledge on that point was not to 

 hand, and that the reports were rather of the nature of materials for 

 future inference ; but the process of accumulating facts is in itself 

 liable to be rather discouraging unless there is something of the 

 shaping spirit of the imagination about them, issuing in some attempt 

 at even hypothetic colligation. It is admitted that it is easier to 

 assemble facts than to reason rightly from them, less troublesome to 

 gather particulars than to draw the proper conclusions from them. 

 So that it is perhaps not astonishing that the accumulative branch 

 of science shows a far greater development than the ratiocinative. 

 Consider the enormous accumulation of facts, social, economical, 

 political ; then turn to the uncertainty of the inferences that are 

 made from these. Consider the conflicting opinions about burning 

 practical questions, such as, e.g., tariff reform. Does it not seem that 

 from the abundant data obtainable about this matter, some rational 

 conclusion would have been drawn that must be accepted by all 

 reasonable men ? The rational theory of education, whether primary 

 or advanced, is perpetually being spoken of, but mainly from the point 

 of view of prejudice or interest ; the disquisitions as to the relative 

 claims of ancient and modern languages have not ceased to excite heat 

 and display of temper ; while the methods and subjects of school and 

 University teaching are so far from being universally agreed upon, as 

 to have occasioned the unreasonable growl of the philosopher^' that 

 " the vital knowledge — that by which we have grown, as a nation, to 

 what we are, and which now underlies our whole existence — is a 

 knowledge that has got itself taught in nooks and corners ; while the 

 ordained agencies for teaching have been mumbling little else but 

 dead formulas." 



As one may seek more humanity in the scientific parts of its work, 

 so we may hail the dry light of academic reason on the sides that 

 are dangerous because of the emotions they excite. We sometimes 

 hear the phrase, that such-and-such a discussion is merely academic, 

 meaning too removed from the play of feeling and emotion ; that is 

 precisely what one could wish to see more of, as a proof and sign that 

 the world is growing more reasonable, more open to intellectual 

 guidance in the affairs of daily life. 



The discovery of illuminative principles is usually the result of 

 accident, as is shown by the application of the term invention to such 

 discovery. But if the body of facts is not being continually restirred 



* H. Spencer, Education, p. 25. 



