574 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. VII., No. 177 



Galileo, that large bodies fall faster than small 

 ones ; but, when we see them strike the ground 

 together, we know that our previous opinion was 

 false, and we learn that even the intellect of an 

 Aristotle may be mistaken. Thus we are taught 

 care in the formation of our opinions, and find 

 that the unguided human mind goes astray almost 

 without fail. We must correct it constantly, and 

 convince it of error over and over again, until it 

 discovers the proper method of reasoning, which 

 will surely accord with the truth in whatever con- 

 clusions it may reach. There is, however, danger 

 in this process that the mind may become over- 

 cautious, and thus present a weakness when 

 brought in contact with an unscrupulous person, 

 who cares little for truth and a great deal for 

 effect. But if we believe in the maxim that truth 

 will prevail, and consider it the duty of all edu- 

 cated men to aid its progress, the kind of mind 

 which I describe is the proper one to foster by 

 education. Let the student be brought face to 

 face with nature ; let him exercise his reason with 

 respect to the simplest physical phenomenon, and 

 then, in the laboratory, put his opinions to the 

 test : the result is invariably humility, for he finds 

 that nature has laws which must be discovered by 

 labor and toil, and not by wild flights of the im- 

 agination, and scintillations of so-called genius. 



Those who have studied the present state of edu- 

 cation in the schools and colleges tell us that most 

 subjects, including the sciences, are taught as an 

 exercise to the memory. I myself have witnessed 

 the melancholy sight, in a fashionable school for 

 young ladies, of those who were born to be intel- 

 lectual beings reciting page after page from 

 memory, without any effort being made to dis- 

 cover whether they understood the subject or 

 not. There are even many schools, so called, 

 where the subject of physics or natural philosophy 

 itself is taught, without even a class experiment to 

 illustrate the subject and connect the words with 

 ideas. Words — mere words — are taught, and 

 a state of mind far different from that above 

 described is produced. If one were required to 

 find a system of education which would the most 

 surely and certainly disgust the student with any 

 subject, I can conceive of none which would do 

 this more quickly than this method, where he is 

 forced to learn what he does not understand. It 

 is said of the great Faraday that he never could 

 understand any scientific experiment thoroughly 

 until he had not only seen it performed by others, 

 but had pet f ormed it himself. Shall we, then, 

 expect children and youth to do what Faraday 

 could not do ? A thousand times better never 

 teach the subject at all. 



Tastes differ, but we may safely say that every 



subject of study which is thoroughly understood 

 is a. pleasure to the student. The healthy mind as 

 well as the healthy body craves exercise, and the 

 school-room or the lecture-room should be a source 

 of positive enjoyment to those who enter it. Above 

 all, the study of nature, from the magnificent uni- 

 verse, across which light itself, at the rate of 186,- 

 000 miles per second, cannot go in less than hun- 

 dreds of years, down to the atom of which millions 

 are required to build up the smallest microscopic 

 object, should be the most interesting subject 

 brought to the notice of the student. 



Some are born blind to the beauties of the world 

 around them, some have their tastes better de- 

 veloped in other directions, and some have minds 

 incapable of ever understanding the simplest 

 natural phenomenon ; but there is also a large 

 class of students who have at least ordinary pow- 

 ers and ordinary tastes for scientific pursuits. To 

 train the powers of observation and classification, 

 let them study natural history, not only from 

 books, but from prepared specimens or directly 

 from nature ; to give care in experiment, and con- 

 vince them that nature forgives no error, let them 

 enter the chemical laboratory ; to train them in 

 exact and logical powers of reasoning, let them 

 study mathematics : but to combine all this train- 

 ing in one, and exhibit to their minds the most 

 perfect and systematic method of discovering the 

 exact laws of nature, let them study physics and 

 astronomy, where observation, common sense, and 

 mathematics go hand in hand. The object of edu- 

 cation is not only to produce a man who knows, 

 but one who does ; who makes his mark in the 

 struggle of life, and succeeds well in whatever he 

 undertakes ; who can solve the problems of nature 

 and of humanity as they arise ; and who, when, 

 he knows he is right, can boldly convince the 

 world of the fact. Men of action are needed as 

 well as men of thought. 



There is no doubt in my mind that this is the 

 point in which much of our modern education 

 fails. Why is it? I answer, that the memory 

 alone is trained, and the reason and judgment are 

 used merely to refer matters to some authority 

 who is considered final, and, worse than all, they 

 are not trained to apply their knowledge constant- 

 ly. To produce men of action, they must be 

 trained in action. If the languages be studied, 

 they must be made to translate from one language 

 to the other until they have perfect facility in the 

 process. If mathematics be studied, they must 

 work problems, more problems, and problems 

 again, until they have the use of what they know. 

 If they study the sciences, they must enter the 

 laboratory, and stand face to face with nature ; 

 they must learn to test their knowledge constant- 



