28 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ticket, on a limited express train, which 
makes no stops at flag or way stations; 
while the through passengers number on¬ 
ly one-tenth of one per cent, of the whole. 
We have built splendid terminal facilities, 
but those who wish to stop at way sta¬ 
tions have to roll off like chunks of coal 
from a flat-car. In other words our pres¬ 
ent curriculum forces the teachers to 
bend all their energies toward making 
college or university candidates; while 
their efforts toward making common men 
and women, the great mass of our popu¬ 
lation, have to be purely incidental. Our 
present grammar and high schools are 
fashioned after the old academy, whose 
legitimate successor they can in no wise 
claim to be. (In passing, I may be per¬ 
mitted to say that our University has 
broadened its course during the last five 
years, so as to include instruction along 
the vocational lines that include about 
three-fourths of our population. It will 
take time, however, for the graded 
schools to fit boys for entering the Uni¬ 
versity.) 
THE WORLD-WIDE ADVANCE. 
It is not so many years ago that all ed¬ 
ucation, science, and other advancement 
of the human race were circumscribed 
and localized in more or less restricted 
communities. Some communities ad¬ 
vanced far ahead of their times along cer¬ 
tain lines. As an illustration of this, we 
have the civilization of Greece, which had 
its philosophers, poets, and to some extent 
scientists, before the Christian era. Much 
of the good work was lost by the subse¬ 
quent subjugation of these people. The 
great valley of the Euphrates, and the 
valley of the Nile, and other places may 
be called to mind where engineering 
feats of wonderful proportions were car¬ 
ried on six to ten thousand years ago, 
the results of which are still apparent. In 
later times, however, the science and the 
art of this work were completely lost. It 
has been only in recent centuries that the 
science of engineering has again reached 
the height attained by these old and al¬ 
most prehistoric nations. So long as 
these communities or nations remained 
isolated, they were able to develop along 
certain lines, frequently to the neglect of 
all other lines of education and upbuild¬ 
ing. Their advance only lasted until the 
opportune time came for a more barba¬ 
rous or more fierce and warlike nation 
to conquer them and destroy utterly their 
literature and their art. A striking and 
very similar illustration may be taken 
from America. The great pyramids 
erected by the Aztecs to the sun £nd the 
moon, are still wonders of the continent. 
These Aztecs had a high civilization, and 
must have also developed in science to a 
high grade, from the fact that they have 
shown an accurate knowledge of engin¬ 
eering work, and an accurate knowledge 
of the calendar as we know it today. 
Their literature, science and agriculture 
was swept away by the Spanish conquer¬ 
ors. The Aztecs themselves were sub¬ 
jugated and compelled to become servants 
of an alien race whose civilization, sci¬ 
ence, and literature, they were forced to 
adopt, whether it suited them or not. 
At the present time we are living in 
an age when time in the past is practical¬ 
ly annihilated, making it possible by 
means of books for us in a single hour 
