"Act!" I hearkened to the summons; taking the liberty, however, of determining for myself the direction which effort was to take.

And I may now cry, "Act!" but the potency of action must be yours. I may pull the trigger, but if the gun be not charged there is no result. We are creators in the intellectual world as little as in the physical. We may renove obstacles, and render latent capacities active, but we cannot suddenly change the nature of man. The " new birth" itself implies the pre-existence of the new character which requires not to be created but brought forth. You can not by any amount of missionary labor suddenly transform the savage into the civilized Christian. The improvement of man is secular,1 — not the work of an hour or of a day. But, though indubitably bound by our organizations, no man knows what the potentialities of any human mind may be, which require only release to be brought into action.

The circle of human nature is not complete without the arc of feeling and emotion. The lilies of the field have a value for us beyond their botanical ones, a certain lightening of the heart accompanies the declaration that "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." The sound of the village bell which comes mellowed from the valley to the traveler upon the hill, has a value beyond its acoustical one. The setting sun when it mantles with the bloom of roses the alpine snows, has a value beyond its optical one. The starry heavens, as you know, had for Immanuel Kant a value beyond their astronomical one.2 Round about the intellect sweeps the horizon of emotions from which all our noblest impulses are derived. I think it very desirable to keep this horizon open; not to permit either priest or philosopher to draw down his shutters between you and it. And here the dead languages, which are sure to be beaten by science in the purely intellectual fight, have an irresistible claim. They supplement the work of science by exalting and refining the

1 i. e. through considerable periods of time

2 Kant was a metaphysician, but his scientific speculations led directly to the "nebular hypothesis" of Laplace.

æsthetic faculty, and must on this account be cherished by all who desire to see human culture complete. There must be a reason for the fascination which these languages have so long exercised upon the most powerful and elevated minds,

a fasci

nation which will probably continue for men of Greek and Roman mold to the end of time.

Let me utter one practical word in conclusion, take care of your health. There have been men who by wise attention to this point might have risen to any eminence, - might have made great discoveries, written great poems, commanded armies, or ruled states, but who by unwise neglect of this point have come to nothing. Imagine Hercules as oarsman in a rotten boat: what can he do there but by the very force of his stroke expedite the ruin of his craft? Take care, then, of the timbers of your boat, and avoid all practices likely to introduce either wet or dry rot among them. And this is not to be accomplished by desultory or intermittent efforts of the will, but by the formation of habits. The will, no doubt, has sometimes to put forth its strength in order to strangle or crush the special temptation. But the formation of right habits is essential to your permanent security. They diminish your chance of falling when assailed, and they augment your chance of recovery when overthrown.

HUXLEY

1825-1895

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY, physiologist and naturalist, was born at Eal. At the age of twenty he entered the British navy In 1848 he produced his essay, "On the AnatFamily of the Medusa." In 1854 he became

ing, England, May 4, 1825. in the capacity of surgeon. omy and Affinities of the

Mtually

Professor of Natural History in the School of Mines, and a few years later was appointed Professor of Physiology in the Royal Institution. From 1870 to 1872 he served as a member of the London School Board.

To the recent discussion of the origin of man, Huxley has been an important contributor. His "Man's Place in Nature " was largely instrumental in directing public attention to this subject, and the ability of the book made a profound impression on thoughtful minds. His later work, "Protoplasm, or the Physical Basis of Life," was not less stimulating and impres

sive. Huxley was one of the ablest supporters of the evolutionary doctrines associated with the name of Darwin. From the lecture platform he won the attention of the best minds of England, and through his published To none of his conworks gained the ear of the whole scientific world. temporaries does science owe a larger debt, whether as an investigator or as an expounder. He died at Eastbourne, June 29, 1895.

"All," says Hæckel, "who have read the masterly papers contained in 'Lay Sermons,' or the 'Critiques and Addresses,' will acknowledge Huxley's fine and vigorous command of English, and the literary richness of his style. He has a keen enjoyment of literary excellence, and 'keeps up' with poetry, fiction, and the progress of critical thought, notwithstanding his indefatigable scientific investigations. Owing to these traits, he has a high reputation as a popular scientific teacher; and even his 'Lectures to Workingmen' are models of what such discourses should be - clear, simple, and attractive, yet carefully accurate and strictly scientific."

SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION

I HOPE YOU will consider that the arguments I have now stated, even if there were no better ones, constitute a sufficient apology for urging the introduction of science into schools. The next question to which I have to address myself is, What sciences ought to be thus taught? And this is one of the most important of questions. There are other forms of culture besides physical science; and I should be profoundly sorry to see the fact forgotten, or even to observe a tendency to starve or cripple literary or æsthetic culture for the sake of science. Such a narrow view of the nature of education has nothing to do with my firm conviction that a complete and thorough scientific culture ought to be introduced into all schools. By this, however, I do not mean that every school-boy should be taught everything in science. That would be a very absurd thing to conceive, and a very mischievous thing to attempt. What I mean is, that no boy or girl should leave school without possessing a grasp of the general character of science, and without having been disciplined, more or less, in the methods of all sciences; so that, when turned into the world to make their own way, they shall be prepared to face

scientific problems, not by knowing at once the conditions of every problem, or by being able at once to solve it, but by being familiar with the general current of scientific thought, and by being able to apply the methods of science in the proper way, when they have acquainted themselves with the conditions of the special problem.

That is what I understand by scientific education. To furnish a boy with such an education, it is by no means necessary that he should devote his whole school existence to physical science; in fact, no one would lament so one-sided a proceeding more than I. Nay, more, it is not necessary for him to give up more than a moderate share of his time to such studies, if they be properly selected and arranged, and if he be trained in them in a fitting manner.

name.

I conceive the proper course to be somewhat as follows: To begin with, let every child be instructed in those general views of the phenomena of nature for which we have no exact English The nearest approximation to a name for what I mean, which we possess, is "physical geography;" that is to say, a general knowledge of the earth, and what is on it, in it, and about it. If any one who has had experience of the ways of young children will call to mind their questions, he will find that, so far as they can be put into any scientific category, they come under this head. The child asks, "What is the moon, and why does it shine?" "What is this water, and where does it run?” "What is the wind?" "What makes the waves in the sea?" "Where does this animal live, and what is the use of that plant?' And if not snubbed and stunted by being told not to ask foolish questions, there is no limit to the intellectual craving of a young child, nor any bounds to the slow but solid accretion of knowledge and development of the thinking faculty in this way. To all such questions answers which are necessarily incomplete, though true as far as they go, may be given by any teacher whose ideas represent real knowledge, and not mere book learning; and a panoramic view of nature, accompanied by a strong infusion of

1

1 literally, all-seeing (from Gr. pan, all, horama, view)