Evolution in Education [pp. 233-248]

THL' PRIzNCE TON REL VIE.
process. The question here is not as to teaching children or
young people botany, chemistry, or physics, but as to accustoming the mind, by the study of some subject or subjects in a scientific manner, to the orderly pursuit and use of knowledge, and
the orderly exercise of mental power.
\Whence then comes the conflict, in our educational courses,
of older with newer studies, and especially of ancient languages
with modern science? One cause is a mere question of time.
Before the great extension of modern science, the literary element of culture, with some abstract mathematics and philosophy, engrossed the whole course of study; and these things,
taught in large quantity and by crude and unscientific methods,
occupied the whole time of the student. But modern science
strides into the field and imperiously demands room. The time
of the student cannot well be extended. His mind must not
be overtasked. So there comes a conflict, and each department
of study struggles for the possession of the unfortunate learner,
or he has to be content with a smattering of all, odious and of
little use; or, under a paltry compromise, he is permitted to
substitute one for another by a system of options and exemptions.
If it were desirable that the old learning and the new should
fight out their battle to the uttermost, it would be difficult to,
decide between them. The old culture has much in its favor.
It is refined, thoughtful, literate, bookish, leading to what is.
termed scholarship, and to much that is pure and beautiful in
taste and expression, as well as to that power which comes of
well-ordered thought and language. Such polish and mental
grace as result from it are certainly much to be desired. But it
is eminently unpractical; and but for the traditional custom
which places it at the door of entrance into learned professions,
or for its leading to teaching positions in which the old grind is
to be gone over with a new generation, it would be of little
service in the struggle for existence beyond the habits of study
and application which it may foster. The new science, on the
contrary, is full of the spirit of the time. It is fresh and vigorous and full of practical applications. It trains the mind for
the actual work of life, and furnishes it with the knowledge
likely to be needed in every-day affairs. On the other hand, its.
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