Frank Wigglesworth Clarke

“ Can any student, who looks upon the universe with vision thus unobscured, fail to find in his studies the truest æsthetic culture?
Theoretically, then, we may conclude that the study of science, with modern languages, literatures, and philosophies as aids, does all for the mind that the old classical education ever did, and more. A higher discipline, a higher utility, and a higher culture, are its natural results. It trains memory, intellect, the perceptive faculties, and the sense of the beautiful simultaneously, insuring a symmetrical development. ”

“ The study of philology, or of language by itself, is undoubtedly of great value; but it is rather a study for the specialist than for the average student. It is, certainly, a true science; only, lacking precision in its methods, and being deficient in practical applicability to the general affairs of life, it must be left out of account for the present. In a general course of study a language should be taught because of its value in opening up other departments of knowledge. It should reveal to us the thoughts of other peoples, and enable us to avail ourselves of their experience. ”

“ PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI.
THE advancement of science is at once a glory and a disgrace to our modern civilization. It is glorious that so much has been done, but disgraceful that the public should be so often indifferent to the doing. In view of the benefits derived from scientific research, it would seem as if governments and communities ought to vie with one another in its encouragement. ”

“ The classics, mathematics, philosophy, or literature, demand few appliances. Give the professors a fair library, perhaps some maps or charts, and a recitation or lecture room apiece, and all is provided for. But science, to be properly taught, demands much more. There must be not only laboratories and apparatus, but material and specimens; and these all cost much money. No wonder, then, that a poor institution cramps its scientific teachers, and offers meagre opportunities for the prosecution of their best and most valuable work. ”

“ Suffice it to say that the best scientific authorities appear to be well agreed that man has existed for much more than 6,000 years. Human bones have been found under circumstances which make it highly probable that they were buried at least 20,000 years ago. There was not, perhaps, absolute proof, but probability. And this probability, supported as it is by some evidence, is far more worthy of belief than the mere unfortified assertions of the Old Testament. Whatever value the latter work may have in its relations to morality and religion, it is an unsafe guide in matters of science. ”

“ To him, a discovery amounts to something more than its mere self, and is valuable, like a choice seed, largely for what it may become. He ranges facts into series, gives each series its proper place in a science, clusters the sciences into groups, and, studying these groups with reference to each other, and to the grand problems with which thought is always busied, seeks to arrive at higher conceptions of the universe, and of the essential unity of all material things. ”

“ Could a more contemptible sham be invented? Would it be possible to do more in the way of belittling science? The total omission of scientific studies would be more honest and more truly in the spirit of science. And yet this institution is empowered to grant degrees, and has the same legal authority as Harvard, Yale, or Cornell. This is, to be sure, an extreme case, but it is not much worse than a host of others. As a general rule, the "scientific course" in a Western college is the classical course, plus a little mathematics, and with French and German substituted for Latin and Greek. ”

“ There is a demand for science, or the trash which is written would not be read. It works into nearly all departments of common life, and is, in one way or another, of immediate interest to almost every one. Yet, as I have already said, the current popular lectures upon scientific topics are frothy and worthless: the theologian often misrepresents science for partisan purposes; and the newspapers, with all the good they may do, are too frequently conducted by those ignorant of all science. The people seek for knowledge, and unwittingly get much chaff with their wheat. ”

“ Here there seems to be a real conflict, not between religion and science, but between the injudiciousness of religious people and the requirements of scientific research. Where one good laboratory should exist, we have forty small and inferior sets of apparatus, each fit only for elementary instruction, and wholly unsuited to purposes of investigation. Thus the very institutions which we should naturally expect to advance science have been made by sectarian spirit incapable of yielding solid results. Other branches of learning suffer also, only science is most impeded of all. ”

“ Every great industry in America has been directly benefited either by one or the other of the two sciences in question; fortunes have been made from practical applications of their principles, and yet scarcely anything has been done for them in return. It would seem as if our manufacturers expected to get applications of science without any science to apply. Nearly all the research accomplished, either in our own country or in Europe, has been done by university or college professors, in the intervals between their regular duties, as an incidental matter, and usually with meagre appliances. ”

“ But surely the intellect ought to be trained to think forward as well as backward, in new regions as well as in the old, beaten paths. To the scientific student the universe appears full of great unsolved problems, whose solution is the noblest exercise for the human mind and a benefit to the race. To thoughts like these the mind of the mere grammarian is closed. He sees nothing but routine, and dreads all innovation. He fetters the intellect rather than loosens it.
It may be said, however, that the old education did not depend altogether upon the languages for intellectual training ”

“ Enough has been said to show distinctly the main points in favor of a laboratory specially endowed for research, and some of the chief considerations which must arise in its establishment. Such a laboratory as is here indicated, a laboratory in which many specialists could combine forces in the more difficult fundamental investigations of physical science, surely ought not to remain long a mere fabric of the imagination, a misty dream of the future. It should be founded—whether by an individual or by the nation it matters little. ”

“ In a single glance, from a central point, the eye surveys an ellipse, the circumference of which is 150 miles; and 'outstretching in loveliness'—the lawn, the woodland, the meadow, the town spread out beneath, the gushing rills, the flowing rivers, the farm-houses scattered here and there, the rugged cliffs—all make up a landscape which is at once picturesque and sublime. The future home of Neophogen was not selected without canvassing the advantages and inducements offered at all the most noted points in our country. ”

“ No man living is able to teach properly more than one science. Indeed, some sciences, as, for example, chemistry, need to be subdivided into several different specialties, under several distinct teachers. Except by specialists, no truly scientific education can be given; since each instructor has to deal with a constantly-growing branch, and not with a fixed, completed study. The teacher must keep up with the growth of his particular science, or else drop into downright incompetency. He who is overworked by teaching several subjects cannot properly keep up with any one. ”

“ Remembering the aims of education, we must also remember that every student has but a limited number of years to spend at college. In those few years he must acquire that learning which will best fit him to go forth and grapple with active duties. If he has both the taste and the leisure, then he can learn the dead languages after graduation. It is nothing to urge that Latin and Greek facilitate the acquisition of French and German, since the latter can be studied directly as well as the former. Few people can afford the time to study four languages in order to use but two. ”

“ No student can master all literatures, and therefore much must be rejected. First, a scholar should study the classics of his own language, next in order taking others of his own time. When he knows something of his fellow-beings as he will meet them in the present, then he may learn with profit about the people of two thousand years ago. We profess to admire the culture of the Greeks. This culture came, not from the study of some language dead to them, but from direct intercourse with Nature and mankind. Cannot we draw new culture from the same sources? ”

“ If the course of study in any science can be capped by an original research leading to the discovery of new facts, so much the better. In a German university the candidate for a doctoral degree in science is absolutely required to carry out such a research, and to submit a dissertation upon it. This is not a severe requirement—every student who has been decently trained is able to come up to it, all the popular notions about the mysteriousness of scientific research to the contrary notwithstanding. ”

“ And, if we look at education from a utilitarian stand-point, we cannot doubt that a knowledge of those sciences which are involved in the arts, whose principles are applied in the steam-engine and in the telegraph, is of more value to the average mind than an acquaintance with the languages of antiquity. Ornament is worth having, but for most people usefulness must rank first. But another question here comes up. It is plain that a modern education best fits a man to perform the external duties of life. But which education best develops the mind? ”

“ Looking at education solely as a means of intellectual development, we must inquire what faculties of the mind need to be cultivated. Three may be suggested at once: the reason, the memory, and the powers of observation. The æsthetic tastes should also be brought into play, and given good material for wholesome growth. In the treatment of each faculty, education, as its name indicates, should be a drawing out rather than a cramming in. It should give the student not only material, but power; not only train him to express his thoughts, but also furnish him with thoughts to express. ”

“ In order really to live, he must constantly be doing outside work. He will thus struggle along, year after year, in constant danger of being discharged or supplanted, and, in his old age, weary and broken down, will find himself little more than a pauper. Is it strange, then, that the best intellectual talent of America is repelled from professorial positions, and attracted into other fields of labor? Can science be expected to flourish under such a system? ”

“ The meagre quantities of scientific lore picked up in the common schools, and in most of the colleges, are scarcely important enough to be worth noticing; and the knowledge doled out in the form of popular lectures is so often beaten up into froth, to suit the tastes of those who listen merely to kill time, that it may also be left out of question. But, week after week, the clergy hurl forth their anathemas against the profanities of science, and, day after day, the newspapers quote the sayings of the popular reviews. ”

“ In the selection of text-books, great care must be exercised. On this point many and many a college catalogue unconsciously betrays the incapacity of certain teachers. A bad book on a college list indicates poor judgment and slight knowledge on the part of the professor who chose it. If a college were to announce as its text-book in German, "German in Six Lessons without a Master," we should all be skeptical as to the quality of its teaching. What, then, shall we think of the institution in which science is taught upon the basis of the well-known "Fourteen Weeks Series?" ”

“ A young lawyer, doctor, or merchant, if careful and industrious, may reasonably look forward to possessing at some time a home of his own, with the means of sustaining and properly educating his children; The young devotee of science, however, has rarely any such possibilities before him. His labor is as arduous as, and demands even more talent than, that of the attorney or physician, but the recompense is vastly less. If, as he ought, he gives his leisure moments to the advancement of learning, he will find his salary insufficient for the maintenance of a family. ”