in more ways than one. He may be brought abruptly
to a truth in its finished form, coming straight to it like a thief
climbing over the wall; and the hurry and press of modern life tempt many
to adopt this quicker way. Or he may be more slowly guided along the path
by which the truth was reached by him who first laid hold of it. It is by
this latter way of learning the truth, and by this alone, that the learner
may hope to catch something at least of the spirit of the scientific
inquirer.

This is not the place, nor have I the wish, to plunge into the turmoil of
controversy; but if there be any truth in what I have been urging, then
they are wrong who think that in the schooling of the young science can be
used with profit only to train those for whom science will be the means of
earning their bread. It may be that, from the point of view of pedagogic
art, the experience of generations has fashioned out of the older studies
of literature an instrument of discipline of unusual power, and that the
teaching of science is as yet but a rough tool in unpractised hands. That,
however, is not an adequate reason why scope should not be given for
science to show the value which we claim for it as an intellectual
training fitted for all sorts and conditions of men. Nor need the studies
of humanity and literature fear her presence in the schools; for if her
friends maintain that the teaching is one-sided, and therefore misleading,
which deals with the doings of man only, and is silent about the works of
nature, in the sight of which he and his doings shrink almost to nothing,
she herself would be the first to admit that that teaching is equally
wrong which deals only with the works of nature and says nothing about the
doings of man, who is, to us at least, nature's centre.

There is yet another general aspect of science on which I would crave
leave to say a word. In that broad field of human life which we call
politics, in the struggle, not of man with man, but of race with race,
science works for good. If we look only on the surface, it may at first
sight seem otherwise. In no branch of science has there during these later
years been greater activity and more rapid progress than in that which
furnishes the means by which man brings death, suffering, and disaster on
his fellow men. If the healer can look with pride on the increased power
which science has given him to alleviate human suffering and ward off the
miseries of disease,