THE ROLE OF SCIENCE 43

2. Utility.
“There are certain facts and ideas in the world of
natural science with which it is essential that every educated
 man should be familiar. A knowledge of these
facts assists men (2) to understand how the forces of
nature may be employed for the benefit of mankind, (4)
to appreciate the sequence of cause and effect in governing
 their own lives, and (¢) to see things as they really
are, and not to distort them into what they may wish
them to be. It is the business of natural science in
education to bring this knowledge within the range
of all.”
True scientific education therefore is not only essentially
 “humanistic,” but it is difficult to see that any subject
 can surpass natural science as a ‘humane ” study.
The mistaken idea that scientific education means subordinating
 all other issues to a mere mechanical interpretation
 of life and activity must be eradicated: indeed,
this is the very one point that modern scientific teachers
are continually combating.
So far as schools are concerned, however, and so far
as the formation of character is considered, the actual
subjects studied in the classroom are to all intents and
purposes immaterial. Does anyone suggest for one
moment that the general type as exhibited in the old days
by the midshipman from H.M.S, “ Britannia,” or at the
present time by the naval cadet passing out from Dartmouth,
 where the education is essentially scientific, is the
least whit inferior to that of the average public school
boy of the same age? Rather the reverse, when we consider
 the high standard of our senior service. Character
is mainly formed by influences entirely outside the classroom,
 and we need fear no demoralization as a result of
the change of curriculum.
The second serious misapprehension is that scientists
desire that the study of their particular subject should