It is not those who desire to unite literature with science who degrade education; the degradation is the consequence of the refusal. A violent reaction—too violent to be wise—has lately taken place against classical education in France, where their own vernacular occupies the position of dead languages, while Latin and science are given the same time in the curriculum. In England manufacturers cry out for technical education, in which classical culture shall be excluded. In the schools of the middle classes science rather than technics is needed, because, when the seeds of science are sown, technics as its fruit will appear at the appointed time. Epictetus was wise when he told us to observe that, though sheep eat grass, it is not grass but wool that grows on their backs. Should, however, our grammar schools persist in their refusal to adapt themselves to the needs of a scientific age, England must follow the example of other European nations and found new modern schools in competition with them. For, as Huxley has put it, we can not continue in this age "of full modern artillery to turn out our boys to do battle in it, equipped only with the sword and shield of an ancient gladiator." In a scientific and keenly competitive age, an exclusive education in the dead languages is a perplexing anomaly. The flowers of literature should be cultivated and gathered, though it is not wise to send men into our fields of industry to gather the harvest when they have been taught only to cull the poppies and to push aside the wheat.
IV. Science and the Universities.—The state has always felt bound to alter and improve universities, even when their endowments are so large as to render it unnecessary to support them by public funds. When universities are poor. Parliament gives aid to them from imperial taxation. In this country that aid has been given with a very sparing hand. Thus the universities and colleges of Ireland have received about £30,000 annually, and the same sum has been granted to the four universities of Scotland. Compared with imperial aid to foreign universities such sums are small. A single German university like Strasburg or Leipsic receives above £40,000 annually, or £10,000 more than the whole colleges of Ireland or of Scotland. Strasburg, for instance, has had her university and its library rebuilt at a cost of £711,000, and receives an annual subscription of £43,000. In rebuilding the University of Strasburg eight laboratories have been provided, so as to equip it fully with the modern requirements for teaching and research.[1] Prussia, the most economical nation in the world, spends £391,000 yearly out of taxation on her universities.
The recent action of France is still more remarkable. After the Franco-German War the Institute of France discussed the important
- ↑ The cost of these laboratories has been as follows: Chemical Institute, £35,000; Physical Institute, £28,000; Botanical Institute, £26,000; Observatory, £25,000; Anatomy, £42,000; Clinical Surgery, £26,000; Physiological Chemistry, £16,000; Physiological Institute, £13,900.
