Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/195

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THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.
191

each individual's experience. The mind is a tabula rasa, a perfect blank, to start with. Experience is, however, of two kinds, viz, 'sensation,' whereby ideas of the qualities of external objects are acquired, and 'reflection,' whereby the mind becomes aware of its own operations, i. e., acquires ideas of them. But the mind is marvelously capable of transforming the ideas which experience supplies to it by combining the 'simple ideas,' which are the ultimate data of experience, into 'complex ideas,' by discriminating simple components in complex experiences, by comparison, abstraction, etc. Locke's psychology, which is subservient to his avowed purpose of discovering the origin and limits of knowledge, is rationally one-sided, and is now largely obsolete, but he abounds in observations and analyses of permanent value. He was the first to speak of the 'association of ideas,' although he made no general use of the conception.

Locke's views on education powerfully influenced Rousseau. Education has for its aim the development of 'a sound mind in a sound body.' Physical education is of prime importance, and should consist in a process of hardening the body to endurance, special attention being paid to exercise, fresh air, sleep, diet, clothing and the like. Intellectual and moral education should aim at the development of a virtuous character, a self-respecting and self-supporting English gentleman, wherefore sound morals, good manners and skill in some trade or handicraft were regarded as essential, and given a place above mere learning. Locke thought the schools of the time unfitted to provide this training, and recommended private tutorial instruction. The studies should be useful, should appeal to the natural interest and aptitude of the pupil, and in matters of morality the child's sense of honor should be relied upon, corporal punishment giving place to moral suasion.

Influential as a moralist, an economist, and the leader in many public reforms, Locke was preeminently a defender and expositor of liberty. In a time of religious bigotry he wrought famously and well for toleration, and his name will be forever enshrined in those doctrines of civil rights which molded the public sentiment that gave birth to the United States. Before Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, Locke had declared that 'all men are naturally in a state of freedom, also of equality.'

Locke has been rightly called the 'intellectual ruler of the eighteenth century,' and while it would not be safe to say that he is the greatest of English philosophers, he is certainly the most characteristically English, and probably the most widely influential.

THE MONUMENT OF PASTEUR AT PARIS.

In France scientific men are not without honor in their own country. It is probable that the conditions are more satisfactory here, where scientific work is adequately supported both by the state and by private endowments, although the scientific worker is likely to be unknown outside his own circle. But reputation and fame have so long been regarded as the rewards of certain kinds of service that the homage paid in France to a man such as Pasteur may attract young men to a scientific career, even though it may not be a very important factor in stimulating their subsequent work. Monuments in memory of Pasteur have been erected in various parts of France. At Dole, where he was born; at Arbois, where he lived as a child; at Marnesla-Coquette and Vaucresson, where he lived in later years; at Besançon, Lille and Alais, whose silk-worm industries he saved; at Melun and Chartres, where he performed the same service for the cattle and sheep.

Pasteur's chief monument is indeed the Institute Pasteur, erected and en-