Page:Essays on the Higher Education.djvu/93

Rh classics only a few centuries since turned out much of the theology and metaphysics from the universities of Europe, in order to make a place for themselves as the new learning of the day. The truth is, that poetry, mathematics, and philosophy are about the only branches of human knowledge that have everywhere and in all times been regarded as studies indispensable to what the civilized world has agreed to call culture. Yet these are perhaps the studies which are at present least prized of all by that class of youth who are fired with the ambition to choose wholly for themselves a training suited to the so-called "practical life" of business, politics, journalism, etc.

Accordingly, we are not among those who, when startling new views are proposed in opposition to ancient convictions and customs, refuse to tolerate the possibility of such views being largely or mainly trustworthy. But, on the other hand, the advocates of the New Education can scarcely expect, in the exercise of fairness and good judgment, that a scheme which they admit to be no less than "revolutionary" should be hastily caught at for its novelty by thoughtful educators. Professor Palmer's description of the Harvard method calls upon us all to discard many cherished convictions; we may justly expect it to enforce its call with many and valid reasons. It asks for a large faith; we may ask of it some assured pledge that the faith