Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/422

406 the ancient. It also finds its place in the classification of observed facts. Further than this, language offers the dry, arbitrary rules of grammar as food for the intellect, while science gives grand laws and generalizations already deduced or in process of deduction. The discovery of these natural laws may be counted among the greatest achievements of the human mind. To follow out the processes by which they were discovered, gives the mind its most rigid training, and elevates the tone of thought in many other respects. The intellect becomes self-reliant and yet conscious of its own weak points. On the other hand, grammatical reasoning binds one down to past authorities, and leaves no room for original thinking. It is purely conventional, nothing more. Originality, either of thought or of investigation, is discouraged by it. The mind may be filled, but not expanded. But surely the intellect ought to be trained to think forward as well as backward, in new regions as well as in the old, beaten paths. To the scientific student the universe appears full of great unsolved problems, whose solution is the noblest exercise for the human mind and a benefit to the race. To thoughts like these the mind of the mere grammarian is closed. He sees nothing but routine, and dreads all innovation. He fetters the intellect rather than loosens it.

It may be said, however, that the old education did not depend altogether upon the languages for intellectual training; that the mathematics were included, with a variety of philosophical and historical studies. True, but the new education also includes these branches, only in a better way. Their connection with modern times is much more intimate than their connection with antiquity. Modern languages aid in their cultivation to the highest degree. In philosophy, the modern has assimilated every thing of value from the ancient; and history, in the scientific sense, is just beginning to be written. As for mathematics, the old education made it a system of mental gymnastics; the new transforms it into a useful tool which the student must apply to the solution of many physical problems. Both the intellectual value and the utility of such studies have been vastly increased.

Turning toward aesthetic studies, we find the new education again foremost. Quite obviously, the æsthetic sense must be mainly cultivated through music, works of art and literature. The world's greatest music is all modern. So also are most of the famous works of art. The painter lives entirely among the achievements of recent or comparatively recent times. As for sculpture, one needs no Latin nor Greek in order to appreciate the Laocoon. Beauty is better understood by direct contact with beauty, than by reading about it in ancient books. And in literary studies the languages of to-day are more than on a par with those of the past. This part of the argument has already been mentioned.

In scientific pursuits, also, the æsthetic tastes find such