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Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmds en commenpant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivan:s apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — ♦» signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN ". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent etre film6s d des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour etre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. 1 2 3 4 5 6 I THE UTILITY OF KNOWLEDGE-MAKING AS A MEANS OF LIBERAL TRAINING. INAUGURAL ADDRESS DELIVERED AT|THE OPENING OF THE FORTIETH SESSION oi- DALHOUSIE COLLEGE, HALIFAX, N. S., Scpumber utl), 1899. BV J. G. M.\CCxREGOK, Munro Profersor of Physics. I'UIXTED T3Y TITE NOVA SCOTIA PKIXTLVG COMPAVV. HALIKAX, X. S. I 899. i ■ The Utility of Knowledge-Making as a Means of Liberal Training. ] ! i <• j\[r. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : The subject on which 1 wish to address a few remarks to you to-day, by way of openini:;- the fortieth session of our College, is the utility of knowiedtje-makiny as a means of liberal traininc;-. That the main work of the hii^hest of educational institu- tions should consist of orii,^inal research, and that ability to make additions to knowled(^e should form the chief test of qualification for the hii^hest academic distinction, may be said to have received world-wide recog^nition ; but the value o'i. research work in institutions or departments of a lower grade has not been similarly recognised, and the tests for lower academic degrees and certificates do not, in general, at least formally, include a research test. I wish to bring to your notice some considerations which '^o to show, that the work of all educational institutions, from the highest to the low'est, should be, to a considerable extent at least, of the nature of original research, — understanding by that term, however, the effort to make additions to our own knowledge, not necessarily to the knowledge of the race. In this sense we have all been engaged more or less in original research from our earliest years ; and we probably attained greater success in infancv than in vouth or in later life. The young child is completely cut off from all external sources of information ; and it could acquire no Icnowledge beyond a remembrance of confused sensations, if it did not pos- sess the power of " putting that and that together" and finding things out for itself. By applying this power however, the child succeeds in bringing a large measure of order out oi the chaos of sensations which it experiences. The method which it uses is the scientific or knowledge-making method. It finds out the usage of a word, for example, by putting to- gether various instances of its use, constructing a theory as to the meaning of the word, testing the theory by subsequent observation, and modifying the theory as experience widens, — in fact, by subjecting its experience to imagination, induction and deduction, and thus, as the logicians would say, gener- r Mil alisin<;- such expcrienco. Mow exactly the process is carried out, even the New Psycliolo^y has not yet told us. But it certainly i!:;ets carried out somehow ; and the resuU is a series of brilhant, thou<;"h possibl}' to sonic extent sub-conscious, discoveries. The evolutionist would tell us, perhaps, in his learned phraseoloi^y, that this phenomenon is a case oi' the onto<;enetic recapitulation of pliyloi^eny, i>y which he would mean that the \'0un<4- animal in learninj^ its rnother-tonjnie passes in a few months or years through an epitome of the course of development for which the race recpiired as many a^ons. Kven so, the phenomenon does not lose its suj^-iji-es- tiveness from our present point of view. Whether it be because, vvhcn the mother-tonL;uc has been acquired, the period of ontoirenetic recapitulation is complete, and the ch.ild brouoht tliereb}' up to date, or because it is then brought into communication with encyclopaHlic friends, I cannot say ; but certainly once the child is able to c]ueslion its mysterious neighbours and to understand their answers, its power of applying the scientific method rapidly di- mmishes, becoming weakened apparently because of the readiness with which information may now be obtained by simple appeal to authoritv. But though weakened the power is not wholly lost ; for it exhibits itself, more or less, in the study both of language and of natural phenomena, during the period of tutelage between early childhood and incipient manhood, and it comes into greater or smaller activitv when the voung man poes forth to engage in the work of life. And what his degree of success is to be in such work as his h^nd may find to do, will depend, in no small measure, upon his power of putting that and that together and making knowledge for himself from his own experience. The value of experience in the direction of the work of life does not need to be established by argument. It has become proverbial. But the connection of its value as a directing agency with the making of knowledge may need a few words of exposition. That the mental process which enables us to learn by experience in later life is a knowledge- making process, — the same as that lised by the child in ac- quiring its mother-tongue, though perhaps more consciously rmed, — -becomes obvious if we consider pe \y partu kind of work in which men engage. The merchant, to take a single case, in order that he may be able to foresee what kinds and qualities of the many articles in which he deals, it will be desirable for him to have in stock, must watch the purchases of his customers, and make mental note of their \ I I ^1 satisfaction or discontent. The transactions are too numer- ous to he carried in the niemory or to admit of written memoranda. If he is to make nroj,';ress in judi^nn^^ as to what his stock should include, he must put rekited experiences to,'.rether, weld the lessons he learns from them into general rules, and make these rules more and more accurate as time /4oes on. And the same is true oi' many other questions which he must settle for himself. L'nless in fact he can generalise his mercantile experience, as the child generalises its linguistic experience, he must continue to bu\' and sell witli no greater intelligence than he did at the outset of his business career. •'Tiil old rxpcricDcc do attain 'I'o soMicUdiiy likt> propiu'l ic strain," as Milton puts it, he can have no complete success. A similar statement may be made with respect to the physician, the farmer, the investigator, the housewife, the artisan, the politician, the clerk, — with respect in fact to all classes of workers, whatever the form of work in v/hich thev may be engaged. It may be made also not only in regard to their main work, but in so far as they mav in addition be engaged in athletic, literary, artistic, political, social, re- ligious, or any other efibrt, and whether that effort take the form of work or of play. In short, it is applicable to a greater or smaller extent, to at least the great bulk of the various forms of activity of which tiie lives of most of us are made up. The subject-matter of experience, the material with Avhich we must deal, is different in different cases ; but there is one condition of success which is common to them all, — the possession of the power of foreseeing ; and there is one method of acquiring foresight, — the making of knowledge for ourselves from our own experience. If this be so, it is obvious that this power of knowledge- making should be raised to as high a pitch of efficiencv as possible before we enter upon the active work of life. Its growth, like that of all intellectual faculties, is slow ; and the facility of its initial cultivation diminishes v/ith advancing years. It is hazardous therefore to postpone its cultivation until v»e arc face to face with the problems of life, or even until we enter upon the special study of the main work of life in the technical or professional school. It should be cultivated, and cultivated with especial care, during the whole period of tutelaj^e, whether it be spent at the school only or in part in a department of liberal training of the college. And in order that it may be cultivated, it must be kept in continual exercise. 6 I do not know that provision for the exercise of this faculty has ever been ,i;eiierally made, with tiill consciousness, in either scliool or college ; but it can readily be shown (hat it was given far more exercise in the educational institutions of two or three generations ago, than it is in general in those of the present day. The curriculum vf the old schools, which is also that of the old-fashioned conservati\'e school of our time, consisted largely of classics and mathematical science (including natural philosophy), its backbone being the stud\' of classics; and while the studv of mathematics, though :in admirable discipline, is for the most part deductive in character, and thus gives only a limited exercise to the power under con- sideration, the study of language, and especially the study of Latin and Greek, gives it very abundant exercise. lilven it the study of a language is carried out with the aid of a grammar and a lexicon, i. e. , with frequent appeal to authorit}', it involves continual putting together of instances of the usage of words and phrases which have come to our notice, formation o\' hypotheses as to their usage, and re- peated modification of such hypotheses, after the\' have been brought to the touchstone of experience. Tiie lexicon, especially the lexicon of the old school, would give little more than a clue in manv cases to the Knglish equixalents of, say, Latin words,, the exact ecjuivalents, whetlier words or phrases, being determinable only by a siudy of the context and a fruitful drawing upon experience. And when we tiiink how large is the number of words and phrases and constructions, of the usage of which the student of a language is gradually forming more and more accurate conceptions, we see at once how abundant is the exercise which this study provides of the putting of that and that together. The material on whicii the knowledge-making power is thus exercised, is of course of one kind, and therefore in general of a kind quite different from the material on which it must be exercised in after life. The exercise afforded is thus one-sided and bv no means complete. l>ut it is nevertheless exercise of the same intel- lectual power which we must later on apply to the more varied and complex material which life will afford. While the study o( the classics gave the student under the o\d regime considerable experience in the making of know^lcdge, the curriculum as a whole gave him both the key to his own literature and the literatures of Greece and Rome, and an introduction to the principles of the systems of knowledge which existed at the time. His stock of infor- mation we should now consider small ; but it bore a great '■I i ; I ratio to the whole body of available information. And it should be noted that such Unowledi^e as the student had ac- quired, had been acquired in a leisurely, thouij^htful way, and lar.acon to whom the credit belongs, of havin(jf coined the aphorism : " Kiiowledi^e is power." If so to Bacon also must attach the opprobrium of having;- per- petuated a false and vicious {i^'cneralisation. However im- portant knowledi^^e may be, it is not //w essential condition of pov/er. It is only one of the conditions. A second, perliaps the first, is the ability to make knowledi;e, which may be developed in the acquisition of knowledge, but also may not. No knowledij;-e, no power : would have been sound doctrine ; I\nowiedi.;e is power : was false doctrine. And while the possession of knowled<:;'e is essential to power, it is not the possession of an outlit of knowledge at the beginning of active life that is essential, but the posses- sion of such outfit when it is wanted. In the old davs the world's whole stock of knowledge was so comparatively small, that it was possible in the period of tutelage to get an •outfit of its principles at least. At the present day the world's stock is so large, that the school and college can no longer furnish a corresponding outfit. Yet the men of the present day are at little disadvantage on that account. For as the volume of knowledge has increased, its accessibility has increased also. And thus-, provided the student of to- day has been trained to acquire knowledge, has been taught in fact the most important of the three R's, the art of read- ing, with all that the art of reading involves, he can readily provide himself at any time with such information as he may require. Thus, nowadays, it is not so much knowledge that is even one of the conditions of success, as a well developed power of acquiring knowledge. It was largely on the basis of Bacon's false generalisation that tlic fight was waged in later years between classics and the rapidly growing sciences. The advocates of the intro- 8 tluclion of science into the curricuhiin of llic scliool and colle^^c, bascil their demand mainly on the iinportance for success in life and for ,<.';cneral culture, of a knowledge of the laws of n;ilural phenomena. And their «.>pnonenls, tluni{,';h relying'' hiD^ely on the excellence o( the results achieved under the old system, met the utilitarian arj^^uments of the scientists by uri^in?^ various minor utilities involved in the study of Latin and Clreek. \eithcr party seems to have realised, at least fully, the more profound utility which miL;"ht be involved in both kinds of study. The introductio!! of science into the curriculum under this mistaken conviction could not but have unfortunate re- sults. Its primary effect on the study of classics was to diminish the time devoted to it. i'ut there was a more serious secondary effect ; for, since knowledge was power, and as much knowledj;-e oi Latin and Greek must therefore be acquired, if possible, as before, the student had tu be sub- jected to a forcing;- process. Helps of all kinds consequently developed a vi/;orous, nay a rank, growth, — elaborate gram- mars full of detailed information, lexicons giving all the shades of meaning that words mi^ght ha\'e, annotated texts removing all difficulties from the student's path, even tnms- lations, litly described in college slang as cn'Ox and ponies. Power of translating" was acquired by the aid ol such educa- tionally illegitimate helps ; but it was acquired to a smaller extent than formerly, by the stu.dent's generalising his own experience and to a greater extent by the use of information derived from authority. The study of the classics conse- quently, first because of trie diminution of time, and secondly because the time was no longer so well employed, came to provide a doublv diminislied exercise of the know- ledge-making power. Tlie command of the classical languages too which was thus acquired, became for these reasons, a less permanent possession ; and the study of them no longer served to open up to the student, to the extent to which it had previously, the great literatures of the past. Nor did the science study itself atone for the deteriora- tion which its introduction involved in the study of classics. I need hardly point out that the method which is used in the making of knowledge in any branch of science, is the same as the metliod we must apply in making knowledge from the experience of every day life. Indeed it gets the name of the scientific method, because, though it had been used by men in all ages in the learning of languages and in learn- ing by experience of all kinds, it was first brought to the 9 notice of logicians by the rapid development of science, which resuUcd from its systctnalic application to the study oi' natural phenomena. Any single science therefore, mav be studied, as any lan^ua^xe may, so as to afford practice in knowledge-making. Lan^uaj^^e study has the advantam'-e of affordini^" a lari^er number of simple problems on the material of which the student has the widest experience. A science has the advantage of presentiui^ problems witii a greater ran>;e of difficulty on a material which is in general more complex. A <,^roup of sciences has the further advan- tai^e over even a «;Toup oi lani^uayi-es, of affording' a ij^reater variety o( subject-matter ior the exercise of the knowledi^e- maU'inL]^ pov/cr, and consequently L^ivini; the student practice in learniui;- from experience under such different conditions as to fit him more completely for usin^,^ his experience under the conditions of actual life. The combination of lin,;^uistic and scientific study, there- fore, if both had been conducted by kuviwlcdi^e-makinL,'" methods, mi^ht have been expected to produce better re- sults in the cultivation of the knowlcd^^e-makins^ power, than the study o( either sins^ly. l^ut under the domination of tlie conviction that knowledj^e is power, science could not be studied in this way. The main object for which it had been introduced into the curriculum was the provision of an outfit of useful information, and the study must be carried on, so as to provide as large an outfit as possible. The obvious means of furnishinj^- this outfit was the synoptic text-book, an epitome of the latest results in any branch of science ; and all that the student had to do, in order to possess himself oi it, was to get up the book. Clearly with this as his method he could not learn to use his ov.m experience, but must become " Deep versed in books aiul stiallow in himself." It is true, that when, after a time, the new science study was found to have become a mere fj^ettin_;j;- up of books, the cry of " Back to nature!" was raised. As Wordsv.orth put it": "Come forth into tlio li^'ht of tilings, Let Nut lire lie your liiiielier." As a result, experimental demonstrations were tried ; but they were found insufficient. And now laboratory work has been introduced into school and col!e.i,^e, and students are made, themselves, to carry out many scientific processes. They are tauii^ht to use the balance, to verify Boyle's law, to measure electric currents, to prepare i:cases, to analyse solu- tions, to dissect frogs, to classify insects, to use the micro- 10 I scope, to hunt out the names of plants. But they are always shown how to do the things required of them. And thus, from our present point of view, this mode of coming into the U^hl of things, can be of little avail. For while it makes the student's conceptions more vivid and the know- ledge acquired more accurate and less transitory, and while it affords subsidiary training, e. ^., of the hand and the eye, it gives but little additional opportunity ot acquiring power in the making of knowledge. Kven such additional opportunity as was at first afforded, when the student had no book to follow and was thrown to a certain extent upon his own resources, has now been withdrawn. For it was soon perceived that a greater amount of g'round could be covered if he spent no time in working things out for himself. And so the text-hook of laboratory work was devised, telling him exactlv what to do and exactl}' how to do it. " Hack to nature I" has thus meant : Back to books! And it could not have been otherwise. I'^or under the con- viction that it is knowledge that is power, practice in the putting o\' that and that together must appear to involve a waste of precious time. There is another innucnco which has tended to striji the studv of science of the hii-h educational value which it might possess, \'i/. , the inlluencc of the written examination. Men of knowledue under the old res-^ime ha\inij been found to be men of power, it became desiral)le that they should be certified by competent bodies. The degree and the diploma thus came into prominence ; and the tests applied to candi- dates for them, when the candidates became numerous, took generally the form of written examinations. Now it is quite possible to test in this way the possession of command over a language, of deductive power in such subjects as mathe- matics or philosophy, and of information on any subject. Ikit it is impossible to test by examinations of this kind, directly, the possession of the knowledge-making' po\\er. The making of knowledge, even in its humbler forms, is a creative process. It occurs only when the fiash of imag- ination lights up the storehouses of experience and reveals the relations of its accumulated observaliiMis. And as the wind bloweth where it listeth, so imagination does not become luminous at command. Put even such men as Faraday or Darwin into the examination hall and tell them to spend an hour in exhibiting on paper their ability to find things out for themselves, and they must almost inevitably fail. It would in fact be no more absurd to ask a poet to ex- I J 11 e veals as the .;.s not len as tliem to find vitably ; to ex- hibit true poetic inspiration, at a i^lvcn date, than to ask a ivnowledf^e-maker to make knowledg-e. If therefore, the possession of knowledi^-e-makini;- power is to be tested at all by written examinations, it must be tested indirectly. And in some cases it can. The exercise of this power in the study of a lanfruage, besides strenjj^th- enin_i^ the power itself, produces a command of the lanj^mage which is not otherwise attainable. And consequently it is possible to test the acquisition of this power in lin(;uistic study, indirectly, by a skilful testing of the canditate's com- mand of the lanj^uage. Its exercise in science study, how- ever, produces in addition to increase of the power itself, nothing but a stock of information, which is much more readily obtainable from books. The acquisition of the knowledge-making power in science study cannot therefore be even indirectly tested by the written examination. Now written examinations, when used either as the only tests, or as the chief tests, for a degree or a certificate, must tend to encourage the acquisition of what they are capable of testing and to discourage the acquisition of what they can- not test. For candidates soon find out what kind of work will pay, and they naturally confine themselves to it. Hence if such examinations are used as tests for degrees, while they may encourage the cultivation of the knowledge-making power in linguistic study, they must discourage and repress it in the studv of science. And if this is the effect of written examinations generally, the cffeci: is of course intensified when they are conducted in' a central examining body. For the central examinor, who sets a paper for, say, the schools of a district, can obviously iind out even less' about the knowledge-making power of candidates, than the examiner who can adant his paper to the work done in a particular school. Centralised examining has serious evil effects of its own. But apart from such effects, which it would be foreign to my subject to discuss now, it must exert a specially strong influence in repressing the cultivation of the knowledge-making power, and in transforming the student into Pope's ••hodk'.'iil blockhead, iKnoraiitly road, Willi loads of learned luinb'jr in liis head." A third difficulty with which the sound teaching of science has met, arises from the complex cliaracter of its sub- ject-matter. To compare different usages of words, for ex- ample, one has but to turn over the leaves of a l)ook ; to compare instances of the occurrence of natural phenomena, .** miamimimmm 12 ft the phenomena must he watched for or reproduced under varying conditions. Knowledge-making therefore, especially in its early stages, iinds more difficult problems in science than in language ; and the young investigator meets with greater hindrance; to progress. Tlic early investigators felt this difficulty, and handed themselves togctlicr in societies in order to enjoy the suggestions and criticism of their fellows. The science student of course needs the helping hand still more ; and the teacher must be able to give the requisite aid in a judicious way. He must be a knowledge-maker him- self, must have sufficient exjiericnce in the subject he is teaching, and must be largely endowed with tact and com- mon sense. Unfortunately the old cuniculum furnished men with practically no experience of science, the new cur- riculum furnished men with little knowledge-making power, and no curriculum could fiu-nish the tact and common sense. The available teachers have thus in general been incompe- tent. And in the mcdcing of seientilic knowledge, a pupil under an incompetent tcaclier must stick fast. Competent teachers in classics on the other hand, have always been more readily obtainable. And, — what is of more importance, — in tlie making of linguistic knowledge, a pupil under an incompetent teacher does not stick fast. He has the experience of his cliiklliood lo help him, is capable of exercising the knowledge-making power, without the teacher's aid, on the familiar materia! wliich language affords, and in his effort to make progress, cannot help exercising it to a greater or smaller extent. Let irie draw spcciai alteniion to this point; for the fact that in the .'Uidy of language, exercise of the knowledge-making power is not only possible, but in a large measure inevitable, ev< n under an incompetent teacher, gives to language study a great advantage over science stud\', as a means of disoitiline in all educational institutions, but especially in those of lower grade, in which, owing to their large number, the difficulty of securing com- petent teachers is especially great. The conclusions we have now reached may be sum- marised thus : — (i) Few of tlie sul^jects of tk.e old curriculum could be studied without exercise o{ the knowlcdtre-making power ; — many of the subjects of the new curriculum can. (2) The demand for useful information did not affect the old curriculum ; — it seriously diminislied the exercise of the knowledge-making power in tlic new. (3) Written exam- inations might stimulate such exercise in tiie old curri- (4) culum they could not but repress it in the ne w. Competent teachers could re:idil3' be secured for the old cur- 13 ndcr ia'.ly iencc with ts felt ics in ows. still c aid him- le is com- 11 shed cur- lower, sense, ompe- i pupil I, have )f more [\ pupil rie has able of ^acher's and in it to a 11 ion to exercise , but in nipelent t;e over cational I which, icr com- 36 sum- rriculum -making- luni can. :t the old c of the n exam- Id curri- ew. (4) ; old cur- riculum ; — they have not (Generally been available for the new. (5) Incompetent teacliers c»>uld not larjn-ely exclude practice in kno\vled,n'e-makin,c^ under tiie old curriculum ; — tlicy could not fai! to exclude it lar.<;-ely under the new. Obviously therefore, the more intensely modern the curri- culum lias become, /. e., the more linguistic studv has been excluded and science study introduced, the less eriicient in e^eneral, must the curriculum have become, so far as practice in knowledi^e-makini.!;- is concerned. If the above discussion is sound, any Kvstv?m such as our modern system, from which the method of investigation is lari^ely excluded, must be distinctly inferior, as a means of preparing;- young people for the work of life, to a .system such as the one which has become old-fashioned, in which it is g-iven abundant exercise. It is difficult, however, to establish an inferioi-ity in a case of this kind from experience. For in any trial that may be made of the two systems, there must always be extraneous circumstances on wliich tlie burden of anv observed inferiority may be laid. On the present occasion I cannot take time even to summarise such evidence as jtocs to sliow tliaL the inferioritv which is to be expected has been found to :ic ;ici:ual. I must content myscif Vvitli a mere reference to the result of wb.at is perhaps the most decisive ofal! the trials whieli iiave been made, viz., that made in Prussia as to the relative educational efficiency of the Gymnasium, with its iari^'-elv classical course, and the Rcalschule, wit!i ils lari>ei\' srieniific course. I>olh institu- tions liad been conducted with ciiaracteristic {ierm.an thoroup;hness with respect to i!:e trainini.f of teachers and tlie provision oi equipjnciit, and the writteti ex:iriiination system had been applied in a non-.^eniralised form, h^xcept in so far as tradition and the wider privile_ces of Gymnasium g-raduates may ha\'e led the r.ior(; promisin.'j;' men to enter the Gymnasium, the two institutions seem to have wor'vcd under equally favorable conditions. Yet when in 1880, after a trial of more tlian ten vcars, the question of continuing: to admit "•raduates of the Rcalschule to certain courses of the University of i>erlin, came up for discussion, even the scientific professors testified that for the work of their departments, mainly scientific research, tlie men nurtured in the Gymnasium had been found better quali- fied than those who had come up from the Realschule. The effect of tradition and privilege may have had much to do with tfiis result ; and ihe means of instruction in science twenty years ago were of course not so elaborate as they are now. But it is significant, that in the light of the present V.[ i i I f u discussion, it was to be expected that for success even in scientific research, /. e., the makini^ of new knowledge of natural phenomena, power of knowledj^e-making, though cultivated on linguistic study only, w^ould be of greater importance than the stock of scientific knowledge which it is the aim of the modern curriculum to afford. Our own experience in Nova vScotia is less definite. We have not had the two systems running side by side, and can only compare the present state of things with the past ; and the'comparison is complicated by the fact that the present state of things is in many respects in advance of the past. But there is no doubt that the country is full of a deep and growing discontent, which, though it finds vent at times in ill-grounded criticism, rests in the main on a solid basis. The farmer, to take a single example, finds that the boys he sends to the High School rarely return to the farm. He blames the school, with its Latin and its multiplicity of sciences, and demands the provision of something more practical, such as the teaching of agriculture. There are probably many reasons why the farmer's boy does not return to the farm ; but there can be little doubt, if my position is sound, not merely that he is not fitted, but that he is actually unfitted, by his High School course, for the farmer's work. The farmer must, above all things, be able to learn quickly and accurately from his own experience. His boy, after passing through an intensely modern curriculum, under the pressure of a centralised examining system, and under the guidance of teachers in whom, for the most part, the colleges have failed to develop the investigating spirit and power, must almost inevitably be less able to make knowledge for himself out of his own experience, than he would have been, had he remained on the farm ; while even that part of his large stock of acquired knowledge which bears upon agriculture, must consist in general of inaccurate and ill-digested epitomes of sciences, in which he has little, if any, genuine interest. The farmer's discontent is therefore probably justified ; but he is wrong in the details of his criticism. With the teachers who are at present available, Latin is the subiect from which his boy will acquire, more than from any other, the essential power of putting that and that together. Although it is true that the usual synoptic study of the whole circle of the sciences will make his boy neither a farmer nor anything else, it is also true that a more informal study, a knowledge-making as distinguished from a mere information-supplying study, of bodies and the changes they undergo, and of plants and ani- 16 mals, rocks and soils, would cultivate in him the power of using- his experience, j.yive him, not much perhaps, but certainly some, real knowledge bearing on agriculture, give him the scicntinc experience requisite for the reading of agricultural books, and give him a living interest in all the operations of the farm. I'Vuitful teaching in agriculture, however, is impossible. The teacher could teach it, only if he were a somewhat experienced farmer himself ; and even if he were, he could not teach it adequately to beings with such limited experience as !: j's. Nor is the farmer the only exponent of discontent. The feeling of dissatisfaction is general. And if my position is sound it might be expected to be general. For if our school discipline fails to cultivate in our youth the power of learning by experience, it fails to give them what is at least one great essential of success, not in farming merely, but in whatever form of work they may be called upon to undertake. There is one other educational experience, perhaps specially characteristic of our time, to which I should like to refer, viz., tlic frequency of the success of the self-made man. His success is usually attributed to iniuito ahilil\-, organizing- power, push, knowledge of men, and what not. To my mind it is largely due to a well developed power oi learning by experience ; and he owes that in great measure to the school of practical life, in which he has had his training. 'I'his school provides an entirely different curriculum from the one we have been considering-. It turnishes its pupils vvith no outfit of information whatever ; but compels them to hunt out for themselves such information as they may require. And instead of devising cunning ways of stopping the putting of that and that together, it compels its pupils, by sending them early into acti /e life, to cultivate that power for themselves. Many of them of course go down ; for no helping hand is extended to them, and the method is rough. But many manage to obtain the knov/lege they require, learn how to put the that and that of their experience together, and graduate, often, as we should say, with high honours, in one or other of the departments of active work. They may not have been brought into contact with much that makes for sweetness and light, and may thus be deficient in literary and general culture ; but for all forms of activity that demand the general- ising of experience, their rough school has given tiiem a training which is, in some respects at least, admirable. Can we wonder then that the practical man, who rigl lly regards ability to tackle the main work of life as the most important 16 i ,1 component of a complete culture, and who sees daily the comparative helplessness of the products of the modern curriculum, decides to send his son as early as possible to the school of practical life? If, notwithstanding the imperfect manner in which I have presented the value of the knowledge-makine;' power, you are convinced of its great importance, you cannot fail to be intcresicd in the qucsiion: Mow are we to secure its culti- vation in the school and collcii^e? We may dismiss at once the proposal, sucf,irested by what has been said as to the eiTiciency of the old-fashioned school, that we should return to the classical curriculum, or, at any rate, to lani^uage, as tiie chief means of educational discipline. Such harking back, even looked at from our present point of view only, would be bad policy, for two reasons, (i) because a combination of languai^e and science study, if both are properly carried out, affords a far better trainiui^ in knowicd,t;c-making than cither sini^ly, and (2) because, thougli an outiit of kiiowledi,^e of science, adequate for use in the wor!-: of life, is no longer capable of being provided beforehand as part of a course of liberal training, the acciuisition of power of acquiring knowledge demands considerable scientific experience. A curriculum of which science is an important component, therefore, should be retained, iTOvideu tiie science as wel! as t!ie lanrua.'c be studied by knowle:ige-making methods. Nor need wc stop to consider the assertion, made by emi- nent edujationa! authorities, that in the school at least, such methods cannot be employed in science, or that they have been tried and have failed. Both assertions are sufficiently met by the fact that under favorable conditions, they have been tried and have sut^ceedcd.* But it must be admitted that knowledge-making methods could not be introduced generally with success, under the prevalent conditions of the present day. For so long as a large body of varied information is an es.>-jcntial condition of academic distinction, so long as the written examination is used as the main test of proficiency, and so long as teachers themselves have not had the investigating spirit developed in them, the school cannot cultivate the knowledge-making power in any large measure. Reform, to be radical, therefore, must begin with the universities, and with the leading universities. They only "Soo Amistrntig: The lieiiristic; iiictliort of toachins; Special Reports on Educa- tional yubjoctH, Vol. 2, 1898 ; EducaUou IJepartniont, Londoi. 17 he can make the conditions for dcj^rees what they please, and they only can hold the examiner completely in check. The smaller universities and colleges must, in the interests of their students, follow more or less the lead of their biiX in full measure he must be enabled to prosecule orisjinal research under favorable conditions, ilis work may be humble, and its value may be comparatively small ; but provided its value is real, it will help him to kindle in his students the enthusiasm which sprin<^s from tlvj conviction that the subject they are studying;" is a i;-rowin^- subject and tliat it is possible for thcin to assist in its <.;rowlIi. It is not therefore in the interest of the nrofessors but in the interest of their students, that I hold it to be the duty of the co!le;::e to ^ive professors both the time and the necessary outfit for research. Giving,'" them the requisite time means the nroxision of competent assistants. Givin^j;- them the requisite outfit means the provision, not necessarily by any means of completely equipped labor- atories, but of books and other working appliances sufiicient for at lea.st a tew lines of research. At first sight the considerable expenditure which would be retjuired for this purpcise, will appear to most of you to be expenditure on luxury; and possibly the benefit which a college derives from the fact that its professors are known as original investigators, although undoubtedly great, may be of the nature of a luxury. Iiut when we reflect on the importance of training all our young people to use their experience, and consequently of stimulating our college students, many of w^hom are to be the teachers of our youth, to acquire theknowledge-malring power in the highest possible degree, it becomes apparent that research facilities for our professors are not a mere luxury, but are necessary for the performance of thoroughly successful educational work. i have referred so far only to what libera! training requires. In addition, it is desirable, especiallv from the point of view of the provision of teacliers of higher grade, that those of our students who have shown greac promise of power in the malnng of knowledge, should, without leaving their own country, have ready access to the requisite facilities for research in any department in which they may wish to carry on special study. In other w^ords, Canada ought to have at least one university thoroughly equipped for investigation in all the main departments of knowledge, — and I say one, because, however desirable such equipment would be in all, with cur local art schools and agricultural schools and other 21 le-^e technical schools undeveloped, the country cannot proi)ahly alTord more than one. And this is desira!)le, not in order that Canada may take her place worthily aniono- other nations by contributing'- her< share to the i^rowth of kno\vledj;e, and not l)ecause of the material pro^n-ess that mif;ht result from the advance of science, but mainly because the fruitful investi_j^^atin/jf work thai would i)e conducted ,'it a fully equipped university, would tend to foster the spirit of investi- gation in all the collc,i;cs, and through the teachers they supply, in all the scliools, and would thus tend to make even tliose who never enter a college better knowledge-makers, and therefore more successful men, in whatever department of work they might be engaged. It is for this reason that the young people of Canada are to be congratulated, even more than the institution imnudi- atelv concerned, on the great strides which McGill Universitv has recently been enabled to make towards complete etjuip- ment ; and for the same reason, I may express the hope, in which I know you will all join, that she may soon acquire as thorough an outfit in all departments as she has already acquired in some. If but one of our universities is to receive complete equipment at present, it is fitting tliat the one having its seat in our commercial metropolis should be selected for the trust. And if McGiil University, regarding tierself as the trustee of a rich endowment, held for the benefit of the whole Dominion, is able to rise to the level of h.er oppor- tunity, her infiuence will, at no distant date, be felt for good in the life work of every Canadian. The friends of our smaller colleges must therefore rejoice in the rapid enrichment of their more fortunate sister. Nevertheless its first effect upon them lias naturally been one of depression. It is obviously impossible for them to do for the colleges in which they are interested, what AlcGill's benefactors are doing for her. And, although in a country of such magnificent distances as Caiiada, it is obviously desirable ihat our young men should have colleges, or at least a college, provided for them in iheir own section of the Dominion, in order that as many of th.em as possible may enjoy the advantage of the higher forms of education, and also that their own section may retain their services for its own development, those who have hitherto supported the smaller colleges naturallv ask : Is it worth while for us to make any further effort? Indeed are we justified in encour- aging our young people to attend the smaller colleges when a university so much more fully equipped is open to them? 29 Such questions receive their answer from the present di.sciis.Mcin. Liberal training does not demand, as the provision of encyclopa'dic knowledge does, thai students should he supplied with all the books and all the latest contrivances in all dep.'irlments of kntnvled^^', or even in any department. It demands only, so far as subjects recpiirinjj;- costly eciuipmcnt are concerned, that they should have access to such etpiipment in ihc chief departments as will enable them to have suflicient and sulVicicntlv varied exercise of the knowledi^c-makinijf power. Complete cijuipment is requisite only in an institution which aims al furnishin.t;" opportunity for orijLjinal research on all lines, in fact, at the mak- ing of specialists ratlicr than the making of men. Only a small part of such an equipment is necessary for, or can be used in, even the most thorough liberal train- in --. It follows that the small colle.i^''e with incomplete equip- ment can furnish quite as sound and thoroujjch liberal train- ing as the completely equipped university, provided it is not too 'jmall to supply the important trainin.^- which college life alfords, and provided its equipment, though comparatively small, is adequate; and consequently, that if both these condi- tions are fullilled, it is completely justiiied in inviting students to trust their training to its care. How then are to secure an adequate equipment? With the interest of the Maritime Provinces in the higher education divided up among seven colleges, it must be impossible for any one of them to possess all that is desirable, even for liberal training only. And although that section of the population which has no college of its own, and may thus be supposed to be interested in ours, is large and compar- atively wealthy, it is probably impossible for us to secure more than what is absolutely necessary. Even that would involve a large expenditure. But there can be no doul)t that the friends of our college are sufficiently numerous and have sufficient stock of weahh to provide the equipment that we need ; and I am persuaded that they will be found to be as willing as they are able, if only we, being convinced ourselves, can convince them also, that the possession of this equipment would enable us to train the sons whom they send to us, and to turn out teachers capable of training the sons whom they send directly from the school into practical life, in such a way that they may have the best prospect of doing their life's work, whatever that work may be, with 23 success. Convince tliem that with adequate equipment we couki tlolhat, and there will he no dii'llculty in securing the requisite funds. The apatliy o( the public towards tlie collej^a* is chie to the impression that it is an institiuion for the privilc.L'vd few, and that its traininj^^ is of doubtful value, even for them. Replace th.-it impression by the conviction that the collej;e, tiiou^di actuallv attended by the few, must, if enabled to do its work properly, exert a profound and beneficial inilucnce ou the life work of the many, and apathy with its attendant ni^,i;ardliness will be replaced by sympathy with the generosity which svmnathv excites. One word, especially to you who have come up to study with us this vear, and 1 have done. There are several corollaries deducible from the present discussion, with respect to the way in which you should use your time and oppor- tunities. I shall refer to one only, which is not so obvious as the others. Whatever subject matter you may be called upon in alter life to exercise your knowIed|4e-makin<;' power upon, it will always include more or less of human nature. Your work will have to be done amid " the busy hum of men ", and you must all deal continually witli your fellows. Your success will tlierefore depend largely upon the accuracy and readiness with which you can generalise your experience of men. Human nature is not a subject which can be dealt with from a professorial chair ; and we cannot therefore aid you formally in this study. Hut the college itself is a great laboratory of human nature; and it is one. of the chief advantages of your college course, that it brings you for four years into close contact with a large body of generous youth, and gives you abundant opportunity of learning by practice to make additions to your knowledge of men from your own experience. It is the proud boast of the older luiglish universities, that they have been more successful than all others in producing strong cultured men of affairs; and while there are doubtless other causes of their pre-eminence in this respect, there are two which would certainly tend to produce it, vi/. , (i) that their intense conservatism has preserved them almost wholly from the modern curriculum, and (2) that they have known better than other universities how, to stimulate their students, by the charm of their university life, to practice the generalising of their experience of men. Our life here is necessarily narrower and less full of interest and historic inspiration than the life 2'1 o( Ox(oi\\ anil CanihriJi^'o. Ihit lliosc of vou who wiselv refuse to be spurred on by an eno;ro:ssinL'; love of fame, " To si-ofii tli'lii^iits and livo lahoiii)ii.s davs," who on ihe eontrary seek to meet your fellow-students, not in the elass-room merely, or ih.e examination hall, but \vhere\er tliev m^i}- eon.q-re^ate lor purposL\s that are hii.';h and noble, will Jlnd that eolle.v;e life, even on the seale on whieh you ean experienee it here, i;.resenls in the very deli^^hts afforded by assoeiation with your fellows, continual opportunity of exercising- on the most complex of materials the niiportant pov.er of puttinn^ that and that together and finding things out for yourselves. but I ■I I \ I m