Abstract
The subject of the place which Science ought to occupy in an ideal scheme of education is one which can only receive its full exposition at the hand of one who is at the same time practically acquainted, both with the methods and aims of Modern Science and with the merits and defects of our present Educational System. Having no claim to the rare combination of knowledge thus implied, I shall treat the question in a simply partial manner, taking, of course, the aspect in which it presents itself to a scientific worker. Nor is there any apparent reason why this aspect should lead to conclusions materially different from those which would be arrived at from the standpoint of the educational reformer. In any case the subject is one of vast extent, involving a number of theoretical questions of the utmost complexity, environed by formidable practical difficulties, and more or less overshadowed by the great divergencies of opinion which exist as to what is its true solution. I shall, therefore, simply touch upon some of the more salient and more purely theoretical features of this question;and I approach the matter at issue in a spirit entirely free from dogmatism, fully recognizing that it is not only inevitable, but also right, that there should be many differences of opinion on such a subject.