knowledged that intelligence is only stimulated by the perception of general truths, or, in other words, of laws, which again are the great facts of the universe; but the object in education should distinctly be to show that things only exist in relation to one another, and that things out of relation are virtually out of existence. Let a man—to take an illustration—introduce irrelevant matter into his argument: that matter relatively to the object of the argument has no existence. The case is even worse; for, in the place where it is found, such matter is a burden and a nuisance; we must put a minus-sign before it. Now, a teacher who is thoroughly imbued with these ideas, and who neither regards nor accepts anything as work that does not show progress in the comprehension of them, will, with an inferior subject, accomplish better results than another man will who, with a superior subject, contents himself with more perfunctory methods. The reason why the teaching of science has so often been comparatively barren is that it has not been broadly taught, and has not, therefore, awakened the true scientific spirit. The reason why language-studies have sometimes appeared to produce superior intellectual results is that they have, in these cases, been taught by earnest men who, by dint of their own extensive culture, have connected these studies with wide areas of literature and history, and so obtained a sufficient field for the illustration of law; in other words, for the presentation of their subject in a scientific manner. Science, in the true sense, is vindicated as much by success in the one case as by failure in the other.
This is a matter, it is needless to say, to which too much attention can not be given. The whole progress of society depends upon the intelligence of its members. But intelligence is formed in the earlier years of life; the habit of taking rational views, and of being alive to the teachings of experience, is one which, if not acquired while the intellect is fresh, will probably never be acquired at all. We would therefore urge upon all who are interested in the education of the young to see to it, as far as they possibly can, that by education is understood the development of the habit of seeking the true relations of things, and of conceiving of human life as a network of relations. Let us banish from education the unrelated word, the unrelated thought; let us proceed according to the principle of evolution, linking step with step, while tending always to a higher unity; and the intellectual progress of the race will proceed with all the rapidity that is desirable or possible.
Scientific Culture and other Essays. By Josiah Parsons Cooke, LL. D., Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Harvard College. Second edition, with additions. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 293. Price, $1.
We had carefully read the first edition of this volume of essays, and have now re-read it in its expanded form with renewed pleasure. There are but few scientific writers so trained in the skillful use of English as Professor Cooke. Aside from the value and instructiveness of their contents, his essays are a treat to all who appreciate clearness, vigor, and precision in style, while yet the admirable expression is kept subordinate to intense and weighty thought. The work, however, is to be mainly prized as a contribution to the great educational movement of our time, which aims to give larger recognition to science in our higher schemes of study. This new edition must be taken as representing with a high degree of authority the broad and solid claims of scientific education. It does not deal with the subject technically, or formally, or even systematically, but is simply a collection of essays "written for special occasions without reference to each other," but all having a bearing upon one subject, with which the author has been long occupied both as a philosophic thinker and a prac-
