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deducat#jaosbogoog            ,,huxley  
,,and ,,education    ,address at the    
,opening of the ,college ,year          
,columbia ,university  ,september #bh1  
#aiaj    by    ,,henry ,,fairfield      
,,osborn  ,,ll4,d41 ,hon4 ,d4,sc1 ,camb4
  ,da ,costa ,professor of ,zoology     
,new ,york  ,charles ,scribner's ,sons  
#aiaj    ,copyright1 #aiaj  ,by ,henry  
,fairfield ,osborn    ,the ,de ,vinne   
,press          ,,huxley ,,and          
,,education         ,the stars come     
nightly to the sky2       ,the tidal    
wave comes to the sea2       ,nor time1 
nor space1 nor deep1 nor high       ,can
 keep my own away from me4              
--,,burroughs4      ,the most sanguine  
day of the college year is the opening  
one3 the  student has not yet faced the 
impossible task annually presented of   
embracing the modern world of knowledge2

 his errors and failures of  earlier    
years are forgotten2 he faces the coming
 months full of new  hope4    ,how would
 my old master1 ,huxley1 address you if 
he were to find you in  this felicitous 
frame of mind1 sharpening your wits and 
your pencils for  the contest which will
 begin to-morrow morning in every hall  
and  laboratory of this great           
,university8 ,may ,i speak for him as ,i
 heard him  during the winter of        
#ahgi-hj from his lecture desk and as he
 kindly in  conversation gave me of his 
stores of wisdom and experience8 ,may ,i
 add  from his truly brilliant essays   
entitled ,science and ,education1       
delivered between #ahgd and #ahhg8 ,may 
,i contribute also from my own          
thirty-seven years of life as a student 
and teacher1 beginning in #ahgc  and    
reaching a turning point in #aiaj when  
,columbia enrolled me among its         
research professors8 ,it was ,huxley's  
life1 his example1 the tone of his      
writings1 rather than his actual        

precepts which most influenced me1 for  
in #ahgi he was so intensely absorbed in
 public work and administration1  as    
well as in research and teaching1 that  
little opportunity remained  for        
laboratory conferences with his         
students4 ,how ,i happened to go to  him
 was as follows3    ,unlucky--as they   
appeared to me at the time1 but lucky as
 ,i look back  upon them--were my own   
early flounderings and blunderings in   
seeking the  true method of education4  
,huxley has observed of his ,voyage of  
the  ,rattlesnake that it is a good     
thing to get down to the bare bones of  
existence4 ,the same is true of         
self-education4 ,as compared with the   
hosts of to-day1 few men in #ahgg knew  
how to guide the graduate youth2  the   
,johns ,hopkins was still nascent2 the  
creative force of ,louis ,agassiz  had  
spent itself in producing the first     
school of naturalists1 including  the   
genius1 ,william ,james4 ,one learnt    
one's errors through falling into       

pitfalls4 ,with two companions ,i was   
guided by a sort of blind instinct  to  
feel that the most important thing in   
life was to make a discovery of  some   
kind4 ,on consulting one of our most    
forceful and genial professors  his     
advice was negative and discouraging3   
,young men1 he said1 go on  with your   
studies for ten or twelve years until   
you have covered the  whole subject2 you
 will then be ready for research of your
 own4 ,there  appeared to be something  
wrong about this1 although we did not   
know  exactly what4 ,we disregarded the 
advice1 left the laboratory of this     
professor1 and at the end of the year   
did succeed in writing a paper  which   
subsequently attracted the attention of 
,huxley and was the  indirect means of  
an introduction to ,darwin4 ,it was a   
lame product1 but  it was ours1 and in  
looking back upon it1 one feels with    
,touchstone in  his comment upon        
,audrey3           ,a poor virgin1 ,sir1
       ,an ill favored thing1 ,sir1     

,but mine own4      ,i shall present in 
this brief address only one idea1       
namely1 the lesson  of ,huxley's life   
and the result of my own experience is  
that productive  thinking is the chief  
means as well as the chief end of       
education1  and that the natural        
evolution of education will be to       
develop this kind  of thinking earlier  
and earlier in the life of the student4 
,one of the most marvelous of the       
manifold laws of evolution is what is   
called 'acceleration4' ,by this law the 
beginning of an important organ  like   
the eye of the chick1 for example1 is   
thrust forward into a very  early stage 
of embryonic development4 ,this is1     
first1 because the eye  is a very       
complex organ and needs a long time for 
development1 and  second because the    
fully formed eye of most animals is     
needed  immediately at birth4 ,i predict
 that the analogy in the evolution of   
education will be very close4           
,productive thinking may be compared to 

the  eye2 it is needed by the student   
the moment he graduates1 or is hatched1 
so to speak2 it is now developed only in
 the graduate schools4 ,it is  such an  
integral and essential part of education
 that the spirit of it  is destined to  
be 'accelerated1' or thrust forward into
 the opening and  preparatory years4    
,if the lines of one's life were to be  
cast afresh1 if by some  metempsychosis 
one were moulded into what is known as a
 great  educator1 a man of conventions  
and platforms1 and were suddenly to     
become more or less responsible for     
#c1jjj minds and souls1 productive      
thinking1 or the centrifugal method of  
teaching1 would not be  postponed to    
graduation or thereafter1 but would     
begin with the  ,freshman1 yes1 among   
these humble men of low estate6 ,it may 
be apropos  to recall a story told of   
,president ,mc,cosh of ,princeton1 a man
 who  inspired all his students to      
production and enlivened them with a    
constant flow of humor4 ,on one occasion

 he invited his predecessor1            
ex-,president ,mc,lean1 to offer prayers
 in the ,college ,chapel4 ,dr4          
,mc,lean's prayer was at once all       
embracing and reminiscent2 it descended 
from the foreign powers to the heads of 
the ,united ,states government1 to  the 
,state of ,new ,jersey1 through the     
,trustees1 the ,faculty1 and1 in a      
perfectly logical manner1 finally       
reached the entering class4 ,this       
naturally raised a great disturbance    
among the ,sophomores1 who were         
evidently jealous of the divine         
blessing4 ,the disturbance brought the  
prayer to an abrupt close1 and ,dr4     
,mc,cosh was heard to remark3 ,i should 
think that ,dr4 ,mc,lean would have more
 sense than to pray for the  ,freshmen4 
,as regards the raw material into which 
'productive thinking' is to be          
instilled1 ,i am an optimist4 ,i do not 
belong to the 'despair school' of       
educators1 and have no sympathy with the
 army of editorial writers and  prigs   

who are depreciating the ,american      
student4 ,the chief trouble lies  not   
with our youth1 nor with our schools1   
but with our adults4 ,how can  springs  
rise higher than their sources8 ,on the 
whole1 you students are  very much above
 the average ,american4 ,you are not    
driven to these doors2  certainly in    
these days of youthful freedom and      
choice you came of your  own free will4 
,the very fact of your coming raises you
 above the general  level1 and while you
 are here you will be living in a world 
of  ideas1--the only kind of a world at 
all worth living in4 ,you are           
temporarily cut off more or less from   
the world of dollars and cents1         
shillings and pence4 ,here ,huxley helps
 you in extolling the sheer sense  of   
joy in thinking truer and straighter    
than others1 a kind of  superiority     
which does not mean conceit1 the        
possession of something  which is denied
 the man in the street4 ,you redound    
with original  impulses and creative    

energy1 which must find expression      
somehow or  somewhere2 if not under the 
prevailing incurrent1 or 'centripetal   
system' of academic instruction1 it must
 let itself out in  extra-academic      
activities1 in your sports1 your        
societies1 your  committees1 your       
organizations1 your dramatics1 all good 
things and  having the highest          
educational value in so far as they     
represent your  output1 your outflow1   
your centrifugal force4    ,you are1 in 
fact1 in a contest with your            
intellectual environment  outside of    
these walls4 ,morally1 according to     
,ferrero1 politically1  according to    
,bryce1 and economically1 according to  
,carnegie1 you are in  the midst of a   
'triumphant democracy4' ,but in the     
world of ideas such as  sways ,italy1   
,germany1 ,england1 and in the highest  
degree ,france1 you are  in the midst of
 a 'triumphant mediocrity4' ,paris is a 
city where  ideas are at a premium and  
money values count for very little in   

public estimation4 ,the whole public    
waits breathless upon the production  of
 ',chanticleer4' ,that ,walhalla of     
,french ambition1 'la ,gloire1' may be  
reached by men of ideas1 but not by men 
of the marts4 ,is it conceivable  that  
the police of ,new ,york should assemble
 to fight a mob gathered to  break up   
the opera of a certain composer8 ,is it 
conceivable that you  students should   
crowd into this theatre to prevent a    
speaker being  heard1 as those of the   
,sorbonne did some years ago in the case
 of  ,brunetire8 ,if you should1 no one 
in this city would understand you1 and  
the authorities would be called on      
promptly to interfere4    ,a fair       
measure of the culture of your          
environment is the depth to which  your 
morning paper prostitutes itself for the
 dollar1 its shades of  yellowness1 its 
frivolity or its unscrupulousness1 or   
both4 ,i sometimes  think it would be   
better not to read the newspapers at    
all1 even when  they are conscientious1 

because of their lack of a sense of     
proportion1  in the news columns at     
least1 of the really important things in
 ,american  life4 ,our most serious     
evening mentor of student manners and   
morals  gives six columns to a football 
game and six lines to a great           
intercollegiate debate4 ,such is the    
difference between precept and          
practice4 ,american laurels are for the 
giant captain of industry2 when  his    
life is threatened or taken away acres  
of beautiful forest are cut  down to    
procure the paper pulp necessary to set 
forth his achievements1  while our      
greatest astronomer and mathematician   
passes away and perhaps  the pulp of a  
single tree will suffice for the brief1 
inconspicuous  paragraphs which record  
his illness and death4    ,your ,british
 cousin is in a far more favorable      
atmosphere1 beginning  with his morning 
paper and ending with the conversation  
of his seniors  over the evening cigar4 
,as a ,cambridge man1 having spent two  

years in  ,london and the university1 ,i
 would not describe the life so much as 
serious as worth while4 ,there are humor
 and the pleasures of life in           
abundance1 but what is done1 is done    
thoroughly well4 ,contrast the  comments
 of the ,british and ,american press on 
such a light subject as  international  
polo2 the former alone are well worth   
reading1 written by  experts and adding 
something to our knowledge of the game4 
,in the more  novel subject of aviation 
we look in vain in our press for any    
solid  information about construction4  
,or take the practical subject of       
politics2 the ,british student finds    
every great speech delivered in  every  
part of the ,empire published in full in
 his morning paper2 as an  elector he   
gets his evidence at first hand instead 
of through the medium  of the editor4   
,i believe the greatest fault of the    
,american student lies in the           
over-development of one of his greatest 
virtues1 namely1 his  collectivism4 ,his

 strong esprit de corps patterns and    
moulds him too  far4 ,the rewards are   
for the 'lock-step' type of man who     
conforms to the  prevailing ideals of   
his college4 ,he must parade1 he must   
cheer1 to  order4 ,individualism is at a
 discount2 it debars a man from the     
social  rewards of college life4 ,in my 
last address to ,columbia students on   
the  life of ,darwin1#a ,i asked what   
would be thought of that peculiar1      
ungainly1 beetle collector if he were to
 enter one of our colleges  to-day8 ,he 
would be lampooned and laughed out of   
the exercise of his  preferences and    
predispositions4 ,the mother of a very  
talented young  honor man recently      
confessed to me that she never spoke of 
her son's  rank because she found it was
 considered queer4 ,this is not what    
young  ,america generates1 but what it  
borrows or reflects from the environment
  of its elders4    ,thus the young     
,american is not lifted up by the       
example of his seniors1  he has to lift 

it up4 ,if he is a student and has      
serious ambitions he  represents the    
young salt of his nation1 and the       
college brotherhood in  general is a    
light shining in the darkness4 ,thus    
stumbling1 groping1  often misled by his
 natural leaders1 he does somehow or    
other1 through  sheer force1 acquire an 
education1 and is just as surely coming 
to the  front in the leadership of the  
,american nation as the ,oxford or      
,cambridge man is leading the ,british  
nation4    ,our student body is as fine 
as can be1 it represents the best blood 
and  the best impulses of the country2  
but there may be something wrong1 some  
loss1 some delay1 some misdirection of  
educational energy4    ,bad as the      
,british university system may be1 and  
it has been vastly  improved by the     
influence of ,huxley1 it is more        
effective than ours  because more       
centrifugal4 ,english lads are taught to
 compose1 even to  speak in ,latin and  
,greek4 ,the ,greek play is an anomaly  

here1 it is an  annual affair at        
,cambridge4 ,there are not one but many 
active and  successful debating clubs in
 ,cambridge4    ,the faults with our    
educational design are to be discovered 
through  study of the lives of great men
 and through one's own hard and stony   
experience4 ,the best text-books for the
 nurture of the mind are these  very    
lives1 and they are not found in the    
lists of the pedagogues4  ,consult your 
,froebel1 if you will1 but follow the   
actual steps to  ,parnassus of the men  
whose political1 literary1 scientific1  
or  professional career you expect to   
follow4 ,if you would be a missionary1  
take the lives of ,patterson and        
,livingstone2 if an engineer1 ',the     
,lives  of ,engineers2' if a physician1 
study that of ,pasteur1 which ,i        
consider  by far the noblest scientific 
life of the nineteenth century2 if you  
would be a man of science1 study the    
recently published lives and  letters of
 ,darwin1 ,spencer1 ,kelvin1 and of our 

prototype ,huxley4    ,here you may     
discover the secret of greatness1 which 
is1 first1 to be  born great1           
unfortunately a difficult and often     
impossible task2 second1  to possess the
 instinct of self-education4 ,you will  
find that every  one of these masters   
while more or less influenced by their  
tutors and  governors was led far more  
by a sort of internal1 instinctive      
feeling  that they must do certain      
things and learn certain things4 ,they  
may  fight the battle royal with        
parents1 teachers1 and professors1 they 
may  be as rebellious as ducklings      
amidst broods of chickens and give as   
much  concern to the mother fowls1 but  
without exception from a very early age 
they do their own thinking and revolt   
against having it done for them1  and   
they seek their own mode of learning4   
,the boy ,kelvin is taken to  ,germany  
by his father to study the mathematics  
of ,kelland2 he slips down  into the    
cellar to the ,french of ,fourier1 and  

at the age of fifteen  publishes his    
first paper to demonstrate that ,fourier
 is right and  ,kelland is wrong4       
,pasteur's first research in            
crystallography is so  brilliant that   
his professor urges him to devote       
himself to this branch  of science1 but 
,pasteur insists upon continuing for    
five years longer  his general studies  
in chemistry and physics4    ,this is   
the true empirical1 or laboratory method
 of getting at the  trouble1 if trouble 
there be in the ,american modus         
operandi2 but a  generation of our great
 educators have gone into the question  
as if no  experiments had ever been     
made4 ,in the last thirty years one has 
seen  rise up a series of 'healers1'    
trying to locate the supposed weakness  
in  the ,american student3 one finds it 
in the classic tongues and  substitutes 
the modern2 one in the required system  
and substitutes the  elective2 one in   
the lack of contact between teacher and 
student and  brings in preceptors1 under

 whom the patient shows a slight        
improvement4  ,now the kind of diagnosis
 which comes from examining such a life 
as that  of ,huxley shows that the real 
trouble lies in the prolongation to     
mature  years of what may be styled the 
'centripetal system1' namely1 that      
afferent1 or inflowing medival and      
oriental kind of instruction in  which  
the student is rarely if ever forced to 
do his own thinking4    ,you will       
perceive by this that ,i am altogether  
on your side1 an  insurgent in          
education1 altogether against most of my
 profession1  altogether in sympathy    
with the over-fed student1 and          
altogether against  the prevailing      
system of overfeeding1 which stuffs1    
crams1 pours in1  spoon-feeds1 and as a 
sort of deathbed repentance institutes  
creative  work after graduation4    ,how
 do you yourself stand on this question8
 ,is your idea of a good  student that  
of a good 'receptacle'8 ,do you regard  
your instructors as  useful grain       

hoppers whose duty it is to gather      
kernels of wisdom from  all sources and 
direct them into your receptive minds8  
,are you content  to be a sort of       
psychic ,sacculina1 a vegetative animal1
 your mind a  vast sack with two        
systems1 one for the incurrent1 the     
other for the  outcurrent of predigested
 ideas8 ,if so1 all your mental organs  
of combat  and locomotion will atrophy4 
,do you put your faith in reading1 or in
  book knowledge8 ,if so1 you should    
know that not a five foot shelf of      
books1 not even the ardent reading of a 
fifty foot shelf aided by  prodigious   
memory will give you that enviable thing
 called culture1  because the yardstick 
of this precious quality is not what you
 take in  but what you give out1 and    
this from the subtle chemistry of your  
brain  must have passed through a mental
 metabolism of your own so that you     
have lent something to it4 ,to be a man 
of culture you need not be a man  of    
creative power1 because such men are    

few1 they are born not made2 but  you   
must be a man of some degree of         
centrifugal force1 of individuality1  of
 critical opinion1 who must make over   
what is read into conversation  and into
 life4 ,yes1 one little idea of your own
 well expressed has a  greater cultural 
value than one hundred ideas you absorb2
 one page that  you produce1 finely     
written1 new to science or to letters   
and really  worth reading1 outweighs for
 your own purposes the five foot shelf4 
,on  graduation1 presto1 all changes1   
then of necessity must your life be     
independent and centrifugal2 and just in
 so far as it has these powers  will it 
be successful2 just in so far as it is  
merely imitative will it  be a failure4 
,there is no revolution in the contrary1
 or outflowing design4 ,like all  else  
in the world of thought it is1 in the   
germ at least1 as old as the  ,greeks   
and its illustrious pioneer was         
,socrates 7#dfi-cii ,b4 ,c471 who led   
the approach to truth not by laying down

 the law himself but by means of        
answers required of his students4 ,the  
efferent outflowing principle1          
moreover1 is in the program of the      
,british mathematician1 ,perry and many 
other reformers to-day4    ,against the 
centripetal theory of acquiring culture 
,huxley revolted with  all his might4   
,his daily training in the centrifugal  
school was in the  genesis of opinion2  
and he incessantly practiced the precept
 that  forming one's own opinion is     
infinitely better than borrowing one4   
,our  sophisticated age discourages     
originality of view because of the      
plenitude of a ready-made supply of     
editorials1 of reviews1 of reviews  of  
reviews1 of critiques1 comments1        
translations and cribs4 ,study          
political speeches1 not editorials about
 them2 read original debates1  speeches1
 and reports4 ,if you purpose to be a   
naturalist get as soon as  you can at   
the objects themselves2 if you would be 
an artist1 go to your  models2 if a     

writer1 on the same principle take your 
authors at first  hand1 and1 after you  
have wrestled with the texts1 and       
reached the full  length of your own    
fathom line1 then take the fathom line  
of the critic  and reviewer4 ,do not    
trust to mental peptones4 ,carry the    
independent1  inquisitive1 skeptical and
 even rebellious spirit of the graduate 
school  well down into undergraduate    
life1 and even into school life4 ,if you
 are  a student force yourself to think 
independently2 if a teacher compel  your
 youth to express their own minds4 ,in  
listening to a lecture weigh  the       
evidence as presented1 cultivate a      
polite skepticism1 not affected  but    
genuine1 keep a running fire of         
interrogation marks in your mind1  and  
you will finally develop a mind of your 
own4 ,do not climb that  mountain of    
learning in the hope that when you reach
 the summit you will  be able to think  
for yourself2 think for yourself while  
you are  climbing4    ,in studying the  

lives of your great men you will find   
certain of them  were veritable         
storehouses of facts1 but ,darwin1 the  
greatest of them  all in the last       
century1 depended largely upon his      
inveterate and  voluminous powers of    
note-taking4 ,thus you may pray for the 
daily bread  of real mental growth1 for 
the future paradise is a state of mind  
and  not a state of memory4 ,the line of
 thought is the line of greatest        
resistance2 the line of memory is the   
line of least resistance2 in  itself it 
is purely imitative1 like the gold or   
silver electroplating  process which    
lends a superficial coating of          
brilliancy or polish to  what may be a  
shallow mind4    ,the case is           
deliberately overstated to give it      
emphasis4    ,true1 the accumulated     
knowledge of what has been thought and  
said1  serves as the gravity law which  
will keep you from flying off at a      
tangent4 ,but no warning signals are    
needed1 there is not the least  danger  

that constructive thinking will drive   
you away from learning2 it  will much   
more surely drive you to it1 with a     
deeply intensified  reverence for your  
intellectual forebears2 in fact1 the    
eldest  offspring of centrifugal        
education is that keen and fresh        
appetite for  knowledge which springs   
only from trying to add your own mite to
 it4 ,how  your ,maxwell1 ,herz1        
,rntgen1 ,curie1 with their             
world-invigorating  discoveries among   
the laws of radiant matter1 begin to    
soar in your  estimation when you       
yourself wrest one single new fact from 
the  reluctant world of atoms6 ,how your
 modern poets1 ,maeterlinck and         
,rostand1 take on the air of inspiration
 when you would add a line of  prose    
verse to what they are delving for in   
this mysterious human  faculty of ours4 
,regard ,voltaire at the age of ten in  
',louis-le-,grand1'  the ,eton of       
,france1 already producing bad verses1  
but with a passionate  voracity for     

poetry and the drama4 ,regard the       
youthful ,huxley returning  from his    
voyage of the ',rattlesnake' and laying 
out for himself a ten  years' course in 
search of pure information4    ,this    
route of your own to opinions1 ideas1   
and the discovery of new  facts or      
principles brings you back again to     
,huxley as the man who  always had      
something of his own to say and labored 
to say it in such a  way as to force    
people to listen to him4 ,his wondrous  
style did not come  easily to him2 he   
himself told me it cost him years of    
effort1 and ,i  consider his advice     
about style far wiser than that of      
,herbert ,spencer4  ,why forego         
pleasures1 turn your back on the world1 
the flesh1 and the  devil1 and devote   
your life to erudition1 observation1 and
 the pen if  you remain unimpressive1 if
 you cannot get an audience1 if no one  
cares  to read what you write8 ,this    
moral is one of the first that ,huxley  
has  impressed upon you1 namely1 write  

to be read2 if necessary stoop to       
conquer1 employ all your arts and wiles 
to get an audience in science1  in      
literature1 in the arts1 in politics4   
,get an audience you must1  otherwise   
you will be a cipher and not a force4   
,pursuant of the constructive design1   
the measure of the teacher's  success is
 the degree in which ideas come not from
 him but from his  pupils4 ,a brilliant 
address may produce a temporary emotion 
of  admiration1 a dry lecture may       
produce a permanent productive impulse  
in  the hearers4 ,one may compare some  
who are popularly known as gifted       
teachers to expert swimmers who sit on  
the bank and talk inspiringly on        
analyses of strokes2 the centrifugal    
teacher takes the pupils into the  water
 with him1 he may even pretend to drown 
and call for a rescue4 ,in  football    
parlance the coach must get into the    
scrimmage with the team4  ,this was the 
lesson taught me by the great           
embryologist ,francis ,balfour  of      

,cambridge1 who was singularly noted for
 doing joint papers with his  men4 ,an  
experiment ,i have tried with marked    
success in order to  cultivate          
centrifugal power and expression at the 
same time is to get  out of the lecture 
chair and make my students in turn      
lecture to me4  ,this is virtually the  
famous method of teaching law           
re-discovered by the  educational genius
 of ,langdell2 the students do all the  
lecturing and  discoursing1 the         
professor lolls quietly in his chair and
 makes his  comments2 the stimulus upon 
ambition and competition is fairly      
magical2  there is in the classroom the 
real intellectual struggle for existence
  which one meets in the world of       
affairs4 ,i would apply this very       
,socratic principle in every branch of  
instruction1 early and late1 and  thus  
obey the 'acceleration' law in education
 which ,i have spoken of  above as      
bringing into earlier and earlier stages
 those powers which are  to be actually 

of service in after life4    ,there is  
then no mystery about education if we   
plan it along the actual  lines of      
self-development followed by these great
 leaders and shape its  deep            
under-current principles after our own  
needs and experience4 ,look  early at   
the desired goal and work toward it from
 the very beginning4  ,the proof that   
the secret does not lie in subject1 or  
language1 but in  preparation for the   
living productive principle is found in 
the fact  that there have been          
relatively educated men in every stage  
of  history4 ,the wall painters in the  
,magdalenian caves were the producers   
and hence the educated men of their day4
 ,this goal of production was  sought   
even earlier by the leaders of ,eolithic
 men #bjj1jjj years ago and  is equally 
magnetic for the men of dirigible       
balloons and aeroplanes of  our day4 ,it
 is1 to follow in mind-culture the      
principle of addition and  accretion    
characteristic of all living things1    

namely1 to develop the  highest degree  
of productive power1 centrifugal force1 
original1  creative1 individual         
efficiency4 ,through this the world     
advances2 the  ,neolithic man with his  
invention of polished implements        
succeeds the  ,palolithic1 and the man  
of books and printing replaces the      
savage4    ,the standards of a liberal  
mind are and always have been the same1 
namely1 the sense of ,truth and ,beauty1
 both of which are again in  conformity 
with ,nature4           ,beauty is      
truth1 truth beauty1 that is all        
,ye know on earth1 and all ye need to   
know4                    ,,keats' ,ode  
on a ,grecian ,urn4      ,the sources of
 our facts are and always have been the 
same1 namely1 the  learning of what men 
before you have observed and recorded1  
and the  advance only through the       
observation of new truth1 that is1 old  
to  nature but new to man4 ,the handling
 of this knowledge has always been  the 
same1 namely1 through human reason4 ,the

 giving forth of this  knowledge and    
thus the furthering of ideas and customs
 has and always  will be the same1      
namely1 through expression1 vocal1      
written1 or manual1  that is1 in symbols
 and in design4    ,it follows that the 
all round liberally educated man1 from  
,palolithic  times to the time when the 
earth shall become a cold cinder1 will  
always  be the same1 namely1 the man who
 follows his standards of truth and     
beauty1 who employs his learning and    
observation1 his reason1 his            
expression1 for purposes of production1 
that is1 to add something of his  own to
 the stock of the world's ideas4 ,this  
is the author's conception  of a liberal
 education4    ,one cannot too often    
quote the rugged insistence of ,carlyle3
 ,produce6  ,produce6 ,were it but the  
pitifullest infinitesimal fraction of a 
product1 produce it in ,god's name6     
',tis the utmost thou hast in thee3  out
 with it1 then4    ,now note that       
whereas there are the above six powers1 

namely1 truth and  beauty1 learning and 
observation1 reason1 and expression1    
which  subserve the seventh1 production 
or constructive thinking1 and whereas   
the giving out of ideas is the object to
 be attained1 only one power  figures   
prominently in our modern system of     
college and school  education1 namely1  
the learning of facts and the memory    
thereof4 ,it is  no exaggeration to say 
that this makes up #ie of modern        
education4 ,who  are the meteors of     
school and college days8 ,for the most  
part those with  precocious or well     
trained memories4 ,why do so many of    
these meteors  flash out of existence at
 graduation8 ,the answer is simple if   
you accept  my conception of education4 
,whereas it takes six powers to make a  
liberally educated man or woman1 and    
seven to make a productive man or       
woman1 only one power has been          
cultivated assiduously in the           
'centripetal' education2 whereas there  
are two great gateways of  knowledge1   

learning and observation1 only one has  
been continuously  passed through2      
whereas there are two universal         
standards of truth and  beauty1 only    
truth has constantly been held up to    
you1 and that in  precept rather than in
 practice4 ,for nothing is surer than   
this1 that  the sense of truth must come
 as a daily personal experience in the  
life  of the student through testing    
values for himself1 as it does in the   
life of the scientist1 the artist1 the  
physician1 the engineer1 the  merchant4 
,note that whereas you are powerless    
unless you can by the  metabolism of    
logic make the sum of acquired and      
observed knowledge your  own1 that kind 
of work-a-day efficient logic has never 
been forced upon  you and you are daily1
 perhaps hourly1 guilty of the non      
sequitur1  the post hoc ergo propter    
hoc1 the 'undistributed middle1' and all
  those innocent sins against truth     
which come through the illogical mind4  
,that man1 says ,huxley1 has had a      

liberal education 444 whose  intellect  
is a clear1 cold1 logic engine1 with all
 its parts of equal  strength1 and in   
smooth working order2 ready1 like a     
steam-engine1 to be  turned to any kind 
of work1 and spin the gossamers as well 
as forge the  anchors of the mind4      
,note that whereas you are a useless    
member of society unless you can  give  
forth something of what you know and    
feel in writing1 speaking1 or  design1  
your expressive powers may have been    
atrophied through  insufficient use4 ,in
 brief1 you may have shunned individual 
opinion1  observation1 logic1           
expression1 because they are each and   
every one on  the lines of greatest     
resistance4 ,and your teachers not only 
allowed you  but actually encouraged and
 rewarded you for following the lines of
  least resistance in the accurate      
reproduction1 in examination papers and 
marking systems1 of their own ideas and 
those you found in books4    ,may you1  
therefore1 write down these seven words 

and read them over  every morning3      
,truth1 ,beauty1 ,learning1             
,observation1 ,reason1 ,expression1     
,production4    ,in the wondrous old    
quilt work of inherited1 or ancestral   
predispositions which make your being   
you may be gifted with all these  seven 
powers in equal and well balanced       
degree2 if you are so blessed  you have 
a great career before you4 ,if1 as is   
more likely1 you have in  full measure  
only a part of each1 or some in large   
measure1 some in  small1 keep on the    
daily examination of your chart as      
giving you the  canons of a liberal     
education and of a productive mind4     
,remember that as regards the somewhat  
overworked word 'service' every         
addition in every conceivable department
 of human activity which is             
constructive of society is service2 that
 the spirit of science is to  transfer  
something of value from the unknown into
 the realm of the  known1 and is1       
therefore1 identical with the spirit of 

literature2 that  the moral test of     
every advance is whether or not it is   
constructive1  for whatever is          
constructive is moral4    ,i would not  
for a moment take advantage of the      
present opportunity to  discourage the  
study of human nature and of the        
humanities1 but for what  is called the 
best opening for a constructive career  
let it be ,nature4    ,the ground for my
 preference is that human nature is an  
exhaustible  fountain of research2      
,homer understood it well2 ,solomon     
fathomed it2  ,shakespeare divined it1  
both normal and abnormal2 the modernists
 have  been squeezing out the last drops
 of abnormality4    ,nature1 studied    
since ,aristotle's time1 is still full  
to the brim2 no  perceptible falling of 
its tides is evident from any point at  
which it  is attacked1 from nebul to    
protoplasm2 it is always wholesome1     
refreshing1 and invigorating4 ,of the   
two creative literary artists of  our   
time1 ,maeterlinck1 jaded with human    

abnormality1 comes back to the  bee and 
the flowers and the 'blue bird1' with a 
delicious renewal of  youth1 while      
,rostand turns to the barnyard4         
,,footnote3    #a ,life and ,works of   
,darwin4 ,pop4 ,sci4 ,monthly1 ,apr41   
#aiji1 pp4  #cae-cdj4 7,address         
delivered at ,columbia ,university on   
the one hundredth  anniversary of       
,darwin's birth1 as the first of a      
series of nine lectures  on ,charles    
,darwin and ,his ,influence on          
,science47