Part 37 (1/2)

1. In what ways has science contributed to the growth of democracy?

2. How has the study of science changed the att.i.tude of the mind toward life?

3. How is every-day life of the ordinary man affected by science?

4. Is science antagonistic to true Christianity?

5. What is the good influence of science on religious belief and practice?

6. What are the great discoveries of the last twenty-five years in Astronomy? Chemistry? Physics? Biology? Medicine? Electricity?

7. What recent inventions are dependent upon science?

8. Relation between investigation in the laboratory and the modern automobile.

9. How does scientific knowledge tend to banish fear?

10. Give a brief history of the development of the automobile. The flying-machine.

11. Would a law forbidding the teaching of science in schools advance the cause of Christianity?

[1] Taylor, _The Mediaeval Mind_, vol. II, p. 508.

[2] Libby, _History of Science_, p. 63.

[3] Copernicus's view was not published until thirty-six years after its discovery. A copy of his book was brought to him at his death-bed, but he refused to look at it.

[4] Libby, p. 91.

[5] Libby, _History of Science_, p. 280.

[6] Libby, _Introduction to the History of Science_.

[7] The newly created department at Johns Hopkins University for the study of international relations may a.s.sist in the abolition of war.

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CHAPTER x.x.x

UNIVERSAL EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY

_Universal Public Education Is a Modern Inst.i.tution_.--The Greeks valued education and encouraged it, but only those could avail themselves of its privileges who were able to pay for it. The training by the mother in the home was followed by a private tutor. This system conformed to the idea of leaders.h.i.+p and was valuable in the establishment of an educated cla.s.s. However, at the festivals and the theatres there were opportunities for the ma.s.ses to learn much of oratory, music, and civic virtues. The education of Athens conformed to the cla.s.s basis of society. Sparta as an exception trained all citizens for the service of state, making them subordinate to its welfare. The state took charge of children at the age of seven, put them in barracks, and subjected them to the most severe discipline.

But there was no free education, no free development of the ordinary mind. It was in the nature of civic slavery for the preservation of the state in conflict with other states.

During the Middle Ages Charlemagne established the only public schools for civic training, the first being established at Paris, although he planned to extend them throughout the empire. The collapse of his great empire made the schools merely a tradition. But they were a faint sign of the needs of a strong empire and an enlightened community. The educational inst.i.tutions of the Middle Ages were monasteries, and cathedral schools for the purpose of training men for the service of the church and for the propagating of religious doctrine. They were all inst.i.tutional in nature and far from the idea of public instruction for the enlightenment of the people.

_The Mediaeval University Permitted Some Freedom of Choice_.--There was exhibited in some of them especially a desire to discover the truth through traditional knowledge. They were {476} composed of groups of students and masters who met for free discussion, which led to the verification of established traditions. But this was a step forward, and scholars arose who departed from dogma into new fields of learning.

While the universities of the Middle Ages were a step in advance, full freedom of the mind had not yet manifested itself, nor had the idea of universal education appeared. Opportunity came to a comparatively small number; moreover, nearly all scientific and educational improvement came from impulses outside of the centres of tradition.