New-York tribune., 1872-11-08

Prof. Tyndal goes next week to Philadel-
phia, and will continue there after what may
be called, without CxaggeratiOn, his triumphal
march from city to city. 1t is a suggestive
fact that while the success of our prof0undest
thinkers and most cultured literary men "a
popular lecturers is always problematic aud 90
he determined by contingent circumstances,
Prof. TyndalPs audiences have everywhere
crowded to make suro Of their hearing weeks
in advance of his appearance We call atten-
ton TO this fact because it is a sign, not so
much Of the fame of the lecturer as of a curl
ous change now taking place In public taste and
the public estimate of education: and this not
so onoticcably among men with whom study Is tho
business of life, "A i'll the active middle class,
the great mass of mechanics and wOrkingmen
whose shrewd surface common sense leads
them to forecast and follow the tendency of
current events more promptly than men who
perhaps look into them more deeply.
Fifteen years ago the ambition of every poor
man who wished to elevate his boy was to
give him a classical education. That meant
three or four years spent at some of the
small colleges a dozen of which are to be found
in every State through the country; learning
a smattering Of mathematics a smattering of
logic; tolerable familiarity with the grammar
Of Caesar and Xenophon, but with small
ability to apply either mathematics or logic to
the purposes of ordinary life, and with
equal incapacity to draw from the story
of Greek gods or Roman heroes a single
meaning which should render the import
of that life more profound or its aims higher.
The young fellow tackled A. B. to his name, put
away his diploma and betoOk himself to a
profession, OF went behind the counter of
dry goods or drug shop, in which later in
stance his Latin came into play. In most
other cases the mental tools with which he
had to earn his bread and butter were ac-
quired after he left college. His halh com
pretended dog-eared "classics" were no such
tools they laid upon the shelf, to be taken
down perhaps in the breathing spaces of
busy life with a sentimental, pleasurable in
terest Meanwhile, Of the sources of this life
which the man had to live, or of the nature
or laws Of the tremendous physical forces
about him. holding him at will in the very
Jaws Of death, he wns as ignorant "a Caspar
Hauser brought out of his cellar TO the light,
and he turned, like him, Indifferent from the
daily renewed miracles of sun and earth, TO
play with his colored ribbons.
The arguments IN favor of classical educa-
ton are, doubtless, weghty and potent, but
the average American is inclined just now to
pass them by, on the sole consideration that
life with his son is not apt to be leisurely,
but breathless struggle, and that the three
four preparatory years should be spent in
arming him for that struggle with the fttest
weapons. That he can mispronounce the dead
language of Greeks dead centuries ago mat
ters little so long as he cannot understand his
German or French customer on the other side
of the counter; the force of syllogism ia an
affair which touches him but rarely and at q
distance compared to the light or air in which
he walks to bis daily work, or tho heat which
keeps him alive for that work, or with an iu-
visible stroke leaves him dead upon the way.
On every side We see proofs of the univer-
salty OF this conviction. Most of our peliOdi-
calls formerly devoted exclusively TO literature
contain n department Of popular science. In
tho curriculum Of each Of the loading colleges.