Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-11-08
Fci,rca in Pnhlin Schools.

ECls1Gt III { QuIG GC0O0lS.
Science in the broad sense OF the
term. is knowledge; but in its technicn-
al sense it includes artistic and literary
knowledge of all descriptions. while
arithmetic. algebra. pure geometry and
other abstract sciences are but so many
instruments with some one or more of
which the worker in science must be-
come familiar. Thus Invested of its
surroundings. science, becomessvn-
onymouS with the natural sciences;
that is, with the knowledge of the uni
verse, of the world as part of the uni
verse, and of our own bodies and minds
as part of the world. All the advance
ment of the present age, the loom, the
steam engine. the locomotive, the tele-
graph, the telephone, the electric mo-
tor, are due to the knowledge of nature,
acquieed on the first instance, by those
who from sheer love of nature have
studied its wonders and found out its
mysteries, careless of the hoOtingS of
the mob and the sneers of the cultured,
and, in the most instances, applied bv
the inventor and manufacturer, who for
their labor have, as a rule, won the APP
plauSe of millions and filled their peck
cts with untold gold. 1t is mere quib-
bling upon words to say that discover
les in science are due to chance. A
hundred men ignorant of minerals may
pass q mountain of cinnabar without
dream of its value; but the first practic-
al miner who sees it, though he may be
prospecting for gold, knows the value
OF the mercurial ore. In sense, the
immediate finding of anything is chance.
Twenty may look and but one find.
Often he who looks for one thing finds
another. But in all cases the inquirino,
obseryant spirit and the necessary
knowledge to turn the discovery to &C
count must be present, otherwise the
pearl of great price is thrown away as
a useless pebble.
The advancement of science mas not
been limited to the mastery over mate
rials and powers outside of ourselves.
The knowledge of what life is, of the
nature of our bodies, of the structure of
the organ in which the mind resides, of
the forces which act and the processes
which 90 on with us, has advanced
greatly; and the only reason that such
knowledge has not bettered the condi-
ton of the human race to greater ex-
tent than it has, is to be found in the
fact that the application of this knowl-
edge has to be made by the individual
himself, and that the education given
to the individual has taught him to take
more care of an inanimate machine of
human manufacture than of that won
drous result of the long evolution of
ages which he calls his body, and which
contains all that he can call himself 1t
is for lack of necessary knowledge in
this respect that we find the great ma
jority of mankind ready to sacrifice
character health and happiness in this
world at the shrine of MammOn.
Were science once properly taught
in our schools, q check could be given
TO some of the forces which seem TO be
disintegrating society. Wealth, with
the power and position accompanying
it, is now sought for so anxiously that
not only the rights of others, but those
OF the individual are ignored in the
struggle to obtain it. Were men taught
from infancy the certainty that punish
ment will in this life surely follow sin
against nature, and that an outraged
society will, in various ways revenge
an injury done to its mbers-were
these things taught with the same per-
sistency with which the doctrines of
hell and the devil, and how to cheat
the devil, are inculcated, the millenni-
UNI would soon commence. -PbiLGdei-
phiG Record.