est value is-Science. For the due discharge of parental functions, the proper guidance is to be found only in-Science. For that interpretation of national life, past and present, without which the citizen cannot rightly reg ulate his conduct, the indispensable key isScience. Alike for the most perfect production and highest enjoyment of art in all its forms, the needful preparation is still-Science. And for purposes of discipline-intellectual, moral, religious--the most efficient study is, once more-Science. The question which at first seemed so perplexed, has become, in the course of our inquiry, comparatively simple. We have not to estimate the degrees of importance of different orders of human activity, and different studies as severally fitting us for them; since we find that the study of Science, in its most comprehensive meaning, is the best preparation for all these orders of activity. We have not to decide between the claims of knowledge of great though conventional value, and knowledge of less though intrinsic value; seeing that the knowledge which we find to be of most value in all other respects, is intrinsically most valuable: its worth is not dependent upon opinion, but is as fixed as is the relation of man to the surrounding world. Necessary and eternal as are its truths, all Science concerns all mankind for all time. Equally at present, and in the remotest future, must it be of incalculable importance for the regulation of their conduct, that men should understand the science of life, physical, mental, and social; and that they should understand all other science as a key to the science of life. And yet the knowledge which is of such transcendent value is that which, in our age of boasted education, receives the least attention. While this which we call civilization could never have arisen had it not been for science; science forms scarcely an appreciable element in what men consider civilized training. Though to the progress of science we owe it, that millions find support where once there was food only for thousands; yet of these millions but a few thousands pay any respect to that which has made their existence possible. Though this increasing knowledge of the properties and relations of things has not only enabled wandering tribes to grow into populous nations, but has given to the countless members of those populous nations comforts and pleasures which their few naked ancestors never even conceived, or could have believed, yet is this kind of knowledge only now receiving a grudging recognition in our highest educational institutions. To the slowly growing acquaintance with the uniform co-existences and sequences of phenomena-to the establishment of invariable laws, we owe our emancipation from the grossest superstitions. But for science we should be still worshipping fetishes; or, with hecatombs of victims, propitiating diabolical deities. And yet this science, which, in place в of the most degrading conceptions of things, has given us some insight into the grandeurs of creation, is written against in our theologies and frowned upon from our pulpits. Paraphrasing an Eastern fable, we may say that in the family of knowledges, Science is the household drudge, who, in obscurity, hides unrecognized perfections. To her has been committed all the work; by her skill, intelligence and devotion, have all the conveniences and gratifications been obtained; and while ceaselessly occupied ministering to the rest, she has been kept in the background, that her haughty sisters might flaunt their fripperies in the eyes of the world. The parallel holds yet further. For we are fast coming to the dénouement, when the positions will be changed; and while these haughty sisters sink into merited neglect, Science, proclaimed as highest alike in worth and beauty, will reign supreme. THE ELZEVIR LIBRARY. A Weekly Magazine. [Entered at the Post-Office, New York, as Second-Class Matter.] VOL. III. No. 133. APRIL 3, 1884. { $5.00. From Dr. Doare THE COMING SLAVERY. BY HERBERT SPENCER. "Consider what you have in the smallest chosen library. A company of the wisest and wittiest men picked out of all civil countries, in a thousand years, have set in best order the results of their learning and wisdom."-EMERSON. "Will you go and gossip with your housemaid or your stable-boy, when you may talk with kings and queens, while this eternal court is open to you with its society wide as the world, multitudinous as its days, the chosen and the mighty of every place and time? Into that you may enter always, in that you may take fellowship and rank according to your wish; from that, once entered into it, you can never be outcast but by your own fault."-RUSKIN. NEW YORK: JOHN B. ALDEN, PUBLISHER, 18 VESEY STREET; P. O. Box 1227. 1 Rip Van Winkle. Irving. 6 Enoch Arden. Alfred Tennyson. 10 Queen Mabel, etc. Ellen T. Alden. 12 World Smashing, etc. Williams 44 Evidences of Evolution. Huxley. 53 Adventures of Baron Munchausen. 56 The Story-Teller, and other Tales. Hans Andersen.. 57 Fairy Tales, Illus. Hans Andersen.. 58 Shoes of Fortune, and other Stories. Hans Andersen. 59 The Christmas Greeting. Hans Andersen... 60 The Ice Maiden, and other Stories. Hans Andersen.. 61 The Ficture Book without Pictures. Hans Andersen.. 62 The Ugly Duck, and other Stories. Hans Andersen... 63 Mud King's Daughter. Hans Andersen.... 64 The Essays of Lord Bacon. 66 The Celtic Hermits. Chas. Kingsley.. 67 Seneca and St. Paul. Canon Farrar. 68 The Crucifixion. Cunningham Geikie. 69 A Half Hour with St. Paul. Conybeare.. 70 Nos. 2, 43, 66, 67, 68, 69, combined... 75 Life of Sam Houston. 79 The Spectre Bridegroom. Irving. 83 Fior d'Aliza. Lamartine. 84 Essays on Man. Pope..... 89 Gertrude of Wyoming. Campbell.. 99 The Four Chief Apostles. F. Godet.. 100 James Ferguson, the Astronomer. 201 Mazeppa. Lord Byron.. 202 The Ancient Mariner. Coleridge. 03 The Battle of Marathon. E. S. Creasy.. |