f
the up-to-date young people which grandmother finds so shocking are
traceable to this source? Is it possible that faith, honor, loyalty and
other ideals and aspirations of man's better nature, are being neglected
and corrupted by the methods of modern science and the rule of reason?

The very idea of such a possibility, when it first dawned upon me,
seemed like such a palpable absurdity that I put it aside, yet as I
followed the other trains of thought which have been under discussion,
this idea kept recurring with greater and greater persistency. If it
happened to be true, the lesson to be derived from it might prove so
important and helpful to struggling humanity, that it appears to me,
now, entitled to careful consideration.

Let us begin with a general commentary and ask ourselves--How comes it,
while scientific methods have achieved such amazing results in the
material world, they have not succeeded equally well in improving the
inner nature of man? How comes it that science, with all its
investigations and accurately reasoned conclusions, cannot show the
individuals of the present day how to make better paintings than Raphael
or Titian? Or better statues than Michael Angelo? Or better music than
Chopin or Wagner? Or better literature than Moliere or Shakespeare?

It can show him how to make a hundred times better ship, or factory, or
surgical operation; but when it comes to this other kind of thing, it
appears to have made no improvement at all. Those artists we have named
and hundreds of others in past centuries, who made immortal
masterpieces, had no intellects enlightened by modern science, nor any
of the benefits of modern education and progress. If we may judge at all
by results (which is the modern, enlightened way), the only effect of
science in teaching people how to get an inspiration and find a
beautiful expression for it, has been a detriment rather than a help.

If you take a boy to-day, who has a natural bent for poetry, or
painting, how much will you help him by filling his mind with scientific
methods and theories, rules and exceptions, deductions and compilations,
of the various elements which should logically determine the value of
the finished product? By giving his intellect a thorough course in
scientific training, which may occupy his time and absorb his energy for
many years, is it not possible that you will turn out in the end a
plodding hack, instead of the inspired artist who might ha