1883 I. THE MEANING OF INFANCY      From "Excursions of an Evolutionist" II. THE PART PLAYED BY INFANCY IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAN      From "A Century of Science"...

The new significance of education The last century has witnessed an unprecedented development in the significance of education. One direct consequence has been an increased reverence for childhood. In this movement which has increased the dignity of children and schools, two large forces have been at work,—one social and the other scientific. The growth of the democratic spirit among men and institutions has made the education of children a public necessity, and lifted the school to a position o

What is the Meaning of Infancy? What is the meaning of the fact that man is born into the world more helpless than any other creature, and needs for a much longer season than any other living thing the tender care and wise counsel of his elders? It is one of the most familiar of facts that man alone among animals, exhibits a capacity for progress. That man is widely different from other animals in the length of his adolescence and the utter helplessness of his babyhood, is an equally familiar fa

The remarks which my friend Mr. Clark has made with reference to the reconciling of science and religion seem to carry me back to the days when I first became acquainted with the fact that there were such things afloat in the world as speculations about the origin of man from lower forms of life; and I can recall step by step various stages in which that old question has come to have a different look from what it had thirty years ago. One of the commonest objections we used to hear, from the mou

  1. The grandeur of natural causation   2. The problem of man's ascendancy   3. Natural selection seizes on intelligence   4. A long infancy characteristic of man   5. A complex life requires a longer infancy   6. Infancy fosters sociability and the family   7. Group life increases the social and moral bonds   8. Spiritual man is evolution's terminal factor   9. Man marks a development along new lines  10. Hand-work in the evolution of intelligence  11. The educational value of aesthetic effort