Yet the tradition of ‘formal discipline’ and the belief in faculties or general powers of the mind that might be trained by certain favored studies and afterward applied in any direction (see pp. 182f.) were too firmly rooted to be entirely upset. Even the greatest of the scientists seem to have been influenced by this notion and to have attempted occasionally a defense of their subjects on the basis of superiority in this direction. After Spencer has made his effective argument for the sciences on the ground that their ‘content’ is so much more valuable for the activities of life, he shifts his whole point of view, and attempts to anticipate the classicists by occupying their own ground. He admits that “besides its use for guidance in conduct, the acquisition of each order of facts has also its use as mental exercise.” As evidence of this, he undertakes to show that science, like language, trains the memory, and, in addition, exercises the understanding; that it is superior to language in cultivating judgment; that, by fostering independence, perseverance, and sincerity, it furnishes a moral discipline. A similar argument is made by Combe, when he maintains that “it is not so much the mere knowledge of the details of Chemistry, of Natural Philosophy, or of any other science that I value, as the strengthening of the intellect, which follows from these studies.” So Youmans declares that “by far the most priceless of all things is mental power. Science made the basis of culture will accomplish this result.” In fact, nearly every apologist for the natural sciences at some time or other has advocated these subjects from the standpoint of formal discipline, although the implied attitude toward the transfer of a generalized ideal is often in harmony with modern psychology (see p. 184). [Illustration: Fig. 51.--Charles Darwin (1809-1882).] [Illustration: Fig. 52.--Herbert Spencer (1820-1903).] [Illustration: Fig. 53.--Thomas H. Huxley (1825-1895).] [Illustration: Fig. 54.--Charles W. Eliot (1835- ).] A GROUP OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERS IN THE SCIENTIFIC MOVEMENT [Sidenote: German universities] [Sidenote: and _Hochschulen_.]