152 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In the first place, they need, I presume, occupation after their hours 

 of work; and to give that this class was established. If any of them 

 answer, " We do not want occupation, we want amusement. Work is 

 very dull, and we want something which will excite our fancy, imagi- 

 nation, sense of humor. We want poetry, fiction, even a good laugh 

 or a game of play " I shall most fully agree with them. There is 

 often no better medicine for a hard-worked body and mind than a good 

 laugh ; and the man that can play most heartily when he has a chance 

 is generally the man who can work most heartily when he must work. 

 But there is certainly nothing in the study of physical science to in- 

 terfere with genial hilarity. Indeed, some solemn persons have been 

 wont to reprove the members of the British Association, and specially 

 that Red Lion Club, where all the philosophers are expected to lash 

 their tails and roar, of being somewhat too fond of mere and sheer 

 fun, after the abstruse papers of the day are read and discussed. And 

 as for harmless amusement, and still more for the free exercise of the 

 fancy arid the imagination, I know few studies to compare with Natu- 

 ral History ; with the search for the most beautiful and curious pro- 

 ductions of Nature amid her loveliest scenery, and in her freshest at- 

 mosphere. I have known again and again working-men who in the 

 midst of smoky cities have kept their bodies, their minds, and their 

 hearts healthy and pure by going out into the country at odd hours, 

 and making collections of plants, insects, birds, or some other objects 

 of natural history ; and I doubt not that such will be the case with 

 some of you. 



Another argument, and a very strong one, in favor of studying 

 some branch of physical science just now is this that without it you 

 can hardly keep pace with the thought of the world around you. 



Over and above the solid gain of a scientific habit of mind, of which 

 I shall speak presently, the gain of mere facts, the increased knowledge 

 of this planet on which we live, is very valuable just now ; valuable 

 certainly to all who do not wish their children and their younger 

 brothers to know more about the universe than they do. 



Natural science is now occupying a more and more important place 

 in education. Oxford, Cambridge, the London University, the public 

 schools one after another, are taking up the subject in earnest ; so are 

 the middle-class schools ; so, I trust, will all primary schools through- 

 out the country ; and I hope that my children, at least, if not I myself, 

 will see the day, when ignorance of the primary laws and facts of sci- 

 ence will be looked on as a defect, only second to ignorance of the 

 primary laws of religion and morality. 



I speak strongly, but deliberately. It does seem to me strange, to 

 use the mildest word, that people whose destiny it is to live, even for 

 a few short years, on this planet which we call the earth, and who do 

 not at all intend to live on it as hermits, shutting themseves up in cells, 

 and looking on death as an escape and a deliverance, but intend to live 



