NOTES BY THE EDITOR. V 



unknown and unsought. Exclusive devotion to classical studies 

 was, therefore, at that time appropriate, natural, and necessary. 

 But now, when these new sciences have developed an amount of 

 material in comparison with which the whole mass of classical 

 lore is but as an atom, and (except as a mental discipline) practi- 

 cally valueless, it is certainly neither appropriate nor necessary 

 to keep in the old track, and to devote to these extensive, grand, 

 and useful departments of human knowledge but a fraction of the 

 time and attention assigned to the classics. We do not wish to 

 disparage the advantages of classical education. While this is 

 good, we cannot but believe that the same amount of time and 

 effort devoted to physical studies, say to analytical chemistry and 

 optics, or mechanics, would have been as useful an exercise to 

 the mind, and at the same time would have furnished a far more 

 valuable and.practically useful store of information." 



To meet this acknowledged want of instruction in applied sci- 

 ence, we find educational establishments springing up all over the 

 country, either as Polytechnic Institutions, Schools of Technology, 

 or Scientific Schools attached to the older Universities. It is very 

 important for the material prosperity of America that the energy 

 and originality of her people should be directed properly, and 

 that a good preparatory education should be furnished to those 

 destined to take part in industrial pursuits. The necessity of the 

 knowledge of this kind of instruction was apparent in the prod- 

 ucts of all nations, as amid much that was novel and good was 

 much of crude invention which had no right to be there. 



Though called a " Temple of Peace," and calculated to increase 

 a friendly intercourse between the nations of the earth, the em- 

 blems and materials of war occupied a space far exceeding that 

 of any other collection of the kind. Gigantic naval cannon from 

 the foundry atRuelle, France, weighing over thirty-two tons each, 

 and the great gun from the establishment of M. Krupp, at Essen, in 

 Prussia, contrasted strongly with the American system of ambu- 

 lances and other apparatus for the saving of life. 



The universal employment of iron in all the most important 

 branches of human industry, and its general substitution for wood 

 in public and private structures, both military and civil, rendered 

 this portion of the exhibition of very great scientific and practical 

 value. England,, France, Prussia, and Belgium made the most 

 complete display ia $iis department. Such large establishments 

 as those at Creusot in France, and Essen in Prussia, become, as it 

 were, centres of civilization, where skilled laborers congregate 

 1* 



