ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. IX 



of boys do 'not go to the universities, yet the requirements of those 

 who do go to the universities in fact regulate the system. Dr. Car- 

 penter, in arguing that even mathematics is no substitute for the 

 physical sciences, remarked : 



"Mathematical training exercises the mind most strenuously in a 

 very narrow groove, so to speak. It starts with axioms which have 

 nothing to do with external phenomena, but which the mind finds in 

 itself ; and the whole science of mathematics may be evolved out of 

 the original axioms which the mind finds in itself. * * * Now 

 it is the essence of scientific training that the mind finds the object of 

 its study in the external world ; and it appears to me that a train- 

 ing which leaves out of view the relation of man to external 

 nature, is a very defective one, and that the faculties which 

 bring his intelligence into relation with the phenomena of the ex- 

 ternal world are subjects for education and discipline equally im- 

 portant with the faculties by which he exercises his reason purely 

 upon abstraction. * .1 may add, that having given con- 



siderable attention to the refuted phenomena of mesmerism, electro- 

 biology, spiritualism, etc., I have had occasion to observe that the 

 want of scientific habits of mind is the source of a vast amount of 

 prevalent misconception as to what constitutes adequate proof of the 

 marvels reported by witnesses neither untruthful nor unintelligent as 

 to ordinary matters. I could mention striking instances of miscon- 

 ception in men of high literary cultivation, or high mathematical at- 

 tainments ; whilst I have met with no one who had undergone the 

 discipline of an adequate course of scientific study, who has not at 

 once recognized the fallacies in such testimony when they have been 

 pointed out to him." 



Sir Charles Lyell considered that the principle of limiting education 

 to the languages and the mathematics is a direct injury to many men. 

 A large portion of those who would have shown a strong taste for the 

 sciences, are forced into one line, and after they leave their colleges 

 they neglect branches they have been taught, and so cultivate neither 

 the one nor the other. I have known men quite late in life, who have 

 forgotten all the Latin and Greek which they spent their early years 

 in acquiring, hit upon geology or some other branch, and all at once 

 their energies have been awakened, and you have been astonished to 

 see how thev came out. Thev would have taken that line long before, 



* 



and done good work in it, had they been taught the elements of it at 

 school. Question. So there was a mental waste in their youth? An- 

 swer. Quite so. 



The following is an extract from Prof. Faraday's testimony. 



" Up to this very day there come to me persons of good education, 



