4 o + THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



him sufficiently to enable Lira to display his genius. Newton as a boy 

 was averse to study, and though he took a degree at Cambridge, it 

 was not that of senior wrangler, yet what mathematician has equaled 

 him in reputation, or in the importance of his discoveries ? Watt, the 

 inventor of the steam-engine, and Whitworth, who made the tools by 

 the use of which it has been brought to its present perfection, were 

 both self-taught. The same may be said of Arkwright, and almost 

 every discoverer who has been a real public benefactor. In the loftier 

 ranks of the leaders of mankind education has never played an im- 

 portant part. Cromwell's youth was passed in idleness and obscurity ; 

 he had no instruction even in the military art, in which he had no rival 

 in his day. 



Lord Beaconsfield was never at a public school, nor passed through 

 a university, and all the education he ever received appears to have 

 been what would now be thought merely rudimentary, but it was 

 enough for him. His stores of knowledge must have been acquired 

 only by reading ; but this armory, in his skillful hands, provided him 

 with weapons quite adequate to an encounter with even his most for- 

 midable adversaries. The world is not governed, or even perceptibly 

 influenced, by professors or Admirable Crichtons. It is ruled by men 

 of action. The daring genius of Clive did more for England, and 

 even for the advancement of the human race, by establishing that 

 Pax-Britannica, under w T hich 140,000,000 human beings now enjoy 

 protection and prosperity, than all the learning of the schools. . . . 

 The only education worthy of the name is that which, by hardening 

 and invigorating the frame, lays the foundation of health of body and 

 mind, Avhich forms the character, imparts sufficient knowledge to enable 

 each individual to cultivate the special taste which Nature has given 

 him, and, instead of teaching only the art of passing examinations, en- 

 deavors to inspire all with the solid virtues of courage, self-reliance, 

 honor, and religion, and makes a living, thinking, acting being, full of 

 resource, spirit, and energy, not a walking encyclopaedia in one word, 

 a man, and not a " professor." Land and Water. 



SKETCH OF ISAAC LEA. 



FEW naturalists have enjoyed a longer working-life, or been able 

 to make it more fruitful in finished achievement, than Isaac Lea. 

 His first paper, being a simple account of the minerals then known to 

 exist in the vicinity of Philadelphia, was published in 1818. Addi- 

 tions to this contribution were made but slowly for a few years, but 

 as the list swelled they become frequent, giving evidence of indefati- 

 gable industry in research ; and the last paper, standing as No. 279 on 

 the catalogue, is dated 1876, closing a record of fifty-eight years of 

 productive activity. During most of this time Dr. Lea was associated 



