II VALUE OF NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES. 39 



widest sense — as the equivalent of Biology — the 

 Science of Individual Life — we have to consider 

 in succession: 



1. Its position and scope as a branch of knowl- 

 edge. 



2. Its value as a means of mental discipline. 



3. Its worth as practical information. 

 And lastly, 



4. At what period it may best be made a 

 branch of Education. 



Our conclusions on the first of these heads 

 must depend, of course, upon the nature of the 

 subject-matter of Biology; and I think a few pre- 

 liminary considerations will place before you in 

 a clear light the vast difference which exists 

 between the living bodies with which Physio- 

 logical science is concerned, and the remainder 

 of the universe; — between the pha3nomena of 

 Number and Space, of Physical and of Chemical 

 force, on the one hand, and those of Life on the 

 other. 



The mathematician, the physicist, and the 

 chemist contemplate things in a condition of rest; 

 they look upon a state of equilibrium as that to 

 which all bodies normally tend. 



The mathematician does not suppose that a 

 quantity will alter, or that a given point in space 

 will change its direction with regard to another 

 point, spontaneously. And it is the same with 

 the physicist. When Newton saw the api)le fall, 

 C3 



