iv.] SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION. 69 



unless it recognizes the truth that education has two 

 great ends to which everything else must be subordinated. 

 The one of these is to increase knowledge ; the other is 

 to develop the love of right and the hatred of wrong. 



With wisdom and uprightness a nation can make its 

 way worthily, and beauty will follow in the footsteps of 

 the two, even if she be not specially inv T itcd ; while there 

 is perhaps no sight in the whole world more saddening 

 and revolting than is offered by men sunk in ignorance 

 of everything but what other men have written; seem- 

 ingly devoid of moral belief or guidance ; but with the 

 sense of beauty so keen, and the power of expression so 

 cultivated, that* their sensual caterwauling may be almost 

 mistaken for the music of the spheres. 



At present, education is almost entirely devoted to the 

 cultivation of the power of expression, and of the sense of 

 literary beauty. The matter of having anything to say, 

 beyond a hash of other people's opinions, or of possess- 

 ing any criterion of beauty, so that we may distinguish 

 between the Godlike and the devilish, is left aside as of 

 no moment. I think I do not err in saying that if 

 science were made the foundation of education, instead, 

 of being, at most, stuck on as cornice to the edifice, this 

 state of things could not exist. 



In advocating the introduction of physical science 

 as a leading element in education, I by no means refer 

 only to the higher schools. On the contrary, I believe 

 that such a change is even more imperatively called for 

 in those primary schools, in which the children of the 

 poor are expected to turn to the best account the little 

 time they can devote to the acquisition of knowledge. 

 A great step in this direction has already been made 

 by the establishment of science-classes under the De- 

 partment of Science and Art, — a measure which came 

 into existence unnoticed, but which will, I believe, turn 



