404 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



amusement, put on the same footing as drilling or drawing, while it 

 can and ought to be made as much a discipline as the Latin grammar 

 or Euclid, affording as it does, in my opinion, if properly taught, an 

 excellent training-ground for acquiring that reasoning power and 

 habit of application which it is usually supposed can only be gained 

 through one or other of these older channels. . . . The Balliol scholar- 

 ship and the other great university * advertisements ' I believe to be 

 in many ways stumbling-blocks in the path of true education in this 

 country. . . . Are we never to break loose from this degrading Mo- 

 loch of examination ? I . . . look forward with hope to the ultimate 

 emancipation of school-boys from their ancient fetters. Then those 

 subjects will be taught at school which are best suited to make the 

 mass of boys good citizens, and to forward the highest interests of the 

 country instead of the great aim of the schoolmaster being to secure 

 a Balliol scholarship." 



His views of the scope, objects, and benefits of science were pre- 

 sented in his address at the opening of the new building of Owens Col- 

 lege, Manchester, in 1873, the subject of which was "Original Re- 

 search as a Means of Education," when he said : 



"It does not take long to convince us that almost every great ma- 

 terial advance in modern civilization is due, not to the occurrence of 

 hap-hazard or fortuitous circumstances, but to the long-continued and 

 disinterested efforts of some man of science. Nor do I need to quote 

 many examples to show us the immediate dependence of the national 

 well-being and progress upon scientific discoveries thus patiently and 

 quietly made." 



In other parts of this address he laid down these principles : 



"The essence of the scientific spirit is, first, that it is free and disin- 

 terested ; second, that it knows nothing of tradition or authority, but 

 lays down laws for itself, and refuses to be bound by any others. Scien- 

 tific education starts in simple communion with Nature, and is content 

 to pick up little by little the truth which she is always ready to com- 

 municate to patient listeners. The process is at once opposed to and, if 

 successfully carried out, subversive of the old order of things. Be- 

 tween a system based on authority and one founded on freedom of 

 thought and opinion, there never can be united action ; and, while fully 

 acknowledging that intellectual and moral excellence are common to 

 all classes of men, it is as well that we should admit that the followers 

 of the old system have no claim to be called scientific, and that there is, 

 from the nature of things, a great and impassable gulf between us and 

 them. I must, however, here be not misunderstood. It would ill be- 

 come me ... to undervalue or depreciate the study of subjects other 

 than those included under the head of the physical sciences. Literary 

 studies, whether of modern or ancient authors, giving an acquaintance 

 with the noblest thoughts and opinions of the great men of past ages ; 

 historical studies, giving us a knowledge of the acts of men in times 



