SKETCH OF SIR HENET BOSCOE. 405 



gone by ; the study of language and philology, as giving a knowledge 

 of how men of all times and countries express their ideas and language ; 

 of logic, as pointing out the laws of thought ; and, above all, that of 

 mathematics — are all matters of the highest importance, the neglect of 

 which would render our education incomplete and poor indeed. The 

 same rules, however, which all acknowledge to be necessary for the 

 teaching of physical science must be applied to the study of all these 

 subjects. In short, the scientific method must be employed in all 

 cases and carried out to its fullest extent." He followed these obser- 

 vations with a protest against the supposed materialistic tendency of 

 scientific studies, saying : " It is true that certain opinions and pro- 

 fessions of belief have been and will be shaken by studying the book 

 of Nature ; it is also equally true that the study of Nature does not 

 and can not interfere with the highest and noblest aspirations of the 

 mind of man. In the investigations of every branch of science we 

 come at last to a point at which further inquiry becomes impossible, 

 and we are obliged to acknowledge our powerlessness and insignifi- 

 cance. We can see and learn concerning only the minutest fraction 

 of the grreat whole of Nature, and it is with this minute fraction alone 

 that we, as men of science, are concerned." 



Speaking of the advantage of experimental scientific research, he 

 said that the faculties which are called into operation by its prosecution 

 " are, in fact, exactly those which are valuable in the every-day oc- 

 currences of life, the proper employment of which leads to success in 

 whatever channel they may happen to be directed. A man who has 

 learned how successfully to meet the difficulties and overcome the 

 obstacles which occur in every experimental investigation, is able to 

 grapple with difliculties and obstacles of a similar character with 

 which he comes in contact in after-life. It is the greatest possible 

 mistake to suppose — as, unfortunately, many yet do — that a scientific 

 education unfits a man for the pursuits of ordinary professional or 

 commercial life. I believe that no one can be unfitted for business 

 life or occupations by the study of phenomena all of which are based 

 upon law, the knowledge of which can only be obtained by the exer- 

 cise of exact habits of thought and patient and laborious effort." 



Further, concerning the ennobling nature of original scientific in- 

 quiry : " Although I should be the last to contend that men of science 

 are free from the foibles and weakness common to all mankind, I think 

 it stands to reason that the habits of mind which an investigator must 

 cherish ai'e such as must raise him above the petty struggles of ordi- 

 nary existence, and must, for a time at least, lift him into an atmos- 

 phere free from the cloud and smoke which too often darken the 

 usual current of men's lives." 



In his opening address to Section B, of the British Association, in 

 1870, he spoke of a humane and civilizing mission which science might 

 accomplish aside from its direct end, saying, after a reference to the 



