FIRST-HAND AND SECOND-HAND KNOWLEDGE. 



197 



FIRST-HxVND AND SECOND-HAND KNOWLEDGE.* 



By ^y. B. DALBY, F. R. C. S. 



IN every system of education in which natural science forms no part, 

 whatever knowledge the pupil gains is acquired from what he 

 reads or from what he is told, and the truth of facts so presented to 

 him he must take either upon trust or, in so far as they can be demon- 

 strated to his reason, by logic or mathematics. In the study of natu- 

 ral science, on the other hand, he sees, he feels, he hears the same fact 

 repeated again and again under the same conditions ; and his inform- 

 ant is Nature — Nature, who never errs. Which is the better mode 

 of acquiring information ? Which information is the more likely to 

 be true, to be the more worthy of trust, and safer to be acted upon ? 

 These questions need no reply. We shall all agree that one of the 

 most important elements in education is English literature, and cer- 

 tainly in this department history must be included as not the least use- 

 ful and delightful. But consider for a moment how entirely different, 

 as a force in mental culture, is the information acquired by learning 

 anything in science or in history. Take, for example, the character, 

 or even the acts, of Mary Stuart. Although the events in her life 

 occurred only some three hundred years ago, I dare say I could find 

 among the students I am addressing as much difference of belief in 

 many of her recorded actions, and certainly of opinion in regard to her 

 character, as on any subject I could raise. To do this it would only 

 be necessary to select a student fresh from the reading of Mr. Fronde's 

 history, and another who had derived his impressions from earlier his- 

 tories, and had not laid aside the romance with which Scott's novels 

 have surrounded this Queen. Mr. Froude's references to existing doc- 

 uments may be sufficient to induce me to receive his facts for purposes 

 of history ; but, accept his accounts as much as I will, my belief is of 

 a very faint sort if I compare it with anything I have seen for myself. 

 Viewed in the light of actual knowledge, the facts derived in the two 

 Avays have a different kind of value to me, both no doubt good in 

 themselves, but still widely apart. With all due respect to the author- 

 ities at our old universities, I can not but think that the time will come 

 when the elements of physiology and chemistry \\i\\ be considered as 

 valuable a method of mental training as the production of what are 

 fancifully termed Latin verses, as the study of the traditional records 

 of Jewish history, or the learning by heart of sentences from Paley's 

 " Evidences." In the work which you now propose to undertake you 

 will require no one's evidences but those of your own senses, and any 

 statement from your teachers you will be able to subject to such tests. 

 In whatever degree you do this your studies will be useful; when once 

 * Part of an address delivered at St. George's Hospital, London, October 1, ISYQ. 



