RELATIONS OF SCIENCE TO THE PUBLIC WEAL. 49 



the world has become a competition of intellect, or we are raarvelously 

 unobservant of the change which is passing over Europe in the higher 

 education of the people. Preparations for war will not insure to us 

 the blessings and security of an enlightened peace. Protective expen- 

 diture may be wise, though productive expenditure is wiser. 



" Were half the powers which fill the world with terror, 

 Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, 

 Given to redeem the human mind from error — 

 There were no need of arsenals and forts." 



Universities are not mere storehouses of knowledge ; they are also 

 conservatories for its cultivation. In Mexico there is a species of ant 

 which sets apart some of its individuals to act as honey-jars by mon- 

 strously extending their abdomens to store the precious fluid till it is 

 wanted by the community. Professors in a university have a higher 

 function, because they ought to make new honey as well as to store it. 

 The widening of the bounds of knowledge, literary or scientific, is the 

 crowning glory of university life. Germany unites the functions of 

 teaching and research in the universities, while France keeps them in 

 separate institutions. The former system is best adapted to our hab- 

 its, but its condition for success is that our science-chairs should be 

 greatly increased, so that teachers should not be wholly absorbed in 

 the duties of instruction. Germany subdivides the sciences into va- 

 rious chairs, and gives to the professors special laboratories. It also 

 makes it a condition for the higher honors of a university that the can- 

 didates shall give proofs of their ability to make original researches. 

 Under such a system, teaching and investigation are not incompatible. 

 In the evidence before the Science Commission many opinions were 

 given that scientific men engaged in research should not be burdened 

 with the duties of education, and there is much to be said in support 

 of this view when a single professor for the whole range of physical 

 science is its only representative in a university. But I hope that such 

 a system will not long continue, for if it do we must occupy a very 

 inferior position as a nation in the intellectual competition of Europe. 

 Research and education in limited branches of higher knowledge are 

 not incompatible. It is true that Galileo complained of the burden 

 imposed upon him by his numerous astronomical pupils, though few 

 other philosophers have echoed this complaint. Newton, who pro- 

 duced order in worlds, and Dalton, who brought atoms under the 

 reign of order and number, rejoiced in their pupils. Lalande spread 

 astronomers as Liebig spread chemists, and Johannes Milller biologists, 

 all over the world. Laplace, La Grange, Dulong, Gay-Lussac, Ber- 

 thoUet, and Dumas, were professors as well as discoverers in France. In 

 England our discoverers have generally been teachers. In fact, I recol- 

 lect only three notable examples of men who were not — Boyle, Cav- 

 endish, and Joule. It was so in ancient as well as in modern times, 



VOL. XXVIII. — 4 



