246 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



literature, and the man of science equally require, and should cultivate 

 through all parts of their education as well as in their future careers. 

 My contention is that science should not be practically shut out from 

 the view of a youth while his education is in progress, for the public 

 Vveal requires that a large number of scientific men should belong to 

 the community. This is necessary because science has imjjressed its 

 character upon the age in which we live, and, as science is not station- 

 aiy but progressive, men are required to advance its boundaries, acting 

 as pioneers in the onward march of states. Human progress is so 

 identified with scientific thought, both in its conception and realization, 

 that it seems as if they were alternative terms in the history of civili- 

 zation. In literature, and even in art, a standard of excellence has 

 been attained which we are content to imitate because we have been 

 unable to surpass. But there is no such standard in science. Formerly, 

 when the dark cloud was being dissipated which had obscured the 

 learning of Greece and Rome, the diffusion of literature or the discov- 

 ery of lost authors had a marked influence on advancing civilization. 

 Now, a Chrysoloras might teach Greek in the Italian universities with- 

 out hastening sensibly the onward march of Italy ; a Poggio might 

 discover copies of Lucretius and Quintilian without exercising a tithe 

 of the influence on modern life that an invention by Stephenson or 

 Wheatstone would produce. Nevertheless, the divorce of culture and 

 science, which the present state of education in this country tends to 

 produce, is deeply to be deplored, because a cultured intelligence adds 

 greatly to the development of the scientific faculty. My argument is 

 that no amount of learning without science suffices in the present state 

 of the world to put us in a position which will enable England to keep 

 ahead of, or even on a level with foreign nations as regards knoM'ledge 

 and its applications to the utilities of life. Take the example of any 

 man of learning, and see how soon the direct consequences resulting 

 from it disappear in the life of a nation, while the discoveries of a man 

 of science remain productive amid all the shocks of empire. As I am 

 in Aberdeen, I remember that the learned Dutchman Erasmus was in- 

 troduced to England by the encouragement which he received from 

 Hector Boece, the Principal of King's College in this university. Yet 

 even in the case of Erasmus — who taught Greek at Cambridge, and 

 did so much for the revival of classical literature as well as in the pro- 

 motion of spiritual freedom — how little has civilization to ascribe to 

 him in comparison with the discoveries of two other Cambridge men, 

 Newton and Cavendish ! The discoveries of Newton will influence the 

 destinies of mankind to the end of the world. When ho established 

 the laws by which the motions of the great masses of matter in the 

 universe are governed, he conferred an incalculable benefit upon the 

 intellectual development of the human race. No great discovery 

 flashes upon the world at once, and therefore Pope's lines on Newton 

 are only a poetic fancy : 



