406 Prof. H. E. Armstrong on Loir-Temperature Research 



" It is an extraordinary thing, that man with a mind so wonderful 

 that there is nothing to compare with it elsewhere in the known 

 creation should leave it to run wild in respect of its highest elements 

 and qualities. He has powers of comparison and judgment by which 

 his final resolves and all those acts of his material system which 

 distinguish him from the brutes are guided : — shall he omit to educate 

 and improve them when education can do much ? Is it towards the very 

 principles and privileges that distinguish him above other creatures, he 

 should feel indifference ? Because the education is internal, it is not the 

 less needful ; nor is it more the duty of a man that he should cause his 

 child to be taught than that he should teach himself. Indolence may 

 tempt him to neglect the self-examination and experience which form his 

 school and weariness may induce the evasion of the necessary practices 

 but surely a thought of the prize should suffice to stimulate him to the 

 requisite exertion ; and to those who reflect upon the many hours and days 

 devoted by a lover of sweet sounds to gain a moderate facility upon a 

 mere mechanical instrument, it ought to bring a correcting blush of 

 shame, if they feel convicted of neglecting the beautiful living instrument 

 wherein play all the powers of the mind." 



The two essays to which I have referred — that written in 18:^3, 

 almost at the beginning of his career and the second written thirty 

 years later towards the close of his wonderful activity, during which 

 period Faraday had worked with a logical clearness of purpose and a 

 degree of constancy and consistency almost unparalleled in history — 

 embody a complete doctrine of education : but they remain 

 practically unheeded. 



Yet such matters are of consequence, especially to the Royal 

 Institution. Nowhere else has Faraday's doctrine been exemplified 

 more often or more successfully. Surely some effort should be made 

 to bring home to a larger public the mine of wealth which has been 

 opened out by its officers, and to render it of permanent avail in the 

 service of our nation. It needs members and it needs means : the 

 great work done by the Institution in the past and that which, if only 

 properly suj^ported, it is obviously destined by its past to accomplish 

 in the future should be more clearly and generally recognised ; some- 

 thing more should be done to overcome public apathy to the progress 

 of science. 



It cannot but be suppose! that if the interest attaching to scientific 

 discovery were appreciated by the educated classes at large there 

 would be a strong general desire both to be improved and to 

 promote and subsidise inquiry. And workers should be attracted. 

 It was, I believe, in the expectation that the attention Vhich, he 

 supposed, was l^eing given in the public schools to science would lead 

 not a few, who had both leisure and means, to desire to continue their 

 studies and eventually devote themselves to research work, that 

 Dr. Mond was led to establish the Davy- Faraday laboratory. Un- 

 fortunately, his expectation has in no way been justified. 



