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as to imagine that yoii yourself believe, that in the higher or highe 

 branches you can make any great advances ; nevertheless I may with 

 propriety speak quite generally of the advancement of science ; and I 

 think it very desirable to assert that there can be nothing in that advance- 

 ment, whether in the modest manner which yon probably propose to 

 yourselves, or in the broader way which is open to the British Association, 

 whose descriptive name you have not been to modest to adapt and adopt, 

 which does not demand the sympathy of all Christians, whether bishops, or 

 priests, or laymen. Of course I do not expect that every man is to know 

 much of exact science ; nor, indeed, do I expect to think it necessary that 

 every man should take a keen interest in scientific results. I had once a 

 friend, who was a most distinguished literary man — -a great writer, a 

 great reader, a man of most prodigious memory, most cultivated taste, and 

 most varied acquirements — who nevertheless assured me that he viewed all 

 scientiftc questions with absolute and complete indifference. He never 

 could understand the least particle of mathematics ; and he cared not a 

 bit whether the earth revolved round the sun, or the sun round the earth, 

 or whether neither of them revolved at all. It is a curious question for 

 examination, how far experience warrants us in saying that the literary 

 and scientific tastes usually accompany each other. I am disposed to 

 think that the two do much more usually accompany each other than not. 

 You may find literary men without any taste for science, such as he to 

 whom I have referred ; and, on the other hand, dry men of science, like 

 him who was said to have read Shakespeare through, and then to have 

 asked what it all proved 1 But my belief is that these are the exceptions 

 not the rule ; the monsters, not the normal typical animals. Take a few 

 examples of the combination of high literary taste and scientific power, 

 such as the following : Aristotle, Bacon, Pascal, Leibniz, Sir John 

 Herschel, and Whewell, to which list many more might be added. I was 

 speaking of my scientific friend. Such men may be curiosities, but they 

 are facts ; and bearing in mind that facts are stubborn things, I do not 

 feel justified in claiming that every one should even take an interest in 

 scientific matters ; but I think we may certainly say this : that in the 

 present epoch of the world's history it is well that science should be as 



