Ixxxiv REPORT — 1855. 



upheaved at once stupendous and enduring monuments. But even iu re- 

 spect to tliose great men, it will often be found that at least one great secret 

 of their power has lain in virtues which might be more common than unfortu- 

 nately they are found to be. That openness and simplicity of mind which 

 is ever ready to entertain a new idea, and not the less willing that it may be 

 suggested by some common and familiar thing, is one of the surest accom- 

 paniments of genius. But it is clearly separable from extraordinary intellec- 

 tual power, although, where both are found together, the great results pro- 

 duced are too often attributed to the more brilliant faculty alone. Professor 

 Whewell, in his most interesting History of the Inductive Sciences, whilst 

 deprecating the degree of attention which has been paid to the well-known 

 story respecting the origin of Newton's thoughts on gravitation, has never- 

 theless stated, with his usual clearness and precision, the essential truth 

 which the traditions of science have done well to cherish. Those who have 

 been competent to judge of the calibre of Newton's mind, of its powers of 

 pure abstract reasoning, have with one voice assigned it the highest place iu 

 the records of human intellect. Doubtless, it was those powers which enabled 

 him to prove what otherwise would have remained conjecture. But it is not 

 the less important to observe, that the suggestion on which these powers were 

 called to work was one eminently characteristic of a mind where simplicity and 

 greatness were indeed synonymous. That the celestial motions, about which so 

 many wonderful facts were then already known, and which had been referred 

 to so many mysterious and imaginary forces, should be indeed identical in 

 kind with the'motions which took place close beside him, and that the same 

 rules should be applicable to each, this was an idea in which, to use 

 Dr. Whewell's words, " Newton had no forerunner." We do not need to 

 compare the relative importance of those qualities of mind which are in- 

 dicated in the first conception of such an idea, and of those other faoulties 

 which could alone crown it with demonstration, and add it to the number of 

 established truths. For the attainment, by a single individual, of results so 

 grand and so complete as those which were reached by Newton, each was 

 necessary to the other. But characteristics, which were in him united, have not 

 the less had their separate value when divided in other men ; and it cannot 

 be too often repeated, that habits of wakeful observation on the commonest 

 phaenomena of nature ai'e often alone enough to yield a rich harvest to the 

 man of science, and to crown his labours with an immortal name. This has 

 been a result of continual recurrence in the progress of knowledge. It is the 

 expression and evidence of a truth of equal importance in the moral and the 

 physical world, that the common things which surround us in our daily life, 

 and many of which we do not really see, only because we see them too often 

 and too familiarly, are governed by principles of infinite interest and value, 

 and whose range of application is wide as the universe of God. 



And this brings me to say a word on the value of instruction in Physical 

 Science, not merely with a view to its own advancement, but as in itself a 

 means of mental training and an instrument for the highest purposes of edu- 

 cation. It is in this latter point of view that its claims seem to be least ad- 

 mitted or understood. We may bear an exception made in favour of the 

 exact sciences, which involve the application of Mathematical knowledge, 

 since this has been long recognized as requiring the highest intellectual exer- 

 tion ; but with regard to other sciences, how often do we hear them con- 

 demned as affording " mere information," and as tending in no sensible de- 

 gree to strengthen and invigorate the mental powers I But, again I say, this 

 would entirely depend on how Science is to be taught — whether by a mere 

 cramming of facts from manuals, or by explaining how and by whom former 



