42 National Institutions for [Jan., 



state, the services rendered to the community at large by this ob- 

 servatory M oiild be very largely increased ? 



It may thus then be taken for granted that the abstract 

 question, whether scientific investi<i;ation shall be aided, and even 

 carried on, by the state in Great Britain, has been already settled 

 by the irresistible verdict of circumstances. It has been found that 

 certain most valuable and important results can only be secured by 

 this agency, and so soon as the nation has been educated to the 

 point of perceiving that those results are wanted for its ser^^ce, the 

 agency is set to work. All that remains now to be determmed is, 

 whether as much has been done in this direction as the best interests 

 of the nation require, when a keen competition has been established 

 between the foremost nations of the world in this particular ; 

 whether there is any special and definite line by which an influence, 

 so grandly beneficial in its results where it has been tried, shall be 

 limited in its apphcation. 



But in approaching this portion of the consideration, there is one 

 very curious point that has risen mto some prominence, as a direct 

 consequence of the discussion ha^^ng been opened out at the 

 Meeting of the British Association at Norwich ; the difficulty, namely, 

 which there seems to be of getting men generally to understand 

 that the want now urged is not a portion of that larger want of a 

 provision of scientific education for the masses as a portion of 

 general instruction. Almost every person who spoke at the 

 Meeting of the British Association fell into this confusion, and 

 argued one way or the other upon the educational ground, although 

 the originator of the discussion had most clearly and definitely 

 limited his meaning and object in this particular by the statement 

 that " there should be established a system of national institutions 

 for the sole purpose of advancing science by practical research, 

 quite apart from teaching itr It seems as if, in consequence of 

 the popular agitation that has recently arisen for the introduction 

 of scientific subjects into general education, men at once jump to 

 the conclusion, when anything at all is said about advancing science, 

 that this is the thing that must be meant. It cannot, however, be 

 too clearly comprehended that these two matters, the "teaching''' 

 and the " advancing " science, are entirely distinct. They are 

 allies in the great work of human improvement, and touch upon 

 each other's hmits at certain points, in a friendly way, but they are 

 intrinsically and essentially distinct both in their objects and methods. 

 A student in science has to be taught the leading elements, or it 

 may even be all the elements known at the time of the teaching. 

 It would be inexpedient, even if it were practicable, to tell him of 

 researches still in progress. The necessity of tlie case requires that 

 his attention shall be strictly confined to what is held to bo 

 certain and known. The teacher of science, on this account, has to 



