1869.] Practical Scientific Research. 43 



go year after year tlirough the same course of instruction, scarcely 

 varied or touclied by the action of current discovery, and the 

 apphances which his especial work requires are comparatively 

 limited, because they are unvarying, and have to be used over and 

 over again. It is even questionable whether the mind of the formal 

 teacher does not to some extent take the mould of his labours, and 

 become a little stationary and disinclined to forward movement. 

 The cultivator of science, on the other hand, commences his action 

 at the point where the student leaves off. He is, in fact, the 

 student emancipated from the trammels and leading-strings of the 

 teacher. He has ceased to ask, " How is such a thing known ?" and 

 in the place of the question adopts the declaration, " Such and such 

 things are not known, and must be ascertained." From copying, 

 and repeating, and verifying, he turns to creating. The two pro- 

 cesses, the teaching and the extending of science, cannot really be 

 advantageously carried out by the same persons or by the same 

 means. That the two things are practically recognized as distinct, 

 is sufficiently proved by the fact that up to the present time we 

 have had no scientific education in England, although we have 

 had great scientific activity, and have effected great, although 

 insufficient scientific progress. 



It is obvious that the extensive, or general adoption of science 

 as one of the branches of formal education for the people, will tend 

 to increase the number of persons who will subsequently incline to 

 enter upon the labours of investigation, and that, in this way, 

 scientific education does indirectly favour scientific research. Some 

 competent authorities, indeed, hold that teaching is a direct aid to 

 the cultivator of science, because it keej)s him well up in elementary 

 knowledge and stimulates him to the discovery of new proofs and 

 illustrations, and because it brings him into frequent contact with 

 fresh and vigorous, though partially cultivated minds. If this be 

 so, it is clear that the teaching of the cultivator of science would 

 not be the teaching that is contemplated in the routine of scientific 

 education, properly so called. It must be applied in advanced 

 classes only, organized and arranged to ensure the special advan- 

 tage without profuse and wasteful exjDcnditure of energy, worthy of 

 higher and better employment. 



The way in which increased facilties for extending the bounds 

 of human science must influence scientific teaching is too manifest 

 to need that more than a passing word should be devoted to its 

 consideration. Every great fact drawn by the investigator from 

 the unfathomed immensity of the unknown, is a contribution made 

 to scientific teaching through all lands, and for all time. But 

 besides this the augmentation of facilities for prosecuting scientific 

 research will naturally render the student of science more earnest 

 and more willmg in placing himself, tlirough the advantages of 



