SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE IN LARGE TOWNS. 87 



I do not now dwell more particularly upon this subject, nor would I 

 forget for one moment, nor have any who do me the honour to listen 

 to me forgot, that Science is most useful and most honourable when 

 she appears as the hand-maid of Religion. In this connection, and 

 in this subordination, so to speak, I proceed to treat of scientific 

 knowledge, as explaining the phenomena of Nature and the duties of 

 society. 



The manual labour required in most trades may be performed by 

 persons perfectly unacquainted with the laws of science, and even 

 some kinds of mental labour may be accomplished by the same class 

 of persons, as has been well shown by Mr. Babbage, in his work on 

 the Economy of Manufactures. Those, however, who arrange and 

 plan the work must know something more ; and those who invent 

 processes or machinery must be acquainted (practically at least) with 

 those laws of science on which their conclusions depend. Thus, the 

 most eminent mathematicians formed a Section for the purpose of 

 determining the best formulae for the famous French Logarithmic 

 Tables ; these formulae were then delivered to a second Section, 

 tolerably well versed in mathematics, who, having turned them into 

 numbers, handed them over to the last Section for completion by 

 simple addition. It is evident, then, that for all but the commonest 

 purposes, scientific knowledge must be advantageous. There is not 

 a domestic process, however simple, in which some scientific princi- 

 ple is not involved, and in which, consequently, an acquaintance 

 with such principles may not prevent an error or suggest an im- 

 provement. A farmer having once manured his land with lime was 

 surprised to find a decrease in its produce. He mentioned the cir- 

 cumstance to a gentleman acquainted with chemistry, who, having 

 procured some of the lime, submitted it to analysis, by which means 

 he discovered that it had been made from magnesian limestone. 

 The cause of the failure in the produce of the land became immedi- 

 ately apparent, magnesia being injurious to the growth of vegetable 

 substances on some soils. The great French chemist, Lavoisier, 

 took a quantity of land into his own cultivation, and having analys- 

 ed the soil, and applied such substances to improve its quality as his 

 chemical knowledge suggested, he succeeded in doubling its produce 

 in a short lime. 



Thus, were the knowledge that now exists generally diffused, and 

 did it penetrate to the lowest grades of society, we might expect 

 that the land of the farmer would become more productive, and that 

 the goods of the manufacturer would be better made ; in short, that 

 all those articles which minister to the wants and comforts of man 



