m 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[May, 



been carried on. University College lias been equally unfettered, 

 bntli as to principles, and as to men, wliile from its very constitution 

 the other establishment at once imposed upon itself leaden chains ; at 

 best placed in a g-o-cart, in tlie way of right, and certainly hainptred 

 by many superstitions and absurdities, it was additionally fettered by 

 being ol)lig:cd to select its professors from those very establishments 

 ■o-hos'^ stifling influence was most sought to be evaded. The result, 

 however, even those who hoped most for its success, could never 1 .v ; 

 anticipated; and the conductors of King's College, supporters as th y i 

 are e.v-ojjicio of nepotism and patronage, deserve the highest credit i'o' i 

 the discrimination and disinterestedness which they have shown in tb ■ i 

 choice of professors, wlio by findinj- out new patlis, have emancipati :1 i 

 themselves from the tramuiels in wliicli they had been placed, and 

 secured their own fame and the )irosperity of the institntion. It is not 

 our desire to elevate the one institution at tlie expense of the other; aiid 

 if from deference to the work before us our remarks are restricted to 

 King's College, it must not be considertd^tliat we detract from another 

 cstablislmient the labours of whose members have ensured it a high 

 meed ot fame. 



We cannot better illustrate tliejnstice of the remarks we have made 

 than by referring to the outlines ef the courses, which are those pro- 

 posed to b^ delivered before the class of Civil Engineering, and the) ; 

 mark a new era, when science is no longer to be conventional, but 

 practical ; when it is to leave off its Procrustean propensity of an 

 artificial standard, and to adapt itself as it ought to do to every capa- 

 city and every jiursuit. Pedantry of all kinds is most disgusting, 

 but the pedantry of science is positively injurious, for it causes a 

 waste of time to the practical man too often irreparable, and it is in- 

 deed time that we should get rid of tliis clog upon our progress. The 

 courses proposed for this year are of course introductory ; and all, like 

 those on mathematics and natural philosophy, special : we have occasion 

 afterwards to revert to Professor Moseley, on " Natural Philosophy;" 

 so that we shall at present consider some of the other subjects. 



Professor Daniell has arranged his course in a manner totally different 

 from the general run of university lectures, and with an ability which 

 shows his desire of promoting the instruction of his pupils rather than 

 maintaining tlie dogmata of science, merely filling up the dull routine 

 of official duty. His tiist year's course contains a preparatory view 

 of the forces which concur to the production of chemical phenomena. 

 An endeavour, savs the Professor, will be made to systematize what 

 tile beginner already knows from common experience, and to lead 

 him on to increase this knowledge gradually by the results of experi- 

 ment ; to teach him the inductive method of reasoning from phe- 

 nomena ; and to explain to him the general views and theories of the 

 science. The display of these forces in the grand operations of nature 

 will form principal objects of illustration, and particularly in the con- 

 stitution of the atmosphere, the phenomena of thunder and lightning, 

 winds, lain, &c. In the second year it is proposed that the students 

 ?hall attend a course of practical chemistry, in which the application of 

 the science to the arts will be taught, and the processes of the different 

 maniifactvners, of mctalhiray, and of domestic economy will be ex- 

 plained and illustrated. This is a method which ought long since to 

 have been adopted, and it is one which promises to rescue tlie physical 

 sciences from being a mere set of empirical processes, and placing 

 them in the hands of the students as they ought to be — sciences, and not 

 arts. Science is one, but arts are many ; and so long as the student is 

 only taught a series of processes, without being properly grounded in 

 the principles, so long will his progress in science be limited, and he 

 remains a journeyman where he might be a master. There are few 

 sciences indeed, of wliich many important principles are not sown in 

 the hnman mind by observation, and it wants but little instruction to 

 bring out these, and systematise tlie stores of knowledge. Instead of 

 considering the mind of the student as ground entirely to be made, 

 another course should be adopted, and it should be regarded as a soil 

 which possesses many of the elements of fertility, and to which only 

 the complementary addition is necessary to make it productive. 

 Taking, too, nature as a basis, the student is put on the road not only 

 to learn from the experience of the past but to ]irofit from the events 

 of the future ; for there is perhaps no science iji wliich the observation 

 of nature is not the grand foundation of all greatness and all excellence; 

 because, indeed, in nature, as in a storehouse, we find treasured up 

 the perfections of an omniscient and unerring Deity. The discovery of 

 the principles of specific gravity by Archimedes — musical mathematics 

 bv Pythagoras, the pendulum by Galileo, and terrestrial gravitation by 

 Newton ; all of these (and many more might be accumulated) are deri- 

 ved from the observation of the commonest phenomena — the bath, the 

 blacksmith's anvil, a swinging cord, or a flilling apple — while from them 

 have been derived laws from the constitution of a universe to the 

 arrangement of the most plodding machine. Teaching the students 

 Jikewiie, as Pjofessor Daniell proposes, to reason on the phenomena 



presented to them, afibids tliem a perpetual and available resource in 

 all difficulties ; and one, than whicii nothing could be more appropriate 

 to the mental habits of an engineer. It is to be regretted indeed that 

 in too many cases it is thought sufficient to cram a youth with a quan- 

 tity of facts, and leave him to digest and apply them in what manner 

 he can, as if man were supplied with a whole stock of logic from 

 nature. 



The other courses are also marked by the same happy desire to 

 "btain the most eft'ective ends by the application of the soundest 

 piinciples, and they caanot fail to promote the results they so zealously 

 iutenipt. In the program to the course on Geometrical Drawing, 

 \vhore, under most circumstances we should be the last to expect 

 to find such an admission. Professor Bradley truly obser^'es, that 

 considerable facility in the power of drawing by eye, with precision 

 uiid Treedom, is requisite to constitute a good draughtsman, and is 

 to be attained by constant practice in sketching objects of any kind from 

 nature. It seems however to be thought generally, both by architects 

 and engineers, that to stick a rule and compasses in a boy's hand 

 is quite enough to qualify him, although, independently of the arti- 

 lioial training which is thus effected, no attention is paid to the 

 fact that the hnman eye is the most delicate instrument in nature. 

 Professor Wheatstone takes up the subject of experimental philosophy, 

 and it can be believed, by those who know him, with what practicability 

 and good effect. Professor Tennant lays out an admirable course on 

 Geological Mineralogy ; and indeed the whole arrangements are ad- 

 mirably calculated to effect the objects proposed on the institution 

 of tlie class. We are happy indeed to see that there is no pretence 

 to teach civil engineering, but that they wisely leave to those best 

 qualified tn teach those parts which are susceptible of being com- 

 municated by practical instruction, and only take on themselves such 

 accessoiy portions as they can effect with credit to themselves and 

 without injury to the pupils. 



We may now come at last to the work before us, and we shall have 

 no reason to regret any attention that we may pay to it, as it is quite 

 worthy of the ability of the well-known autlior. The professors of 

 King's College, it seems, have determined upon publishing a course 

 of works on science, for popular instruction and they have acted very 

 justly in confiding to Mr. Moseley the task of being their herald in the 

 field ; and, as his introduction may be regarded as that to the whole 

 course, we think that we cannot better express its objects than by 

 favoring our readers with some extracts from this able production : — 



Tlic author lias proposed to himself the development of that system of 

 experimental facts anil theoretical principles on which the whole super- 

 structure of morhaiucal art may be considered to rest, and its introduction, 

 iimlcr an availalilo form, to the great business of practical education. To 

 ttlcit this object, and to reconcile, as far as it may be pnssiljic. the strictly 

 scienlilic with the popular and elementary character of the undcrl.akmg, a 

 new luethod has been sought, the nature of which is sufficiently indicated 

 by its title — Illustrations of Mechanics. The. work consists, in fact, of a 

 scries C'f illustrations of the scisiice of mechanics, arranged in the order in 

 which (he parts of that science succeed each other, and connected by such 

 exiilanatifnis only, as may servo to carry the mind on from one principle to 

 anolhcr. and cnablo it to cmbrace'and combine llie whole. Throni^'hout, an 

 attempt is made to give to the various illnslralions an entirely elementary 

 and practical character. 



It is an idea which presents itself to the mind of cicry man Mho has 

 children to educate and provide for, which is a constant subject of comment 

 and discussion, and which prevails through all classes of society, that a 

 portion of the school life of a boy ought to be devoted to the acquisition of 

 those general principles of practical knowledge of which the whole business 

 of his suliscqiu'nt life is 1o form a special application; that there ought, in 

 fact, to he commenced by him at school a common apprenticeship to those 

 great elements of knowledge, on which hang all the questions of interest 

 whicli are to surround him in nature, and v\liich are destined, under the 

 form of practical science, to take an active share in the profession, trade, 

 mannfacturc, or art. whatever it may be, which is hereafter to become the 

 oectii)ation of liis life. 



It is the r,l,ject of tins work, and of the series of which it forms part, to 

 promote tlii.s great business of practical education, by siqiplying to llie in- 

 structors of youth a system of elementaiy science, adapted to tlie ordinary 

 forms of uisinietion. No one can doubt that the same capabilities in the 

 scholar, united to the same zeal in the master, which now sulliec to cany 

 the elements of a cl.assical cdneation to the very refinements of pliilidogical 

 criticism, would be equal to the task of instruction in the nomenclatuic of 

 the physical sciences, tlieii fundamental experiments, llieir idenicntaiy rea- 

 sonings, and their chief practical results ; nor can it be questioned (hat the 

 ordinaiy intelligence of youth, and common diligence on the part of their 

 teachers, would enable them to master the secrets of the more important of 

 the arts, and the chief processes of the manufactures ; and would place 

 within their reach the elements of natural history, the general classification 

 of the animal and vegetable kingdoms of nature, and their various ministries 

 to the uses of man. These are elements of a knowledge which is of ines- 

 timable value in the affairs of life ; and the interests of this great commer- 

 twl and jnamifacturing comnnuiity claim that they should uo longer be left 



