INTRODUCTORY DISCOURSE OF THE 



taste any indulgence, either of his senses or of his mind ; and the more he learns the greater progress 

 he makes in the sciences the more will he value that independence, and the more will he prize the 

 industry, the habits of regular labour, whereby he is enabled to secure so prime a blessing. 



In one view, it is true, the progress which ho makes in science may help his ordinary exertions, the 

 main business of every man's life. There is hardly any trade or occupation in which useful lessons may 

 not be learnt by' studying one science or another. The necessity of science to the more liberal professions 

 is self-evident; little less manifest is the use to their members of extending their knowledge beyond the 

 branches of study with which their several pursuits are peculiarly conversant. But the other departments 

 'of industry derive hardly less benefit from the same source. To how many kinds of workmen must a know- 

 ledge of Mechanical Philosophy bo useful! To how many others does Chemistry prove almost necessary ! 

 Every one must with a glance perceive that to engineers, watch-makers, instrument-makers, bleachers, 

 ' and dyers, those sciences are most useful, if not necessary. But carpenters and masons arc surely likely 

 to do their work better for knowing how to measure, which Practical Mathematics teaches them, niul 

 how to estimate the strength of timber, of walls, and of arches, which they learn from Practical Mechanics ; 

 nnd they who work in various metals are certain to be the more skilful in their trades for knowing the nature 

 of those substances, and their relations to both heat and other metals, and to the gases and liquids they come 

 in contact with. Nay, the farm servant, or day-labourer, whether in his master's employ, or tending the 

 concerns of his own cottage, must derive great practical benefit, must be both a better servant, and a 

 more thrifty and therefore comfortable, cottager, for knowing something of the nature of soils and manures, 

 which Chemistry teaches, and something of the habits of animals, and the qualities and growth of plants, 

 which he learns from Natural History and Chemistry together. In truth, though a man be neither 

 mechanic nor peasant, but only one having a pot to boil, he is sure to learn from science lessons which will 

 enable him to cook his morsel better, save his fuel, and both vary his dish and improve it. The art of good 

 and cheap cookery is intimately connected with the principles of chemical philosophy, and has received much, 

 and will yet receive more, improvement from their application. Nor is it enough to say, that philosophers; 

 may discover all that is wanted, and may invent practical methods, which it is sufficient for the working 

 man to learn by rote without knowing the principles. He never will work so well if he be ignorant or 

 the principles ; and for a plain reason : if he only learn his lesson by rote, the least change of circumstances 

 puts him out. Be the method ever so general, cases will always arise in which it must be varied in order toj 

 apply; and if the workman only know the rule without knowing the reason, he must be at fault the; 

 moment he is required to make any new application of it. This, then, is the first use of learning the 

 principles of science : it makes men more skilful, expert, and useful in the particular kinds of work br 

 which they are to earn their bread, and by which they are to make it go far aud taste well when earned. 



2. But another use of sucli knowledge to handicraftsmen is equally obvious: it gives every man a 

 chuucc, according to his natural talents, of becoming an improver of the art he works at, and even a dis- 

 coverer iu the sciences connected with it. He is daily handling the tools and materials with which new 

 experiments are to be made ; and daily witnessing the operations of nature, whether in the motions and pres- 

 sures of bodies, or in their chemical actions on each other. All opportunities of making experiments must 

 be unimproved, all appearances must pass unobserved, if he have no knowledge of the principles; but with 

 this knowledge he is more likely than another person to strike out something new which may be useful in art, 

 or curious or interesting in science. Very few great discoveries have been made by chance and by ignorant 

 persons; much fewer than is generally supposed. It is commonly told of the steam-engine, that an idle boy 

 being employed to stop and open a valve, saw that he could save himself the trouble of attending and 

 watching it, by fixing a plug upon a part of the machine which came to the place at the proper times, in 

 consequence of the general movement. This is possible, no doubt; though nothing very certain is known' 

 respecting the origin of the story; but improvements of any value are very seldom indeed so easily found 

 out, and hardly another instance can be named of important discoveries so purely accidental. They are 

 generally made by persons of competent knowledge, and who are in search of them. The improvements of 

 the Steam-engine by "Watt resulted from the most learned investigation of mathematical, mechanical, aud 

 chemical truths. Arkwright devoted many years, five at the least, to his invention of spinning-jennies, and he 

 was a man perfectly conversant in everything that relates to the construction of machinery : he had minutely 

 examined it, and knew tho effects of each part, though he had not received anything like a scientific educa- 

 tion. If he had, we should iu all probability have been indebted to him for scientific discoveries as well as 

 practical improvements. The most beautiful and useful invention of late times, the Safety-lamp, was the 

 reward of a series of philosophical experiments made by one thoroughly skilled in every branch of chemical 

 science. Again, the process of Refining Sugar, by which more money has been made in a shorter time, and! 

 with less risk and trouble, than was ever perhaps gained from an invention, was discovered by a most' 

 accomplished chemist,* and was tho fruit of a long course of experiments, in tho progress of which, known 

 philosophical principles were constantly applied, and one or two new principles ascertained. But in so far 

 as chance has anything to do with discovery, surely it is worth tho while of those who are constantly . 



* Edward Howard, brother of the late Duke of Norfolk. 



