00 LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [iv. 



The matter of having anything to say, beyond a hash of other 

 people s opinions, or of possessing any criterion of beauty, so that 

 we may distinguish between the Godlike and the devilish, is left 

 aside as of no moment. I think I do not err in saying that if 

 science were made a foundation of education, instead of being, at 

 most, stuck on as cornice to the edifice, this state of things could 

 not exist. 



In advocating the introduction of physical science as a leading 

 element in education, I by no means refer only to the higher 

 schools. On the contrary, I believe that such a change is even 

 more imperatively called for in those primary schools, in which 

 the children of the poor are expected to turn to the best account 

 the little time they can devote to the acquisition of knowledge. 

 A great step in this direction has already been made by the 

 establishment of science-classes under the Department of Science 

 and Art, a measure which came into existence unnoticed, 

 but which will, I believe, turn out to be of more importance to the 

 welfare of the people, than many political changes, over which 

 the noise of battle has rent the air. 



Under the regulations to which I refer, a schoolmaster can set 

 up a class in one or more branches of science ; his pupils will be 

 examined, and the State will pay him, at a certain rate, for all 

 who succeed in passing. I have acted as an examiner under this 

 system from the beginning of its establishment, and this year I 

 expect to have not fewer than a couple of thousand sets of answers 

 to questions in Physiology, mainly from young people of the 

 artisan class, who have been taught in the schools which are now 

 scattered all over Great Britain and Ireland. Some of my 

 colleagues, who have to deal with subjects such as Geometry, for 

 which the present teaching power is better organized, I under 

 stand are likely to have three or four times as many papers. So 

 far as my own subjects are concerned, I can undertake to say 

 that a great deal of the teaching, the results of which are before 

 me in these examinations, is very sound and good ; and I think 

 it is in the power of the examiners, not only to keep up the 

 present standard, but to cause an almost unlimited improvement. 



