18 



and iron water wheels, and which, by increasing the speed of 

 machinery from forty to three hundred revolutions a minute, 

 has increased in proportion the productiveness of the mills, not 

 only of Manchester and Birmingham, but of Lowell, and all 

 Christendom as well even Fairbairn did not succeed without 

 science. Though emphatically a man of the workshop, he has 

 long since, by his genius and the earnest devotion of his odd 

 moments to study, become substantially, a man of science, and 

 has always employed the utmost resources of his scientific 

 knowledge, in his professional practice. Though distinguished 

 for his researches in experimental science, and the author of 

 works which have made him a leading authority in some 

 branches of engineering, particularly mill- work and iron archi- 

 tecture, he yet, after a most brilliant professional career, deeply 

 laments his lack of early scientific training, and expresses, by 

 implication, his opinion on the question before us, when at the 

 age of sixty-five, (he is now eighty) in urging on practical 

 men the diligent acquisition of scientific knowledge, he says, 

 " You need not be surprised when I assure you, that after 

 nearly fifty years practice, I am still learning, still at school, 

 anl I believe must continue so, until the great book of nature 

 closes upon me forever." 



Other illustrations, to the same point, might be drawn, ad 

 libitum, from other fields of industry. 



Knowledge of science then as the career of even the most 

 eminent self-made men exemplifies is really a prime element 

 of success in all departments of industry. 



And the concession made, that some of the ruder arts are 

 older than the sciences, and that genius and energy can 

 accomplish much in spite of deficient scientific training, is, in 

 truth, no argument to the contrary, especially when we con- 

 sider further, that these ruder arts, however important in 



