THE STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY: 



GENTLEMEN : When I accepted the honour of lecturing 

 here, I took for granted that so select an audience 

 would expect from me not mere amusement, but 

 somewhat of instruction ; or, if that be too ambitious 

 a word for me to use, at least some fresh hint if I 

 were able to give one as to how they should fulfil 

 the ideal of military men in such an age as this. 



To touch on military matters, even had I been 

 conversant with them, seemed to me an impertinence. 

 I am bound to take for granted that every man knows 

 his own business best ; and I incline more and more to 

 the opinion that military men should be left to work 

 out the problems of their art for themselves, without 

 the advice or criticism of civilians. But I hold and I 

 am sure that you will agree with me that if the soldier 

 is to be thus trusted by the nation, and left to himself 

 to do his own work his own way, he must be educated 

 in all practical matters as highly as the average of 

 educated civilians. He must know all that they know, 

 and his own art besides. Just as a clergyman, being 



* A Lecture delivered to the Officers of the Eoyal Artillery, 

 Woolwich, 1872. 



