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elementary instruction given in our schools, and for rendering the 

 teaching of physical science more general at our Universities ; but 

 on these, time will not permit me now to enlarge. The difficult 

 consideration of the extent to which public aid ought to be afforded 

 to popular lectures, has been raised. I am not disposed to agree 

 either with those who altogether condemn this mode of imparting 

 instruction, or with those who anticipate great advantages as likely 

 to accrue to the cultivation and diffusion of Science from its exten- 

 sion. There can be no doubt that latent talent has been sometimes 

 called into existence by superficial teaching ; and, on the other hand, 

 that superficial teaching will never confer sound knowledge. Dili- 

 gent and earnest private study alone can put the seal of authenticity 

 on information acquired in the lecture-room. But when we consider 

 what a large proportion of our fellow-subjects have neither the 

 means nor the opportunity of studying at the Universities, or of 

 otherwise acquiring the knowledge referred to, and the great advan- 

 tages that would result to the middle classes and the higher grade of 

 artisans, from acquaintance with at least the elementary truths of 

 Science, it is worthy of serious consideration whether a certain 

 amount of support by the State should not be conceded to popu- 

 lar lectures and also to educational establishments, at which the 

 elements of the physical sciences may be taught on a more general 

 and systematic plan to students, who shall be invited and expected 

 to enter on their study with a serious intention of learning, so far as 

 their means and opportunities extend. 



In connexion with this subject, of the scientific instruction of the 

 masses, it is impossible to overlook the effects which may be pro- 

 duced by the publication, within the last few years, of works written, 

 it may be, in a somewhat unphilosophical spirit, and propounding 

 theories which rest on unsubstantial foundations, but written with 

 great ability, and calculated powerfully to excite the imagination of 

 those by whom the truths of natural science have been little studied. 

 Some students may perhaps require to have their attention aroused 

 by the announcement of startling novelties, and these works may be 

 to them the honey with which the bitter cup of abstract science must 

 be anointed to attract their palates : 



" Ut puerorum setas improvida ludificetur, 

 Labrorum tenus." 



