NA TURE 



41 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1875 



MR. GLADSTONE AT GREENWICH 



WE may surely regard it as a hopeful sign of pro- 

 gress that a whole page of the Times, as well as 

 of other daily papers, of last Friday was practically 

 devoted to the discussion of matters connected with 

 Science and Art. When we find the daily papers giving 

 so great prominence to these subjects, and when men of 

 such position and mark as Prince Leopold, Mr. Glad- 

 stone, and the Lord Chief Justice, take what is evidently 

 a genuine interest in the progress of science and art 

 education among the lower classes, it seems quite safe to 

 infer that this movement has at last taken a prominent 

 and important place in the ever)'day life of the country. 



Prince Leopold, in his address at Oxford, showed that 

 he had taken some pains to become acquainted with the 

 latest statistics of the Science and Art classes. The discre- 

 pancy between Prince Leopold's statistics and, those 

 of Mr. Gladstone has been commented upon in the Times. 

 It would appear from an examination of the last Report 

 of the Science and Art Department, however, that the 

 figures which Prince Leopold gives for the number of 

 students under instruction in science are probably the 

 number of papers worked 2X'Ca& last May examinations. 

 This, possibly, is an error in reporting. Mr. Gladstone, 

 on the other hand, gives the right number — " about 

 48,oooJ" — of the students under instruction last yafiiiaryj 

 a different number, of course, to that in iVIay 1874, when 

 it was 53.050, or in May 1875, which has not yet been 

 published, as far as we are aware. But in some way he 

 has arrived at, or been furnished \vith, a wrong total for 

 the number of Art students. This should be 54,800 odd, 

 " irrespective of the scholars in Elementary Day Schools. 

 At the same time it is gratifying that a man like Mr. 

 Gladstone should think it worth his while to take an 

 interest in the matter at all, but when he does deter- 

 mine to think about it, the least he can do is to inform 

 himself correctly as to statistics. 



Mr. Gladstone set himself almost entirely to impress 

 upon his audiencCj the value of an education in the 

 principles and practice' of art ; he attempted to show 

 that really artistic handiwork had not only a refining, 

 elevating influence even on the workman himself, but 

 that it answered the requirement of utility in the best 

 sense of the term. To his advocacy of the introduction of 

 artistic taste into the commonest manufactures we can have 

 no possible objection, but we distinctly demur to the ground 

 on which he seems to have based the prominence that he 

 gave it in his address. He found — ^wrongly, it appears — 

 from the statistics that the proportion of students attend- 

 ing the Science classes was considerably larger than that 

 of those who are attending the Art classes. According 

 \o the latest statistics this excess of Science over Art 

 students is shown not to exist, and the inference that 

 Science is getting more than its due share of attention, 

 and that the claims of Art require special advocacy as 

 being neglected, seems to us unwai ranted on several 

 grounds. The truth is the Art classes were estabUshed for 

 many years before the Science classes, and the fact that 

 there has been such a rush upon the latter simply proves 

 that they meet a wider and deeper want than do the 

 Vol. xrir.— Xo. ':^i6 



former ; that, in short, the nation feels that it stands more 

 urgently in need of science at present than of art. 



We infer, moreover, from what Mr. Gladstone said, that 

 he thinks the practical application of science ought to be en- 

 dowed in preference to abstract scientific investigation and 

 education in scientific principles. But is it not much more 

 rational and really practical that the men who are getting 

 their education at these Science and Art classes should 

 be educated in the main principles and leading facts of 

 science before they are taught how to apply them ? How 

 is the best work likely to be got out of a man ? Is it by 

 teaching him the practice of a few traditional rules, in- 

 capable of expansion, and which have no meaning for 

 him ; or by educating him thoroughly in the scientific 

 principles and data on which his handicraft is founded, 

 and then leaving him to learn in the workshop how these 

 are applied in practice ? One might as well expect a car- 

 penter to make a workman-like chair or table before he 

 has learned to use the plane or saw, as expect the best 

 work to be produced by the former course. The prin- 

 ciples, or laws of science are comparatively few ; their 

 applications are endless. 



The student who has an accurate knowledge of prin- 

 ciples will readily understand the applications. One 

 school will, as it were, fit him out with all that is neces- 

 sary for all industrial progress. To teach the apphed 

 sciences on the other hand requires a special school for all 

 the various possible permutations and combinations that 

 may be rung on the general principles. 



By looking to general science, again, the Govern- 

 ment avoids the difficulties which must necessarily ac- 

 company, with all the fluctuations of trade, any attempt 

 to teach applied science except in some very general 

 forms. The fact is that the practical applications of 

 science bring their own reward, and need no extra- 

 neous encouragement ; instruction and invention in them 

 may very well and without the least hardship be left to 

 those whose pockets they fill. Art receives ample en- 

 couragement, and is well rewarded by the nation ; let 

 but aa artist in any department show himself capable of 

 producing good work, and he will soon find that both the 

 Government and private individuals have plenty of re- 

 wards to bestow upon him. Science, on the other hand, 

 receives not a penny in the way of assistance or reward, 

 and yet the scientific investigator is. the nation's servant 

 and greatest benefactor. Pure scientific research is at 

 present, like virtue, its own reward ; the man who 

 devotes himself to such research, unless he has some 

 other means of gaining a livelihood, is Ukely enough to 

 starve for all the help he will get from his country ; and 

 yet, as it has been shown over and over again, our 

 country's prosperity, the progress of nearly aU our indus- 

 tries, and even the very existence of many of them, are 

 dependent on the discoveries of the scientific investigator 

 who pursues his research on purely scientific principles, 

 and with no practical end whatever in view. Our country 

 has got at least as much glory, and we venture to think 

 more practical benefit, from achievements in the region 

 of pure science, as from all that has been accomplished in 

 the domain of art, and yet no helping hand is held out to 

 those who are able and willing to do their country the 

 highest ser\ace, but cannot, because they must drudge for 

 a living. The domain of science is every day becoming 



