PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS OF EDUCATION 75 



means and the habit of observation ; and, secondly, to 

 supply the subject-matter of knowledge either in the 

 shape of science or of art, or of both combined. 



Now, it is a very remarkable fact but it is true of 

 most things in this world that there is hardly any- 

 thing one-sided, or of one nature; and it is not imme- 

 diately obvious what of the things that interest us may 

 be regarded as pure science, and what may be regarded 

 as pure art. It may be that there are some peculiarly 

 constituted persons who, before they have advanced 

 far into the depths of geometry, find artistic beauty 

 about it; but, taking the generality of mankind, I think 

 it may be said that, when they begin to learn mathe- 

 matics, their whole souls are absorbed in tracing the 

 connection between the premisses and the conclusion, 

 and that to them geometry is pure science. So I think 

 it may be said that mechanics and osteology are pure 

 science. On the other hand, melody in music is pure 

 art. You cannot reason about it ; there is no proposition 

 involved in it. So, again, in the pictorial art, an ara- 

 besque, or a "harmony in grey," touches none but the 

 aesthetic faculty. But a great mathematician, and even 

 many persons who are not great mathematicians, will 

 tell you that they derive immense pleasure from geo- 

 metrical reasonings. Everybody knows mathema- 

 ticians speak of solutions and problems as "elegant," 

 and they tell you that a certain mass of mystic symbols 

 is "beautiful, quite lovely." Well, you do not see it. 

 They do see it, because the intellectual process, the 

 process of comprehending the reasons symbolised by 

 these figures and these signs, confers upon them a sort 

 of pleasure, such as an artist has in visual symmetry. 

 Take a science of which I may speak with more con- 

 fidence, and which is the most attractive of those I am 



