54 THE KINGDOM OF MAN 



unsuccessful efforts to teach effectively either the language 

 or literature of the Greeks and Romans. 



It should not be for one moment supposed that those 

 who attach the vast importance which we do to the 

 knowledge of Nature imagine that Man's spirit can be 

 satisfied by exclusive occupation with that knowledge. 

 We know, as well as any, that Man does not live by 

 bread alone. Though the study of Nature is fitted to 

 develop great mental qualities perseverance, honesty, 

 judgement, and initiative we do not suppose that it 

 completes Man's mental equipment. Though the know- 

 ledge of Nature calls upon, excites, and gratifies the 

 imagination to a degree and in a way which is peculiar 

 to itself, we do not suppose that it furnishes the oppor- 

 tunity for all forms of mental activity. The great joys of 

 Art, the delights and entertainment to be derived from 

 the romance and history of human character, are not 

 parts of it. They must never be neglected. But are we 

 not justified in asserting that, for some two hundred 

 years or more, these ' entertainments ' have been pursued 

 in the name of the highest education and study to the 

 exclusion of the far weightier and more necessary know- 

 ledge of Nature ? ' This should ye have done, and yet 

 not left the other undone,' may justly be said to those 

 who have conducted the education of our higher schools 

 and universities along the pleasant lines of literature and 

 history, to the neglect of the urgently-needed ' improve- 

 ment of Natural Knowledge.' Nero was probably a 

 musician of taste and training, and it was artistic and 

 high-class music which he played while Rome was 

 burning : so too the studies of the past carried on at 

 Oxford have been charming and full of beauty, whilst 

 England has lain, and lies, in mortal peril for lack of 

 knowledge of Nature, 



