212 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



never absolutely reach it, as every step of approximation 

 will diminish the rate of approach; like the everlasting 

 process of reaching a given point by continually halving 

 our distance from it. 



First of all we shall cease to export coal ; then we shall 

 throw up the most voracious of our coal-consuming indus- 

 tries, such as the reduction of iron-ore in the blast-furnace; 

 then copper-smelting and the manufacture of malleable 

 iron and steel from the pig, and so on progressively. If 

 we keep in view the natural course and order of such pro- 

 gress, and intelligently prepare for it, the loss of our coal 

 need not in the smallest degree retard the progress of our 

 national prosperity. 



If, however, we act upon the belief that the advancement 

 of a nation depends upon the mere accident of physical 

 advantages, if we fold our arms and wait for Providence to 

 supply us with a physical substitute for coal, we shall be- 

 come Chinamen, minus the unworked coal of China. 



If our educational efforts are conducted after the Chinese 

 model; if we stultify the vigor and freshness of young 

 brains by the weary, dull, and useless cramming of words 

 and phrases; if we poison and pervert the growing intellect 

 of British youth by feeding it upon the decayed carcases of 

 dead languages, and on effete and musty literature, our 

 progress will be proportionately Chinaward; but if we shake 

 off that monkish inheritance which, leads so many of us 

 blindly to believe that the business of education is to pro- 

 duce scholars rather than men, and direct our educational 

 efforts towards the requirements of the future rather than 

 by the traditions of the past, we need have no fear that 

 Great Britain will decline with the exhaustion of her coal- 

 fields. 



The teaching and training in schools and colleges must 

 be directly and designedly preparatory to those of the work- 

 shop, the warehouse, and the office; for if our progress is 

 to be worthy of our beginning, the moral and intellectual 

 dignity of industry must be formally acknowledged and 

 systematically sustained and advanced. Hitherto, we have 

 been the first and the foremost in utilizing the fossil forces 

 which the miner has unearthed; hereafter we must in like 



