122 SELECTED ESS A YS FROM LA Y SERMONS 



In fact the clergy are at present divisible into three sec- 

 tions: an immense body who are ignorant and speak out; a 

 small proportion who know and are silent; and a minute 

 minority who know and speak according to their knowl- 

 edge. 



I hope you will consider that the arguments I have now 

 stated, even if there were no better ones, constitute a suffi- 

 cient apology for urging the introduction of science into 

 schools. The next question to which I have to address my- 

 self is. What sciences ought to be thus taught ? And this is 

 one of the most important of questions, because my side 

 (I am afraid I am a terribly candid friend) sometimes spoils 

 its cause by going in for too much. There are other forms 

 of culture beside physical science; and I should be pro- 

 foundly sorry to see the fact forgotten, or even to observe a 

 tendency to starve, or cripple, literary, or aesthetic, culture 

 for the sake of science. Such a narrow view of the nature 

 of education has nothing to do with my firm conviction that 

 a complete and thorough scientific culture ought to be intro- 

 duced into all schools. By this, however, I do not mean 

 that every schoolboy should be taught everything in science. 

 That would be a very absurd thing to conceive, and a very 

 mischievous thing to attempt. What I mean is, that no 

 boy nor girl should leave school without possessing a grasp 

 of the general character of science, and without having been 

 disciplined, more or less, in the methods of all sciences; so 

 that, when turned into the world to make their own way, 

 they shall be prepared to face scientific problems, not by 

 knowing at once the conditions of every problem, or by 

 being able at once to solve it; but by being familiar with 

 the general current of scientific thought, and by being able 

 to apply the methods of science in the proper way, when 



