NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH 129 



literary beauty. The matter of having anything to say, 

 beyond a hash of other people's opinions, or of possessing 

 any criterion of beauty, so that we may distinguish between 

 the Godlike and the devilish, is left aside as of no moment. 

 I think I do not err in saying that if science were made a 

 foundation of education, instead of being, at most, stuck 

 on as cornice to the edifice, this state of things could not 

 exist. 



In advocating the introduction of physical science as a 

 leading element in education, I by no means refer only to 

 the higher schools. On the contrary, I believe that such a 

 change is even more imperatively called for in those primary 

 schools, in which the children of the poor are expected to 

 turn to the best account the little time they can devote to 

 the acquisition of knowledge. A great step in this direction 

 has already been made by the establishment of science- 

 classes under the Department of Science and Art, — a meas- 

 ure which came into existence unnoticed, but which will, I 

 believe, turn out to be of more importance to the welfare 

 of the people than many political changes over which the 

 noise of battle has rent the air. 



Under the regulations to which I refer, a schoolmaster 

 can set up a class in one or more branches of science; his 

 pupils will be examined, and the State will pay him, at a 

 certain rate, for all who succeed in passing. I have acted 

 as an examiner under this system from the beginning of its 

 establishment, and this year I expect to have not fewer than 

 a couple of thousand sets of answers to questions in Physi- 

 olog}', mainly from young people of the artisan class, who 

 have been taught in the schools which are now scattered 

 all over Great Britain and Ireland. Some of my colleagues, 

 who have to deal with subjects such as Geometry, for which 

 the present teaching power is better organised, I under- 



