52 IMPORTANCE OF UNITING THE 



however, is to explain the importance of the views it advocates 

 respecting Natural Knowledge, to those who may be desirous 

 of furnishing the young people of whom they may have the 

 charge, with that useful knowledge in which their own educa- 

 tion may have been deficient. It may be expedient, there- 

 fore, to enter into some illustrations of this fact ; and also to 

 show that it is a fact which is to be lamented ; or rather that 

 mischievous consequences may arise from it, if the compara- 

 tive facility of making such attainments in Mathematics alone, 

 and their fascinating influence upon the mind, be allowed 

 to divert the student from making parallel advances in Natu- 

 ral science. 



Strong representations have of late been made, and, among 

 other competent advocates, by the consummate Mathematician 

 who now occupies the chair in the University of Cambridge 

 once filled by Newton, of the paucity, in this country, of high 

 Mathematical knowledge, as well as that of interest in the more 

 elevated pursuits of those sciences which are immediately con- 

 nected with it, such as Astronomy, and the more recondite 

 departments of Material Physics. Our continental neighbours, 

 as well as the philosophers of Germany and the North of 

 Europe, have been held up as examples for our emulation, in 

 this respect, which, it has been stated, we must for the present 

 be content to follow, at an humble distance. That these re- 

 presentations are founded in truth, with respect to the par- 

 ticular branches of knowledge in question, cannot be doubted ; 

 and that they should be true, every lover of science in Britain 

 will regret, while he will feel himself called upon to use his 

 most strenuous endeavours, to remove this blemish from our 

 national honour. 



IfJ however, we take an enlarged view of the subject, in all 

 its relations to the past history, and all its bearings on the 

 actual condition, of science, and the use of science, we shall 

 probably find our regret in some degree alleviated, and our 

 hopes and prospects of the future considerably modified. We 

 shall find, perhaps, that while a change in the manner of cul- 

 tivating many branches of Natural Philosophy, in this country, 

 is now unquestionably desirable, the pasty on reviewing its re- 

 sults, in Great Britain, and on the Continent, respectively, is 

 not to be lamented. How far the strong expressions which 

 have recently been employed by Professor Leslie, when ani- 

 madverting on this subject, may be warrantable, I cannot pre- 

 tend to decide ; but, in a memoir professedly vindicating the 

 importance of the Physical Sciences, it may not be improper to 

 quote the passage from the Lectures on Natural Philosophy, 

 of the late Dr. Young, an author, it will be remembered, 

 who was possessed of equally profound attainments in Mathe- 





