THEIR EXTENSIVE APPLICABILITY. 115 



been shown by the detail of a series of important facts. The 

 utility of the Knowledge of Nature in the conduct of the ordi- 

 nary affairs of life, has been exemplified, by cases of emergency, 

 which may occur to persons of every station and of every 

 rank. It has been seen, also, that the abstract philosophi- 

 cal history of nature the profound cultivation of the Physi- 

 cal Sciences, considered merely as branches of interesting 

 knowledge daily becomes of the utmost importance to the 

 welfare and the comfort of society. Some remarks have been 

 offered, on the great increase of value which Mathematical 

 Knowledge the importance of which is universally ad- 

 mitted may receive, by the addition of a commensurate 

 acquaintance with the principles and beings of the material 

 world. Interesting facts have been detailed, evincing the 

 utility of uniting Natural Knowledge with the pursuits of 

 Classical Literature : it has been seen that the investigation of 

 Ancient History may correct the determinations of the Astro- 

 nomer ; that the Astronomer, in his turn, when all the ordi- 

 nary means of Chronology have failed, may establish an epoch 

 for the Historian ; and that a peculiar fitness for the more 

 profound class of inquiries into the Literature and Antiquities 

 of former ages, is imparted to the mind, by the habits of in- 

 duction which are appropriate to the study of Physics. Lastly, 

 the plan and the methods of instruction in the Physical Sci- 

 ences, as forming a portion of the business of the Schools, have 

 been fully explained, and accompanied by an account of a pro- 

 minent part of the instruction already given, which will have 

 enabled those persons, who may previously have been imper- 

 fectly acquainted with the objects of natural science, in some 

 degree to appreciate their interest and their utility. 



It being the main object of this work, not to assign an 

 undue elevation to the Physical Sciences, in the scale of the 

 relative importance of the different branches of Education, 

 but simply to claim for them their just place in that scale, in har- 

 monious connection with every other pursuit of the human mind, 

 and every other means of preparation for the active concerns of 

 human life, the argument has been insensibly extended, in the 

 progress of the work, from the Education of Boys, to Educa- 

 tion, understood in the most universal sense of that term. The 

 foregoing representations are as fully applicable to the ad- 

 vanced instruction received by the students of Universities 

 and Public Institutions for Professional Education, and to 

 that, still more important, which the man who has entered 

 upon the active duties of life, may bestow upon himself, as 

 they are to the particular species of elementary instruction 

 which was originally contemplated, and to suggest an ad- 



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