♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Jan. 



188:5, 



a scries of i)icturcs might be fomied in the mind ; but yo\i 

 would not be the richer by one single idea. A ploughman 

 may walk through a menagerie, and see the lions, and 

 tigers, and the olepliant, and will henceforward the bettor 

 understand the infinity of life on the earth ; but he will 

 not possess a single new idea. So with these endless 

 records in my grandfather's tomes : they conveyed 

 nothing. I think the word " idea" carries my meaning 

 better than theory or liypothesis. For my part, I 

 consider that ideas are mor(! valuaVile than facts, being, 

 indeed, the greatest of all facts. Without an idea, facts 

 are as dead as stones, on which no one can feed. Any one 

 may stumble on a fact as a rabbit may turn up a 

 coin. Only the wisest — or shall we rather say the secularly 

 inspired ?— can come, by long penance of thought, on the 

 interpretation called an idea. When ideas came into 

 natural history, it ceased to be natural history, and became 

 philosophy. 



Instead of endeavouring to trace the course of events 

 from year to year and from thinker to thinker, till it grew 

 to its present estate, it will serve better in way of contrast 

 to sum in outline what that estate now is. At the central 

 education establishments there are now three principal 

 subjects placed before students. There are no precise 

 terms by which these subjects can be accurately described, 

 because they include so many branches. In effect, they 

 are cl..ssics, the utilitarian cycle, and natural philosophy. 

 Of old, classics took the first place, and Latin and 

 Greek distinguished the gentleman and scholar. With 

 recent years and the growing desire to profit by 

 education, what I have called the utilitarian cycle 

 has come so much to the front as to threaten the 

 extinction of the classics. Students go to learn things 

 that will actually be useful to them in life, by which they 

 may secure an income. But yet something more is needed. 

 A student may acquire a knowledge of three or more 

 modern languages, be proficient in the higher arithmetic, 

 and so forth — able, in short, to occupy any position in the 

 official or mercantile world — and yet, if he stopped there, 

 would be quite outside the living thought of the a"e. 

 Without a knowledge of physical science, and that in a 

 very extended form, he would be, however liighly educated in 

 other respects, still a mere clerk. In order, therefore, that 

 the scholar may be able to mingle freely in the learned 

 tone of the time, he is instructed in the elements at least 

 of almost all the sciences. From physiology to botany, 

 from electricity to astronomy, he is supposed to be 

 grounded in everything. Unless he were so, half the allu- 

 sions in the books and leading publications of the day 

 would have no meaning to him. Again, very many of the 

 best paid and most progressive employments are only open 

 to physicists of some ability — as, for instance, the numerous 

 developments of electricity. To indicate the various 

 causes which have led up to the present aspect is not 

 necessary here. The point is that natural philosojihy, 

 physical science, physics, whatever name may be given to 

 the higher form of natural history, is now considered so 

 important as to overshadow the rest. The whole aim of 

 modern education is to make a man think natural science 

 —that is, in other words, to fit him to comprehend the 

 spirit of the time. 



For the age thinks natural history in its higher or ideal 

 form, just as fonner ages have thought me'taphysics, or 

 have been sceptical, or full of a revived classicism. It 

 enters into every phase and movement. Physiology, for 

 instance, which is the natural history of the human" body, 

 is taught — and rightly taught— to women, and even to 

 children. If any one should object that physiology is 

 uot natural history, then /iw natural history is 



exactly that understood by the phrase in the books on 

 my grandfather's shelves. Sanitation is one of the 

 most powerful movements in ovir time, and seems 

 likely to gather strength. Sanitation would be impossible 

 without an insight into natural history. Its main object is 

 to dispose of certain deleterious organisms, and if these 

 organisms were not studied, it would be the merest rule of 

 thumb. The germ theory, all tlie researches of Pasteur, 

 and his experiments in microscopic vaccination, these are 

 the purest natural history. So in surgery, the antiseptic 

 treatment ; though, indeed, all surgery which depends on 

 growth is natural history. As I for the physician of the 

 nineteenth century, he is purely a naturalist. Theories 

 have disappeared : the one leading idea is to get at what 

 nature needs. Kature, nature ! the word is on every lip. 

 ]\Ien's lives are saved by natural history. Athletics are 

 based on the results of minute researches into the absorption 

 of food, the repair of tissues, all the processes of life, train- 

 ing being adapted to facilitate it. Except those who 

 return conquerors from war there are none so highl)- 

 honoured as explorers of unknown regions, such as the 

 interior of Africa, or the Palajocrystic sea at the other 

 extreme, whose work is certainly natural history. Astro- 

 nomy reaches, indeed, above our earth, but uses the forces 

 with which the earth acquaints us as keys to open the 

 stellar spheres. Then, returning to the earth, astronomy 

 ventures theories as to its origin. Despite the attacks 

 made upon it, the Lyell theory, that existing causes are 

 sufficient to explain existing things and the means by 

 which they become as they are, this great idea still influences 

 the mind of every investigator. Such causes may be 

 seen at work in any pond, or even on the window-pane ; 

 the whole idea must have been gathered from an intel- 

 lectual study of natural history, since natural historj- pre- 

 sents these causes at every step. An exhaustive account 

 of the multitudinous ways in which natural science in- 

 fluences the mind of the age would be of unwieldy length. 

 Everywhere throughout the Anglo-Saxon world, eager 

 minds are seeking new discoveries in such science literally 

 night and day. Therefore, it is strictly accurate to say 

 that the age thinks natural philosophy, looking to it for 

 guidance, help, and future increase. 



To gather the views of all these workers into a focus and 

 express it in a formula may not be without its usa The 

 one central idea which inspires their efforts is this : that 

 every single atom of matter should be employed for the 

 good of the human race. While this motive animates the 

 inquirer, the search is consecrated and the seeker dignified. 

 The reward is certain — it is in the inward consciousness of 

 a great aim, which lifts the spirit, and, like a talisman, 

 transmutes coarse things to preciousness. In our age 

 nothing is holy but humanity. The human being is the 

 one shrine towards which all pilgrims of our latter-day 

 faith toil ; the human being of itself, irrespective of race, 

 sex, age, or distinction of good or bad. These are the ethics 

 of natural history. The thing is plain enough to any one 

 who stays a moment to consider ; but in the hurry of life 

 and the necessities of business, it is not so obvious perhaps 

 to the .many. I want to see it recognised as a truth so 

 great as to be the first lesson of j'outh, the law of man- 

 hood, the chief dogma of the world. 



It was said the other day, in the Times leader on the 

 fire at Hampton Court Palace, that this collection of 

 pictures is the only one open to the public on Sundays. 

 This is 3. mistake. JMiss North's Gallery at Kew is open on 

 Sundays, and is, moreover, the only picture gallery in the 

 metropolitan district which is so. 



