358 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Nov. 



KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON. 



Introductory Address ; read to the Students in the Department of the 

 Applied Sciences, at the commencement uf the Session, on Tuesday, October 

 5th, 1817, by D. T. Ansted, Esq., M.A. F.R.S., Professor of Geology to 

 the College, and Deaa of the Department. 



Gentlemen — Occupying, as I have the honour to do, the office of Dean of 

 the department of the Applied Sciences for the ensuing year, I have thought 

 it expedient, following the example of another department of our College, lo 

 open the business of the academical year by an address, in which I shall 

 endeavour to explain to you briefly some of the objects, peculiarities, and 

 benefits of the education which is here offered, and of which, it is to be 

 hoped, you will take every advantage. 



The object of this department of the Applied Sciences is to give general 

 education, as distinguished from professional education We wish lo give this 

 general education, however, in such a manner and to such an extent, that 

 special education in engineering, architecture, and some other very impor- 

 tant professional pursuits, may rise naturally from it and be intimately 

 connected with U. It has been endeavoured so to arrange the course, that 

 the required piactical knowledge and manual dexterity for such pursuits 

 shall be connected with and arise from the sound educational principles 

 inculcated in the lecture-room. 



Education is, in one verv important sense, the serious occupation of 

 every thinking and acting man. It commences with our entrance into the 

 world ; it is carried on, whether for good or evil results, with great energy 

 and incessantly, through early childhood and youth ; it is continued, also, 

 whether we will or not, as we advance into manhood ; and so long as we 

 remain on this side the grave, so long do we continue to learn, — to acquire 

 new habits, new thoughts, new ideas, and to exercise some influence over 

 our fellow men. It is only the idiot who can escape — although it is the 

 privilege of the idle and the inactive to approach in the nearest degree to 

 this lowest condition of our human nature. 



But although education — or the traiuing of the human intellect to ac- 

 complish the purposes of man's nature — is tlius a process constantly going 

 on. there is a particular period of life when the faculties are in their early 

 vigour and the physical powers as yet unworn by the pressure of mental 

 excitement ; when the memory is fresh and not burdened with the experi- 

 ences of a life; when the light amusements of childhood pall upon the 

 senses, and thought begins to take the place of simple, unthinking obser- 

 vation ; — there is this period in the life of every one, in which it is possible 

 to sketch in simple outline some truthful delineation of the future, and 

 when, therefore, it becomes of the most earnest importance that the sketch 

 should correspond with the intellectual and mental peculiarities of the 

 individual. This is the time when school gives place to college ; when 

 mere routine, imposed from without, is to a certain extent changed to vo- 

 luntary, and in many cases more severe, mental exercise; when new, 

 powerful, and lasting impressions are made ; when new associations are 

 formed, which will probably long influence the habits and the character ; 

 and when, in a word, what there is of intellectual and moral in the charac- 

 ter begins to expand, becomes less dependent on circumstances, and takes 

 some special direction which is rarely afterwards changed. 



In the great majority of cases, the part in active life that is to be taken 

 by every individual is determined for him by external circumstances, over 

 which he has little control. In such instances, it is however not unusual 

 that, in addition to and beside the direct occupation or business of an edu- 

 cated and intelligent man, there is some one subject or department of know- 

 led'e pursued quietly and as an amusement, to the infinite advantage of 

 himself and his family, and by no means to the detriment of his business, 

 lu other and rarer cases, the occupation is at the same time the amusement. 

 Both of these cases may be greatly affected by the education of the youth, as 

 he is passing into manhood. Both therefore should enter into every scheme 

 of education ; for, however we may conclude from philosophical specula- 

 tion, no one accustomed to observe will doubt that there are certain ten- 

 dencies that are peculiar to the individual ; and that as no one man so accu- 

 rately resembles another, that we cannot determine some point of dilFerence, 

 so no one intellect is without its individuality — capable of being directed 

 more easily in one path than in any other. 



Thus, as there are different objects to be attained, and human intellects 

 differently constituted to attain them ; as society requires all powers lo be 

 developed, and needs the exertions of all her members, it is only just and 

 reasonable that in that transition slate of which I have reminded you, and 

 in which you are, there should be various ways of arriving at the required 

 resull — nainelj,tlie providing men adapted lo carry out fully the objects of 

 society in all departments. The attainment of the public good in this 

 sense is, I conceive, the practical fullilment which a nation is required to 

 attempt of the sacred maxim — " to love our neighbours as ourselves." It 

 is acting with a %iew to benefit mankind at the same time and lo the same 

 degree thai we are ourselves personally and intellectually benefitted. The 

 eslablishment of places of education, such as this College, and of this 

 College especially, has resuUed from the endeavour to carry out this pur- 

 pose ; and you who are ab;.ul lo profit by the course of instruction here 

 afforded, are bound to recognise with gratitude the opportunity which is 

 thus offered you; and placing yourselves, or being placed, under such 

 oil ;... iMu, -vou will be responsible, each to bis own conscience, for the 

 result. 



The kind of education offered in that department of the College to which 



you are attached is peculiar, and scarcely resembles any system previously 

 adopted. It has already proved most successful, as an attempt to extend 

 the advantages of college education lo many whose special object in after 

 life was likely to be more distinctly active, than either contemplative or 

 dependent on the constant and exclusive exercise of the intellectual powers. 

 .Some modification seemed needed of the ancient and not uuuseful system 

 adopted iu our universities of Oxford and Cambridge, for the time required 

 and there employed in the cultivation of language and pure niathematic», 

 had, during the lapse of years, gradually stolen on from the period of boy- 

 hood lo that of manhood ; and for this reason, those whose pursuits would 

 remove them entirely from the further prosecution or application of such 

 subjects, were necessarily deprived of the advantages of college discipline. 

 They were also wilhout the opportunity of acquiring, by any good system, 

 the groundwork and elementary knowledge which should be really usefal 

 in their subsequent employments. 



The endeavour to determine whether in our own country, as on the 

 continent, it might not be possible to establish a system not less sound and 

 based no less on the peculiar nature and requirements of the human intel- 

 lect in a certain stage of its development, than that system which has 

 produced so many and such great divine^, lawyers, and natural philoso- 

 phers, — whether, I say, it might not be possible to modify that system, *> 

 as to produce men no less useful and no less distinguished in the paths of 

 active and business life — whether we could not by such modification bring 

 forth energies hitherto dormant, and induce a more systematic and philoso- 

 phic application of thought and intellect to every-day life and ordinary 

 business, — rendering men better able to apply science, because they had 

 been taught to know it properly ; — this, I repeat, was the object of the 

 experiment that has been first tried in this place. 



It is my intention in this introductory address to explain to you some- 

 thing of the nature of the system we have adopted, and the spirit in which 

 it should on your part be received. You are those on whom we depend 

 for success — we must be supported by your exertions ; and we are bound, 

 therefore, to tell you what are our real views and feelings with reference 

 to the working of our plan. 



J>ow, one of the first things that it is necessary to observe may seem, 

 perhaps, somewhat paradoxical : we wish rather to educate than lo com- 

 municate knowledge. Knowledge in itself is no doubt good ; but, in our 

 opinion, education is better, and of far greater importance to you. Our 

 whole system — the College system in the best sense — is a course of train- 

 ing adapting the intellect to acquire knowledge, but only toching know- 

 ledge incidentally. This, it must be understood, is not merely a theory, 

 but a pervading principle. It is not seen in the individual lectures, but 

 it is felt in the general conduct of the whole. 



The course of study iu the department extends over a period of three 

 years, and in each year the subject of Mathematics is expected to occupy 

 a considerable portion of the time and thoughts of the student, the time 

 however diminishing a little as he advances. 



The experience of many years and many lives has shown, that for the 

 purposes of mental discipline the peculiar habits of thought and accuracy 

 of expression demanded in the pursuit of inathemalical science are in the 

 highest degree valuable. For this reason, as well as because mathemati- 

 cal knowledge is absolutely required in the practical applications of sci- 

 ence, you are conducted step by step through that perfect chain of reason- 

 ing which has been handed down for more than tv\eiity centuries as the 

 foundation of geometry ; you are taught the nature and meaning of that 

 symbolical language, by which, in the hands of a master, the most dillicult 

 and obscure problems are ingeniously solved; and you are further made 

 acquainted wilh the principles as well as the methods according to which 

 this symbolical language of a/.?e6ra may be applied to the determination 

 of problems in geometry, the thinking out of which by continuous argu- 

 ment would be exceedingly dillicult, and in some cases perhaps almost 

 impossible. 



I allude thus briefly to the fundamental principles of pure mathematics, 

 which form an essential portion of your early studies in this place, in proof 

 of what I have already stated concerning the nature of the education 

 offered. It is based on no hypothetical or speculative novelty, but com- 

 mences, as all useful education must do, by traiuing carefully the reasoning 

 faculties ; and it selects for this training the subject of pure malneiuatics, 

 as that most likely to be afterwards useful. Be assured that the time and 

 labour bestowed on this part of your studies will never be regretted in 

 after-life, and tliat whatever your pursuits may be, this mental traiuii>g 

 will help you lo succeed in them. 



In thus speaking of the principles of geometry as taught by Euclid, 

 and the nature of algebra as introducing a knowledge of symbols, I have 

 said all that is necessary lo illustrate the views adopted in tiiis department 

 of the nature and use ot mathematics in education ; but I cannot leave the 

 subject wilhout reminding you, that however iinporlaiit it is to understand 

 fully and clearly the bearings of any subject that concerns us deeply, no- 

 thing in the whole of education is so iiiiportaiit as the having a distinct 

 and clear appreciation of the nature of the argument in every demonstra- 

 tion in geometry, and the meaning of the symbolical expression in every 

 elementary proposition in algebra. Your progress by help of memory 

 is of absolutely no value without this ; for nothing is less useful or less 

 important than the mere learning by heart the propositions of Euclid, or 

 performing, wilhout understanding them, the ingenious transformations by 

 which problems are sometimes solved. 



IViiile the study of pure mathematics is thus insisted on as the first 

 element in your educaiioa — and in this respect the course of iastruction is 



