194 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[Auo. 18, 1882. 



know that when a taper burns, the wax is converted into 

 carlwnic acid and water. But as we go on leArning and 

 knowing, the vast majority of mankind feel the need of 

 relating what we ha\e learnt and known to the sense 

 which we have in us for conduct, to the sense which we 

 have in us for l>cauty. 



Knowledges which cannot be directly related to the 

 sense for beauty, to the sense for conduct, are instrument- 

 knowle<lges ; they lead on to other knowledge, which can. 

 A man who passes his life in instrument-knowledges is a 

 specialist They may he invaluable iis instruments to 

 something beyond, for those who have the gift thus to 

 employ tliem ; and they may be disciplines in themselves 

 wherein it is useful to every one to have some schooling. 

 Dut it is inconceivable that the generality of men should 

 pass all their mental life w ith Greek accents or with formal 

 logic My friend Professor Sylvester, who holds tran- 

 scendental doctrines as to the Wrtue of uiatheniaties, is far 

 away in America; and therefore, if in the Cambridge 

 Senate House one may say such a thing without profane- 

 noas, I will hazard the opinion that for the majority of 

 mankind a little of mathematics, also, goes a long way. Of 

 course, this is quite consistent with their being of immense 

 importance as an instrument to something else ; but it is 

 the few who have the aptitude for thus using them, not the 

 bulk of mankind. 



The natural sciences do not stand on the same footing 

 with these instrument-knowledges. Experience shows us 

 that the generality of men will find more interest in learn- 

 ing that when a taper burns, the wax is converted into car- 

 l>onic acid and water, or in learning the explanation of the 

 phenomenon of dew, or in learning how the circulation of 

 the blood is carried on, than they find in leaniing that the 

 genitive plural of pais and pas docs not take the circum- 

 -flex on the termination. And one piece of natural 

 knowledge is added to another, and others to that, and at 

 last we come to propositions so interesting as the propo- 

 sition that "our ancestor was a hairy (|uadrupod, furnished 

 with a tail and pointed ears, probably arboreal in his 

 habits." Or we come to propositions of such reach and 

 importance as those which Professor Huxley brings us, 

 when he says that the notions of our forefathers about the 

 U-ginning and the end of the world were all wrong, and 

 that nature is the expression of a definite order with 

 which nothing interferes. 



Interesting, indeed, these results of science are, impor- 

 tant they are, and we should all be acquainted with them. 

 P.ut what I now wish you to mark is, that wo are still, 

 when they are propounded to us and we receive them, we 

 are still in the .sphere of intellect and knowledge. And 

 for the generality of men there will bo found, I say, to 

 arise, when they have duly taken in the proposition that 

 their anc(ator was "a hairy quadruped, furnished with a 

 Uil and pointed ears, probably arboreal in his habits," 

 there will l>e found to arise an invincible desire to relate 

 this proposition to the sense within them for conduct and 

 to the sense for beauty. But this the men of science will 

 not do for us, and will hardly, even, profess to do. They 

 will give ui other pieces of knowledge, other facts, about 

 other animals and their ancestors, or about plants, or 

 aV>out stones, or alxiut stars ; and they may finally l)ring us 

 to those "general conceptions of the universe which have 

 Wen forced upon us," says Professor Huxley, " by physical 

 science." But still it will lie knowledge only which they 

 give us ; knowledge not put for us into relation with our 

 sense for conduct, our sense for beauty, and touched with 

 emotion by b<;ing so put; not thus put for ua, and there- 

 fore, to the majority of mankind, after a certain while 

 unsatisfying, wearying. 



If there is to bo separation and option between humane 

 letters on the one hand, and the natural sciences on the 

 other, the gi-eat majority of mankind, all who liave not 

 exceptional and overpowering aptitudes for the study of 

 nature, would do well, I cannot but think, to choose to be 

 educated in humane letters rather than in the natural 

 sciences. Letters will call out their being at more points, 

 will make them live more. And letters will not in the end 

 lose their leading place. If they lose it for a time, they 

 will get it back again. We shall bo brought back to them 

 by our wants and aspirations. And a poor humanist may 

 possess Iiis soul in patience, neither strive nor cry, admit the 

 energy and brilliancy of the partisans of physical science, 

 and their present favour with the public, to be far greater 

 than his own, and still have a happy faitjj that the nature 

 of things works silently on behalf of the studies which he 

 loves, and that, while we shall all have to acquaint our- 

 selves with the great results reached by modern science, 

 and to give ourselves as mucli training in its disciplines as 

 we can conveniently carry, yet the majority of men will 

 always require humane letters, and so much the more as 

 they have the more and the greater results of science to 

 relate to the need in man for conduct, and to the need in 

 him for beauty. 



FUTURE SOURCES OF OUR FOOD 

 SUPPLY. 



By Percy Russell. 



III.— AUSTRALASIA (Continued). 



aUEENSLAND i.s, to a great extent, a subtropical 

 region, and the strength of the leading agriculturists 

 of the colony is concentrated on the production of sugar 

 and coffee, rice, ic, and the like. Still, much good wheat 

 is raised, and thei'o are extensive areas — elevated plateaux 

 — where wheat can be grown to great advantage, as it is in 

 the Piinjaub. The ana of the colony is GC9,520 square 

 miles, but in 18.S() only 112,290 acres were under crop. 

 The live stock included 17'J,1.')2 horses, .3,162,7.'52 head of 

 cattle, and nearly 7,000,000 of sheep. The population was 

 220,000. 



Tasmania embraces an area of 2G,215 square miles, of 

 which 140,788 acres were under crop, showing a higher 

 relative rate of agricultural ])rogress than Queensland. 

 The population was at the period under review 114,762, 

 and the live stock return was as follows : — 25,267 horses, 

 127,187 horned cattle, and 1,783,000 sheep. It is gene- 

 rally agreed that Tasmania in many respects bears a very 

 close resemblance to England ; and this resemblance is, in 

 respect to its flora, very complete. I mean, of course, the 

 flora artificially introduced by the processes of settlements. 

 The abundance of fruit of all kinds produced is enormously 

 in excess of home wants, and vast quantities are exported 

 to the neighbouring colonies, and might be exported with 

 special advantage to England, if the necessary mercantile 

 machinery could be properly organised. 



Passing from the continent to Now Zealand, that 

 Britain of the south, as it has been happily called, we find 

 that the total area is 67,419,107 acres, of which only 

 917,701 acres are under crop, 324,93.'j being devoted to 

 wheat. The live stock returns include 137,768 horses, 

 .'■)78,430 homed cattle, 13,069,338 sheep, over 200,000 pigs, 

 and more than a million of poultry. The total population 

 on April 3, 1881, was 489,909; it therefore follows that 

 in round numbers, to every individual man, woman, child, 

 or infant, there are in the colony more than twenty-five 



