488 On Mental Education. [1855. 



to the past. In 1823, Wollaston discovered that beautiful 

 substance which he called Titanium, believing it to be a simple 

 metal ; and it was so accepted by all philosophers. Yet this 

 was a mistake, for Wohler*, in 1850, showed the substance 

 was a very compound body. This is no reproach to Wollaston 

 or to those who trusted in him ; he made a step in metallurgy 

 which advanced knowledge, and perhaps we may hereafter, 

 through it, learn to know that metals are compound bodies. 

 Who, then, has a right to quote his mistake as a reproach 

 against him? Who could correct him but men intellectually 

 educated as he himself was ? Who does not feel that the in- 

 vestigation remains a bright gem in the circlet that memory 

 offers to his honour ? 



If we are to estimate the utility of an educated judgment, do 

 not let us hear merely of the errors of scientific men, which have 

 been corrected by others taught in the same careful school ; 

 but let us see what, as a body, they have produced, compared 

 with that supplied by their reproachers. Where are the 

 established truths and triumphs of ring-swingers, table-turners, 

 table- speakers? What one result in the numerous divisions of 

 science or its applications can be traced to their exertions ? 

 Where is the investigation completed, so that, as in gas-light- 

 ing, all may admit that the principles are established and a good 

 end obtained, without the shadow of a doubt ? 



If we look to electricity, it, in the hands of the careful inves- 

 tigator, has advanced to the most extraordinary results : it 

 approaches at the motion of his hand ; bursts from the metal ; 

 descends from the atmosphere ; surrounds the globe : it talks, 

 it writes, it records, it appears to him (cautious as he has learned 

 to become) as a universal spirit in nature. If we look to pho- 

 tography, whose origin is of our own day, and see what it has 

 become in the hands of its discoverers and their successors, 

 how wonderful are the results ! The light is made to yield 

 impressions upon the dead silver or the coarse paper, beautiful 

 as those it produces upon the living and sentient retina : its 

 most transient impression is rendered durable for years ; it is 

 made to leave a visible or an invisible trace ; to give a result 

 to be seen now or a year hence ; made to paint all natural 

 forms and even colours ; it serves the offices of war, of peace, 

 * Annales de Chimie, xxix. p. 166. 



