22 SCIENCE AND CULTURE. [LECT. 



If the Institution opened to-day fulfils the in- 

 tention of its founder, the picked intelligences among 

 all classes of the population of this district will pass 

 through it. No child born in Birmingham, hence- 

 forward, if he have the capacity to profit by the 

 opportunities offered to him, first in the primary and 

 other schools, and afterwards in the Scientific College, 

 need fail to obtain, not merely the instruction, but 

 the culture most appropriate to the conditions of 

 his life. 



Within these walls, the future employer and the 

 future artisan may sojourn together for a while, and 

 carry, through all their lives, the stamp of the in- 

 fluences then brought to bear upon them. Hence, it 

 is not beside the mark to remind you, that the 

 prosperity of industry depends not merely upon the 

 improvement of manufacturing processes, not merely 

 upon the ennobling of the individual character, but 

 upon a third condition, namely, a clear understanding 

 of the conditions of social life on the part of both the 

 capitalist and the operative, and their agreement 

 upon common principles of social action. They must 

 learn that social phenomena are as much the expres- 

 sion of natural laws as any others ; that no social 

 arrangements can be permanent unless they har- 

 monise with the requirements of social statics and 

 dynamics ; and that, in the nature of things, there is 

 an arbiter whose decisions execute themselves. 



But this knowledge is only to be obtained by the 

 application of the methods of investigation adopted 

 in physical researches to the investigation of the 



