200 SIE WILLIAM EAMSAY 



which is not immediately applicable to utilitarian pur- 

 poses. The beauty and fascination of knowledge for 

 its own sake is a source of happiness at present enjoyed 

 by comparatively few. 



Ramsay's views about education do not seem to have 

 undergone fundamental alteration in the course of his 

 life. The following extract from a letter addressed to 

 his friend Worthington on 29th April, 1886, shows what 

 he was thinking about at the age of thirty-four : 



" I quite agree with you about the importance of spreading 

 scientific knowledge. There are so many reasons why it is 

 worth doing, as you say, for people's own sakes. But I think I 

 also agree with you that it is only to be done in schools. I think 

 popular lectures on science are mostly twaddle or to speak 

 euphoniously a high-class amusement. The only good they do, 

 so far as I have ever seen, is to induce some few to follow out the 

 subject. Perhaps they are worth doing for the sake of the few 

 righteous men. But have you realised that there is a special 

 bent of mind which eagerly sucks in everything relating to 

 external nature and another class which simply refuses, though 

 well able to assimilate ? For example, my wife and a great 

 friend of hers, a Miss Burns, who once attended lectures to ladies 

 I gave in Glasgow, and who came out easily first, having a clear 

 mind and a good memory and great power of application ; well 

 both these good people absolutely refuse to see anything interesting 

 in the matter. Both are interested in literary and philosophic 

 subjects anything mental in fact ; but a physical fact does not 

 appeal to their interest. Most men, I think, are like this. 

 They pretend interest because they can't ignore the palpable 

 results of applying science, but the things in themselves are 

 absolutely without interest for them. 



All the same I agree with you ; but I think that an attempt 



