Sept. 18, 1873] 
NATURE 
413 
processes ought to make at once enough money to retire ; for so 
many are moving onwards ia this and other countries, that he 
would soon be left behind. 
It would be well worth while to establish such a system of 
scientific education for the sake of training men to the habits of 
mind which are required for the improvement of the manufactur- 
ing arts; and I have no doubt that the expense of workiog the 
system would be repaid a hundred times over by the increase of 
wealth of the community ; but I oaly mention this as a secondary 
advantage of national education. 
A system of the kind could not expand to due dimensions, nor 
could it, once fully established, maiotain itself in full activity, 
without intelligent sympathy from the community ; and accord- 
ingly its more active-minded members must be taught some good 
examples of the processes and results of scientific inquiry, before 
they can be expected to take much interest in the results achieved 
by inquirers, and to do their share of the work requisite for the 
success of the system. I need hardly remind you that there are 
plenty of other strong reasons why some such knowledge of the 
truths of nature, and of the means by which they are found 
out, should be diffused as widely as possible throughout the com- 
munity. 
von, perceive that in such educational system each teacher 
must trust to his own exertions for success and advancement ; 
and he will do so if he is sure that his results will be known and 
compared impartially with those attained by others. Each 
governing body must duly maintain the efficiency of their school 
or college, if its support depend in some degree on the evidences 
of that efficiency ; and they will try to improve their school if 
they know that every improvement will be seen and duly ap- 
preciated. 
The keystone of the whole structure is the actlon of the State 
in distributiag funds carefully among schools and colleges pro- 
portionally to the evidence of their doing good work, which 
could not be continued without such aid. 
I am inclined to think that the State ought, as far as possible, 
to confine its educational grants to the purpose of maintaining 
and continuing good work which is actually being done, and 
rarely if ever to initiate educational experiments : first, because 
it is desirable to encourage_private exertions and donations for 
the establishment of schouls and colleges upon new systems, or 
in new localities, by giving the public full assurance that if any 
new institution establishes its right to existence, by doing good 
work for a while, it will not be allowed to die off for want of 
support ; and, secondly, because the judicial impartiality re- 
quired in the administration of public funds, on the basis of 
results of work, is hardly compatible with an advocacy of any 
particular means of attaining such results. 
On the other hand, experience has shown that special endow- 
ments, which tie up funds in perpetuity for a definite purpose, 
commonly fail to attain their object under the altered circum- 
stances which spring up in later generations, and not unfrequently 
detract from the efficiency of the institutions to which they are 
attached, by being used for objects other than those which it is 
their proper function to promote, 
When there is felt to be a real want of any new institution for 
the promotion of learning, men are usually willing enough to 
devote time and money to the purpose of establishing it and 
giving it a fair trial. It is desirable that they should leave the 
State to judge of their experiment by its results, and to maintain 
it or not, according to the evidences of its usefulness. No 
institution ought, for its own sake, to have such permanent 
endowments as might deprive its members of motives for 
exertion. 
The State could not, however, discharge these judicial 
functions without accurate and trustworthy evidence of the 
educational work done at the various schools and of its suceess. 
For this purpose a record must be kept by or under the direction 
of every teacher of the weekly progress of each pupil, showing 
what he has done and how he has done it, Official inspectors 
would have to see to these records being kept upon a uniform 
scale, so that their results might be comparable. The habit of 
keeping such records conduces powerfully to the efficiency of 
teachers ; and, for the sake of the due development of the 
teaching system, it ought to prevail generally, Having such 
full and accurate means of knowing what opportunities of im- 
provement pupils have enjoyed, and what use they have made 
of those opportunities, Government ought to stimulate their 
exertions and test their progress by periodical examinations. It 
is of the utmost importance to allow any new and improved 
bi Miaas Syesy 
system of instruction to develop itself freely, by the exertions of 
those who are willing to undertake the labour and risk of trying 
it on a practical scale; and the pupils who acquire upon such 
new system a command of any branch of science, ought to have 
a fair opportunity of showing what they have achieved and how 
they haveachievedit. An ableand impartial examiner, knowing 
the new systems in use, will encourage each candidate to work 
out his resultsin the manner in which he has been taught to 
work out results of the kind. ‘ 
Examinations thus impartially conducted with a view of 
testing the success of teachers in the work which they are endea- 
vouring to do, have a far higher value, and consequent authority, 
than those which are conducted in ignorance or disregard of the 
process of training to which the candidates have been subjected ; 
and we may safely say that the examination system will not 
attain its full usefulness until it is thus worked in intimate 
connection with a system of teaching. 
In order to give every one employed in the educational 
system the utmost interest in maintaining and increasing his 
efficiency, it is essentiat that a due measure of publicity be given 
to the chief results of their respective labours. Schools and 
colleges ought, to a considerable extent, to be supported by the 
fees paid by pupils for the instruction received ; and every 
Professor being in part dependent upon the fees of his pupils will 
have a direct interest in attracting more pupils to his classes or 
laboratories. The fame of importaut original investigations of 
his own or his pupils, published in the scientific journals, is one 
of the natural means by which a distinguished Professor attracts 
disciples, and the success of his pupils in after life is another 
His prospects of promotion will depend mainly on the opinion 
formed of his powers from such materials as these by the 
governing bodies of colleges and by the public; for if each 
college is dependent for success upon the efficiency of its 
teaching staff, its governing body must do their best to fill up 
every vacancy as it arises by the appointment of the ablest and 
most successful Professor whom they can get; and any college 
which does. not succeed in obtaining the services of able men 
will soon lose reputation, and fall off in numbers. 
There are, however, further advantages to the working of the 
system to be derived from full publicity of all its more important 
proceedings. It will supply materials for the formation of a 
sound public opinion respecting the proceedings of the author- 
ities in their various spheres of action, A claim for money 
might be made upon Government by the rulers of some college 
upon inadequate grounds ; or a just and proper claim of the kind 
might be disregarded by Government. Neither of these things 
will be likely to happen very often if the applications, together 
with the evidence bearing on them, are open to public scrutiny 
and criticism; and when they do occasionally happen, there 
will be a natural remedy for them. 
If I have succeeded in making clear to you the leading 
principles of the plan to be adopted for the advancement of 
science, including, as it necessarily must do, national education 
generally, you will, I think, agree with me that, from the very 
magnitude and variety of the interests involved in its action, such 
system must of necessity be under the supreme control of Govern- 
ment. Science will never take its proper place among the chief 
elefnents of national greatness and advancement until it is ac- 
knowledged as such by that embodiment of the national will 
which we call the Government. Nor can the various institutions 
for its advancement develop duly their usefulness until the chaos 
in which they are now plunged gives place to such order 
as it is the proper function of Government to establish and 
maintain. 
But government has already taken, and is continuing to take 
action in various matters affecting elementary popular education 
and higher scientific education, and it would be difficult to arrest 
such action, even if it were thought desirable to do so. The 
only practical question to be considered is how the action of 
Government can be systematised so as to give free play to the 
natural forces which have to do the work. 
By establishing official examinations for appointments and for 
degrees Government exerts a powerful influence on the teaching 
in schools and colleges, without taking cognizance, except in 
some few cases, of the systems of teaching which prevail in 
them, Again, they give grants of public money from time to 
time in aid of colleges or universities, or for the establishment of 
a high school under their own auspices. Sometimes they endow 
a Professorship. In taking each measure of the kind they are 
doubtless influenced by evidence that it is in itself a good thing, 
