December i, 1898] 



NA TURE 



109 



times, even to the most enthusiastic among you, when scientific 

 work, in spite of its absorbing interest, grows to be a weariness. 

 At such times as these you will appreciate the value of the 

 literary culture you may have received at school or college. 

 Cherish the literary tastes you have acquired, and devote your- 

 selves sedulously to the further cultivation of them during such 

 intervals of leisure as you may be able to secure. 



Over and above the pleasure which communion with the best 

 books will bring with it, two reasons of a more utilitarian kind 

 may be given to science students why they should seek this 

 communion. Men who have been too exclusively trained in 

 science, or are too much absorbed in its pursuit, are not always 

 the most agreeable members of society. They are apt to be 

 somewhat angular and professional, contributing little that is 

 interesting to general conversation, save when they get a 

 chance of introducing their own science and its doings. Per- 

 haps the greatest bore I ever met was a man of science, whose 

 mind and training were so wholly mathematical and physical 

 "that he seemed unable to look at the simplest subject save in 

 its physical relations, about which he would discourse till he 

 had long exhausted the patience of the auditor whom he de- 

 tained. There is no more efficacious remedy for this tendency 

 ■to what is popularly known as ' ' shop " than the breadth and 

 culture of mind that spring from wide reading in ancient and 

 modern literature. 



The other reason for the advice I offer you is one of which 

 you will hardly, perhaps, appreciate the full force in the present 

 stage of your career. One result of the comparative neglect of 

 the literary side of education by many men of science is con- 

 spicuously seen in their literary style. It is true that in our 

 time we have had some eminent scientific workers, who have 

 also been masters of nervous and eloquent English. But it is 

 not less true that the literature of science is burdened with a 

 vast mass of slipshod, ungrammatical and clumsy writing, 

 wherein sometimes even the meaning of the authors is left in 

 "doubt. Let me impress upon you the obvious duty of not in- 

 creasing this unwieldy burden. Study the best masters of 

 style, and when once you have made up your minds what you 

 want to say, try to express it in the simplest, clearest, and most 

 •graceful language you can find. 



Remember that, while education is the drawing out and 

 cultivation of all the powers of the mind, no system has yet 

 ■been devised that will by itself develop with equal success every 

 one of these powers. The system under which we have been 

 trained may have done as much for us as it can do. Each of us 

 is thereafter left to supplement its deficiencies by self-culture. 

 And in the ordinary science-instruction of the time one of the 

 most obvious of these inevitable deficiencies is the undue 

 limitation or neglect of the literary side of education. 



But in the science-instruction itself there are dangers regard- 

 ing which we cannot be too watchful. In this College and in 

 all the other well-organised scientific institutions of the country, 

 the principles of science are taught orally and experimentally. 

 Every branch of knowledge is expounded in its bearings on 

 ■other branches. Its theory is held up as the first great aim of 

 instruction, and its practical applications are made subsequent 

 and subordinate. Divisions of science are taught here which 

 may have few practical applications, but which are necessary 

 for a comprehensive survey of the whole circle of scientific 

 truth. Now, you may possibly have heard, and in the midst of 

 a busy industrial community you are not unlikely to hear, 

 remarks made in criticism of this system or method of tuition. 

 The importance of scientific training will be frankly acknow- 

 ledged and even insisted upon, but you will sometimes hear this 

 admission coupled with the proviso that the science must be of 

 a practical kind ; must, in short, be just such and no other, as 

 ■will fit young men to turn it to practical use in the manufactures 

 or industries to which they may be summoned. The critics 

 who make this limitation boast that iheyaie practical men, and 

 that in their opinion theory is useless or worse for the main 

 purposes for which they would encourage and support a great 

 scientific school. 



Now I am quite sure that those science students who have 

 passed even a single session in Mason College can see for them- 

 selves the utter fallacy of such statements and the injury that 

 would be done to the practical usefulness of this institution and 

 to the general progress of the industrial applications of science 

 if such short-sighted views were ever carried into effect. There 

 can be no thorough, adequate, and effective training in science 

 unless it be based on a comprehensive study of facts and 



NO. 1518, VOL. 59J 



principles, altogether apart from any economic uses to which 

 they may be put. Science must be pursued for her own sake, 

 in the first instance, and without reference to any pecuniary 

 benefits she may be able to confer. We never can tell when 

 the most theoretical part of pure science may be capable of 

 being turned to the most important practical uses. Who could 

 have surmised, for instance, that in the early tentative experi- 

 ments of Volta, Galvani, and others last century lay the germ 

 of the modern world-grasping electric telegraph ? Or when 

 Wedgwood, at the beginning of this century, copied paintings 

 by the agency of light upon nitrate of silver, who could have 

 foretold that he was laying the foundations of the marvellous 

 art of photography? 



There can be no more pernicious doctrine than that which 

 would measure the commercial value of science by its immediate 

 practical usefulness, and would restrict its place in education to 

 those only of its sub-divisions which may be of service to the 

 industries of the present time. Such a curtailed method of 

 instruction is not education in the true sense of the term. It is 

 only a kind of cramming for a specific purpose, and the know- 

 ledge which it imparts, being one-sided and imperfect, is of 

 little value beyond its own limited range. I by no means wish 

 to undervalue the importance of technical instruction. By all 

 means let our artisans know as much as can be taught them 

 regarding the nature and laws of the .scientific processes in which 

 they are engaged. But it is not by mere technical instruction 

 that we shall maintain and extend the industrial and commercial 

 greatness of the country. If we are not only to hold our own, 

 but to widen the boundaries of applied science, to perfect our 

 manufactures, and to bring new departments of nature into the 

 service of man, it is by broad, thorough, untrammelled scientific 

 research that our success must be achieved. 



When, therefore, you are asked to explain of what practical 

 use are some of the branches of science in which you have been 

 trained, do not lose patience with your questioner, and answer 

 him as you think such a Philistine deserves to be answered. 

 Give him a few illustrations of the thousands of ways in which 

 science, that might have been stigmatised by him as merely 

 abstract and theoretical, has yet been made to minister to the 

 practical needs of humanity. Above all, urge him to attend 

 some of the classes of Mason College, where he will learn, in 

 the most effectual manner, the intimate connection between 

 theory and practice. If he chance to be wealthy, the experi- 

 ment may possibly open his eyes to the more urgent needs of 

 the institution, and induce him to contribute liberally towards 

 their satisfaction. 



Among the advantages and privileges of your life at college 

 there is one, the full significance and value of which you will 

 better appreciate in later years. You have here an opportunity 

 of acquiring a wide general view of the whole range of scientific 

 thought and method. If you proceed to a science degree you 

 are required to lay a broad foundation of acquaintance with the 

 physical and biological sciences. Vou are thus brought into 

 contact with the subjects of each great department of natural 

 knowledge, and you learn enough regarding them to enable you 

 to understand their scope and to sympathise with the workers 

 who are engaged upon them. But when your academical career 

 is ended, no such chance of wide general training is ever likely 

 to be yours again. Vou will be dragged into the whirl of life, 

 where you will probably find little time or opportunity to travel 

 much beyond the sphere of employment to which you may have 

 been called. Make the most, therefore, of the advantages which 

 in this respect you meet with here. Try to ensure that your 

 acquaintance with each branch of science embraced in your 

 circle of studies shall be as full and accurate as lies in your 

 power to make it. Even in departments outside the bounds of 

 your own tastes and ultimate requirements, do not neglect the 

 means provided for your gaining some knowledge of them. I 

 urge this duty, not because its diligent discharge will obviously 

 tell in your examinations, but because it will give you that 

 scientific culture which, while enabling you to appreciate and 

 enjoy the successive advances of other sciences than that which 

 you may select for special cultivation, will at the same time 

 increase your general u.sefulness and aid you in your own 

 researches. 



The days of Admirable Crichtons are long since past. So 

 rapid and general is the onward march of science that not only 

 can no man keep pace with it in every direction, but it has 

 become almost hopelessly impossible to remain abreast of the 

 progress in each of the several sub-divisions of even a single 



