234 



NATURE 



[July 6, 1882 



institution, lecturing about natural history, and I am sorry to 

 say, all the time, with the more or less definite consciousness, 

 that I was an involuntary impostor, and that it was not possible 

 for me to teach in any genuine fashion, because I had no 

 room in which practical instruction could be given. I do not 

 know whether my colleagues would be inclined to make the 

 same confession, but the same want must have been felt in the 

 teaching of physics, and in the other kinds of instruction given 

 in the school. Moreover, we had no mathematical instruc- 

 tion, and, in spite of our repeated representations, it was not 

 provided. 



Now that state of things obtained up to the year 1872. By 

 that time some of us had got extremely tired of it, and I was 

 one of those who were so tired, my chemical colleague was 

 another, r my colleague the Professor of Physics was a third, 

 and we got up a sort of little pronunciamento to say that we 

 really could not go on teaching in that way any longer ; that 

 at South Kensington there was a large building which was 

 standing perfectly empty, and might we be allowed to do our 

 business in a more efficient way by being transferred to this 

 empty building? With the assent and consent of our colleagues, 

 and with the sanction of the Department of Science and Art, 

 the desired transference took place, and the result of that was, 

 that all the professors who were moved were able at once to 

 institute a more or less adequate system of practical instruc- 

 tion, and to make the teaching in the school in their own depart- 

 ments something like what it ought to be. Subsequently the 

 Professors of Geology and Metallurgy and Applied Mechanics 

 were similarly moved, until now only the Professor of Mining 

 remains in Jermyn Street, simply because he has there the admir- 

 able collection of models which are so important for his work. 



That, Sir, is the history-so far as it can be told, in a few words, 

 of the origin and growth of the Koyal School of Mines. The 

 only change that has taken place in consequence of the new 

 organisation in that institution is that it has been made more 

 efficient. Mathematical instruction has been added ; practical 

 teaching has been supplied in all branches of science which 

 the Associates of the Royal School of Mines are required to 

 study, and I cannot doubt, seeing the respect which has for 

 many years been paid to the title of Associate of the Royal 

 School of Mines, that that respect will simply grow and increase 

 with the knowledge of the public, that the only alteration which 

 has taken place here of late years is to make the title represent 

 a very much larger value than hitherto it has been possible it 

 should represent. 



Now, sir, I turn to the Normal School of Mines, about which 

 my task will be easier, because Col. Donnelly has said something 

 about it. I have spoken of my respect and affection for the 

 older institution, the Royal School of Mines, with which I have 

 been so long connected, but I am not quite sure that, looking at 

 the matter from a broad and general point of view with reference 

 to the influence of our school upon the country, that I may not 

 have taken an even greater interest in the series of steps which 

 have led to the organisation of the Normal School of Science. 

 It is very hard for those whom I address, and who have not the 

 advantage or disadvantage of being as old as I am, to believe 

 that there was a time, hardly more than a score of years ago, 

 when it was almost impossible for any one who was not con- 

 nected either with the universities, with the medical schools, with 

 the School of Mines, or with one or two institutions in London, 

 to obtain the slightest tincture of practical scientific instruction in 

 this country. When, therefore, those conferences and delibera- 

 tions, to which Col. Donnelly referred just now, came to my 

 knowledge in the year 1859, I felt profoundly interested, and I 

 thought the plan proposed extremely well devised, and that it 

 was the only one, whatever its imperfections may be, which at 

 that time was adapted to meet the wants of the time. I confess 

 that when I heard of the establishment of these science classes, I 

 made the same sort of reflection as the man who said let him make 

 the songs, and he did not mind who made the laws. I said to 

 myself, I do not care in the slightest degree from this time forth 

 what the universities, or what the public schools may do in the 

 way [of teaching science to the non-professional classes ; they 

 are bound now se soumettre 011 se demettre ; either they will follow 

 in the wake of this movement towards general scientific educa- 

 tion of the country, or they will pass out of the stream of pro- 

 gress of modern culture. You may think that was a very large 

 anticipation to base upon a small foundation, and undoubtedly it 

 was ; but the immense development of this system of scientific 

 teaching has, I think, entirely verified my anticipation, and I 



am happy to say that the public schools and the Universities 

 have followed suit, until now it is as easy to obtain a fair general 

 scientific training in this country, as a quarter of a century ago it 

 was difficult. 



Well then, this system of science classes having spread over the 

 country, it soon became apparent that the greatest obstacle to its 

 efficiency lay in the want of knowledge of proper modes of 

 teaching on the part of teachers. It is lamentable how much 

 the ordinary mode of education in what is often called literature, 

 but commonly is not, tends not only not to help a man to become 

 a learner or a teacher of physical science, but rather to impede 

 his becoming one. Nothing is more surprising to me than to 

 find a number of instructed persons coming up here for scientific 

 education, and to discover that they cannot observe. They have 

 been so accu tomed to take statements on credit from books and 

 word of muuth that they have almost lost the faculty of seeing 

 things for themselves. I remember after having given a lecture, 

 accompanied in my ordinary way by drawings on the black- 

 board, that I went to look through the microscope, and see what 

 one of the students who bad heard this lecture was drawing. To 

 my astonishment, I saw that his drawing was the thing 1 had 

 drawn on the blackboard, rot the thing under the microscope. 

 I said to him, What is this ? this is not at all like what is under 

 the microscope. No, he said, that is what was on the blackboard. 

 He did not believe nature, he believed me ; and the great lesson 

 I have tried to teach, which is the fundamental basis of scien- 

 tific teaching is, do not put too much faith in your teacher, 

 but do believe nature. The only way of remedying this evil 

 habit of taking science on trust, is to give the science 

 teachers the opportunity of obtaining a discipline in the 

 methods and a practical acquaintance with the most important 

 facts of the particular branches of science which they profess to 

 teach. That has been done partly by bringing up teachers from 

 the country for short courses such as are now going on, or will 

 shortly be going on in this institution, and partly by giving them 

 the opportunity individually of attending the courses of the 

 Royal School of Mines during its separate existence. What 

 happened last year was that this system of bringing up teachers 

 for scientific training, fur training, that is to say, in special 

 branches of science, was made systematic and thorough. By 

 adding to the staff of the Royal School of Mines a chair of 

 Mathematics and Mechanics, a lectureship on Astronomy, a 

 lectureship on Agriculture, in addition to lectureships on some 

 other subjects, and by providing full means of practical instruc- 

 tion, the institution is now able to provide for a tolerably efficient 

 training, extending over a considerable number of months, of 

 teachers of the science classes in those matters of elementary 

 science which it is needful for them to understand thoroughly in 

 order to teach properly. 



Having been practically interested in the administration of the 

 great measure of education for the masses of the pe»ple, which 

 was set on foot a dozen years ago, i is particularly gratifying to 

 me to see this last step taken, because it appears to me that so 

 far as science is concerned, it is the crowning of all the organisa- 

 tions which a Government may and should undertake in regard 

 to the education of the masses of the population. The result is 

 this : At this present time, if there be anybody in the remotest 

 district of England in which these science classes are established, 

 if there be any child who has a faculty for science, which is a 

 thing inborn, and as much a genius as the faculty for art ; that 

 child, boy or girl, as the case may be, has open to him or her 

 the means of instruction in one of the science classes. To those 

 who have not any special faculty, science certainly will not do 

 any more harm than learning anything else that they learn with- 

 out understanding, as most boys do learn so many things at all 

 schools. But if the scholar possesses this scientific faculty which 

 I just now spoke of, it is open to him to distinguish himself at 

 the May examinations. If he distinguishes himself at the May 

 examinations, scholarships are open to him at various institu- 

 tions, among the rest in this Normal School. If under the 

 instruction which is offered to him, he shows a higher kind of 

 scientific capacity, I do not know thai there is any limit to the 

 point which he may eventually reach. If he has in him the 

 making of a Davy or a Faraday — and once in thirty or forty 

 years men of that kind are born in the most out of the way and 

 unlikely places — if he have that faculty, there is no longer 

 a need that he should hopelessly struggle with adverse ob- 

 stacles, but the path to reach that position in which he may 

 serve his country most effectually is laid open to him by the 

 organisation which I have described. And in order to make 



