5IO 



NATURE 



\Oct. 24, 1872 



'ntended to continue the work of the Coast Survey along 

 this coast ; but instead of allowing us to make this voyage 

 empty, some scientific gentlemen were invited by the 

 Superintendent of the Coast Survey to take passage in her, 

 and make the most of the opportunity. Liberal citizens of 

 Massachusetts added means to the good will of the Super- 

 intendent — so that whatever collections and investigations 

 should be made during the voyage should not be an addi- 

 tional expense to the great international undertaking, or to 

 the Navy. 



" I think it desirable that these facts should be known, in 

 order that not too great cxjiectations should be entertained 

 concerning the scientific results of the Hassh-i^s voyage ; 

 for all that which could be done was done liy means sup- 

 plied by private individuals, and not by the large resources 

 of the Government. Unfortunately, it is almost every- 

 where still so, that Science has to take the humblest place 

 in the world, as if equal opportunities were yet granted 

 with a reluctant hand. It is only in recent times that the 

 value of research begins to be felt ; and I hope to live, 

 old as I am, long enough to see the community, the 

 enlightened community, which has become my second 

 fatherland, appreciate what Science is doing for the gene- 

 ral prosperity, and then contribute to the necessities of 

 Science with that generous liberality which characterises 

 the acts of the American people. It is not generally 

 understood — and perhaps we scientific men are at fault in 

 this matter — that Science is at the foundation of all natural 

 progress in the community, in industry, in the arts, in 

 almost everything." 



After a few details as to the objects of the study of 

 natural history, he proceeded to explain that "the only 

 difficulty in the way of the study lies in the fact that there 

 are no teachers ; that the community lacks teachers in 

 this department ; and wherever there are a few educated, 

 they are at once swallowed by the numerous institutions 

 of learning which are organising everywhere. And we 

 cannot educate a sufficient number of them, for the simple 

 reason that there are other walks in life which are more 

 promising in the rewards they secure for their devotees. 

 So Science is always behindhand, and yet it is she who 

 furnishes the primary material for all the progress in 

 modern times." 



We need not follow the speaker through his singular 

 misrepresentation of the theory of evolution as taught in 

 this country, viz., that the various forms of life, as we now 

 see them, " may be the work of blind forces, of forces with- 

 out intelligence, without discriminating power, and with- 

 out forethought," and that the object of the study of 

 nature is " to determine whether we ourselves are de- 

 scended from monkeys or whether we are the work of 

 a beneficent Father." We will rather pass on to his 

 peroration, which sets forth some truths at least as appli- 

 cable to us as to the audience he was addressing : — 



" It will no longer do for the coming generation to say, 

 I will accept this or that doctrine, because knowledge is 

 pressing at your halls : but I will say to you, you may 

 know it because you must know it, and unless you are 

 willing to learn it you may grope in ignorance. That is 

 the condition that stares us in the face for the future, and 

 it becomes on that account the duty of every man to foster 

 knowledge and to prepare the coming generation with aU 

 those appliances which lead to an independent opinion on 

 all those matters. And that question is pressed upon you 

 for the first time. You have for the first time in your 

 existence as a State a generation which is about ready to 

 enter the University. You have not had that in past 

 generations, in past years, but your children approach the 

 time when they may prepare for college. It is your duty 



that you have, then, a college which will set measures of 

 the highest aspiration for the coming generation. And 

 you cannot be willing to depend for their education upon 

 the bounty of other States when in your prosperity, when 

 you have rivalled all civilised communities. When I see 

 luxury here, as in the oldest States of the world ; when I 

 see here the appliances for all the efforts of man carried 

 to the highest degree, are you willing that your children 

 should go and beg for information at the doors of other 

 countries ? It is for you to educate them and to give them 

 those means which will make them find at home those 

 advantages which otherwise you will have to seek for them 

 by parting with them during those very years when their 

 character is shaping. But there is another consideration 

 than that of your immediate necessities here. No com- 

 munity can be utterly great without culture. Culture is 

 the background of every great community. It is, in fact, 

 the true and only test of real greatness." 



Are not we in this country also forcing our children " to 

 go and beg for information at the doors of other 

 countries"? As long as we do not provide at home those 

 educational advantages which so many go abroad to seek, 

 we must submit to have to sit at the feet of our own 

 daughter, and to learn from America both how to honour 

 our really great men, and how to attain that scientific 

 position among the nations to which our wealth and our 

 material resources entitle us. The lesson is hard to learn, 

 but it is one which must be learnt either by us or our 

 children ; and the longer we leave the task unlearnt, the 

 harder will it be to learn. 



RAILWAYS AND SCIENCE 

 Life of Richard Trcvitliirl;^ with an Account of his Inven- 

 tions. By Francis Trevithick, C.E. 2 vols. (London: 

 E. and F. Spon, 1872.) 

 Life and Labours of Mr. Brassey, 1 805-1 S70. By Arthur 



Helps. (London : Bell and Daldy, 1872.) 

 Railways or no Railways j or, The Battle of the Gauges 

 Renewed. By Robert F. Fairlie. (London : Effing- 

 ham Wilson, 1S72.) 

 THESE three works are directly concerned with 

 railways, though each of them deals with a dif- 

 ferent aspect of the many-sided subject. It would be 

 out of place in these columns to review in detail each of 

 the publications ; they may, however, suggest a few 

 thoughts not inappropriate to the columns of a scientific 

 periodical. 



The first on the list takes us back to the birth of the 

 steam-engine, carrying us on through its chequered and 

 roughly-handled youth to the time when it was fairly set 

 agoing on that wonderful career, by means of which the 

 whole face of the earth has been changed as if by the 

 breath of a god, the relationships of nations and of men 

 altered entirely, and civilisation hurried on at a rate 

 almost bewildering. The benefits conferred on humanity 

 by the discovery of the simple scientific principle on 

 which the steam-engine rests, are incalculable, and not 

 to be realised in anything like their fulness by those who, 

 like most now living, have been born to these bene- 

 fits, and who can only grumble that the advantages of the 

 legacy left them are not by any means what they might 

 be, were they not marred by the ofticiousness, the avarice, 

 the prejudices, and the blundering stupidity of those who 

 have constituted themselves its trustees. That this has 



