492 



NATURE 



\Pct. 15, 1874 



agitation — and 'that there are ample 'grounds for putting hiln 

 on his trial. Let us however suppose the impossible case of his 

 absolute acquittal, I maintain that this negative result would be 

 worth all the labour of obtaining it — eliminating, as it would do, 

 one, and that the most conspicuous of probable causes, and so 

 narrowing our inquiries to those that remain-. The more likely 

 event, however, will be that whilst the sun will be proved to be 

 the chief promoter of these disturbances, his accomplices, and 

 their various degrees of participation, will be dragged more 

 prominently before the light. 



Nor do I desire that the " innate power" I have attributed to 

 the sun, and denied to other elements, should be misunder- 

 stood. I have used the term as the only one available to mark 

 strongly the relative influences at work. I by no means intend 

 to use the word " innate " in anjabsolute sense, or even to imply 

 that the forces of the sun are self- enerated and self-maintained. 

 The object of this paperis a strictly practical one, and is not to be 

 taken as intended to contribute one word to speculations on the 

 constitution of the sun. But though ilisclaiming speculation, I 

 may, on behalf of my practical object, point out that we already 

 possess what may at least be claimed to be presumptive evidence 

 that the sun is not exempt from external influences. I allude to 

 the remarkable apparent connection which the researclies of 

 Ue la Rue, Stewart, and Loewy have established between the 

 behaviour of the sun-spots and the positions of some of the 

 planets, particularly Venus, the Earth, and Jupiter. I say that 

 the mention of a result so well calculated to excite speculation, 

 aids my practical object. I mean that by following up the 

 hint given us by these most remarkable researches, we may be 

 led to a more complete knowledge and more philosophical 

 conception of the structure of the universe. 



And I would here remark that I have urged the study of the sun 

 from the meteorological point of view in order to give a practical 

 justification for the adoption of definite practical steps. But that 

 study is recommended by even higher considerations still, by the 

 insight it must give us into cosmical relations, and the help it 

 will afford us in seeking to understand something, if not of first 

 causes, at least of causes of the highest order that our limited 

 intelligence can grasp and reason on. 



The more one reflects on the neglect of the sun justly charge- 

 able against us, the more one wonders at it. It is like the case 

 of a man placed before a steam-engine for thg first time, 

 and seeking to learn its principle and action by counting and 

 measuring the bolts, screws, and rods, without giving a moment's 

 attention to the source of power — the furnace and boiler. What 

 they are to the steam-engine the sun is to us, and it is astounding 

 that men should dare to undertake a solution of the complex and 

 mysterious fabric which surrounds us without giving a foremost 

 place in their investigations to the source of all material life 

 and power. 



Civdisation has been variously described and defined. It 

 seems to me to imply above all things completeness. It aims at 

 supplying all wants, at removing all oljstacles to thought and to 

 action, at making good all deficiencies, at remedying all evils 

 moral and material, at guarding against all dangers, at promot- 

 ing all beneficence, at extending and perfecting all knowledge. 

 Science, as the most potent guide and instrument of civilisation, 

 needs also to be complete. A harp with broken strings can 

 discourse no music, — a chain with unconnected links can sustain 

 no weight. Science, as our President so eloquently impressed 

 upon us in the address with which he opened this Section, is one 

 and indivisible. It has been broken up by man into its various 

 recognised branches to serve his convenience and to assist the 

 weakness of his intelligence ; but nothing, as tlie same authority 

 told us, is more subversive of truth and more hindering to pro- 

 gress than to regard these subdivisions as representing the actual 

 order of nature. There must be doors of communication be- 

 tween the observatory, the laboratory, and the mathematician's 

 study. The isolation of particular fields of research is no longer 

 tolerable : each passes, however indirectly and insensibly, into 

 the other through that "border land" which, as our President 

 reminded us, "recent investigation has shown to be so fertile of 

 discovery. " 



The study of the sun stands on this " border land." It belongs 

 but very partially to the domain of the ancient astronomy, it 

 possesses some holding in the provinces of chemistry and geology, 

 and more still in that of physics, it claims as its right (as what 

 branch of science does not ?) the devotion of the mathematician, 

 and it rules almost supreme in meteorology. 



This study asks to be recognised and provided for, IIow 

 much longer will the demand be disregarded ? 



IN WHAT WAY AND AT WHAT STAGE 

 CAN TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION BE BEST 

 INTRODUCED INTO OUR SYSTEM OF 

 NATIONAL EDUCATION* 



"TT win simplify the consideration of the subject, the discussion 

 of which I have been requested to introduce, if we admit 

 frankly that in England at any rate (I am glad to believe that 

 Scotland is more fortunate) we do not possess a system of national 

 education. Such a system, as I conceive it, should afford to all 

 the children of the nation adequate elementary instruction, and, 

 moreover, should offer to all, so far as their capacities and other 

 circumstances will enable them to fake advantage of it, full 

 opportunity for further mental cultivation. There arc lying 

 before me the calendars of two German schools for boys of the 

 middle class intended for a mercantile or industrial career : the 

 Friedrich-Werder Gewerbe, or Trade School of Berlin, and the 

 Real Schule, under the direction of Dr. Schellen at Cologne. 

 The courses of each of these institutions following after some 

 preparatory teaching in an elementary school or at home, where 

 reading and writing together with a little arithmetic have been 

 acquired, retain their pupils during nine or ten years ; and boys 

 who, according to the reports, were to become mechanical engi- 

 neers, builders, postmasters, merchants, and chemists, left those 

 schools last July, having attained the ages of seventeen to twenty 

 years. The Real Schule of Cologne, the average number of 

 whose pupils is 580, has 28 masters ; the Gewerbe Schule of 

 Berlin, averaging 540, has a staff of 32 masters. In every German 

 town of the least importance there are, in addition to the Gym- 

 nasium or Classical School, one or more technical schools resem- 

 bling those of Berlin and Cologne ; the numerous Universities 

 and Polytechnic Institutions furnish the requisite staff of teachers. 

 The fees are small. I have no information as to those of the 

 schools which I have quoted, but I find from the prospectus of 

 another very celebrated trade school, that of Barmen in West- 

 phalia, that its school fees for the year are from 3/. in the lowest 

 to 6/. in the higfiest class, and that boys whose friends do not 

 reside in tlie town are boarded for 25/. The governments, the 

 municipalities, and private persons vie with each other in placing 

 at the disposal of poor scholars of the elementary schools who 

 have shown superior capacity, the means of continuing their 

 studies in these secondary schools. 



I need not describe the elementary schools of Germany and 

 Switzerland ; it is now well known that, in them, the children 

 of the poor receive, up to the age of fourteen jears, sound ele- 

 mentary instruction, not confined to reading, writing, and arith- 

 metic, but including geography, the outlines of the history of 

 their own and other European countries, a modern language, 

 some elementary teaching in science, and instruction in the religion 

 which their parents acknowledge. 



As contiasted with a system of education such as I have referred 

 to and excluding the great public schools, available only to the 

 rich, we have in England for the middle classes schools like those 

 attached to King's and University Colleges, the City of London 

 School, the Bristol Trades School, and, thanks to the Endowed 

 Schools Commissioners, a few efficient or at any rate progressive 

 grammar and endowed schools, amongst which I would more 

 particularly name the school at Giggleswick, near Skipton, as 

 one where instruction in science has been included in the general 

 plan of instruction ; and a small number of exceptional private 

 schools in which a praiseworthy attempt is made to adapt the 

 instruction to the requirements of industrial and commerci,-d 

 classes. These schools however rarely retain their pupils beyond 

 the age of fifteen to seventeen years, and when all are reckoned 

 they are utterly inadequate to the wants of the population. 



Of elementary school buildings we shall soon have a suflicient 

 number, and it is probable that the duty of the parent to send 

 his child to school will, in some way or other, be in all cases 

 made a legal obligation ; but so long as the necessity of rendering 

 our training schools for elementary teachers thoroughly national 

 and efficient is not acknowledged, and so long as the instruction 

 of the children in elementary schools is left in a great measuie to 

 the care of other ill-taught children, called pupil-teachers, of from 

 thirteen to seventeen years of age, we cannot liope that our poor 

 will receive proper elementary instruction. 



Until the English approach the German schools in number 

 and value it would be vaui to expect that technical instruction will 

 be universally accessible, and we can only hope for its gradual 



