Sept. 10, 1885] 
acquired many important industries. The Moors and the 
Moriscoes, who had been in Spain for a period as long as from 
the Norman Conquest of this country to the present date, were 
banished, and with them departed the intellect of Spain. Then 
the invasion of the Low Countries by Philip Il. drove the 
Flemish manufacturers to England, while the French persecu- 
tion of the Huguenots added new manufacturing experience, and 
with them came the industries of cotton, wool, and silk. 
Cotton mixed with linen and wool became freely used, but it was 
only from 1738 to the end of the century that the inventions of 
Wyatt, Arkwright, Hargreaves, Crompton, and Cartwright started 
the wonderful modern development. The raw cotton was im- 
ported from India or America, but that fact as regards cost was 
a small factor in comparison with the intellect required to convert 
it into a utility. Science has in the last hundred years altered 
altogether the old conditions of industrial competition. She has 
taught the rigid metals to convey and record our thoughts even 
to the most distant lands, and, within less limits, to reproduce 
eur speech. This marvellous application of electricity has 
diminished the cares and responsibilities of Governments, while 
it has at the same time altered the whole practice of commerce. 
To England steam and electricity have been of incalculable 
advantage. The ocean, which once made the country insular 
and isolated, is now the very life-blood of England, and of 
the greater England beyond the seas. As in the human body 
the blood bathes all its parts, and through its travelling corpuscles 
carries force to all its members, so in the body politic of England 
and its pelasgic extensions, steam has become the circulatory and 
electricity the nervous system. The colonies, being young 
countries, value their raw materials as their chief sources of 
wealth. When they become older they will discover that it is 
not in these, but in the culture of scientific intellect, that their 
future prosperity depends. Older nations recognise this as the 
law of progress more than we do; or, as Jules Simon tersely 
puts it—‘* That nation which most educates her people will 
become the greatest nation, if not to-day, certainly to-morrow.” 
Higher education is the condition of higher prosperity, and the 
nation which neglects to develope the intellectual factor of pro- 
duction must degenerate, for it cannot stand still. If we felt 
compelled to adopt the test of science given by Comte, that its 
value must be measured by fecundity, it might be prudent to 
claim industrial inventions as the immediate fruit of the tree of 
science, though only fruit which the prolific tree has shed. But 
the test is untrue in the sense indicated, or rather the fruit, 
according to the simile of Bacon, is like the golden apples 
which Aphrodite gave to the suitor of Atalanta, who lagged in 
his course by stooping to pick them up, and so lost the race. 
The true cultivators of the tree of science must seek their own 
reward by seeing it flourish, and let others devote their attention 
to the possible practical advantages which may result from their 
labours. 
There is, however, one intimate connection between science 
and industry which I hope will be more intimate as scientific 
education becomes more prevalent in our schools and universi- 
ties. Abstract science depends on the support of men of leisure, 
either themselves possessing or having provided for them the 
means of living without entering into the pursuits of active 
industry. The pursuit of science requires a superfluity of wealth 
in a community beyond the needs of ordinary life. Such super- 
fluity is also necessary for art, though a picture or a statue is a 
saleable commodity, while an abstract discovery in science has 
no immediate, or, as regards the discoverer, proximate com- 
mercial value. In Greece, when philosophical and scientific 
speculation was at its highest point, and when education was 
conducted in its own vernacular and not through dead languages, 
science, industry, and commerce were actively prosperous. 
Corinth carried on the manufactures of Birmingham and 
Sheffield, while Athens combined those of Leeds, Staffordshire, 
and London, for it had woollen manufactories, potteries, gold 
and silver work, as well as shipbuilding. Their philosophers 
were the sons of burghers, and sometimes carried on the trades 
of their fathers. Thales was a travelling oil merchant, who 
brought back science as well as oil from Egypt. Solon and his 
great descendant Plato, as well as Zeno, were men of commerce. 
Socrates was a stonemason ; Thucydides a gold-miner ; Aristotle 
kept a druggist’s shop until Alexander endowed him with the 
wealth of Asia, All but Socrates had a superfluity of wealth, 
and he was supported by that of others. Now, if our universi- 
ties and schools created that love of science which a broad edu- 
cation would surely inspire, our men of riches and leisure who 
NATURE 
445 
advance the boundaries of scientific knowledge could not be 
counted on the fingers as they now are, when we think of Boyle, 
Cavendish, Napier, Lyell, Murchison, and Darwin, but would 
be as numerous as our statesmen and orators. Statesmen, with- 
out a following of the people who share their views and back 
their work, would be feeble indeed. But while England has 
never lacked leaders in science, they have two few followers to 
risk a rapid march. We might create an army to support our 
generals in science, as Germany has done, and as France is now 
doing, if education in this country would only mould itself to 
the needs of a scientific age. It is with this feeling that Horace 
Mann wrote: ‘‘The action of the mind is like sthe action of 
fire : one billet of wood will hardly burn alone, though as dry as 
the sun and north-west wind can make it, and though placed in 
a current of air; ten such billets will burn well together, but a 
hundred will create a heat fifty times as intense as ten—will 
make a current of air to fan their own flame, and consume even 
greenness itself.” 
VI. Abstract Science the Condition for Progress.—The subject 
of my address has been the relations of science to the public 
weal. That is a very old subject to select for the year 1885. 
I began it by quoting the words of an illustrious prince, the 
consort of our Queen, who addressed us on the same subject 
from this platform twenty-six years ago. But he was not the 
first prince who saw how closely science is bound up with the 
welfare of States. Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet, the fourth 
successor to the Caliphate, urged upon his followers that men of 
science and their disciples give security to human progress. Ali 
loved to say, ‘‘ Eminence in science is the highest of honours,” 
and ‘‘ Hedies not who gives life to learning.’’ In addressing 
you upon texts such as these my purpose was to show how un- 
wise it is for England to lag in the onward march of science 
when most other European Powers are using the resources of 
their States to promote higher education and to advance the 
boundaries of knowledge. English Governments alone fail to 
grasp the fact that the competition of the world has become a 
competition in intellect. Much of this indifference is due to our 
systems of education. I have ill fulfilled my purpose if, in 
claiming for science a larger share in public education, I have in 
any way depreciated literature, art, or philosophy, for every sub- 
ject which adds to culture aids in human development. I only 
contend that in public education there should be a free play to 
the scientific faculty, so that the youths who possess it should 
learn the richness of their possession during the educative pro- 
cess. The same faculties which make a man great in any walk 
of life—strong love of truth, high imagination tempered by 
judgment, a vivid memory which can co-ordinate other facts 
with those under immediate consideration—all these are quali- 
ties which the poet, the philosopher, the man of literature, and 
the man of science equally require and should cultivate through 
all parts of their education as well asin their future careers. My 
contention is that science should not be practically shut out from 
the view of a youth while his education is in progress, for the 
public weal requires that a large number of scientific men should 
belong to the community. This is necessary because science has 
impressed its character upon the age in which we live, and, as 
science is not stationary, but progressive, men are required to 
advance its boundaries, acting as pioneers in the onward march 
of States. Human progress is so identified with scientific 
thought, both in its conception and realisation, that it seems as 
if they were alternative terms in the history of civilisation. In 
literature, and even in art, a standard of excellence has been 
attained which we are content to imitate because we have been 
unable to surpass. But there is no such standard in science. 
Formerly, when the dark cloud was being dissipated which had 
obscured the learning of Greece and Rome, the diffusion of 
literature or the discovery of lost authors had a marked influence 
on advancing civilisation. Now, a Chrysoloras might teach 
Greek in the Italian universities without hastening sensibly the 
onward march of Italy; a Poggio might discover copies of 
Lucretius and Quintilian without exercising a tithe of the influ- 
ence on modern life that an invention by Stephenson or Wheat- 
stone would produce. Nevertheless, the divorce of culture and 
science, which the present state of education in this country 
tends to produce, is deeply to be deplored, because a cultured 
intelligence adds greatly to the development of the scientific 
faculty. My argument is that no amount of learning without 
science suffices in the present state of the world to put us in a 
position which will enable England to keep ahead or even on a 
level with foreign nations asregards knowledgeand its applications 
