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as it will most probably lead us to pay more attention to the study of physical science in 

 our schools, high and low, than has hitherto been the case. Unless this be done, our 

 colonial youths, when they come into competition with new arrivals from the Northern 

 hemisphere, will have no chance in the struggle of life. I think the time is long since 

 past when the education of a young man who does not intend to follow any of the 

 so-called learned professions, should be considered finished when he has acquired some 

 knowledge of Latin, a little less of Greek, with the rudiments of Mathematics, all of 

 which, as soon as he enters active life, he usually tries to forget as fast as possible, owing 

 to his having, as a general rule, by always being overworked, been bored to death by 

 them. But the things he ought to have learnt, which he would treasure in his mind, 

 which would give him intellectual enjoyment and invest him with great advantages, both 

 intellectual and practical over those who had not followed the same course of study, he 

 has never been taught, and any allusions made to them have often been of a disparaging 

 character. 



The Universe, the sublime laws by which the innumerable suns, planets, and their 

 satellites around him are governed ; the earth, which is his home, with all its wonderful 

 treasures, animate and inanimate, and their relations to each other, are totally unknown 

 to him. He wanders, as it were, blindfolded over this beautiful earth, a stranger in his 

 own domain — Heaven and Earth a sealed book to him. And is it possible that any other 

 study, however sublime, can be compared with that of the works of God, which certainly 

 must elevate the mind far higher than that of the works of men, however excellent they 

 may be ? But, in order that I may not be misunderstood, I wish to assure you that I 

 shoixld be very sorry indeed to see classical languages and Mathematics removed from the 

 curriculum of our schools. Such a proceeding would also be suicidal to the aims of 

 Physical Science. The study of any language, whether ancient or modern, and of its 

 best authors, will always enlarge and elevate the mind, exercise the memory, and evoke 

 or cherish noble feelings and actions in the learner, whilst the study of Mathematics will 

 teach him to think logically and accurately, without which, Physical Science would be 

 above his comprehension. 



The acquisitions of the natural philosopher, of the astronomer, of the chemist, or of 

 the geologist, obtained by actual research or by induction, can only be considered of 

 lasting value if they have been corroborated or proved by strictly mathematical reasoning, 

 in having, as it were, been reduced to mathematical formulae. But here, again, I may 

 once more point out that only those young men will reap the full benefit of the wisdom 

 of the ancients and of mathematical investigations who intend to continue their philological 

 and mathematical studies, while those who, after leaving school, enter into a walk of life 

 in which such knowledge is not required, will shortly have forgotten all that was drummed 

 into them during a number of years, and, at the same time, will have cause to regret at 

 every step they take, both their ignorance of Physical Science, and their want of 

 acquaintance with the laws and treasures of nature around them. 



The question naturally arises, why, since Physical Science has made such wonderful 

 strides during the last three centuries, that mankind has advanced more during that time 

 than in any similar period before in the history of the world, the education of youth, even 

 of the higher classes, has been almost stationary ; so that we can truly say it still 

 resembles in many respects the course of teaching in those times when the native 

 language of the country was despised as unworthy of being taught ; when old women 

 were burnt as witches ; when the stars in the firmament were only thought to be placed 

 in the heavens to form constellations by which the life or fate of man was guided ; when 

 chemistry was alchemy, and its chief use considered to be the making of gold from 

 baser metals, or the brewing of the Elixir of Life ; and when the little knowledge of 

 Physical Science (Natural History included) possessed in these days was mixed up with 

 superstition and scholastic axioms ? The answer to this question seems to me to be very 

 simple. The only exact knowledge possessed at that time was Mathematics, principally 

 their higher branches, together with the philosophical, poetical, and prose writings of the 

 eminent men who had shed a bright lustre over the periods in which they lived. These 

 writings were the precious heirloom which antiquity had bequeathed to the middle ages. 



As such learning was then considered to be the only kind of knowledge worth 

 possessing, all intellectual energy was directed to its acquisition, and the professors of the 

 day despised the ignorance and superstition of those to whom the treasures of antiquity 

 were not accessible. They also, and naturally, showed contempt for alchemists, astrologers, 

 and others pursuing knowledge in a similar manner, and while unable to refute the latter, 

 their mathematical knowledge made them feel that the doctrines of those men were 

 erroneous. A remnant of this feeling of contempt for the study of physical science still 

 lingers in some countries amongst the teachers of the so-called classical schools ; although 

 they do not like to confess it even to themselves ; and being desirous of continuing the 

 teaching of their predecessors, they consider it as the invasion of an upstart into the holy 

 precincts of their educational temple when physical science wishes to enter the schoolroom. 

 Unfortunately, many of these teachers, however eminent in other respects, know very 



