53 



MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



[1853 



to make a display of our scientific labours in the eyes of the 

 world, or to compliment each other on the success that we may 

 have met with. Oiitwa d display belongs not to the proceedings, 

 and the expression of mutual compliment belongs not to the lan- 

 guage, of earnest-minded men. We meet, gentlemen, if I 

 comprehend our purpose rightly, to assist and encourage each 

 other in the performance of the laborious daily tasks of detailed 

 scientific investigation. A great thought may possibly arise 

 almost instantaneously in the mind, — and the intuition of genius 

 may almost as immediately recognize its importance, and partly 

 forsee its consequences. Individual labor may also do much in 

 establishing the truth of a new principle or theory; but what an 

 amount of labour may its multifarious applications involve ! 

 Nearly two centuries have not sufficed to work out all the conse- 

 quences of the principle of gravitation. Every theory as it be- 

 comes more and more perfectly worked out embraces a greater 

 number of phenomena, and requires a greater number of labourers 

 for its complete developement. Thus it is that when science has 

 arrived at a certain stage, combinal ion and co-operation become 

 so essential for its further progress. Each scientific society effects 

 this object to a greater or less degree, — but much of its influence 

 may he of a local character, and it is usually restricted by a 

 limited range of its objects. Up to a certain point no means 

 are probably so effective for the promotion of science as 

 those particular .Societies which devote themselves to one 

 particular branch of science; but as each science expands, it 

 comes into nearer relations with other sciences, and a period must 

 arrive in this general and progressive advance which must ren- 

 der the co-operation of the cultivators of different branches of 

 science -lmost as essential to our general progress as the combi- 

 nation of those who cultivate the same branch was essential to 

 the progress of each particular science in its earlier stages. It is 

 the feeling of the necessity of combination and of facility of in- 

 tercourse among men of science that has given rise to a strong 

 wish that the scientific Memoirs of different Societies should be 

 rendered, by some general plan, more easily and generally ac- 

 cessible than they are at present; — a subject which I would press 

 on your consideration. It is by promoting this combination that 

 the British Association has been able to exert so beneficial an 

 influence, — by bringing scientific men together, and thus placing, 

 as it were, in juxtaposition every Society in the country. But 

 how has this influence been exercised ? Not assuredly in the 

 promotion of vague theories and speculative novelties ; but in the 

 encouragement of the hard daily toil of scientific research, and 

 by the work which it has caused to be done, whether by its in- 

 fluence over its individual members or on the Government of the 

 country. Regarding our Association, gentlemen, in this point of 

 view, I can only see an increased demand for its labours, and not 

 a termination of them, in the future progress of science. The 

 wider the spread of science, the wider will be the sphere of its 

 usefulness. 



We should do little justice to the great Industrial Exhibition, 

 which, two years ago, may be literally said to have delighted 

 millions of visitors, or to the views of the illustrious Prince with 

 whom it originated, if we should merely recollect it as a spectacle 

 of surpassing beauty. It appears destined to exercise a lasting 

 influence on the mental culture, and therefore, we may hope, on 

 the moral condition of the great mass of our population, by the 

 impulse which it has given to measures for the promotion of 

 general education. We may hope that those whose duty it will 

 be to give effect to this impulse, will feel the importance of edu- 

 cation in Science as united with education in Art. An attempt 

 to cultivate the taste alone, ..independently of the more general 

 cultivation of the mind, would probably fail, as it would deserve 

 to do. I trust that the better education which is nDw so univer- 

 sally recognized as essential to preserve our future pre-eminence 



as a manufacturing nation, will have its foundations laid, not in 

 the superficial teaching which aims only at communicating a few 

 curious results, but in the sound teaching of tlie fundamental aud 

 elementary principles of science. An ought assuredly to rest on 

 the foundation of Science. Will it, in the present day, be con- 

 tended that the study of science h unfavourable to the cultivation 

 of taste? Such an opinion could be based only on an imperfect 

 conception of the objects of Science, and an ignorance of all its 

 rightful influences? Does the gi'eat sculptor or the historical 

 painter despise anatomy ? On the contrary, he knows that a 

 knowledge of that science must constitute one of the most valu- 

 able elements of his art if he would produce the most vigorous 

 and characteristic expression of the human figure. And so the 

 artist should understand the structure of the leaf, the tendril, or 

 the flower, if he would make their delicate and characteristic 

 beauties subservient either to the objects of decorative art, or to 

 those of the higher branches of sculpture and painting. Again, 

 will the artist appreciate less the sublimity of the mountain, or 

 represent its characteristic features with less truthfulness, because 

 he is sufficient of a geologist to trace the essential relations be- 

 tween its external form and its internal constitution ? Will the 

 beauty of the lake be less perfectly imitated by him if he possess 

 a complete knowledge of the laws of reflection of light ? Or will 

 he not seize with nicer discrimination all those varied and delicate 

 beauties which depend on the varying atmosphere of our own 

 region, if he have some accurate knowledge of the theory of 

 colours, and of the causes which govern the changeful aspects of 

 mist and cloud ? Tt is true, that the genius and acute powers 

 of observation of the more distinguished artists may com- 

 pensate, in a great degree, for the want of scientific knowledge ; 

 but it is certain that a great part of the defects in the works of 

 artists of every description may be traced to the defect of scien- 

 tific knowledge of the objects represented. And hence it is that 

 I express the hope that the directors of the important educational 

 movement which is now commencing with reference to industrial 

 objects will feel the necessity of laying a foundation, not in the 

 complicated details of science, but in the simple and elementary 

 principles wdiich may place the student in a position to cultivate 

 afterwards, by his own exertions, a more mature acquaintance 

 with those particular branches of science which may be more imme- 

 diately related to his especial avocations. If this be done, abstract 

 science will become of increased estimation in every rank of soci- 

 ety, and its value, with reference, at least to its practical applica- 

 tions will be far better understood than it is generally amongst us 

 at the present time. 



Under such circumstances the British Association could not 

 fail to become of increased importance, and the sphere of its use- 

 fulness to be enlarged. One great duty which we owe to the 

 public is, to encourage the application of abstract science to the 

 practical purposes of life — to bring, as it were, the study and the 

 laboratory into juxta-position with the workshop. And, doubt- 

 less, it is one great object of science, to bring more easily within 

 reach of every part of the community the rational enjoyments, 

 as well as the necessaries of life; and thus not merely to contri- 

 bute to the luxuries of the rich, but to minister to the comforts of 

 the poor, and to promote that general enlightenment so essential 

 to our moral progress, and to the real advancement of civilization, 

 But still, we should not be taking that higher view of science 

 which 1 would wish to inculcate, if we merely regarded it as the 

 means of supplying more adequately the physical wants of man. 

 If we would view science under its noblest aspects, we must re- 

 gard it with reference to man, not merely as a creature of physical 

 wants, but as a being of intellectual and moral endowments, fitting 

 him to discover and comprehend some part at least of the laws 

 which govern the material universe, to admire the harmony which 



