1855.] 



MEETING- OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT GLASGOW. 



373 



room, and flaslied ready-made on the astonishment of the world. 

 In chemistry, the lead taken by abstract science in re-aoting 

 on the arts is manifest and constant ; and in greater or less 

 degree the same result is appearing in connexion with every 

 branch of physical research. The interest, therefore, of the 

 State, even if it be considered merely in this economic point of 

 view, in the encouragement of abstract science, is obvious and 

 immediate. And there is this additional motive to be remem- 

 bered : the moment any result of science becomes applicable to 

 the arts, the unfailing enterprise of the commercial and manu- 

 facturing classes takes it up and exhausts every resource of 

 capital and of skill in giving to that application the largest 

 possible development. But so long as science is still purely 

 abstract, it has often to be prosecuted with slender resources, 

 and specially requires fostering care and a helping hand. But 

 I rejoice to believe that the conviction of this truth is sensibly 

 gaining ground. The foundation of the geological museums 

 both in England and in Scotland, and the carrying out of a 

 complete geological, concurrently with a geographical Survey, 

 by public authority and at the public expense, were great steps 

 in the right direction. Another such step was the investment 

 of 1,000^. annually in aiding experimental research, through 

 the agency of the Royal Society, which undertook the trouble 

 of its special allocation. It is the intention of my noble fiiend. 

 Lord Palmerston, to bring the principal of some expenditure in 

 this direction specially under the notice of Parliament for the 

 future; and it is worthy of remark, as illustrating how far a 

 small sum may go in aid of abstract science, and how cheaply 

 the largest and most fniitful results may thereby be attained, 

 that, as I have been informed on very high authority, this ap- 

 parently trivial sum has been felt as a most important help in 

 numberless instances, sometimes in the conduct of experiments, 

 sometimes in the publication of their results, and sometimes in 

 securing accurate artistic delineations. 



The relations now established between the Board of Trade 

 and various branches of scientific investigation are such as lay 

 the foundation for further progress in the same direction. I 

 am happy to say that, in connexion with the new National 

 Museum which is being organized for Scotland, there is to be 

 a special branch devoted to the industrial applications of science ; 

 and that a new Professorship — one which has long existed in 

 almost all the Continental Universities — that of Technology — 

 has just been instituted by the Government. I am not less 

 happy in being able to announce that to that chair Dr. George 

 Wilson has been appointed. The writings which we owe to 

 the pen of Dr. Wilson, and especially his beautiful Memoirs of 

 Cavendish, and of Dr. Rcid, are among the happiest productions 

 of the Literature of Science. 



I trust also that the aid of the State may be secured in pro- 

 viding a house and home for the scientific bodies in the metro- 

 polis. I am disposed to agree with those who attach no small 

 importance to this consummation. When the Royal Society 

 alone adequately represented all or nearly all who were engaged 

 in physical science, that great body fulfilled all the necessary 

 conditions of a scientific council. But now, when almost every 

 separate division of science has a separate Society of its own, 

 it has- become almost indispensable that some new arrangement 

 should be come to, in order that abstract science may have 

 that degree of organization without which its interests will 

 never receive the public attention which they ought to have. 



The influence, if not the authority of the State, may also, I 

 think, be most beneficially exerted on behalf of Science, through 

 the educational rules and principles of administration of the 

 Privy Council. l''Ut the Committee of Council, in tlic adop- 



tion of those rules, is necessarily governed to a certain extent 

 by the feelings and opinions of the various churches and bodies 

 which are the primary supporters of our existing educational 

 system. In the last Report of the Council of the Geographical 

 Society, they announce a communication from the Committee 

 of the Privy Council, requesting the Society to appoint an Ex- 

 aminer in Geography, to be associated with other examiners 

 on other branches of education. It may be weU worthy of 

 consideration, whether the same expedient might not be use- 

 fully adopted in reference to other branches of science, which 

 have hitherto formed a less admitted part of ordinary instruction. 



And this. Gentlemen, brings me to say, that the Advance- 

 ment of Science depends, above all things, on securing for it 

 a better and more acknowledged place in the education of the 

 young. There are many signs that the time is coming when 

 our wishes in this respect will be fulfilled. They would be 

 fulfilled, perhaps, still more rapidly, but for the operation of 

 obstructing causes, some of which we should do well to notice. 

 How often do we find it assumed, that those who tirge the 

 claims of science are desirous of depreciating some one or more 

 of the older and more sacred branches of education ! In res- 

 pect to elementary schools we are generally opposed, as aiming 

 at the displacement of religious teaching ; whilst in respect to 

 the higher schools and colleges, the cudgels are taken up in be- 

 half of classical attainments. A remarkable example of the in- 

 fluence of these feelings will be found in a speech delivered by 

 Lord Lyndhurst during the late session of Parliament. ^^ ith 

 all the power of his dignified and commanding eloquence, he 

 asserted the right of the elder studies to their time-honoured 

 pre-eminence; and in the keen pursuit of this arg-ument even 

 he was almost tempted to speak in a tone of some depreciation 

 of those noble pursuits in which the University of which he is 

 a distinguished ornament has won no small portion of her fame. 

 But surely no enlightened friend of the natural sciences would 

 seek to challenge this imaginary competition. Perhaps, indeed, 

 like other zealous advocates, we may have sometimes overstrained 

 our language, and have thereby given such vantage-ground to 

 prejudice, that it has been enabled to assume the form of just 

 objection. We cannot too earnestly disclaim the idea that the 

 knowledge of physical laws can ever of itself form the ground- 

 work of any active influence in morals or religion. Any such 

 idea would only betray our ignorance of some of the deepest 

 principles of our nature. But this does not aifect the estimate 

 which we may justly put on an early training in the principles 

 of physical research. That estimate may be not the less a high 

 one, because it does not assign to science what belongs to other 

 things. 



There is one aspect in which we do not require to plead the 

 cause of science as an clement in education, and on that, there- 

 fore, I shall not dwell. I mean that in which certain applied 

 sciences are recognized as the essential bases of professional 

 training; as, for example, when the engineer is trained in the 

 principles of mechanics and hj'drostatics, or the physician in 

 those of chemistry. Of course, with every new application of 

 the sciences to the arts of life this direct influence will extend. 

 But what we desire, and ought to aim at, is something more. 

 It is, that abstract science, without special reference to its de- 

 partmental application, should be more recognized as an essen- 

 tial element in every liberal education. We desire this on 

 two grounds mainly : first, that it will contribute more than 

 anything else to the further advancement of science itself; 

 and, secondly, because we believe that it would be an instru- 

 ment of vital benefit in the culture and strengthening of the 

 mental powers. 



