8 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



by natural distribution, furnish the specific end of each 

 section, according to the meaning of its title. 



To promote education seems at first glance an object 

 as definite and comprehensible as it is admirable and im- 

 portant. Yet, if it were permissible to raise and press 

 the question, l ' How is education contemplated to be pro- 

 moted ?" we might be plunged in a sea of controversy of 

 unknown depths. Since the discussion began between 

 Socrates and his successor, Plato, on one side, and the 

 sophists of their day on the other, and which soon grew 

 into a bitter contest, there have been the most conflicting 

 views among teachers as to the best methods of intellect- 

 ual discipline, of imparting instruction, the subjects of 

 study, the supreme aim of education and the like, and 

 these questions were never more rife than they are now. 

 Reformations and radical revolutions in our ideas and 

 systems of education are urged with growing intensity 

 in the ascent, from the primary school to the university. 

 While all these will be proper subjects for the Institute's 

 investigations and discussions, the education which it 

 proposes to promote may be understood in the large 

 sense, which Prof. Faraday once gave the term, "as in- 

 cluding all that belongs to the improvement of the mind, 

 either by the acquisition of the knowledge of others, or 

 by the increase of it through its own exertions." 



Then the knowledge to be promoted is " useful know- 

 ledge" in the departments of science, literature, and 

 art. How useful % is a fair inquiry, which merits a 

 thoughtful answer. Is only that knowledge useful, 

 which is capable of application to some practical enter- 

 prise or work, and so may be seen to possess a pecuniary 

 value \ In other words, is the usefulness of knowledge 

 to be estimated according to its mere qualifying power 

 in the discharge of life's duties? Such conclusion were 

 sadly utilitarian. Lord Bacon, said: "Knowledge is 

 not a shop for barter and sale ; but a rich store-house for 



