226 On Practical Scientific Instruction. [April. 



may be said to have to continually carry a pauper and a criminal in 

 consequence of our neglect of education. For all our artisans — 

 and they number by millions — there exists no means of scientific 

 education which would specially fit them for their future employ- 

 ments. The Universities and Colleges are not for them, and in 

 ordinary schools the principles and technical relations of science are 

 but little taught. If England is to successfully keep pace with 

 the progress of foreign intellect and foreign manufacture, there must 

 not only be a general diffusion of elementary secular knowledge 

 throughout this country, but there must also be as great a degree of 

 encouragement of scientific knowledge as exists in other countries. 



The desire to withstand foreign competition, and to recover lost 

 trade and manufacture, are not the highest motives why masters 

 and workmen should be induced to acquire a greater knowledge of 

 science. It would be a higher -virtue, and much more praiseworthy 

 in all men, if they pursued truth primarily for its own value, and 

 for the sake of their own mental improvement, rather than for the 

 immediate pecuniary advantages it may confer. 



It was not by means of better scientific education that our 

 superiority as a manufacturing nation over other countries was 

 developed, and for many years maintained, but chiefly in conse- 

 quence of our abundant supply of coal and iron ore, and the genius 

 of a few scientific men in applying those stores to practical pur- 

 poses in steam-engines, machinery, and a multitude of mechanical, 

 physical, and chemical processes. Had it not been for these cir- 

 cumstances, England, like other nations not possessing such stores, 

 would have been compelled a generation ago to have adopted an 

 extensive system of scientific education. The knowledge of science 

 which has enriched this nation was net acquired in schools; its 

 possessors had to get it as they best could. Where did Faraday 

 learn electricity ? Where did Watt learn the science of heat ? How 

 did Arkwrigkt learn mechanics? They all obtained their know- 

 ledge in spare moments, not in our public schools, because those 

 subjects were not taught in them. 



Arguments are not unfrequently adduced to support the opinion 

 that ignorance has its advantages ; but, however great the advan- 

 tages of ignorance may be, those of intelligence are still greater. 

 The extent to which in this country ignorance of the duties of an 

 office is considered a qualification for filling it, is in itself a melan- 

 choly proof of our real want of education. 



In consequence of the labours of scientific discoverers and in- 

 ventors, the progress of science is such that in a very few years a 

 knowledge of it will be indispensable to all persons engaged in 

 superintending or carrying out manufacturing operations, and in 

 all arts, occupations and appointments in which man is dealing with 

 matter. Science is fast penetrating into all our manufactures and 



