210 ON THE UTILITY OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES. 



sale in the market at from 36s. to 46s. per ton ; while those of an 

 inferior quality may te procured at any price below this down to 17s. 

 per ton ; varying with their purity, hardness after calcination, degree 

 of whiteness, both n and out of water, and lastly, the degree of shrink- 

 ing they undergo on calcination or fusion. 

 St. Austell, Cornwall. 



ON THE UTILITY OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES. 



BT W. S. W. BUSCHENBEBGER, M.L\ 



The proclivities of the present age are eminently utilitarian. Before 

 engaging in any pursuit, men wish to know in what it can profit them. 

 Immediate and direct gain is an object of common desire; hence, those 

 vocations which promise a speedy compensation for labor are most 

 popular, and the paths travelled by those who have been fortunate in 

 pursuit of wealth are most eagerly sought. Agriculture, the mechanic 

 arts, and commerce, which supply the wants, the comforts, and luxuries 

 of man, employ the great masses of society. A love of wealth is a 

 stronger incentive to toil than benevolence ; the fame which inures- to a 

 labor unproductive of palpable remuneration stimulates but few. Those 

 branches of learning and philosophy which facilitate the acquisition of 

 wealth, attract a larger number of diligent votaries than those which 

 advantageously influence the condition of society, without adding to the 

 pecuniary profit of those who pursue them. 



The utility, the beneficial influence, which natural history exercises 

 on the common interests of society, is not commonly understood, and, 

 for this reason, the labors of naturalists are not very generally appre- 

 ciated. Indeed, a vague meaning seems to be attached to the terms 

 " natural history," and " natural sciences. ' Unless men comprehend 

 the meaning of these names, they cannot perceive the utility of, or set a 

 value upon, what they are used to designate. 



Science and knowledge are not synonymous ; there may be know- 

 ledge without science. Acquired facts constitute knowledge ; but a 

 science consists of any group of congenial truths or facts, arranged ac- 

 cording to any rational method, which enables men easily to perceive 

 their general and mutual relations. Science, then, simply means a sys- 

 tematic arrangement of acquired facts. The natural sciences essentially 

 consist in systematic arrangements of the facts and phenomena observed 

 in nature. 



In the broad acceptation of the term, natural history includes faith- 

 ful descriptions of all natural objects. Natural science does not consist 

 merely in making a catalogue of all the plants and animals on the 

 surface of the globe ; it embraces a history of the structure, composition, 

 mode of existence, and growth of all natural objects, and seeks to 



