ON SCIENCE AND ART 139 



in this very city, made a speech upon the topic of Scien- 

 tific Education. Under these circumstances, you see, 

 one runs two dangers the first, of repeating one's 

 self, although I may fairly hope that everybody has 

 forgotten the fact I have just now mentioned, except 

 myself; and the second, and even greater difficulty, is 

 the danger of saying something different from what one 

 said before, because then, however forgotten your pre- 

 vious speech may be, somebody finds out its existence, 

 and there goes on that process so hateful to members of 

 Parliament, which may be denoted by the term "Hans- 

 ardisation." 2 Under these circumstances, I came to the 

 conclusion that the best thing I could do was to take 

 the bull by the horns, and to "Hansardise" myself 

 to put before you, in the briefest possible way, the three 

 or four propositions which I endeavoured to support on 

 the occasion of the speech to which I have referred; and 

 then to ask myself, supposing you were asking me, 

 whether I had anything to retract, or to modify, in them, 

 in virtue of the increased experience, and, let us chari- 

 tably hope, the increased wisdom of an added fourteen 

 years. 



Now, the points to which I directed particular atten- 

 tion on that occasion were these: in the first place, that 

 instruction in physical science supplies information of a 

 character of especial value, both in a practical and a 

 speculative point of view information which cannot 

 be obtained otherwise; and, in the second place, that, 

 as educational discipline, it supplies, in a better form 

 than any other study can supply, exercise in a special 

 form of logic, and a peculiar method of testing the 

 validity of our processes of inquiry. I said further, that, 

 even at that time, a great and increasing attention was 



~ A comparison of a man's record. Luke Hansard (1752-1828) 

 was the official printer of British Parliamentary Records. 



