178 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
graceful statue, is not likely to seek for excitement in village 
revels, in political clubs, or in dishonest combinations. His moral 
nature will rise with his material tastes ; and while his less instructed 
neighbours will look up to him as a model for imitation, his more 
educated superiors will appreciate his acquirements as a companion 
or a friend. 
It is only in those studies where the eye becomes our teacher, 
that we can unite in one common pursuit the dissevered classes of 
society. It is in our galleries of art, — in the rich museums of our 
cities, — in our botanical, horticultural, and zoological gardens, — or 
in our crystal palaces, where art and science are rivals, that the 
children of wealth and of toil can assemble in the common admira- 
tion of all that is beautiful and sublime. It is among the remains 
of ancient and the achievements of modern art, and amid the 
beauties which we daily appreciate, and the lovely forms of organic 
life which are ever before us, that we can rise to a purer morality 
and a higher civilisation. 
Hut it is to the middle, and even to the upper classes, and 
through them to the nation, that scientific teaching will offer its 
richest benefits. The functionaries who administer our affairs are 
in number legion. Without science, without that elevation of char- 
acter which positive knowledge confers, we can readily understand 
bow the greatest interests of the state are mismanaged, — how inte- 
rests equally great are neglected, — and how the public wealth is reck- 
lessly squandered. Incompetent subordinates assume the import- 
ance, and discharge the duties of their chiefs ; and while the deep 
problems of practical science receive a wrong solution, the feelings 
and interests of inventors and discoverers are utterly disregarded. 
In this great country, wealthy by its commerce, its agriculture, 
and its manufactures, and in no other country in the world, even 
the poorest, our numerous scientific boards are conducted by men 
who are too honest to have any pretensions to science, and whose 
aggregate wisdom, if it exists at all, is enshrined in the cerebellum 
of a secretary or a clerk. The parsimony of the Exchequer grudges 
a salary for the services which science only can supply, and con- 
signs to unpaid and irresponsible hands the great interests in which 
life and property are at stake. 
Nor will scientific education be of less value to the lawgiver and 
