I $76.] Encouragement of Scientific Research. 471 
But, returning from this digression, we may surely con- 
sider ourselves fully warranted in concluding, from the fa( 5 fs 
brought forward, that England is not playing a worthy and 
a creditable part in the increase of human knowledge. We 
may infer, also, as a corollary, that by such negleft and 
backwardness her industrial and commercial pre-eminence, 
her power, and possibly even her very existence as the focus 
of a mighty Empire, may be gravely endangered. 
We have next to enquire what are the causes of the evil 
which we have just recognised, and which we all, more or 
less, agree to deplore. We have already stated our opinion 
that if scientific research does not flourish amongst us as it 
ought, this is due not to any deficiency in intellect, not to 
any idiosyncrasy in the national mind, not to indolence or 
indifference to truth, but simply to the fadt that in obedience 
to an unfortunate complication of circumstances our ener- 
gies and our intellects have been turned into other channels. 
Till lately our educational course, both in schools and col- 
leges, has been almost exclusively literary, whilst the sub- 
jects popularly known under the name of Science have been 
totally and contemptuously excluded. With a curious in- 
consistency they were denounced by men of business as 
useless, because not conducive to immediate gain ; and 
branded by school-pedants as low, mechanical, and illiberal, 
because capable of application at all ! Even now, in spite 
of the change which has taken place in public opinion, only 
ten endowed schools in England give even a poor, pitiful, 
four hours weekly to the study of science. A contemporary 
justly remarks — “ In a neighbourhood of rural squires and 
clergy, untempered by a large town’s neighbourhood, and 
unchecked by any man of education and intelligence holding 
sovereignty by virtue of superior rank and wealth, a school 
which treads doggedly in the ancient paths will certainly 
succeed even in second-rate hands, while a school which 
under superior chieftainship asserts the claims of science, 
and whose theology is therefore suspicious, will as cer- 
tainly struggle long for existence, if it does not finally 
succumb.” 
Passing from our public schools to the universities, espe= 
cially the two great and time-honoured institutions of Oxford 
and Cambridge, we see little on which we may congratulate 
ourselves. Physical science has, indeed, found a place along 
with mathematics and classics,— -not, however, as a subject 
to be cultivated and advanced, but merely as a something to 
be examined in. A more fatal mistake it would be difficult 
to conceive. “Competitive examinations and original re- 
