ON BOTANICAL SCIENCE AND TIIE BIBLE. 
121 
tion which is to be regarded, not merely as a means to something else, but as in itself 
an end. But here it will be necessary to explain, that when the word profess ion is used, it is 
not intended to confine its application to what in former times were called the three learned 
professions ; but we apply it to any calling which requires mental as distinguished from 
manual labour. The professional man may be compared to a man whose eye is fixed 
upon a microscope. All the rest of the world is abstracted from his vision ; and the eye, 
though narrowed to a little hole, sees what is indescribable by others, and by revealing 
his observations he becomes a benefactor of his kind. Now, all this we not only admit, 
but assert; but then we stand opposed to those who, asserting this, at once conclude that 
the minds of their children cannot be too soon directed to studies which will bear upon 
their future vocation in life. The position assumed by the advocates of academical cul¬ 
ture is the very opposite of this. They would delay a young man’s professional educa¬ 
tion as long as possible, or rather, they would insist upon the importance of the concen¬ 
trated education being preceded by a liberal education; and they would apply to the 
training of the man a discipline analogous to that which common sense suggests in what 
relates to bodily exercise. When in ancient times a father was ambitious for his son, 
that he might win the prize at the Olympian games or Pythian fields, his attention was 
directed, not to the technicalities of the game, but to the general condition and the 
morals of the youth ; for the success of the athlete depended upon the fact of his first 
becoming a healthy man. And precisely so we say, educate the man before you educate 
the professional man ; before you send your grain to the mill, look to the raw material. 
How often we see the mere professional man—the man who has not received a liberal 
education early in life—fail when he is called unexpectedly, or in the ordinary course of 
affairs, to some entirely new situation, or a different order of circumstances.” The mind 
must be disciplined and subjected to culture, 'which will fit it for successful professional 
study. Every candidate for a medical degree or diploma should therefore pass a literary 
examination before attempting to enter on purely professional work. 
Having thus considered the requirements in arts, we now proceed to professional 
study. And here there are evidently two departments; one specially connected with the 
natural sciences, and the other strictly professional. These two departments should be 
studied separately ; and the collateral sciences, such as botany, natural history, and che¬ 
mistry, ought to be prosecuted in the first instance,—an examination on these preceding 
the student’s entrance on the second department. The objections urged against natural 
history sciences have depended chiefly on the fact that they were studied at the same 
time with purely professional subjects, and that thus the minds of the students wero 
overwhelmed with the multiplicity of objects brought under their notice, and with the 
necessity of preparing for an examination on one set of subjects whilst they were study¬ 
ing another. Natural-history sciences have been considered a hardship, not because the 
students disliked them per se, or thought that the subject was not a good one for their 
minds to work upon, but because the study of them came at a most improper time, be¬ 
cause far too much of it was attempted to be taught in the time, and because the little 
that they could learn well was what they felt they ought to have learnt in their younger 
days—which they ought to have acquired before commencing their medical education, 
and which was not enough to enable them to apply it to practice in medicine or science. 
The elements of these sciences should therefore occupy the student’s attention in the 
first place, and he should master them, and be examined on them before proceeding fur¬ 
ther. Those who choose to devote their attention to these sciences more fully, will, no 
doubt, gratify their taste by continuing to prosecute them afterwards; and they will ne¬ 
cessarily be kept up to a certain degree in their subsequent medical studies. 
PROFESSOR BALFOUR ON BOTANICAL SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE. 
The subjoined remarks by Professor Balfour to the students of Edinburgh University 
will be read with interest and profit:— 
I have thus given a hasty sketch of the nature of botanical science and of its bearings 
on other departments of knowledge, more especially on medicine. I have shown the 
position which it ought to occupy, as a preliminary training science, in the medical cur¬ 
riculum ; and I have pointed out the importance of students passing an examination in 
it, and other natural sciences, before entering on strictly professional studies. In conclu- 
