THE ROYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 17 
Therefore it is that I hold, and hold strongly, that the study of 
physical science, far from interfering with an officer's studies, much 
less unfitting for them, must assist him in them, by keeping his mind 
always in the very attitude and the very temper which they require. 
If any smile at this theory of mine, let them recollect one curious 
fact: that perhaps the greatest captain of the old world was trained by 
perhaps the greatest philosopher of the old world—the father of Natural 
History; that Aristotle was the tutor of Alexander of Macedon. I do 
not fancy, of course, that Aristotle taught Alexander any Natural History. 
But this we know, that he taught him to use those very faculties by 
which Aristotle became a natural historian, and many things beside; 
that he called out in his pupil somewhat of his own extraordinary 
powers of observation, extraordinary powers of arrangement. He helped 
to make him a great general, but he helped to make him more—a great 
politician, coloniser, discoverer. He instilled into him such a sense of 
the importance of Natural History, that Alexander helped him nobly 
in his researches, and, if Athenseus is to be believed, gave him 
800 talents towards perfecting his history of animals. Surely it is not 
too much to say that this close friendship between the natural 
philosopher and the soldier has changed the whole course of civilisation 
to this very day. Do not consider me Utopian when I tell you this. 
I should like to see the study of physical science an integral part of 
the curriculum of every military school. I would train the mind of the 
lad who was to become hereafter an officer in the army—and in the 
navy likewise—by accustoming him to careful observation of, and sound 
thought about, the face of nature—of the commonest objects under his 
feet, just as much as of the stars above his head; provided always that 
he learnt, not at second-hand from books, but where alone he can 
really learn either war or nature—in the field, by actual obser¬ 
vation, actual experiment. A laboratory for chemical experiment is a 
good thing, it is true, as far as it goes; but I should prefer to the 
laboratory a naturalists' field club, such as are prospering now at 
several of the best public schools, certain that the boys would get more of 
sound inductive habits of mind, as well as more health, manliness, and 
cheerfulness, amid scenes to remember which will be a joy for ever, 
than they ever can by bending over retorts and crucibles, amid smells 
even to remember which is a pain for ever. 
But I would, whether a field club existed or not, require of every 
young man entering the army or navy—indeed of every young* man 
entering any liberal profession whatsoever—a fair knowledge, such as 
would enable him to pass an examination, in what the Germans call 
Erd-kunde (earth-lore)—in that knowledge of the face of the earth 
and of its products, for which we English have as yet cared so little that 
we have actually no English name for it, save the clumsy and question¬ 
able one of physical geography, and, I am sorry to say, hardly any 
readable schoolbooks about it, save Keith Johnstone's Physical Atlas" 
—an acquaintance with which last I should certainly require of young 
men. 
It does seem most strange—or rather will seem most strange 
100 years hence—that we, the nation of colonies, the nation of 
sailors, the nation of foreign commerce, the nation of foreign military 
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