PRACTICAL RELATIONS OF SCIENCE. 125 
of health, and in particular the structure of the habitation in 
in which he dwells, is no less important to him than to other 
men, and that preliminary education in Science which is rec¬ 
ommended in the Common School, w r ould be as useful to him 
in relation to these objects, as in reference to Agriculture. 
Not only is this the case, but these questions and Agricul¬ 
ture have a mutual relation, which has been too often over¬ 
looked. 
What thread runs through these numerous institutions and 
associations, that have sprung up so largely during the present 
century, under the name of Mechanic’s Institutes, Polytechnic 
Schools, Schools of Art, Schools of Design, Agricultural Col¬ 
leges, Sanitary Associations, Industrial Schools, and a multi¬ 
tude of others, down to those for Social Science, instituted 
both in England and in the United States, within the last few 
years ? What key unlocks and unfolds all these institutions ? 
Education in the properties of matter is their great object 
and intention. 
This, then, is a very wide and comprehensive educational 
question. 
It is based on the primary wants of life, and intimately as¬ 
sociated with the future progress of invention and discovery. 
It is indissolubly linked with all those arts and manufactures 
that hold out the prospect of ameliorating the condition of man. 
We cannot look to the power and instruments that save 
labor to the agriculturalist or to the mechanic, to the means 
that spread knowledge among men, that promote communica¬ 
tion and commerce in every quarter of the globe, that assist 
in combining the fine with the useful arts, and engage even 
the rays of light as well as the electric sparks as laborers in 
the service of the present generation, without being touched 
by the peculiarities of the position of man in the globe that 
we inhabit, and the wonderful relations of that material world 
in which the providence of the Creator has placed us. 
In proportion as the families of men are multiplied on the 
face of the earth, and spread over regions whose temperature 
differs more and more from that of their own frame, more skill 
