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diff --git a/old/7sced10.txt b/old/7sced10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..18f99e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7sced10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11075 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Science & Education, by Thomas H. Huxley + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Science & Education + +Author: Thomas H. Huxley + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7150] +[This file was first posted on March 18, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, SCIENCE & EDUCATION *** + + + + +Thomas Berger, Carlo Traverso, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +This file was produced from images generously made available by the +Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr. + + + + + + SCIENCE & EDUCATION + + + +ESSAYS + +BY + +THOMAS H. HUXLEY + + + + + +PREFACE + +The apology offered in the Preface to the first volume of this series +for the occurrence of repetitions, is even more needful here I am +afraid. But it could hardly be otherwise with speeches and essays, on +the same topic, addressed at intervals, during more than thirty years, +to widely distant and different hearers and readers. The oldest piece, +that "On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences," +contains some crudities, which I repudiated when the lecture was first +reprinted, more than twenty years ago; but it will be seen that much of +what I have had to say, later on in life, is merely a development of +the propositions enunciated in this early and sadly-imperfect piece of +work. + +In view of the recent attempt to disturb the compromise about the +teaching of dogmatic theology, solemnly agreed to by the first School +Board for London, the fifteenth Essay; and, more particularly, the note +n. 3, may be found interesting. + +T. H. H. + +Hodeslea, Eastbourne, _September 4th, 1893_. + + + + +CONTENTS + +I JOSEPH PRIESTLEY [1874] +(An Address delivered on the occasion of the presentation of a statue +of Priestley to the town of Birmingham) + + +II ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES [1854] +(An Address delivered in S. Martin's Hall) + + +III EMANCIPATION--BLACK AND WHITE [1865] + + +IV A LIBERAL EDUCATION; AND WHERE TO FIND IT [1868] +(An Address to the South London Working Men's College) + + +V SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH [1869] +(Liverpool Philomathic Society) + + +VI SCIENCE AND CULTURE [1880] +(An Address delivered at the opening of Sir Josiah Mason's Science +College, Birmingham) + +VII ON SCIENCE AND ART IN RELATION TO EDUCATION [1882] +(An Address to the members of the Liverpool Institution) + + +VIII UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL [1874] +(Rectorial Address, Aberdeen) + + +IX ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION [1876] +(Delivered at the opening of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore) + + +X ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY [1876] +(A Lecture in connection with the Loan Collection of Scientific +Apparatus, South Kensington Museum) + + +XI ON ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY [1877] + + +XII ON MEDICAL EDUCATION [1870] +(An Address to the students of the Faculty of Medicine in University +College, London) + + +XIII THE STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION [1884] + + +XIV THE CONNECTION OF THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES WITH MEDICINE [1881] +(An Address to the International Medical Congress) + + +XV THE SCHOOL BOARDS: WHAT THEY CAN DO, AND WHAT THEY MAY DO [1870] + + +XVI TECHNICAL EDUCATION [1877] + + +XVII ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF +TECHNICAL EDUCATION [1887] + + + + + +COLLECTED ESSAYS + +VOLUME III + + + + +I + +JOSEPH PRIESTLEY + +[1874] + + +If the man to perpetuate whose memory we have this day raised a statue +had been asked on what part of his busy life's work he set the highest +value, he would undoubtedly have pointed to his voluminous +contributions to theology. In season and out of season, he was the +steadfast champion of that hypothesis respecting the Divine nature +which is termed Unitarianism by its friends and Socinianism by its +foes. Regardless of odds, he was ready to do battle with all comers in +that cause; and if no adversaries entered the lists, he would sally +forth to seek them. + +To this, his highest ideal of duty, Joseph Priestley sacrificed the +vulgar prizes of life, which, assuredly, were within easy reach of a +man of his singular energy and varied abilities. For this object he put +aside, as of secondary importance, those scientific investigations +which he loved so well, and in which he showed himself so competent to +enlarge the boundaries of natural knowledge and to win fame. In this +cause he not only cheerfully suffered obloquy from the bigoted and the +unthinking, and came within sight of martyrdom; but bore with that +which is much harder to be borne than all these, the unfeigned +astonishment and hardly disguised contempt of a brilliant society, +composed of men whose sympathy and esteem must have been most dear to +him, and to whom it was simply incomprehensible that a philosopher +should seriously occupy himself with any form of Christianity. + +It appears to me that the man who, setting before himself such an ideal +of life, acted up to it consistently, is worthy of the deepest respect, +whatever opinion may be entertained as to the real value of the tenets +which he so zealously propagated and defended. + +But I am sure that I speak not only for myself, but for all this +assemblage, when I say that our purpose to-day is to do honour, not to +Priestley, the Unitarian divine, but to Priestley, the fearless +defender of rational freedom in thought and in action: to Priestley, +the philosophic thinker; to that Priestley who held a foremost place +among "the swift runners who hand over the lamp of life," [1] and +transmit from one generation to another the fire kindled, +in the childhood of the world, at the Promethean altar of Science. + +The main incidents of Priestley's life are so well known that I need +dwell upon them at no great length. + +Born in 1733, at Fieldhead, near Leeds, and brought up among Calvinists +of the straitest orthodoxy, the boy's striking natural ability led to +his being devoted to the profession of a minister of religion; and, in +1752, he was sent to the Dissenting Academy at Daventry--an institution +which authority left undisturbed, though its existence contravened the +law. The teachers under whose instruction and influence the young man +came at Daventry, carried out to the letter the injunction to "try all +things: hold fast that which is good," and encouraged the discussion of +every imaginable proposition with complete freedom, the leading +professors taking opposite sides; a discipline which, admirable as it +may be from a purely scientific point of view, would seem to be +calculated to make acute, rather than sound, divines. Priestley tells +us, in his "Autobiography," that he generally found himself on the +unorthodox side: and, as he grew older, and his faculties attained +their maturity, this native tendency towards heterodoxy grew with his +growth and strengthened with his strength. He passed from Calvinism to +Arianism; and finally, in middle life, landed in that very broad form +of Unitarianism by which his craving after a credible and consistent +theory of things was satisfied. + +On leaving Daventry Priestley became minister of a congregation, first +at Needham Market, and secondly at Nantwich; but whether on account of +his heterodox opinions, or of the stuttering which impeded his +expression of them in the pulpit, little success attended his efforts +in this capacity. In 1761, a career much more suited to his abilities +became open to him. He was appointed "tutor in the languages" in the +Dissenting Academy at Warrington, in which capacity, besides giving +three courses of lectures, he taught Latin, Greek, French, and Italian, +and read lectures on the theory of language and universal grammar, on +oratory, philosophical criticism, and civil law. And it is interesting +to observe that, as a teacher, he encouraged and cherished in those +whom he instructed the freedom which he had enjoyed, in his own student +days, at Daventry. One of his pupils tells us that, + + "At the conclusion of his lecture, he always encouraged his + students to express their sentiments relative to the subject of it, + and to urge any objections to what he had delivered, without + reserve. It pleased him when any one commenced such a conversation. + In order to excite the freest discussion, he occasionally invited + the students to drink tea with him, in order to canvass the + subjects of his lectures. I do not recollect that he ever showed + the least displeasure at the strongest objections that were made to + what he delivered, but I distinctly remember the smile of + approbation with which he usually received them: nor did he fail to + point out, in a very encouraging manner, the ingenuity or force of + any remarks that were made, when they merited these characters. His + object, as well as Dr. Aikin's, was to engage the students to + examine and decide for themselves, uninfluenced by the sentiments + of any other persons." [2] + +It would be difficult to give a better description of a model teacher +than that conveyed in these words. + +From his earliest days, Priestley had shown a strong bent towards the +study of nature; and his brother Timothy tells us that the boy put +spiders into bottles, to see how long they would live in the same +air--a curious anticipation of the investigations of his later years. +At Nantwich, where he set up a school, Priestley informs us that he +bought an air pump, an electrical machine, and other instruments, in +the use of which he instructed his scholars. But he does not seem to +have devoted himself seriously to physical science until 1766, when he +had the great good fortune to meet Benjamin Franklin, whose friendship +he ever afterwards enjoyed. Encouraged by Franklin, he wrote a "History +of Electricity," which was published in 1767, and appears to have met +with considerable success. + +In the same year, Priestley left Warrington to become the minister of a +congregation at Leeds; and, here, happening to live next door to a +public brewery, as he says, + + "I, at first, amused myself with making experiments on the fixed + air which I found ready-made in the process of fermentation. When I + removed from that house I was under the necessity of making fixed + air for myself; and one experiment leading to another, as I have + distinctly and faithfully noted in my various publications on the + subject, I by degrees contrived a convenient apparatus for the + purpose, but of the cheapest kind. + + "When I began these experiments I knew very little of _chemistry_, + and had, in a manner, no idea on the subject before I attended a + course of chemical lectures, delivered in the Academy at + Warrington, by Dr. Turner of Liverpool. But I have often thought + that, upon the whole, this circumstance was no disadvantage to me; + as, in this situation, I was led to devise an apparatus and + processes of my own, adapted to my peculiar views; whereas, if I + had been previously accustomed to the usual chemical processes, I + should not have so easily thought of any other, and without new + modes of operation, I should hardly have discovered anything + materially new." [3] + +The first outcome of Priestley's chemical work, published in 1772, was +of a very practical character. He discovered the way of impregnating +water with an excess of "fixed air," or carbonic acid, and thereby +producing what we now know as "soda water"--a service to naturally, and +still more to artificially, thirsty souls, which those whose parched +throats and hot heads are cooled by morning draughts of that beverage, +cannot too gratefully acknowledge. In the same year, Priestley +communicated the extensive series of observations which his industry +and ingenuity had accumulated, in the course of four years, to the +Royal Society, under the title of "Observations on Different Kinds of +Air"--a memoir which was justly regarded of so much merit and +importance, that the Society at once conferred upon the author the +highest distinction in their power, by awarding him the Copley Medal. + +In 1771 a proposal was made to Priestley to accompany Captain Cook in +his second voyage to the South Seas. He accepted it, and his +congregation agreed to pay an assistant to supply his place during his +absence. But the appointment lay in the hands of the Board of +Longitude, of which certain clergymen were members; and whether these +worthy ecclesiastics feared that Priestley's presence among the ship's +company might expose His Majesty's sloop _Resolution_ to the fate +which aforetime befell a certain ship that went from Joppa to Tarshish; +or whether they were alarmed lest a Socinian should undermine that +piety which, in the days of Commodore Trunnion, so strikingly +characterised sailors, does not appear; but, at any rate, they objected +to Priestley "on account of his religious principles," and appointed +the two Forsters, whose "religious principles," if they had been known +to these well-meaning but not far-sighted persons, would probably have +surprised them. + +In 1772 another proposal was made to Priestley. Lord Shelburne, +desiring a "literary companion," had been brought into communication +with Priestley by the good offices of a friend of both, Dr. Price; and +offered him the nominal post of librarian, with a good house and +appointments, and an annuity in case of the termination of the +engagement. Priestley accepted the offer, and remained with Lord +Shelburne for seven years, sometimes residing at Calne, sometimes +travelling abroad with the Earl. + +Why the connection terminated has never been exactly known; but it is +certain that Lord Shelburne behaved with the utmost consideration and +kindness towards Priestley; that he fulfilled his engagements to the +letter; and that, at a later period, he expressed a desire that +Priestley should return to his old footing in his house. Probably +enough, the politician, aspiring to the highest offices in the State, +may have found the position of the protector of a man who was being +denounced all over the country as an infidel and an atheist somewhat +embarrassing. In fact, a passage in Priestley's "Autobiography" on the +occasion of the publication of his "Disquisitions relating to Matter +and Spirit," which took place in 1777, indicates pretty clearly the +state of the case:-- + + "(126) It being probable that this publication would be unpopular, + and might be the means of bringing odium on my patron, several + attempts were made by his friends, though none by himself, to + dissuade me from persisting in it. But being, as I thought, engaged + in the cause of important truth, I proceeded without regard to any + consequences, assuring them that this publication should not be + injurious to his lordship." + +It is not unreasonable to suppose that his lordship, as a keen, +practical man of the world, did not derive much satisfaction from this +assurance. The "evident marks of dissatisfaction" which Priestley says +he first perceived in his patron in 1778, may well have arisen from the +peer's not unnatural uneasiness as to what his domesticated, but not +tamed, philosopher might write next, and what storm might thereby he +brought down on his own head; and it speaks very highly for Lord +Shelburne's delicacy that, in the midst of such perplexities, he made +not the least attempt to interfere with Priestley's freedom of action. +In 1780, however, he intimated to Dr. Price that he should be glad to +establish Priestley on his Irish estates: the suggestion was +interpreted, as Lord Shelburne probably intended it should be, and +Priestley left him, the annuity of L.150 a year, which had been promised +in view of such a contingency, being punctually paid. + +After leaving Calne, Priestley spent some little time in London, and +then, having settled in Birmingham at the desire of his brother-in-law, +he was soon invited to become the minister of a large congregation. +This settlement Priestley considered, at the time, to be "the happiest +event of his life." And well he might think so; for it gave him +competence and leisure; placed him within reach of the best makers of +apparatus of the day; made him a member of that remarkable "Lunar +Society," at whose meetings he could exchange thoughts with such men as +Watt, Wedgwood, Darwin, and Boulton; and threw open to him the pleasant +house of the Galtons of Barr, where these men, and others of less note, +formed a society of exceptional charm and intelligence. [4] + +But these halcyon days were ended by a bitter storm. The French +Revolution broke out. An electric shock ran through the nations; +whatever there was of corrupt and retrograde, and, at the same time, a +great deal of what there was of best and noblest, in European society +shuddered at the outburst of long-pent-up social fires. Men's feelings +were excited in a way that we, in this generation, can hardly +comprehend. Party wrath and virulence were expressed in a manner +unparalleled, and it is to be hoped impossible, in our times; and +Priestley and his friends were held up to public scorn, even in +Parliament, as fomenters of sedition. A "Church-and-King" cry was +raised against the Liberal Dissenters; and, in Birmingham, it was +intensified and specially directed towards Priestley by a local +controversy, in which he had engaged with his usual vigour. In 1791, +the celebration of the second anniversary of the taking of the Bastille +by a public dinner, with which Priestley had nothing whatever to do, +gave the signal to the loyal and pious mob, who, unchecked, and indeed +to some extent encouraged, by those who were responsible for order, had +the town at their mercy for three days. The chapels and houses of the +leading Dissenters were wrecked, and Priestley and his family had to +fly for their lives, leaving library, apparatus, papers, and all their +possessions, a prey to the flames. + +Priestley never returned to Birmingham. He bore the outrages and losses +inflicted upon him with extreme patience and sweetness, [5] and betook +himself to London. But even his scientific colleagues gave him a cold +shoulder; and though he was elected minister of a congregation at +Hackney, he felt his position to be insecure, and finally determined on +emigrating to the United States. He landed in America in 1794; lived +quietly with his sons at Northumberland, in Pennsylvania, where his +posterity still flourish; and, clear-headed and busy to the last, died +on the 6th of February 1804. + +Such were the conditions under which Joseph Priestley did the work +which lay before him, and then, as the Norse Sagas say, went out of the +story. The work itself was of the most varied kind. No human interest +was without its attraction for Priestley, and few men have ever had so +many irons in the fire at once; but, though he may have burned his +fingers a little, very few who have tried that operation have burned +their fingers so little. He made admirable discoveries in science; his +philosophical treatises are still well worth reading; his political +works are full of insight and replete with the spirit of freedom; and +while all these sparks flew off from his anvil, the controversial +hammer rained a hail of blows on orthodox priest and bishop. While thus +engaged, the kindly, cheerful doctor felt no more wrath or +uncharitableness towards his opponents than a smith does towards his +iron. But if the iron could only speak!--and the priests and bishops +took the point of view of the iron. + +No doubt what Priestley's friends repeatedly urged upon him--that he +would have escaped the heavier trials of his life and done more for the +advancement of knowledge, if he had confined himself to his scientific +pursuits and let his fellow-men go their way--was true. But it seems to +have been Priestley's feeling that he was a man and a citizen before he +was a philosopher, and that the duties of the two former positions are +at least as imperative as those of the latter. Moreover, there are men +(and I think Priestley was one of them) to whom the satisfaction of +throwing down a triumphant fallacy is as great as that which attends +the discovery of a new truth; who feel better satisfied with the +government of the world, when they have been helping Providence by +knocking an imposture on the head; and who care even more for freedom +of thought than for mere advance of knowledge. These men are the +Carnots who organise victory for truth, and they are, at least, as +important as the generals who visibly fight her battles in the field. + +Priestley's reputation as a man of science rests upon his numerous and +important contributions to the chemistry of gaseous bodies; and to form +a just estimate of the value of his work--of the extent to which it +advanced the knowledge of fact and the development of sound theoretical +views--we must reflect what chemistry was in the first half of the +eighteenth century. + +The vast science which now passes under that name had no existence. +Air, water, and fire were still counted among the elemental bodies; and +though Van Helmont, a century before, had distinguished different +kinds of air as _gas ventosum_ and _gas sylvestre_, and Boyle and Hales +had experimentally defined the physical properties of air, and +discriminated some of the various kinds of aeriform bodies, no one +suspected the existence of the numerous totally distinct gaseous +elements which are now known, or dreamed that the air we breathe and +the water we drink are compounds of gaseous elements. + +But, in 1754, a young Scotch physician, Dr. Black, made the first +clearing in this tangled backwood of knowledge. And it gives one a +wonderful impression of the juvenility of scientific chemistry to think +that Lord Brougham, whom so many of us recollect, attended Black's +lectures when he was a student in Edinburgh. Black's researches gave +the world the novel and startling conception of a gas that was a +permanently elastic fluid like air, but that differed from common air +in being much heavier, very poisonous, and in having the properties of +an acid, capable of neutralising the strongest alkalies; and it took +the world some time to become accustomed to the notion. + +A dozen years later, one of the most sagacious and accurate +investigators who has adorned this, or any other, country, Henry +Cavendish, published a memoir in the "Philosophical Transactions," in +which he deals not only with the "fixed air" (now called carbonic acid +or carbonic anhydride) of Black, but with "inflammable air," or what we +now term hydrogen. + +By the rigorous application of weight and measure to all his processes, +Cavendish implied the belief subsequently formulated by Lavoisier, +that, in chemical processes, matter is neither created nor destroyed, +and indicated the path along which all future explorers must travel. +Nor did he himself halt until this path led him, in 1784, to the +brilliant and fundamental discovery that water is composed of two gases +united in fixed and constant proportions. + +It is a trying ordeal for any man to be compared with Black and +Cavendish, and Priestley cannot be said to stand on their level. +Nevertheless his achievements are not only great in themselves, but +truly wonderful, if we consider the disadvantages under which he +laboured. Without the careful scientific training of Black, without the +leisure and appliances secured by the wealth of Cavendish, he scaled +the walls of science as so many Englishmen have done before and since +his day; and trusting to mother wit to supply the place of training, +and to ingenuity to create apparatus out of washing tubs, he discovered +more new gases than all his predecessors put together had done. He laid +the foundations of gas analysis; he discovered the complementary +actions of animal and vegetable life upon the constituents of the +atmosphere; and, finally, he crowned his work, this day one hundred +years ago, by the discovery of that "pure dephlogisticated air" to +which the French chemists subsequently gave the name of oxygen. Its +importance, as the constituent of the atmosphere which disappears in +the processes of respiration and combustion, and is restored by green +plants growing in sunshine, was proved somewhat later. For these +brilliant discoveries, the Royal Society elected Priestley a fellow and +gave him their medal, while the Academies of Paris and St. Petersburg +conferred their membership upon him. Edinburgh had made him an honorary +doctor of laws at an early period of his career; but, I need hardly +add, that a man of Priestley's opinions received no recognition from +the universities of his own country. + +That Priestley's contributions to the knowledge of chemical fact were +of the greatest importance, and that they richly deserve all the praise +that has been awarded to them, is unquestionable; but it must, at the +same time, be admitted that he had no comprehension of the deeper +significance of his work; and, so far from contributing anything to the +theory of the facts which he discovered, or assisting in their rational +explanation, his influence to the end of his life was warmly exerted in +favour of error. From first to last, he was a stiff adherent of the +phlogiston doctrine which was prevalent when his studies commenced; +and, by a curious irony of fate, the man who by the discovery of what +he called "dephlogisticated air" furnished the essential datum for the +true theory of combustion, of respiration, and of the composition of +water, to the end of his days fought against the inevitable corollaries +from his own labours. His last scientific work, published in 1800, +bears the title, "The Doctrine of Phlogiston established, and that of +the Composition of Water refuted." + +When Priestley commenced his studies, the current belief was, that +atmospheric air, freed from accidental impurities, is a simple +elementary substance, indestructible and unalterable, as water was +supposed to be. When a combustible burned, or when an animal breathed +in air, it was supposed that a substance, "phlogiston," the matter of +heat and light, passed from the burning or breathing body into it, and +destroyed its powers of supporting life and combustion. Thus, air +contained in a vessel in which a lighted candle had gone out, or a +living animal had breathed until it could breathe no longer, was called +"phlogisticated." The same result was supposed to be brought about by +the addition of what Priestley called "nitrous gas" to common air. + +In the course of his researches, Priestley found that the quantity of +common air which can thus become "phlogisticated," amounts to about +one-fifth the volume of the whole quantity submitted to experiment. +Hence it appeared that common air consists, to the extent of +four-fifths of its volume, of air which is already "phlogisticated"; +while the other fifth is free from phlogiston, or "dephlogisticated." +On the other hand, Priestley found that air "phlogisticated" by +combustion or respiration could be "dephlogisticated," or have the +properties of pure common air restored to it, by the action of green +plants in sunshine. The question, therefore, would naturally arise--as +common air can be wholly phlogisticated by combustion, and converted +into a substance which will no longer support combustion, is it +possible to get air that shall be less phlogisticated than common air, +and consequently support combustion better than common air does? + +Now, Priestley says that, in 1774, the possibility of obtaining air +less phlogisticated than common air had not occurred to him. [6] But in +pursuing his experiments on the evolution of air from various bodies by +means of heat, it happened that, on the 1st of August 1774, he threw +the heat of the sun, by means of a large burning glass which he had +recently obtained, upon a substance which was then called _mercurius +calcinatus per se_, and which is commonly known as red precipitate. + + "I presently found that, by means of this lens, air was expelled + from it very readily. Having got about three or four times as much + as the bulk of my materials, I admitted water to it, and found that + it was not imbibed by it. But what surprised me more than I can + well express, was that a candle burned in this air with a + remarkably vigorous flame, very much like that enlarged flame with + which a candle burns in nitrous air, exposed to iron or lime of + sulphur; but as I had got nothing like this remarkable appearance + from any kind of air besides this particular modification of + nitrous air, and I knew no nitrous acid was used in the preparation + of _mercurius calcinatus_, I was utterly at a loss how to + account for it. + + "In this case also, though I did not give sufficient attention to + the circumstance at that time, the flame of the candle, besides + being larger, burned with more splendour and heat than in that + species of nitrous air; and a piece of red-hot wood sparkled in it, + exactly like paper dipped in a solution of nitre, and it consumed + very fast--an experiment which I had never thought of trying with + nitrous air." [7] + +Priestley obtained the same sort of air from red lead, but, as he says +himself, he remained in ignorance of the properties of this new kind of +air for seven months, or until March 1775, when he found that the new +air behaved with "nitrous gas" in the same way as the dephlogisticated +part of common air does; [8] but that, instead of being diminished to +four-fifths, it almost completely vanished, and, therefore, showed +itself to be "between five and six times as good as the best common air +I have ever met with." [9] As this new air thus appeared to be +completely free from phlogiston, Priestley called it "dephlogisticated +air." + +What was the nature of this air? Priestley found that the same kind of +air was to be obtained by moistening with the spirit of nitre (which he +terms nitrous acid) any kind of earth that is free from phlogiston, and +applying heat; and consequently he says: "There remained no doubt on my +mind but that the atmospherical air, or the thing that we breathe, +consists of the nitrous acid and earth, with so much phlogiston as is +necessary to its elasticity, and likewise so much more as is required +to bring it from its state of perfect purity to the mean condition in +which we find it." [10] + +Priestley's view, in fact, is that atmospheric air is a kind of +saltpetre, in which the potash is replaced by some unknown earth. +And in speculating on the manner in which saltpetre is formed, +he enunciates the hypothesis, "that nitre is, formed by a real +_decomposition of the air itself_, the _bases_ that are presented to +it having, in such circumstances, a nearer affinity with the spirit +of nitre than that kind of earth with which it is united in the +atmosphere." [11] + +It would have been hard for the most ingenious person to have wandered +farther from the truth than Priestley does in this hypothesis; and, +though Lavoisier undoubtedly treated Priestley very ill, and pretended +to have discovered dephlogisticated air, or oxygen, as he called it, +independently, we can almost forgive him when we reflect how different +were the ideas which the great French chemist attached to the body +which Priestley discovered. + +They are like two navigators of whom the first sees a new country, but +takes clouds for mountains and mirage for lowlands; while the second +determines its length and breadth, and lays down on a chart its exact +place, so that, thenceforth, it serves as a guide to his successors, +and becomes a secure outpost whence new explorations may be pushed. + +Nevertheless, as Priestley himself somewhere remarks, the first object +of physical science is to ascertain facts, and the service which he +rendered to chemistry by the definite establishment of a large number +of new and fundamentally important facts, is such as to entitle him to +a very high place among the fathers of chemical science. + +It is difficult to say whether Priestley's philosophical, political, +or theological views were most responsible for the bitter hatred which +was borne to him by a large body of his country-men, [12] and which +found its expression in the malignant insinuations in which Burke, to +his everlasting shame, indulged in the House of Commons. + +Without containing much that will be new to the readers of Hobbs, +Spinoza, Collins, Hume, and Hartley, and, indeed, while making no +pretensions to originality, Priestley's "Disquisitions relating to +Matter and Spirit," and his "Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity +Illustrated," are among the most powerful, clear, and unflinching +expositions of materialism and necessarianism which exist in the +English language, and are still well worth reading. + +Priestley denied the freedom of the will in the sense of its +self-determination; he denied the existence of a soul distinct from the +body; and as a natural consequence, he denied the natural immortality +of man. + +In relation to these matters English opinion, a century ago, was very +much what it is now. + +A man may be a necessarian without incurring graver reproach than that +implied in being called a gloomy fanatic, necessarianism, though very +shocking, having a note of Calvanistic orthodoxy; but, if a man is a +materialist; or, if good authorities say he is and must be so, in spite +of his assertion to the contrary; or, if he acknowledge himself unable +to see good reasons for believing in the natural immortality of man, +respectable folks look upon him as an unsafe neighbour of a cash-box, +as an actual or potential sensualist, the more virtuous in outward +seeming, the more certainly loaded with secret "grave personal sins." + +Nevertheless, it is as certain as anything can be, that Joseph +Priestley was no gloomy fanatic, but as cheerful and kindly a soul as +ever breathed, the idol of children; a man who was hated only by those +who did not know him, and who charmed away the bitterest prejudices in +personal intercourse; a man who never lost a friend, and the best +testimony to whose worth is the generous and tender warmth with which +his many friends vied with one another in rendering him substantial +help, in all the crises of his career. + +The unspotted purity of Priestley's life, the strictness of his +performance of every duty, his transparent sincerity, the +unostentatious and deep-seated piety which breathes through all his +correspondence, are in themselves a sufficient refutation of the +hypothesis, invented by bigots to cover uncharitableness, that such +opinions as his must arise from moral defects. And his statue will do +as good service as the brazen image that was set upon a pole before the +Israelites, if those who have been bitten by the fiery serpents of +sectarian hatred, which still haunt this wilderness of a world, are +made whole by looking upon the image of a heretic who was yet a saint. + +Though Priestley did not believe in the natural immortality of man, he +held with an almost naive realism that man would be raised from the +dead by a direct exertion of the power of God, and thenceforward be +immortal. And it may be as well for those who may be shocked by this +doctrine to know that views, substantially identical with Priestley's, +have been advocated, since his time, by two prelates of the Anglican +Church: by Dr. Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, in his well-known +"Essays"; [13] and by Dr. Courtenay, Bishop of Kingston in Jamaica, +the first edition of whose remarkable book "On the Future States," +dedicated to Archbishop Whately, was published in 1843 and the second +in 1857. According to Bishop Courtenay, + + "The death of the body will cause a cessation of all the activity + of the mind by way of natural consequence; to continue for ever + UNLESS the Creator should interfere." + +And again:-- + + "The natural end of human existence is the 'first death, the + dreamless slumber of the grave, wherein man lies spell-bound, soul + and body, under the dominion of sin and death--that whatever modes + of conscious existence, whatever future states of 'life' or of + 'torment' beyond Hades are reserved for man, are results of our + blessed Lord's victory over sin and death; that the resurrection of + the dead must be preliminary to their entrance into either of the + future states, and that the nature and even existence of these + states, and even the mere fact that there is a futurity of + consciousness, can be known _only_ through God's revelation of + Himself in the Person and the Gospel of His Son."--P. 389. + +And now hear Priestley:-- + + "Man, according to this system (of materialism), is no more than we + now see of him. His being commences at the time of his conception, + or perhaps at an earlier period. The corporeal and mental faculties, + in being in the same substance, grow, ripen, and decay together; and + whenever the system is dissolved it continues in a state of + dissolution till it shall please that Almighty Being who called it + into existence to restore it to life again."--"Matter and Spirit," + p. 49. + +And again:-- + + "The doctrine of the Scripture is, that God made man of the dust of + the ground, and by simply animating this organised matter, made man + that living percipient and intelligent being that he is. According + to Revelation, _death_ is a state of rest and insensibility, + and our only though sure hope of a future life is founded on the + doctrine of the resurrection of the whole man at some distant + period; this assurance being sufficiently confirmed to us both by + the evident tokens of a Divine commission attending the persons who + delivered the doctrine, and especially by the actual resurrection of + Jesus Christ, which is more authentically attested than any other + fact in history."--_Ibid_., p. 247. + +We all know that "a saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn;" but it is +not yet admitted that the views which are consistent with such +saintliness in lawn, become diabolical when held by a mere dissenter. +[14] + +I am not here either to defend or to attack Priestley's philosophical +views, and I cannot say that I am personally disposed to attach much +value to episcopal authority in philosophical questions; but it seems +right to call attention to the fact, that those of Priestley's opinions +which have brought most odium upon him have been openly promulgated, +without challenge, by persons occupying the highest positions in the +State Church. + +I must confess that what interests me most about Priestley's +materialism, is the evidence that he saw dimly the seed of destruction +which such materialism carries within its own bosom. In the course of +his reading for his "History of Discoveries relating to Vision, Light, +and Colours," he had come upon the speculations of Boscovich and +Michell, and had been led to admit the sufficiently obvious truth that +our knowledge of matter is a knowledge of its properties; and that of +its substance--if it have a substance--we know nothing. And this led to +the further admission that, so far as we can know, there may be no +difference between the substance of matter and the substance of spirit +("Disquisitions," p. 16). A step farther would have shown Priestley +that his materialism was, essentially, very little different from the +Idealism of his contemporary, the Bishop of Cloyne. + +As Priestley's philosophy is mainly a clear statement of the views of +the deeper thinkers of his day, so are his political conceptions based +upon those of Locke. Locke's aphorism that "the end of government is +the good of mankind," is thus expanded by Priestley:-- + + "It must necessarily be understood, therefore, whether it be + expressed or not, that all people live in society for their mutual + advantage; so that the good and happiness of the members, that is, + of the majority of the members, of any state, is the great standard + by which everything relating to that state must finally be + determined." [15] + +The little sentence here interpolated, "that is, of the majority of the +members of any state," appears to be that passage which suggested to +Bentham, according to his own acknowledgment, the famous "greatest +happiness" formula, which by substituting "happiness" for "good," has +converted a noble into an ignoble principle. But I do not call to mind +that there is any utterance in Locke quite so outspoken as the +following passage in the "Essay on the First Principles of +Government." After laying down as "a fundamental maxim in all +Governments," the proposition that "kings, senators, and nobles" are +"the servants of the public," Priestley goes on to say:-- + + "But in the largest states, if the abuses of the government should + at any time be great and manifest; if the servants of the people, + forgetting their masters and their masters' interest, should pursue + a separate one of their own; if, instead of considering that they + are made for the people, they should consider the people as made + for them; if the oppressions and violation of right should be + great, flagrant, and universally resented; if the tyrannical + governors should have no friends but a few sycophants, who had long + preyed upon the vitals of their fellow-citizens, and who might be + expected to desert a government whenever their interests should be + detached from it: if, in consequence of these circumstances, it + should become manifest that the risk which would be run in + attempting a revolution would be trifling, and the evils which + might be apprehended from it were far less than those which + were actually suffered and which were daily increasing; in the name + of God, I ask, what principles are those which ought to restrain an + injured and insulted people from asserting their natural rights, + and from changing or even punishing their governors--that is, their + servants--who had abused their trust, or from altering the whole + form of their government, if it appeared to be of a structure so + liable to abuse?" + +As a Dissenter, subject to the operation of the Corporation and Test +Acts, and as a Unitarian excluded from the benefit of the Toleration +Act, it is not surprising to find that Priestley had very definite +opinions about Ecclesiastical Establishments; the only wonder is that +these opinions were so moderate as the following passages show them to +have been:-- + + "Ecclesiastical authority may have been necessary in the infant + state of society, and, for the same reason, it may perhaps continue + to be, in some degree, necessary as long as society is imperfect; + and therefore may not be entirely abolished till civil governments + have arrived at a much greater degree of perfection. If, therefore, + I were asked whether I should approve of the immediate dissolution + of all the ecclesiastical establishments in Europe, I should + answer, No.... Let experiment be first made of _alterations_, + or, which is the same thing, of _better establishments_ than + the present. Let them be reformed in many essential articles, and + then not thrown aside entirely till it be found by experience that + no good can be made of them." + +Priestley goes on to suggest four such reforms of a capital nature:-- + + "1. Let the Articles of Faith to be subscribed by candidates for + the ministry be greatly reduced. In the formulary of the Church of + England, might not thirty-eight out of the thirty-nine be very well + spared? It is a reproach to any Christian establishment if every + man cannot claim the benefit of it who can say that he believes + in the religion of Jesus Christ as it is set forth in the New + Testament. You say the terms are so general that even Deists would + quibble and insinuate themselves. I answer that all the articles + which are subscribed at present by no means exclude Deists who will + prevaricate; and upon this scheme you would at least exclude fewer + honest men." [16] + +The second reform suggested is the equalisation, in proportion to work +done, of the stipends of the clergy; the third, the exclusion of the +Bishops from Parliament; and the fourth, complete toleration, so that +every man may enjoy the rights of a citizen, and be qualified to serve +his country, whether he belong to the Established Church or not. + +Opinions such as those I have quoted, respecting the duties and the +responsibilities of governors, are the commonplaces of modern +Liberalism; and Priestley's views on Ecclesiastical Establishments +would, I fear, meet with but a cool reception, as altogether too +conservative, from a large proportion of the lineal descendants of the +people who taught their children to cry "Damn Priestley;" and with that +love for the practical application of science which is the source of +the greatness of Birmingham, tried to set fire to the doctor's house +with sparks from his own electrical machine; thereby giving the man +they called an incendiary and raiser of sedition against Church and +King, an appropriately experimental illustration of the nature of arson +and riot. + +If I have succeeded in putting before you the main features of +Priestley's work, its value will become apparent when we compare the +condition of the English nation, as he knew it, with its present state. + +The fact that France has been for eighty-five years trying, without +much success, to right herself after the great storm of the Revolution, +is not unfrequently cited among us as an indication of some inherent +incapacity for self-government among the French people. I think, +however, that Englishmen who argue thus, forget that, from the meeting +of the Long Parliament in 1640, to the last Stuart rebellion in 1745, +is a hundred and five years, and that, in the middle of the last +century, we had but just safely freed ourselves from our Bourbons and +all that they represented. The corruption of our state was as bad as +that of the Second Empire. Bribery was the instrument of government, +and peculation its reward. Four-fifths of the seats in the House of +Commons were more or less openly dealt with as property. A minister had +to consider the state of the vote market, and the sovereign secured a +sufficiency of "king's friends" by payments allotted with retail, +rather than royal, sagacity. + +Barefaced and brutal immorality and intemperance pervaded the land, +from the highest to the lowest classes of society. The Established +Church was torpid, as far as it was not a scandal; but those who +dissented from it came within the meshes of the Act of Uniformity, the +Test Act, and the Corporation Act. By law, such a man as Priestley, +being a Unitarian, could neither teach nor preach, and was liable to +ruinous fines and long imprisonment. [17] In those days the guns that +were pointed by the Church against the Dissenters were shotted. The law +was a cesspool of iniquity and cruelty. Adam Smith was a new prophet +whom few regarded, and commerce was hampered by idiotic impediments, +and ruined by still more absurd help, on the part of government. + +Birmingham, though already the centre of a considerable industry, was a +mere village as compared with its present extent. People who travelled +went about armed, by reason of the abundance of highwaymen and the +paucity and inefficiency of the police. Stage coaches had not reached +Birmingham, and it took three days to get to London. Even canals were a +recent and much opposed invention. + +Newton had laid the foundation of a mechanical conception of the +physical universe: Hartley, putting a modern face upon ancient +materialism, had extended that mechanical conception to psychology; +Linnaeus and Haller were beginning to introduce method and order into +the chaotic accumulation of biological facts. But those parts of +physical science which deal with heat, electricity, and magnetism, and +above all, chemistry, in the modern sense, can hardly be said to have +had an existence. No one knew that two of the old elemental bodies, air +and water, are compounds, and that a third, fire, is not a substance +but a motion. The great industries that have grown out of the +applications of modern scientific discoveries had no existence, and the +man who should have foretold their coming into being in the days of his +son, would have been regarded as a mad enthusiast. + +In common with many other excellent persons, Priestley believed that +man is capable of reaching, and will eventually attain, perfection. If +the temperature of space presented no obstacle, I should be glad to +entertain the same idea; but judging from the past progress of our +species, I am afraid that the globe will have cooled down so far, +before the advent of this natural millennium, that we shall be, at +best, perfected Esquimaux. For all practical purposes, however, it is +enough that man may visibly improve his condition in the course of a +century or so. And, if the picture of the state of things in +Priestley's time, which I have just drawn, have any pretence to +accuracy, I think it must be admitted that there has been a +considerable change for the better. + +I need not advert to the well-worn topic of material advancement, in a +place in which the very stones testify to that progress--in the town of +Watt and of Boulton. I will only remark, in passing, that material +advancement has its share in moral and intellectual progress. Becky +Sharp's acute remark that it is not difficult to be virtuous on ten +thousand a year, has its application to nations; and it is futile to +expect a hungry and squalid population to be anything but violent and +gross. But as regards other than material welfare, although perfection +is not yet in sight--even from the mast-head--it is surely true that +things are much better than they were. + +Take the upper and middle classes as a whole, and it may be said that +open immorality and gross intemperance have vanished. Four and six +bottle men are as extinct as the dodo. Women of good repute do not +gamble, and talk modelled upon Dean Swift's "Art of Polite +Conversation" would be tolerated in no decent kitchen. + +Members of the legislature are not to be bought; and constituents are +awakening to the fact that votes must not be sold--even for such +trifles as rabbits and tea and cake. Political power has passed into +the hands of the masses of the people. Those whom Priestley calls their +servants have recognised their position, and have requested the master +to be so good as to go to school and fit himself for the administration +of his property. In ordinary life, no civil disability attaches to any +one on theological grounds, and high offices of the state are open to +Papist, Jew, and Secularist. + +Whatever men's opinions as to the policy of Establishment, no one can +hesitate to admit that the clergy of the Church are men of pure life +and conversation, zealous in the discharge of their duties; and at +present, apparently, more bent on prosecuting one another than on +meddling with Dissenters. Theology itself has broadened so much, that +Anglican divines put forward doctrines more liberal than those of +Priestley; and, in our state-supported churches, one listener may hear +a sermon to which Bossuet might have given his approbation, while +another may hear a discourse in which Socrates would find nothing new. + +But great as these changes may be, they sink into insignificance beside +the progress of physical science, whether we consider the improvement +of methods of investigation, or the increase in bulk of solid +knowledge. Consider that the labours of Laplace, of Young, of Davy, and +of Faraday; of Cuvier, of Lamarck, and of Robert Brown; of Von Baer, +and of Schwann; of Smith and of Hutton, have all been carried on since +Priestley discovered oxygen; and consider that they are now things of +the past, concealed by the industry of those who have built upon them, +as the first founders of a coral reef are hidden beneath the life's +work of their successors; consider that the methods of physical science +are slowly spreading into all investigations, and that proofs as valid +as those required by her canons of investigation are being demanded of +all doctrines which ask for men's assent; and you will have a faint +image of the astounding difference in this respect between the +nineteenth century and the eighteenth. + +If we ask what is the deeper meaning of all these vast changes, I think +there can be but one reply. They mean that reason has asserted and +exercised her primacy over all provinces of human activity: that +ecclesiastical authority has been relegated to its proper place; that +the good of the governed has been finally recognised as the end of +government, and the complete responsibility of governors to the people +as its means; and that the dependence of natural phenomena in general +on the laws of action of what we call matter has become an axiom. + +But it was to bring these things about, and to enforce the recognition +of these truths, that Joseph Priestley laboured. If the nineteenth +century is other and better than the eighteenth, it is, in great +measure, to him, and to such men as he, that we owe the change. If the +twentieth century is to be better than the nineteenth, it will be +because there are among us men who walk in Priestley's footsteps. + +Such men are not those whom their own generation delights to honour; +such men, in fact, rarely trouble themselves about honour, but ask, in +another spirit than Falstaff's, "What is honour? Who hath it? He that +died o' Wednesday." But whether Priestley's lot be theirs, and a future +generation, in justice and in gratitude, set up their statues; or +whether their names and fame are blotted out from remembrance, their +work will live as long as time endures. To all eternity, the sum of +truth and right will have been increased by their means; to all +eternity, falsehood and injustice will be the weaker because they have +lived. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] "Quasi cursores, vitai lampada tradunt."--LUCR. _De Rerum Nat_. ii. +78. + +[2] _Life and Correspondence of Dr. Priestley_, by J. T. Rutt. Vol. I. +p. 50. + +[3] _Autobiography_, s.s. 100, 101. + +[4] See _The Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck_. Mrs. +Schimmelpenninck (_nee_ Galton) remembered Priestley very well, +and her description of him is worth quotation:--"A man of admirable +simplicity, gentleness and kindness of heart, united with great +acuteness of intellect. I can never forget the impression produced on +me by the serene expression of his countenance. He, indeed, seemed +present with God by recollection, and with man by cheerfulness. I +remember that, in the assembly of these distinguished men, amongst whom +Mr. Boulton, by his noble manner, his fine countenance (which much +resembled that of Louis XIV.), and princely munificence, stood +pre-eminently as the great Mecaenas; even as a child, I used to feel, +when Dr. Priestley entered after him, that the glory of the one was +terrestrial, that of the other celestial; and utterly far as I am +removed from a belief in the sufficiency of Dr. Priestley's theological +creed, I cannot but here record this evidence of the eternal power of +any portion of the truth held in its vitality." + +[5] Even Mrs. Priestley, who might be forgiven for regarding the +destroyers of her household gods with some asperity, contents herself, +in writing to Mrs. Barbauld, with the sarcasm that the Birmingham +people "will scarcely find so many respectable characters, a second +time, to make a bonfire of." + +[6] _Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air_, vol. +ii. p. 31. + +[7] _Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air_, vol. +ii. pp. 34, 35. + +[8] _Ibid_. vol. i. p. 40. + +[9] _Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air_, vol. ii. +p. 48. + +[10] _Ibid_. p. 55. + +[11] _Ibid_. p. 60. The italics are Priestley's own. + +[12] "In all the newspapers and most of the periodical publications I +was represented as an unbeliever in Revelation, and no better than an +atheist."--_Autobiography_, Rutt, vol i. p. 124. "On the walls of +houses, etc., and especially where I usually went, were to be seen, in +large characters, 'MADAN FOR EVER; DAMN PRIESTLEY; NO PRESBYTERIANISM; +DAMN THE PRESBYTERIANS,' etc., etc.; and, at one time, I was followed +by a number of boys, who left their play, repeating what they had seen +on the walls, and shouting out, '_Damn Priestley; damn him, damn +him, for ever, for ever,_' etc., etc. This was no doubt a lesson +which they had been taught by their parents, and what they, I fear, had +learned from their superiors."--_Appeal to the Public on the Subject +of the Riots at Birmingham_. + +[13] First Series. _On Some of the Peculiarities of the Christian +Religion_. Essay I. "Revelation of a Future State." + +[14] Not only is Priestley at one with Bishop Courtenay in this matter, +but with Hartley and Bonnet, both of them stout champions of +Christianity. Moreover, Archbishop Whately's essay is little better +than an expansion of the first paragraph of Hume's famous essay on the +Immortality of the Soul:--"By the mere light of reason it seems +difficult to prove the immortality of the soul; the arguments for it +are commonly derived either from metaphysical topics, or moral, or +physical. But it is in reality the Gospel, and the Gospel alone, that +has brought _life and immortality to light_." It is impossible to +imagine that a man of Whately's tastes and acquirements had not read +Hume or Hartley, though he refers to neither. + +[15] _Essay on the First Principles of Government_, Second edition, +1771. + +[16] "Utility of Establishments," in _Essay on First Principles of +Government_, 1771. + +[17] In 1732 Doddridge was cited for teaching without the Bishop's +leave, at Northampton. + + + + +II + +ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES + +[1854] + + +The subject to which I have to beg your attention during the ensuing +hour is "The Relation of Physiological Science to other branches of +Knowledge." + +Had circumstances permitted of the delivery, in their strict logical +order, of that series of discourses of which the present lecture is a +member, I should have preceded my friend and colleague Mr. Henfrey, who +addressed you on Monday last; but while, for the sake of that order, I +must beg you to suppose that this discussion of the Educational +bearings of Biology in general _does_ precede that of Special +Zoology and Botany, I am rejoiced to be able to take advantage +of the light thus already thrown upon the tendency and methods of +Physiological Science. + +Regarding Physiological Science, then, in its widest sense--as the +equivalent of _Biology_--the Science of Individual Life--we have to +consider in succession: + +1. Its position and scope as a branch of knowledge. + +2. Its value as a means of mental discipline. + +3. Its worth as practical information. + +And lastly, + +4. At what period it may best be made a branch of Education. + +Our conclusions on the first of these heads must depend, of course, +upon the nature of the subject-matter of Biology; and I think a few +preliminary considerations will place before you in a clear light the +vast difference which exists between the living bodies with which +Physiological science is concerned, and the remainder of the +universe;--between the phaenomena of Number and Space, of Physical and +of Chemical force, on the one hand, and those of Life on the other. + +The mathematician, the physicist, and the chemist contemplate things in +a condition of rest; they look upon a state of equilibrium as that to +which all bodies normally tend. + +The mathematician does not suppose that a quantity will alter, or that +a given point in space will change its direction with regard to another +point, spontaneously. And it is the same with the physicist. When +Newton saw the apple fall, he concluded at once that the act of falling +was not the result of any power inherent in the apple, but that it was +the result of the action of something else on the apple. In a similar +manner, all physical force is regarded as the disturbance of an +equilibrium to which things tended before its exertion,--to which they +will tend again after its cessation. + +The chemist equally regards chemical change in a body as the effect of +the action of something external to the body changed. A chemical +compound once formed would persist for ever, if no alteration took +place in surrounding conditions. + +But to the student of Life the aspect of Nature is reversed. Here, +incessant, and, so far as we know, spontaneous change is the rule, rest +the exception--the anomaly to be accounted for. Living things have no +inertia, and tend to no equilibrium. + +Permit me, however, to give more force and clearness to these somewhat +abstract considerations by an illustration or two. + +Imagine a vessel full of water, at the ordinary temperature, in an +atmosphere saturated with vapour. The _quantity_ and the _figure_ of that +water will not change, so far as we know, for ever. + +Suppose a lump of gold be thrown into the vessel--motion and +disturbance of figure exactly proportional to the momentum of the gold +will take place. But after a time the effects of this disturbance will +subside--equilibrium will be restored, and the water will return to its +passive state. + +Expose the water to cold--it will solidify--and in so doing its +particles will arrange themselves in definite crystalline shapes. But +once formed, these crystals change no further. + +Again, substitute for the lump of gold some substance capable of +entering into chemical relations with the water:--say, a mass of that +substance which is called "protein"--the substance of flesh:--a very +considerable disturbance of equilibrium will take place--all sorts of +chemical compositions and decompositions will occur; but in the end, as +before, the result will be the resumption of a condition of rest. + +Instead of such a mass of _dead_ protein, however, take a particle of +_living_ protein--one of those minute microscopic living things which +throng our pools, and are known as Infusoria--such a creature, for +instance, as an Euglena, and place it in our vessel of water. It is +a round mass provided with a long filament, and except in this +peculiarity of shape, presents no appreciable physical or chemical +difference whereby it might be distinguished from the particle of dead +protein. + +But the difference in the phaenomena to which it will give rise is +immense: in the first place it will develop a vast quantity of physical +force--cleaving the water in all directions with considerable rapidity +by means of the vibrations of the long filament or cilium. + +Nor is the amount of chemical energy which the little creature +possesses less striking. It is a perfect laboratory in itself, and it +will act and react upon the water and the matters contained therein; +converting them into new compounds resembling its own substance, and at +the same time giving up portions of its own substance which have become +effete. + +Furthermore, the Euglena will increase in size; but this increase is by +no means unlimited, as the increase of a crystal might be. After it has +grown to a certain extent it divides, and each portion assumes the form +of the original, and proceeds to repeat the process of growth and +division. + +Nor is this all. For after a series of such divisions and subdivisions, +these minute points assume a totally new form, lose their long +tails--round themselves, and secrete a sort of envelope or box, in +which they remain shut up for a time, eventually to resume, directly or +indirectly, their primitive mode of existence. + +Now, so far as we know, there is no natural limit to the existence of +the Euglena, or of any other living germ. A living species once +launched into existence tends to live for ever. + +Consider how widely different this living particle is from the dead +atoms with which the physicist and chemist have to do! + +The particle of gold falls to the bottom and rests--the particle of +dead protein decomposes and disappears--it also rests: but the +_living_ protein mass neither tends to exhaustion of its forces nor +to any permanency of form, but is essentially distinguished as a +disturber of equilibrium so far as force is concerned,--as undergoing +continual metamorphosis and change, in point of form. + +Tendency to equilibrium of force and to permanency of form, then, are +the characters of that portion of the universe which does not live--the +domain of the chemist and physicist. + +Tendency to disturb existing equilibrium--to take on forms which +succeed one another in definite cycles--is the character of the living +world. + +What is the cause of this wonderful difference between the dead +particle and the living particle of matter appearing in other respects +identical? that difference to which we give the name of Life? + +I, for one, cannot tell you. It may be that, by and by, philosophers +will discover some higher laws of which the facts of life are +particular cases--very possibly they will find out some bond between +physico-chemical phaenomena on the one hand, and vital phaenomena on +the other. At present, however, we assuredly know of none; and I think +we shall exercise a wise humility in confessing that, for us at least, +this successive assumption of different states--(external conditions +remaining the same)--this _spontaneity of action_--if I may use a term +which implies more than I would be answerable for--which constitutes +so vast and plain a practical distinction between living bodies and +those which do not live, is an ultimate fact; indicating as such, the +existence of a broad line of demarcation between the subject-matter +of Biological and that of all other sciences. + +For I would have it understood that this simple Euglena is the type of +_all_ living things, so far as the distinction between these and +inert matter is concerned. That cycle of changes, which is constituted +by perhaps not more than two or three steps in the Euglena, is as +clearly manifested in the multitudinous stages through which the germ +of an oak or of a man passes. Whatever forms the Living Being may take +on, whether simple or complex, _production, growth, reproduction,_ are +the phaenomena which distinguish it from that which does not live. + +If this be true, it is clear that the student, in passing from the +physico-chemical to the physiological sciences, enters upon a totally +new order of facts; and it will next be for us to consider how far +these new facts involve _new_ methods, or require a modification of +those with which he is already acquainted. Now a great deal is said +about the peculiarity of the scientific method in general, and of the +different methods which are pursued in the different sciences. The +Mathematics are said to have one special method; Physics another, +Biology a third, and so forth. For my own part, I must confess that I +do not understand this phraseology. + +So far as I can arrive at any clear comprehension of the matter, +Science is not, as many would seem to suppose, a modification of the +black art, suited to the tastes of the nineteenth century, and +flourishing mainly in consequence of the decay of the Inquisition. + +Science is, I believe, nothing but _trained and organised common +sense_, differing from the latter only as a veteran may differ from +a raw recruit: and its methods differ from those of common sense only +so far as the guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in +which a savage wields his club. The primary power is the same in each +case, and perhaps the untutored savage has the more brawny arm of +the two. The _real_ advantage lies in the point and polish of the +swordsman's weapon; in the trained eye quick to spy out the weakness of +the adversary; in the ready hand prompt to follow it on the instant. +But, after all, the sword exercise is only the hewing and poking of the +clubman developed and perfected. + +So, the vast results obtained by Science are won by no mystical +faculties, by no mental processes, other than those which are practised +by every one of us, in the humblest and meanest affairs of life. A +detective policeman discovers a burglar from the marks made by his +shoe, by a mental process identical with that by which Cuvier restored +the extinct animals of Montmartre from fragments of their bones. Nor +does that process of induction and deduction by which a lady, finding a +stain of a peculiar kind upon her dress, concludes that somebody has +upset the inkstand thereon, differ in any way, in kind, from that by +which Adams and Leverrier discovered a new planet. + +The man of science, in fact, simply uses with scrupulous exactness the +methods which we all, habitually and at every moment, use carelessly; +and the man of business must as much avail himself of the scientific +method--must be as truly a man of science--as the veriest bookworm of +us all; though I have no doubt that the man of business will find +himself out to be a philosopher with as much surprise as M. Jourdain +exhibited vhen he discovered that he had been all his life talking +prose. If, however, there be no real difference between the methods of +science and those of common life, it would seem, on the face of the +matter, highly improbable that there should be any difference between +the methods of the different sciences; nevertheless, it is constantly +taken for granted that there is a very wide difference between the +Physiological and other sciences in point of method. + +In the first place it is said--and I take this point first, because the +imputation is too frequently admitted by Physiologists themselves--that +Biology differs from the Physico-chemical and Mathematical sciences in +being "inexact." + +Now, this phrase "inexact" must refer either to the _methods_ or to +the _results_ of Physiological science. + +It cannot be correct to apply it to the methods; for, as I hope to show +you by and by, these are identical in all sciences, and whatever is +true of Physiological method is true of Physical and Mathematical +method. + +Is it then the _results_ of Biological science which are "inexact"? +I think not. If I say that respiration is performed by the +lungs; that digestion is effected in the stomach; that the eye is the +organ of sight; that the jaws of a vertebrated animal never open +sideways, but always up and down; while those of an annulose animal +always open sideways, and never up and down--I am enumerating +propositions which are as exact as anything in Euclid. How then has +this notion of the inexactness of Biological science come about? I +believe from two causes: first, because in consequence of the great +complexity of the science and the multitude of interfering conditions, +we are very often only enabled to predict approximately what will occur +under given circumstances; and secondly, because, on account of the +comparative youth of the Physiological sciences, a great many of their +laws are still imperfectly worked out. But, in an educational point of +view, it is most important to distinguish between the essence of a +science and the accidents which surround it; and essentially, the +methods and results of Physiology are as exact as those of Physics or +Mathematics. + +It is said that the Physiological method is especially _comparative_; +[1] and this dictum also finds favour in the eyes of many. +I should be sorry to suggest that the speculators on scientific +classification have been misled by the accident of the name of one +leading branch of Biology--_Comparative Anatomy_; but I would ask +whether _comparison_, and that classification which is the result of +comparison, are not the essence of every science whatsoever? How is it +possible to discover a relation of cause and effect of _any_ kind +without comparing a series of cases together in which the supposed +cause and effect occur singly, or combined? So far from comparison +being in any way peculiar to Biological science, it is, I think, the +essence of every science. + +A speculative philosopher again tells us that the Biological +sciences are distinguished by being sciences of observation and not +of experiment! [2] Of all the strange assertions into which speculation +without practical acquaintance with a subject may lead even an able +man, I think this is the very strangest. Physiology not an experimental +science? Why, there is not a function of a single organ in the body +which has not been determined wholly and solely by experiment? How did +Harvey determine the nature of the circulation, except by experiment? +How did Sir Charles Bell determine the functions of the roots of the +spinal nerves, save by experiment? How do we know the use of a nerve at +all, except by experiment? Nay, how do you know even that your eye is +your seeing apparatus, unless you make the experiment of shutting it; +or that your ear is your hearing apparatus, unless you close it up and +thereby discover that you become deaf? + +It would really be much more true to say that Physiology is _the_ +experimental science _par excellence_ of all sciences; that in which +there is least to be learnt by mere observation, and that which +affords the greatest field for the exercise of those faculties which +characterise the experimental philosopher. I confess, if any one were +to ask me for a model application of the logic of experiment, I should +know no better work to put into his hands than Bernard's late +Researches on the Functions of the Liver. [3] + +Not to give this lecture a too controversial tone, however, I must +only advert to one more doctrine, held by a thinker of our own age +and country, whose opinions are worthy of all respect. It is, that +the Biological sciences differ from all others, inasmuch as in _them_ +classification takes place by type and not by definition. [4] + +It is said, in short, that a natural-history class is not capable of +being defined--that the class Rosaceae, for instance, or the class of +Fishes, is not accurately and absolutely definable, inasmuch as its +members will present exceptions to every possible definition; and that +the members of the class are united together only by the circumstance +that they are all more like some imaginary average rose or average +fish, than they resemble anything else. + +But here, as before, I think the distinction has arisen entirely from +confusing a transitory imperfection with an essential character. So +long as our information concerning them is imperfect, we class all +objects together according to resemblances which we _feel_, but +cannot _define_; we group them round _types_, in short. Thus +if you ask an ordinary person what kinds of animals there are, he will +probably say, beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, &c. Ask him to +define a beast from a reptile, and he cannot do it; but he says, things +like a cow or a horse are beasts, and things like a frog or a lizard +are reptiles. You see _he does_ class by type, and not by definition. +But how does this classification differ from that of the +scientific Zoologist? How does the meaning of the scientific class-name +of "Mammalia" differ from the unscientific of "Beasts"? + +Why, exactly because the former depends on a definition, the latter on +a type. The class Mammalia is scientifically defined as "all animals +which have a vertebrated skeleton and suckle their young." Here is no +reference to type, but a definition rigorous enough for a geometrician. +And such is the character which every scientific naturalist recognises +as that to which his classes must aspire--knowing, as he does, that +classification by type is simply an acknowledgment of ignorance and a +temporary device. + +So much in the way of negative argument as against the reputed +differences between Biological and other methods. No such differences, +I believe, really exist. The subject-matter of Biological science is +different from that of other sciences, but the methods of all are +identical; and these methods are-- + +1. _Observation_ of facts--including under this head that _artificial +observation_ which is called _experiment_. + +2. That process of tying up similar facts into bundles, ticketed and +ready for use, which is called _Comparison_ and _Classification_,--the +results of the process, the ticketed bundles, being named _General +propositions_. + +3. _Deduction_, which takes us from the general proposition to facts +again--teaches us, if I may so say, to anticipate from the ticket +what is inside the bundle. And finally-- + +4. _Verification_, which is the process of ascertaining whether, in +point of fact, our anticipation is a correct one. + +Such are the methods of all science whatsoever; but perhaps you will +permit me to give you an illustration of their employment in the +science of Life; and I will take as a special case the establishment of +the doctrine of the _Circulation of the Blood_. + +In this case, _simple observation_ yields us a knowledge of the +existence of the blood from some accidental haemorrhage, we will say; +we may even grant that it informs us of the localisation of this blood +in particular vessels, the heart, &c., from some accidental cut or the +like. It teaches also the existence of a pulse in various parts of the +body, and acquaints us with the structure of the heart and vessels. + +Here, however, _simple observation_ stops, and we must have recourse +to _experiment_. + +You tie a vein, and you find that the blood accumulates on the side of +the ligature opposite the heart. You tie an artery, and you find that +the blood accumulates on the side near the heart. Open the chest, and +you see the heart contracting with great force. Make openings into its +principal cavities, and you will find that all the blood flows out, and +no more pressure is exerted on either side of the arterial or venous +ligature. + +Now all these facts, taken together, constitute the evidence that the +blood is propelled by the heart through the arteries, and returns by +the veins--that, in short, the blood circulates. + +Suppose our experiments and observations have been made on horses, then +we group and ticket them into a general proposition, thus:--_all +horses have a circulation of their blood_. + +Henceforward a horse is a sort of indication or label, telling us where +we shall find a peculiar series of phaenomena called the circulation of +the blood. + +Here is our _general proposition_, then. + +How, and when, are we justified in making our next step--a _deduction_ +from it? + +Suppose our physiologist, whose experience is limited to horses, meets +with a zebra for the first time,--will he suppose that this +generalisation holds good for zebras also? + +That depends very much on his turn of mind. But we will suppose him to +be a bold man. He will say, "The zebra is certainly not a horse, but it +is very like one,--so like, that it must be the 'ticket' or mark of a +blood-circulation also; and, I conclude that the zebra has a +circulation." + +That is a deduction, a very fair deduction, but by no means to be +considered scientifically secure. This last quality in fact can only be +given by _verification_--that is, by making a zebra the subject of +all the experiments performed on the horse. Of course, in the present +case, the _deduction_ would be _confirmed_ by this process of +verification, and the result would be, not merely a positive widening +of knowledge, but a fair increase of confidence in the truth of one's +generalisations in other cases. + +Thus, having settled the point in the zebra and horse, our philosopher +would have great confidence in the existence of a circulation in the +ass. Nay, I fancy most persons would excuse him, if in this case he did +not take the trouble to go through the process of verification at all; +and it would not be without a parallel in the history of the human +mind, if our imaginary physiologist now maintained that he was +acquainted with asinine circulation _a priori_. + +However, if I might impress any caution upon your minds, it is, the +utterly conditional nature of all our knowledge,--the danger of +neglecting the process of verification under any circumstances; and the +film upon which we rest, the moment our deductions carry us beyond the +reach of this great process of verification. There is no better +instance of this than is afforded by the history of our knowledge of +the circulation of the blood in the animal kingdom until the year 1824. +In every animal possessing a circulation at all, which had been +observed up to that time, the current of the blood was known to take +one definite and invariable direction. Now, there is a class of animals +called _Ascidians_, which possess a heart and a circulation, and +up to the period of which I speak, no one would have dreamt of +questioning the propriety of the deduction, that these creatures have a +circulation in one direction; nor would any one have thought it worth +while to verify the point. But, in that year, M. von Hasselt, happening +to examine a transparent animal of this class, found, to his infinite +surprise, that after the heart had beat a certain number of times, it +stopped, and then began beating the opposite way--so as to reverse the +course of the current, which returned by and by to its original +direction. + +I have myself timed the heart of these little animals. I found it as +regular as possible in its periods of reversal: and I know no spectacle +in the animal kingdom more wonderful than that which it presents--all +the more wonderful that to this day it remains an unique fact, peculiar +to this class among the whole animated world. At the same time I know +of no more striking case of the necessity of the _verification_ of +even those deductions which seem founded on the widest and safest +inductions. + +Such are the methods of Biology--methods which are obviously identical +with those of all other sciences, and therefore wholly incompetent to +form the ground of any distinction between it and them. [5] + +But I shall be asked at once, Do you mean to say that there is no +difference between the habit of mind of a mathematician and that of a +naturalist? Do you imagine that Laplace might have been put into the +Jardin des Plantes, and Cuvier into the Observatory, with equal +advantage to the progress of the sciences they professed? + +To which I would reply, that nothing could be further from my thoughts. +But different habits and various special tendencies of two sciences do +not imply different methods. The mountaineer and the man of the plains +have very different habits of progression, and each would be at a loss +in the other's place; but the method of progression, by putting one leg +before the other, is the same in each case. Every step of each is a +combination of a lift and a push; but the mountaineer lifts more and +the lowlander pushes more. And I think the case of two sciences +resembles this. + +I do not question for a moment, that while the Mathematician is busy +with deductions _from_ general propositions, the Biologist is more +especially occupied with observation, comparison, and those processes +which lead _to_ general propositions. All I wish to insist upon +is, that this difference depends not on any fundamental distinction in +the sciences themselves, but on the accidents of their subject-matter, +of their relative complexity, and consequent relative perfection. + +The Mathematician deals with two properties of objects only, number and +extension, and all the inductions he wants have been formed and +finished ages ago. He is occupied now with nothing but deduction and +verification. + +The Biologist deals with a vast number of properties of objects, and +his inductions will not be completed, I fear, for ages to come; but +when they are, his science will be as deductive and as exact as the +Mathematics themselves. + +Such is the relation of Biology to those sciences which deal with +objects having fewer properties than itself. But as the student, in +reaching Biology, looks back upon sciences of a less complex and +therefore more perfect nature; so, on the other hand, does he look +forward to other more complex and less perfect branches of knowledge. +Biology deals only with living beings as isolated things--treats only +of the life of the individual: but there is a higher division of +science still, which considers living beings as aggregates--which deals +with the relation of living beings one to another--the science which +_observes_ men--whose _experiments_ are made by nations one +upon another, in battlefields--whose _general propositions_ are +embodied in history, morality, and religion--whose _deductions_ +lead to our happiness or our misery--and whose _verifications_ so +often come too late, and serve only + + "To point a moral, or adorn a tale"-- + +I mean the science of Society or _Sociology_. + +I think it is one of the grandest features of Biology, that it occupies +this central position in human knowledge. There is no side of the human +mind which physiological study leaves uncultivated. Connected by +innumerable ties with abstract science, Physiology is yet in the most +intimate relation with humanity; and by teaching us that law and order, +and a definite scheme of development, regulate even the strangest and +wildest manifestations of individual life, she prepares the student to +look for a goal even amidst the erratic wanderings of mankind, and to +believe that history offers something more than an entertaining +chaos--a journal of a toilsome, tragi-comic march no-whither. + +The preceding considerations have, I hope, served to indicate the +replies which befit the first two of the questions which I set before +you at starting, viz. What is the range and position of Physiological +Science as a branch of knowledge, and what is its value as a means of +mental discipline? + +Its _subject-matter_ is a large moiety of the universe--its +_position_ is midway between the physico-chemical and the social +sciences. Its _value_ as a branch of discipline is partly that +which it has in common with all sciences--the training and +strengthening of common sense; partly that which is more peculiar to +itself--the great exercise which it affords to the faculties of +observation and comparison; and, I may add, the _exactness_ of +knowledge which it requires on the part of those among its votaries who +desire to extend its boundaries. + +If what has been said as to the position and scope of Biology be +correct, our third question--What is the practical value of +physiological instruction?--might, one would think, be left to answer +itself. + +On other grounds even, were mankind deserving of the title "rational," +which they arrogate to themselves, there can be no question that they +would consider, as the most necessary of all branches of instruction +for themselves and for their children, that which professes to acquaint +them with the conditions of the existence they prize so highly--which +teaches them how to avoid disease and to cherish health, in themselves +and those who are dear to them. + +I am addressing, I imagine, an audience of educated persons; and yet I +dare venture to assert that, with the exception of those of my hearers +who may chance to have received a medical education, there is not one +who could tell me what is the meaning and use of an act which he +performs a score of times every minute, and whose suspension would +involve his immediate death;--I mean the act of breathing--or who could +state in precise terms why it is that a confined atmosphere is +injurious to health. + +The _practical value_ of Physiological knowledge! Why is it that +educated men can be found to maintain that a slaughter-house in the +midst of a great city is rather a good thing than otherwise?--that +mothers persist in exposing the largest possible amount of surface of +their children to the cold, by the absurd style of dress they adopt, +and then marvel at the peculiar dispensation of Providence, which +removes their infants by bronchitis and gastric fever? Why is it that +quackery rides rampant over the land; and that not long ago, one of the +largest public rooms in this great city could be filled by an audience +gravely listening to the reverend expositor of the doctrine--that the +simple physiological phaenomena known as spirit-rapping, table-turning, +phreno-magnetism, and I know not what other absurd and inappropriate +names, are due to the direct and personal agency of Satan? + +Why is all this, except from the utter ignorance as to the simplest +laws of their own animal life, which prevails among even the most +highly educated persons in this country? + +But there are other branches of Biological Science, besides Physiology +proper, whose practical influence, though less obvious, is not, as I +believe, less certain. I have heard educated men speak with an +ill-disguised contempt of the studies of the naturalist, and ask, not +without a shrug, "What is the use of knowing all about these miserable +animals--what bearing has it on human life?" + +I will endeavour to answer that question. I take it that all will admit +there is definite Government of this universe--that its pleasures and +pains are not scattered at random, but are distributed in accordance +with orderly and fixed laws, and that it is only in accordance with all +we know of the rest of the world, that there should be an agreement +between one portion of the sensitive creation and another in these +matters. + +Surely then it interests us to know the lot of other animal +creatures--however far below us, they are still the sole created things +which share with us the capability of pleasure and the susceptibility +to pain. + +I cannot but think that he who finds a certain proportion of pain and +evil inseparably woven up in the life of the very worms, will bear his +own share with more courage and submission; and will, at any rate, view +with suspicion those weakly amiable theories of the Divine government, +which would have us believe pain to be an oversight and a mistake,--to +be corrected by and by. On the other hand, the predominance of +happiness among living things--their lavish beauty--the secret and +wonderful harmony which pervades them all, from the highest to the +lowest, are equally striking refutations of that modern Manichean +doctrine, which exhibits the world as a slave-mill, worked with many +tears, for mere utilitarian ends. + +There is yet another way in which natural history may, I am convinced, +take a profound hold upon practical life,--and that is, by its +influence over our finer feelings, as the greatest of all sources of +that pleasure which is derivable from beauty. I do not pretend that +natural-history knowledge, as such, can increase our sense of the +beautiful in natural objects. I do not suppose that the dead soul of +Peter Bell, of whom the great poet of nature says,-- + + A primrose by the river's brim, + A yellow primrose was to him,-- + And it was nothing more,-- + +would have been a whit roused from its apathy by the information that +the primrose is a Dicotyledonous Exogen, with a monopetalous corolla +and central placentation. But I advocate natural-history knowledge from +this point of view, because it would lead us to _seek_ the +beauties of natural objects, instead of trusting to chance to force +them on our attention. To a person uninstructed in natural history, his +country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with +wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to +the wall. Teach him something of natural history, and you place in his +hands a catalogue of those which are worth turning round. Surely our +innocent pleasures are not so abundant in this life, that we can afford +to despise this or any other source of them. We should fear being +banished for our neglect to that limbo, where the great Florentine +tells us are those who, during this life, "wept when they might be +joyful." + +But I shall be trespassing unwarrantably on your kindness, if I do not +proceed at once to my last point--the time at which Physiological +Science should first form a part of the Curriculum of Education. + +The distinction between the teaching of the facts of a science as +instruction, and the teaching it systematically as knowledge, has +already been placed before you in a previous lecture: and it appears to +me that, as with other sciences, the _common facts_ of Biology--the +uses of parts of the body--the names and habits of the living +creatures which surround us--may be taught with advantage to the +youngest child. Indeed, the avidity of children for this kind of +knowledge, and the comparative ease with which they retain it, is +something quite marvellous. I doubt whether any toy would be so +acceptable to young children as a vivarium of the same kind as, but of +course on a smaller scale than, those admirable devices in the +Zoological Gardens. + +On the other hand, systematic teaching in Biology cannot be attempted +with success until the student has attained to a certain knowledge of +physics and chemistry: for though the phaenomena of life are dependent +neither on physical nor on chemical, but on vital forces, yet they +result in all sorts of physical and chemical changes, which can only be +judged by their own laws. + +And now to sum up in a few words the conclusions to which I hope you +see reason to follow me. + +Biology needs no apologist when she demands a place--and a prominent +place--in any scheme of education worthy of the name. Leave out the +Physiological sciences from your curriculum, and you launch the student +into the world, undisciplined in that science whose subject-matter +would best develop his powers of observation; ignorant of facts of the +deepest importance for his own and others' welfare; blind to the +richest sources of beauty in God's creation; and unprovided with that +belief in a living law, and an order manifesting itself in and through +endless change and variety, which might serve to check and moderate +that phase of despair through which, if he take an earnest interest in +social problems, he will assuredly sooner or later pass. + +Finally, one word for myself. I have not hesitated to speak strongly +where I have felt strongly; and I am but too conscious that the +indicative and imperative moods have too often taken the place of the +more becoming subjunctive and conditional. I feel, therefore, how +necessary it is to beg you to forget the personality of him who has +thus ventured to address you, and to consider only the truth or error +in what has been said. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] "In the third place, we have to review the method of Comparison, +which is so specially adapted to the study of living bodies, and by +which, above all others, that study must be advanced. In Astronomy, +this method is necessarily inapplicable; and it is not till we arrive +at Chemistry that this third means of investigation can be used, and +then only in subordination to the two others. It is in the study, both +statical and dynamical, of living bodies that it first acquires its +full development; and its use elsewhere can be only through its +application here."--COMTE'S _Positive Philosophy_, translated by +Miss Martineau. Vol. i. p. 372. + +By what method does M. Comte suppose that the equality or inequality +of forces and quantities and the dissimilarity or similarity of +forms--points of some slight importance not only in Astronomy and +Physics, but even in Mathematics--are ascertained, if not by +Comparison? + +[2] "Proceeding to the second class of means,--Experiment cannot but be +less and less decisive, in proportion to the complexity of the +phaenomena to be explored; and therefore we saw this resource to be +less effectual in chemistry than in physics: and we now find that it is +eminently useful in chemistry in comparison with physiology. _In +fact, the nature of the phenomena seems to offer almost insurmountable +impediments to any extensive and prolific application of such a +procedure in biology._"--COMTE, vol. i. p. 367. + +M. Comte, as his manner is, contradicts himself two pages further on, +but that will hardly relieve him from the responsibility of such a +paragraph as the above. + +[3] _Nouvelle Fonction du Foie considere comme organe producteur de +matiere sucree chez l'Homme et les Animaux, par_ M. Claude Bernard. + +[4] "_Natural Groups given by Type, not by Definition_.... The +class is steadily fixed, though not precisely limited; it is given, +though not circumscribed; it is determined, not by a boundary-line +without, but by a central point within; not by what it strictly +excludes, but what it eminently includes; by an example, not by a +precept; in short, instead of Definition we have a _Type_ for our +director. A type is an example of any class, for instance, a species of +a genus, which is considered as eminently possessing the characters of +the class. All the species which have a greater affinity with this +type-species than with any others, form the genus, and are ranged about +about it, deviating from it in various directions and different +degrees."--WHEWELL, _The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences_, +vol. i. pp. 476, 477. + +[5] Save for the pleasure of doing so, I need hardly point put my +obligations to Mr. J. S. Mill's _System of Logic_, in this view of +scientific method. + + + + +III + +EMANCIPATION--BLACK AND WHITE + +[1865.] + + +Quashie's plaintive inquiry, "Am I not a man and a brother?" seems at +last to have received its final reply--the recent decision of the +fierce trial by battle on the other side of the Atlantic fully +concurring with that long since delivered here in a more peaceful way. + +The question is settled; but even those who are most thoroughly +convinced that the doom is just, must see good grounds for repudiating +half the arguments which have been employed by the winning side; and +for doubting whether its ultimate results will embody the hopes of the +victors, though they may more than realise the fears of the vanquished. +It may be quite true that some negroes are better than some white men; +but no rational man, cognisant of the facts, believes that the average +negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the average white man. +And, if this be true, it is simply incredible that, when all his +disabilities are removed, and our prognathous relative has a fair field +and no favour, as well as no oppressor, he will be able to compete +successfully with his bigger-brained and smaller-jawed rival, in a +contest which is to be carried on by thoughts and not by bites. The +highest places in the hierarchy of civilisation will assuredly not be +within the reach of our dusky cousins, though it is by no means +necessary that they should be restricted to the lowest. But whatever +the position of stable equilibrium into which the laws of social +gravitation may bring the negro, all responsibility for the result will +henceforward lie between Nature and him. The white man may wash his +hands of it, and the Caucasian conscience be void of reproach for +evermore. And this, if we look to the bottom of the matter, is the real +justification for the abolition policy. + +The doctrine of equal natural rights may be an illogical delusion; +emancipation may convert the slave from a well-fed animal into a +pauperised man; mankind may even have to do without cotton shirts; but +all these evils must be faced if the moral law, that no human being can +arbitrarily dominate over another without grievous damage to his own +nature, be, as many think, as readily demonstrable by experiment as any +physical truth. If this be true, no slavery can be abolished without a +double emancipation, and the master will benefit by freedom more than +the freed-man. + +The like considerations apply to all the other questions of +emancipation which are at present stirring the world--the multifarious +demands that classes of mankind shall be relieved from restrictions +imposed by the artifice of man, and not by the necessities of Nature. +One of the most important, if not the most important, of all these, is +that which daily threatens to become the "irrepressible" woman +question. What social and political rights have women? What ought they +to be allowed, or not allowed, to do, be, and suffer? And, as involved +in, and underlying all these questions, how ought they to be educated? + +There are philogynists as fanatical as any "misogynists" who, reversing +our antiquated notions, bid the man look upon the woman as the higher +type of humanity; who ask us to regard the female intellect as the +clearer and the quicker, if not the stronger; who desire us to look up +to the feminine moral sense as the purer and the nobler; and bid man +abdicate his usurped sovereignty over Nature in favour of the female +line. On the other hand, there are persons not to be outdone in all +loyalty and just respect for womankind, but by nature hard of head and +haters of delusion, however charming, who not only repudiate the new +woman-worship which so many sentimentalists and some philosophers are +desirous of setting up, but, carrying their audacity further, deny even +the natural equality of the sexes. They assert, on the contrary, that +in every excellent character, whether mental or physical, the average +woman is inferior to the average man, in the sense of having that +character less in quantity and lower in quality. Tell these persons of +the rapid perceptions and the instinctive intellectual insight of +women, and they reply that the feminine mental peculiarities, which +pass under these names, are merely the outcome of a greater +impressibility to the superficial aspects of things, and of the absence +of that restraint upon expression which, in men, is imposed by +reflection and a sense of responsibility. Talk of the passive endurance +of the weaker sex, and opponents of this kind remind you that Job was a +man, and that, until quite recent times, patience and long-suffering +were not counted among the specially feminine virtues. Claim passionate +tenderness as especially feminine, and the inquiry is made whether all +the best love-poetry in existence (except, perhaps, the "Sonnets from +the Portuguese ") has not been written by men; whether the song which +embodies the ideal of pure and tender passion--"Adelaida "--was +written by _Frau_ Beethoven; whether it was the Fornarina, or +Raphael, who painted the Sistine Madonna. Nay, we have known one such +heretic go so far as to lay his hands upon the ark itself, so to speak, +and to defend the startling paradox that, even in physical beauty, man +is the superior. He admitted, indeed, that there was a brief period of +early youth when it might be hard to say whether the prize should be +awarded to the graceful undulations of the female figure, or the +perfect balance and supple vigour of the male frame. But while our new +Paris might hesitate between the youthful Bacchus and the Venus +emerging from the foam, he averred that, when Venus and Bacchus had +reached thirty, the point no longer admitted of a doubt; the male form +having then attained its greatest nobility, while the female is far +gone in decadence; and that, at this epoch, womanly beauty, so far as +it is independent of grace or expression, is a question of drapery and +accessories. + +Supposing, however, that all these arguments have a certain foundation; +admitting, for a moment, that they are comparable to those by which the +inferiority of the negro to the white man may be demonstrated, are they +of any value as against woman-emancipation? Do they afford us the +smallest ground for refusing to educate women as well as men--to give +women the same civil and political rights as men? No mistake is so +commonly made by clever people as that of assuming a cause to be bad +because the arguments of its supporters are, to a great extent, +non-sensical. And we conceive that those who may laugh at the arguments +of the extreme philogynists, may yet feel bound to work heart and soul +towards the attainment of their practical ends. + +As regards education, for example. Granting the alleged defects of +women, is it not somewhat absurd to sanction and maintain a system of +education which would seem to have been specially contrived to +exaggerate all these defects? + +Naturally not so firmly strung, nor so well balanced as boys, girls are +in great measure debarred from the sports and physical exercises which +are justly thought absolutely necessary for the full development of the +vigour of the more favoured sex. Women are, by nature, more excitable +than men--prone to be swept by tides of emotion, proceeding from hidden +and inward, as well as from obvious and external causes; and female +education does its best to weaken every physical counterpoise to this +nervous mobility--tends in all ways to stimulate the emotional part of +the mind and stunt the rest. We find girls naturally timid, inclined to +dependence, born conservatives; and we teach them that independence is +unladylike; that blind faith is the right frame of mind; and that +whatever we may be permitted, and indeed encouraged, to do to our +brother, our sister is to be left to the tyranny of authority and +tradition. With few insignificant exceptions, girls have been educated +either to be drudges, or toys, beneath man; or a sort of angels above +him; the highest ideal aimed at oscillating between Clarchen and +Beatrice. The possibility that the ideal of womanhood lies neither in +the fair saint, nor in the fair sinner; that the female type of +character is neither better nor worse than the male, but only weaker; +that women are meant neither to be men's guides nor their play-things, +but their comrades, their fellows, and their equals, so far as Nature +puts no bar to that equality, does not seem to have entered into the +minds of those who have had the conduct of the education of girls. + +If the present system of female education stands self-condemned, as +inherently absurd; and if that which we have just indicated is the true +position of woman, what is the first step towards a better state of +things? We reply, emancipate girls. Recognise the fact that they share +the senses, perceptions, feelings, reasoning powers, emotions, of boys, +and that the mind of the average girl is less different from that of +the average boy, than the mind of one boy is from that of another; so +that whatever argument justifies a given education for all boys, +justifies its application to girls as well. So far from imposing +artificial restrictions upon the acquirement of knowledge by women, +throw every facility in their way. Let our Faustinas, if they will, +toil through the whole round of + + "Juristerei und Medizin, + Und leider! auch Philosophie." + +Let us have "sweet girl graduates" by all means. They will be none the +less sweet for a little wisdom; and the "golden hair" will not curl +less gracefully outside the head by reason of there being brains +within. Nay, if obvious practical difficulties can be overcome, let +those women who feel inclined to do so descend into the gladiatorial +arena of life, not merely in the guise of _retiariae_, as +heretofore, but as bold _sicariae_, breasting the open fray. Let +them, if they so please, become merchants, barristers, politicians. Let +them have a fair field, but let them understand, as the necessary +correlative, that they are to have no favour. Let Nature alone sit high +above the lists, "rain influence and judge the prize." + +And the result? For our parts, though loth to prophesy, we believe it +will be that of other emancipations. Women will find their place, and +it will neither be that in which they have been held, nor that to which +some of them aspire. Nature's old salique law will not be repealed, and +no change of dynasty will be effected. The big chests, the massive +brains, the vigorous muscles and stout frames of the best men will +carry the day, whenever it is worth their while to contest the prizes +of life with the best women. And the hardship of it is, that the very +improvement of the women will lessen their chances. Better mothers will +bring forth better sons, and the impetus gained by the one sex will be +transmitted, in the next generation, to the other. The most Darwinian +of theorists will not venture to propound the doctrine, that the +physical disabilities under which women have hitherto laboured in the +struggle for existence with men are likely to be removed by even the +most skilfully conducted process of educational selection. + +We are, indeed, fully prepared to believe that the bearing of children +may, and ought, to become as free from danger and long disability to +the civilised woman as it is to the savage; nor is it improbable that, +as society advances towards its right organisation, motherhood will +occupy a less space of woman's life than it has hitherto done. But +still, unless the human species is to come to an end altogether--a +consummation which can hardly be desired by even the most ardent +advocate of "women's rights"--somebody must be good enough to take the +trouble and responsibility of annually adding to the world exactly as +many people as die out of it. In consequence of some domestic +difficulties, Sydney Smith is said to have suggested that it would have +been good for the human race had the model offered by the hive been +followed, and had all the working part of the female community been +neuters. Failing any thorough-going reform of this kind, we see nothing +for it but the old division of humanity into men potentially, or +actually, fathers, and women potentially, if not actually, mothers. And +we fear that so long as this potential motherhood is her lot, woman +will be found to be fearfully weighted in the race of life. + +The duty of man is to see that not a grain is piled upon that load +beyond what Nature imposes; that injustice is not added to inequality. + + + + +IV + +A LIBERAL EDUCATION; AND WHERE TO FIND IT + +[1868.] + + +The business which the South London Working Men's College has +undertaken is a great work; indeed, I might say, that Education, with +which that college proposes to grapple, is the greatest work of all +those which lie ready to a man's hand just at present. + +And, at length, this fact is becoming generally recognised. You cannot +go anywhere without hearing a buzz of more or less confused and +contradictory talk on this subject--nor can you fail to notice that, in +one point at any rate, there is a very decided advance upon like +discussions in former days. Nobody outside the agricultural interest +now dares to say that education is a bad thing. If any representative +of the once large and powerful party, which, in former days, proclaimed +this opinion, still exists in a semi-fossil state, he keeps his +thoughts to himself. In fact, there is a chorus of voices, almost +distressing in their harmony, raised in favour of the doctrine that +education is the great panacea for human troubles, and that, if the +country is not shortly to go to the dogs, everybody must be educated. + +The politicians tells us, "You must educate the masses because they are +going to be masters." The clergy join in the cry for education, for +they affirm that the people are drifting away from church and chapel +into the broadest infidelity. The manufacturers and the capitalists +swell the chorus lustily. They declare that ignorance makes bad +workmen; that England will soon be unable to turn out cotton goods, or +steam engines, cheaper than other people; and then, Ichabod! Ichabod! +the glory will be departed from us. And a few voices are lifted up in +favour of the doctrine that the masses should be educated because they +are men and women with unlimited capacities of being, doing, and +suffering, and that it is as true now, as ever it was, that the people +perish for lack of knowledge. + +These members of the minority, with whom I confess I have a good deal +of sympathy, are doubtful whether any of the other reasons urged in +favour of the education of the people are of much value--whether, +indeed, some of them are based upon either wise or noble grounds of +action. They question if it be wise to tell people that you will do for +them, out of fear of their power, what you have left undone, so long as +your only motive was compassion for their weakness and their sorrows. +And, if ignorance of everything which it is needful a ruler should know +is likely to do so much harm in the governing classes of the future, +why is it, they ask reasonably enough, that such ignorance in the +governing classes of the past has not been viewed with equal horror? + +Compare the average artisan and the average country squire, and it may +be doubted if you will find a pin to choose between the two in point of +ignorance, class feeling, or prejudice. It is true that the ignorance +is of a different sort--that the class feeling is in favour of a +different class--and that the prejudice has a distinct savour of +wrong-headedness in each case--but it is questionable if the one is +either a bit better, or a bit worse, than the other. The old +protectionist theory is the doctrine of trades unions as applied by the +squires, and the modern trades unionism is the doctrine of the squires +applied by the artisans. Why should we be worse off under one _regime_ +than under the other? + +Again, this sceptical minority asks the clergy to think whether it is +really want of education which keeps the masses away from their +ministrations--whether the most completely educated men are not as open +to reproach on this score as the workmen; and whether, perchance, this +may not indicate that it is not education which lies at the bottom of +the matter? + +Once more, these people, whom there is no pleasing, venture to doubt +whether the glory, which rests upon being able to undersell all the +rest of the world, is a very safe kind of glory--whether we may not +purchase it too dear; especially if we allow education, which ought to +be directed to the making of men, to be diverted into a process of +manufacturing human tools, wonderfully adroit in the exercise of some +technical industry, but good for nothing else. + +And, finally, these people inquire whether it is the masses alone who +need a reformed and improved education. They ask whether the richest of +our public schools might not well be made to supply knowledge, as well +as gentlemanly habits, a strong class feeling, and eminent proficiency +in cricket. They seem to think that the noble foundations of our old +universities are hardly fulfilling their functions in their present +posture of half-clerical seminaries, half racecourses, where men are +trained to win a senior wranglership, or a double-first, as horses +are trained to win a cup, with as little reference to the needs of +after-life in the case of the man as in that of the racer. And, while +as zealous for education as the rest, they affirm that, if the +education of the richer classes were such as to fit them to be the +leaders and the governors of the poorer; and, if the education of the +poorer classes were such as to enable them to appreciate really wise +guidance and good governance, the politicians need not fear mob-law, +nor the clergy lament their want of flocks, nor the capitalists +prognosticate the annihilation of the prosperity of the country. + +Such is the diversity of opinion upon the why and the wherefore of +education. And my hearers will be prepared to expect that the practical +recommendations which are put forward are not less discordant. There is +a loud cry for compulsory education. We English, in spite of constant +experience to the contrary, preserve a touching faith in the efficacy +of acts of Parliament; and I believe we should have compulsory +education in the course of next session, if there were the least +probability that half a dozen leading statesmen of different parties +would agree what that education should be. + +Some hold that education without theology is worse than none. Others +maintain, quite as strongly, that education with theology is in the +same predicament. But this is certain, that those who hold the first +opinion can by no means agree what theology should be taught; and that +those who maintain the second are in a small minority. + +At any rate "make people learn to read, write, and cipher," say a great +many; and the advice is undoubtedly sensible as far as it goes. But, as +has happened to me in former days, those who, in despair of getting +anything better, advocate this measure, are met with the objection that +it is very like making a child practise the use of a knife, fork, and +spoon, without giving it a particle of meat. I really don't know what +reply is to be made to such an objection. + +But it would be unprofitable to spend more time in disentangling, or +rather in showing up the knots in, the ravelled skeins of our +neighbours. Much more to the purpose is it to ask if we possess any +clue of our own which may guide us among these entanglements. And by +way of a beginning, let us ask ourselves--What is education? Above all +things, what is our ideal of a thoroughly liberal education?--of that +education which, if we could begin life again, we would give +ourselves--of that education which, if we could mould the fates to our +own will, we would give our children? Well, I know not what may be your +conceptions upon this matter, but I will tell you mine, and I hope I +shall find that our views are not very discrepant. + + * * * * * + +Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every +one of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing a +game at chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to be a +primary duty to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces; +to have a notion of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the means of +giving and getting out of check? Do you not think that we should look +with a disapprobation amounting to scorn, upon the father who allowed +his son, or the state which allowed its members, to grow up without +knowing a pawn from a knight? + +Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, the +fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of +those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something +of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than +chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man +and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her +own. The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the +universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. +The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play +is always fair, just and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that +he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for +ignorance. To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with +that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight +in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated--without haste, but +without remorse. + +My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which +Retzsch has depicted Satan playing at chess with man for his soul. +Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel +who is playing for love, as we say, and would rather lose than win--and +I should accept it us an image of human life. + +Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty +game. In other words, education is the instruction of the intellect in +the laws of Nature, under which name I include not merely things and +their forces, but men and their ways; and the fashioning of the +affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in +harmony with those laws. For me, education means neither more nor less +than this. Anything which professes to call itself education must be +tried by this standard, and if it fails to stand the test, I will not +call it education, whatever may be the force of authority, or of +numbers, upon the other side. + +It is important to remember that, in strictness, there is no such thing +as an uneducated man. Take an extreme case. Suppose that an adult man, +in the full vigour of his faculties, could be suddenly placed in the +world, as Adam is said to have been, and then left to do as he best +might. How long would he be left uneducated? Not five minutes. Nature +would begin to teach him, through the eye, the ear, the touch, the +properties of objects. Pain and pleasure would be at his elbow telling +him to do this and avoid that; and by slow degrees the man would +receive an education which, if narrow, would be thorough, real, and +adequate to his circumstances, though there would be no extras and very +few accomplishments. + +And if to this solitary man entered a second Adam, or, better still, an +Eve, a new and greater world, that of social and moral phenomena, would +be revealed. Joys and woes, compared with which all others might seem +but faint shadows, would spring from the new relations. Happiness and +sorrow would take the place of the coarser monitors, pleasure and pain; +but conduct would still be shaped by the observation of the natural +consequences of actions; or, in other words, by the laws of the nature +of man. + +To every one of us the world was once as fresh and new as to Adam. And +then, long before we were susceptible of any other mode of instruction, +Nature took us in hand, and every minute of waking life brought its +educational influence, shaping our actions into rough accordance with +Nature's laws, so that we might not be ended untimely by too gross +disobedience. Nor should I speak of this process of education as past +for any one, be he as old as he may. For every man the world is as +fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for +him who has the eyes to see them. And Nature is still continuing her +patient education of us in that great university, the universe, of +which we are all members--Nature having no Test-Acts. + +Those who take honours in Nature's university, who learn the laws which +govern men and things and obey them, are the really great and +successful men in this world. The great mass of mankind are the +"Poll," who pick up just enough to get through without much discredit. +Those who won't learn at all are plucked; and then you can't come up +again. Nature's pluck means extermination. + +Thus the question of compulsory education is settled so far as Nature +is concerned. Her bill on that question was framed and passed long ago. +But, like all compulsory legislation, that of Nature is harsh and +wasteful in its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as wilful +disobedience--incapacity meets with the same punishment as crime. +Nature's discipline is not even a word and a blow, and the blow first; +but the blow without the word. It is left to you to find out why your +ears are boxed. + +The object of what we commonly call education--that education in +which man intervenes and which I shall distinguish as artificial +education--is to make good these defects in Nature's methods; to +prepare the child to receive Nature's education, neither incapably nor +ignorantly, nor with wilful disobedience; and to understand the +preliminary symptoms of her pleasure, without waiting for the box on +the ear. In short, all artificial education ought to be an anticipation +of natural education. And a liberal education is an artificial education +which has not only prepared a man to escape the great evils +of disobedience to natural laws, but has trained him to appreciate and +to seize upon the rewards, which Nature scatters with as free a hand as +her penalties. + +That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained +in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with +ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; +whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of +equal strength, and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam +engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as +well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a +knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws +of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and +fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous +will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all +beauty, whether of Nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to +respect others as himself. + +Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; for +he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. He will +make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely: +she as his ever beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her conscious +self, her minister and interpreter. + +Where is such an education as this to be had? Where is there any +approximation to it? Has any one tried to found such an education? +Looking over the length and breadth of these islands, I am afraid that +all these questions must receive a negative answer. Consider our +primary schools and what is taught in them. A child learns:-- + +1. To read, write, and cipher, more or less well; but in a very large +proportion of cases not so well as to take pleasure in reading, or to +be able to write the commonest letter properly. + +2. A quantity of dogmatic theology, of which the child, nine times out +of ten, understands next to nothing. + +3. Mixed up with this, so as to seem to stand or fall with it, a few of +the broadest and simplest principles of morality. This, to my mind, is +much as if a man of science should make the story of the fall of the +apple in Newton's garden an integral part of the doctrine of +gravitation, and teach it as of equal authority with the law of the +inverse squares. + +4. A good deal of Jewish history and Syrian geography, and perhaps a +little something about English history and the geography of the child's +own country. But I doubt if there is a primary school in England in +which hangs a map of the hundred in which the village lies, so that the +children may be practically taught by it what a map means. + +5. A certain amount of regularity, attentive obedience, respect for +others: obtained by fear, if the master be incompetent or foolish; by +love and reverence, if he be wise. + +So far as this school course embraces a training in the theory and +practice of obedience to the moral laws of Nature, I gladly admit, not +only that it contains a valuable educational element, but that, so far, +it deals with the most valuable and important part of all education. +Yet, contrast what is done in this direction with what might be done; +with the time given to matters of comparatively no importance; with the +absence of any attention to things of the highest moment; and one is +tempted to think of Falstaff's bill and "the halfpenny worth of bread +to all that quantity of sack." + +Let us consider what a child thus "educated" knows, and what it does +not know. Begin with the most important topic of all--morality, as the +guide of conduct. The child knows well enough that some acts meet with +approbation and some with disapprobation. But it has never heard that +there lies in the nature of things a reason for every moral law, as +cogent and as well defined as that which underlies every physical law; +that stealing and lying are just as certain to be followed by evil +consequences, as putting your hand in the fire, or jumping out of a +garret window. Again, though the scholar may have been made acquainted, +in dogmatic fashion, with the broad laws of morality, he has had no +training in the application of those laws to the difficult problems +which result from the complex conditions of modern civilisation. Would +it not be very hard to expect any one to solve a problem in conic +sections who had merely been taught the axioms and definitions of +mathematical science? + +A workman has to bear hard labour, and perhaps privation, while he sees +others rolling in wealth, and feeding their dogs with what would keep +his children from starvation. Would it not be well to have helped that +man to calm the natural promptings of discontent by showing him, in his +youth, the necessary connection of the moral law which prohibits +stealing with the stability of society--by proving to him, once for +all, that it is better for his own people, better for himself, better +for future generations, that he should starve than steal? If you have +no foundation of knowledge, or habit of thought, to work upon, what +chance have you of persuading a hungry man that a capitalist is not a +thief "with a circumbendibus?" And if he honestly believes that, of +what avail is it to quote the commandment against stealing, when he +proposes to make the capitalist disgorge? + +Again, the child learns absolutely nothing of the history or the +political organisation of his own country. His general impression is, +that everything of much importance happened a very long while ago; and +that the Queen and the gentlefolks govern the country much after the +fashion of King David and the elders and nobles of Israel--his sole +models. Will you give a man with this much information a vote? In easy +times he sells it for a pot of beer. Why should he not? It is of about +as much use to him as a chignon, and he knows as much what to do with +it, for any other purpose. In bad times, on the contrary, he applies +his simple theory of government, and believes that his rulers are the +cause of his sufferings--a belief which sometimes bears remarkable +practical fruits. + +Least of all, does the child gather from this primary "education" of +ours a conception of the laws of the physical world, or of the +relations of cause and effect therein. And this is the more to be +lamented, as the poor are especially exposed to physical evils, and are +more interested in removing them than any other class of the community. +If any one is concerned in knowing the ordinary laws of mechanics one +would think it is the hand-labourer, whose daily toil lies among levers +and pulleys; or among the other implements of artisan work. And if any +one is interested in the laws of health, it is the poor workman, whose +strength is wasted by ill-prepared food, whose health is sapped by bad +ventilation and bad drainage, and half whose children are massacred by +disorders which might be prevented. Not only does our present primary +education carefully abstain from hinting to the workman that some of +his greatest evils are traceable to mere physical agencies, which could +be removed by energy, patience, and frugality; but it does worse--it +renders him, so far as it can, deaf to those who could help him, and +tries to substitute an Oriental submission to what is falsely declared +to be the will of God, for his natural tendency to strive after a +better condition. + +What wonder, then, if very recently an appeal has been made to +statistics for the profoundly foolish purpose of showing that education +is of no good--that it diminishes neither misery nor crime among the +masses of mankind? I reply, why should the thing which has been called +education do either the one or the other? If I am a knave or a fool, +teaching me to read and write won't make me less of either one or the +other--unless somebody shows me how to put my reading and writing to +wise and good purposes. + +Suppose any one were to argue that medicine is of no use, because it +could be proved statistically, that the percentage of deaths was just +the same among people who had been taught how to open a medicine chest, +and among those who did not so much as know the key by sight. The +argument is absurd; but it is not more preposterous than that against +which I am contending. The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all +the other woes of mankind, is wisdom. Teach a man to read and write, +and you have put into his hands the great keys of the wisdom box. But +it is quite another matter whether he ever opens the box or not. And he +is as likely to poison as to cure himself, if, without guidance, he +swallows the first drug that comes to hand. In these times a man may as +well be purblind, as unable to read--lame, as unable to write. But I +protest that, if I thought the alternative were a necessary one, I +would rather that the children of the poor should grow up ignorant of +both these mighty arts, than that they should remain ignorant of that +knowledge to which these arts are means. + + * * * * * + +It may be said that all these animadversions may apply to primary +schools, but that the higher schools, at any rate, must be allowed to +give a liberal education. In fact they professedly sacrifice everything +else to this object. + +Let us inquire into this matter. What do the higher schools, those to +which the great middle class of the country sends its children, teach, +over and above the instruction given in the primary schools? There is a +little more reading and writing of English. But, for all that, every +one knows that it is a rare thing to find a boy of the middle or upper +classes who can read aloud decently, or who can put his thoughts on +paper in clear and grammatical (to say nothing of good or elegant) +language. The "ciphering" of the lower schools expands into elementary +mathematics in the higher; into arithmetic, with a little algebra, a +little Euclid. But I doubt if one boy in five hundred has ever heard +the explanation of a rule of arithmetic, or knows his Euclid otherwise +than by rote. + +Of theology, the middle class schoolboy gets rather less than poorer +children, less absolutely and less relatively, because there are so +many other claims upon his attention. I venture to say that, in the +great majority of cases, his ideas on this subject when he leaves +school are of the most shadowy and vague description, and associated +with painful impressions of the weary hours spent in learning collects +and catechism by heart. + +Modern geography, modern history, modern literature; the English +language as a language; the whole circle of the sciences, physical, +moral and social, are even more completely ignored in the higher than +in the lower schools. Up till within a few years back, a boy might have +passed through any one of the great public schools with the greatest +distinction and credit, and might never so much as have heard of one of +the subjects I have just mentioned. He might never have heard that the +earth goes round the sun; that England underwent a great revolution in +1688, and France another in 1789; that there once lived certain notable +men called Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Voltaire, Goethe, Schiller. +The first might be a German and the last an Englishman for anything he +could tell you to the contrary. And as for Science, the only idea the +word would suggest to his mind would be dexterity in boxing. + +I have said that this was the state of things a few years back, for the +sake of the few righteous who are to be found among the educational +cities of the plain. But I would not have you too sanguine about the +result, if you sound the minds of the existing generation of public +schoolboys, on such topics as those I have mentioned. + +Now let us pause to consider this wonderful state of affairs; for the +time will come when Englishmen will quote it as the stock example of +the stolid stupidity of their ancestors in the nineteenth century. The +most thoroughly commercial people, the greatest voluntary wanderers and +colonists the world has ever seen, are precisely the middle classes of +this country. If there be a people which has been busy making history +on the great scale for the last three hundred years--and the most +profoundly interesting history--history which, if it happened to be +that of Greece or Rome, we should study with avidity--it is the +English. If there be a people which, during the same period, has +developed a remarkable literature, it is our own. If there be a nation +whose prosperity depends absolutely and wholly upon their mastery over +the forces of Nature, upon their intelligent apprehension of, and +obedience to the laws of the creation and distribution of wealth, and +of the stable equilibrium of the forces of society, it is precisely +this nation. And yet this is what these wonderful people tell their +sons:--"At the cost of from one to two thousand pounds of our +hard-earned money, we devote twelve of the most precious years of your +lives to school. There you shall toil, or be supposed to toil; but +there you shall not learn one single thing of all those you will most +want to know directly you leave school and enter upon the practical +business of life. You will in all probability go into business, but you +shall not know where, or how, any article of commerce is produced, or +the difference between an export or an import, or the meaning of the +word "capital." You will very likely settle in a colony, but you shall +not know whether Tasmania is part of New South Wales, or _vice versa_. + +"Very probably you may become a manufacturer, but you shall not be +provided with the means of understanding the working of one of your own +steam-engines, or the nature of the raw products you employ; and, when +you are asked to buy a patent, you shall not have the slightest means +of judging whether the inventor is an impostor who is contravening the +elementary principles of science, or a man who will make you as rich as +Croesus. + +"You will very likely get into the House of Commons. You will have to +take your share in making laws which may prove a blessing or a curse to +millions of men. But you shall not hear one word respecting the +political organisation of your country; the meaning of the controversy +between free-traders and protectionists shall never have been mentioned +to you; you shall not so much as know that there are such things as +economical laws. + +"The mental power which will be of most importance in your daily life +will be the power of seeing things as they are without regard to +authority; and of drawing accurate general conclusions from particular +facts. But at school and at college you shall know of no source of +truth but authority; nor exercise your reasoning faculty upon anything +but deduction from that which is laid down by authority. + +"You will have to weary your soul with work, and many a time eat your +bread in sorrow and in bitterness, and you shall not have learned to +take refuge in the great source of pleasure without alloy, the serene +resting-place for worn human nature,--the world of art." + +Said I not rightly that we are a wonderful people? I am quite prepared +to allow, that education entirely devoted to these omitted subjects +might not be a completely liberal education. But is an education which +ignores them all a liberal education? Nay, is it too much to say that +the education which should embrace these subjects and no others would +be a real education, though an incomplete one; while an education which +omits them is really not an education at all, but a more or less useful +course of intellectual gymnastics? + +For what does the middle-class school put in the place of all these +things which are left out? It substitutes what is usually comprised +under the compendious title of the "classics"--that is to say, the +languages, the literature, and the history of the ancient Greeks and +Romans, and the geography of so much of the world as was known to these +two great nations of antiquity. Now, do not expect me to depreciate the +earnest and enlightened pursuit of classical learning. I have not the +least desire to speak ill of such occupations, nor any sympathy with +those who run them down. On the contrary, if my opportunities had lain +in that direction, there is no investigation into which I could have +thrown myself with greater delight than that of antiquity. + +What science can present greater attractions than philology? How can a +lover of literary excellence fail to rejoice in the ancient +masterpieces? And with what consistency could I, whose business lies so +much in the attempt to decipher the past, and to build up intelligible +forms out of the scattered fragments of long-extinct beings, fail to +take a sympathetic, though an unlearned, interest in the labours of a +Niebuhr, a Gibbon, or a Grote? Classical history is a great section of +the palaeontology of man; and I have the same double respect for it as +for other kinds of palaeontology--that is to say, a respect for the +facts which it establishes as for all facts, and a still greater +respect for it as a preparation for the discovery of a law of progress. + +But if the classics were taught as they might be taught--if boys and +girls were instructed in Greek and Latin, not merely as languages, but +as illustrations of philological science; if a vivid picture of life on +the shores of the Mediterranean two thousand years ago were imprinted +on the minds of scholars; if ancient history were taught, not as a +weary series of feuds and fights, but traced to its causes in such men +placed under such conditions; if, lastly, the study of the classical +books were followed in such a manner as to impress boys with their +beauties, and with the grand simplicity of their statement of the +everlasting problems of human life, instead of with their verbal and +grammatical peculiarities; I still think it as little proper that they +should form the basis of a liberal education for our contemporaries, as +I should think it fitting to make that sort of palaeontology with which +I am familiar the back-bone of modern education. + +It is wonderful how close a parallel to classical training could be +made out of that palaeontology to which I refer. In the first place I +could get up an osteological primer so arid, so pedantic in its +terminology, so altogether distasteful to the youthful mind, as to beat +the recent famous production of the head-masters out of the field in +all these excellences. Next, I could exercise my boys upon easy +fossils, and bring out all their powers of memory and all their +ingenuity in the application of my osteo-grammatical rules to the +interpretation, or construing, of those fragments. To those who had +reached the higher classes, I might supply odd bones to be built up +into animals, giving great honour and reward to him who succeeded in +fabricating monsters most entirely in accordance with the rules. That +would answer to verse-making and essay-writing in the dead languages. + +To be sure, if a great comparative anatomist were to look at these +fabrications he might shake his head, or laugh. But what then? Would +such a catastrophe destroy the parallel? What, think you, would Cicero, +or Horace, say to the production of the best sixth form going? And +would not Terence stop his ears and run out if he could be present at +an English performance of his own plays? Would _Hamlet_, in the +mouths of a set of French actors, who should insist on pronouncing +English after the fashion of their own tongue, be more hideously +ridiculous? + +But it will be said that I am forgetting the beauty, and the human +interest, which appertain to classical studies. To this I reply that it +is only a very strong man who can appreciate the charms of a landscape +as he is toiling up a steep hill, along a had road. What with +short-windedness, stones, ruts, and a pervading sense of the wisdom of +rest and be thankful, most of us have little enough sense of the +beautiful under these circumstances. The ordinary schoolboy is +precisely in this case. He finds Parnassus uncommonly steep, and there +is no chance of his having much time or inclination to look about him +till he gets to the top. And nine times out of ten he does not get to +the top. + +But if this be a fair picture of the results of classical teaching at +its best--and I gather from those who have authority to speak on such +matters that it is so--what is to be said of classical teaching at its +worst, or in other words, of the classics of our ordinary middle-class +schools? [1] I will tell you. It means getting up endless forms and +rules by heart. It means turning Latin and Greek into English, for the +mere sake of being able to do it, and without the smallest regard to +the worth, or worthlessness, of the author read. It means the learning +of innumerable, not always decent, fables in such a shape that the +meaning they once had is dried up into utter trash; and the only +impression left upon a boy's mind is, that the people who believed such +things must have been the greatest idiots the world ever saw. And it +means, finally, that after a dozen years spent at this kind of work, +the sufferer shall be incompetent to interpret a passage in an author +he has not already got up; that he shall loathe the sight of a Greek or +Latin book; and that he shall never open, or think of, a classical +writer again, until, wonderful to relate, he insists upon submitting +his sons to the same process. + +These be your gods, O Israel! For the sake of this net result (and +respectability) the British father denies his children all the +knowledge they might turn to account in life, not merely for the +achievement of vulgar success, but for guidance in the great crises of +human existence. This is the stone he offers to those whom he is bound +by the strongest and tenderest ties to feed with bread. + + * * * * * + +If primary and secondary education are in this unsatisfactory state, +what is to be said to the universities? This is an awful subject, and +one I almost fear to touch with my unhallowed hands; but I can tell you +what those say who have authority to speak. + +The Rector of Lincoln College, in his lately published valuable +"Suggestions for Academical Organisation with especial reference to +Oxford," tells us (p. 127):-- + +"The colleges were, in their origin, endowments, not for the elements +of a general liberal education, but for the prolonged study of special +and professional faculties by men of riper age. The universities +embraced both these objects. The colleges, while they incidentally +aided in elementary education, were specially devoted to the highest +learning.... + +"This was the theory of the middle-age university and the design of +collegiate foundations in their origin. Time and circumstances have +brought about a total change. The colleges no longer promote the +researches of science, or direct professional study. Here and there +college walls may shelter an occasional student, but not in larger +proportions than may be found in private life. Elementary teaching of +youths under twenty is now the only function performed by the +university, and almost the only object of college endowments. Colleges +were homes for the life-study of the highest and most abstruse parts of +knowledge. They have become boarding schools in which the elements of +the learned languages are taught to youths." + +If Mr. Pattison's high position, and his obvious love and respect for +his university, be insufficient to convince the outside world that +language so severe is yet no more than just, the authority of the +Commissioners who reported on the University of Oxford in 1850 is open +to no challenge. Yet they write:-- + +"It is generally acknowledged that both Oxford and the country at large +suffer greatly from the absence of a body of learned men devoting their +lives to the cultivation of science, and to the direction of academical +education. + +"The fact that so few books of profound research emanate from the +University of Oxford, materially impairs its character as a seat of +learning, and consequently its hold on the respect of the nation." + +Cambridge can claim no exemption from the reproaches addressed to +Oxford. And thus there seems no escape from the admission that what we +fondly call our great seats of learning are simply "boarding schools" +for bigger boys; that learned men are not more numerous in them than +out of them; that the advancement of knowledge is not the object of +fellows of colleges; that, in the philosophic calm and meditative +stillness of their greenswarded courts, philosophy does not thrive, and +meditation bears few fruits. + +It is my great good fortune to reckon amongst my friends resident +members of both universities, who are men of learning and research, +zealous cultivators of science, keeping before their minds a noble +ideal of a university, and doing their best to make that ideal a +reality; and, to me, they would necessarily typify the universities, +did not the authoritative statements I have quoted compel me to believe +that they are exceptional, and not representative men. Indeed, upon +calm consideration, several circumstances lead me to think that the +Rector of Lincoln College and the Commissioners cannot be far wrong. + +I believe there can be no doubt that the foreigner who should wish to +become acquainted with the scientific, or the literary, activity of +modern England, would simply lose his time and his pains if he visited +our universities with that object. + +And, as for works of profound research on any subject, and, above all, +in that classical lore for which the universities profess to sacrifice +almost everything else, why, a third-rate, poverty-stricken German +university turns out more produce of that kind in one year, than our +vast and wealthy foundations elaborate in ten. + +Ask the man who is investigating any question, profoundly and +thoroughly--be it historical, philosophical, philological, physical, +literary, or theological; who is trying to make himself master of any +abstract subject (except, perhaps, political economy and geology, both +of which are intensely Anglican sciences), whether he is not compelled +to read half a dozen times as many German as English books? And +whether, of these English books, more than one in ten is the work of a +fellow of a college, or a professor of an English university? + +Is this from any lack of power in the English as compared with the +German mind? The countrymen of Grote and of Mill, of Faraday, of Robert +Brown, of Lyell, and of Darwin, to go no further back than the +contemporaries of men of middle age, can afford to smile at such a +suggestion. England can show now, as she has been able to show in every +generation since civilisation spread over the West, individual men who +hold their own against the world, and keep alive the old tradition of +her intellectual eminence. + +But, in the majority of cases, these men are what they are in virtue of +their native intellectual force, and of a strength of character which +will not recognise impediments. They are not trained in the courts of +the Temple of Science, but storm the walls of that edifice in all sorts +of irregular ways, and with much loss of time and power, in order to +obtain their legitimate positions. + +Our universities not only do not encourage such men; do not offer them +positions, in which it should be their highest duty to do, thoroughly, +that which they are most capable of doing; but, as far as possible, +university training shuts out of the minds of those among them, who are +subjected to it, the prospect that there is anything in the world for +which they are specially fitted. Imagine the success of the attempt to +still the intellectual hunger of any of the men I have mentioned, by +putting before him, as the object of existence, the successful mimicry +of the measure of a Greek song, or the roll of Ciceronian prose! +Imagine how much success would be likely to attend the attempt to +persuade such men that the education which leads to perfection in such +elegances is alone to be called culture; while the facts of history, +the process of thought, the conditions of moral and social existence, +and the laws of physical nature are left to be dealt with as they may +by outside barbarians! + +It is not thus that the German universities, from being beneath notice +a century ago, have become what they are now--the most intensely +cultivated and the most productive intellectual corporations the world +has ever seen. + +The student who repairs to them sees in the list of classes and of +professors a fair picture of the world of knowledge. Whatever he needs +to know there is some one ready to teach him, some one competent to +discipline him in the way of learning; whatever his special bent, let +him but be able and diligent, and in due time he shall find distinction +and a career. Among his professors, he sees men whose names are known +and revered throughout the civilised world; and their living example +infects him with a noble ambition, and a love for the spirit of work. + +The Germans dominate the intellectual world by virtue of the same +simple secret as that which made Napoleon the master of old Europe. +They have declared _la carriere ouverte aux talents_, and every +Bursch marches with a professor's gown in his knapsack. Let him become +a great scholar, or man of science, and ministers will compete for his +services. In Germany, they do not leave the chance of his holding the +office he would render illustrious to the tender mercies of a hot +canvass, and the final wisdom of a mob of country parsons. + +In short, in Germany, the universities are exactly what the Rector of +Lincoln and the Commissioners tell us the English universities are not; +that is to say, corporations "of learned men devoting their lives to +the cultivation of science, and the direction of academical +education." They are not "boarding schools for youths," nor clerical +seminaries; but institutions for the higher culture of men, in which +the theological faculty is of no more importance, or prominence, than +the rest; and which are truly "universities," since they strive to +represent and embody the totality of human knowledge, and to find room +for all forms of intellectual activity. + +May zealous and clear-headed reformers like Mr. Pattison succeed in +their noble endeavours to shape our universities towards some such +ideal as this, without losing what is valuable and distinctive in their +social tone! But until they have succeeded, a liberal education will be +no more obtainable in our Oxford and Cambridge Universities than in our +public schools. + +If I am justified in my conception of the ideal of a liberal education; +and if what I have said about the existing educational institutions of +the country is also true, it is clear that the two have no sort of +relation to one another; that the best of our schools and the most +complete of our university trainings give but a narrow, one-sided, and +essentially illiberal education--while the worst give what is really +next to no education at all. The South London Working-Men's College +could not copy any of these institutions if it would; I am bold enough +to express the conviction that it ought not if it could. + +For what is wanted is the reality and not the mere name of a liberal +education; and this College must steadily set before itself the +ambition to be able to give that education sooner or later. At present +we are but beginning, sharpening our educational tools, as it were, +and, except a modicum of physical science, we are not able to offer +much more than is to be found in an ordinary school. + +Moral and social science--one of the greatest and most fruitful of our +future classes, I hope--at present lacks only one thing in our +programme, and that is a teacher. A considerable want, no doubt; but it +must be recollected that it is much better to want a teacher than to +want the desire to learn. + +Further, we need what, for want of a better name, I must call +Physical Geography. What I mean is that which the Germans call +"_Erdkunde_." It is a description of the earth, of its place and +relation to other bodies; of its general structure, and of its great +features--winds, tides, mountains, plains: of the chief forms of the +vegetable and animal worlds, of the varieties of man. It is the peg +upon which the greatest quantity of useful and entertaining scientific +information can be suspended. + +Literature is not upon the College programme; but I hope some day to +see it there. For literature is the greatest of all sources of refined +pleasure, and one of the great uses of a liberal education is to enable +us to enjoy that pleasure. There is scope enough for the purposes of +liberal education in the study of the rich treasures of our own +language alone. All that is needed is direction, and the cultivation of +a refined taste by attention to sound criticism. But there is no reason +why French and German should not be mastered sufficiently to read what +is worth reading in those languages with pleasure and with profit. + +And finally, by and by, we must have History; treated not as a +succession of battles and dynasties; not as a series of biographies; +not as evidence that Providence has always been on the side of either +Whigs or Tories; but as the development of man in times past, and in +other conditions than our own. + +But, as it is one of the principles of our College to be +self-supporting, the public must lead, and we must follow, in these +matters. If my hearers take to heart what I have said about liberal +education, they will desire these things, and I doubt not we shall be +able to supply them. But we must wait till the demand is made. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] For a justification of what is here said about these +schools, see that valuable book, _Essays on a Liberal Education, +passim_. + + + + +V + +SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH + +[1869] + + + [Mr. Thackeray, talking of after-dinner speeches, has lamented that + "one never can recollect the fine things one thought of in the + cab," in going to the place of entertainment. I am not aware that + there are any "fine things" in the following pages, but such as + there are stand to a speech which really did get itself spoken, at + the hospitable table of the Liverpool Philomathic Society, more or + less in the position of what "one thought of in the cab."] + + +The introduction of scientific training into the general education of +the country is a topic upon which I could not have spoken, without some +more or less apologetic introduction, a few years ago. But upon this, +as upon other matters, public opinion has of late undergone a rapid +modification. Committees of both Houses of the Legislature have agreed +that something must be done in this direction, and have even thrown out +timid and faltering suggestions as to what should be done; while at the +opposite pole of society, committees of working men have expressed +their conviction that scientific training is the one thing needful for +their advancement, whether as men, or as workmen. Only the other day, +it was my duty to take part in the reception of a deputation of London +working men, who desired to learn from Sir Roderick Murchison, the +Director of the Royal School of Mines, whether the organisation of the +Institution in Jermyn Street could be made available for the supply of +that scientific instruction the need of which could not have been +apprehended, or stated, more clearly than it was by them. + +The heads of colleges in our great universities (who have not the +reputation of being the most mobile of persons) have, in several cases, +thought it well that, out of the great number of honours and rewards at +their disposal, a few should hereafter be given to the cultivators of +the physical sciences. Nay, I hear that some colleges have even gone so +far as to appoint one, or, maybe, two special tutors for the purpose of +putting the facts and principles of physical science before the +undergraduate mind. And I say it with gratitude and great respect for +those eminent persons, that the head masters of our public schools, +Eton, Harrow, Winchester, have addressed themselves to the problem of +introducing instruction in physical science among the studies of those +great educational bodies, with much honesty of purpose and +enlightenment of understanding; and I live in hope that, before long, +important changes in this direction will be carried into effect in +those strongholds of ancient prescription. In fact, such changes have +already been made, and physical science, even now, constitutes a +recognised element of the school curriculum in Harrow and Rugby, whilst +I understand that ample preparations for such studies are being made at +Eton and elsewhere. + +Looking at these facts, I might perhaps spare myself the trouble of +giving any reasons for the introduction of physical science into +elementary education; yet I cannot but think that it may be well if I +place before you some considerations which, perhaps, have hardly +received full attention. + +At other times, and in other places, I have endeavoured to state the +higher and more abstract arguments, by which the study of physical +science may be shown to be indispensable to the complete training of +the human mind; but I do not wish it to be supposed that, because I +happen to be devoted to more or less abstract and "unpractical" +pursuits, I am insensible to the weight which ought to be attached +to that which has been said to be the English conception of +Paradise--namely, "getting on." I look upon it, that "getting on" is a +very important matter indeed. I do not mean merely for the sake of the +coarse and tangible results of success, but because humanity is so +constituted that a vast number of us would never be impelled to those +stretches of exertion which make, us wiser and more capable men, if it +were not for the absolute necessity of putting on our faculties all the +strain they will bear, for the purpose of "getting on" in the most +practical sense. + +Now the value of a knowledge of physical science as a means of getting +on is indubitable. There are hardly any of our trades, except the +merely huckstering ones, in which some knowledge of science may not be +directly profitable to the pursuer of that occupation. As industry +attains higher stages of its development, as its processes become more +complicated and refined, and competition more keen, the sciences are +dragged in, one by one, to take their share in the fray; and he who can +best avail himself of their help is the man who will come out uppermost +in that struggle for existence, which goes on as fiercely beneath the +smooth surface of modern society, as among the wild inhabitants of the +woods. + +But in addition to the bearing of science on ordinary practical life, +let me direct your attention to its immense influence on several of the +professions. I ask any one who has adopted the calling of an engineer, +how much time he lost when he left school, because he had to devote +himself to pursuits which were absolutely novel and strange, and of +which he had not obtained the remotest conception from his instructors? +He had to familiarise himself with ideas of the course and powers of +Nature, to which his attention had never been directed during his +school-life, and to learn, for the first time, that a world of facts +lies outside and beyond the world of words. I appeal to those who know +what engineering is, to say how far I am right in respect to that +profession; but with regard to another, of no less importance, I shall +venture to speak of my own knowledge. There is no one of us who may not +at any moment be thrown, bound hand and foot by physical incapacity, +into the hands of a medical practitioner. The chances of life and death +for all and each of us may, at any moment, depend on the skill with +which that practitioner is able to make out what is wrong in our bodily +frames, and on his ability to apply the proper remedy to the defect. + +The necessities of modern life are such, and the class from which the +medical profession is chiefly recruited is so situated, that few +medical men can hope to spend more than three or four, or it may be +five, years in the pursuit of those studies which are immediately +germane to physic. How is that all too brief period spent at present? I +speak as an old examiner, having served some eleven or twelve years in +that capacity in the University of London, and therefore having a +practical acquaintance with the subject; but I might fortify myself by +the authority of the President of the College of Surgeons, Mr. Quain, +whom I heard the other day in an admirable address (the Hunterian +Oration) deal fully and wisely with this very topic. [1] + +A young man commencing the study of medicine is at once required to +endeavour to make an acquaintance with a number of sciences, such as +Physics, as Chemistry, as Botany, as Physiology, which are absolutely +and entirely strange to him, however excellent his so-called education +at school may have been. Not only is he devoid of all apprehension of +scientific conceptions, not only does he fail to attach any meaning to +the words "matter," "force," or "law" in their scientific senses, but, +worse still, he has no notion of what it is to come into contact with +Nature, or to lay his mind alongside of a physical fact, and try to +conquer it, in the way our great naval hero told his captains to master +their enemies. His whole mind has been given to books, and I am hardly +exaggerating if I say that they are more real to him than Nature. He +imagines that all knowledge can be got out of books, and rests upon the +authority of some master or other; nor does he entertain any misgiving +that the method of learning which led to proficiency in the rules of +grammar will suffice to lead him to a mastery of the laws of Nature. +The youngster, thus unprepared for serious study, is turned loose among +his medical studies, with the result, in nine cases out of ten, that +the first year of his curriculum is spent in learning how to learn. +Indeed, he is lucky if, at the end of the first year, by the exertions +of his teachers and his own industry, he has acquired even that art of +arts. After which there remain not more than three, or perhaps four, +years for the profitable study of such vast sciences as Anatomy, +Physiology, Therapeutics, Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics, and the like, +upon his knowledge or ignorance of which it depends whether the +practitioner shall diminish, or increase, the bills of mortality. Now +what is it but the preposterous condition of ordinary school education +which prevents a young man of seventeen, destined for the practice of +medicine, from being fully prepared for the study of Nature; and from +coming to the medical school, equipped with that preliminary knowledge +of the principles of Physics, of Chemistry and of Biology, upon which +he has now to waste one of the precious years, every moment of which +ought to be given to those studies which bear directly upon the +knowledge of his profession? + +There is another profession, to the members of which, I think, a +certain preliminary knowledge of physical science might be quite as +valuable as to the medical man. The practitioner of medicine sets +before himself the noble object of taking care of man's bodily welfare; +but the members of this other profession undertake to "minister to +minds diseased," and, so far as may be, to diminish sin and soften +sorrow. Like the medical profession, the clerical, of which I now +speak, rests its power to heal upon its knowledge of the order of the +universe--upon certain theories of man's relation to that which lies +outside him. It is not my business to express any opinion about these +theories. I merely wish to point out that, like all other theories, +they are professedly based upon matters of fact. Thus the clerical +profession has to deal with the facts of Nature from a certain point of +view; and hence it comes into contact with that of the man of science, +who has to treat the same facts from another point of view. You know +how often that contact is to be described as collision, or violent +friction; and how great the heat, how little the light, which commonly +results from it. + +In the interests of fair play, to say nothing of those of mankind, I +ask, Why do not the clergy as a body acquire, as a part of their +preliminary education, some such tincture of physical science as will +put them in a position to understand the difficulties in the way of +accepting their theories, which are forced upon the mind of every +thoughtful and intelligent man, who has taken the trouble to instruct +himself in the elements of natural knowledge? + +Some time ago I attended a large meeting of the clergy, for the purpose +of delivering an address which I had been invited to give. I spoke of +some of the most elementary facts in physical science, and of the +manner in which they directly contradict certain of the ordinary +teachings of the clergy. The result was, that, after I had finished, +one section of the assembled ecclesiastics attacked me with all the +intemperance of pious zeal, for stating facts and conclusions which no +competent judge doubts; while, after the first speakers had subsided, +amidst the cheers of the great majority of their colleagues, the more +rational minority rose to tell me that I had taken wholly superfluous +pains, that they already knew all about what I had told them, and +perfectly agreed with me. A hard-headed friend of mine, who was +present, put the not unnatural question, "Then why don't you say so in +your pulpits?" to which inquiry I heard no reply. + +In fact the clergy are at present divisible into three sections: an +immense body who are ignorant and speak out; a small proportion who +know and are silent; and a minute minority who know and speak according +to their knowledge. By the clergy, I mean especially the Protestant +clergy. Our great antagonist--I speak as a man of science--the Roman +Catholic Church, the one great spiritual organisation which is able to +resist, and must, as a matter of life and death, resist, the progress +of science and modern civilisation, manages her affairs much better. + +It was my fortune some time ago to pay a visit to one of the most +important of the institutions in which the clergy of the Roman Catholic +Church in these islands are trained; and it seemed to me that the +difference between these men and the comfortable champions of +Anglicanism and of Dissent, was comparable to the difference between +our gallant Volunteers and the trained veterans of Napoleon's Old +Guard. + +The Catholic priest is trained to know his business, and do it +effectually. The professors of the college in question, learned, +zealous, and determined men, permitted me to speak frankly with them. +We talked like outposts of opposed armies during a truce--as friendly +enemies; and when I ventured to point out the difficulties their +students would have to encounter from scientific thought, they replied: +"Our Church has lasted many ages, and has passed safely through many +storms. The present is but a new gust of the old tempest, and we do not +turn out our young men less fitted to weather it, than they have been, +in former times, to cope with the difficulties of those times. The +heresies of the day are explained to them by their professors of +philosophy and science, and they are taught how those heresies are to +be met." + +I heartily respect an organisation which faces its enemies in this way; +and I wish that all ecclesiastical organisations were in as effective a +condition. I think it would be better, not only for them, but for us. +The army of liberal thought is, at present, in very loose order; and +many a spirited free-thinker makes use of his freedom mainly to vent +nonsense. We should be the better for a vigorous and watchful enemy to +hammer us into cohesion and discipline; and I, for one, lament that the +bench of Bishops cannot show a man of the calibre of Butler of the +"Analogy," who, if he were alive, would make short work of much of the +current _a priori_ "infidelity." + +I hope you will consider that the arguments I have now stated, even if +there were no better ones, constitute a sufficient apology for urging +the introduction of science into schools. The next question to which I +have to address myself is, What sciences ought to be thus taught? And +this is one of the most important of questions, because my side (I am +afraid I am a terribly candid friend) sometimes spoils its cause by +going in for too much. There are other forms of culture beside physical +science; and I should be profoundly sorry to see the fact forgotten, or +even to observe a tendency to starve, or cripple, literary, or +aesthetic, culture for the sake of science. Such a narrow view of the +nature of education has nothing to do with my firm conviction that a +complete and thorough scientific culture ought to be introduced into +all schools. By this, however, I do not mean that every schoolboy +should be taught everything in science. That would be a very absurd +thing to conceive, and a very mischievous thing to attempt. What I mean +is, that no boy nor girl should leave school without possessing a grasp +of the general character of science, and without having been +disciplined, more or less, in the methods of all sciences; so that, +when turned into the world to make their own way, they shall be +prepared to face scientific problems, not by knowing at once the +conditions of every problem, or by being able at once to solve it; but +by being familiar with the general current of scientific thought, and +by being able to apply the methods of science in the proper way, when +they have acquainted themselves with the conditions of the special +problem. + +That is what I understand by scientific education. To furnish a boy +with such an education, it is by no means necessary that he should +devote his whole school existence to physical science: in fact, no one +would lament so one-sided a proceeding more than I. Nay more, it is not +necessary for him to give up more than a moderate share of his time to +such studies, if they be properly selected and arranged, and if he be +trained in them in a fitting manner. + +I conceive the proper course to be somewhat as follows. To begin with, +let every child be instructed in those general views of the phaenomena +of Nature for which we have no exact English name. The nearest +approximation to a name for what I mean, which we possess, is "physical +geography." The Germans have a better, "Erdkunde" ("earth knowledge" or +"geology" in its etymological sense), that is to say, a general +knowledge of the earth, and what is on it, in it, and about it. If any +one who has had experience of the ways of young children will call to +mind their questions, he will find that so far as they can be put into +any scientific category, they come under this head of "Erdkunde." The +child asks, "What is the moon, and why does it shine?" "What is this +water, and where does it run?" "What is the wind?" "What makes this +waves in the sea?" "Where does this animal live, and what is the use of +that plant?" And if not snubbed and stunted by being told not to ask +foolish questions, there is no limit to the intellectual craving of a +young child; nor any bounds to the slow, but solid, accretion of +knowledge and development of the thinking faculty in this way. To all +such questions, answers which are necessarily incomplete, though true +as far as they go, may be given by any teacher whose ideas represent +real knowledge and not mere book learning; and a panoramic view of +Nature, accompanied by a strong infusion of the scientific habit of +mind, may thus be placed within the reach of every child of nine or +ten. + +After this preliminary opening of the eyes to the great spectacle +of the daily progress of Nature, as the reasoning faculties of the +child grow, and he becomes familiar with the use of the tools of +knowledge--reading, writing, and elementary mathematics--he should pass +on to what is, in the more strict sense, physical science. Now there +are two kinds of physical science: the one regards form and the +relation of forms to one another; the other deals with causes and +effects. In many of what we term sciences, these two kinds are mixed up +together; but systematic botany is a pure example of the former kind, +and physics of the latter kind, of science. Every educational advantage +which training in physical science can give is obtainable from the +proper study of these two; and I should be contented, for the present, +if they, added to our "Erdkunde," furnished the whole of the scientific +curriculum of school. Indeed, I conceive it would be one of the +greatest boons which could be conferred upon England, if henceforward +every child in the country were instructed in the general knowledge of +the things about it, in the elements of physics, and of botany. But I +should be still better pleased if there could be added somewhat of +chemistry, and an elementary acquaintance with human physiology. + +So far as school education is concerned, I want to go no further just +now; and I believe that such instruction would make an excellent +introduction to that preparatory scientific training which, as I have +indicated, is so essential for the successful pursuit of our most +important professions. But this modicum of instruction must be so given +as to ensure real knowledge and practical discipline. If scientific +education is to be dealt with as mere bookwork, it will be better not +to attempt it, but to stick to the Latin Grammar which makes no +pretence to be anything but bookwork. + +If the great benefits of scientific training are sought, it is +essential that such training should be real: that is to say, that the +mind of the scholar should be brought into direct relation with fact, +that he should not merely be told a thing, but made to see by the use +of his own intellect and ability that the thing is so and no otherwise. +The great peculiarity of scientific training, that in virtue of which +it cannot be replaced by any other discipline whatsoever, is this +bringing of the mind directly into contact with fact, and practising +the intellect in the completest form of induction; that is to say, in +drawing conclusions from particular facts made known by immediate +observation of Nature. + +The other studies which enter into ordinary education do not discipline +the mind in this way. Mathematical training is almost purely deductive. +The mathematician starts with a few simple propositions, the proof of +which is so obvious that they are called self-evident, and the rest of +his work consists of subtle deductions from them. The teaching of +languages, at any rate as ordinarily practised, is of the same general +nature,--authority and tradition furnish the data, and the mental +operations of the scholar are deductive. + +Again: if history be the subject of study, the facts are still taken +upon the evidence of tradition and authority. You cannot make a boy see +the battle of Thermopylae for himself, or know, of his own knowledge, +that Cromwell once ruled England. There is no getting into direct +contact with natural fact by this road; there is no dispensing with +authority, but rather a resting upon it. + +In all these respects, science differs from other educational +discipline, and prepares the scholar for common life. What have we to +do in every-day life? Most of the business which demands our attention +is matter of fact, which needs, in the first place, to be accurately +observed or apprehended; in the second, to be interpreted by inductive +and deductive reasonings, which are altogether similar in their nature +to those employed in science. In the one case, as in the other, +whatever is taken for granted is so taken at one's own peril; fact and +reason are the ultimate arbiters, and patience and honesty are the +great helpers out of difficulty. + +But if scientific training is to yield its most eminent results, it +must, I repeat, be made practical. That is to say, in explaining to a +child the general phaenomena of Nature, you must, as far as possible, +give reality to your teaching by object-lessons; in teaching him +botany, he must handle the plants and dissect the flowers for himself; +in teaching him physics and chemistry, you must not be solicitous to +fill him with information, but you must be careful that what he learns +he knows of his own knowledge. Don't be satisfied with telling him that +a magnet attracts iron. Let him see that it does; let him feel the pull +of the one upon the other for himself. And, especially, tell him that +it is his duty to doubt until he is compelled, by the absolute +authority of Nature, to believe that which is written in books. Pursue +this discipline carefully and conscientiously, and you may make sure +that, however scanty may be the measure of information which you have +poured into the boy's mind, you have created an intellectual habit of +priceless value in practical life. + +One is constantly asked, When should this scientific education be +commenced? I should say with the dawn of intelligence. As I have +already said, a child seeks for information about matters of physical +science as soon as it begins to talk. The first teaching it wants is an +object-lesson of one sort or another; and as soon as it is fit for +systematic instruction of any kind, it is fit for a modicum of science. + +People talk of the difficulty of teaching young children such matters, +and in the same breath insist upon their learning their Catechism, +which contains propositions far harder to comprehend than anything in +the educational course I have proposed. Again: I am incessantly told +that we, who advocate the introduction of science in schools, make no +allowance for the stupidity of the average boy or girl; but, in my +belief, that stupidity, in nine cases out of ten, "_fit, non +nascitur_," and is developed by a long process of parental and +pedagogic repression of the natural intellectual appetites, +accompanied by a persistent attempt to create artificial ones for food +which is not only tasteless, but essentially indigestible. + +Those who urge the difficulty of instructing young people in +science are apt to forget another very important condition of +success--important in all kinds of teaching, but most essential, I am +disposed to think, when the scholars are very young. This condition is, +that the teacher should himself really and practically know his +subject. If he does, he will be able to speak of it in the easy +language, and with the completeness of conviction, with which he talks +of any ordinary every-day matter. If he does not, he will be afraid to +wander beyond the limits of the technical phraseology which he has got +up; and a dead dogmatism, which oppresses, or raises opposition, will +take the place of the lively confidence, born of personal conviction, +which cheers and encourages the eminently sympathetic mind of +childhood. + +I have already hinted that such scientific training as we seek for may +be given without making any extravagant claim upon the time now devoted +to education. We ask only for "a most favoured nation" clause in our +treaty with the schoolmaster; we demand no more than that science shall +have as much time given to it as any other single subject--say four +hours a week in each class of an ordinary school. + +For the present, I think men of science would be well content with such +an arrangement as this: but speaking for myself, I do not pretend to +believe that such an arrangement can be, or will be, permanent. In +these times the educational tree seems to me to have its roots in the +air, its leaves and flowers in the ground; and, I confess, I should +very much like to turn it upside down, so that its roots might be +solidly embedded among the facts of Nature, and draw thence a sound +nutriment for the foliage and fruit of literature and of art. No +educational system can have a claim to permanence, unless it recognises +the truth that education has two great ends to which everything else +must be subordinated. The one of these is to increase knowledge; the +other is to develop the love of right and the hatred of wrong. + +With wisdom and uprightness a nation can make its way worthily, and +beauty will follow in the footsteps of the two, even if she be not +specially invited; while there is perhaps no sight in the whole world +more saddening and revolting than is offered by men sunk in ignorance +of everything but what other men have written; seemingly devoid of +moral belief or guidance; but with the sense of beauty so keen, and the +power of expression so cultivated, that their sensual caterwauling may +be almost mistaken for the music of the spheres. + +At present, education is almost entirely devoted to the cultivation of +the power of expression, and of the sense of literary beauty. The +matter of having anything to say, beyond a hash of other people's +opinions, or of possessing any criterion of beauty, so that we may +distinguish between the Godlike and the devilish, is left aside as of +no moment. I think I do not err in saying that if science were made a +foundation of education, instead of being, at most, stuck on as cornice +to the edifice, this state of things could not exist. + +In advocating the introduction of physical science as a leading element +in education, I by no means refer only to the higher schools. On the +contrary, I believe that such a change is even more imperatively called +for in those primary schools, in which the children of the poor are +expected to turn to the best account the little time they can devote to +the acquisition of knowledge. A great step in this direction has +already been made by the establishment of science-classes under the +Department of Science and Art,--a measure which came into existence +unnoticed, but which will, I believe, turn out to be of more importance +to the welfare of the people than many political changes over which the +noise of battle has rent the air. + +Under the regulations to which I refer, a schoolmaster can set up a +class in one or more branches of science; his pupils will be examined, +and the State will pay him, at a certain rate, for all who succeed in +passing. I have acted as an examiner under this system from the +beginning of its establishment, and this year I expect to have not +fewer than a couple of thousand sets of answers to questions in +Physiology, mainly from young people of the artisan class, who have +been taught in the schools which are now scattered all over great +Britain and Ireland. Some of my colleagues, who have to deal with +subjects such as Geometry, for which the present teaching power is +better organised, I understand are likely to have three or four times +as many papers. So far as my own subjects are concerned, I can +undertake to say that a great deal of the teaching, the results of +which are before me in these examinations, is very sound and good; and +I think it is in the power of the examiners, not only to keep up the +present standard, but to cause an almost unlimited improvement. Now +what does this mean? It means that by holding out a very moderate +inducement, the masters of primary schools in many parts of the country +have been led to convert them into little foci of scientific +instruction; and that they and their pupils have contrived to find, or +to make, time enough to carry out this object with a very considerable +degree of efficiency. That efficiency will, I doubt not, be very much +increased as the system becomes known and perfected, even with the very +limited leisure left to masters and teachers on week-days. And this +leads me to ask, Why should scientific teaching be limited to +week-days? + +Ecclesiastically-minded persons are in the habit of calling things they +do not like by very hard names, and I should not wonder if they brand +the proposition I am about to make as blasphemous, and worse. But, not +minding this, I venture to ask, Would there really be anything wrong in +using part of Sunday for the purpose of instructing those who have no +other leisure, in a knowledge of the phaenomena of Nature, and of man's +relation to Nature? + +I should like to see a scientific Sunday-school in every parish, not +for the purpose of superseding any existing means of teaching the +people the things that are for their good, but side by side with them. +I cannot but think that there is room for all of us to work in helping +to bridge over the great abyss of ignorance which lies at our feet. + +And if any of the ecclesiastical persons to whom I have referred, +object that they find it derogatory to the honour of the God whom they +worship, to awaken the minds of the young to the infinite wonder and +majesty of the works which they proclaim His, and to teach them those +laws which must needs be His laws, and therefore of all things needful +for man to know--I can only recommend them to be let blood and put on +low diet. There must be something very wrong going on in the instrument +of logic if it turns out such conclusions from such premises. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] Mr. Quam's words (_Medical Times and Gazette_, February 20) +are:--"A few words as to our special Medical course of instruction +and the influence upon it of such changes in the elementary schools as +I have mentioned. The student now enters at once upon several +sciences--physics, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, botany, pharmacy, +therapeutics--all these, the facts and the language and the laws of +each, to be mastered in eighteen months. Up to the beginning of the +Medical course many have learned little. We cannot claim anything +better than the Examiner of the University of London and the Cambridge +Lecturer have reported for their Universities. Supposing that at school +young people had acquired some exact elementary knowledge in physics, +chemistry, and a branch of natural history--say botany--with the +physiology connected with it, they would then have gained necessary +knowledge, with some practice in inductive reasoning. The whole studies +are processes of observation and induction--the best discipline of the +mind for the purposes of life--for our purposes not less than any. 'By +such study (says Dr. Whewell) of one or more departments of inductive +science the mind may escape from the thraldom of mere words.' By that +plan the burden of the early Medical course would be much lightened, +and more time devoted to practical studies, including Sir Thomas +Watson's 'final and supreme stage' of the knowledge of Medicine." + + + + +VI + +SCIENCE AND CULTURE + +[1880] + + +Six years ago, as some of my present hearers may remember, I had the +privilege of addressing a large assemblage of the inhabitants of this +city, who had gathered together to do honour to the memory of their +famous townsman, Joseph Priestley; [1] and, if any satisfaction +attaches to posthumous glory, we may hope that the manes of the +burnt-out philosopher were then finally appeased. + +No man, however, who is endowed with a fair share of common sense, and +not more than a fair share of vanity, will identify either contemporary +or posthumous fame with the highest good; and Priestley's life leaves +no doubt that he, at any rate, set a much higher value upon the +advancement of knowledge, and the promotion of that freedom of thought +which is at once the cause and the consequence of intellectual +progress. + +Hence I am disposed to think that, if Priestley could be amongst us +to-day, the occasion of our meeting would afford him even greater +pleasure than the proceedings which celebrated the centenary of his +chief discovery. The kindly heart would be moved, the high sense of +social duty would be satisfied, by the spectacle of well-earned wealth, +neither squandered in tawdry luxury and vainglorious show, nor +scattered with the careless charity which blesses neither him that +gives nor him that takes, but expended in the execution of a +well-considered plan for the aid of present and future generations of +those who are willing to help themselves. + +We shall all be of one mind thus far. But it is needful to share +Priestley's keen interest in physical science; and to have learned, as +he had learned, the value of scientific training in fields of inquiry +apparently far remote from physical science; in order to appreciate, as +he would have appreciated, the value of the noble gift which Sir Josiah +Mason has bestowed upon the inhabitants of the Midland district. + +For us children of the nineteenth century, however, the establishment +of a college under the conditions of Sir Josiah Mason's Trust, has a +significance apart from any which it could have possessed a hundred +years ago. It appears to be an indication that we are reaching the +crisis of the battle, or rather of the long series of battles, which +have been fought over education in a campaign which began long before +Priestley's time, and will probably not be finished just yet. + +In the last century, the combatants were the champions of ancient +literature on the one side, and those of modern literature on the +other; but, some thirty years [2] ago, the contest became complicated +by the appearance of a third army, ranged round the banner of Physical +Science. + +I am not aware that any one has authority to speak in the name of this +new host. For it must be admitted to be somewhat of a guerilla force, +composed largely of irregulars, each of whom fights pretty much for his +own hand. But the impressions of a full private, who has seen a good +deal of service in the ranks, respecting the present position of +affairs and the conditions of a permanent peace, may not be devoid of +interest; and I do not know that I could make a better use of the +present opportunity than by laying them before you. + + * * * * * + +From the time that the first suggestion to introduce physical science +into ordinary education was timidly whispered, until now, the advocates +of scientific education have met with opposition of two kinds. On the +one hand, they have been pooh-poohed by the men of business who pride +themselves on being the representatives of practicality; while, on the +other hand, they have been excommunicated by the classical scholars, in +their capacity of Levites in charge of the ark of culture and +monopolists of liberal education. + +The practical men believed that the idol whom they worship--rule of +thumb--has been the source of the past prosperity, and will suffice for +the future welfare of the arts and manufactures. They were of opinion +that science is speculative rubbish; that theory and practice have +nothing to do with one another; and that the scientific habit of mind +is an impediment, rather than an aid, in the conduct of ordinary +affairs. + +I have used the past tense in speaking of the practical men--for +although they were very formidable thirty years ago, I am not sure that +the pure species has not been extirpated. In fact, so far as mere +argument goes, they have been subjected to such a _feu d'enfer_ +that it is a miracle if any have escaped. But I have remarked that your +typical practical man has an unexpected resemblance to one of Milton's +angels. His spiritual wounds, such as are inflicted by logical weapons, +may be as deep as a well and as wide as a church door, but beyond +shedding a few drops of ichor, celestial or otherwise, he is no whit +the worse. So, if any of these opponents be left, I will not waste time +in vain repetition of the demonstrative evidence of the practical value +of science; but knowing that a parable will sometimes penetrate where +syllogisms fail to effect an entrance, I will offer a story for their +consideration. + +Once upon a time, a boy, with nothing to depend upon but his own +vigorous nature, was thrown into the thick of the struggle for +existence in the midst of a great manufacturing population. He seems to +have had a hard fight, inasmuch as, by the time he was thirty years of +age, his total disposable funds amounted to twenty pounds. +Nevertheless, middle life found him giving proof of his comprehension +of the practical problems he had been roughly called upon to solve, by +a career of remarkable prosperity. + +Finally, having reached old age with its well-earned surroundings of +"honour, troops of friends," the hero of my story bethought himself of +those who were making a like start in life, and how he could stretch +out a helping hand to them. + +After long and anxious reflection this successful practical man of +business could devise nothing better than to provide them with the +means of obtaining "sound, extensive, and practical scientific +knowledge." And he devoted a large part of his wealth and five years of +incessant work to this end. + +I need not point the moral of a tale which, as the solid and spacious +fabric of the Scientific College assures us, is no fable, nor can +anything which I could say intensify the force of this practical answer +to practical objections. + + * * * * * + +We may take it for granted then, that, in the opinion of those best +qualified to judge, the diffusion of thorough scientific education is +an absolutely essential condition of industrial progress; and that the +College which has been opened to-day will confer an inestimable boon +upon those whose livelihood is to be gained by the practise of the arts +and manufactures of the district. + +The only question worth discussion is, whether the conditions, under +which the work of the College is to be carried out, are such as to give +it the best possible chance of achieving permanent success. + +Sir Josiah Mason, without doubt most wisely, has left very large +freedom of action to the trustees, to whom he proposes ultimately to +commit the administration of the College, so that they may be able to +adjust its arrangements in accordance with the changing conditions of +the future. But, with respect to three points, he has laid most +explicit injunctions upon both administrators and teachers. + +Party politics are forbidden to enter into the minds of either, so far +as the work of the College is concerned; theology is as stonily +banished from its precincts; and finally, it is especially declared +that the College shall make no provision for "mere literary instruction +and education." + +It does not concern me at present to dwell upon the first two +injunctions any longer than may be needful to express my full +conviction of their wisdom. But the third prohibition brings us face to +face with those other opponents of scientific education, who are by no +means in the moribund condition of the practical man, but alive, alert, +and formidable. + +It is not impossible that we shall hear this express exclusion of +"literary instruction and education" from a College which, +nevertheless, professes to give a high and efficient education, sharply +criticised. Certainly the time was that the Levites of culture would +have sounded their trumpets against its walls as against an educational +Jericho. + +How often have we not been told that the study of physical science is +incompetent to confer culture; that it touches none of the higher +problems of life; and, what is worse, that the continual devotion to +scientific studies tends to generate a narrow and bigoted belief in the +applicability of scientific methods to the search after truth of all +kinds? How frequently one has reason to observe that no reply to a +troublesome argument tells so well as calling its author a "mere +scientific specialist." And, as I am afraid it is not permissible to +speak of this form of opposition to scientific education in the past +tense; may we not expect to be told that this, not only omission, but +prohibition, of "mere literary instruction and education" is a patent +example of scientific narrow-mindedness? + +I am not acquainted with Sir Josiah Mason's reasons for the action +which he has taken; but if, as I apprehend is the case, he refers to +the ordinary classical course of our schools and universities by the +name of "mere literary instruction and education," I venture to offer +sundry reasons of my own in support of that action. + +For I hold very strongly by two convictions--The first is, that neither +the discipline nor the subject-matter of classical education is of such +direct value to the student of physical science as to justify the +expenditure of valuable time upon either; and the second is, that for +the purpose of attaining real culture, an exclusively scientific +education is at least as effectual as an exclusively literary +education. + +I need hardly point out to you that these opinions, especially the +latter, are diametrically opposed to those of the great majority of +educated Englishmen, influenced as they are by school and university +traditions. In their belief, culture is obtainable only by a liberal +education; and a liberal education is synonymous, not merely with +education and instruction in literature, but in one particular form of +literature, namely, that of Greek and Roman antiquity. They hold that +the man who has learned Latin and Greek, however little, is educated; +while he who is versed in other branches of knowledge, however deeply, +is a more or less respectable specialist, not admissible into the +cultured caste. The stamp of the educated man, the University degree, +is not for him. + +I am too well acquainted with the generous catholicity of spirit, the +true sympathy with scientific thought, which pervades the writings of +our chief apostle of culture to identify him with these opinions; and +yet one may cull from one and another of those epistles to the +Philistines, which so much delight all who do not answer to that name, +sentences which lend them some support. + +Mr. Arnold tells us that the meaning of culture is "to know the best +that has been thought and said in the world." It is the criticism of +life contained in literature. That criticism regards "Europe as being, +for intellectual and spiritual purposes, one great confederation, bound +to a joint action and working to a common result; and whose members +have, for their common outfit, a knowledge of Greek, Roman, and Eastern +antiquity, and of one another. Special, local, and temporary advantages +being put out of account, that modern nation will in the intellectual +and spiritual sphere make most progress, which most thoroughly carries +out this programme. And what is that but saying that we too, all of us, +as individuals, the more thoroughly we carry it out, shall make the +more progress?" [3] + +We have here to deal with two distinct propositions. The first, that a +criticism of life is the essence of culture; the second, that +literature contains the materials which suffice for the construction of +such a criticism. + +I think that we must all assent to the first proposition. For culture +certainly means something quite different from learning or technical +skill. It implies the possession of an ideal, and the habit of +critically estimating the value of things by comparison with a +theoretic standard. Perfect culture should supply a complete theory of +life, based upon a clear knowledge alike of its possibilities and of +its limitations. + +But we may agree to all this, and yet strongly dissent from the +assumption that literature alone is competent to supply this knowledge. +After having learnt all that Greek, Roman, and Eastern antiquity have +thought and said, and all that modern literatures have to tell us, it +is not self-evident that we have laid a sufficiently broad and deep +foundation for that criticism of life, which constitutes culture. + +Indeed, to any one acquainted with the scope of physical science, it is +not at all evident. Considering progress only in the "intellectual and +spiritual sphere," I find myself wholly unable to admit that either +nations or individuals will really advance, if their common outfit +draws nothing from the stores of physical science. I should say that an +army, without weapons of precision and with no particular base of +operations, might more hopefully enter upon a campaign on the Rhine, +than a man, devoid of a knowledge of what physical science has done in +the last century, upon a criticism of life. + + * * * * * + +When a biologist meets with an anomaly, he instinctively turns to the +study of development to clear it up. The rationale of contradictory +opinions may with equal confidence be sought in history. + +It is, happily, no new thing that Englishmen should employ their wealth +in building and endowing institutions for educational purposes. But, +five or six hundred years ago, deeds of foundation expressed or implied +conditions as nearly as possible contrary to those which have been +thought expedient by Sir Josiah Mason. That is to say, physical science +was practically ignored, while a certain literary training was enjoined +as a means to the acquirement of knowledge which was essentially +theological. + +The reason of this singular contradiction between the actions of men +alike animated by a strong and disinterested desire to promote the +welfare of their fellows, is easily discovered. + +At that time, in fact, if any one desired knowledge beyond such as +could be obtained by his own observation, or by common conversation, +his first necessity was to learn the Latin language, inasmuch as all +the higher knowledge of the western world was contained in works +written in that language. Hence, Latin grammar, with logic and +rhetoric, studied through Latin, were the fundamentals of education. +With respect to the substance of the knowledge imparted through this +channel, the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, as interpreted and +supplemented by the Romish Church, were held to contain a complete and +infallibly true body of information. + +Theological dicta were, to the thinkers of those days, that which the +axioms and definitions of Euclid are to the geometers of these. The +business of the philosophers of the middle ages was to deduce from the +data furnished by the theologians, conclusions in accordance with +ecclesiastical decrees. They were allowed the high privilege of +showing, by logical process, how and why that which the Church said was +true, must be true. And if their demonstrations fell short of or +exceeded this limit, the Church was maternally ready to check their +aberrations; if need were by the help of the secular arm. + +Between the two, our ancestors were furnished with a compact and +complete criticism of life. They were told how the world began and how +it would end; they learned that all material existence was but a base +and insignificant blot upon the fair face of the spiritual world, and +that nature was, to all intents and purposes, the play-ground of the +devil; they learned that the earth is the centre of the visible +universe, and that man is the cynosure of things terrestrial; and more +especially was it inculcated that the course of nature had no fixed +order, but that it could be, and constantly was, altered by the agency +of innumerable spiritual beings, good and bad, according as they were +moved by the deeds and prayers of men. The sum and substance of the +whole doctrine was to produce the conviction that the only thing really +worth knowing in this world was how to secure that place in a better +which, under certain conditions, the Church promised. + +Our ancestors had a living belief in this theory of life, and acted +upon it in their dealings with education, as in all other matters. +Culture meant saintliness--after the fashion of the saints of those +days; the education that led to it was, of necessity, theological; and +the way to theology lay through Latin. + +That the study of nature--further than was requisite for the +satisfaction of everyday wants--should have any bearing on human life +was far from the thoughts of men thus trained. Indeed, as nature had +been cursed for man's sake, it was an obvious conclusion that those who +meddled with nature were likely to come into pretty close contact with +Satan. And, if any born scientific investigator followed his instincts, +he might safely reckon upon earning the reputation, and probably upon +suffering the fate, of a sorcerer. + +Had the western world been left to itself in Chinese isolation, there +is no saying how long this state of things might have endured. But, +happily, it was not left to itself. Even earlier than the thirteenth +century, the development of Moorish civilisation in Spain and the great +movement of the Crusades had introduced the leaven which, from that day +to this, has never ceased to work. At first, through the intermediation +of Arabic translations, afterwards by the study of the originals, the +western nations of Europe became acquainted with the writings of the +ancient philosophers and poets, and, in time, with the whole of the +vast literature of antiquity. + +Whatever there was of high intellectual aspiration or dominant capacity +in Italy, France, Germany, and England, spent itself for centuries in +taking possession of the rich inheritance left by the dead +civilisations of Greece and Rome. Marvellously aided by the invention +of printing, classical learning spread and flourished. Those who +possessed it prided themselves on having attained the highest culture +then within the reach of mankind. + +And justly. For, saving Dante on his solitary pinnacle, there was no +figure in modern literature at the time of the Renascence to compare +with the men of antiquity; there was no art to compete with their +sculpture; there was no physical science but that which Greece had +created. Above all, there was no other example of perfect intellectual +freedom--of the unhesitating acceptance of reason as the sole guide to +truth and the supreme arbiter of conduct. + +The new learning necessarily soon exerted a profound influence upon +education. The language of the monks and schoolmen seemed little better +than gibberish to scholars fresh from Virgil and Cicero, and the study +of Latin was placed upon a new foundation. Moreover, Latin itself +ceased to afford the sole key to knowledge. The student who sought the +highest thought of antiquity, found only a second-hand reflection of it +in Roman literature, and turned his face to the full light of the +Greeks. And after a battle, not altogether dissimilar to that which is +at present being fought over the teaching of physical science, the +study of Greek was recognised as an essential element of all higher +education. + +Thus the Humanists, as they were called, won the day; and the great +reform which they effected was of incalculable service to mankind. But +the Nemesis of all reformers is finality; and the reformers of +education, like those of religion, fell into the profound, however +common, error of mistaking the beginning for the end of the work of +reformation. + +The representatives of the Humanists, in the nineteenth century, take +their stand upon classical education as the sole avenue to culture, as +firmly us if we were still in the age of Renascence. Yet, surely, the +present intellectual relations of the modern and the ancient worlds are +profoundly different from those which obtained three centuries ago. +Leaving aside the existence of a great and characteristically modern +literature, of modern painting, and, especially, of modern music, there +is one feature of the present state of the civilised world which +separates it more widely from the Renascence, than the Renascence was +separated from the middle ages. + +This distinctive character of our own times lies in the vast and +constantly increasing part which is played by natural knowledge. Not +only is our daily life shaped by it, not only does the prosperity of +millions of men depend upon it, but our whole theory of life has long +been influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by the general +conceptions of the universe, which have been forced upon us by physical +science. + +In fact, the most elementary acquaintance with the results of +scientific investigation shows us that they offer a broad and striking +contradiction to the opinion so implicitly credited and taught in the +middle ages. + +The notions of the beginning and the end of the world entertained by +our forefathers are no longer credible. It is very certain that the +earth is not the chief body in the material universe, and that the +world is not subordinated to man's use. It is even more certain that +nature is the expression of a definite order with which nothing +interferes, and that the chief business of mankind is to learn that +order and govern themselves accordingly. Moreover this scientific +"criticism of life" presents itself to us with different credentials +from any other. It appeals not to authority, nor to what anybody may +have thought or said, but to nature. It admits that all our +interpretations of natural fact are more or less imperfect and +symbolic, and bids the learner seek for truth not among words but among +things. It warns us that the assertion which outstrips evidence is not +only a blunder but a crime. + +The purely classical education advocated by the representatives of the +Humanists in our day, gives no inkling of all this. A man may be a +better scholar than Erasmus, and know no more of the chief causes of +the present intellectual fermentation than Erasmus did. Scholarly and +pious persons, worthy of all respect, favour us with allocutions upon +the sadness of the antagonism of science to their mediaeval way of +thinking, which betray an ignorance of the first principles of +scientific investigation, an incapacity for understanding what a man of +science means by veracity, and an unconsciousness of the weight of +established scientific truths, which is almost comical. + +There is no great force in the _tu quoque_ argument, or else the +advocates of scientific education might fairly enough retort upon the +modern Humanists that they may be learned specialists, but that they +possess no such sound foundation for a criticism of life as deserves +the name of culture. And, indeed, if we were disposed to be cruel, we +might urge that the Humanists have brought this reproach upon +themselves, not because they are too full of the spirit of the ancient +Greek, but because they lack it. + +The period of the Renascence is commonly called that of the "Revival of +Letters," as if the influences then brought to bear upon the mind of +Western Europe had been wholly exhausted in the field of literature. I +think it is very commonly forgotten that the revival of science, +effected by the same agency, although less conspicuous, was not less +momentous. + +In fact, the few and scattered students of nature of that day picked up +the clue to her secrets exactly as it fell from the hands of the Greeks +a thousand years before. The foundations of mathematics were so well +laid by them, that our children learn their geometry from a book +written for the schools of Alexandria two thousand years ago. Modern +astronomy is the natural continuation and development of the work of +Hipparchus and of Ptolemy; modern physics of that of Democritus and of +Archimedes; it was long before modern biological science outgrew the +knowledge bequeathed to us by Aristotle, by Theophrastus, and by Galen. + +We cannot know all the best thoughts and sayings of the Greeks unless +we know what they thought about natural phaenomena. We cannot fully +apprehend their criticism of life unless we understand the extent to +which that criticism was affected by scientific conceptions. We falsely +pretend to be the inheritors of their culture, unless we are +penetrated, as the best minds among them were, with an unhesitating +faith that the free employment of reason, in accordance with scientific +method, is the sole method of reaching truth. + +Thus I venture to think that the pretensions of our modern Humanists to +the possession of the monopoly of culture and to the exclusive +inheritance of the spirit of antiquity must be abated, if not +abandoned. But I should be very sorry that anything I have said should +be taken to imply a desire on my part to depreciate the value of +classical education, as it might be and as it sometimes is. The native +capacities of mankind vary no less than their opportunities; and while +culture is one, the road by which one man may best reach it is widely +different from that which is most advantageous to another. Again, while +scientific education is yet inchoate and tentative, classical education +is thoroughly well organised upon the practical experience of +generations of teachers. So that, given ample time for learning and +destination for ordinary life, or for a literary career, I do not think +that a young Englishman in search of culture can do better than follow +the course usually marked out for him, supplementing its deficiencies +by his own efforts. + +But for those who mean to make science their serious occupation; or who +intend to follow the profession of medicine; or who have to enter early +upon the business of life; for all these, in my opinion, classical +education is a mistake; and it is for this reason that I am glad to see +"mere literary education and instruction" shut out from the curriculum +of Sir Josiah Mason's College, seeing that its inclusion would probably +lead to the introduction of the ordinary smattering of Latin and Greek. + +Nevertheless, I am the last person to question the importance of +genuine literary education, or to suppose that intellectual culture can +be complete without it. An exclusively scientific training will bring +about a mental twist as surely as an exclusively literary training. The +value of the cargo does not compensate for a ship's being out of trim; +and I should be very sorry to think that the Scientific College would +turn out none but lop-sided men. + +There is no need, however, that such a catastrophe should happen. +Instruction in English, French, and German is provided, and thus the +three greatest literatures of the modern world are made accessible to +the student. + +French and German, and especially the latter language, are absolutely +indispensable to those who desire full knowledge in any department of +science. But even supposing that the knowledge of these languages +acquired is not more than sufficient for purely scientific purposes, +every Englishman has, in his native tongue, an almost perfect +instrument of literary expression; and, in his own literature, models +of every kind of literary excellence. If an Englishman cannot get +literary culture out of his Bible, his Shakespeare, his Milton, +neither, in my belief, will the profoundest study of Homer and +Sophocles, Virgil and Horace, give it to him. + +Thus, since the constitution of the College makes sufficient provision +for literary as well as for scientific education, and since artistic +instruction is also contemplated, it seems to me that a fairly complete +culture is offered to all who are willing to take advantage of it. + +But I am not sure that at this point the "practical" man, scotched but +not slain, may ask what all this talk about culture has to do with an +Institution, the object of which is defined to be "to promote the +prosperity of the manufactures and the industry of the country." He may +suggest that what is wanted for this end is not culture, nor even a +purely scientific discipline, but simply a knowledge of applied +science. + +I often wish that this phrase, "applied science," had never been +invented. For it suggests that there is a sort of scientific knowledge +of direct practical use, which can be studied apart from another sort +of scientific knowledge, which is of no practical utility, and which is +termed "pure science." But there is no more complete fallacy than this. +What people call applied science is nothing but the application of pure +science to particular classes of problems. It consists of deductions +from those general principles, established by reasoning and +observation, which constitute pure science. No one can safely make +these deductions until he has a firm grasp of the principles; and he +can obtain that grasp only by personal experience of the operations of +observation and of reasoning on which they are founded. + +Almost all the processes employed in the arts and manufactures fall +within the range either of physics or of chemistry. In order to improve +them, one must thoroughly understand them; and no one has a chance of +really understanding them, unless he has obtained that mastery of +principles and that habit of dealing with facts, which is given by +long-continued and well-directed purely scientific training in the +physical and the chemical laboratory. So that there really is no +question as to the necessity of purely scientific discipline, even if +the work of the College were limited by the narrowest interpretation of +its stated aims. + +And, as to the desirableness of a wider culture than that yielded by +science alone, it is to be recollected that the improvement of +manufacturing processes is only one of the conditions which contribute +to the prosperity of industry. Industry is a means and not an end; and +mankind work only to get something which they want. What that something +is depends partly on their innate, and partly on their acquired, +desires. + +If the wealth resulting from prosperous industry is to be spent upon +the gratification of unworthy desires, if the increasing perfection of +manufacturing processes is to be accompanied by an increasing +debasement of those who carry them on, I do not see the good of +industry and prosperity. + +Now it is perfectly true that men's views of what is desirable depend +upon their characters; and that the innate proclivities to which we +give that name are not touched by any amount of instruction. But it +does not follow that even mere intellectual education may not, to an +indefinite extent, modify the practical manifestation of the characters +of men in their actions, by supplying them with motives unknown to the +ignorant. A pleasure-loving character will have pleasure of some sort; +but, if you give him the choice, he may prefer pleasures which do not +degrade him to those which do. And this choice is offered to every man, +who possesses in literary or artistic culture a never-failing source of +pleasures, which are neither withered by age, nor staled by custom, nor +embittered in the recollection by the pangs of self-reproach. + +If the Institution opened to-day fulfils the intention of its founder, +the picked intelligences among all classes of the population of this +district will pass through it. No child born in Birmingham, +henceforward, if he have the capacity to profit by the opportunities +offered to him, first in the primary and other schools, and afterwards +in the Scientific College, need fail to obtain, not merely the +instruction, but the culture most appropriate to the conditions of his +life. + +Within these walls, the future employer and the future artisan may +sojourn together for a while, and carry, through all their lives, the +stamp of the influences then brought to bear upon them. Hence, it is +not beside the mark to remind you, that the prosperity of industry +depends not merely upon the improvement of manufacturing processes, not +merely upon the ennobling of the individual character, but upon a third +condition, namely, a clear understanding of the conditions of social +life, on the part of both the capitalist and the operative, and their +agreement upon common principles of social action. They must learn that +social phaenomena are as much the expression of natural laws as any +others; that no social arrangements can be permanent unless they +harmonise with the requirements of social statics and dynamics; and +that, in the nature of things, there is an arbiter whose decisions +execute themselves. + +But this knowledge is only to be obtained by the application of the +methods of investigation adopted in physical researches to the +investigation of the phaenomena of society. Hence, I confess, I should +like to see one addition made to the excellent scheme of education +propounded for the College, in the shape of provision for the teaching +of Sociology. For though we are all agreed that party politics are to +have no place in the instruction of the College; yet in this country, +practically governed as it is now by universal suffrage, every man who +does his duty must exercise political functions. And, if the evils +which are inseparable from the good of political liberty are to be +checked, if the perpetual oscillation of nations between anarchy and +despotism is to be replaced by the steady march of self-restraining +freedom; it will be because men will gradually bring themselves to deal +with political, as they now deal with scientific questions; to be as +ashamed of undue haste and partisan prejudice in the one case as in the +other; and to believe that the machinery of society is at least as +delicate as that of a spinning-jenny, and as little likely to be +improved by the meddling of those who have not taken the trouble to +master the principles of its action. + +In conclusion, I am sure that I make myself the mouthpiece of all +present in offering to the venerable founder of the Institution, which +now commences its beneficent career, our congratulations on the +completion of his work; and in expressing the conviction, that the +remotest posterity will point to it as a crucial instance of the wisdom +which natural piety leads all men to ascribe to their ancestors. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] See the first essay in this volume. + +[2] The advocacy of the introduction of physical science into general +education by George Combe and others commenced a good deal earlier; but +the movement had acquired hardly any practical force before the time to +which I refer. + +[3] _Essays in Criticism_, p. 37. + + + + +VII + +ON SCIENCE AND ART IN RELATION TO EDUCATION + +[1882] + + +When a man is honoured by such a request as that which reached me from +the authorities of your institution some time ago, I think the first +thing that occurs to him is that which occurred to those who were +bidden to the feast in the Gospel--to begin to make an excuse; and +probably all the excuses suggested on that famous occasion crop up in +his mind one after the other, including his "having married a wife," as +reasons for not doing what he is asked to do. But, in my own case, and +on this particular occasion, there were other difficulties of a sort +peculiar to the time, and more or less personal to myself; because I +felt that, if I came amongst you, I should be expected, and, indeed, +morally compelled, to speak upon the subject of Scientific Education. +And then there arose in my mind the recollection of a fact, which +probably no one here but myself remembers; namely, that some fourteen +years ago I was the guest of a citizen of yours, who bears the honoured +name of Rathbone, at a very charming and pleasant dinner given by the +Philomathic Society; and I there and then, and in this very city, made +a speech upon the topic of Scientific Education. Under these +circumstances, you see, one runs two dangers--the first, of repeating +one's self, although I may fairly hope that everybody has forgotten the +fact I have just now mentioned, except myself; and the second, and even +greater difficulty, is the danger of saying something different from +what one said before, because then, however forgotten your previous +speech may be, somebody finds out its existence, and there goes on that +process so hateful to members of Parliament, which may be denoted by +the term "Hansardisation." Under these circumstances, I came to the +conclusion that the best thing I could do was to take the bull by the +horns, and to "Hansardise" myself,--to put before you, in the briefest +possible way, the three or four propositions which I endeavoured to +support on the occasion of the speech to which I have referred; and +then to ask myself, supposing you were asking me, whether I had +anything to retract, or to modify, in them, in virtue of the increased +experience, and, let us charitably hope, the increased wisdom of an +added fourteen years. + +Now, the points to which I directed particular attention on that +occasion were these: in the first place, that instruction in physical +science supplies information of a character of especial value, both in +a practical and a speculative point of view--information which cannot +be obtained otherwise; and, in the second place, that, as educational +discipline, it supplies, in a better form than any other study can +supply, exercise in a special form of logic, and a peculiar method of +testing the validity of our processes of inquiry. I said further, that, +even at that time, a great and increasing attention was being paid to +physical science in our schools and colleges, and that, most assuredly, +such attention must go on growing and increasing, until education in +these matters occupied a very much larger share of the time which is +given to teaching and training, than had been the case heretofore. And +I threw all the strength of argumentation of which I was possessed into +the support of these propositions. But I venture to remind you, also, +of some other words I used at that time, and which I ask permission to +read to you. They were these:--"There are other forms of culture +besides physical science, and I should be profoundly sorry to see the +fact forgotten, or even to observe a tendency to starve or cripple +literary or aesthetic culture for the sake of science. Such a narrow +view of the nature of education has nothing to do with my firm +conclusion that a complete and thorough scientific culture ought to be +introduced into all schools." + +I say I desire, in commenting upon these various points, and judging +them as fairly as I can by the light of increased experience, to +particularly emphasise this last, because I am told, although I +assuredly do not know it of my own knowledge--though I think if the +fact were so I ought to know it, being tolerably well acquainted with +that which goes on in the scientific world, and which has gone on there +for the last thirty years--that there is a kind of sect, or horde, of +scientific Goths and Vandals, who think it would be proper and +desirable to sweep away all other forms of culture and instruction, +except those in physical science, and to make them the universal and +exclusive, or, at any rate, the dominant training of the human mind of +the future generation. This is not my view--I do not believe that it is +anybody's view,--but it is attributed to those who, like myself, +advocate scientific education. I therefore dwell strongly upon the +point, and I beg you to believe that the words I have just now read +were by no means intended by me as a sop to the Cerberus of culture. I +have not been in the habit of offering sops to any kind of Cerberus; +but it was an expression of profound conviction on my own part--a +conviction forced upon me not only by my mental constitution, but by +the lessons of what is now becoming a somewhat long experience of +varied conditions of life. + +I am not about to trouble you with my autobiography; the omens are +hardly favourable, at present, for work of that kind. But I should like +if I may do so without appearing, what I earnestly desire not to be, +egotistical,--I should like to make it clear to you, that such notions +as these, which are sometimes attributed to me, are, as I have said, +inconsistent with my mental constitution, and still more inconsistent +with the upshot of the teaching of my experience. For I can certainly +claim for myself that sort of mental temperament which can say that +nothing human comes amiss to it. I have never yet met with any branch +of human knowledge which I have found unattractive--which it would not +have been pleasant to me to follow, so far as I could go; and I have +yet to meet with any form of art in which it has not been possible for +me to take as acute a pleasure as, I believe, it is possible for men to +take. + +And with respect to the circumstances of life, it so happens that it +has been my fate to know many lands and many climates, and to be +familiar, by personal experience, with almost every form of society, +from the uncivilised savage of Papua and Australia and the civilised +savages of the slums and dens of the poverty-stricken parts of +great cities, to those who perhaps, are occasionally the somewhat +over-civilised members of our upper ten thousand. And I have never +found, in any of these conditions of life, a deficiency of something +which was attractive. Savagery has its pleasures, I assure you, as well +as civilisation, and I may even venture to confess--if you will not let +a whisper of the matter get back to London, where I am known--I am even +fain to confess, that sometimes in the din and throng of what is called +"a brilliant reception" the vision crosses my mind of waking up from +the soft plank which had afforded me satisfactory sleep during the +hours of the night, in the bright dawn of a tropical morning, when my +comrades were yet asleep, when every sound was hushed, except the +little lap-lap of the ripples against the sides of the boat, and the +distant twitter of the sea-bird on the reef. And when that vision +crosses my mind, I am free to confess I desire to be back in the boat +again. So that, if I share with those strange persons to whose +asserted, but still hypothetical existence I have referred, the want of +appreciation of forms of culture other than the pursuit of physical +science, all I can say is, that it is, in spite of my constitution, and +in spite of my experience, that such should be my fate. + +But now let me turn to another point, or rather to two other points, +with which I propose to occupy myself. How far does the experience of +the last fourteen years justify the estimate which I ventured to put +forward of the value of scientific culture, and of the share--the +increasing share--which it must take in ordinary education? Happily, in +respect to that matter, you need not rely upon my testimony. In the +last half-dozen numbers of the "Journal of Education," you will find a +series of very interesting and remarkable papers, by gentlemen who are +practically engaged in the business of education in our great public +and other schools, telling us what is doing in these schools, and what +is their experience of the results of scientific education there, so +far as it has gone. I am not going to trouble you with an abstract of +those papers, which are well worth your study in their fulness and +completeness, but I have copied out one remarkable passage, because it +seems to me so entirely to bear out what I have formerly ventured to +say about the value of science, both as to its subject-matter and as to +the discipline which the learning of science involves. It is from a +paper by Mr. Worthington--one of the masters at Clifton, the reputation +of which school you know well, and at the head of which is an old +friend of mine, the Rev. Mr. Wilson--to whom much credit is due for +being one of the first, as I can say from my own knowledge, to take up +this question and work it into practical shape. What Mr. Worthington +says is this:-- + + "It is not easy to exaggerate the importance of the information + imparted by certain branches of science; it modifies the + whole criticism of life made in maturer years. The study has + often, on a mass of boys, a certain influence which, I think, was + hardly anticipated, and to which a good deal of value must be + attached--an influence as much moral as intellectual, which is + shown in the increased and increasing respect for precision of + statement, and for that form of veracity which consists in the + acknowledgment of difficulties. It produces a real effect to find + that Nature cannot be imposed upon, and the attention given + to experimental lectures, at first superficial and curious only, + soon becomes minute, serious, and practical." + +Ladies and gentlemen, I could not have chosen better words to +express--in fact, I have, in other words, expressed the same conviction +in former days--what the influence of scientific teaching, if properly +carried out, must be. + +But now comes the question of properly carrying it out, because, when I +hear the value of school teaching in physical science disputed, my +first impulse is to ask the disputer, "What have you known about it?" +and he generally tells me some lamentable case of failure. Then I ask, +"What are the circumstances of the case, and how was the teaching +carried out?" I remember, some few years ago, hearing of the head +master of a large school, who had expressed great dissatisfaction with +the adoption of the teaching of physical science--and that after +experiment. But the experiment consisted in this--in asking one of the +junior masters in the school to get up science, in order to teach it; +and the young gentleman went away for a year and got up science and +taught it. Well, I have no doubt that the result was as disappointing +as the head-master said it was, and I have no doubt that it ought to +have been as disappointing, and far more disappointing too; for, if +this kind of instruction is to be of any good at all, if it is not to +be less than no good, if it is to take the place of that which is +already of some good, then there are several points which must be +attended to. + +And the first of these is the proper selection of topics, the second is +practical teaching, the third is practical teachers, and the fourth is +sufficiency of time. If these four points are not carefully attended to +by anybody who undertakes the teaching of physical science in schools, +my advice to him is, to let it alone. I will not dwell at any length +upon the first point, because there is a general consensus of opinion +as to the nature of the topics which should be chosen. The second +point--practical teaching--is one of great importance, because it +requires more capital to set it agoing, demands more time, and, last, +but by no means least, it requires much more personal exertion and +trouble on the part of those professing to teach, than is the case with +other kinds of instruction. + +When I accepted the invitation to be here this evening, your secretary +was good enough to send me the addresses which have been given by +distinguished persons who have previously occupied this chair. I don't +know whether he had a malicious desire to alarm me; but, however that +may be, I read the addresses, and derived the greatest pleasure and +profit from some of them, and from none more than from the one given by +the great historian, Mr. Freeman, which delighted me most of all; and, +if I had not been ashamed of plagiarising, and if I had not been sure +of being found out, I should have been glad to have copied very much of +what Mr. Freeman said, simply putting in the word science for history. +There was one notable passage,--"The difference between good and bad +teaching mainly consists in this, whether the words used are really +clothed with a meaning or not." And Mr. Freeman gives a remarkable +example of this. He says, when a little girl was asked where Turkey +was, she answered that it was in the yard with the other fowls, and +that showed she had a definite idea connected with the word Turkey, and +was, so far, worthy of praise. I quite agree with that commendation; +but what a curious thing it is that one should now find it necessary to +urge that this is the be-all and end-all of scientific instruction--the +_sine qua non_, the absolutely necessary condition,--and yet that +it was insisted upon more than two hundred years ago by one of the +greatest men science ever possessed in this country, William Harvey. +Harvey wrote, or at least published, only two small books, one of which +is the well-known treatise on the circulation of the blood. The other, +the "Exercitationes de Generatione," is less known, but not less +remarkable. And not the least valuable part of it is the preface, in +which there occurs this passage: "Those who, reading the words of +authors, do not form sensible images of the things referred to, obtain +no true ideas, but conceive false imaginations and inane phantasms." +You see, William Harvey's words are just the same in substance as those +of Mr. Freeman, only they happen to be rather more than two centuries +older. So that what I am now saying has its application elsewhere than +in science; but assuredly in science the condition of knowing, of your +own knowledge, things which you talk about, is absolutely imperative. + +I remember, in my youth, there were detestable books which ought to +have been burned by the hands of the common hangman, for they contained +questions and answers to be learned by heart, of this sort, "What is a +horse? The horse is termed _Equus caballus_; belongs to the class +Mammalia; order, Pachydermata; family, Solidungula." Was any human +being wiser for learning that magic formula? Was he not more foolish, +inasmuch as he was deluded into taking words for knowledge? It is that +kind of teaching that one wants to get rid of, and banished out of +science. Make it as little as you like, but, unless that which is +taught is based on actual observation and familiarity with facts, it is +better left alone. + +There are a great many people who imagine that elementary teaching +might be properly carried out by teachers provided with only elementary +knowledge. Let me assure you that that is the profoundest mistake in +the world. There is nothing so difficult to do as to write a good +elementary book, and there is nobody so hard to teach properly and well +as people who know nothing about a subject, and I will tell you why. If +I address an audience of persons who are occupied in the same line of +work as myself, I can assume that they know a vast deal, and that they +can find out the blunders I make. If they don't, it is their fault and +not mine; but when I appear before a body of people who know nothing +about the matter, who take for gospel whatever I say, surely it becomes +needful that I consider what I say, make sure that it will bear +examination, and that I do not impose upon the credulity of those who +have faith in me. In the second place, it involves that difficult +process of knowing what you know so well that you can talk about it as +you can talk about your ordinary business. A man can always talk about +his own business. He can always make it plain; but, if his knowledge is +hearsay, he is afraid to go beyond what he has recollected, and put it +before those that are ignorant in such a shape that they shall +comprehend it. That is why, to be a good elementary teacher, to teach +the elements of any subject, requires most careful consideration, if +you are a master of the subject; and, if you are not a master of it, it +is needful you should familiarise yourself with so much as you are +called upon to teach--soak yourself in it, so to speak--until you know +it as part of your daily life and daily knowledge, and then you will be +able to teach anybody. That is what I mean by practical teachers, and, +although the deficiency of such teachers is being remedied to a large +extent, I think it is one which has long existed, and which has existed +from no fault of those who undertook to teach, but because, until the +last score of years, it absolutely was not possible for any one in a +great many branches of science, whatever his desire might be, to get +instruction which would enable him to be a good teacher of elementary +things. All that is being rapidly altered, and I hope it will soon +become a thing of the past. + +The last point I have referred to is the question of the sufficiency of +time. And here comes the rub. The teaching of science needs time, as +any other subject; but it needs more time proportionally than other +subjects, for the amount of work obviously done, if the teaching is to +be, as I have said, practical. Work done in a laboratory involves a +good deal of expenditure of time without always an obvious result, +because we do not see anything of that quiet process of soaking the +facts into the mind, which takes place through the organs of the +senses. On this ground there must be ample time given to science +teaching. What that amount of time should be is a point which I need +not discuss now; in fact, it is a point which cannot be settled until +one has made up one's mind about various other questions. + +All, then, that I have to ask for, on behalf of the scientific people, +if I may venture to speak for more than myself, is that you should put +scientific teaching into what statesmen call the condition of "the most +favoured nation"; that is to say, that it shall have as large a share +of the time given to education as any other principal subject. You may +say that that is a very vague statement, because the value of the +allotment of time, under those circumstances, depends upon the number +of principal subjects. It is _x_ the time, and an unknown quantity +of principal subjects dividing that, and science taking shares with the +rest. That shows that we cannot deal with this question fully until we +have made up our minds as to what the principal subjects of education +ought to be. + +I know quite well that launching myself into this discussion is a very +dangerous operation; that it is a very large subject, and one which is +difficult to deal with, however much I may trespass upon your patience +in the time allotted to me. But the discussion is so fundamental, it is +so completely impossible to make up one's mind on these matters until +one has settled the question, that I will even venture to make the +experiment. A great lawyer-statesman and philosopher of a former age--I +mean Francis Bacon--said that truth came out of error much more rapidly +than it came out of confusion. There is a wonderful truth in that +saying. Next to being right in this world, the best of all things is to +be clearly and definitely wrong, because you will come out somewhere. +If you go buzzing about between right and wrong, vibrating and +fluctuating, you come out nowhere; but if you are absolutely and +thoroughly and persistently wrong, you must, some of these days, have +the extreme good fortune of knocking your head against a fact, and that +sets you all straight again. So I will not trouble myself as to whether +I may be right or wrong in what I am about to say, but at any rate I +hope to be clear and definite; and then you will be able to judge for +yourselves whether, in following out the train of thought I have to +introduce, you knock your heads against facts or not. + +I take it that the whole object of education is, in the first place, to +train the faculties of the young in such a manner as to give their +possessors the best chance of being happy and useful in their +generation; and, in the second place, to furnish them with the most +important portions of that immense capitalised experience of the human +race which we call knowledge of various kinds. I am using the term +knowledge in its widest possible sense; and the question is, what +subjects to select by training and discipline, in which the object I +have just defined may be best attained. + +I must call your attention further to this fact, that all the subjects +of our thoughts--all feelings and propositions (leaving aside our +sensations as the mere materials and occasions of thinking and +feeling), all our mental furniture--may be classified under one of two +heads--as either within the province of the intellect, something that +can be put into propositions and affirmed or denied; or as within the +province of feeling, or that which, before the name was defiled, was +called the aesthetic side of our nature, and which can neither be +proved nor disproved, but only felt and known. + +According to the classification which I have put before you, then, the +subjects of all knowledge are divisible into the two groups, matters of +science and matters of art; for all things with which the reasoning +faculty alone is occupied, come under the province of science; and in +the broadest sense, and not in the narrow and technical sense in which +we are now accustomed to use the word art, all things feelable, all +things which stir our emotions, come under the term of art, in the +sense of the subject-matter of the aesthetic faculty. So that we are +shut up to this--that the business of education is, in the first place, +to provide the young with the means and the habit of observation; and, +secondly, to supply the subject-matter of knowledge either in the shape +of science or of art, or of both combined. + +Now, it is a very remarkable fact--but it is true of most things in +this world--that there is hardly anything one-sided, or of one nature; +and it is not immediately obvious what of the things that interest us +may be regarded as pure science, and what may be regarded as pure art. +It may be that there are some peculiarly constituted persons who, +before they have advanced far into the depths of geometry, find +artistic beauty about it; but, taking the generality of mankind, I +think it may be said that, when they begin to learn mathematics, their +whole souls are absorbed in tracing the connection between the +premisses and the conclusion, and that to them geometry is pure +science. So I think it may be said that mechanics and osteology are +pure science. On the other hand, melody in music is pure art. You +cannot reason about it; there is no proposition involved in it. So, +again, in the pictorial art, an arabesque, or a "harmony in grey," +touches none but the aesthetic faculty. But a great mathematician, and +even many persons who are not great mathematicians, will tell you that +they derive immense pleasure from geometrical reasonings. Everybody +knows mathematicians speak of solutions and problems as "elegant," and +they tell you that a certain mass of mystic symbols is "beautiful, +quite lovely." Well, you do not see it. They do see it, because the +intellectual process, the process of comprehending the reasons +symbolised by these figures and these signs, confers upon them a sort +of pleasure, such as an artist has in visual symmetry. Take a science +of which I may speak with more confidence, and which is the most +attractive of those I am concerned with. It is what we call morphology, +which consists in tracing out the unity in variety of the infinitely +diversified structures of animals and plants. I cannot give you any +example of a thorough aesthetic pleasure more intensely real than a +pleasure of this kind--the pleasure which arises in one's mind when a +whole mass of different structures run into one harmony as the +expression of a central law. That is where the province of art overlays +and embraces the province of intellect. And, if I may venture to +express an opinion on such a subject, the great majority of forms of +art are not in the sense what I just now defined them to be--pure art; +but they derive much of their quality from simultaneous and even +unconscious excitement of the intellect. + +When I was a boy, I was very fond of music, and I am so now; and it so +happened that I had the opportunity of hearing much good music. Among +other things, I had abundant opportunities of hearing that great old +master, Sebastian Bach. I remember perfectly well--though I knew +nothing about music then, and, I may add, know nothing whatever about +it now--the intense satisfaction and delight which I had in listening, +by the hour together, to Bach's fugues. It is a pleasure which remains +with me, I am glad to think; but, of late years, I have tried to find +out the why and wherefore, and it has often occurred to me that the +pleasure derived from musical compositions of this kind is essentially +of the same nature as that which is derived from pursuits which are +commonly regarded as purely intellectual. I mean, that the source +of pleasure is exactly the same as in most of my problems in +morphology--that you have the theme in one of the old master's works +followed out in all its endless variations, always appearing and always +reminding you of unity in variety. So in painting; what is called +"truth to nature" is the intellectual element coming in, and truth to +nature depends entirely upon the intellectual culture of the person to +whom art is addressed. If you are in Australia, you may get credit for +being a good artist--I mean among the natives--if you can draw a +kangaroo after a fashion. But, among men of higher civilisation, the +intellectual knowledge we possess brings its criticism into our +appreciation of works of art, and we are obliged to satisfy it, as well +as the mere sense of beauty in colour and in outline. And so, the +higher the culture and information of those whom art addresses, the +more exact and precise must be what we call its "truth to nature." + +If we turn to literature, the same thing is true, and you find works of +literature which may be said to be pure art. A little song of +Shakespeare or of Goethe is pure art; it is exquisitely beautiful, +although its intellectual content may be nothing. A series of pictures +is made to pass before your mind by the meaning of words, and the +effect is a melody of ideas. Nevertheless, the great mass of the +literature we esteem is valued, not merely because of having artistic +form, but because of its intellectual content; and the value is the +higher the more precise, distinct, and true is that intellectual +content. And, if you will let me for a moment speak of the very highest +forms of literature, do we not regard them as highest simply because +the more we know the truer they seem, and the more competent we are to +appreciate beauty the more beautiful they are? No man ever understands +Shakespeare until he is old, though the youngest may admire him, the +reason being that he satisfies the artistic instinct of the youngest +and harmonises with the ripest and richest experience of the oldest. + +I have said this much to draw your attention to what, to my mind, lies +at the root of all this matter, and at the understanding of one another +by the men of science on the one hand, and the men of literature, and +history, and art, on the other. It is not a question whether one order +of study or another should predominate. It is a question of what topics +of education you shall select which will combine all the needful +elements in such due proportion as to give the greatest amount of food, +support, and encouragement to those faculties which enable us to +appreciate truth, and to profit by those sources of innocent happiness +which are open to us, and, at the same time, to avoid that which is +bad, and coarse, and ugly, and keep clear of the multitude of pitfalls +and dangers which beset those who break through the natural or moral +laws. + +I address myself, in this spirit, to the consideration of the question +of the value of purely literary education. Is it good and sufficient, +or is it insufficient and bad? Well, here I venture to say that there +are literary educations and literary educations. If I am to understand +by that term the education that was current in the great majority of +middle-class schools, and upper schools too, in this country when I was +a boy, and which consisted absolutely and almost entirely in keeping +boys for eight or ten years at learning the rules of Latin and Greek +grammar, construing certain Latin and Greek authors, and possibly +making verses which, had they been English verses, would have been +condemned as abominable doggerel,--if that is what you mean by liberal +education, then I say it is scandalously insufficient and almost +worthless. My reason for saying so is not from the point of view of +science at all, but from the point of view of literature. I say the +thing professes to be literary education that is not a literary +education at all. It was not literature at all that was taught, but +science in a very bad form. It is quite obvious that grammar is science +and not literature. The analysis of a text by the help of the rules of +grammar is just as much a scientific operation as the analysis of a +chemical compound by the help of the rules of chemical analysis. There +is nothing that appeals to the aesthetic faculty in that operation; and +I ask multitudes of men of my own age, who went through this process, +whether they ever had a conception of art or literature until they +obtained it for themselves after leaving school? Then you may say, "If +that is so, if the education was scientific, why cannot you be +satisfied with it?" I say, because although it is a scientific +training, it is of the most inadequate and inappropriate kind. If there +is any good at all in scientific education it is that men should be +trained, as I said before, to know things for themselves at first hand, +and that they should understand every step of the reason of that which +they do. + +I desire to speak with the utmost respect of that science--philology--of +which grammar is a part and parcel; yet everybody knows that +grammar, as it is usually learned at school, affords no scientific +training. It is taught just as you would teach the rules of chess or +draughts. On the other hand, if I am to understand by a literary +education the study of the literatures of either ancient or modern +nations--but especially those of antiquity, and especially that of +ancient Greece; if this literature is studied, not merely from the +point of view of philological science, and its practical application to +the interpretation of texts, but as an exemplification of and +commentary upon the principles of art; if you look upon the literature +of a people as a chapter in the development of the human mind, if you +work out this in a broad spirit, and with such collateral references to +morals and politics, and physical geography, and the like as are +needful to make you comprehend what the meaning of ancient literature +and civilisation is,--then, assuredly, it affords a splendid and noble +education. But I still think it is susceptible of improvement, and that +no man will ever comprehend the real secret of the difference between +the ancient world and our present time, unless he has learned to see +the difference which the late development of physical science has made +between the thought of this day and the thought of that, and he will +never see that difference, unless he has some practical insight into +some branches of physical science; and you must remember that a +literary education such as that which I have just referred to, is out +of the reach of those whose school life is cut short at sixteen or +seventeen. + +But, you will say, all this is fault-finding; let us hear what you have +in the way of positive suggestion. Then I am bound to tell you that, if +I could make a clean sweep of everything--I am very glad I cannot +because I might, and probably should, make mistakes,--but if I could +make a clean sweep of everything and start afresh, I should, in the +first place, secure that training of the young in reading and writing, +and in the habit of attention and observation, both to that which is +told them, and that which they see, which everybody agrees to. But in +addition to that, I should make it absolutely necessary for everybody, +for a longer or shorter period, to learn to draw. Now, you may say, +there are some people who cannot draw, however much they may be taught. +I deny that _in toto_, because I never yet met with anybody who +could not learn to write. Writing is a form of drawing; therefore if +you give the same attention and trouble to drawing as you do to +writing, depend upon it, there is nobody who cannot be made to draw, +more or less well. Do not misapprehend me. I do not say for one moment +you would make an artistic draughtsman. Artists are not made; they +grow. You may improve the natural faculty in that direction, but you +cannot make it; but you can teach simple drawing, and you will find it +an implement of learning of extreme value. I do not think its value can +be exaggerated, because it gives you the means of training the young in +attention and accuracy, which are the two things in which all mankind +are more deficient than in any other mental quality whatever. The whole +of my life has been spent in trying to give my proper attention to +things and to be accurate, and I have not succeeded as well as I could +wish; and other people, I am afraid, are not much more fortunate. You +cannot begin this habit too early, and I consider there is nothing of +so great a value as the habit of drawing, to secure those two desirable +ends. + +Then we come to the subject-matter, whether scientific or aesthetic, of +education, and I should naturally have no question at all about +teaching the elements of physical science of the kind I have sketched, +in a practical manner; but among scientific topics, using the word +scientific in the broadest sense, I would also include the elements of +the theory of morals and of that of political and social life, which, +strangely enough, it never seems to occur to anybody to teach a child. +I would have the history of our own country, and of all the influences +which have been brought to bear upon it, with incidental geography, not +as a mere chronicle of reigns and battles, but as a chapter in the +development of the race, and the history of civilisation. + +Then with respect to aesthetic knowledge and discipline, we have +happily in the English language one of the most magnificent storehouses +of artistic beauty and of models of literary excellence which exists in +the world at the present time. I have said before, and I repeat it +here, that if a man cannot get literary culture of the highest kind out +of his Bible, and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and Milton, and Hobbes, and +Bishop Berkeley, to mention only a few of our illustrious writers--I +say, if he cannot get it out of those writers, he cannot get it out of +anything; and I would assuredly devote a very large portion of the time +of every English child to the careful study of the models of English +writing of such varied and wonderful kind as we possess, and, what is +still more important and still more neglected, the habit of using that +language with precision, with force, and with art. I fancy we are +almost the only nation in the world who seem to think that composition +comes by nature. The French attend to their own language, the Germans +study theirs; but Englishmen do not seem to think it is worth their +while. Nor would I fail to include, in the course of study I am +sketching, translations of all the best works of antiquity, or of the +modern world. It is a very desirable thing to read Homer in Greek; but +if you don't happen to know Greek, the next best thing we can do is to +read as good a translation of it as we have recently been furnished +with in prose. You won't get all you would get from the original, but +you may get a great deal; and to refuse to know this great deal because +you cannot get all, seems to be as sensible as for a hungry man to +refuse bread because he cannot get partridge. Finally, I would add +instruction in either music or painting, or, if the child should be so +unhappy, as sometimes happens, as to have no faculty for either of +those, and no possibility of doing anything in any artistic sense with +them, then I would see what could be done with literature alone; but I +would provide, in the fullest sense, for the development of the +aesthetic side of the mind. In my judgment, those are all the +essentials of education for an English child. With that outfit, such as +it might be made in the time given to education which is within the +reach of nine-tenths of the population--with that outfit, an +Englishman, within the limits of English life, is fitted to go +anywhere, to occupy the highest positions, to fill the highest offices +of the State, and to become distinguished in practical pursuits, in +science, or in art. For, if he have the opportunity to learn all those +things, and have his mind disciplined in the various directions the +teaching of those topics would have necessitated, then, assuredly, he +will be able to pick up, on his road through life, all the rest of the +intellectual baggage he wants. + +If the educational time at our disposition were sufficient, there are +one or two things I would add to those I have just now called the +essentials; and perhaps you will be surprised to hear, though I hope +you will not, that I should add, not more science, but one, or, if +possible, two languages. The knowledge of some other language than +one's own is, in fact, of singular intellectual value. Many of the +faults and mistakes of the ancient philosophers are traceable to the +fact that they knew no language but their own, and were often led into +confusing the symbol with the thought which it embodied. I think it is +Locke who says that one-half of the mistakes of philosophers have +arisen from questions about words; and one of the safest ways of +delivering yourself from the bondage of words is, to know how ideas +look in words to which you are not accustomed. That is one reason for +the study of language; another reason is, that it opens new fields in +art and in science. Another is the practical value of such knowledge; +and yet another is this, that if your languages are properly chosen, +from the time of learning the additional languages you will know your +own language better than ever you did. So, I say, if the time given to +education permits, add Latin and German. Latin, because it is the key +to nearly one-half of English and to all the Romance languages; and +German, because it is the key to almost all the remainder of English, +and helps you to understand a race from whom most of us have sprung, +and who have a character and a literature of a fateful force in the +history of the world, such as probably has been allotted to those of no +other people, except the Jews, the Greeks, and ourselves. Beyond these, +the essential and the eminently desirable elements of all education, +let each man take up his special line--the historian devote himself to +his history, the man of science to his science, the man of letters to +his culture of that kind, and the artist to his special pursuit. + +Bacon has prefaced some of his works with no more than this: +_Franciscus Bacon sic cogitavit;_ let "sic cogitavi" be the epilogue +to what I have ventured to address to you to-night. + + + + +VIII + +UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL + +[1874] + + +Elected by the suffrages of your four Nations Rector of the ancient +University of which you are scholars, I take the earliest opportunity +which has presented itself since my restoration to health, of +delivering the Address which, by long custom, is expected of the holder +of my office. + +My first duty in opening that Address, is to offer you my most hearty +thanks for the signal honour you have conferred upon me--an honour of +which, as a man unconnected with you by personal or by national ties, +devoid of political distinction, and a plebeian who stands by his +order, I could not have dreamed. And it was the more surprising to +me, as the five-and-twenty years which have passed over my head +since I reached intellectual manhood, have been largely spent in no +half-hearted advocacy of doctrines which have not yet found favour in +the eyes of Academic respectability; so that, when the proposal to +nominate me for your Rector came, I was almost as much astonished as +was Hal o' the Wynd, "who fought for his own hand," by the Black +Douglas's proffer of knighthood. And I fear that my acceptance must be +taken as evidence that, less wise than the Armourer of Perth, I have +not yet done with soldiering. + +In fact, if, for a moment, I imagined that your intention was simply, +in the kindness of your hearts, to do me honour; and that the Rector of +your University, like that of some other Universities was one of those +happy beings who sit in glory for three years, with nothing to do for +it save the making of a speech, a conversation with my distinguished +predecessor soon dispelled the dream. I found that, by the constitution +of the University of Aberdeen, the incumbent of the Rectorate is, if +not a power, at any rate a potential energy; and that, whatever may be +his chances of success or failure, it is his duty to convert that +potential energy into a living force, directed towards such ends as may +seem to him conducive to the welfare of the corporation of which he is +the theoretical head. + +I need not tell you that your late Lord Rector took this view of his +position, and acted upon it with the comprehensive, far-seeing insight +into the actual condition and tendencies, not merely of his own, but of +other countries, which is his honourable characteristic among +statesmen. I have already done my best, and, as long as I hold my +office, I shall continue my endeavours, to follow in the path which he +trod; to do what in me lies, to bring this University nearer to +the ideal--alas, that I should be obliged to say ideal--of all +Universities; which, as I conceive, should be places in which thought +is free from all fetters; and in which all sources of knowledge, and +all aids to learning, should be accessible to all comers, without +distinction of creed or country, riches or poverty. + +Do not suppose, however, that I am sanguine enough to expect much to +come of any poor efforts of mine. If your annals take any notice of my +incumbency, I shall probably go down to posterity as the Rector who was +always beaten. But if they add, as I think they will, that my defeats +became victories in the hands of my successors, I shall be well +content. + + * * * * * + +The scenes are shifting in the great theatre of the world. The act +which commenced with the Protestant Reformation is nearly played out, +and a wider and deeper change than that effected three centuries ago--a +reformation, or rather a revolution of thought, the extremes of which +are represented by the intellectual heirs of John of Leyden and of +Ignatius Loyola, rather than by those of Luther and of Leo--is waiting +to come on, nay, visible behind the scenes to those who have good eyes. +Men are beginning, once more, to awake to the fact that matters of +belief and of speculation are of absolutely infinite practical +importance; and are drawing off from that sunny country "where it is +always afternoon"--the sleepy hollow of broad indifferentism--to range +themselves under their natural banners. Change is in the air. It is +whirling feather-heads into all sorts of eccentric orbits, and filling +the steadiest with a sense of insecurity. It insists on reopening all +questions and asking all institutions, however venerable, by what right +they exist, and whether they are, or are not, in harmony with the real +or supposed wants of mankind. And it is remarkable that these searching +inquiries are not so much forced on institutions from without, as +developed from within. Consummate scholars question the value of +learning; priests contemn dogma; and women turn their backs upon man's +ideal of perfect womanhood, and seek satisfaction in apocalyptic +visions of some, as yet, unrealised epicene reality. + +If there be a type of stability in this world, one would be inclined to +look for it in the old Universities of England. But it has been my +business of late to hear a good deal about what is going on in these +famous corporations; and I have been filled with astonishment by the +evidences of internal fermentation which they exhibit. If Gibbon could +revisit the ancient seat of learning of which he has written so +cavalierly, assuredly he would no longer speak of "the monks of Oxford +sunk in prejudice and port." There, as elsewhere, port has gone out of +fashion, and so has prejudice--at least that particular fine, old, +crusted sort of prejudice to which the great historian alludes. + +Indeed, things are moving so fast in Oxford and Cambridge, that, for my +part, I rejoiced when the Royal Commission, of which I am a member, had +finished and presented the Report which related to these Universities; +for we should have looked like mere plagiarists, if, in consequence of +a little longer delay in issuing it, all the measures of reform we +proposed had been anticipated by the spontaneous action of the +Universities themselves. + +A month ago I should have gone on to say that one might speedily expect +changes of another kind in Oxford and Cambridge. A Commission has been +inquiring into the revenues of the many wealthy societies, in more or +less direct connection with the Universities, resident in those towns. +It is said that the Commission has reported, and that, for the first +time in recorded history, the nation, and perhaps the Colleges +themselves, will know what they are worth. And it was announced that a +statesman, who, whatever his other merits or defects, has aims above +the level of mere party fighting, and a clear vision into the most +complex practical problems, meant to deal with these revenues. + +But, _Bos locutus est_. That mysterious independent variable of +political calculation, Public Opinion--which some whisper is, in the +present case, very much the same thing as publican's opinion--has +willed otherwise. The Heads may return to their wonted slumbers--at any +rate for a space. + +Is the spirit of change, which is working thus vigorously in the South, +likely to affect the Northern Universities, and if so, to what extent? +The violence of fermentation depends, not so much on the quantity of +the yeast, as on the composition of the wort, and its richness in +fermentable material; and, as a preliminary to the discussion of this +question, I venture to call to your minds the essential and fundamental +differences between the Scottish and the English type of University. + +Do not charge me with anything worse than official egotism, if I say +that these differences appear to be largely symbolised by my own +existence. There is no Rector in an English University. Now, the +organisation of the members of a University into Nations, with their +elective Rector, is the last relic of the primitive constitution of +Universities. The Rectorate was the most important of all offices in +that University of Paris, upon the model of which the University of +Aberdeen was fashioned; and which was certainly a great and flourishing +institution in the twelfth century. + +Enthusiasts for the antiquity of one of the two acknowledged parents of +all Universities, indeed, do not hesitate to trace the origin of the +"Studium Parisiense" up to that wonderful king of the Franks and +Lombards, Karl, surnamed the Great, whom we all called Charlemagne, and +believed to be a Frenchman, until a learned historian, by beneficent +iteration, taught us better. Karl is said not to have been much of a +scholar himself, but he had the wisdom of which knowledge is only the +servitor. And that wisdom enabled him to see that ignorance is one of +the roots of all evil. + +In the Capitulary which enjoins the foundation of monasterial and +cathedral schools, he says: "Right action is better than knowledge; but +in order to do what is right, we must know what is right." [1] An +irrefragable truth, I fancy. Acting upon it, the king took pretty full +compulsory powers, and carried into effect a really considerable and +effectual scheme of elementary education through the length and breadth +of his dominions. + +No doubt the idolaters out by the Elbe, in what is now part of Prussia, +objected to the Frankish king's measures; no doubt the priests, who had +never hesitated about sacrificing all unbelievers in their fantastic +deities and futile conjurations, were the loudest in chanting the +virtues of toleration; no doubt they denounced as a cruel persecutor +the man who would not allow them, however sincere they might be, to go +on spreading delusions which debased the intellect, as much as they +deadened the moral sense, and undermined the bonds of civil allegiance; +no doubt, if they had lived in these times, they would have been able +to show, with ease, that the king's proceedings were totally contrary +to the best liberal principles. But it may be said, in justification of +the Teutonic ruler, first, that he was born before those principles, +and did not suspect that the best way of getting disorder into order +was to let it alone; and, secondly, that his rough and questionable +proceedings did, more or less, bring about the end he had in view. For, +in a couple of centuries, the schools he sowed broadcast produced their +crop of men, thirsting for knowledge and craving for culture. Such men +gravitating towards Paris, as a light amidst the darkness of evil days, +from Germany, from Spain, from Britain, and from Scandinavia, came +together by natural affinity. By degrees they banded themselves into a +society, which, as its end was the knowledge of all things knowable, +called itself a "_Studium Generale_;" and when it had grown into a +recognised corporation, acquired the name of "_Universitas Studii +Generalis_," which, mark you, means not a "Useful Knowledge +Society," but a "Knowledge-of-things-in-general Society." + +And thus the first "University," at any rate on this side of the Alps, +came into being. Originally it had but one Faculty, that of Arts. Its +aim was to be a centre of knowledge and culture; not to be, in any +sense, a technical school. + +The scholars seem to have studied Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric; +Arithmetic and Geometry; Astronomy; Theology; and Music. Thus, their +work, however imperfect and faulty, judged by modern lights, it may +have been, brought them face to face with all the leading aspects of +the many-sided mind of man. For these studies did really contain, at +any rate in embryo--sometimes, it may be, in caricature--what we now +call Philosophy, Mathematical and Physical Science, and Art. And I +doubt if the curriculum of any modern University shows so clear and +generous a comprehension of what is meant by culture, as this old +Trivium and Quadrivium does. + +The students who had passed through the University course, and had +proved themselves competent to teach, became masters and teachers of +their younger brethren. Whence the distinction of Masters and Regents +on the one hand, and Scholars on the other. + +Rapid growth necessitated organisation. The Masters and Scholars of +various tongues and countries grouped themselves into four Nations; and +the Nations, by their own votes at first, and subsequently by those of +their Procurators, or representatives, elected their supreme head and +governor, the Rector--at that time the sole representative of the +University, and a very real power, who could defy Provosts interfering +from without; or could inflict even corporal punishment on disobedient +members within the University. + +Such was the primitive constitution of the University of Paris. It is +in reference to this original state of things that I have spoken of the +Rectorate, and all that appertains to it, as the sole relic of that +constitution. + +But this original organisation did not last long. Society was not then, +any more than it is now, patient of culture, as such. It says to +everything, "Be useful to me, or away with you." And to the learned, +the unlearned man said then, as he does now, "What is the use of all +your learning, unless you can tell me what I want to know? I am here +blindly groping about, and constantly damaging myself by collision with +three mighty powers, the power of the invisible God, the power of my +fellow Man, and the power of brute Nature. Let your learning be turned +to the study of these powers, that I may know how I am to comport +myself with regard to them." In answer to this demand, some of the +Masters of the Faculty of Arts devoted themselves to the study of +Theology, some to that of Law, and some to that of Medicine; and they +became Doctors--men learned in those technical, or, as we now call +them, professional, branches of knowledge. Like cleaving to like, the +Doctors formed schools, or Faculties, of Theology, Law, and Medicine, +which sometimes assumed airs of superiority over their parent, the +Faculty of Arts, though the latter always asserted and maintained its +fundamental supremacy. + +The Faculties arose by process of natural differentiation out of the +primitive University. Other constituents, foreign to its nature, were +speedily grafted upon it. One of these extraneous elements was forced +into it by the Roman Church, which in those days asserted with effect, +that which it now asserts, happily without any effect in these realms, +its right of censorship and control over all teaching. The local +habitation of the University lay partly in the lands attached to the +monastery of S. Genevieve, partly in the diocese of the Bishop of +Paris; and he who would teach must have the licence of the Abbot, or of +the Bishop, as the nearest representative of the Pope, so to do, which +licence was granted by the Chancellors of these Ecclesiastics. + +Thus, if I am what archaeologists call a "survival" of the primitive +head and ruler of the University, your Chancellor stands in the same +relation to the Papacy; and, with all respect for his Grace, I think I +may say that we both look terribly shrunken when compared with our +great originals. + +Not so is it with a second foreign element, which silently dropped into +the soil of Universities, like the grain of mustard-seed in the +parable; and, like that grain, grew into a tree, in whose branches a +whole aviary of fowls took shelter. That element is the element of +Endowment. It differed from the preceding, in its original design to +serve as a prop to the young plant, not to be a parasite upon it. The +charitable and the humane, blessed with wealth, were very early +penetrated by the misery of the poor student. And the wise saw that +intellectual ability is not so common or so unimportant a gift that it +should be allowed to run to waste upon mere handicrafts and chares. The +man who was a blessing to his contemporaries, but who so often has been +converted into a curse, by the blind adherence of his posterity to the +letter, rather than to the spirit, of his wishes--I mean the "pious +founder"--gave money and lands, that the student, who was rich in brain +and poor in all else, might be taken from the plough or from the +stithy, and enabled to devote himself to the higher service of mankind; +and built colleges and halls in which he might be not only housed and +fed, but taught. + +The Colleges were very generally placed in strict subordination to the +University by their founders; but, in many cases, their endowment, +consisting of land, has undergone an "unearned increment," which has +given these societies a continually increasing weight and importance as +against the unendowed, or fixedly endowed, University. In Pharaoh's +dream, the seven lean kine eat up the seven fat ones. In the reality of +historical fact, the fat Colleges have eaten up the lean Universities. + +Even here in Aberdeen, though the causes at work may have been somewhat +different, the effects have been similar; and you see how much more +substantial an entity is the Very Reverend the Principal, analogue, if +not homologue, of the Principals of King's College, than the Rector, +lineal representative of the ancient monarchs of the University, though +now, little more than a "king of shreds and patches." + +Do not suppose that, in thus briefly tracing the process of University +metamorphosis, I have had any intention of quarrelling with its +results. Practically, it seems to me that the broad changes effected in +1858 have given the Scottish Universities a very liberal constitution, +with as much real approximation to the primitive state of things as is +at all desirable. If your fat kine have eaten the lean, they have not +lain down to chew the cud ever since. The Scottish Universities, like +the English, have diverged widely enough from their primitive model; +but I cannot help thinking that the northern form has remained more +faithful to its original, not only in constitution, but, what is more +to the purpose, in view of the cry for change, in the practical +application of the endowments connected with it. + +In Aberdeen, these endowments are numerous, but so small that, taken +altogether, they are not equal to the revenue of a single third-rate +English college. They are scholarships, not fellowships; aids to do +work--not rewards for such work as it lies within the reach of an +ordinary, or even an extraordinary, young man to do. You do not think +that passing a respectable examination is a fair equivalent for an +income, such as many a grey-headed veteran, or clergyman would envy; +and which is larger than the endowment of many Regius chairs. You do +not care to make your University a school of manners for the rich; of +sports for the athletic; or a hot-bed of high-fed, hypercritical +refinement, more destructive to vigour and originality than are +starvation and oppression. No; your little Bursaries of ten and twenty +(I believe even fifty) pounds a year, enabled any boy who has shown +ability in the course of his education in those remarkable primary +schools, which have made Scotland the power she is, to obtain the +highest culture the country can give him; and when he is armed and +equipped, his Spartan Alma Mater tells him that, so far, he has had his +wages for his work, and that he may go and earn the rest. + +When I think of the host of pleasant, moneyed, well-bred young +gentlemen, who do a little learning and much boating by Cam and Isis, +the vision is a pleasant one; and, as a patriot, I rejoice that the +youth of the upper and richer classes of the nation receive a wholesome +and a manly training, however small may be the modicum of knowledge +they gather, in the intervals of this, their serious business. I admit, +to the full, the social and political value of that training. But, when +I proceed to consider that these young men may be said to represent the +great bulk of what the Colleges have to show for their enormous wealth, +plus, at least, a hundred and fifty pounds a year apiece which each +undergraduate costs his parents or guardians, I feel inclined to ask, +whether the rate-in-aid of the education of the wealthy and +professional classes, thus levied on the resources of the community, is +not, after all, a little heavy? And, still further, I am tempted to +inquire what has become of the indigent scholars, the sons of the +masses of the people whose daily labour just suffices to meet their +daily wants, for whose benefit these rich foundations were largely, if +not mainly, instituted? It seems as if Pharaoh's dream had been +rigorously carried out, and that even the fat scholar has eaten the +lean one. And when I turn from this picture to the no less real vision +of many a brave and frugal Scotch boy, spending his summer in hard +manual labour, that he may have the privilege of wending his way in +autumn to this University, with a bag of oatmeal, ten pounds in his +pocket, and his own stout heart to depend upon through the northern +winter; not bent on seeking + + "The bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth," + +but determined to wring knowledge from the hard hands of penury; when I +see him win through all such outward obstacles to positions of wide +usefulness and well-earned fame; I cannot but think that, in essence, +Aberdeen has departed but little from the primitive intention of the +founders of Universities, and that the spirit of reform has so much to +do on the other side of the Border, that it may be long before he has +leisure to look this way. + +As compared with other actual Universities, then, Aberdeen, may, +perhaps, be well satisfied with itself. But do not think me an +impracticable dreamer, if I ask you not to rest and be thankful in this +state of satisfaction; if I ask you to consider awhile, how this actual +good stands related to that ideal better, towards which both men and +institutions must progress, if they would not retrograde. + +In an ideal University, as I conceive it, a man should be able to +obtain instruction in all forms of knowledge, and discipline in the use +of all the methods by which knowledge is obtained. In such a +University, the force of living example should fire the student with a +noble ambition to emulate the learning of learned men, and to follow in +the footsteps of the explorers of new fields of knowledge. And the very +air he breathes should be charged with that enthusiasm for truth, that +fanaticism of veracity, which is a greater possession than much +learning; a nobler gift than the power of increasing knowledge; by so +much greater and nobler than these, as the moral nature of man is +greater than the intellectual; for veracity is the heart of morality. + +But the man who is all morality and intellect, although he may be good +and even great, is, after all, only half a man. There is beauty in the +moral world and in the intellectual world; but there is also a beauty +which is neither moral nor intellectual--the beauty of the world of +Art. There are men who are devoid of the power of seeing it, as there +are men who are born deaf and blind, and the loss of those, as of +these, is simply infinite. There are others in whom it is an +overpowering passion; happy men, born with the productive, or at +lowest, the appreciative, genius of the Artist. But, in the mass of +mankind, the Aesthetic faculty, like the reasoning power and the moral +sense, needs to be roused, directed, and cultivated; and I know not why +the development of that side of his nature, through which man has +access to a perennial spring of ennobling pleasure, should be omitted +from any comprehensive scheme of University education. + +All Universities recognise Literature in the sense of the old Rhetoric, +which is art incarnate in words. Some, to their credit, recognise Art +in its narrower sense, to a certain extent, and confer degrees for +proficiency in some of its branches. If there are Doctors of Music, why +should there be no Masters of painting, of Sculpture, of Architecture? +I should like to see Professors of the Fine Arts in every University; +and instruction in some branch of their work made a part of the Arts +curriculum. + +I just now expressed the opinion that, in our ideal University, a man +should be able to obtain instruction in all forms of knowledge. Now, by +"forms of knowledge" I mean the great classes of things knowable; of +which the first, in logical, though not in natural, order is knowledge +relating to the scope and limits of the mental faculties of man, a form +of knowledge which, in its positive aspect, answers pretty much to +Logic and part of Psychology, while, on its negative and critical side, +it corresponds with Metaphysics. + +A second class comprehends all that knowledge which relates to man's +welfare, so far as it is determined by his own acts, or what we call +his conduct. It answers to Moral and Religious philosophy. Practically, +it is the most directly valuable of all forms of knowledge, but +speculatively, it is limited and criticised by that which precedes and +by that which follows it in my order of enumeration. + +A third class embraces knowledge of the phaenomena of the Universe, as +that which lies about the individual man; and of the rules which those +phaenomena are observed to follow in the order of their occurrence, +which we term the laws of Nature. + +This is what ought to be called Natural Science, or Physiology, though +those terms are hopelessly diverted from such a meaning; and it +includes all exact knowledge of natural fact, whether Mathematical, +Physical, Biological, or Social. + +Kant has said that the ultimate object of all knowledge is to give +replies to these three questions: What can I do? What ought I to do? +What may I hope for? The forms of knowledge which I have enumerated, +should furnish such replies as are within human reach, to the first and +second of these questions. While to the third, perhaps the wisest +answer is, "Do what you can to do what you ought, and leave hoping and +fearing alone." + +If this be a just and an exhaustive classification of the forms of +knowledge, no question as to their relative importance, or as to the +superiority of one to the other, can be seriously raised. + +On the face of the matter, it is absurd to ask whether it is more +important to know the limits of one's powers; or the ends for which +they ought to be exerted; or the conditions under which they must be +exerted. One may as well inquire which of the terms of a Rule of Three +sum one ought to know, in order to get a trustworthy result. Practical +life is such a sum, in which your duty multiplied into your capacity, +and divided by your circumstances, gives you the fourth term in the +proportion, which is your deserts, with great accuracy. All agree, I +take it, that men ought to have these three kinds of knowledge. The +so-called "conflict of studies" turns upon the question of how they may +best be obtained. + +The founders of Universities held the theory that the Scriptures and +Aristotle taken together, the latter being limited by the former, +contained all knowledge worth having, and that the business of +philosophy was to interpret and co-ordinate these two. I imagine that +in the twelfth century this was a very fair conclusion from known +facts. Nowhere in the world, in those days, was there such an +encyclopaedia of knowledge of all three classes, as is to be found in +those writings. The scholastic philosophy is a wonderful monument of +the patience and ingenuity with which the human mind toiled to build up +a logically consistent theory of the Universe, out of such materials. +And that philosophy is by no means dead and buried, as many vainly +suppose. On the contrary, numbers of men of no mean learning and +accomplishment, and sometimes of rare power and subtlety of thought, +hold by it as the best theory of things which has yet been stated. And, +what is still more remarkable, men who speak the language of modern +philosophy, nevertheless think the thoughts of the schoolmen. "The +voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau." +Every day I hear "Cause," "Law," "Force," "Vitality," spoken of as +entities, by people who can enjoy Swift's joke about the meat-roasting +quality of the smoke-jack, and comfort themselves with the reflection +that they are not even as those benighted schoolmen. + +Well, this great system had its day, and then it was sapped and mined +by two influences. The first was the study of classical literature, +which familiarised men with methods of philosophising; with conceptions +of the highest Good; with ideas of the order of Nature; with notions of +Literary and Historical Criticism; and, above all, with visions of Art, +of a kind which not only would not fit into the scholastic scheme, but +showed them a pre-Christian, and indeed altogether un-Christian world, +of such grandeur and beauty that they ceased to think of any other. +They were as men who had kissed the Fairy Queen, and wandering with her +in the dim loveliness of the under-world, cared not to return to the +familiar ways of home and fatherland, though they lay, at arm's length, +overhead. Cardinals were more familiar with Virgil than with Isaiah; +and Popes laboured, with great success, to re-paganise Rome. + +The second influence was the slow, but sure, growth of the physical +sciences. It was discovered that some results of speculative thought, +of immense practical and theoretical importance, can be verified by +observation; and are always true, however severely they may be tested. +Here, at any rate, was knowledge, to the certainty of which no +authority could add, or take away, one jot or tittle, and to which the +tradition of a thousand years was as insignificant as the hearsay of +yesterday. To the scholastic system, the study of classical literature +might be inconvenient and distracting, but it was possible to hope that +it could be kept within bounds. Physical science, on the other hand, +was an irreconcilable enemy, to be excluded at all hazards. The College +of Cardinals has not distinguished itself in Physics or Physiology; and +no Pope has, as yet, set up public laboratories in the Vatican. + +People do not always formulate the beliefs on which they act. The +instinct of fear and dislike is quicker than the reasoning process; and +I suspect that, taken in conjunction with some other causes, such +instinctive aversion is at the bottom of the long exclusion of any +serious discipline in the physical sciences from the general curriculum +of Universities; while, on the other hand, classical literature has +been gradually made the backbone of the Arts course. + +I am ashamed to repeat here what I have said elsewhere, in season and +out of season, respecting the value of Science as knowledge and +discipline. But the other day I met with some passages in the Address +to another Scottish University, of a great thinker, recently lost to +us, which express so fully and yet so tersely, the truth in this matter +that I am fain to quote them:-- + +"To question all things;--never to turn away from any difficulty; to +accept no doctrine either from ourselves or from other people without a +rigid scrutiny by negative criticism; letting no fallacy, or +incoherence, or confusion of thought, step by unperceived; above all, +to insist upon having the meaning of a word clearly understood before +using it, and the meaning of a proposition before assenting to +it;--these are the lessons we learn" from workers in Science. "With all +this vigorous management of the negative element, they inspire no +scepticism about the reality of truth or indifference to its pursuit. +The noblest enthusiasm, both for the search after truth and for +applying it to its highest uses, pervades those writers." "In +cultivating, therefore," science as an essential ingredient in +education, "we are all the while laying an admirable foundation for +ethical and philosophical culture." [2] + +The passages I have quoted were uttered by John Stuart Mill; but you +cannot hear inverted commas, and it is therefore right that I should +add, without delay, that I have taken the liberty of substituting +"workers in science" for "ancient dialecticians," and "Science as an +essential ingredient in education" for "the ancient languages as our +best literary education." Mill did, in fact, deliver a noble panegyric +upon classical studies. I do not doubt its justice, nor presume to +question its wisdom. But I venture to maintain that no wise or just +judge, who has a knowledge of the facts, will hesitate to say that it +applies with equal force to scientific training. + +But it is only fair to the Scottish Universities to point out that they +have long understood the value of Science as a branch of general +education. I observe, with the greatest satisfaction, that candidates +for the degree of Master of Arts in this University are required to +have a knowledge, not only of Mental and Moral Philosophy, and of +Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, but of Natural History, in addition +to the ordinary Latin and Greek course; and that a candidate may take +honours in these subjects and in Chemistry. + +I do not know what the requirements of your examiners may be, but I +sincerely trust they are not satisfied with a mere book knowledge of +these matters. For my own part I would not raise a finger, if I could +thereby introduce mere book work in science into every Arts curriculum +in the country. Let those who want to study books devote themselves to +Literature, in which we have the perfection of books, both as to +substance and as to form. If I may paraphrase Hobbes's well-known +aphorism, I would say that "books are the money of Literature, but only +the counters of Science," Science (in the sense in which I now use the +term) being the knowledge of fact, of which every verbal description is +but an incomplete and symbolic expression. And be assured that no +teaching of science is worth anything, as a mental discipline, which is +not based upon direct perception of the facts, and practical exercise +of the observing and logical faculties upon them. Even in such a simple +matter as the mere comprehension of form, ask the most practised and +widely informed anatomist what is the difference between his knowledge +of a structure which he has read about, and his knowledge of the same +structure when he has seen it for himself; and he will tell you that +the two things are not comparable--the difference is infinite. Thus I +am very strongly inclined to agree with some learned schoolmasters who +say that, in their experience, the teaching of science is all waste +time. As they teach it, I have no doubt it is. But to teach it +otherwise requires an amount of personal labour and a development of +means and appliances, which must strike horror and dismay into a man +accustomed to mere book work; and who has been in the habit of teaching +a class of fifty without much strain upon his energies. And this is one +of the real difficulties in the way of the introduction of physical +science into the ordinary University course, to which I have alluded. +It is a difficulty which will not be overcome, until years of patient +study have organised scientific teaching as well as, or I hope better +than, classical teaching has been organised hitherto. + +A little while ago, I ventured to hint a doubt as to the perfection of +some of the arrangements in the ancient Universities of England; but, +in their provision for giving instruction in Science as such, and +without direct reference to any of its practical applications, they +have set a brilliant example. Within the last twenty years, Oxford +alone has sunk more than a hundred and twenty thousand pounds in +building and furnishing Physical, Chemical, and Physiological +Laboratories, and a magnificent Museum, arranged with an almost +luxurious regard for the needs of the student. Cambridge, less rich, +but aided by the munificence of her Chancellor, is taking the same +course; and in a few years, it will be for no lack of the means and +appliances of sound teaching, if the mass of English University men +remain in their present state of barbarous ignorance of even the +rudiments of scientific culture. + +Yet another step needs to be made before Science can be said to have +taken its proper place in the Universities. That is its recognition as +a Faculty, or branch of study demanding recognition and special +organisation, on account of its bearing on the wants of mankind. The +Faculties of Theology, Law, and Medicine, are technical schools, +intended to equip men who have received general culture, with the +special knowledge which is needed for the proper performance of the +duties of clergymen, lawyers, and medical practitioners. + +When the material well-being of the country depended upon rude pasture +and agriculture, and still ruder mining; in the days when all the +innumerable applications of the principles of physical science to +practical purposes were non-existent even as dreams; days which men +living may have heard their fathers speak of; what little physical +science could be seen to bear directly upon human life, lay within the +province of Medicine. Medicine was the foster-mother of Chemistry, +because it has to do with the preparation of drugs and the detection of +poisons; of Botany, because it enabled the physician to recognise +medicinal herbs; of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, because the man +who studied Human Anatomy and Physiology for purely medical purposes +was led to extend his studies to the rest of the animal world. + +Within my recollection, the only way in which a student could obtain +anything like a training in Physical Science, was by attending the +lectures of the Professors of Physical and Natural Science attached to +the Medical Schools. But, in the course of the last thirty years, both +foster-mother and child have grown so big, that they threaten not only +to crush one another, but to press the very life out of the unhappy +student who enters the nursery; to the great detriment of all three. + +I speak in the presence of those who know practically what medical +education is; for I may assume that a large proportion of my hearers +are more or less advanced students of medicine. I appeal to the most +industrious and conscientious among you, to those who are most deeply +penetrated with a sense of the extremely serious responsibilities which +attach to the calling of a medical practitioner, when I ask whether, +out of the four years which you devote to your studies, you ought to +spare even so much as an hour for any work which does not tend directly +to fit you for your duties? + +Consider what that work is. Its foundation is a sound and practical +acquaintance with the structure of the human organism, and with the +modes and conditions of its action in health. I say a sound and +practical acquaintance, to guard against the supposition that my +intention is to suggest that you ought all to be minute anatomists and +accomplished physiologists. The devotion of your whole four years to +Anatomy and Physiology alone, would be totally insufficient to attain +that end. What I mean is, the sort of practical, familiar, finger-end +knowledge which a watchmaker has of a watch, and which you expect that +craftsman, as an honest man, to have, when you entrust a watch that +goes badly, to him. It is a kind of knowledge which is to be acquired, +not in the lecture-room, nor in the library, but in the dissecting-room +and the laboratory. It is to be had not by sharing your attention +between these and sundry other subjects, but by concentrating your +minds, week after week, and month after month, six or seven hours a +day, upon all the complexities of organ and function, until each of the +greater truths of anatomy and physiology has become an organic part of +your minds--until you would know them if you were roused and questioned +in the middle of the night, as a man knows the geography of his native +place and the daily life of his home. That is the sort of knowledge +which, once obtained, is a life-long possession. Other occupations may +fill your minds--it may grow dim, and seem to be forgotten--but there +it is, like the inscription on a battered and defaced coin, which comes +out when you warm it. + +If I had the power to remodel Medical Education, the first two years of +the medical curriculum should be devoted to nothing but such thorough +study of Anatomy and Physiology, with Physiological Chemistry and +Physics; the student should then pass a real, practical examination in +these subjects; and, having gone through that ordeal satisfactorily, he +should be troubled no more with them. His whole mind should then be +given with equal intentness to Therapeutics, in its broadest sense, to +Practical Medicine and to Surgery, with instruction in Hygiene and in +Medical Jurisprudence; and of these subjects only--surely there are +enough of them--should he be required to show a knowledge in his final +examination. + +I cannot claim any special property in this theory of what the medical +curriculum should be, for I find that views, more or less closely +approximating these, are held by all who have seriously considered the +very grave and pressing question of Medical Reform; and have, indeed, +been carried into practice, to some extent, by the most enlightened +Examining Boards. I have heard but two kinds of objections to them. +There is first, the objection of vested interests, which I will not +deal with here, because I want to make myself as pleasant as I can, and +no discussions are so unpleasant as those which turn on such points. +And there is, secondly, the much more respectable objection, which +takes the general form of the reproach that, in thus limiting the +curriculum, we are seeking to narrow it. We are told that the medical +man ought to be a person of good education and general information, if +his profession is to hold its own among other professions; that he +ought to know Botany, or else, if he goes abroad, he will not be able +to tell poisonous fruits from edible ones; that he ought to know drugs, +as a druggist knows them, or he will not be able to tell sham bark +and senna from the real articles; that he ought to know Zoology, +because--well, I really have never been able to learn exactly why he is +to be expected to know zoology. There is, indeed, a popular +superstition, that doctors know all about things that are queer or +nasty to the general mind, and may, therefore, be reasonably expected +to know the "barbarous binomials" applicable to snakes, snails, and +slugs; an amount of information with which the general mind is usually +completely satisfied. And there is a scientific superstition that +Physiology is largely aided by Comparative Anatomy--a superstition +which, like most superstitions, once had a grain of truth at bottom; +but the grain has become homoeopathic, since Physiology took its modern +experimental development, and became what it is now, the application of +the principles of Physics and Chemistry to the elucidation of the +phaenomena of life. + +I hold as strongly as any one can do, that the medical practitioner +ought to be a person of education and good general culture; but I also +hold by the old theory of a Faculty, that a man should have his general +culture before he devotes himself to the special studies of that +Faculty; and I venture to maintain, that, if the general culture +obtained in the Faculty of Arts were what it ought to be, the student +would have quite as much knowledge of the fundamental principles of +Physics, of Chemistry, and of Biology, as he needs, before he commenced +his special medical studies. + +Moreover, I would urge, that a thorough study of Human Physiology is, +in itself, an education broader and more comprehensive than much that +passes under that name. There is no side of the intellect which it does +not call into play, no region of human knowledge into which either its +roots, or its branches, do not extend; like the Atlantic between the +Old and the New Worlds, its waves wash the shores of the two worlds of +matter and of mind; its tributary streams flow from both; through its +waters, as yet unfurrowed by the keel of any Columbus, lies the road, +if such there be, from the one to the other; far away from that +North-west Passage of mere speculation, in which so many brave souls +have been hopelessly frozen up. + +But whether I am right or wrong about all this, the patent fact of the +limitation of time remains. As the song runs:-- + + "If a man could be sure + That his life would endure + For the space of a thousand long years------" + +he might do a number of things not practicable under present +conditions. Methuselah might, with much propriety, have taken half a +century to get his doctor's degree; and might, very fairly, have been +required to pass a practical examination upon the contents of the +British Museum, before commencing practice as a promising young fellow +of two hundred, or thereabouts. But you have four years to do your work +in, and are turned loose, to save or slay, at two or three and twenty. + +Now, I put it to you, whether you think that, when you come down to the +realities of life--when you stand by the sick-bed, racking you brains +for the principles which shall furnish you with the means of +interpreting symptoms, and forming a rational theory of the condition +of your patient, it will be satisfactory for you to find that those +principles are not there--although, to use the examination slang which +is unfortunately too familiar to me, you can quite easily "give an +account of the leading peculiarities of the _Marsupialia_," or +"enumerate the chief characters of the _Compositae_," or "state +the class and order of the animal from which Castoreum is obtained." + +I really do not think that state of things will be satisfactory to +you; I am very sure it will not be so to your patient. Indeed, I +am so narrow-minded myself, that if I had to choose between two +physicians--one who did not know whether a whale is a fish or not, and +could not tell gentian from ginger, but did understand the applications +of the institutes of medicine to his art; while the other, like +Talleyrand's doctor, "knew everything, even a little physic"--with all +my love for breadth of culture, I should assuredly consult the former. + +It is not pleasant to incur the suspicion of an inclination to injure +or depreciate particular branches of knowledge. But the fact that one +of those which I should have no hesitation in excluding from the +medical curriculum, is that to which my own life has been specially +devoted, should, at any rate, defend me from the suspicion of being +urged to this course by any but the very gravest considerations of the +public welfare. + +And I should like, further, to call your attention to the important +circumstance that, in thus proposing the exclusion of the study of such +branches of knowledge as Zoology and Botany, from those compulsory upon +the medical student, I am not, for a moment, suggesting their exclusion +from the University. I think that sound and practical instruction in +the elementary facts and broad principles of Biology should form part +of the Arts Curriculum: and here, happily, my theory is in entire +accordance with your practice. Moreover, as I have already said, I have +no sort of doubt that, in view of the relation of Physical Science to +the practical life of the present day, it has the same right as +Theology, Law, and Medicine, to a Faculty of its own in which men shall +be trained to be professional men of science. It may be doubted whether +Universities are the places for technical schools of Engineering or +applied Chemistry, or Agriculture. But there can surely be little +question, that instruction in the branches of Science which lie at the +foundation of these Arts, of a far more advanced and special character +than could, with any propriety, be included in the ordinary Arts +Curriculum, ought to be obtainable by means of a duly organised Faculty +of Science in every University. + +The establishment of such a Faculty would have the additional advantage +of providing, in some measure, for one of the greatest wants of our +time and country. I mean the proper support and encouragement of +original research. + +The other day, an emphatic friend of mine committed himself to the +opinion that, in England, it is better for a man's worldly prospects to +be a drunkard, than to be smitten with the divine dipsomania of the +original investigator. I am inclined to think he was not far wrong. +And, be it observed, that the question is not, whether such a man shall +be able to make as much out of his abilities as his brother, of like +ability, who goes into Law, or Engineering, or Commerce; it is not a +question of "maintaining a due number of saddle horses," as George +Eliot somewhere puts it--it is a question of living or starving. + +If a student of my own subject shows power and originality, I dare not +advise him to adopt a scientific career; for, supposing he is able to +maintain himself until he has attained distinction, I cannot give him +the assurance that any amount of proficiency in the Biological Sciences +will be convertible into, even the most modest, bread and cheese. And I +believe that the case is as bad, or perhaps worse, with other branches +of Science. In this respect Britain, whose immense wealth and +prosperity hang upon the thread of Applied Science, is far behind +France, and infinitely behind Germany. + +And the worst of it is, that it is very difficult to see one's way to +any immediate remedy for this state of affairs which shall be free from +a tendency to become worse than the disease. + +Great schemes for the Endowment of Research have been proposed. It has +been suggested, that Laboratories for all branches of Physical Science, +provided with every apparatus needed by the investigator, shall be +established by the State: and shall be accessible, under due conditions +and regulations, to all properly qualified persons. I see no objection +to the principle of such a proposal. If it be legitimate to spend great +sums of money on public Libraries and public collections of Painting +and Sculpture, in aid of the Man of Letters, or the Artist, or for the +mere sake of affording pleasure to the general public. I apprehend that +it cannot be illegitimate to do as much for the promotion of scientific +investigation. To take the lowest ground, as a mere investment of +money, the latter is likely to be much more immediately profitable. To +my mind, the difficulty in the way of such schemes is not theoretical, +but practical. Given the laboratories, how are the investigators to be +maintained? What career is open to those who have been thus encouraged +to leave bread-winning pursuits? If they are to be provided for by +endowment, we come back to the College Fellowship system, the results +of which, for Literature, have not been so brilliant that one would +wish to see it extended to Science; unless some much better securities +than at present exist can be taken that it will foster real work. You +know that among the Bees, it depends on the kind of cell in which the +egg is deposited, and the quantity and quality of food which is +supplied to the grub, whether it shall turn out a busy little worker or +a big idle queen. And, in the human hive, the cells of the endowed +larvae are always tending to enlarge, and their food to improve, until +we get queens, beautiful to behold, but which gather no honey and build +no comb. + +I do not say that these difficulties may not be overcome, but their +gravity is not to be lightly estimated. + +In the meanwhile, there is one step in the direction of the endowment +of research which is free from such objections. It is possible to place +the scientific enquirer in a position in which he shall have ample +leisure and opportunity for original work, and yet shall give a fair +and tangible equivalent for those privileges. The establishment of a +Faculty of Science in every University, implies that of a corresponding +number of Professorial chairs, the incumbents of which need not be so +burdened with teaching as to deprive them of ample leisure for original +work. I do not think that it is any impediment to an original +investigator to have to devote a moderate portion of his time to +lecturing, or superintending practical instruction. On the contrary, I +think it may be, and often is, a benefit to be obliged to take a +comprehensive survey of your subject; or to bring your results to a +point, and give them, as it were, a tangible objective existence. The +besetting sins of the investigator are two: the one is the desire to +put aside a subject, the general bearings of which he has mastered +himself, and pass on to something which has the attraction of novelty; +and the other, the desire for too much perfection, which leads him to + + "Add and alter many times, + Till all be ripe and rotten;" + +to spend the energies which should be reserved for action in whitening +the decks and polishing the guns. + +The obligation to produce results for the instruction of others, seems +to me to be a more effectual check on these tendencies than even the +love of usefulness or the ambition for fame. + +But supposing the Professorial forces of our University to be duly +organised, there remains an important question, relating to the +teaching power, to be considered. Is the Professorial system--the +system, I mean, of teaching in the lecture-room alone, and +leaving the student to find his own way when he is outside the +lecture-room--adequate to the wants of learners? In answering this +question, I confine myself to my own province, and I venture to reply +for Physical Science, assuredly and undoubtedly, No. As I have +already intimated, practical work in the Laboratory is absolutely +indispensable, and that practical work must be guided and superintended +by a sufficient staff of Demonstrators, who are for Science what Tutors +are for other branches of study. And there must be a good supply of +such Demonstrators. I doubt if the practical work of more than twenty +students can be properly superintended by one Demonstrator. If we +take the working day at six hours, that is less than twenty minutes +apiece--not a very large allowance of time for helping a dull man, for +correcting an inaccurate one, or even for making an intelligent student +clearly apprehend what he is about. And, no doubt, the supplying of a +proper amount of this tutorial, practical teaching, is a difficulty in +the way of giving proper instruction in Physical Science in such +Universities as that of Aberdeen, which are devoid of endowments; and, +unlike the English Universities, have no moral claim on the funds of +richly endowed bodies to supply their wants. + +Examination--thorough, searching examination--is an indispensable +accompaniment of teaching; but I am almost inclined to commit myself to +the very heterodox proposition that it is a necessary evil. I am a very +old Examiner, having, for some twenty years past, been occupied with +examinations on a considerable scale, of all sorts and conditions of +men, and women too,--from the boys and girls of elementary schools to +the candidates for Honours and Fellowships in the Universities. I will +not say that, in this case as in so many others, the adage, that +familiarity breeds contempt, holds good; but my admiration for the +existing system of examination and its products, does not wax warmer as +I see more of it. Examination, like fire, is a good servant, but a bad +master; and there seems to me to be some danger of its becoming our +master. I by no means stand alone in this opinion. Experienced friends +of mine do not hesitate to say that students whose career they watch, +appear to them to become deteriorated by the constant effort to pass +this or that examination, just as we hear of men's brains becoming +affected by the daily necessity of catching a train. They work to pass, +not to know; and outraged Science takes her revenge. They do pass, and +they don't know. I have passed sundry examinations in my time, not +without credit, and I confess I am ashamed to think how very little +real knowledge underlay the torrent of stuff which I was able to pour +out on paper. In fact, that which examination, as ordinarily conducted, +tests, is simply a man's power of work under stimulus, and his capacity +for rapidly and clearly producing that which, for the time, he has got +into his mind. Now, these faculties are by no means to be despised. +They are of great value in practical life, and are the making of many +an advocate, and of many a so-called statesman. But in the pursuit of +truth, scientific or other, they count for very little, unless they are +supplemented by that long-continued, patient "intending of the mind," +as Newton phrased it, which makes very little show in Examinations. I +imagine that an Examiner who knows his students personally, must not +unfrequently have found himself in the position of finding A's paper +better than B's, though his own judgment tells him, quite clearly, that +B is the man who has the larger share of genuine capacity. + +Again, there is a fallacy about Examiners. It is commonly supposed that +any one who knows a subject is competent to teach it; and no one seems +to doubt that any one who knows a subject is competent to examine in +it. I believe both these opinions to be serious mistakes: the latter, +perhaps, the more serious of the two. In the first place, I do not +believe that any one who is not, or has not been, a teacher is really +qualified to examine advanced students. And in the second place, +Examination is an Art, and a difficult one, which has to be learned +like all other arts. + +Beginners always set too difficult questions--partly because they are +afraid of being suspected of ignorance if they set easy ones, and +partly from not understanding their business. Suppose that you want to +test the relative physical strength of a score of young men. You do not +put a hundredweight down before them, and tell each to swing it round. +If you do, half of them won't be able to lift it at all, and only one +or two will be able to perform the task. You must give them half a +hundredweight, and see how they manoeuvre that, if you want to form any +estimate of the muscular strength of each. So, a practised Examiner +will seek for information respecting the mental vigour and training of +candidates from the way in which they deal with questions easy enough +to let reason, memory, and method have free play. + +No doubt, a great deal is to be done by the careful selection of +Examiners, and by the copious introduction of practical work, to remove +the evils inseparable from examination; but, under the best of +circumstances, I believe that examination will remain but an imperfect +test of knowledge, and a still more imperfect test of capacity, while +it tells next to nothing about a man's power as an investigator. + +There is much to be said in favour of restricting the highest degrees +in each Faculty, to those who have shown evidence of such original +power, by prosecuting a research under the eye of the Professor in +whose province it lies; or, at any rate, under conditions which shall +afford satisfactory proof that the work is theirs. The notion may sound +revolutionary, but it is really very old; for, I take it, that it lies +at the bottom of that presentation of a thesis by the candidate for a +doctorate, which has now, too often, become little better than a matter +of form. + + * * * * * + +Thus far, I have endeavoured to lay before you, in a too brief and +imperfect manner, my views respecting the teaching half--the Magistri +and Regentes--of the University of the Future. Now let me turn to the +learning half--the Scholares. + +If the Universities are to be the sanctuaries of the highest culture of +the country, those who would enter that sanctuary must not come with +unwashed hands. If the good seed is to yield its hundredfold harvest, +it must not be scattered amidst the stones of ignorance, or the tares +of undisciplined indolence and wantonness. On the contrary, the soil +must have been carefully prepared, and the Professor should find that +the operations of clod-crushing, draining, and weeding, and even a good +deal of planting, have been done by the Schoolmaster. + +That is exactly what the Professor does not find in any University in +the three Kingdoms that I can hear of--the reason of which state of +things lies in the extremely faulty organisation of the majority of +secondary schools. Students come to the Universities ill-prepared in +classics and mathematics, not at all prepared in anything else; and +half their time is spent in learning that which they ought to have +known when they came. + +I sometimes hear it said that the Scottish Universities differ from the +English, in being to a much greater extent places of comparatively +elementary education for a younger class of students. But it would seem +doubtful if any great difference of this kind really exists; for a high +authority, himself Head of an English College, has solemnly affirmed +that: "Elementary teaching of youths under twenty is now the only +function performed by the University;" and that Colleges are "boarding +schools in which the elements of the learned languages are taught to +youths." [3] + +This is not the first time that I have quoted those remarkable +assertions. I should like to engrave them in public view, for they have +not been refuted; and I am convinced that if their import is once +clearly apprehended, they will play no mean part when the question of +University reorganisation, with a view to practical measures, comes on +for discussion. You are not responsible for this anomalous state of +affairs now; but, as you pass into active life and acquire the +political influence to which your education and your position should +entitle you, you will become responsible for it, unless each in his +sphere does his best to alter it, by insisting on the improvement of +secondary schools. + +Your present responsibility is of another, though not less serious, +kind. Institutions do not make men, any more than organisation makes +life; and even the ideal University we have been dreaming about will be +but a superior piece of mechanism, unless each student strive after the +ideal of the Scholar. And that ideal, it seems to me, has never been +better embodied than by the great Poet, who, though lapped in luxury, +the favourite of a Court, and the idol of his countrymen, remained +through all the length of his honoured years a Scholar in Art, in +Science, and in Life. + + + "Wouldst shape a noble life! Then cast + No backward glances towards the past: + And though somewhat be lost and gone, + Yet do thou act as one new-born. + What each day needs, that shalt thou ask; + Each day will set its proper task. + Give others' work just share of praise; + Not of thine own the merits raise. + Beware no fellow man thou hate: + And so in God's hands leave thy fate." [4] + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] "Quamvis enim melius sit bene facere quam nosse, prius tamen est +nosse quam facere."--"Karoli Magni Regis Constitutio de Scholis per +singula Episcopia et Monasteria instituendis," addressed to the Abbot +of Fulda. Baluzius, _Capitularia Regum Francorum_, T. i., p. 202. + +[2] Inaugural Address delivered to the University of St. Andrew, +February 1, 1867, by J. S. Mill, Rector of the University (pp. 32, 33). + +[3] _Suggestions for Academical Organisation, with Especial Reference +to Oxford_. By the Rector of Lincoln. + +[4] Goethe, _Zahme Xenien, Vierte Abtheilung_. I should be glad to +take credit for the close and vigorous English version; but it is my +wife's, and not mine. + + + + +IX + +ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION [1] + +[1876] + + +The actual work of the University founded in this city by the +well-considered munificence of Johns Hopkins commences to-morrow, and +among the many marks of confidence and good-will which have been +bestowed upon me in the United States, there is none which I value more +highly than that conferred by the authorities of the University when +they invited me to deliver an address on such an occasion. + +For the event which has brought us together is, in many respects, +unique. A vast property is handed over to an administrative body, +hampered by no conditions save these:--That the principal shall not be +employed in building: that the funds shall be appropriated, in equal +proportions, to the promotion of natural knowledge and to the +alleviation of the bodily sufferings of mankind; and, finally, that +neither political nor ecclesiastical sectarianism shall be permitted to +disturb the impartial distribution of the testator's benefactions. + +In my experience of life a truth which sounds very much like a paradox +has often asserted itself: namely, that a man's worst difficulties +begin when he is able to do as he likes. So long as a man is struggling +with obstacles he has an excuse for failure or shortcoming; but when +fortune removes them all and gives him the power of doing as he thinks +best, then comes the time of trial. There is but one right, and the +possibilities of wrong are infinite. I doubt not that the trustees of +the Johns Hopkins University felt the full force of this truth when +they entered on the administration of their trust a year and a half +ago; and I can but admire the activity and resolution which have +enabled them, aided by the able president whom they have selected, to +lay down the great outlines of their plan, and carry it thus far into +execution. It is impossible to study that plan without perceiving that +great care, forethought, and sagacity, have been bestowed upon it, and +that it demands the most respectful consideration. I have been +endeavouring to ascertain how far the principles which underlie it are +in accordance with those which have been established in my own mind by +much and long-continued thought upon educational questions. Permit me +to place before you the result of my reflections. + +Under one aspect a university is a particular kind of educational +institution, and the views which we may take of the proper nature of a +university are corollaries from those which we hold respecting +education in general. I think it must be admitted that the school +should prepare for the university, and that the university should crown +the edifice, the foundations of which are laid in the school. +University education should not be something distinct from elementary +education, but should be the natural outgrowth and development of the +latter. Now I have a very clear conviction as to what elementary +education ought to be; what it really may be, when properly organised; +and what I think it will be, before many years have passed over our +heads, in England and in America. Such education should enable an +average boy of fifteen or sixteen to read and write his own language +with ease and accuracy, and with a sense of literary excellence derived +from the study of our classic writers: to have a general acquaintance +with the history of his own country and with the great laws of social +existence; to have acquired the rudiments of the physical and +psychological sciences, and a fair knowledge of elementary arithmetic +and geometry. He should have obtained an acquaintance with logic rather +by example than by precept; while the acquirement of the elements of +music and drawing should have been pleasure rather than work. + +It may sound strange to many ears if I venture to maintain the +proposition that a young person, educated thus far, has had a liberal, +though perhaps not a full, education. But it seems to me that such +training as that to which I have referred may be termed liberal, in +both the senses in which that word is employed, with perfect accuracy. +In the first place, it is liberal in breadth. It extends over the whole +ground of things to be known and of faculties to be trained, and it +gives equal importance to the two great sides of human activity--art +and science. In the second place, it is liberal in the sense of being +an education fitted for free men; for men to whom every career is open, +and from whom their country may demand that they should be fitted to +perform the duties of any career. I cannot too strongly impress upon +you the fact that, with such a primary education as this, and with no +more than is to be obtained by building strictly upon its lines, a man +of ability may become a great writer or speaker, a statesman, a lawyer, +a man of science, painter, sculptor, architect, or musician. That even +development of all a man's faculties, which is what properly +constitutes culture, may be effected by such an education, while it +opens the way for the indefinite strengthening of any special +capabilities with which he may be gifted. + +In a country like this, where most men have to carve out their own +fortunes and devote themselves early to the practical affairs of life, +comparatively few can hope to pursue their studies up to, still less +beyond, the age of manhood. But it is of vital importance to the +welfare of the community that those who are relieved from the need of +making a livelihood, and still more, those who are stirred by the +divine impulses of intellectual thirst or artistic genius, should be +enabled to devote themselves to the higher service of their kind, as +centres of intelligence, interpreters of Nature, or creators of new +forms of beauty. And it is the function of a university to furnish such +men with the means of becoming that which it is their privilege and +duty to be. To this end the university need cover no ground foreign to +that occupied by the elementary school. Indeed it cannot; for the +elementary instruction which I have referred to embraces all the kinds +of real knowledge and mental activity possible to man. The university +can add no new departments of knowledge, can offer no new fields of +mental activity; but what it can do is to intensify and specialise the +instruction in each department. Thus literature and philology, +represented in the elementary school by English alone, in the +university will extend over the ancient and modern languages. History, +which, like charity, best begins at home, but, like charity, should not +end there, will ramify into anthropology, archaeology, political +history, and geography, with the history of the growth of the human +mind and of its products in the shape of philosophy, science, and art. +And the university will present to the student libraries, museums of +antiquities, collections of coins, and the like, which will efficiently +subserve these studies. Instruction in the elements of social economy, +a most essential, but hitherto sadly-neglected part of elementary +education, will develop in the university into political economy, +sociology, and law. Physical science will have its great divisions of +physical geography, with geology and astronomy; physics; chemistry and +biology; represented not merely by professors and their lectures, but +by laboratories, in which the students, under guidance of +demonstrators, will work out facts for themselves and come into that +direct contact with reality which constitutes the fundamental +distinction of scientific education. Mathematics will soar into its +highest regions; while the high peaks of philosophy may be scaled by +those whose aptitude for abstract thought has been awakened by +elementary logic. Finally, schools of pictorial and plastic art, of +architecture, and of music, will offer a thorough discipline in the +principles and practice of art to those in whom lies nascent the rare +faculty of aesthetic representation, or the still rarer powers of +creative genius. + +The primary school and the university are the alpha and omega of +education. Whether institutions intermediate between these (so-called +secondary schools) should exist, appears to me to be a question of +practical convenience. If such schools are established, the important +thing is that they should be true intermediaries between the primary +school and the university, keeping on the wide track of general +culture, and not sacrificing one branch of knowledge for another. + +Such appear to me to be the broad outlines of the relations which the +university, regarded as a place of education, ought to bear to the +school, but a number of points of detail require some consideration, +however briefly and imperfectly I can deal with them. In the first +place, there is the important question of the limitations which should +be fixed to the entrance into the university; or, what qualifications +should be required of those who propose to take advantage of the higher +training offered by the university. On the one hand, it is obviously +desirable that the time and opportunities of the university should not +be wasted in conferring such elementary instruction as can be obtained +elsewhere; while, on the other hand, it is no less desirable that the +higher instruction of the university should be made accessible to every +one who can take advantage of it, although he may not have been able to +go through any very extended course of education. My own feeling is +distinctly against any absolute and defined preliminary examination, +the passing of which shall be an essential condition of admission to +the university. I would admit to the university any one who could be +reasonably expected to profit by the instruction offered to him; and I +should be inclined, on the whole, to test the fitness of the student, +not by examination before he enters the university, but at the end of +his first term of study. If, on examination in the branches of +knowledge to which he has devoted himself, he show himself deficient in +industry or in capacity, it will be best for the university and best +for himself, to prevent him from pursuing a vocation for which he is +obviously unfit. And I hardly know of any other method than this by +which his fitness or unfitness can be safely ascertained, though no +doubt a good deal may be done, not by formal cut and dried examination, +but by judicious questioning, at the outset of his career. + +Another very important and difficult practical question is, whether a +definite course of study shall be laid down for those who enter the +university; whether a curriculum shall be prescribed; or whether the +student shall be allowed to range at will among the subjects which are +open to him. And this question is inseparably connected with another, +namely, the conferring of degrees. It is obviously impossible that any +student should pass through the whole of the series of courses of +instruction offered by a university. If a degree is to be conferred as +a mark of proficiency in knowledge, it must be given on the ground that +the candidate is proficient in a certain fraction of those studies; and +then will arise the necessity of insuring an equivalency of degrees, so +that the course by which a degree is obtained shall mark approximately +an equal amount of labour and of acquirements, in all cases. But this +equivalency can hardly be secured in any other way than by prescribing +a series of definite lines of study. This is a matter which will +require grave consideration. The important points to bear in mind, I +think, are that there should not be too many subjects in the +curriculum, and that the aim should be the attainment of thorough and +sound knowledge of each. + +One half of the Johns Hopkins bequest is devoted to the establishment +of a hospital, and it was the desire of the testator that the +university and the hospital should co-operate in the promotion of +medical education. The trustees will unquestionably take the best +advice that is to be had as to the construction and administration of +the hospital. In respect to the former point, they will doubtless +remember that a hospital may be so arranged as to kill more than it +cures; and, in regard to the latter, that a hospital may spread the +spirit of pauperism among the well-to-do, as well as relieve the +sufferings of the destitute. It is not for me to speak on these +topics--rather let me confine myself to the one matter on which my +experience as a student of medicine, and an examiner of long standing, +who has taken a great interest in the subject of medical education, may +entitle me to a hearing. I mean the nature of medical education itself, +and the co-operation of the university in its promotion. + +What is the object of medical education? It is to enable the +practitioner, on the one hand, to prevent disease by his knowledge of +hygiene; on the other hand, to divine its nature, and to alleviate or +cure it, by his knowledge of pathology, therapeutics, and practical +medicine. That is his business in life, and if he has not a thorough +and practical knowledge of the conditions of health, of the causes +which tend to the establishment of disease, of the meaning of symptoms, +and of the uses of medicines and operative appliances, he is +incompetent, even if he were the best anatomist, or physiologist, or +chemist, that ever took a gold medal or won a prize certificate. This +is one great truth respecting medical education. Another is, that all +practice in medicine is based upon theory of some sort or other; and +therefore, that it is desirable to have such theory in the closest +possible accordance with fact. The veriest empiric who gives a drug in +one case because he has seen it do good in another of apparently the +same sort, acts upon the theory that similarity of superficial symptoms +means similarity of lesions; which, by the way, is perhaps as wild an +hypothesis as could be invented. To understand the nature of disease we +must understand health, and the understanding of the healthy body means +the having a knowledge of its structure and of the way in which its +manifold actions are performed, which is what is technically termed +human anatomy and human physiology. The physiologist again must needs +possess an acquaintance with physics and chemistry, inasmuch as +physiology is, to a great extent, applied physics and chemistry. For +ordinary purposes a limited amount of such knowledge is all that is +needful; but for the pursuit of the higher branches of physiology no +knowledge of these branches of science can be too extensive, or too +profound. Again, what we call therapeutics, which has to do with the +action of drugs and medicines on the living organism, is, strictly +speaking, a branch of experimental physiology, and is daily receiving a +greater and greater experimental development. + +The third great fact which is to be taken into consideration in dealing +with medical education, is that the practical necessities of life do +not, as a rule, allow aspirants to medical practice to give more than +three, or it may be four years to their studies. Let us put it at four +years, and then reflect that, in the course of this time, a young man +fresh from school has to acquaint himself with medicine, surgery, +obstetrics, therapeutics, pathology, hygiene, as well as with the +anatomy and the physiology of the human body; and that his knowledge +should be of such a character that it can be relied upon in any +emergency, and always ready for practical application. Consider, in +addition, that the medical practitioner may be called upon, at any +moment, to give evidence in a court of justice in a criminal case; and +that it is therefore well that he should know something of the laws of +evidence, and of what we call medical jurisprudence. On a medical +certificate, a man may be taken from his home and from his business and +confined in a lunatic asylum; surely, therefore, it is desirable that +the medical practitioner should have some rational and clear +conceptions as to the nature and symptoms of mental disease. Bearing in +mind all these requirements of medical education, you will admit that +the burden on the young aspirant for the medical profession is somewhat +of the heaviest, and that it needs some care to prevent his +intellectual back from being broken. + +Those who are acquainted with the existing systems of medical education +will observe that, long as is the catalogue of studies which I have +enumerated, I have omitted to mention several that enter into the usual +medical curriculum of the present day. I have said not a word about +zoology, comparative anatomy, botany, or materia medica. Assuredly this +is from no light estimate of the value or importance of such studies in +themselves. It may be taken for granted that I should be the last +person in the world to object to the teaching of zoology, or +comparative anatomy, in themselves; but I have the strongest feeling +that, considering the number and the gravity of those studies through +which a medical man must pass, if he is to be competent to discharge +the serious duties which devolve upon him, subjects which lie so remote +as these do from his practical pursuits should be rigorously excluded. +The young man, who has enough to do in order to acquire such +familiarity with the structure of the human body as will enable him to +perform the operations of surgery, ought not, in my judgment, to be +occupied with investigations into the anatomy of crabs and starfishes. +Undoubtedly the doctor should know the common poisonous plants of his +own country when he sees them; but that knowledge may be obtained by a +few hours devoted to the examination of specimens of such plants, and +the desirableness of such knowledge is no justification, to my mind, +for spending three months over the study of systematic botany. Again, +materia medica, so far as it is a knowledge of drugs, is the business +of the druggist. In all other callings the necessity of the division of +labour is fully recognised, and it is absurd to require of the medical +man that he should not avail himself of the special knowledge of those +whose business it is to deal in the drugs which he uses. It is all very +well that the physician should know that castor oil comes from a plant, +and castoreum from an animal, and how they are to be prepared; but for +all the practical purposes of his profession that knowledge is not of +one whit more value, has no more relevancy, than the knowledge of how +the steel of his scalpel is made. + +All knowledge is good. It is impossible to say that any fragment of +knowledge, however insignificant or remote from one's ordinary +pursuits, may not some day be turned to account. But in medical +education, above all things, it is to be recollected that, in order to +know a little well, one must be content to be ignorant of a great deal. + +Let it not be supposed that I am proposing to narrow medical education, +or, as the cry is, to lower the standard of the profession. Depend upon +it there is only one way of really ennobling any calling, and that is +to make those who pursue it real masters of their craft, men who can +truly do that which they profess to be able to do, and which they are +credited with being able to do by the public. And there is no position +so ignoble as that of the so-called "liberally-educated practitioner," +who may be able to read Galen in the original; who knows all the +plants, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop upon the wall; but who +finds himself, with the issues of life and death in his hands, +ignorant, blundering, and bewildered, because of his ignorance of the +essential and fundamental truths upon which practice must be based. +Moreover, I venture to say, that any man who has seriously studied all +the essential branches of medical knowledge; who has the needful +acquaintance with the elements of physical science; who has been +brought by medical jurisprudence into contact with law; whose study of +insanity has taken him into the fields of psychology; has _ipso facto_ +received a liberal education. + +Having lightened the medical curriculum by culling out of it everything +which is unessential, we may next consider whether something may not be +done to aid the medical student toward the acquirement of real +knowledge by modifying the system of examination. In England, within my +recollection, it was the practice to require of the medical student +attendance on lectures upon the most diverse topics during three years; +so that it often happened that he would have to listen, in the course +of a day, to four or five lectures upon totally different subjects, in +addition to the hours given to dissection and to hospital practice: and +he was required to keep all the knowledge he could pick up, in this +distracting fashion, at examination point, until, at the end of three +years, he was set down to a table and questioned pell-mell upon all the +different matters with which he had been striving to make acquaintance. +A worse system and one more calculated to obstruct the acquisition of +sound knowledge and to give full play to the "crammer" and the +"grinder" could hardly have been devised by human ingenuity. Of late +years great reforms have taken place. Examinations have been divided so +as to diminish the number of subjects among which the attention has to +be distributed. Practical examination has been largely introduced; but +there still remains, even under the present system, too much of the old +evil inseparable from the contemporaneous pursuit of a multiplicity of +diverse studies. + +Proposals have recently been made to get rid of general examinations +altogether, to permit the student to be examined in each subject at the +end of his attendance on the class; and then, in case of the result +being satisfactory, to allow him to have done with it; and I may say +that this method has been pursued for many years in the Royal School of +Mines in London, and has been found to work very well. It allows the +student to concentrate his mind upon what he is about for the time +being, and then to dismiss it. Those who are occupied in intellectual +work, will, I think, agree with me that it is important, not so much to +know a thing, as to have known it, and known it thoroughly. If you have +once known a thing in this way it is easy to renew your knowledge when +you have forgotten it; and when you begin to take the subject up again, +it slides back upon the familiar grooves with great facility. + +Lastly comes the question as to how the university may co-operate in +advancing medical education. A medical school is strictly a technical +school--a school in which a practical profession is taught--while a +university ought to be a place in which knowledge is obtained without +direct reference to professional purposes. It is clear, therefore, that +a university and its antecedent, the school, may best co-operate with +the medical school by making due provision for the study of those +branches of knowledge which lie at the foundation of medicine. + +At present, young men come to the medical schools without a conception +of even the elements of physical science; they learn, for the first +time, that there are such sciences as physics, chemistry, and +physiology, and are introduced to anatomy as a new thing. It may be +safely said that, with a large proportion of medical students, much of +the first session is wasted in learning how to learn--in familiarising +themselves with utterly strange conceptions, and in awakening their +dormant and wholly untrained powers of observation and of manipulation. +It is difficult to over-estimate the magnitude of the obstacles which +are thrown in the way of scientific training by the existing system of +school education. Not only are men trained in mere book-work, ignorant +of what observation means, but the habit of learning from books alone +begets a disgust of observation. The book-learned student will rather +trust to what he sees in a book than to the witness of his own eyes. + +There is not the least reason why this should be so, and, in fact, when +elementary education becomes that which I have assumed it ought to be, +this state of things will no longer exist. There is not the slightest +difficulty in giving sound elementary instruction in physics, in +chemistry, and in the elements of human physiology, in ordinary +schools. In other words, there is no reason why the student should not +come to the medical school, provided with as much knowledge of these +several sciences as he ordinarily picks up in the course of his first +year of attendance at the medical school. + +I am not saying this without full practical justification for the +statement. For the last eighteen years we have had in England a system +of elementary science teaching carried out under the auspices of the +Science and Art Department, by which elementary scientific instruction +is made readily accessible to the scholars of all the elementary +schools in the country. Commencing with small beginnings, carefully +developed and improved, that system now brings up for examination as +many as seven thousand scholars in the subject of human physiology +alone. I can say that, out of that number, a large proportion have +acquired a fair amount of substantial knowledge; and that no +inconsiderable percentage show as good an acquaintance with human +physiology as used to be exhibited by the average candidates for +medical degrees in the University of London, when I was first an +examiner there twenty years ago; and quite as much knowledge as is +possessed by the ordinary student of medicine at the present day. I am +justified, therefore, in looking forward to the time when the student +who proposes to devote himself to medicine will come, not absolutely +raw and inexperienced as he is at present, but in a certain state of +preparation for further study; and I look to the university to help him +still further forward in that stage of preparation, through the +organisation of its biological department. Here the student will find +means of acquainting himself with the phenomena of life in their +broadest acceptation. He will study not botany and zoology, which, as I +have said, would take him too far away from his ultimate goal; but, by +duly arranged instruction, combined with work in the laboratory upon +the leading types of animal and vegetable life, he will lay a broad, +and at the same time solid, foundation of biological knowledge; he will +come to his medical studies with a comprehension of the great truths of +morphology and of physiology, with his hands trained to dissect and his +eyes taught to see. I have no hesitation in saying that such +preparation is worth a full year added on to the medical curriculum. In +other words, it will set free that much time for attention to those +studies which bear directly upon the student's most grave and serious +duties as a medical practitioner. + +Up to this point I have considered only the teaching aspect of your +great foundation, that function of the university in virtue of which it +plays the part of a reservoir of ascertained truth, so far as our +symbols can ever interpret nature. All can learn; all can drink of this +lake. It is given to few to add to the store of knowledge, to strike +new springs of thought, or to shape new forms of beauty. But so sure as +it is that men live not by bread, but by ideas, so sure is it that the +future of the world lies in the hands of those who are able to carry +the interpretation of nature a step further than their predecessors; so +certain is it that the highest function of a university is to seek out +those men, cherish them, and give their ability to serve their kind +full play. + +I rejoice to observe that the encouragement of research occupies so +prominent a place in your official documents, and in the wise and +liberal inaugural address of your president. This subject of the +encouragement, or, as it is sometimes called, the endowment of +research, has of late years greatly exercised the minds of men in +England. It was one of the main topics of discussion by the members of +the Royal Commission of whom I was one, and who not long since issued +their report, after five years' labour. Many seem to think that this +question is mainly one of money; that you can go into the market and +buy research, and that supply will follow demand, as in the ordinary +course of commerce. This view does not commend itself to my mind. I +know of no more difficult practical problem than the discovery of a +method of encouraging and supporting the original investigator without +opening the door to nepotism and jobbery. My own conviction is +admirably summed up in the passage of your president's address, "that +the best investigators are usually those who have also the +responsibilities of instruction, gaining thus the incitement of +colleagues, the encouragement of pupils, and the observation of the +public." + +At the commencement of this address I ventured to assume that I might, +if I thought fit, criticise the arrangements which have been made by +the board of trustees, but I confess that I have little to do but to +applaud them. Most wise and sagacious seems to me the determination not +to build for the present. It has been my fate to see great educational +funds fossilise into mere bricks and mortar, in the petrifying springs +of architecture, with nothing left to work the institution they were +intended to support. A great warrior is said to have made a desert and +called it peace. Administrators of educational funds have sometimes +made a palace and called it a university. If I may venture to give +advice in a matter which lies out of my proper competency, I would say +that whenever you do build, get an honest bricklayer, and make him +build you just such rooms as you really want, leaving ample space for +expansion. And a century hence, when the Baltimore and Ohio shares are +at one thousand premium, and you have endowed all the professors you +need, and built all the laboratories that are wanted, and have the best +museum and the finest library that can be imagined; then, if you have a +few hundred thousand dollars you don't know what to do with, send for +an architect and tell him to put up a facade. If American is similar to +English experience, any other course will probably lead you into having +some stately structure, good for your architect's fame, but not in the +least what you want. + +It appears to me that what I have ventured to lay down as the +principles which should govern the relations of a university to +education in general, are entirely in accordance with the measures you +have adopted. You have set no restrictions upon access to the +instruction you propose to give; you have provided that such +instruction, either as given by the university or by associated +institutions, should cover the field of human intellectual activity. +You have recognised the importance of encouraging research. You propose +to provide means by which young men, who may be full of zeal for a +literary or for a scientific career, but who also may have mistaken +aspiration for inspiration, may bring their capacities to a test, and +give their powers a fair trial. If such a one fail, his endowment +terminates, and there is no harm done. If he succeed, you may give +power of flight to the genius of a Davy or a Faraday, a Carlyle or a +Locke, whose influence on the future of his fellow-men shall be +absolutely incalculable. + +You have enunciated the principle that "the glory of the university +should rest upon the character of the teachers and scholars, and not +upon their numbers or buildings constructed for their use." And I look +upon it as an essential and most important feature of your plan that +the income of the professors and teachers shall be independent of the +number of students whom they can attract. In this way you provide +against the danger, patent elsewhere, of finding attempts at +improvement obstructed by vested interests; and, in the department of +medical education especially, you are free of the temptation to set +loose upon the world men utterly incompetent to perform the serious and +responsible duties of their profession. + +It is a delicate matter for a stranger to the practical working of your +institutions, like myself, to pretend to give an opinion as to the +organisation of your governing power. I can conceive nothing better +than that it should remain as it is, if you can secure a succession of +wise, liberal, honest, and conscientious men to fill the vacancies that +occur among you. I do not greatly believe in the efficacy of any kind +of machinery for securing such a result; but I would venture to suggest +that the exclusive adoption of the method of co-optation for filling +the vacancies which must occur in your body, appears to me to be +somewhat like a tempting of Providence. Doubtless there are grave +practical objections to the appointment of persons outside of your body +and not directly interested in the welfare of the university; but might +it not be well if there were an understanding that your academic staff +should be officially represented on the board, perhaps even the heads +of one or two independent learned bodies, so that academic opinion and +the views of the outside world might have a certain influence in that +most important matter, the appointment of your professors? I throw out +these suggestions, as I have said, in ignorance of the practical +difficulties that may lie in the way of carrying them into effect, on +the general ground that personal and local influences are very subtle, +and often unconscious, while the future greatness and efficiency of the +noble institution which now commences its work must largely depend upon +its freedom from them. + + * * * * * + +I constantly hear Americans speak of the charm which our old mother +country has for them, of the delight with which they wander through the +streets of ancient towns, or climb the battlements of mediaeval +strongholds, the names of which are indissolubly associated with the +great epochs of that noble literature which is our common inheritance; +or with the blood-stained steps of that secular progress, by which the +descendants of the savage Britons and of the wild pirates of the North +Sea have become converted into warriors of order and champions of +peaceful freedom, exhausting what still remains of the old Berserk +spirit in subduing nature, and turning the wilderness into a garden. +But anticipation has no less charm than retrospect, and to an +Englishman landing upon your shores for the first time, travelling for +hundreds of miles through strings of great and well-ordered cities, +seeing your enormous actual, and almost infinite potential, wealth in +all commodities, and in the energy and ability which turn wealth to +account, there is something sublime in the vista of the future. Do not +suppose that I am pandering to what is commonly understood by national +pride. I cannot say that I am in the slightest degree impressed by your +bigness, or your material resources, as such. Size is not grandeur, and +territory does not make a nation. The great issue, about which hangs a +true sublimity, and the terror of overhanging fate, is what are you +going to do with all these things? What is to be the end to which these +are to be the means? You are making a novel experiment in politics on +the greatest scale which the world has yet seen. Forty millions at +your first centenary, it is reasonably to be expected that, at the +second, these states will be occupied by two hundred millions of +English-speaking people, spread over an area as large as that of +Europe, and with climates and interests as diverse as those of Spain +and Scandinavia, England and Russia. You and your descendants have to +ascertain whether this great mass will hold together under the forms of +a republic, and the despotic reality of universal suffrage; whether +state rights will hold out against centralisation, without separation; +whether centralisation will get the better, without actual or disguised +monarchy; whether shifting corruption is better than a permanent +bureaucracy; and as population thickens in your great cities, and the +pressure of want is felt, the gaunt spectre of pauperism will stalk +among you, and communism and socialism will claim to be heard. Truly +America has a great future before her; great in toil, in care, and in +responsibility; great in true glory if she be guided in wisdom and +righteousness; great in shame if she fail. I cannot understand why +other nations should envy you, or be blind to the fact that it is for +the highest interest of mankind that you should succeed; but the one +condition of success, your sole safeguard, is the moral worth and +intellectual clearness of the individual citizen. Education cannot give +these, but it may cherish them and bring them to the front in whatever +station of society they are to be found; and the universities ought to +be, and may be, the fortresses of the higher life of the nation. + +May the university which commences its practical activity to-morrow +abundantly fulfil its high purpose; may its renown as a seat of true +learning, a centre of free inquiry, a focus of intellectual light, +increase year by year, until men wander hither from all parts of the +earth, as of old they sought Bologna, or Paris, or Oxford. + +And it is pleasant to me to fancy that, among the English students who +are drawn to you at that time, there may linger a dim tradition that +a countryman of theirs was permitted to address you as he has done +to-day, and to feel as if your hopes were his hopes and your success +his joy. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] Delivered at the formal opening of the Johns Hopkins University at +Baltimore, U.S., September 12. The total amount bequeathed by Johns +Hopkins is more than 7,000,000 dollars. The sum of 3,500,000 dollars is +appropriated to a university, a like sum to a hospital, and the rest to +local institutions of education and charity. + + + + +X + +ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY + +[1876] + + +It is my duty to-night to speak about the study of Biology, and while +it may be that there are many of my audience who are quite familiar +with that study, yet as a lecturer of some standing, it would, I know +by experience, be very bad policy on my part to suppose such to be +extensively the case. On the contrary, I must imagine that there are +many of you who would like to know what Biology is; that there are +others who have that amount of information, but would nevertheless +gladly hear why it should be worth their while to study Biology; and +yet others, again, to whom these two points are clear, but who desire +to learn how they had best study it, and, finally, when they had best +study it. + +I shall, therefore, address myself to the endeavour to give you some +answer to these four questions--what Biology is; why it should be +studied; how it should be studied; and when it should be studied. + +In the first place, in respect to what Biology is, there are, I +believe, some persons who imagine that the term "Biology" is simply a +new-fangled denomination, a neologism in short, for what used to be +known under the title of "Natural History;" but I shall try to show +you, on the contrary, that the word is the expression of the growth of +science during the last 200 years, and came into existence half a +century ago. + +At the revival of learning, knowledge was divided into two kinds--the +knowledge of nature and the knowledge of man; for it was the current +idea then (and a great deal of that ancient conception still remains) +that there was a sort of essential antithesis, not to say antagonism, +between nature and man; and that the two had not very much to do with +one another, except that the one was oftentimes exceedingly troublesome +to the other. Though it is one of the salient merits of our great +philosophers of the seventeenth century, that they recognised but one +scientific method, applicable alike to man and to nature, we find this +notion of the existence of a broad distinction between nature and man +in the writings both of Bacon and of Hobbes of Malmesbury; and I have +brought with me that famous work which is now so little known, greatly +as it deserves to be studied, "The Leviathan," in order that I may put +to you in the wonderfully terse and clear language of Thomas Hobbes, +what was his view of the matter. He says:-- + +"The register of knowledge of fact is called history. Whereof there be +two sorts, one called natural history; which is the history of such +facts or effects of nature as have no dependence on man's will; such as +are the histories of metals, plants, animals, regions, and the like. +The other is civil history; which is the history of the voluntary +actions of men in commonwealths." + +So that all history of fact was divided into these two great groups of +natural and of civil history. The Royal Society was in course of +foundation about the time that Hobbes was writing this book, which was +published in 1651; and that Society was termed a "Society for the +Improvement of Natural Knowledge," which was then nearly the same thing +as a "Society for the Improvement of Natural History." As time went on, +and the various branches of human knowledge became more distinctly +developed and separated from one another, it was found that some were +much more susceptible of precise mathematical treatment than others. +The publication of the "Principia" of Newton, which probably gave a +greater stimulus to physical science than any work ever published +before, or which is likely to be published hereafter, showed that +precise mathematical methods were applicable to those branches of +science such as astronomy, and what we now call physics, which occupy a +very large portion of the domain of what the older writers understood +by natural history. And inasmuch as the partly deductive and partly +experimental methods of treatment to which Newton and others subjected +these branches of human knowledge, showed that the phenomena of nature +which belonged to them were susceptible of explanation, and thereby +came within the reach of what was called "philosophy" in those days; so +much of this kind of knowledge as was not included under astronomy came +to be spoken of as "natural philosophy"--a term which Bacon had +employed in a much wider sense. Time went on, and yet other branches of +science developed themselves. Chemistry took a definite shape; and +since all these sciences, such as astronomy, natural philosophy, and +chemistry, were susceptible either of mathematical treatment or of +experimental treatment, or of both, a broad distinction was drawn +between the experimental branches of what had previously been called +natural history and the observational branches--those in which +experiment was (or appeared to be) of doubtful use, and where, at that +time, mathematical methods were inapplicable. Under these circumstances +the old name of "Natural History" stuck by the residuum, by those +phenomena which were not, at that time, susceptible of mathematical or +experimental treatment; that is to say, those phenomena of nature which +come now under the general heads of physical geography, geology, +mineralogy, the history of plants, and the history of animals. It was +in this sense that the term was understood by the great writers of the +middle of the last century--Buffon and Linnaeus--by Buffon in his great +work, the "Histoire Naturelle Generale," and by Linnaeus in his +splendid achievement, the "Systema Naturae." The subjects they deal +with are spoken of as "Natural History," and they called themselves and +were called "Naturalists." But you will observe that this was not the +original meaning of these terms; but that they had, by this time, +acquired a signification widely different from that which they +possessed primitively. + +The sense in which "Natural History" was used at the time I am now +speaking of has, to a certain extent, endured to the present day. There +are now in existence in some of our northern universities, chairs of +"Civil and Natural History," in which "Natural History" is used to +indicate exactly what Hobbes and Bacon meant by that term. The unhappy +incumbent of the chair of Natural History is, or was, supposed to cover +the whole ground of geology, mineralogy, and zoology, perhaps even +botany, in his lectures. + +But as science made the marvellous progress which it did make at the +latter end of the last and the beginning of the present century, +thinking men began to discern that under this title of "Natural +History" there were included very heterogeneous constituents--that, for +example, geology and mineralogy were, in many respects, widely +different from botany and zoology; that a man might obtain an extensive +knowledge of the structure and functions of plants and animals, without +having need to enter upon the study of geology or mineralogy, and +_vice versa_; and, further as knowledge advanced, it became clear +that there was a great analogy, a very close alliance, between those +two sciences, of botany and zoology which deal with human beings, while +they are much more widely separated from all other studies. It is due +to Buffon to remark that he clearly recognised this great fact. He +says: "Ces deux genres d'etres organises [les animaux et les vegetaux] +ont beaucoup plus de proprietes communes que de differences reelles." +Therefore, it is not wonderful that, at the beginning of the present +century, in two different countries, and so far as I know, without any +intercommunication, two famous men clearly conceived the notion of +uniting the sciences which deal with living matter into one whole, and +of dealing with them as one discipline. In fact, I may say there were +three men to whom this idea occurred contemporaneously, although there +were but two who carried it into effect, and only one who worked it out +completely. The persons to whom I refer were the eminent physiologist +Bichat, and the great naturalist Lamarck, in France; and a +distinguished German, Treviranus. Bichat [1] assumed the existence of a +special group of "physiological" sciences. Lamarck, in a work published +in 1801, [2] for the first time made use of the name "Biologie," from +the two Greek words which signify a discourse upon life and living +things. About the same time, it occurred to Treviranus, that all those +sciences which deal with living matter are essentially and +fundamentally one, and ought to be treated as a whole; and, in the year +1802, he published the first volume of what he also called "Biologie." +Treviranus's great merit lies in this, that he worked out his idea, and +wrote the very remarkable book to which I refer. It consists of six +volumes, and occupied its author for twenty years--from 1802 to 1822. + +That is the origin of the term "Biology"; and that is how it has come +about that all clear thinkers and lovers of consistent nomenclature +have substituted for the old confusing name of "Natural History," which +has conveyed so many meanings, the term "Biology" which denotes the +whole of the sciences which deal with living things, whether they be +animals or whether they be plants. Some little time ago--in the course +of this year, I think--I was favoured by a learned classic, Dr. Field +of Norwich, with a disquisition, in which he endeavourved to prove +that, from a philological point of view, neither Treviranus nor Lamarck +had any right to coin this new word "Biology" for their purpose; that, +in fact, the Greek word "Bios" had relation only to human life and +human affairs, and that a different word was employed by the Greeks +when they wished to speak of the life of animals and plants. So Dr. +Field tells us we are all wrong in using the term biology, and that we +ought to employ another; only he is not sure about the propriety of +that which he proposes as a substitute. It is a somewhat hard +one--"zootocology." I am sorry we are wrong, because we are likely to +continue so. In these matters we must have some sort of "Statute of +Limitations." When a name has been employed for half a century, persons +of authority [3] have been using it, and its sense has become well +understood, I am afraid people will go on using it, whatever the weight +of philological objection. + +Now that we have arrived at the origin of this word "Biology," the next +point to consider is: What ground does it cover? I have said that in +its strict technical sense, it denotes all the phenomena which are +exhibited by living things, as distinguished from those which are not +living; but while that is all very well, so long as we confine +ourselves to the lower animals and to plants, it lands us in +considerable difficulties when we reach the higher forms of living +things. For whatever view we may entertain about the nature of man, one +thing is perfectly certain, that he is a living creature. Hence, if our +definition is to be interpreted strictly, we must include man and all +his ways and works under the head of Biology; in which case, we should +find that psychology, politics, and political economy would be absorbed +into the province of Biology. In fact, civil history would be merged in +natural history. In strict logic it may be hard to object to this +course, because no one can doubt that the rudiments and outlines of our +own mental phenomena are traceable among the lower animals. They have +their economy and their polity, and if, as is always admitted, the +polity of bees and the commonwealth of wolves fall within the purview +of the biologist proper, it becomes hard to say why we should not +include therein human affairs, which, in so many cases, resemble those +of the bees in zealous getting, and are not without a certain parity in +the proceedings of the wolves. The real fact is that we biologists are +a self-sacrificing people; and inasmuch as, on a moderate estimate, +there are about a quarter of a million different species of animals and +plants to know about already, we feel that we have more than sufficient +territory. There has been a sort of practical convention by which we +give up to a different branch of science what Bacon and Hobbes would +have called "Civil History." That branch of science has constituted +itself under the head of Sociology. I may use phraseology which, at +present, will be well understood and say that we have allowed that +province of Biology to become autonomous; but I should like you to +recollect that that is a sacrifice, and that you should not be +surprised if it occasionally happens that you see a biologist +apparently trespassing in the region of philosophy or politics; or +meddling with human education; because, after all, that is a part of +his kingdom which he has only voluntarily forsaken. + +Having now defined the meaning of the word Biology, and having +indicated the general scope of Biological Science, I turn to my second +question, which is--Why should we study Biology? Possibly the time may +come when that will seem a very odd question. That we, living +creatures, should not feel a certain amount of interest in what it is +that constitutes our life will eventually, under altered ideas of the +fittest objects of human inquiry, appear to be a singular phenomenon; +but at present, judging by the practice of teachers and educators, +Biology would seem to be a topic that does not concern us at all. I +propose to put before you a few considerations with which I dare say +many will be familiar already, but which will suffice to show--not +fully, because to demonstrate this point fully would take a great many +lectures--that there are some very good and substantial reasons why it +may be advisable that we should know something about this branch of +human learning. + +I myself entirely agree with another sentiment of the philosopher of +Malmesbury, "that the scope of all speculation is the performance of +some action or thing to be done," and I have not any very great respect +for, or interest in, mere knowing as such. I judge of the value of +human pursuits by their bearing upon human interests; in other words, +by their utility; but I should like that we should quite clearly +understand what it is that we mean by this word "utility." In an +Englishman's mouth it generally means that by which we get pudding or +praise, or both. I have no doubt that is one meaning of the word +utility, but it by no means includes all I mean by utility. I think +that knowledge of every kind is useful in proportion as it tends to +give people right ideas, which are essential to the foundation of right +practice, and to remove wrong ideas, which are the no less essential +foundations and fertile mothers of every description of error in +practice. And inasmuch as, whatever practical people may say, this +world is, after all, absolutely governed by ideas, and very often by +the wildest and most hypothetical ideas, it is a matter of the very +greatest importance that our theories of things, and even of things +that seem a long way apart from our daily lives, should be as far as +possible true, and as far as possible removed from error. It is not +only in the coarser, practical sense of the word "utility," but in this +higher and broader sense, that I measure the value of the study of +biology by its utility; and I shall try to point out to you that you +will feel the need of some knowledge of biology at a great many turns +of this present nineteenth century life of ours. For example, most of +us attach great importance to the conception which we entertain of the +position of man in this universe and his relation to the rest of +nature. We have almost all been told, and most of us hold by the +tradition, that man occupies an isolated and peculiar position in +nature; that though he is in the world he is not of the world; that his +relations to things about him are of a remote character; that his +origin is recent, his duration likely to be short, and that he is the +great central figure round which other things in this world revolve. +But this is not what the biologist tells us. + +At the present moment you will be kind enough to separate me from them, +because it is in no way essential to my present argument that I should +advocate their views. Don't suppose that I am saying this for the +purpose of escaping the responsibility of their beliefs; indeed, at +other times and in other places, I do not think that point has been +left doubtful; but I want clearly to point out to you that for my +present argument they may all be wrong; and, nevertheless, my argument +will hold good. The biologists tell us that all this is an entire +mistake. They turn to the physical organisation of man. They examine +his whole structure, his bony frame and all that clothes it. They +resolve him into the finest particles into which the microscope will +enable them to break him up. They consider the performance of his +various functions and activities, and they look at the manner in which +he occurs on the surface of the world. Then they turn to other animals, +and taking the first handy domestic animal--say a dog--they profess to +be able to demonstrate that the analysis of the dog leads them, in +gross, to precisely the same results as the analysis of the man; that +they find almost identically the same bones, having the same relations; +that they can name the muscles of the dog by the names of the muscles +of the man, and the nerves of the dog by those of the nerves of the +man, and that, such structures and organs of sense as we find in the +man such also we find in the dog; they analyse the brain and spinal +cord and they find that the nomenclature which fits, the one answers +for the other. They carry their microscopic inquiries in the case of +the dog as far as they can, and they find that his body is resolvable +into the same elements as those of the man. Moreover, they trace back +the dog's and the man's development, and they find that, at a certain +stage of their existence, the two creatures are not distinguishable the +one from the other; they find that the dog and his kind have a certain +distribution over the surface of the world, comparable in its way to +the distribution of the human species. What is true of the dog they +tell us is true of all the higher animals; and they assert that they +can lay down a common plan for the whole of these creatures, and regard +the man and the dog, the horse and the ox as minor modifications of one +great fundamental unity. Moreover, the investigations of the last +three-quarters of a century have proved, they tell us, that similar +inquiries, carried out through all the different kinds of animals which +are met with in nature, will lead us, not in one straight series, but +by many roads, step by step, gradation by gradation, from man, at the +summit, to specks of animated jelly at the bottom of the series. So +that the idea of Leibnitz, and of Bonnet, that animals form a great +scale of being, in which there are a series of gradations from the most +complicated form to the lowest and simplest; that idea, though not +exactly in the form in which it was propounded by those philosophers, +turns out to be substantially correct. More than this, when biologists +pursue their investigations into the vegetable world, they find that +they can, in the same way, follow out the structure of the plant, from +the most gigantic and complicated trees down through a similar series +of gradations, until they arrive at specks of animated jelly, which +they are puzzled to distinguish from those specks which they reached by +the animal road. + +Thus, biologists have arrived at the conclusion that a fundamental +uniformity of structure pervades the animal and vegetable worlds, and +that plants and animals differ from one another simply as diverse +modifications of the same great general plan. + +Again, they tell us the same story in regard to the study of function. +They admit the large and important interval which, at the present time, +separates the manifestations of the mental faculties observable in the +higher forms of mankind, and even in the lower forms, such as we know +them, from those exhibited by other animals; but, at the same time, +they tell us that the foundations, or rudiments, of almost all the +faculties of man are to be met with in the lower animals; that there is +a unity of mental faculty as well as of bodily structure, and that, +here also, the difference is a difference of degree and not of kind. I +said "almost all," for a reason. Among the many distinctions which have +been drawn between the lower creatures and ourselves, there is one +which is hardly ever insisted on, [4] but which may be very fitly +spoken of in a place so largely devoted to Art as that in which we are +assembled. It is this, that while, among various kinds of animals, it +is possible to discover traces of all the other faculties of man, +especially the faculty of mimicry, yet that particular form of mimicry +which shows itself in the imitation of form, either by modelling or by +drawing, is not to be met with. As far as I know, there is no sculpture +or modelling, and decidedly no painting or drawing, of animal origin. I +mention the fact, in order that such comfort may be derived therefrom +as artists may feel inclined to take. + +If what the biologists tell us is true, it will be needful to get rid +of our erroneous conceptions of man, and of his place in nature, and to +substitute right ones for them. But it is impossible to form any +judgment as to whether the biologists are right or wrong, unless we are +able to appreciate the nature of the arguments which they have to +offer. + +One would almost think this to be a self-evident proposition. I wonder +what a scholar would say to the man who should undertake to criticise a +difficult passage in a Greek play, but who obviously had not acquainted +himself with the rudiments of Greek grammar. And yet, before giving +positive opinions about these high questions of Biology, people not +only do not seem to think it necessary to be acquainted with the +grammar of the subject, but they have not even mastered the alphabet. +You find criticism and denunciation showered about by persons who not +only have not attempted to go through the discipline necessary to +enable them to be judges, but who have not even reached that stage of +emergence from ignorance in which the knowledge that such a discipline +is necessary dawns upon the mind. I have had to watch with some +attention--in fact I have been favoured with a good deal of it +myself--the sort of criticism with which biologists and biological +teachings are visited. I am told every now and then that there is a +"brilliant article" [5] in so-and-so, in which we are all demolished. I +used to read these things once, but I am getting old now, and I have +ceased to attend very much to this cry of "wolf." When one does read +any of these productions, what one finds generally, on the face of it +is, that the brilliant critic is devoid of even the elements of +biological knowledge, and that his brilliancy is like the light given +out by the crackling of thorns under a pot of which Solomon speaks. So +far as I recollect, Solomon makes use of the image for purposes of +comparison; but I will not proceed further into that matter. + +Two things must be obvious: in the first place, that every man who has +the interests of truth at heart must earnestly desire that every +well-founded and just criticism that can be made should be made; but +that, in the second place, it is essential to anybody's being able to +benefit by criticism, that the critic should know what he is talking +about, and be in a position to form a mental image of the facts +symbolised by the words he uses. If not, it is as obvious in the case +of a biological argument, as it is in that of a historical or +philological discussion, that such criticism is a mere waste of time on +the part of its author, and wholly undeserving of attention on the part +of those who are criticised. Take it then as an illustration of the +importance of biological study, that thereby alone are men able to form +something like a rational conception of what constitutes valuable +criticism of the teachings of biologists. [6] + +Next, I may mention another bearing of biological knowledge--a more +practical one in the ordinary sense of the word. Consider the theory of +infectious disease. Surely that is of interest to all of us. Now the +theory of infectious disease is rapidly being elucidated by biological +study. It is possible to produce, from among the lower animals, +examples of devastating diseases which spread in the same manner as our +infectious disorders, and which are certainly and unmistakably caused +by living organisms. This fact renders it possible, at any rate, that +that doctrine of the causation of infectious disease which is known +under the name of "the germ theory" may be well-founded; and, if so, it +must needs lead to the most important practical measures in dealing +with those terrible visitations. It may be well that the general, as +well as the professional, public should have a sufficient knowledge of +biological truths to be able to take a rational interest in the +discussion of such problems, and to see, what I think they may hope to +see, that, to those who possess a sufficient elementary knowledge of +Biology, they are not all quite open questions. + +Let me mention another important practical illustration of the value of +biological study. Within the last forty years the theory of agriculture +has been revolutionised. The researches of Liebig, and those of our own +Lawes and Gilbert, have had a bearing upon that branch of industry the +importance of which cannot be over-estimated; but the whole of these +new views have grown out of the better explanation of certain processes +which go on in plants; and which, of course, form a part of the +subject-matter of Biology. + +I might go on multiplying these examples, but I see that the clock +won't wait for me, and I must therefore pass to the third question to +which I referred:--Granted that Biology is something worth studying, +what is the best way of studying it? Here I must point out that, since +Biology is a physical science, the method of studying it must needs be +analogous to that which is followed in the other physical sciences. It +has now long been recognised that, if a man wishes to be a chemist, it +is not only necessary that he should read chemical books and attend +chemical lectures, but that he should actually perform the fundamental +experiments in the laboratory for himself, and thus learn exactly what +the words which he finds in his books and hears from his teachers, +mean. If he does not do so, he may read till the crack of doom, but he +will never know much about chemistry. That is what every chemist will +tell you, and the physicist will do the same for his branch of science. +The great changes and improvements in physical and chemical scientific +education, which have taken place of late, have all resulted from the +combination of practical teaching with the reading of books and with +the hearing of lectures. The same thing is true in Biology. Nobody +will ever know anything about Biology except in a dilettante +"paper-philosopher" way, who contents himself with reading books on +botany, zoology, and the like; and the reason of this is simple and +easy to understand. It is that all language is merely symbolical of the +things of which it treats; the more complicated the things, the more +bare is the symbol, and the more its verbal definition requires to be +supplemented by the information derived directly from the handling, and +the seeing, and the touching of the thing symbolised:--that is really +what is at the bottom of the whole matter. It is plain common sense, as +all truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified. If you want +a man to be a tea merchant, you don't tell him to read books about +China or about tea, but you put him into a tea-merchant's office where +he has the handling, the smelling, and the tasting of tea. Without the +sort of knowledge which can be gained only in this practical way, his +exploits as a tea merchant will soon come to a bankrupt termination. +The "paper-philosophers" are under the delusion that physical science +can be mastered as literary accomplishments are acquired, but +unfortunately it is not so. You may read any quantity of books, and you +may be almost as ignorant as you were at starting, if you don't have, +at the back of your minds, the change for words in definite images +which can only be acquired through the operation of your observing +faculties on the phenomena of nature. + +It may be said:--"That is all very well, but you told us just now that +there are probably something like a quarter of a million different +kinds of living and extinct animals and plants, and a human life could +not suffice for the examination of one-fiftieth part of all these." +That is true, but then comes the great convenience of the way things +are arranged; which is, that although there are these immense numbers +of different kinds of living things in existence, yet they are built +up, after all, upon marvellously few plans. + +There are certainly more than 100,000 species of insects, and yet +anybody who knows one insect--if a properly chosen one--will be able +to have a very fair conception of the structure of the whole. I do not +mean to say he will know that structure thoroughly, or as well as it is +desirable he should know it; but he will have enough real knowledge to +enable him to understand what he reads, to have genuine images in his +mind of those structures which become so variously modified in all the +forms of insects he has not seen. In fact, there are such things as +types of form among animals and vegetables, and for the purpose of +getting a definite knowledge of what constitutes the leading +modifications of animal and plant life, it is not needful to examine +more than a comparatively small number of animals and plants. + +Let me tell you what we do in the biological laboratory which is lodged +in a building adjacent to this. There I lecture to a class of students +daily for about four-and-a-half months, and my class have, of course, +their text-books; but the essential part of the whole teaching, and +that which I regard as really the most important part of it, is a +laboratory for practical work, which is simply a room with all the +appliances needed for ordinary dissection. We have tables properly +arranged in regard to light, microscopes, and dissecting instruments, +and we work through the structure of a certain number of animals and +plants. As, for example, among the plants, we take a yeast plant, a +_Protococcus_, a common mould, a _Chara_, a fern, and some +flowering plant; among animals we examine such things as an _Amoeba_, +_a Vorticella_, and a fresh-water polype. We dissect a star-fish, +an earth-worm, a snail, a squid, and a fresh-water mussel. We +examine a lobster and a cray-fish, and a black beetle. We go on to a +common skate, a cod-fish, a frog, a tortoise, a pigeon, and a rabbit, +and that takes us about all the time we have to give. The purpose of +this course is not to make skilled dissectors, but to give every +student a clear and definite conception, by means of sense-images, of +the characteristic structure of each of the leading modifications of +the animal kingdom; and that is perfectly possible, by going no further +than the length of that list of forms which I have enumerated. If a man +knows the structure of the animals I have mentioned, he has a clear and +exact, however limited, apprehension of the essential features of the +organisation of all those great divisions of the animal and vegetable +kingdoms to which the forms I have mentioned severally belong. And it +then becomes possible for him to read with profit; because every time +he meets with the name of a structure, he has a definite image in his +mind of what the name means in the particular creature he is reading +about, and therefore the reading is not mere reading. It is not mere +repetition of words; but every term employed in the description, we +will say, of a horse, or of an elephant, will call up the image of the +things he had seen in the rabbit, and he is able to form a distinct +conception of that which he has not seen, as a modification of that +which he has seen. + +I find this system to yield excellent results; and I have no hesitation +whatever in saying, that any one who has gone through such a course, +attentively, is in a better position to form a conception of the great +truths of Biology, especially of morphology (which is what we chiefly +deal with), than if he had merely read all the books on that topic put +together. + +The connection of this discourse with the Loan Collection of Scientific +Apparatus arises out of the exhibition in that collection of certain +aids to our laboratory work. Such of you as have visited that very +interesting collection may have noticed a series of diagrams and of +preparations illustrating the structure of a frog. Those diagrams and +preparations have been made for the use of the students in the +biological laboratory. Similar diagrams and preparations illustrating +the structure of all the other forms of life we examine, are either +made or in course of preparation. Thus the student has before him, +first, a picture of the structure he ought to see; secondly, the +structure itself worked out; and if with these aids, and such needful +explanations and practical hints as a demonstrator can supply, he +cannot make out the facts for himself in the materials supplied to him, +he had better take to some other pursuit than that of biological +science. + +I should have been glad to have said a few words about the use of +museums in the study of Biology, but I see that my time is becoming +short, and I have yet another question to answer. Nevertheless, I must, +at the risk of wearying you, say a word or two upon the important +subject of museums. Without doubt there are no helps to the study of +Biology, or rather to some branches of it, which are, or may be, more +important than natural history museums; but, in order to take this +place in regard to Biology, they must be museums of the future. The +museums of the present do not, by any means, do so much for us as they +might do. I do not wish to particularise, but I dare say many of you, +seeking knowledge, or in the laudable desire to employ a holiday +usefully, have visited some great natural history museum. You have +walked through a quarter of a mile of animals, more or less well +stuffed, with their long names written out underneath them; and, unless +your experience is very different from that of most people, the upshot +of it all is that you leave that splendid pile with sore feet, a bad +headache, and a general idea that the animal kingdom is a "mighty maze +without a plan." I do not think that a museum which brings about this +result does all that may be reasonably expected from such an +institution. What is needed in a collection of natural history is that +it should be made as accessible and as useful as possible, on the one +hand to the general public, and on the other to scientific workers. +That need is not met by constructing a sort of happy hunting-ground of +miles of glass cases; and, under the pretence of exhibiting everything +putting the maximum amount of obstacle in the way of those who wish +properly to see anything. + +What the public want is easy and unhindered access to such a collection +as they can understand and appreciate; and what the men of science want +is similar access to the materials of science. To this end the +vast mass of objects of natural history should be divided into two +parts--one open to the public, the other to men of science, every day. +The former division should exemplify all the more important and +interesting forms of life. Explanatory tablets should be attached to +them, and catalogues containing clearly-written popular expositions of +the general significance of the objects exhibited should be provided. +The latter should contain, packed into a comparatively small space, in +rooms adapted for working purposes, the objects of purely scientific +interest. For example, we will say I am an ornithologist. I go to +examine a collection of birds. It is a positive nuisance to have them +stuffed. It is not only sheer waste, but I have to reckon with the +ideas of the bird-stuffer, while, if I have the skin and nobody has +interfered with it, I can form my own judgment as to what the bird was +like. For ornithological purposes, what is needed is not glass cases +full of stuffed birds on perches, but convenient drawers into each of +which a great quantity of skins will go. They occupy no great space and +do not require any expenditure beyond their original cost. But for the +edification of the public, who want to learn indeed, but do not seek +for minute and technical knowledge, the case is different. What one of +the general public walking into a collection of birds desires to see is +not all the birds that can be got together. He does not want to compare +a hundred species of the sparrow tribe side by side; but he wishes to +know what a bird is, and what are the great modifications of bird +structure, and to be able to get at that knowledge easily. What will +best serve his purpose is a comparatively small number of birds +carefully selected, and artistically, as well as accurately, set up; +with their different ages, their nests, their young, their eggs, and +their skeletons side by side; and in accordance with the admirable plan +which is pursued in this museum, a tablet, telling the spectator +in legible characters what they are and what they mean. For the +instruction and recreation of the public such a typical collection +would be of far greater value than any many-acred imitation of Noah's +ark. + +Lastly comes the question as to when biological study may best be +pursued. I do not see any valid reason why it should not be made, to +a certain extent, a part of ordinary school training. I have long +advocated this view, and I am perfectly certain that it can be carried +out with ease, and not only with ease, but with very considerable +profit to those who are taught; but then such instruction must be +adapted to the minds and needs of the scholars. They used to have a +very odd way of teaching the classical languages when I was a boy. The +first task set you was to learn the rules of the Latin grammar in the +Latin language--that being the language you were going to learn! I +thought then that this was an odd way of learning a language, but +did not venture to rebel against the judgment of my superiors. Now, +perhaps, I am not so modest as I was then, and I allow myself to think +that it was a very absurd fashion. But it would be no less absurd, if +we were to set about teaching Biology by putting into the hands of +boys a series of definitions of the classes and orders of the animal +kingdom, and making them repeat them by heart. That is so very +favourite a method of teaching, that I sometimes fancy the spirit of +the old classical system has entered into the new scientific system, in +which case I would much rather that any pretence at scientific teaching +were abolished altogether. What really has to be done is to get into +the young mind some notion of what animal and vegetable life is. In +this matter, you have to consider practical convenience as well as +other things. There are difficulties in the way of a lot of boys making +messes with slugs and snails; it might not work in practice. But there +is a very convenient and handy animal which everybody has at hand, and +that is himself; and it is a very easy and simple matter to obtain +common plants. Hence the general truths of anatomy and physiology can +be taught to young people in a very real fashion by dealing with the +broad facts of human structure. Such viscera as they cannot very well +examine in themselves, such as hearts, lungs, and livers, may be +obtained from the nearest butcher's shop. In respect to teaching +something about the biology of plants, there is no practical +difficulty, because almost any of the common plants will do, and plants +do not make a mess--at least they do not make an unpleasant mess; so +that, in my judgment, the best form of Biology for teaching to very +young people is elementary human physiology on the one hand, and the +elements of botany on the other; beyond that I do not think it will be +feasible to advance for some time to come. But then I see no reason, +why, in secondary schools, and in the Science Classes which are under +the control of the Science and Art Department--and which I may say, in +passing, have in my judgment, done so very much for the diffusion of a +knowledge of science over the country--we should not hope to see +instruction in the elements of Biology carried out, not perhaps to the +same extent, but still upon somewhat the same principle as here. There +is no difficulty, when you have to deal with students of the ages of +fifteen or sixteen, in practising a little dissection and in getting a +notion of, at any rate, the four or five great modifications of the +animal form; and the like is true in regard to the higher anatomy of +plants. + +While, lastly, to all those who are studying biological science with +a view to their own edification merely, or with the intention of +becoming zoologists or botanists; to all those who intend to pursue +physiology--and especially to those who propose to employ the working +years of their lives in the practice of medicine--I say that there is +no training so fitted, or which may be of such important service to +them, as the discipline in practical biological work which I have +sketched out as being pursued in the laboratory hard by. + + * * * * * + +I may add that, beyond all these different classes of persons who may +profit by the study of Biology, there is yet one other. I remember, a +number of years ago, that a gentleman who was a vehement opponent of +Mr. Darwin's views and had written some terrible articles against them, +applied to me to know what was the best way in which he could acquaint +himself with the strongest arguments in favour of evolution. I wrote +back, in all good faith and simplicity, recommending him to go through +a course of comparative anatomy and physiology, and then to study +development. I am sorry to say he was very much displeased, as people +often are with good advice. Notwithstanding this discouraging result, I +venture, as a parting word, to repeat the suggestion, and to say to all +the more or less acute lay and clerical "paper-philosophers" [7] who +venture into the regions of biological controversy--Get a little sound, +thorough, practical, elementary instruction in biology. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] See the distinction between the "sciences physiques" and the +"sciences physiologiques" in the _Anatomie Generale_, 1801. + +[2] _Hydrogeologie_, an. x. (1801). + +[3] "The term _Biology_, which means exactly what we wish to +express, _the Science of Life_, has often been used, and has of +late become not uncommon, among good writers."--Whewell, _Philosophy +of the Inductive Sciences_, vol. i. p. 544 (edition of 1847). + +[4] I think that my friend, Professor Allman, was the first to draw +attention to it. + +[5] Galileo was troubled by a sort of people whom he called "paper +philosophers," because they fancied that the true reading of nature was +to be detected by the collation of texts. The race is not extinct, but, +as of old, brings forth its "winds of doctrine" by which the +weathercock heads among us are much exercised. + +[6] Some critics do not even take the trouble to read. I have recently +been adjured with much solemnity; to state publicly why I have "changed +my opinion" as to the value of the palaeontological evidence of the +occurrence of evolution. + +To this my reply is, Why should I, when that statement was made seven +years ago? An address delivered from the Presidential Chair of the +Geological Society, in 1870, may be said to be a public document, +inasmuch as it not only appeared in the _Journal_ of that learned +body, but was re-published, in 1873, in a volume of _Critiques and +Addresses_, to which my name is attached. Therein will be found a +pretty full statement of my reasons for enunciating two propositions: +(1) that "when we turn to the higher _Vertebrata_, the results of +recent investigations, however we may sift and criticise them, seem to +me to leave a clear balance in favour of the evolution of living forms +one from another;" and (2) that the case of the horse is one which +"will stand rigorous criticism." Thus I do not see clearly in what way +I can be said to have changed my opinion, except in the way of +intensifying it, when in consequence of the accumulation of similar +evidence since 1870, I recently spoke of the denial of evolution as not +worth serious consideration. + +[7] Writers of this stamp are fond of talking about the Baconian +method. I beg them therefore to lay to heart these two weighty sayings +of the herald of Modern Science:-- + +"Syllogismus ex propositionibus constat, propositiones ex verbis, verba +notionum tesserae sunt. Itaque si notiones ipsae (_id quod basis rei +est_) confusae sint et temere a rebus abstractae, nihil in iis quae +superstruuntur est firmitudinis."--_Novum Organon_, ii. 14. + +"Huic autem vanitati nonnulli ex modernis summa levitate ita +indulserunt, ut in primo capitulo Geneseos et in libro Job et aliis +scripturis sacris, philosophiam naturalem fundare conati sint; _inter +vivos quaerentes mortua_."--_Ibid_. 65. + + + + +XI + +ON ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY + +[1877] + + +The chief ground upon which I venture to recommend that the teaching of +elementary physiology should form an essential part of any organised +course of instruction in matters pertaining to domestic economy, is, +that a knowledge of even the elements of this subject supplies those +conceptions of the constitution and mode of action of the living body, +and of the nature of health and disease, which prepare the mind to +receive instruction from sanitary science. + +It is, I think, eminently desirable that the hygienist and the +physician should find something in the public mind to which they can +appeal; some little stock of universally acknowledged truths, which may +serve as a foundation for their warnings, and predispose towards an +intelligent obedience to their recommendations. + +Listening to ordinary talk about health, disease, and death, one is +often led to entertain a doubt whether the speakers believe that the +course of natural causation runs as smoothly in the human body as +elsewhere. Indications are too often obvious of a strong, though +perhaps an unavowed and half unconscious, under-current of opinion that +the phenomena of life are not only widely different, in their +superficial characters and in their practical importance, from other +natural events, but that they do not follow in that definite order +which characterises the succession of all other occurrences, and the +statement of which we call a law of nature. + +Hence, I think, arises the want of heartiness of belief in the value of +knowledge respecting the laws of health and disease, and of the +foresight and care to which knowledge is the essential preliminary, +which is so often noticeable; and a corresponding laxity and +carelessness in practice, the results of which are too frequently +lamentable. + +It is said that among the many religious sects of Russia, there is one +which holds that all disease is brought about by the direct and special +interference of the Deity, and which, therefore, looks with repugnance +upon both preventive and curative measures as alike blasphemous +interferences with the will of God. Among ourselves, the "Peculiar +People" are, I believe, the only persons who hold the like doctrine in +its integrity, and carry it out with logical rigour. But many of us are +old enough to recollect that the administration of chloroform in +assuagement of the pangs of child-birth was, at its introduction, +strenuously resisted upon similar grounds. + +I am not sure that the feeling, of which the doctrine to which I have +referred is the full expression, does not lie at the bottom of the +minds of a great many people who yet would vigorously object to give a +verbal assent to the doctrine itself. However this may be, the main +point is that sufficient knowledge has now been acquired of vital +phenomena, to justify the assertion, that the notion, that there is +anything exceptional about these phenomena, receives not a particle of +support from any known fact. On the contrary, there is a vast and an +increasing mass of evidence that birth and death, health and disease, +are as much parts of the ordinary stream of events as the rising and +setting of the sun, or the changes of the moon; and that the living +body is a mechanism, the proper working of which we term health; its +disturbance, disease; its stoppage, death. The activity of this +mechanism is dependent upon many and complicated conditions, some of +which are hopelessly beyond our control, while others are readily +accessible, and are capable of being indefinitely modified by our own +actions. The business of the hygienist and of the physician is to know +the range of these modifiable conditions, and how to influence them +towards the maintenance of health and the prolongation of life; the +business of the general public is to give an intelligent assent, and a +ready obedience based upon that assent, to the rules laid down for +their guidance by such experts. But an intelligent assent is an assent +based upon knowledge, and the knowledge which is here in question means +an acquaintance with the elements of physiology. + +It is not difficult to acquire such knowledge. What is true, to +a certain extent, of all the physical sciences, is eminently +characteristic of physiology--the difficulty of the subject begins +beyond the stage of elementary knowledge, and increases with every +stage of progress. While the most highly trained and the best furnished +intellect may find all its resources insufficient, when it strives to +reach the heights and penetrate into the depths of the problems of +physiology, the elementary and fundamental truths can be made clear to +a child. + +No one can have any difficulty in comprehending the mechanism of +circulation or respiration; or the general mode of operation of the +organ of vision; though the unravelling of all the minutiae of these +processes, may, for the present, baffle the conjoined attacks of the +most accomplished physicists, chemists, and mathematicians. To know the +anatomy of the human body, with even an approximation to thoroughness, +is the work of a life; but as much as is needed for a sound +comprehension of elementary physiological truths, may be learned in a +week. + +A knowledge of the elements of physiology is not only easy of +acquirement, but it may be made a real and practical acquaintance with +the facts, as far as it goes. The subject of study is always at hand, +in one's self. The principal constituents of the skeleton, and the +changes of form of contracting muscles, may be felt through one's own +skin. The beating of one's heart, and its connection with the pulse, +may be noted; the influence of the valves of one's own veins may be +shown; the movements of respiration may be observed; while the +wonderful phenomena of sensation afford an endless field for curious +and interesting self-study. The prick of a needle will yield, in a drop +of one's own blood, material for microscopic observation of phenomena +which lie at the foundation of all biological conceptions; and a cold, +with its concomitant coughing and sneezing, may prove the sweet uses of +adversity by helping one to a clear conception of what is meant by +"reflex action." + +Of course there is a limit to this physiological self-examination. But +there is so close a solidarity between ourselves and our poor relations +of the animal world, that our inaccessible inward parts may be +supplemented by theirs. A comparative anatomist knows that a sheep's +heart and lungs, or eye, must not be confounded with those of a man; +but, so far as the comprehension of the elementary facts of the +physiology of circulation, of respiration, and of vision goes, the one +furnishes the needful anatomical data as well as the other. + +Thus, it is quite possible to give instruction in elementary physiology +in such a manner as, not only to confer knowledge, which, for the +reason I have mentioned, is useful in itself; but to serve the purposes +of a training in accurate observation, and in the methods of reasoning +of physical science. But that is an advantage which I mention only +incidentally, as the present Conference does not deal with education in +the ordinary sense of the word. + +It will not be suspected that I wish to make physiologists of all the +world. It would be as reasonable to accuse an advocate of the "three +R's" of a desire to make an orator, an author, and a mathematician of +everybody. A stumbling reader, a pot-hook writer, and an arithmetician +who has not got beyond the rule of three, is not a person of brilliant +acquirements; but the difference between such a member of society and +one who can neither read, write, nor cipher is almost inexpressible; +and no one nowadays doubts the value of instruction, even if it goes no +farther. + +The saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is, to my mind, +a very dangerous adage. If knowledge is real and genuine, I do not +believe that it is other than a very valuable possession, however +infinitesimal its quantity may be. Indeed, if a little knowledge is +dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger? + +If William Harvey's life-long labours had revealed to him a tenth part +of that which may be made sound and real knowledge to our boys and +girls, he would not only have been what he was, the greatest +physiologist of his age, but he would have loomed upon the seventeenth +century as a sort of intellectual portent. Our "little knowledge" would +have been to him a great, astounding, unlooked-for vision of scientific +truth. + +I really see no harm which can come of giving our children a little +knowledge of physiology. But then, as I have said, the instruction must +be real, based upon observation, eked out by good explanatory diagrams +and models, and conveyed by a teacher whose own knowledge has been +acquired by a study of the facts; and not the mere catechismal +parrot-work which too often usurps the place of elementary teaching. + +It is, I hope, unnecessary for me to give a formal contradiction to the +silly fiction, which is assiduously circulated by fanatics who not only +ought to know, but do know, that their assertions are untrue, that I +have advocated the introduction of that experimental discipline which +is absolutely indispensable to the professed physiologist, into +elementary teaching. + +But while I should object to any experimentation which can justly be +called painful, for the purpose of elementary instruction; and, while, +as a member of a late Royal Commission, I gladly did my best to prevent +the infliction of needless pain, for any purpose; I think it is my duty +to take this opportunity of expressing my regret at a condition of the +law which permits a boy to troll for pike, or set lines with live frog +bait, for idle amusement; and, at the same time, lays the teacher of +that boy open to the penalty of fine and imprisonment, if he uses the +same animal for the purpose of exhibiting one of the most beautiful and +instructive of physiological spectacles, the circulation in the web of +the foot. No one could undertake to affirm that a frog is not +inconvenienced by being wrapped up in a wet rag, and having his toes +tied out; and it cannot be denied that inconvenience is a sort of pain. +But you must not inflict the least pain on a vertebrated animal for +scientific purposes (though you may do a good deal in that way for gain +or for sport) without due licence of the Secretary of State for the +Home Department, granted under the authority of the Vivisection Act. + +So it comes about, that, in this present year of grace 1877, two +persons may be charged with cruelty to animals. One has impaled a frog, +and suffered the creature to writhe about in that condition for hours; +the other has pained the animal no more than one of us would be pained +by tying strings round his fingers, and keeping him in the position of +a hydropathic patient. The first offender says "I did it because I find +fishing very amusing," and the magistrate bids him depart in peace; +nay, probably wishes him good sport. The second pleads, "I wanted to +impress a scientific truth, with a distinctness attainable in no other +way, on the minds of my scholars," and the magistrate fines him five +pounds. + +I cannot but think that this is an anomalous and not wholly creditable +state of things. + + + + +XII + +ON MEDICAL EDUCATION + +[1870] + + +It has given me sincere pleasure to be here today, at the desire of +your highly respected President and the Council of the College. In +looking back upon my own past, I am sorry to say that I have found that +it is a quarter of a century since I took part in those hopes and in +those fears by which you have all recently been agitated, and which now +are at an end. But, although so long a time has elapsed since I was +moved by the same feelings, I beg leave to assure you that my sympathy +with both victors and vanquished remains fresh--so fresh, indeed, that +I could almost try to persuade myself that, after all, it cannot be so +very long ago. My business during the last hour, however, has been to +show that sympathy with one side only, and I assure you I have done my +best to play my part heartily, and to rejoice in the success of those +who have succeeded. Still, I should like to remind you at the end of it +all, that success on an occasion of this kind, valuable and important +as it is, is in reality only putting the foot upon one rung of the +ladder which leads upwards; and that the rung of a ladder was never +meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable +him to put the other somewhat higher. I trust that you will all regard +these successes as simply reminders that your next business is, having +enjoyed the success of the day, no longer to look at that success, but +to look forward to the next difficulty that is to be conquered. And +now, having had so much to say to the successful candidates, you must +forgive me if I add that a sort of under-current of sympathy has been +going on in my mind all the time for those who have not been +successful, for those valiant knights who have been overthrown in your +tourney, and have not made their appearance in public. I trust that, in +accordance with old custom, they, wounded and bleeding, have been +carried off to their tents, to be carefully tended by the fairest of +maidens; and in these days, when the chances are that every one of such +maidens will be a qualified practitioner, I have no doubt that all the +splinters will have been carefully extracted, and that they are now +physically healed. But there may remain some little fragment of moral +or intellectual discouragement, and therefore I will take the liberty +to remark that your chairman to-day, if he occupied his proper place, +would be among them. Your chairman, in virtue of his position, and for +the brief hour that he occupies that position, is a person of +importance; and it may be some consolation to those who have failed if +I say, that the quarter of a century which I have been speaking of, +takes me back to the time when I was up at the University of London, a +candidate for honours in anatomy and physiology, and when I was +exceedingly well beaten by my excellent friend, Dr. Ransom, of +Nottingham. There is a person here who recollects that circumstance +very well. I refer to your venerated teacher and mine, Dr. Sharpey. He +was at that time one of the examiners in anatomy and physiology, and +you may be quite sure that, as he was one of the examiners, there +remained not the smallest doubt in my mind of the propriety of his +judgment, and I accepted my defeat with the most comfortable assurance +that I had thoroughly well earned it. But, gentlemen, the competitor +having been a worthy one, and the examination a fair one, I cannot say +that I found in that circumstance anything very discouraging. I said to +myself, "Never mind; what's the next thing to be done?" And I found +that policy of "never minding" and going on to the next thing to be +done, to be the most important of all policies in the conduct of +practical life. It does not matter how many tumbles you have in this +life, so long as you do not get dirty when you tumble; it is only the +people who have to stop to be washed and made clean, who must +necessarily lose the race. And I can assure you that there is the +greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. You +learn that which is of inestimable importance--that there are a great +many people in the world who are just as clever as you are. You learn +to put your trust, by and by, in an economy and frugality of the +exercise of your powers, both moral and intellectual; and you very soon +find out, if you have not found it out before, that patience and +tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of +cleverness. In fact, if I were to go on discoursing on this subject, I +should become almost eloquent in praise of non-success; but, lest so +doing should seem, in any way, to wither well-earned laurels, I +will turn from that topic, and ask you to accompany me in some +considerations touching another subject which has a very profound +interest for me, and which I think ought to have an equally profound +interest for you. + +I presume that the great majority of those whom I address propose to +devote themselves to the profession of medicine; and I do not doubt, +from the evidences of ability which have been given to-day, that I have +before me a number of men who will rise to eminence in that profession, +and who will exert a great and deserved influence upon its future. That +in which I am interested, and about which I wish to speak, is the +subject of medical education, and I venture to speak about it for the +purpose, if I can, of influencing you, who may have the power of +influencing the medical education of the future. You may ask, by what +authority do I venture, being a person not concerned in the practice of +medicine, to meddle with that subject? I can only tell you it is a +fact, of which a number of you I dare say are aware by experience (and +I trust the experience has no painful associations), that I have been +for a considerable number of years (twelve or thirteen years to the +best of my recollection) one of the examiners in the University of +London. You are further aware that the men who come up to the +University of London are the picked men of the medical schools of +London, and therefore such observations as I may have to make upon the +state of knowledge of these gentlemen, if they be justified, in regard +to any faults I may have to find, cannot be held to indicate defects in +the capacity, or in the power of application of those gentlemen, but +must be laid, more or less, to the account of the prevalent system of +medical education. I will tell you what has struck me--but in speaking +in this frank way, as one always does about the defects of one's +friends, I must beg you to disabuse your minds of the notion that I am +alluding to any particular school, or to any particular college, or to +any particular person; and to believe that if I am silent when I should +be glad to speak with high praise, it is because that praise would come +too close to this locality. What has struck me, then, in this long +experience of the men best instructed in physiology from the medical +schools of London is (with the many and brilliant exceptions to which I +have referred), taking it as a whole, and broadly, the singular +unreality of their knowledge of physiology. Now, I use that word +"unreality" advisedly. I do not say "scanty;" on the contrary, there is +plenty of it--a great deal too much of it--but it is the quality, the +nature of the knowledge, which I quarrel with. I know I used to have--I +don't know whether I have now, but I had once upon a time--a bad +reputation among students for setting up a very high standard of +acquirement, and I dare say you may think that the standard of this old +examiner, who happily is now very nearly an extinct examiner, has been +pitched too high. Nothing of the kind, I assure you. The defects I have +noticed, and the faults I have to find, arise entirely from the +circumstance that my standard is pitched too low. This is no paradox, +gentlemen, but quite simply the fact. The knowledge I have looked for +was a real, precise, thorough, and practical knowledge of fundamentals; +whereas that which the best of the candidates, in a large proportion of +cases, have had to give me was a large, extensive, and inaccurate +knowledge of superstructure; and that is what I mean by saying that my +demands went too low and not too high. What I have had to complain of +is, that a large proportion of the gentlemen who come up for physiology +to the University of London do not know it as they know their anatomy, +and have not been taught it as they have been taught their anatomy. +Now, I should not wonder at all if I heard a great many "No, noes" +here; but I am not talking about University College; as I have told you +before, I am talking about the average education of medical schools. +What I have found, and found so much reason to lament, is, that while +anatomy has been taught as a science ought to be taught, as a matter of +autopsy, and observation, and strict discipline; in a very large number +of cases, physiology has been taught as if it were a mere matter of +books and of hearsay. I declare to you, gentlemen, that I have often +expected to be told, when I have asked a question about the circulation +of the blood, that Professor Breitkopf is of opinion that it +circulates, but that the whole thing is an open question. I assure you +that I am hardly exaggerating the state of mind on matters of +fundamental importance which I have found over and over again to obtain +among gentlemen coming up to that picked examination of the University +of London. Now, I do not think that is a desirable state of things. I +cannot understand why physiology should not be taught--in fact, you +have here abundant evidence that it can be taught--with the same +definiteness and the same precision as anatomy is taught. And you may +depend upon this, that the only physiology which is to be of any good +whatever in medical practice, or in its application to the study of +medicine, is that physiology which a man knows of his own knowledge; +just as the only anatomy which would be of any good to the surgeon is +the anatomy which he knows of his own knowledge. Another peculiarity I +have found in the physiology which has been current, and that is, that +in the minds of a great many gentlemen it has been supplanted by +histology. They have learnt a great deal of histology, and they have +fancied that histology and physiology are the same things. I have asked +for some knowledge of the physics and the mechanics and the chemistry +of the human body, and I have been met by talk about cells. I declare +to you I believe it will take me two years, at least, of absolute rest +from the business of an examiner to hear the word "cell," "germinal +matter," or "carmine," without a sort of inward shudder. + +Well, now, gentlemen, I am sure my colleagues in this examination will +bear me out in saying that I have not been exaggerating the evils and +defects which are current--have been current--in a large quantity of +the physiological teaching the results of which come before examiners. +And it becomes a very interesting question to know how all this comes +about, and in what way it can be remedied. How it comes about will be +perfectly obvious to any one who has considered the growth of medicine. +I suppose that medicine and surgery first began by some savage more +intelligent than the rest, discovering that a certain herb was good for +a certain pain, and that a certain pull, somehow or other, set a +dislocated joint right. I suppose all things had their humble +beginnings, and medicine and surgery were in the same condition. People +who wear watches know nothing about watchmaking. A watch goes wrong and +it stops; you see the owner giving it a shake, or, if he is very bold, +he opens the case, and gives the balance-wheel a push. Gentlemen, that +is empirical practice, and you know what are the results upon the +watch. I should think you can divine what are the results of analogous +operations upon the human body. And because men of sense very soon +found that such were the effects of meddling with very complicated +machinery they did not understand, I suppose the first thing, as being +the easiest, was to study the nature of the works of the human watch, +and the next thing was to study the way the parts worked together, and +the way the watch worked. Thus, by degrees, we have had growing up our +body of anatomists, or knowers of the construction of the human watch, +and our physiologists, who know how the machine works. And just as any +sensible man, who has a valuable watch, does not meddle with it +himself, but goes to some one who has studied watchmaking, and +understands what the effect of doing this or that may be; so, I +suppose, the man who, having charge of that valuable machine, his own +body, wants to have it kept in good order, comes to a professor of the +medical art for the purpose of having it set right, believing that, by +deduction from the facts of structure and from the facts of function, +the physician will divine what may be the matter with his bodily watch +at that particular time, and what may be the best means of setting it +right. If that may be taken as a just representation of the relation of +the theoretical branches of medicine--what we may call the institutes +of medicine, to use an old term--to the practical branches, I think it +will be obvious to you that they are of prime and fundamental +importance. Whatever tends to affect the teaching of them injuriously +must tend to destroy and to disorganise the whole fabric of the medical +art. I think every sensible man has seen this long ago; but the +difficulties in the way of attaining good teaching in the different +branches of the theory, or institutes, of medicine are very serious. It +is a comparatively easy matter--pray mark that I use the word +"comparatively "--it is a comparatively easy matter to learn anatomy +and to teach it; it is a very difficult matter to learn physiology and +to teach it. It is a very difficult matter to know and to teach those +branches of physics and those branches of chemistry which bear directly +upon physiology; and hence it is that, as a matter of fact, the +teaching of physiology, and the teaching of the physics and the +chemistry which bear upon it, must necessarily be in a state of +relative imperfection; and there is nothing to be grumbled at in the +fact that this relative imperfection exists. But is the relative +imperfection which exists only such as is necessary, or is it made +worse by our practical arrangements? I believe--and if I did not so +believe I should not have troubled you with these observations--I +believe it is made infinitely worse by our practical arrangements, or +rather, I ought to say, our very unpractical arrangements. Some very +wise man long ago affirmed that every question, in the long run, was a +question of finance; and there is a good deal to be said for that view. +Most assuredly the question of medical teaching is, in a very large and +broad sense, a question of finance. What I mean is this: that in London +the arrangements of the medical schools, and the number of them, are +such as to render it almost impossible that men who confine themselves +to the teaching of the theoretical branches of the profession should be +able to make their bread by that operation; and, you know, if a man +cannot make his bread he cannot teach--at least his teaching comes to a +speedy end. That is a matter of physiology. Anatomy is fairly well +taught, because it lies in the direction of practice, and a man is all +the better surgeon for being a good anatomist. It does not absolutely +interfere with the pursuits of a practical surgeon if he should hold a +Chair of Anatomy--though I do not for one moment say that he would not +be a better teacher if he did not devote himself to practice. +(Applause.) Yes, I know exactly what that cheer means, but I am keeping +as carefully as possible from any sort of allusion to Professor Ellis. +But the fact is, that even human anatomy has now grown to be so large a +matter, that it takes the whole devotion of a man's life to put the +great mass of knowledge upon that subject into such a shape that it can +be teachable to the mind of the ordinary student. What the student +wants in a professor is a man who shall stand between him and the +infinite diversity and variety of human knowledge, and who shall gather +all that together, and extract from it that which is capable of being +assimilated by the mind. That function is a vast and an important one, +and unless, in such subjects as anatomy, a man is wholly free from +other cares, it is almost impossible that he can perform it thoroughly +and well. But if it be hardly possible for a man to pursue anatomy +without actually breaking with his profession, how is it possible for +him to pursue physiology? + +I get every year those very elaborate reports of Henle and +Meissner--volumes of, I suppose, 400 pages altogether--and they consist +merely of abstracts of the memoirs and works which have been written on +Anatomy and Physiology--only abstracts of them! How is a man to keep up +his acquaintance with all that is doing in the physiological world--in +a world advancing with enormous strides every day and every hour--if he +has to be distracted with the cares of practice? You know very well it +must be impracticable to do so. Our men of ability join our medical +schools with an eye to the future. They take the Chairs of Anatomy or +of Physiology; and by and by they leave those Chairs for the more +profitable pursuits into which they have drifted by professional +success, and so they become clothed, and physiology is bare. The result +is, that in those schools in which physiology is thus left to the +benevolence, so to speak, of those who have no time to look to it, the +effect of such teaching comes out obviously, and is made manifest in +what I spoke of just now--the unreality, the bookishness of the +knowledge of the taught. And if this is the case in physiology, still +more must it be the case in those branches of physics which are the +foundation of physiology; although it may be less the case in +chemistry, because for an able chemist a certain honourable and +independent career lies in the direction of his work, and he is able, +like the anatomist, to look upon what he may teach to the student as +not absolutely taking him away from his bread-winning pursuits. + +But it is of no use to grumble about this state of things unless one is +prepared to indicate some sort of practical remedy. And I believe--and +I venture to make the statement because I am wholly independent of all +sorts of medical schools, and may, therefore, say what I believe +without being supposed to be affected by any personal interest--but I +say I believe that the remedy for this state of things, for that +imperfection of our theoretical knowledge which keeps down the ability +of England at the present time in medical matters, is a mere affair of +mechanical arrangement; that so long as you have a dozen medical +schools scattered about in different parts of the metropolis, and +dividing the students among them, so long, in all the smaller schools +at any rate, it is impossible that any other state of things than that +which I have been depicting should obtain. Professors must live; to +live they must occupy themselves with practice, and if they occupy +themselves with practice, the pursuit of the abstract branches of +science must go to the wall. All this is a plain and obvious matter of +common-sense reasoning. I believe you will never alter this state of +things until, either by consent or by _force majeure_--and I +should be very sorry to see the latter applied--but until there is some +new arrangement, and until all the theoretical branches of the +profession, the institutes of medicine, are taught in London in not +more than one or two, or at the outside three, central institutions, no +good will be effected. If that large body of men, the medical students +of London, were obliged in the first place to get a knowledge of the +theoretical branches of their profession in two or three central +schools, there would be abundant means for maintaining able +professors--not, indeed, for enriching them, as they would be able to +enrich themselves by practice--but for enabling them to make that +choice which such men are so willing to make; namely, the choice +between wealth and a modest competency, when that modest competency is +to be combined with a scientific career, and the means of advancing +knowledge. I do not believe that all the talking about, and tinkering +of, medical education will do the slightest good until the fact is +clearly recognised, that men must be thoroughly grounded in the +theoretical branches of their profession, and that to this end the +teaching of those theoretical branches must be confined to two or three +centres. + +Now let me add one other word, and that is, that if I were a despot, I +would cut down these branches to a very considerable extent. The next +thing to be done beyond that which I mentioned just now, is to go back +to primary education. The great step towards a thorough medical +education is to insist upon the teaching of the elements of the +physical sciences in all schools, so that medical students shall not go +up to the medical colleges utterly ignorant of that with which they +have to deal; to insist on the elements of chemistry, the elements of +botany, and the elements of physics being taught in our ordinary and +common schools, so that there shall be some preparation for the +discipline of medical colleges. And, if this reform were once effected, +you might confine the "Institutes of Medicine" to physics as applied to +physiology--to chemistry as applied to physiology--to physiology +itself, and to anatomy. Afterwards, the student, thoroughly grounded in +these matters, might go to any hospital he pleased for the purpose of +studying the practical branches of his profession. The practical +teaching might be made as local as you like; and you might use to +advantage the opportunities afforded by all these local institutions +for acquiring a knowledge of the practice of the profession. But you +may say: "This is abolishing a great deal; you are getting rid of +botany and zoology to begin with." I have not a doubt that they ought +to be got rid of, as branches of special medical education; they ought +to be put back to an earlier stage, and made branches of general +education. Let me say, by way of self-denying ordinance, for which you +will, I am sure, give me credit, that I believe that comparative +anatomy ought to be absolutely abolished. I say so, not without a +certain fear of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of London who +sits upon my left. But I do not think the charter gives him very much +power over me; moreover, I shall soon come to an end of my +examinership, and therefore I am not afraid, but shall go on to say +what I was going to say, and that is, that in my belief it is a +downright cruelty--I have no other word for it--to require from +gentlemen who are engaged in medical studies, the pretence--for it is +nothing else, and can be nothing else, than a pretence--of a knowledge +of comparative anatomy as part of their medical curriculum. Make it +part of their Arts teaching if you like, make it part of their general +education if you like, make it part of their qualification for the +scientific degree by all means--that is its proper place; but to +require that gentlemen whose whole faculties should be bent upon the +acquirement of a real knowledge of human physiology should worry +themselves with getting up hearsay about the alternation of generations +in the Salpae is really monstrous. I cannot characterise it in any +other way. And having sacrificed my own pursuit, I am sure I may +sacrifice other people's; and I make this remark with all the more +willingness because I discovered, on reading the names of your +Professors just now, that the Professor of Materia Medica is not +present. I must confess, if I had my way I should abolish Materia +Medica [1] altogether. I recollect, when I was first under examination +at the University of London, Dr. Pereira was the examiner, and you know +that Pereira's "Materia Medica" was a book _de omnibus rebus_. I +recollect my struggles with that book late at night and early in the +morning (I worked very hard in those days), and I do believe that I got +that book into my head somehow or other, but then I will undertake to +say that I forgot it all a week afterwards. Not one trace of a +knowledge of drugs has remained in my memory from that time to this; +and really, as a matter of common sense, I cannot understand the +arguments for obliging a medical man to know all about drugs and where +they come from. Why not make him belong to the Iron and Steel +Institute, and learn something about cutlery, because he uses knives? + +But do not suppose that, after all these deductions, there would not be +ample room for your activity. Let us count up what we have left. I +suppose all the time for medical education that can be hoped for is, at +the outside, about four years. Well, what have you to master in those +four years upon my supposition? Physics applied to physiology; +chemistry applied to physiology; physiology; anatomy; surgery; medicine +(including therapeutics); obstetrics; hygiene; and medical +jurisprudence--nine subjects for four years! And when you consider what +those subjects are, and that the acquisition of anything beyond the +rudiments of any one of them may tax the energies of a lifetime, I +think that even those energies which you young gentlemen have been +displaying for the last hour or two might be taxed to keep you +thoroughly up to what is wanted for your medical career. + +I entertain a very strong conviction that any one who adds to medical +education one iota or tittle beyond what is absolutely necessary, is +guilty of a very grave offence. Gentlemen, it will depend upon the +knowledge that you happen to possess,--upon your means of applying it +within your own field of action,--whether the bills of mortality of +your district are increased or diminished; and that, gentlemen, is a +very serious consideration indeed. And, under those circumstances, the +subjects with which you have to deal being so difficult, their extent +so enormous, and the time at your disposal so limited, I could not feel +my conscience easy if I did not, on such an occasion as this, raise a +protest against employing your energies upon the acquisition of any +knowledge which may not be absolutely needed in your future career. + + + * * * * * + +[1] It will, I hope, be understood that I do not include Therapeutics +under this head. + + + + +XIII + +THE STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION + +[1884] + + +At intervals during the last quarter of a century committees of the +Houses of the Legislature and specially appointed commissions have +occupied themselves with the affairs of the medical profession. Much +evidence has been taken, much wrangling has gone on over the reports of +these bodies; and sometimes much trouble has been taken to get measures +based upon all this work through Parliament, but very little has been +achieved. + +The Bill introduced last session was not more fortunate than several +predecessors. I suppose that it is not right to rejoice in the +misfortunes of anything, even a Bill; but I confess that this event +afforded me lively satisfaction, for I was a member of the Royal +Commission on the report of which the Bill was founded, and I did my +best to oppose and nullify that report. + +That the question must be taken up again and finally dealt with by the +Legislature before long cannot be doubted; but in the meanwhile there +is time for reflection, and I think that the non-medical public would +be wise if they paid a little attention to a subject which is really of +considerable importance to them. + +The first question which a plain man is disposed to ask himself is, Why +should the State interfere with the profession of medicine any more +than it does, say, with the profession of engineering? Anybody who +pleases may call himself an engineer, and may practice as such. The +State confers no title upon engineers, and does not profess to tell the +public that one man is a qualified engineer and that another is not so. + +The answers which are given to the question are various, and most of +them, I think, are bad. A large number of persons seem to be of opinion +that the State is bound no less to take care of the general public, +than to see that it is protected against incompetent persons, against +quacks and medical impostors in general. I do not take that view of the +case. I think it is very much wholesomer for the public to take care of +itself in this as in all other matters; and although I am not such a +fanatic for the liberty of the subject as to plead that interfering +with the way in which a man may choose to be killed is a violation of +that liberty, yet I do think that it is far better to let everybody do +as he likes. Whether that be so or not, I am perfectly certain that, as +a matter of practice, it is absolutely impossible to prohibit the +practice of medicine by people who have no special qualification for +it. Consider the terrible consequences of attempting to prohibit +practice by a very large class of persons who are certainly not +technically qualified--I am far from saying a word as to whether +they are otherwise qualified or not. The number of Ladies +Bountiful--grandmothers, aunts, and mothers-in-law--whose chief delight +lies in the administration of their cherished provision of domestic +medicine, is past computation, and one shudders to think of what might +happen if their energies were turned from this innocuous, if not +beneficent channel, by the strong arm of the law. But the thing is +impracticable. + +Another reason for intervention is propounded, I am sorry to say, by +some, though not many, members of the medical profession, and is simply +an expression of that trades unionism which tends to infest professions +no less than trades. + +The general practitioner trying to make both ends meet on a poor +practice, whose medical training has cost him a good deal of time and +money, finds that many potential patients, whose small fees would be +welcome as the little that helps, prefer to go and get their shilling's +worth of "doctor's stuff" and advice from the chemist and druggist +round the corner, who has not paid sixpence for his medical training, +because he has never had any. + +The general practitioner thinks this is very hard upon him and ought to +be stopped. It is perhaps natural that he should think so, though it +would be very difficult for him to justify his opinion on any ground of +public policy. But the question is really not worth discussion, as it +is obvious that it would be utterly impracticable to stop the practice +"over the counter" even it it were desirable. + +Is a man who has a sudden attack of pain in tooth or stomach not to be +permitted to go to the nearest druggist's shop and ask for something +that will relieve him? The notion is preposterous. But if this is to be +legal, the whole principle of the permissibility of counter practice is +granted. + +In my judgment the intervention of the State in the affairs of the +medical profession can be justified not upon any pretence of protecting +the public, and still less upon that of protecting the medical +profession, but simply and solely upon the fact that the State employs +medical men for certain purposes, and, as employer, has a right to +define the conditions on which it will accept service. It is for the +interest of the community that no person shall die without there being +some official recognition of the cause of his death. It is a matter of +the highest importance to the community that, in civil and criminal +cases, the law shall be able to have recourse to persons whose evidence +may be taken as that of experts; and it will not be doubted that the +State has a right to dictate the conditions under which it will appoint +persons to the vast number of naval, military, and civil medical +offices held directly or indirectly under the Government. Here, and +here only, it appears to me, lies the justification for the +intervention of the State in medical affairs. It says, or, in my +judgment, should say, to the public, "Practice medicine if you like--go +to be practised upon by anybody;" and to the medical practitioner, +"Have a qualification, or do not have a qualification if people don't +mind it; but if the State is to receive your certificate of death, if +the State is to take your evidence as that of an expert, if the State +is to give you any kind of civil, or military, or naval appointment, +then we can call upon you to comply with our conditions, and to produce +evidence that you are, in our sense of the word, qualified. Without +that we will not place you in that position." As a matter of fact, that +is the relation of the State to the medical profession in this country. +For my part, I think it an extremely healthy relation; and it is one +that I should be very sorry to see altered, except in so far that it +would certainly be better if greater facilities were given for the +swift and sharp punishment of those who profess to have the State +qualification when, in point of fact, they do not possess it. They are +simply cheats and swindlers, like other people who profess to be what +they are not, and should be punished as such. + +But supposing we are agreed about the justification of State +intervention in medical affairs, new questions arise as to the manner +in which that intervention should take place and the extent to which it +should go, on which the divergence of opinion is even greater than it +is on the general question of intervention. + +It is now, I am sorry to say, something over forty years since I began +my medical studies; and, at that time, the state of affairs was +extremely singular. I should think it hardly possible that it could +have obtained anywhere but in such a country as England, which +cherishes a fine old crusted abuse as much as it does its port wine. At +that time there were twenty-one licensing bodies--that is to say, +bodies whose certificate was received by the State as evidence that the +persons who possessed that certificate were medical experts. How these +bodies came to possess these powers is a very curious chapter in +history, in which it would be out of place to enlarge. They were partly +universities, partly medical guilds and corporations, partly the +Archbishop of Canterbury. Those were the three sources from which the +licence to practice came in that day. There was no central authority, +there was nothing to prevent any one of those licensing authorities +from granting a licence to any one upon any conditions it thought fit. +The examination might be a sham, the curriculum might be a sham, the +certificate might be bought and sold like anything in a shop; or, on +the other hand, the examination might be fairly good and the diploma +correspondingly valuable; but there was not the smallest guarantee, +except the personal character of the people who composed the +administration of each of these licensing bodies, as to what might +happen. It was possible for a young man to come to London and to spend +two years and six months of the time of his compulsory three years +"walking the hospitals" in idleness or worse; he could then, by putting +himself in the hands of a judicious "grinder" for the remaining six +months, pass triumphantly through the ordeal of one hour's _viva voce_ +examination, which was all that was absolutely necessary, to +enable him to be turned loose upon the public, like death on the pale +horse, "conquering and to conquer," with the full sanction of the law, +as a "qualified practitioner." + +It is difficult to imagine, at present, such a state of things, still +more difficult to depict the consequences of it, because they would +appear like a gross and malignant caricature; but it may be said that +there was never a system, or want of system, which was better +calculated to ruin the students who came under it, or to degrade the +profession as a whole. My memory goes back to a time when models from +whom the Bob Sawyer of the _Pickwick Papers_ might have been drawn +were anything but rare. + +Shortly before my student days, however, the dawn of a better state of +things in England began to be visible, in consequence of the +establishment of the University of London, and the comparatively very +high standard which it placed before its medical graduates. + +I say comparatively high standard, for the requirements of the +University in those days, and even during the twelve years at a later +period, when I was one of the examiners of the medical faculty, were +such as would not now be thought more than respectable, and indeed were +in many respects very imperfect. But, relatively to the means of +learning, the standard was high, and none but the more able and +ambitious of the students dreamed of passing the University. +Nevertheless, the fact that many men of this stamp did succeed in +obtaining their degrees, led others to follow in their steps, and +slowly but surely reacted upon the standard of teaching in the better +medical schools. Then came the Medical Act of 1858. That Act introduced +two immense improvements: one of them was the institution of what is +called the Medical Register, upon which the names of all persons +recognised by the State as medical practitioners are entered: and the +other was the establishment of the Medical Council, which is a kind of +Medical Parliament, composed of representatives of the licensing bodies +and of leading men in the medical profession nominated by the Crown. +The powers given by the Legislature to the Medical Council were found +practically to be very limited, but I think that no fair observer of +the work will doubt that this much attacked body has excited no small +influence in bringing about the great change for the better, which has +been effected in the training of men for the medical profession within +my recollection. + +Another source of improvement must be recognised in the Scottish +Universities, and especially in the medical faculty of the University +of Edinburgh. The medical education and examinations of this body were +for many years the best of their kind in these islands, and I doubt if, +at the present moment, the three kingdoms can show a better school of +medicine than that of Edinburgh. The vast number of medical students at +that University is sufficient evidence of the opinion of those most +interested in this subject. + +Owing to all those influences, and to the revolution which has taken +place in the course of the last twenty years in our conceptions of the +proper method of teaching physical science, the training of the medical +student in a good school, and the examination test applied by the great +majority of the present licensing bodies, reduced now to nineteen, in +consequence of the retirement of the Archbishop and the fusion of two +of the other licensing bodies, are totally different from what they +were even twenty years ago. + +I was perfectly astonished, upon one of my sons commencing his medical +career the other day, when I contrasted the carefully-watched courses +of theoretical and practical instruction, which he is expected to +follow with regularity and industry, and the number and nature of the +examinations which he will have to pass before he can receive his +licence, not only with the monstrous laxity of my own student days, but +even with the state of things which obtained when my term of office as +examiner in the University of London expired some sixteen years ago. + +I have no hesitation in expressing the opinion, which is fully borne +out by the evidence taken before the late Royal Commission, that a +large proportion of the existing licensing bodies grant their licence +on conditions which ensure quite as high a standard as it is +practicable or advisable to exact under present circumstances, and that +they show every desire to keep pace with the improvements of the times. +And I think there can be no doubt that the great majority have so much +improved their ways, that their standard is far above that of the +ordinary qualification thirty years ago, and I cannot see what excuse +there would be for meddling with them if it were not for two other +defects which have to be remedied. + +Unfortunately there remain two or three black sheep--licensing bodies +which simply trade upon their privilege, and sell the cheapest wares +they can for shame's sake supply to the bidder. Another defect in the +existing system, even where the examination has been so greatly +improved as to be good of its kind, is that there are certain licensing +bodies which give a qualification for an acquaintance with either +medicine or surgery alone, and which more or less ignore obstetrics. +This is a revival of the archaic condition of the profession when +surgical operations were mostly left to the barbers and obstetrics to +the mid-wives, and when the physicians thought themselves, and were +considered by the world, the "superior persons" of the profession. I +remember a story was current in my young days of a great court +physician who was travelling with a friend, like himself, bound on a +visit to a country house. The friend fell down in an apoplectic fit, +and the physician refused to bleed him because it was contrary to +professional etiquette for a physician to perform that operation. +Whether the friend died or whether he got better because he was not +bled I do not remember, but the moral of the story is the same. On the +other hand, a famous surgeon was asked whether he meant to bring up his +son to his own calling, "No," he said, "he is such a fool, I mean to +make a physician of him." + +Nowadays, it is happily recognised that medicine is one and +indivisible, and that no one can properly practice one branch who is +not familiar with at any rate the principles of all. Thus the two great +things that are wanted now are, in the first place, some means of +enforcing such a degree of uniformity upon all the examining bodies +that none should present a disgracefully low minimum or pass +examination; and the second point is that some body or other shall have +the power of enforcing upon every candidate for the licence to practice +the study of the three branches, what is called the tripartite +qualification. All the members of the late commission were agreed that +these were the main points to be attended to in any proposals for the +further improvement of medical training and qualification. + +But such being the ends in view, our notions as to the best way of +attaining them were singularly divergent; so that it came about that +eleven commissioners made seven reports. There was one main majority +report and six minor reports, which differed more or less from it, +chiefly as to the best method of attaining these two objects. + +The majority report recommended the adoption of what is known as the +conjoint scheme. According to this plan the power of granting a licence +to practise is to be taken away from all the existing bodies, whether +they have done well or ill, and to be placed in the hands of a body of +delegates (divisional boards), one for each of the three kingdoms. The +licence to practise is to be conferred by passing the delegate +examination. The licensee may afterwards, if he pleases, go before any +of the existing bodies and indulge in the luxury of another examination +and the payment of another fee in order to obtain a title, which does +not legally place him in any better position than that which he would +occupy without it. + +Under these circumstances, of course, the only motive for obtaining the +degree of a University or the licence of a medical corporation would be +the prestige of these bodies. Hence the "black sheep" would certainly +be deserted, while those bodies which have acquired a reputation by +doing their duty would suffer less. + +But, as the majority report proposes that the existing bodies should be +compensated for any loss they might suffer out of the fees of the +examiners for the State licence, the curious result would be brought +about that the profession of the future would be taxed, for all time, +for the purpose of handing over to wholly irresponsible bodies a sum, +the amount of which would be large for those who had failed in their +duty and small for those who had done it. + +The scheme in fact involved a perpetual endowment of the "black +sheep," calculated on the maximum of their ill-gained profits. [1] I +confess that I found myself unable to assent to a plan which, in +addition to the rewarding the evil doers, proposed to take away the +privileges of a number of examining bodies which confessedly were doing +their duty well, for the sake of getting rid of a few who had failed. +It was too much like the Chinaman's device of burning down his house to +obtain a poor dish of roast pig--uncertain whether in the end he might +not find a mere mass of cinders. What we do know is that the great +majority of the existing licensing bodies have marvellously improved in +the course of the last twenty years, and are improving. What we do not +know is that the complicated scheme of the divisional boards will ever +be got to work at all. + +My own belief is that every necessary reform may be effected, without +any interference with vested interests, without any unjust interference +with the prestige of institutions which have been, and still are, +extremely valuable, without any question of compensation arising, and +by an extremely simple operation. It is only necessary in fact to add a +couple of clauses to the Medical Act to this effect: (1) That from and +after such a date no person shall be placed upon the Medical Register +unless he possesses the threefold qualification. (2) That from and +after this date no examination shall be accepted as satisfactory +from any licensing body except such as has been carried on in part +by examiners appointed by the licensing body, and in part by +coadjutor-examiners of equal authority appointed by the Medical Council +or other central authority, and acting under their instructions. + +In laying down a rule of this kind the State confiscates nothing, and +meddles with nobody, but simply acts within its undoubted right of +laying down the conditions under which it will confer certain +privileges upon medical practitioners. No one can say that the State +has not the right to do this; no one can say that the State interferes +with any private enterprise or corporate interest unjustly, in laying +down its own conditions for its own service. The plan would have the +further advantage that all those corporate bodies which have obtained +(as many of them have) a great and just prestige by the admirable way +in which they have done their work, would reap their just reward in the +thronging of students, thenceforward as formerly, to obtain their +qualifications; while those who have neglected their duties, who have +in some one or two cases, I am sorry to say, absolutely disgraced +themselves, would sink into oblivion, and come to a happy and natural +euthanasia, in which their misdeeds and themselves would be entirely +forgotten. + +Two of my colleagues, Professor Turner and Mr. Bryce, M.P., whose +practical familiarity with examinations gave their opinions a high +value, expressed their substantial approval of this scheme, and I am +unable to see the weight of the objections urged against it. It is +urged that the difficulty and expense of adequately inspecting so many +examinations and of guaranteeing their efficiency would be great, and +the difficulty in the way of a fair adjustment of the representation of +existing interests and of the representation of new interests upon the +general Medical Council would be almost insuperable. + +The latter objection is unintelligible to me. I am not aware that any +attempt at such adjustment has been fairly discussed, and until that +has been done it may be well not to talk about insuperable +difficulties. As to the notion that there is any difficulty in getting +the coadjutor-examiners, or that the expense will be overwhelming, we +have the experience of Scotland, in which every University does, at the +present time, appoint its coadjutor-examiners, who do their work just +in the way proposed. + +Whether in the way I have proposed, or by the Conjoint Scheme, however, +this is perfectly certain: the two things I refer to have to be done: +you must have the threefold qualification; you must have the limitation +of the minimum qualification also; and any scheme for the improvement +of the relations of the State to medicine which does not profess to do +these two things thoroughly and well, has no chance of finality. + +But when these reforms are witnessed, when there is a Medical Council +armed with a more real authority than it at present possesses; when a +license to practice cannot be obtained without the threefold +qualification; and when an even minimum of qualification is exacted for +every licence, is there anything else that remains that any one +seriously interested in the welfare of the medical profession, as I may +most conscientiously declare myself to be, would like to see done? I +think there are three things. + +In the first place, even now, when a four years' curriculum is +required, the time allotted for medical education is too brief. A young +man of eighteen beginning to study medicine is probably absolutely +ignorant of the existence of such a thing as anatomy, or physiology, or +indeed of any branch of physical science. He comes into an entirely new +world; he addresses himself to a kind of work of which he has not the +smallest experience. Up to that time his work has been with books; he +rushes suddenly into work with things, which is as different from work +with books as anything can well be. I am quite sure that a very +considerable number of young men spend a very large portion of their +first session in simply learning how to learn subjects which are +entirely new to them. And yet recollect that in this period of four +years they have to acquire a knowledge of all the branches of a great +and responsible practical calling of medicine, surgery, obstetrics, +general pathology, medical jurisprudence, and so forth. Anybody who +knows what these things are, and who knows what is the kind of work +which is necessary to give a man the confidence which will enable him +to stand at the bedside and say to the satisfaction of his own +conscience what shall be done, and what shall not be done, must be +aware that if a man has only four years to do all that in he will not +have much time to spare. But that is not all. As I have said, the young +man comes up, probably ignorant of the existence of science; he has +never heard a word of chemistry, he has never heard a word of physics, +he has not the smallest conception of the outlines of biological +science; and all these things have to be learned as well and crammed +into the time which in itself is barely sufficient to acquire a fair +amount of that knowledge which is requisite for the satisfactory +discharge of his professional duties. + +Therefore it is quite clear to me that, somehow or other, the +curriculum must be lightened. It is not that any of the subjects which +I have mentioned need not to be studied, and may be eliminated. The +only alternative therefore is to lengthen the time given to study. +Everybody will agree with me that the practical necessities of life in +this country are such that, for the average medical practitioner at any +rate, it is hopeless to think of extending the period of professional +study beyond the age of twenty-two. So that as the period of study +cannot be extended forwards, the only thing to be done is to extend it +backwards. + +The question is how this can be done. My own belief is that if the +Medical Council, instead of insisting upon that examination in general +education which I am sorry to say I believe to be entirely futile, were +to insist upon a knowledge of elementary physics, and chemistry, and +biology, they would be taking one of the greatest steps which at +present can be made for the improvement of medical education. And the +improvement would be this. The great majority of the young men who are +going into the profession have practically completed their general +education--or they might very well have done so--by the age of sixteen +or seventeen. If the interval between this age and that at which they +commence their purely medical studies were employed in obtaining a +practical acquaintance with elementary physics, chemistry, and biology, +in my judgment it would be as good as two years added to the course of +medical study. And for two reasons: in the first place, because the +subject-matter of that which they would learn is germane to their +future studies, and is so much gained; in the second place, because you +might clear out of the course of their professional study a great deal +which at present occupies time and attention; and last, but not +least--probably most--they would then come to their medical studies +prepared for that learning from Nature which is what they have to do in +the course of becoming skilful medical men, and for which at present +they are not in the slightest degree prepared by their previous +education. + +The second wish I have to express concerns London especially, and I may +speak of it briefly as a more economical use of the teaching power in +the medical schools. At this present time every great hospital in +London--and there are ten or eleven of them--has its complete medical +school, in which not only are the branches of practical medicine +taught, but also those studies in general science, such as chemistry, +elementary physics, general anatomy, and a variety of other topics +which are what used to be called (and the term was an extremely useful +one) the institutes of medicine. That was all very well half a century +ago; it is all very ill now, simply because those general branches of +science, such as anatomy, physiology, chemistry, physiological +chemistry, physiological physics, and so forth, have now become so +large, and the mode of teaching them is so completely altered, that it +is absolutely impossible for any man to be a thoroughly competent +teacher of them, or for any student to be effectually taught without +the devotion of the whole time of the person who is engaged in +teaching. I undertake to say that it is hopelessly impossible for any +man at the present time to keep abreast with the progress of physiology +unless he gives his whole mind to it; and the bigger the mind is, the +more scope he will find for its employment. Again, teaching has become, +and must become still more, practical, and that also involves a large +expenditure of time. But if a man is to give his whole time to my +business he must live by it, and the resources of the schools do not +permit them to maintain ten or eleven physiological specialists. + +If the students in their first one or two years were taught the +institutes of medicine, in two or three central institutions, it would +be perfectly easy to have those subjects taught thoroughly and +effectually by persons who gave their whole mind and attention to the +subject; while at the same time the medical schools at the hospitals +would remain what they ought to be--great institutions in which the +largest possible opportunities are laid open for acquiring practical +acquaintance with the phenomena of disease. So that the preliminary or +earlier half of medical education would take place in the central +institutions, and the final half would be devoted altogether to +practical studies in the hospitals. + +I happen to know that this conception has been entertained, not only by +myself, but by a great many of those persons who are most interested in +the improvement of medical study for a considerable number of years. I +do not know whether anything will come of it this half-century or not; +but the thing has to be done. It is not a speculative notion; it lies +patent to everybody who is accustomed to teaching, and knows what the +necessities of teaching are; and I should very much like to see the +first step taken--people making up their minds that it has to be done +somehow or other. + +The last point to which I may advert is one which concerns the action +of the profession itself more than anything else. We have arrangements +for teaching, we have arrangements for the testing of qualifications, +we have marvellous aids and appliances for the treatment of disease in +all sorts of ways; but I do not find in London at the present time, in +this little place of four or five million inhabitants which supports so +many things, any organisation or any arrangement for advancing the +science of medicine, considered as a pure science. I am quite aware +that there are medical societies of various kinds; I am not ignorant of +the lectureships at the College of Physicians and the College of +Surgeons; there is the Brown Institute; and there is the Society for +the Advancement of Medicine by Research, but there is no means, so far +as I know, by which any person who has the inborn gifts of the +investigator and discoverer of new truth, and who desires to apply that +to the improvement of medical science, can carry out his intention. In +Paris there is the University of Paris, which gives degrees; but there +are also the Sorbonne and the College de France, places in which +professoriates are established for the express purpose of enabling men +who have the power of investigation, the power of advancing knowledge +and thereby reacting on practice, to do that which it is their special +mission to do. I do not know of anything of the kind in London; and if +it should so happen that a Claude Bernard or a Ludwig should turn up in +London, I really have not the slightest notion of what we could do with +him. We could not turn him to account, and I think we should have to +export him to Germany or France. I doubt whether that is a good or a +wise condition of things. I do not think it is a condition of things +which can exist for any great length of time, now that people are every +day becoming more and more awake to the importance of scientific +investigation and to the astounding and unexpected manner in which it +everywhere reacts upon practical pursuits. I should look upon the +establishment of some institution of that kind as a recognition on the +part of the medical profession in general, that if their great and +beneficent work is to be carried on, they must, like other people who +have great and beneficent work to do, contribute to the advancement of +knowledge in the only way in which experience shows that it can be +advanced. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1]The fees to be paid by candidates for admission to the examinations +of the Divisional Board should be of such an amount as will be +sufficient to cover the cost of the examinations and the other expenses +of the Divisional Board, _and also to provide the sum required to +compensate the medical authorities, or such of them as may be entitled +to compensation, for any pecuniary losses they may hereafter sustain by +reason of the abolition of their privilege of conferring a licence to +practise. Report_ 50, p. xii. + + + + +XIV + +THE CONNECTION OF THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES WITH MEDICINE + +[1881] + + +The great body of theoretical and practical knowledge which has been +accumulated by the labours of some eighty generations, since the dawn +of scientific thought in Europe, has no collective English name to +which an objection may not be raised; and I use the term "medicine" as +that which is least likely to be misunderstood; though, as every one +knows, the name is commonly applied, in a narrower sense, to one of the +chief divisions of the totality of medical science. + +Taken in this broad sense, "medicine" not merely denotes a kind of +knowledge, but it comprehends the various applications of that +knowledge to the alleviation of the sufferings, the repair of the +injuries, and the conservation of the health, of living beings. In +fact, the practical aspect of medicine so far dominates over every +other, that the "Healing Art" is one of its most widely-received +synonyms. It is so difficult to think of medicine otherwise than as +something which is necessarily connected with curative treatment, that +we are apt to forget that there must be, and is, such a thing as a pure +science of medicine--a "pathology" which has no more necessary +subservience to practical ends than has zoology or botany. + +The logical connection between this purely scientific doctrine of +disease, or pathology, and ordinary biology, is easily traced. Living +matter is characterised by its innate tendency to exhibit a definite +series of the morphological and physiological phenomena which +constitute organisation and life. Given a certain range of conditions, +and these phenomena remain the same, within narrow limits, for each +kind of living thing. They furnish the normal and typical character of +the species, and, as such, they are the subject-matter of ordinary +biology. + +Outside the range of these conditions, the normal course of the cycle +of vital phenomena is disturbed; abnormal structure makes its +appearance, or the proper character and mutual adjustment of the +functions cease to be preserved. The extent and the importance of these +deviations from the typical life may vary indefinitely. They may have +no noticeable influence on the general well-being of the economy, or +they may favour it. On the other hand, they may be of such a nature as +to impede the activities of the organism, or even to involve its +destruction. + +In the first case, these perturbations are ranged under the wide and +somewhat vague category of "variations"; in the second, they are called +lesions, states of poisoning, or diseases; and, as morbid states, they +lie within the province of pathology. No sharp line of demarcation can +be drawn between the two classes of phenomena. No one can say where +anatomical variations end and tumours begin, nor where modification of +function, which may at first promote health, passes into disease. All +that can be said is, that whatever change of structure or function is +hurtful belongs to pathology. Hence it is obvious that pathology is a +branch of biology; it is the morphology, the physiology, the +distribution, the aetiology of abnormal life. + +However obvious this conclusion may be now, it was nowise apparent in +the infancy of medicine. For it is a peculiarity of the physical +sciences that they are independent in proportion as they are imperfect; +and it is only as they advance that the bonds which really unite them +all become apparent. Astronomy had no manifest connection with +terrestrial physics before the publication of the "Principia"; that of +chemistry with physics is of still more modern revelation; that of +physics and chemistry with physiology, has been stoutly denied within +the recollection of most of us, and perhaps still may be. + + +Or, to take a case which affords a closer parallel with that of +medicine. Agriculture has been cultivated from the earliest times, and, +from a remote antiquity, men have attained considerable practical skill +in the cultivation of the useful plants, and have empirically +established many scientific truths concerning the conditions under +which they flourish. But, it is within the memory of many of us, that +chemistry on the one hand, and vegetable physiology on the other, +attained a stage of development such that they were able to furnish a +sound basis for scientific agriculture. Similarly, medicine took its +rise in the practical needs of mankind. At first, studied without +reference to any other branch of knowledge, it long maintained, indeed +still to some extent maintains, that independence. Historically, its +connection with the biological sciences has been slowly established, +and the full extent and intimacy of that connection are only now +beginning to be apparent. I trust I have not been mistaken in supposing +that an attempt to give a brief sketch of the steps by which a +philosophical necessity has become an historical reality, may not be +devoid of interest, possibly of instruction, to the members of this +great Congress, profoundly interested as all are in the scientific +development of medicine. + +The history of medicine is more complete and fuller than that of any +other science, except, perhaps, astronomy; and, if we follow back the +long record as far as clear evidence lights us, we find ourselves taken +to the early stages of the civilisation of Greece. The oldest hospitals +were the temples of Aesculapius; to these Asclepeia, always erected on +healthy sites, hard by fresh springs and surrounded by shady groves, +the sick and the maimed resorted to seek the aid of the god of health. +Votive tablets or inscriptions recorded the symptoms, no less than the +gratitude, of those who were healed; and, from these primitive clinical +records, the half-priestly, half-philosophic caste of the Asclepiads +compiled the data upon which the earliest generalisations of medicine, +as an inductive science, were based. + +In this state, pathology, like all the inductive sciences at their +origin, was merely natural history; it registered the phenomena of +disease, classified them, and ventured upon a prognosis, wherever the +observation of constant co-existences and sequences suggested a +rational expectation of the like recurrence under similar +circumstances. + +Further than this it hardly went. In fact, in the then state of +knowledge, and in the condition of philosophical speculation at that +time, neither the causes of the morbid state, nor the _rationale_ +of treatment, were likely to be sought for as we seek for them now. The +anger of a god was a sufficient reason for the existence of a malady, +and a dream ample warranty for therapeutic measures; that a physical +phenomenon must needs have a physical cause was not the implied or +expressed axiom that it is to us moderns. + +The great man whose name is inseparably connected with the foundation +of medicine, Hippocrates, certainly knew very little, indeed +practically nothing, of anatomy or physiology; and he would, probably, +have been perplexed even to imagine the possibility of a connection +between the zoological studies of his contemporary Democritus and +medicine. Nevertheless, in so far as he, and those who worked before +and after him, in the same spirit, ascertained, as matters of +experience, that a wound, or a luxation, or a fever, presented such and +such symptoms, and that the return of the patient to health was +facilitated by such and such measures, they established laws of nature, +and began the construction of the science of pathology. All true +science begins with empiricism--though all true science is such +exactly, in so far as it strives to pass out of the empirical stage +into that of the deduction of empirical from more general truths. Thus, +it is not wonderful, that the early physicians had little or nothing to +do with the development of biological science; and, on the other hand, +that the early biologists did not much concern themselves with +medicine. There is nothing to show that the Asclepiads took any +prominent share in the work of founding anatomy, physiology, zoology, +and botany. Rather do these seem to have sprung from the early +philosophers, who were essentially natural philosophers, animated by +the characteristically Greek thirst for knowledge as such. Pythagoras, +Alcmeon, Democritus, Diogenes of Apollonia, are all credited with +anatomical and physiological investigations; and, though Aristotle is +said to have belonged to an Asclepiad family, and not improbably owed +his taste for anatomical and zoological inquiries to the teachings of +his father, the physician Nicomachus, the "Historia Animalium," and the +treatise "De Partibus Animalium," are as free from any allusion to +medicine as if they had issued from a modern biological laboratory. + +It may be added, that it is not easy to see in what way it could have +benefited a physician of Alexander's time to know all that Aristotle +knew on these subjects. His human anatomy was too rough to avail much +in diagnosis; his physiology was too erroneous to supply data for +pathological reasoning. But when the Alexandrian school, with +Erasistratus and Herophilus at their head, turned to account the +opportunities of studying human structure, afforded to them by the +Ptolemies, the value of the large amount of accurate knowledge thus +obtained to the surgeon for his operations, and to the physician for +his diagnosis of internal disorders, became obvious, and a connection +was established between anatomy and medicine, which has ever become +closer and closer. Since the revival of learning, surgery, medical +diagnosis, and anatomy have gone hand in hand. Morgagni called his +great work, "De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis," and +not only showed the way to search out the localities and the causes of +disease by anatomy, but himself travelled wonderfully far upon the +road. Bichat, discriminating the grosser constituents of the organs and +parts of the body, one from another, pointed out the direction which +modern research must take; until, at length, histology, a science of +yesterday, as it seems to many of us, has carried the work of Morgagni +as far as the microscope can take us, and has extended the realm of +pathological anatomy to the limits of the invisible world. + +Thanks to the intimate alliance of morphology with medicine, the +natural history of disease has, at the present day, attained a high +degree of perfection. Accurate regional anatomy has rendered +practicable the exploration of the most hidden parts of the organism, +and the determination, during life, of morbid changes in them; +anatomical and histological post-mortem investigations have supplied +physicians with a clear basis upon which to rest the classification, of +diseases, and with unerring tests of the accuracy or inaccuracy of +their diagnoses. + +If men could be satisfied with pure knowledge, the extreme precision +with which, in these days, a sufferer may be told what is happening, +and what is likely to happen, even in the most recondite parts of his +bodily frame, should be as satisfactory to the patient as it is to +the scientific pathologist who gives him the information. But I am +afraid it is not; and even the practising physician, while nowise +under-estimating the regulative value of accurate diagnosis, must often +lament that so much of his knowledge rather prevents him from doing +wrong than helps him to do right. + +A scorner of physic once said that nature and disease may be compared +to two men fighting, the doctor to a blind man with a club, who strikes +into the _melee_, sometimes hitting the disease, and sometimes +hitting nature. The matter is not mended if you suppose the blind man's +hearing to be so acute that he can register every stage of the +struggle, and pretty clearly predict how it will end. He had better not +meddle at all, until his eyes are opened, until he can see the exact +position of the antagonists, and make sure of the effect of his blows. +But that which it behoves the physician to see, not, indeed, with his +bodily eye, but with clear, intellectual vision, is a process, and the +chain of causation involved in that process. Disease, as we have seen, +is a perturbation of the normal activities of a living body, and it is, +and must remain, unintelligible, so long as we are ignorant of the +nature of these normal activities. In other words, there could be no +real science of pathology until the science of physiology had reached a +degree of perfection unattained, and indeed unattainable, until quite +recent times. + +So far as medicine is concerned, I am not sure that physiology, such as +it was down to the time of Harvey, might as well not have existed. Nay, +it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that, within the memory of living +men, justly renowned practitioners of medicine and surgery knew +less physiology than is now to be learned from the most elementary +text-book; and, beyond a few broad facts, regarded what they did know +as of extremely little practical importance. Nor am I disposed to blame +them for this conclusion; physiology must be useless, or worse than +useless, to pathology, so long as its fundamental conceptions are +erroneous. + +Harvey is often said to be the founder of modern physiology; and there +can be no question that the elucidations of the function of the heart, +of the nature of the pulse, and of the course of the blood, put forth +in the ever-memorable little essay, "De motu cordis," directly worked a +revolution in men's views of the nature and of the concatenation of +some of the most important physiological processes among the higher +animals; while, indirectly, their influence was perhaps even more +remarkable. + +But, though Harvey made this signal and perennially important +contribution to the physiology of the moderns, his general conception +of vital processes was essentially identical with that of the ancients; +and, in the "Exercitationes de generatione," and notably in the +singular chapter "De calido innato," he shows himself a true son of +Galen and of Aristotle. + +For Harvey, the blood possesses powers superior to those of the +elements; it is the seat of a soul which is not only vegetative, but +also sensitive and motor. The blood maintains and fashions all parts of +the body, "idque summa cum providentia et intellectu in finem certum +agens, quasi ratiocinio quodam uteretur." + +Here is the doctrine of the "pneuma," the product of the philosophical +mould into which the animism of primitive men ran in Greece, in full +force. Nor did its strength abate for long after Harvey's time. The +same ingrained tendency of the human mind to suppose that a process is +explained when it is ascribed to a power of which nothing is known +except that it is the hypothetical agent of the process, gave rise, in +the next century, to the animism of Stahl; and, later, to the doctrine +of a vital principle, that "asylum ignorantiae" of physiologists, which +has so easily accounted for everything and explained nothing, down to +our own times. + +Now the essence of modern, as contrasted with ancient, physiological +science appears to me to lie in its antagonism to animistic hypotheses +and animistic phraseology. It offers physical explanations of vital +phenomena, or frankly confesses that it has none to offer. And, so far +as I know, the first person who gave expression to this modern view of +physiology, who was bold enough to enunciate the proposition that vital +phenomena, like all the other phenomena of the physical world, are, in +ultimate analysis, resolvable into matter and motion, was Rene +Descartes. + +The fifty-four years of life of this most original and powerful thinker +are widely overlapped, on both sides, by the eighty of Harvey, who +survived his younger contemporary by seven years, and takes pleasure in +acknowledging the French philosopher's appreciation of his great +discovery. + +In fact, Descartes accepted the doctrine of the circulation as +propounded by "Harvaeus medecin d'Angleterre," and gave a full account +of it in his first work, the famous "Discours de la Methode," which was +published in 1637, only nine years after the exercitation "De motu +cordis"; and, though differing from Harvey on some important points (in +which it may be noted, in passing, Descartes was wrong and Harvey +right), he always speaks of him with great respect. And so important +does the subject seem to Descartes, that he returns to it in the +"Traite des Passions," and in the "Traite de l'Homme." + +It is easy to see that Harvey's work must have had a peculiar +significance for the subtle thinker, to whom we owe both the +spiritualistic and the materialistic philosophies of modern times. It +was in the very year of its publication, 1628, that Descartes withdrew +into that life of solitary investigation and meditation of which his +philosophy was the fruit. And, as the course of his speculations led +him to establish an absolute distinction of nature between the material +and the mental worlds, he was logically compelled to seek for the +explanation of the phenomena of the material world within itself; and +having allotted the realm of thought to the soul, to see nothing but +extension and motion in the rest of nature. Descartes uses "thought" as +the equivalent of our modern term "consciousness." Thought is the +function of the soul, and its only function. Our natural heat and all +the movements of the body, says he, do not depend on the soul. Death +does not take place from any fault of the soul, but only because some +of the principal parts of the body become corrupted. The body of a +living man differs from that of a dead man in the same way as a watch +or other automaton (that is to say, a machine which moves of itself) +when it is wound up and has, in itself, the physical principle of the +movements which the mechanism is adapted to perform, differs from the +same watch, or other machine, when it is broken, and the physical +principle of its movement no longer exists. All the actions which are +common to us and the lower animals depend only on the conformation of +our organs, and the course which the animal spirits take in the brain, +the nerves, and the muscles; in the same way as the movement of a watch +is produced by nothing but the force of its spring and the figure of +its wheels and other parts. + +Descartes' "Treatise on Man" is a sketch of human physiology, in which +a bold attempt is made to explain all the phenomena of life, except +those of consciousness, by physical reasonings. To a mind turned in +this direction, Harvey's exposition of the heart and vessels as a +hydraulic mechanism must have been supremely welcome. + +Descartes was not a mere philosophical theorist, but a hardworking +dissector and experimenter, and he held the strongest opinion +respecting the practical value of the new conception which he was +introducing. He speaks of the importance of preserving health, and of +the dependence of the mind on the body being so close that, perhaps, +the only way of making men wiser and better than they are, is to be +sought in medical science. "It is true," says he, "that as medicine is +now practised it contains little that is very useful; but without any +desire to depreciate, I am sure that there is no one, even among +professional men, who will not declare that all we know is very little +as compared with that which remains to be known; and that we might +escape an infinity of diseases of the mind, no less than of the body, +and even perhaps from the weakness of old age, if we had sufficient +knowledge of their causes, and of all the remedies with which nature +has provided us." [1] So strongly impressed was Descartes with this, +that he resolved to spend the rest of his life in trying to acquire +such a knowledge of nature as would lead to the construction of a +better medical doctrine. [2] The anti-Cartesians found material for +cheap ridicule in these aspirations of the philosopher; and it is +almost needless to say that, in the thirteen years which elapsed +between the publication of the "Discours" and the death of Descartes, +he did not contribute much to their realisation. But, for the next +century, all progress in physiology took place along the lines which +Descartes laid down. + +The greatest physiological and pathological work of the seventeenth +century, Borelli's treatise "De Motu Animalium," is, to all intents and +purposes, a development of Descartes' fundamental conception; and the +same may be said of the physiology and pathology of Boerhaave, whose +authority dominated in the medical world of the first half of the +eighteenth century. + +With the origin of modern chemistry, and of electrical science, in the +latter half of the eighteenth century, aids in the analysis of the +phenomena of life, of which Descartes could not have dreamed, were +offered to the physiologist. And the greater part of the gigantic +progress which has been made in the present century is a justification +of the prevision of Descartes. For it consists, essentially, in a more +and more complete resolution of the grosser organs of the living body +into physicochemical mechanisms. + +"I shall try to explain our whole bodily machinery in such a way, that +it will be no more necessary for us to suppose that the soul produces +such movements as are not voluntary, than it is to think that there is +in a clock a soul which causes it to show the hours." [3] These words +of Descartes might be appropriately taken as a motto by the author of +any modern treatise on physiology. + +But though, as I think, there is no doubt that Descartes was the first +to propound the fundamental conception of the living body as a physical +mechanism, which is the distinctive feature of modern, as contrasted +with ancient physiology, he was misled by the natural temptation to +carry out, in all its details, a parallel between the machines with +which he was familiar, such as clocks and pieces of hydraulic +apparatus, and the living machine. In all such machines there is a +central source of power, and the parts of the machine are merely +passive distributors of that power. The Cartesian school conceived of +the living body as a machine of this kind; and herein they might have +learned from Galen, who, whatever ill use he may have made of the +doctrine of "natural faculties," nevertheless had the great merit of +perceiving that local forces play a great part in physiology. + +The same truth was recognised by Glisson, but it was first prominently +brought forward in the Hallerian doctrine of the "vis insita" of +muscles. If muscle can contract without nerve, there is an end of the +Cartesian mechanical explanation of its contraction by the influx of +animal spirits. + +The discoveries of Trembley tended in the same direction. In the +freshwater _Hydra_, no trace was to be found of that complicated +machinery upon which the performance of the functions in the higher +animals was supposed to depend. And yet the hydra moved, fed, grew, +multiplied, and its fragments exhibited all the powers of the whole. +And, finally, the work of Caspar F. Wolff, [4] by demonstrating the +fact that the growth and development of both plants and animals take +place antecedently to the existence of their grosser organs, and are, +in fact, the causes and not the consequences of organisation (as then +understood), sapped the foundations of the Cartesian physiology as a +complete expression of vital phenomena. + +For Wolff, the physical basis of life is a fluid, possessed of a "vis +essentialis" and a "solidescibilitas," in virtue of which it gives rise +to organisation; and, as he points out, this conclusion strikes at the +root of the whole iatro-mechanical system. + +In this country, the great authority of John Hunter exerted a similar +influence; though it must be admitted that the too sibylline utterances +which are the outcome of Hunter's struggles to define his conceptions +are often susceptible of more than one interpretation. Nevertheless, on +some points Hunter is clear enough. For example, he is of opinion that +"Spirit is only a property of matter" ("Introduction to Natural +History," p. 6), he is prepared to renounce animism, (_l.c._ p. +8), and his conception of life is so completely physical that he thinks +of it as something which can exist in a state of combination in the +food. "The aliment we take in has in it, in a fixed state, the real +life; and this does not become active until it has got into the lungs; +for there it is freed from its prison" ("Observations on Physiology," +p. 113). He also thinks that "It is more in accord with the general +principles of the animal machine to suppose that none of its effects +are produced from any mechanical principle whatever; and that every +effect is produced from an action in the part; which action is produced +by a stimulus upon the part which acts, or upon some other part with +which this part sympathises so as to take up the whole action" (_l.c._ +p. 152). + +And Hunter is as clear as Wolff, with whose work he was probably +unacquainted, that "whatever life is, it most certainly does not depend +upon structure or organisation" (_l.c._ p. 114). + +Of course it is impossible that Hunter could have intended to deny the +existence of purely mechanical operations in the animal body. But +while, with Borelli and Boerhaave, he looked upon absorption, +nutrition, and secretion as operations effected by means of the small +vessels, he differed from the mechanical physiologists, who regarded +these operations as the result of the mechanical properties of the +small vessels, such as the size, form, and disposition of their canals +and apertures. Hunter, on the contrary, considers them to be the effect +of properties of these vessels which are not mechanical but vital. "The +vessels," says he, "have more of the polypus in them than any other +part of the body," and he talks of the "living and sensitive principles +of the arteries," and even of the "dispositions or feelings of the +arteries." "When the blood is good and genuine the sensations of the +arteries, or the dispositions for sensation, are agreeable.... It is +then they dispose of the blood to the best advantage, increasing the +growth of the whole, supplying any losses, keeping up a due succession, +etc." (_l.c._ p. 133). + +If we follow Hunter's conceptions to their logical issue, the life of +one of the higher animals is essentially the sum of the lives of all +the vessels, each of which is a sort of physiological unit, answering +to a polype; and, as health is the result of the normal "action of the +vessels," so is disease an effect of their abnormal action. Hunter thus +stands in thought, as in time, midway between Borelli on the one hand, +and Bichat on the other. + +The acute founder of general anatomy, in fact, outdoes Hunter in his +desire to exclude physical reasonings from the realm of life. Except in +the interpretation of the action of the sense organs, he will not allow +physics to have anything to do with physiology. + +"To apply the physical sciences to physiology is to explain the +phenomena of living bodies by the laws of inert bodies. Now this is a +false principle, hence all its consequences are marked with the same +stamp. Let us leave to chemistry its affinity; to physics, its +elasticity and its gravity. Let us invoke for physiology only +sensibility and contractility." [5] + +Of all the unfortunate dicta of men of eminent ability this seems one +of the most unhappy, when we think of what the application of the +methods and the data of physics and chemistry has done towards bringing +physiology into its present state. It is not too much to say that +one-half of a modern text-book of physiology consists of applied +physics and chemistry; and that it is exactly in the exploration of the +phenomena of sensibility and contractility that physics and chemistry +have exerted the most potent influence. + +Nevertheless, Bichat rendered a solid service to physiological progress +by insisting upon the fact that what we call life, in one of the higher +animals, is not an indivisible unitary archaeus dominating, from its +central seat, the parts of the organism, but a compound result of the +synthesis of the separate lives of those parts. + +"All animals," says he, "are assemblages of different organs, each of +which performs its function and concurs, after its fashion, in the +preservation of the whole. They are so many special machines in the +general machine which constitutes the individual. But each of these +special machines is itself compounded of many tissues of very different +natures, which in truth constitute the elements of those organs" +(_l.c._ lxxix.). "The conception of a proper vitality is applicable +only to these simple tissues, and not to the organs themselves" +(_l.c._ lxxxiv.). + +And Bichat proceeds to make the obvious application of this doctrine of +synthetic life, if I may so call it, to pathology. Since diseases are +only alterations of vital properties, and the properties of each tissue +are distinct from those of the rest, it is evident that the diseases of +each tissue must be different from those of the rest. Therefore, in any +organ composed of different tissues, one may be diseased and the other +remain healthy; and this is what happens in most cases (_l.c._ lxxxv.). + +In a spirit of true prophecy, Bichat says, "We have arrived at an epoch +in which pathological anatomy should start afresh." For, as the +analysis of the organs had led him to the tissues as the physiological +units of the organism; so, in a succeeding generation, the analysis of +the tissues led to the cell as the physiological element of the +tissues. The contemporaneous study of development brought out the same +result; and the zoologists and botanists, exploring the simplest and +the lowest forms of animated beings, confirmed the great induction of +the cell theory. Thus the apparently opposed views, which have been +battling with one another ever since the middle of the last century, +have proved to be each half the truth. + +The proposition of Descartes that the body of a living man is a +machine, the actions of which are explicable by the known laws of +matter and motion, is unquestionably largely true. But it is also true, +that the living body is a synthesis of innumerable physiological +elements, each of which may nearly be described, in Wolff's words, as a +fluid possessed of a "vis essentialis" and a "solidescibilitas"; or, in +modern phrase, as protoplasm susceptible of structural metamorphosis +and functional metabolism: and that the only machinery, in the precise +sense in which the Cartesian school understood mechanism, is, that +which co-ordinates and regulates these physiological units into an +organic whole. + +In fact, the body is a machine of the nature of an army, not of that of +a watch or of a hydraulic apparatus. Of this army each cell is a +soldier, an organ a brigade, the central nervous system headquarters +and field telegraph, the alimentary and circulatory system the +commissariat. Losses are made good by recruits born in camp, and the +life of the individual is a campaign, conducted successfully for a +number of years, but with certain defeat in the long run. + +The efficacy of an army, at any given moment, depends on the health of +the individual soldier, and on the perfection of the machinery by which +he is led and brought into action at the proper time; and, therefore, +if the analogy holds good, there can be only two kinds of diseases, the +one dependent on abnormal states of the physiological units, the other +on perturbations of their co-ordinating and alimentative machinery. + +Hence, the establishment of the cell theory, in normal biology, was +swiftly followed by a "cellular pathology," as its logical counterpart. +I need not remind you how great an instrument of investigation this +doctrine has proved in the hands of the man of genius to whom its +development is due, and who would probably be the last to forget that +abnormal conditions of the co-ordinative and distributive machinery of +the body are no less important factors of disease. + +Henceforward, as it appears to me, the connection of medicine with the +biological sciences is clearly indicated. Pure pathology is that branch +of biology which defines the particular perturbation of cell-life, or +of the co-ordinating machinery, or of both, on which the phenomena of +disease depend. + +Those who are conversant with the present state of biology will hardly +hesitate to admit that the conception of the life of one of the higher +animals as the summation of the lives of a cell aggregate, brought into +harmonious action by a co-ordinative machinery formed by some of these +cells, constitutes a permanent acquisition of physiological science. +But the last form of the battle between the animistic and the physical +views of life is seen in the contention whether the physical analysis +of vital phenomena can be carried beyond this point or not. + +There are some to whom living protoplasm is a substance, even such as +Harvey conceived the blood to be, "summa cum providentia et intellectu +in finem certum agens, quasi ratiocinio quodam;" and who look with as +little favour as Bichat did, upon any attempt to apply the principles +and the methods of physics and chemistry to the investigation of the +vital processes of growth, metabolism, and contractility. They stand +upon the ancient ways; only, in accordance with that progress towards +democracy, which a great political writer has declared to be the fatal +characteristic of modern times, they substitute a republic formed by a +few billion of "animulae" for the monarchy of the all-pervading +"anima." + +Others, on the contrary, supported by a robust faith in the universal +applicability of the principles laid down by Descartes, and seeing that +the actions called "vital" are, so far as we have any means of knowing, +nothing but changes of place of particles of matter, look to molecular +physics to achieve the analysis of the living protoplasm itself into a +molecular mechanism. If there is any truth in the received doctrines of +physics, that contrast between living and inert matter, on which Bichat +lays so much stress, does not exist. In nature, nothing is at rest, +nothing is amorphous; the simplest particle of that which men in their +blindness are pleased to call "brute matter" is a vast aggregate of +molecular mechanisms performing complicated movements of immense +rapidity, and sensitively adjusting themselves to every change in the +surrounding world. Living matter differs from other matter in degree +and not in kind; the microcosm repeats the macrocosm; and one chain of +causation connects the nebulous original of suns and planetary systems +with the protoplasmic foundation of life and organisation. + +From this point of view, pathology is the analogue of the theory of +perturbations in astronomy; and therapeutics resolves itself into the +discovery of the means by which a system of forces competent to +eliminate any given perturbation may be introduced into the economy. +And, as pathology bases itself upon normal physiology, so therapeutics +rests upon pharmacology; which is, strictly speaking, a part of the +great biological topic of the influence of conditions on the living +organism, and has no scientific foundation apart from physiology. + +It appears to me that there is no more hopeful indication of the +progress of medicine towards the ideal of Descartes than is to be +derived from a comparison of the state of pharmacology, at the present +day, with that which existed forty years ago. If we consider the +knowledge positively acquired, in this short time, of the _modus +operandi_ of urari, of atropia, of physostigmin, of veratria, of +casca, of strychnia, of bromide of potassium, of phosphorus, there can +surely be no ground for doubting that, sooner or later, the +pharmacologist will supply the physician with the means of affecting, +in any desired sense, the functions of any physiological element of the +body. It will, in short, become possible to introduce into the economy +a molecular mechanism which, like a very cunningly-contrived torpedo, +shall find its way to some particular group of living elements, and +cause an explosion among them, leaving the rest untouched. + +The search for the explanation of diseased states in modified +cell-life; the discovery of the important part played by parasitic +organisms in the aetiology of disease; the elucidation of the action of +medicaments by the methods and the data of experimental physiology; +appear to me to be the greatest steps which have ever been made towards +the establishment of medicine on a scientific basis. I need hardly say +they could not have been made except for the advance of normal biology. + +There can be no question, then, as to the nature or the value of the +connection between medicine and the biological sciences. There can be +no doubt that the future of pathology and of therapeutics, and, +therefore, that of practical medicine, depends upon the extent to which +those who occupy themselves with these subjects are trained in the +methods and impregnated with the fundamental truths of biology. + +And, in conclusion, I venture to suggest that the collective sagacity +of this congress could occupy itself with no more important question +than with this: How is medical education to be arranged, so that, +without entangling the student in those details of the systematist +which are valueless to him, he may be enabled to obtain a firm grasp of +the great truths respecting animal and vegetable life, without which, +notwithstanding all the progress of scientific medicine, he will still +find himself an empiric? + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] _Discours de la Methode_, 6e partie, Ed. Cousin, p. 193. + +[2] _Ibid_. pp. 193 and 211. + +[3] _De la Formation du Foetus_. + +[4] _Theoria Generationis_, 1759. + +[5] _Anatomie generale_, i. p. liv. + + + + +XV + +THE SCHOOL BOARDS: WHAT THEY CAN DO, AND WHAT THEY MAY DO. + +[1870] + + +An electioneering manifesto would be out of place in the pages of this +Review; but any suspicion that may arise in the mind of the reader that +the following pages partake of that nature, will be dispelled, if he +reflect that they cannot be published [1] until after the day on which +the ratepayers of the metropolis will have decided which candidates for +seats upon the Metropolitan School Board they will take, and which they +will leave. + +As one of those candidates, I may be permitted to say, that I feel much +in the frame of mind of the Irish bricklayer's labourer, who bet +another that he could not carry him to the top of the ladder in his +hod. The challenged hodman won his wager, but as the stakes were handed +over, the challenger wistfully remarked, "I'd great hopes of falling at +the third round from the top." And, in view of the work and the worry +which awaits the members of the School Boards, I must confess to an +occasional ungrateful hope that the friends who are toiling upwards +with me in their hod, may, when they reach "the third round from the +top," let me fall back into peace and quietness. + +But whether fortune befriend me in this rough method, or not, I should +like to submit to those of whom I am potential, but of whom I may not +be an actual, colleague, and to others who may be interested in this +most important problem--how to get the Education Act to work +efficiently--some considerations as to what are the duties of the +members of the School Boards, and what are the limits of their power. + +I suppose no one will be disposed to dispute the proposition, that the +prime duty of every member of such a Board is to endeavour to +administer the Act honestly; or in accordance, not only with its +letter, but with its spirit. And if so, it would seem that the first +step towards this very desirable end is, to obtain a clear notion of +what that letter signifies, and what that spirit implies; or, in other +words, what the clauses of the Act are intended to enjoin and to +forbid. So that it is really not admissible, except for factious and +abusive purposes, to assume that any one who endeavours to get at this +clear meaning is desirous only of raising quibbles and making +difficulties. + +Reading the Act with this desire to understand it, I find that its +provisions may be classified, as might naturally be expected, under two +heads: the one set relating to the subject-matter of education; the +other to the establishment, maintenance, and administration of the +schools in which that education is to be conducted. + +Now it is a most important circumstance, that all the sections of the +Act, except four, belong to the latter division; that is, they refer to +mere matters of administration. The four sections in question are the +seventh, the fourteenth, the sixteenth, and the ninety-seventh. Of +these, the seventh, the fourteenth, and the ninety-seventh deal with +the subject-matter of education, while the sixteenth defines the nature +of the relations which are to exist between the "Education Department" +(an euphemism for the future Minister of Education) and the School +Boards. It is the sixteenth clause which is the most important, and, in +some respects, the most remarkable of all. It runs thus:-- + + "If the School Board do, or permit, any act in contravention of, or + fail to comply with, the regulations, according to which a school + provided by them is required by this Act to be conducted, the + Education Department may declare the School Board to be, and such + Board shall accordingly be deemed to be, a Board in default, and + the Education Department may proceed accordingly; and every act, or + omission, of any member of the School Board, or manager appointed + by them, or any person under the control of the Board, shall be + deemed to be permitted by the Board, unless the contrary be proved. + + "If any dispute arises as to whether the School Board have done, or + permitted, any act in contravention of, or have failed to comply + with, the said regulations, _the matter shall be referred to the + Education Department, whose decision thereon shall be final_." + +It will be observed that this clause gives the Minister of Education +absolute power over the doings of the School Boards. He is not only the +administrator of the Act, but he is its interpreter. I had imagined +that on the occurrence of a dispute, not as regards a question of pure +administration, but as to the meaning of a clause of the Act, a case +might be taken and referred to a court of justice. But I am led to +believe that the Legislature has, in the present instance, deliberately +taken this power out of the hands of the judges and lodged it in those +of the Minister of Education, who, in accordance with our method of +making Ministers, will necessarily be a political partisan, and who may +be a strong theological sectary into the bargain. And I am informed by +members of Parliament who watched the progress of the Act, that the +responsibility for this unusual state of things rests, not with the +Government, but with the Legislature, which exhibited a singular +disposition to accumulate power in the hands of the future Minister of +Education, and to evade the more troublesome difficulties of the +education question by leaving them to be settled between that Minister +and the School Boards. + +I express no opinion whether it is, or is not, desirable that such +powers of controlling all the School Boards in the country should be +possessed by a person who may be, like Mr. Forster, eminently likely to +use these powers justly and wisely, but who also may be quite the +reverse. I merely wish to draw attention to the fact that such powers +are given to the Minister, whether he be fit or unfit. The extent of +these powers becomes apparent when the other sections of the Act +referred to are considered. The fourth clause of the seventh section +says:-- + + "The school shall be conducted in accordance with the conditions + required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in order to obtain + an annual Parliamentary grant." + +What these conditions are appears from the following clauses of the +ninety-seventh section:-- + + "The conditions required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in + order to obtain an annual Parliamentary grant shall be those + contained in the minutes of the Education Department in force for + the time being.... Provided that no such minute of the Education + Department, not in force at the time of the passing of this Act, + shall be deemed to be in force until it has lain for not less than + one month on the table of both Houses of Parliament." + +Let us consider how this will work in practice. A school established by +a School Board may receive support from three sources--from the rates, +the school fees, and the Parliamentary grant. The latter may be as +great as the two former taken together; and as it may be assumed, +without much risk of error, that a constant pressure will be exerted by +the ratepayers on the members who represent them to get as much out of +the Government, and as little out of the rates, as possible, the School +Boards will have a very strong motive for shaping the education they +give, as nearly as may be, on the model which the Education Minister +offers for their imitation, and for the copying of which he is prepared +to pay. + +The Revised Code did not compel any schoolmaster to leave off teaching +anything; but, by the very simple process of refusing to pay for many +kinds of teaching, it has practically put an end to them. Mr. Forster +is said to be engaged in revising the Revised Code; a successor of his +may re-revise it--and there will be no sort of check upon these +revisions and counter revisions, except the possibility of a +Parliamentary debate, when the revised, or added, minutes are laid upon +the table. What chance is there that any such debate will take place on +a matter of detail relating to elementary education--a subject with +which members of the Legislature, having been, for the most part, sent +to our public schools thirty years ago, have not the least practical +acquaintance, and for which they care nothing, unless it derives a +political value from its connection with sectarian politics? + +I cannot but think, then, that the School Boards will have the +appearance, but not the reality, of freedom of action, in regard to the +subject-matter of what is commonly called "secular" education. + +As respects what is commonly called "religious" education, the power of +the Minister of Education is even more despotic. An interest, almost +amounting to pathos, attaches itself, in my mind, to the frantic +exertions which are at present going on in almost every school +division, to elect certain candidates whose names have never before +been heard of in connection with education, and who are either +sectarian partisans, or nothing. In my own particular division, a body +organised _ad hoc_ is moving heaven and earth to get the seven +seats filled by seven gentlemen, four of whom are good Churchmen, and +three no less good Dissenters. But why should this seven times heated +fiery furnace of theological zeal be so desirous to shed its genial +warmth over the London School Board? Can it be that these zealous +sectaries mean to evade the solemn pledge given in the Act? + + "No religious catechism or religious formulary which is distinctive + of any particular denomination shall be taught in the school." + +I confess I should have thought it my duty to reject any such +suggestion, as dishonouring to a number of worthy persons, if it had +not been for a leading article and some correspondence which appeared +in the _Guardian_ of November 9th, 1870. + +The _Guardian_ is, as everybody knows, one of the best of the +"religious" newspapers; and, personally, I have every reason to speak +highly of the fairness, and indeed kindness, with which the editor is +good enough to deal with a writer who must, in many ways, be so +objectionable to him as myself. I quote the following passages from a +leading article on a letter of mine, therefore, with all respect, and +with a genuine conviction that the course of conduct advocated by the +writer must appear to him in a very different light from that under +which I see it:-- + + "The first of these points is the interpretation which Professor + Huxley puts on the 'Cowper-Temple clause.' It is, in fact, that + which we foretold some time ago as likely to be forced upon it by + those who think with him. The clause itself was one of those + compromises which it is very difficult to define or to maintain + logically. On the one side was the simple freedom to School Boards + to establish what schools they pleased, which Mr. Forster + originally gave, but against which the Nonconformists lifted up + their voices, because they conceived it likely to give too much + power to the Church. On the other side there was the proposition to + make the schools secular--intelligible enough, but in the + consideration of public opinion simply impossible--and there was + the vague impracticable idea, which Mr. Gladstone thoroughly tore + to pieces, of enacting that the teaching of all school-masters in + the new schools should be strictly 'undenominational.' The + Cowper-Temple clause was, we repeat, proposed simply to tide over + the difficulty. It was to satisfy the Nonconformists and the + 'unsectarian,' as distinct from the secular party of the League, by + forbidding all distinctive 'catechisms and formularies,' which + might have the effect of openly assigning the schools to this or + that religious body. It refused, at the same time, to attempt the + impossible task of defining what was undenominational; and its + author even contended, if we understood him correctly, that it + would in no way, even indirectly, interfere with the substantial + teaching of any master in any school. This assertion we always + believed to be untenable; we could not see how, in the face of this + clause, a distinctly denominational tone could be honestly given to + schools nominally general. But beyond this mere suggestion of + an attempt at a general tone of comprehensiveness in religious + teaching it was not intended to go, and only because such was its + limitation was it accepted by the Government and by the House. + + "But now we are told that it is to be construed as doing precisely + that which it refused to do. A 'formulary,' it seems, is a + collection of formulas, and formulas are simply propositions of + whatever kind touching religious faith. All such propositions, if + they cannot be accepted by all Christian denominations, are to be + proscribed; and it is added significantly that the Jews also are a + denomination, and so that any teaching distinctively Christian is + perhaps to be excluded, lest it should interfere with their freedom + and rights. Are we then to fall back on the simple reading of the + letter of the Bible? No! this, it is granted, would be an 'unworthy + pretence.' The teacher is to give 'grammatical, geographical, or + historical explanations;' but he is to keep clear of 'theology + proper,' because, as Professor Huxley takes great pains to prove, + there is no theological teaching which is not opposed by some sect + or other, from Roman Catholicism on the one hand to Unitarianism on + the other. It was not, perhaps, hard to see that this difficulty + would be started; and to those who, like Professor Huxley look at + it theoretically, without much practical experience of schools, it + may appear serious or unanswerable. But there is very little in it + practically; when it is faced determinately and handled firmly, it + will soon shrink into its true dimensions. The class who are least + frightened at it are the school teachers, simply because they know + most about it. It is quite clear that the school managers must be + cautioned against allowing their schools to be made places of + proselytism: but when this is done, the case is simple enough. + Leave the masters under this general understanding to teach freely; + if there in ground of complaint, let it be made, but leave the + _onus probandi_ on the objectors. For extreme peculiarities of + belief or unbelief there is the Conscience Clause; as to the mass + of parents, they will be more anxious to have religion taught than + afraid of its assuming this or that particular shade. They will + trust the school managers and teachers till they have reason to + distrust them, and experience has shown that they may trust them + safely enough. Any attempt to throw the burden of making the + teaching undenominational upon the managers must be sternly + resisted: it is simply evading the intentions of the Act in an + elaborate attempt to carry them out. We thank Professor Huxley for + the warning. To be forewarned is to be forearmed." + +A good deal of light seems to me to be thrown on the practical +significance of the opinions expressed in the foregoing extract by the +following interesting letter, which appeared in the same paper:-- + + "Sir,--I venture to send to you the substance of a correspondence + with the Education Department upon the question of the lawfulness + of religious teaching in rate schools under section 14 (2) of the + Act. I asked whether the words 'which is distinctive,' &c., taken + grammatically as limiting the prohibition of any religious + formulary, might be construed as allowing (subject, however, to the + other provisions of the Act) any religious formulary common to any + two denominations anywhere in England to be taught in such schools; + and if practically the limit could not be so extended, but would + have to be fixed according to the special circumstances of each + district, then what degree of general acceptance in a district + would exempt such a formulary from the prohibition? The answer to + this was as follows:--'It was understood, when clause 14 of the + Education Act was discussed in the House of Commons, that, + according to a well-known rule of interpreting Acts of Parliament, + "denomination" must be held to include "denominations." When any + dispute is referred to the Education Department under the last + paragraph of section 16, it will be dealt with according to the + circumstances of the case.' + + "Upon my asking further if I might hence infer that the lawfulness + of teaching any religious formulary in a rate school would thus + depend _exclusively_ on local circumstances, and would + accordingly be so decided by the Education Department in case of + dispute, I was informed in explanation that 'their lordships'' + letter was intended to convey to me that no general rule, beyond + that stated in the first paragraph of their letter, could at + present be laid down by them; and that their decision in each + particular case must depend on the special circumstances + accompanying it. + + "I think it would appear from this that it may yet be in many cases + both lawful and expedient to teach religious formularies in rate + schools. H. I. + + "Steyning, _November_ 5, 1870." + +Of course I do not mean to suggest that the editor of the _Guardian_ +is bound by the opinions of his correspondent; but I cannot help +thinking that I do not misrepresent him, when I say that he also thinks +"that it may yet be, in many cases, both lawful and expedient to teach +religious formularies in rate schools under these circumstances." + +It is not uncharitable, therefore, to assume that, the express words of +the Act of Parliament notwithstanding, all the sectaries who are +toiling so hard for seats in the London School Board have the lively +hope of the gentleman from Steyning, that it may be "both lawful and +expedient to teach religious formularies in rate schools;" and that +they mean to do their utmost to bring this happy consummation about. [2] + +Now the pathetic emotion to which I have referred, as accompanying my +contemplations of the violent struggles of so many excellent persons, +is caused by the circumstance that, so far as I can judge, their labour +is in vain. + +Supposing that the London School Board contains, as it probably will +do, a majority of sectaries; and that they carry over the heads of a +minority, a resolution that certain theological formulas, about which +they all happen to agree,--say, for example, the doctrine of the +Trinity,--shall be taught in the schools. Do they fondly imagine that +the minority will not at once dispute their interpretation of the Act, +and appeal to the Education Department to settle that dispute? And if +so, do they suppose that any Minister of Education, who wants to keep +his place, will tighten boundaries which the Legislature has left +loose; and will give a "final decision" which shall be offensive to +every Unitarian and to every Jew in the House of Commons, besides +creating a precedent which will afterwards be used to the injury of +every Nonconformist? The editor of the _Guardian_ tells his +friends sternly to resist every attempt to throw the burden of making +the teaching undenominational on the managers, and thanks me for the +warning I have given him. I return the thanks, with interest, for +_his_ warning, as to the course the party he represents intends to +pursue, and for enabling me thus to draw public attention to a +perfectly constitutional and effectual mode of checkmating them. + +And, in truth, it is wonderful to note the surprising entanglement into +which our able editor gets himself in the struggle between his native +honesty and judgment and the necessities of his party. "We could not +see," says he, "in the face of this clause how a distinct +denominational tone could be honestly given to schools nominally +general." There speaks the honest and clear-headed man. "Any attempt to +throw the burden of making the teaching undenominational must be +sternly resisted." There speaks the advocate holding a brief for his +party. "Verily," as Trinculo says, "the monster hath two mouths:" the +one, the forward mouth, tells us very justly that the teaching cannot +"honestly" be "distinctly denominational;" but the other, the +backward mouth, asserts that it must by no manner of means be +"undenominational." Putting the two utterances together, I can only +interpret them to mean that the teaching is to be "indistinctly +denominational." If the editor of the _Guardian_ had not shown +signs of anger at my use of the term "theological fog," I should have +been tempted to suppose it must have been what he had in his mind, +under the name of "indistinct denominationalism." But this reading +being plainly inadmissible, I can only imagine that he inculcates the +teaching of formulas common to a number of denominations. + +But the Education Department has already told the gentleman from +Steyning that any such proceeding will be illegal. "According to a +well-known rule of interpreting Acts of Parliament, 'denomination' +would be held to include 'denominations.'" In other words, we must read +the Act thus:-- + +"No religious catechism or religious formulary which is distinctive of +any particular _denominations_ shall be taught." + +Thus we are really very much indebted to the editor of the _Guardian_ +and his correspondent. The one has shown us that the sectaries +mean to try to get as much denominational teaching as they can agree +upon among themselves, forced into the elementary schools; while the +other has obtained a formal declaration from the Educational Department +that any such attempt will contravene the Act of Parliament, and that, +therefore, the unsectarian, law-abiding members of the School Boards +may safely reckon upon bringing down upon their opponents the heavy +hand of the Minister of Education. [3] + +So much for the powers of the School Boards. Limited as they seem to +be, it by no means follows that such Boards, if they are composed of +intelligent and practical men, really more in earnest about education +than about sectarian squabbles, may not exert a very great amount of +influence. And, from many circumstances, this is especially likely to +be the case with the London School Board, which, if it conducts itself +wisely, may become a true educational parliaments as subordinate in +authority to the Minister of Education, theoretically, as the +Legislature is to the Crown, and yet, like the Legislature, possessed +of great practical authority. And I suppose that no Minister of +Education would be other than glad to have the aid of the deliberations +of such a body, or fail to pay careful attention to its +recommendations. + +What, then, ought to be the nature and scope of the education which a +School Board should endeavour to give to every child under its +influence, and for which it should try to obtain the aid of the +Parliamentary grants? In my judgment it should include at least the +following kinds of instruction and of discipline:-- + +1. Physical training and drill, as part of the regular business of the +school. + +It is impossible to insist too much on the importance of this part +of education for the children of the poor of great towns. All the +conditions of their lives are unfavourable to their physical +well-being. They are badly lodged, badly housed, badly fed, and live +from one year's end to another in bad air, without chance of a change. +They have no play-grounds; they amuse themselves with marbles and +chuck-farthing, instead of cricket or hare-and-hounds; and if it were +not for the wonderful instinct which leads all poor children of tender +years to run under the feet of cab-horses whenever they can, I know not +how they would learn to use their limbs with agility. + +Now there is no real difficulty about teaching drill and the simpler +kinds of gymnastics. It is done admirably well, for example, in the +North Surrey Union schools; and a year or two ago when I had an +opportunity of inspecting these schools, I was greatly struck with the +effect of such training upon the poor little waifs and strays of +humanity, mostly picked out of the gutter, who are being made into +cleanly, healthy, and useful members of society in that excellent +institution. + +Whatever doubts people may entertain about the efficacy of natural +selection, there can be none about artificial selection; and the +breeder who should attempt to make, or keep up, a fine stock of pigs, +or sheep, under the conditions to which the children of the poor are +exposed, would be the laughing-stock even of the bucolic mind. +Parliament has already done something in this direction by declining to +be an accomplice in the asphyxiation of school children. It refuses +to make any grant to a school in which the cubical contents of the +school-room are inadequate to allow of proper respiration. I should +like to see it make another step in the same direction, and either +refuse to give a grant to a school in which physical training is not +a part of the programme, or, at any rate, offer to pay upon such +training. If something of the kind is not done, the English physique, +which has been, and is still, on the whole, a grand one, will become as +extinct as the dodo in the great towns. + +And then the moral and intellectual effect of drill, as an introduction +to, and aid of, all other sorts of training, must not be overlooked. If +you want to break in a colt, surely the first thing to do is to catch +him and get him quietly to face his trainer; to know his voice and bear +his hand; to learn that colts have something else to do with their +heels than to kick them up whenever they feel so inclined; and to +discover that the dreadful human figure has no desire to devour, or +even to beat him, but that, in case of attention and obedience, he may +hope for patting and even a sieve of oats. + +But, your "street Arabs," and other neglected poor children, are rather +worse and wilder than colts; for the reason that the horse-colt has +only his animal instincts in him, and his mother, the mare, has been +always tender over him, and never came home drunk and kicked him in her +life; while the man-colt is inspired by that very real devil, perverted +manhood, and _his_ mother may have done all that and more. So, on +the whole, it may probably be even more expedient to begin your attempt +to get at the higher nature of the child, than at that of the colt, +from the physical side. + +2. Next in order to physical training I put the instruction of +children, and especially of girls, in the elements of household work +and of domestic economy; in the first place for their own sakes, and in +the second for that of their future employers. + +Every one who knows anything of the life of the English poor is aware +of the misery and waste caused by their want of knowledge of domestic +economy, and by their lack of habits of frugality and method. I suppose +it is no exaggeration to say that a poor Frenchwoman would make the +money which the wife of a poor Englishman spends in food go twice as +far, and at the same time turn out twice as palatable a dinner. Why +Englishmen, who are so notoriously fond of good living, should be so +helplessly incompetent in the art of cookery, is one of the great +mysteries of nature; but from the varied abominations of the railway +refreshment-rooms to the monotonous dinners of the poor, English +feeding is either wasteful or nasty, or both. + +And as to domestic service, the groans of the housewives of England +ascend to heaven! In five cases out of six the girl who takes a +"place" has to be trained by her mistress in the first rudiments of +decency and order; and it is a mercy if she does not turn up her nose +at anything like the mention of an honest and proper economy. Thousands +of young girls are said to starve, or worse, yearly in London; and at +the same time thousands of mistresses of households are ready to pay +high wages for a decent housemaid, or cook, or a fair workwoman; and +can by no means get what they want. + +Surely, if the elementary schools are worth anything, they may put an +end to a state of things which is demoralising the poor, while it is +wasting the lives of those better off in small worries and annoyances. + +3. But the boys and girls for whose education the School Boards have to +provide, have not merely to discharge domestic duties, but each of them +is a member of a social and political organisation of great complexity, +and has, in future life, to fit himself into that organisation, or be +crushed by it. To this end it is surely needful, not only that they +should be made acquainted with the elementary laws of conduct, but that +their affections should be trained, so as to love with all their hearts +that conduct which tends to the attainment of the highest good for +themselves and their fellow men, and to hate with all their hearts that +opposite course of action which is fraught with evil. + +So far as the laws of conduct are determined by the intellect, I +apprehend that they belong to science, and to that part of science +which is called morality. But the engagement of the affections in +favour of that particular kind of conduct which we call good, seems to +me to be something quite beyond mere science. And I cannot but think +that it, together with the awe and reverence, which have no kinship +with base fear, but arise whenever one tries to pierce below the +surface of things, whether they be material or spiritual, constitutes +all that has any unchangeable reality in religion. + +And just as I think it would be a mistake to confound the science, +morality, with the affection, religion; so do I conceive it to be a +most lamentable and mischievous error, that the science, theology, is +so confounded in the minds of many--indeed, I might say, of the +majority of men. + +I do not express any opinion as to whether theology is a true science, +or whether it does not come under the apostolic definition of "science +falsely so called;" though I may be permitted to express the belief +that if the Apostle to whom that much misapplied phrase is due could +make the acquaintance of much of modern theology, he would not hesitate +a moment in declaring that it is exactly what he meant the words to +denote. + +But it is at any rate conceivable, that the nature of the Deity, and +his relations to the universe, and more especially to mankind, are +capable of being ascertained, either inductively or deductively, or by +both processes. And, if they have been ascertained, then a body of +science has been formed which is very properly called theology. + +Further, there can be no doubt that affection for the Being thus +defined and described by theologic science would be properly termed +religion; but it would not be the whole of religion. The affection for +the ethical ideal defined by moral science would claim equal if not +superior rights. For suppose theology established the existence of an +evil deity--and some theologies, even Christian ones, have come very +near this,--is the religious affection to be transferred from the +ethical ideal to any such omnipotent demon? I trow not. Better a +thousand times that the human race should perish under his thunderbolts +than it should say, "Evil, be thou my good." + +There is nothing new, that I know of, in this statement of the +relations of religion with the science of morality on the one hand and +that of theology on the other. But I believe it to be altogether true, +and very needful, at this time, to be clearly and emphatically +recognised as such, by those who have to deal with the education +question. + +We are divided into two parties--the advocates of so-called +"religious" teaching on the one hand, and those of so-called "secular" +teaching on the other. And both parties seem to me to be not only +hopelessly wrong, but in such a position that if either succeeded +completely, it would discover, before many years were over, that it had +made a great mistake and done serious evil to the cause of education. + +For, leaving aside the more far-seeing minority on each side, what +the "religious" party is crying for is mere theology, under the name +of religion; while the "secularists" have unwisely and wrongfully +admitted the assumption of their opponents, and demand the abolition +of all "religious" teaching, when they only want to be free +of theology--Burning your ship to get rid of the cockroaches! + +But my belief is, that no human being, and no society composed of human +beings, ever did, or ever will, come to much, unless their conduct was +governed and guided by the love of some ethical ideal. Undoubtedly, +your gutter child may be converted by mere intellectual drill into "the +subtlest of all the beasts of the field;" but we know what has become +of the original of that description, and there is no need to increase +the number of those who imitate him successfully without being aided by +the rates. And if I were compelled to choose for one of my own +children, between a school in which real religious instruction is +given, and one without it, I should prefer the former, even though the +child might have to take a good deal of theology with it. Nine-tenths +of a dose of bark is mere half-rotten wood; but one swallows it for the +sake of the particles of quinine, the beneficial effect of which may be +weakened, but is not destroyed, by the wooden dilution, unless in a few +cases of exceptionally tender stomachs. + +Hence, when the great mass of the English people declare that they want +to have the children in the elementary schools taught the Bible, and +when it is plain from the terms of the Act, the debates in and out +of Parliament, and especially the emphatic declarations of the +Vice-President of the Council, that it was intended that such +Bible-reading should be permitted, unless good cause for prohibiting it +could be shown, I do not see what reason there is for opposing that +wish. Certainly, I, individually, could with no shadow of consistency +oppose the teaching of the children of other people to do that which my +own children are taught to do. And, even if the reading the Bible were +not, as I think it is, consonant with political reason and justice, and +with a desire to act in the spirit of the education measure, I am +disposed to think it might still be well to read that book in the +elementary schools. + +I have always been strongly in favour of secular education, in the +sense of education without theology; but I must confess I have been no +less seriously perplexed to know by what practical measures the +religious feeling, which is the essential basis of conduct, was to be +kept up, in the present utterly chaotic state of opinion on these +matters, without the use of the Bible. The Pagan moralists lack life +and colour, and even the noble Stoic, Marcus Antonius, is too high and +refined for an ordinary child. Take the Bible as a whole; make the +severest deductions which fair criticism can dictate for shortcomings +and positive errors; eliminate, as a sensible lay-teacher would do, if +left to himself, all that it is not desirable for children to occupy +themselves with; and there still remains in this old literature a vast +residuum of moral beauty and grandeur. And then consider the great +historical fact that, for three centuries, this book has been woven +into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history; that +it has become the national epic of Britain, and is as familiar to noble +and simple, from John-o'-Groat's House to Land's End, as Dante and +Tasso once were to the Italians; that it is written in the noblest and +purest English, and abounds in exquisite beauties of mere literary +form; and, finally, that it forbids the veriest hind who never left his +village to be ignorant of the existence of other countries and other +civilisations, and of a great past, stretching back to the furthest +limits of the oldest nations in the world. By the study of what other +book could children be so much humanised and made to feel that each +figure in that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, but a +momentary space in the interval between two eternities; and earns the +blessings or the curses of all time, according to its effort to do good +and hate evil, even as they also are earning their payment for their +work? + +On the whole, then, I am in favour of reading the Bible, with such +grammatical, geographical, and historical explanations by a lay-teacher +as may be needful, with rigid exclusion of any further theological +teaching than that contained in the Bible itself. And in stating what +this is, the teacher would do well not to go beyond the precise words +of the Bible; for if he does, he will, in the first place, undertake a +task beyond his strength, seeing that all the Jewish and Christian +sects have been at work upon that subject for more than two thousand +years, and have not yet arrived, and are not in the least likely to +arrive, at an agreement; and, in the second place, he will certainly +begin to teach something distinctively denominational, and thereby come +into violent collision with the Act of Parliament. + +4. The intellectual training to be given in the elementary schools must +of course, in the first place, consist in learning to use the means of +acquiring knowledge, or reading, writing, and arithmetic; and it will +be a great matter to teach reading so completely that the act shall +have become easy and pleasant. If reading remains "hard," that +accomplishment will not be much resorted to for instruction, and still +less for amusement--which last is one of its most valuable uses to +hard-worked people. But along with a due proficiency in the use of the +means of learning, a certain amount of knowledge, of intellectual +discipline, and of artistic training should be conveyed in the +elementary schools; and in this direction--for reasons which I am +afraid to repeat, having urged them so often--I can conceive no +subject-matter of education so appropriate and so important as the +rudiments of physical science, with drawing, modelling, and singing. +Not only would such teaching afford the best possible preparation for +the technical schools about which so much is now said, but the +organisation for carrying it into effect already exists. The Science +and Art Department, the operations of which have already attained +considerable magnitude, not only offers to examine and pay the results +of such examination in elementary science and art, but it provides what +is still more important, viz. a means of giving children of high +natural ability, who are just as abundant among the poor as among the +rich, a helping hand. A good old proverb tells us that "One should not +take a razor to cut a block:" the razor is soon spoiled, and the block +is not so well cut as it would be with a hatchet. But it is worse +economy to prevent a possible Watt from being anything but a stoker, or +to give a possible Faraday no chance of doing anything but to bind +books. Indeed, the loss in such cases of mistaken vocation has no +measure; it is absolutely infinite and irreparable. And among the +arguments in favour of the interference of the State in education, none +seems to be stronger than this--that it is the interest of every one +that ability should be neither wasted, nor misapplied, by any one: and, +therefore, that every one's representative, the State, is necessarily +fulfilling the wishes of its constituents when it is helping the +capacities to reach their proper places. + +It may be said that the scheme of education here sketched is too large +to be effected in the time during which the children will remain at +school; and, secondly, that even if this objection did not exist, it +would cost too much. + +I attach no importance whatever to the first objection until the +experiment has been fairly tried. Considering how much catechism, lists +of the kings of Israel, geography of Palestine, and the like, children +are made to swallow now, I cannot believe there will be any difficulty +in inducing them to go through the physical training, which is more +than half play; or the instruction in household work, or in those +duties to one another and to themselves, which have a daily and hourly +practical interest. That children take kindly to elementary science and +art no one can doubt who has tried the experiment properly. And if +Bible-reading is not accompanied by constraint and solemnity, as if it +were a sacramental operation, I do not believe there is anything in +which children take more pleasure. At least I know that some of the +pleasantest recollections of my childhood are connected with the +voluntary study of an ancient Bible which belonged to my grandmother. +There were splendid pictures in it, to be sure; but I recollect little +or nothing about them save a portrait of the high priest in his +vestments. What come vividly back on my mind are remembrances of my +delight in the histories of Joseph and of David; and of my keen +appreciation of the chivalrous kindness of Abraham in his dealing with +Lot. Like a sudden flash there returns back upon me, my utter scorn of +the pettifogging meanness of Jacob, and my sympathetic grief over the +heartbreaking lamentation of the cheated Esau, "Hast thou not a +blessing for me also, O my father?" And I see, as in a cloud, pictures +of the grand phantasmagoria of the Book of Revelation. + +I enumerate, as they issue, the childish impressions which come +crowding out of the pigeon-holes in my brain, in which they have lain +almost undisturbed for forty years. I prize them as an evidence that a +child of five or six years old, left to his own devices, may be deeply +interested in the Bible, and draw sound moral sustenance from it. And I +rejoice that I was left to deal with the Bible alone; for if I had had +some theological "explainer" at my side, he might have tried, as such +do, to lessen my indignation against Jacob, and thereby have warped my +moral sense for ever; while the great apocalyptic spectacle of the +ultimate triumph of right and justice might have been turned to the +base purposes of a pious lampooner of the Papacy. + +And as to the second objection--costliness--the reply is, first, that +the rate and the Parliamentary grant together ought to be enough, +considering that science and art teaching is already provided for; and, +secondly, that if they are not, it may be well for the educational +parliament to consider what has become of those endowments which were +originally intended to be devoted, more or less largely, to the +education of the poor. + +When the monasteries were spoiled, some of their endowments were +applied to the foundation of cathedrals; and in all such cases it was +ordered that a certain portion of the endowment should be applied to +the purposes of education. How much is so applied? Is that which may be +so applied given to help the poor, who cannot pay for education, or +does it virtually subsidise the comparatively rich, who can? How are +Christ's Hospital and Alleyn's foundation securing their right +purposes, or how far are they perverted into contrivances for affording +relief to the classes who can afford to pay for education? How-- But +this paper is already too long, and, if I begin, I may find it hard to +stop asking questions of this kind, which after all are worthy only of +the lowest of Radicals. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] Notwithstanding Mr. Huxley's intentions, the Editor took upon +himself, in what seemed to him to be the public interest, to send an +extract from this article to the newspapers--before the day of the +election of the School Board.--EDITOR of the _Contemporary Review_. + +[2] A passage in an article on the "Working of the Education Act," in +the _Saturday Review_ for Nov. 19, 1870, completely justifies this +anticipation of the line of action which the sectaries mean to take. +After commending the Liverpool compromise, the writer goes on to say:-- + +"If this plan is fairly adopted in Liverpool, the fourteenth clause of +the Act will in effect be restored to its original form, and the +majority of the ratepayers in each district be permitted to decide to +what denomination the school shall belong." + +In a previous paragraph the writer speaks of a possible "mistrust" of +one another by the members of the Board, and seems to anticipate +"accusations of dishonesty." If any of the members of the Board adopt +his views, I think it highly probable that he may turn out to be a true +prophet. + +[3] Since this paragraph was written, Mr. Forster, in speaking at the +Birkbeck Institution, has removed all doubt as to what his "final +decision" will be in the case of such disputes being referred to +him:--"I have the fullest confidence that in the reading and explaining +of the Bible, what the children will be taught will be the great truths +of Christian life and conduct, which all of us desire they should know, +and that no effort will be made to cram into their poor little minds, +theological dogmas which their tender age prevents them from +understanding." + + + + +XVI + +TECHNICAL EDUCATION + +[1877] + + +Any candid observer of the phenomena of modern society will readily +admit that bores must be classed among the enemies of the human race; +and a little consideration will probably lead him to the further +admission, that no species of that extensive genus of noxious creatures +is more objectionable than the educational bore. Convinced as I am of +the truth of this great social generalisation, it is not without a +certain trepidation that I venture to address you on an educational +topic. For, in the course of the last ten years, to go back no farther, +I am afraid to say how often I have ventured to speak of education, +from that given in the primary schools to that which is to be had in +the universities and medical colleges; indeed, the only part of this +wide region into which, as yet, I have not adventured is that into +which I propose to intrude to-day. + +Thus, I cannot but be aware that I am dangerously near becoming the +thing which all men fear and fly. But I have deliberately elected to +run the risk. For when you did me the honour to ask me to address you, +an unexpected circumstance had led me to occupy myself seriously with +the question of technical education; and I had acquired the conviction +that there are few subjects respecting which it is more important for +all classes of the community to have clear and just ideas than this; +while, certainly, there is none which is more deserving of attention by +the Working Men's Club and Institute Union. + +It is not for me to express an opinion whether the considerations, +which I am about to submit to you, will be proved by experience to be +just or not, but I will do my best to make them clear. Among the many +good things to be found in Lord Bacon's works, none is more full of +wisdom than the saying that "truth more easily comes out of error than +out of confusion." Clear and consecutive wrong-thinking is the next +best thing to right-thinking; so that, if I succeed in clearing your +ideas on this topic, I shall have wasted neither your time nor my own. + +"Technical education," in the sense in which the term is ordinarily +used, and in which I am now employing it, means that sort of education +which is specially adapted to the needs of men whose business in life +it is to pursue some kind of handicraft; it is, in fact, a fine +Greco-Latin equivalent for what in good vernacular English would be +called "the teaching of handicrafts." And probably, at this stage of +our progress, it may occur to many of you to think of the story of the +cobbler and his last, and to say to yourselves, though you will be too +polite to put the question openly to me, What does the speaker know +practically about this matter? What is his handicraft? I think the +question is a very proper one, and unless I were prepared to answer it, +I hope satisfactorily, I should have chosen some other theme. + +The fact is, I am, and have been, any time these thirty years, a man +who works with his hands--a handicraftsman. I do not say this in the +broadly metaphorical sense in which fine gentlemen, with all the +delicacy of Agag about them, trip to the hustings about election time, +and protest that they too are working men. I really mean my words to be +taken in their direct, literal, and straightforward sense. In fact, if +the most nimble-fingered watchmaker among you will come to my workshop, +he may set me to put a watch together, and I will set him to dissect, +say, a blackbeetle's nerves. I do not wish to vaunt, but I am inclined +to think that I shall manage my job to his satisfaction sooner than he +will do his piece of work to mine. + +In truth, anatomy, which is my handicraft, is one of the most difficult +kinds of mechanical labour, involving, as it does, not only lightness +and dexterity of hand, but sharp eyes and endless patience. And you +must not suppose that my particular branch of science is especially +distinguished for the demand it makes upon skill in manipulation. A +similar requirement is made upon all students of physical science. The +astronomer, the electrician, the chemist, the mineralogist, the +botanist, are constantly called upon to perform manual operations of +exceeding delicacy. The progress of all branches of physical science +depends upon observation, or on that artificial observation which is +termed experiment, of one kind or another; and, the farther we advance, +the more practical difficulties surround the investigation of the +conditions of the problems offered to us; so that mobile and yet steady +hands, guided by clear vision, are more and more in request in the +workshops of science. + +Indeed, it has struck me that one of the grounds of that sympathy +between the handicraftsmen of this country and the men of science, by +which it has so often been my good fortune to profit, may, perhaps, lie +here. You feel and we feel that, among the so-called learned folks, we +alone are brought into contact with tangible facts in the way that you +are. You know well enough that it is one thing to write a history of +chairs in general, or to address a poem to a throne, or to speculate +about the occult powers of the chair of St. Peter; and quite another +thing to make with your own hands a veritable chair, that will stand +fair and square, and afford a safe and satisfactory resting-place to a +frame of sensitiveness and solidity. + +So it is with us, when we look out from our scientific handicrafts upon +the doings of our learned brethren, whose work is untrammelled by +anything "base and mechanical," as handicrafts used to be called when +the world was younger, and, in some respects, less wise than now. We +take the greatest interest in their pursuits; we are edified by their +histories and are charmed with their poems, which sometimes illustrate +so remarkably the powers of man's imagination; some of us admire and +even humbly try to follow them in their high philosophical excursions, +though we know the risk of being snubbed by the inquiry whether +grovelling dissectors of monkeys and blackbeetles can hope to enter +into the empyreal kingdom of speculation. But still we feel that our +business is different; humbler if you will, though the diminution of +dignity is, perhaps, compensated by the increase of reality; and that +we, like you, have to get our work done in a region where little +avails, if the power of dealing with practical tangible facts is +wanting. You know that clever talk touching joinery will not make a +chair; and I know that it is of about as much value in the physical +sciences. Mother Nature is serenely obdurate to honeyed words; only +those who understand the ways of things, and can silently and +effectually handle them, get any good out of her. + +And now, having, as I hope, justified my assumption of a place among +handicraftsmen, and put myself right with you as to my qualification, +from practical knowledge, to speak about technical education, I will +proceed to lay before you the results of my experience as a teacher of +a handicraft, and tell you what sort of education I should think best +adapted for a boy whom one wanted to make a professional anatomist. + +I should say, in the first place, let him have a good English +elementary education. I do not mean that he shall be able to pass in +such and such a standard--that may or may not be an equivalent +expression--but that his teaching shall have been such as to have given +him command of the common implements of learning and to have created a +desire for the things of the understanding. + +Further, I should like him to know the elements of physical science, +and especially of physics and chemistry, and I should take care that +this elementary knowledge was real. I should like my aspirant to be +able to read a scientific treatise in Latin, French, or German, because +an enormous amount of anatomical knowledge is locked up in those +languages. And especially, I should require some ability to draw--I do +not mean artistically, for that is a gift which may be cultivated but +cannot be learned, but with fair accuracy. I will not say that +everybody can learn, even this; for the negative development of the +faculty of drawing in some people is almost miraculous. Still +everybody, or almost everybody, can learn to write; and, as writing is +a kind of drawing, I suppose that the majority of the people who say +they cannot draw, and give copious evidence of the accuracy of their +assertion, could draw, after a fashion, if they tried. And that "after +a fashion" would be better than nothing for my purposes. + +Above all things, let my imaginary pupil have preserved the freshness +and vigour of youth in his mind as well as his body. The educational +abomination of desolation of the present day is the stimulation of +young people to work at high pressure by incessant competitive +examinations. Some wise man (who probably was not an early riser) has +said of early risers in general, that they are conceited all the +forenoon and stupid all the afternoon. Now whether this is true of +early risers in the common acceptation of the word or not, I will not +pretend to say; but it is too often true of the unhappy children who +are forced to rise too early in their classes. They are conceited all +the forenoon of life, and stupid all its afternoon. The vigour and +freshness, which should have been stored up for the purposes of the +hard struggle for existence in practical life, have been washed out of +them by precocious mental debauchery--by book gluttony and lesson +bibbing. Their faculties are worn out by the strain put upon their +callow brains, and they are demoralised by worthless childish triumphs +before the real work of life begins. I have no compassion for sloth, +but youth has more need for intellectual rest than age; and the +cheerfulness, the tenacity of purpose, the power of work which make +many a successful man what he is, must often be placed to the credit, +not of his hours of industry, but to that of his hours of idleness, in +boyhood. Even the hardest worker of us all, if he has to deal with +anything above mere details, will do well, now and again, to let his +brain lie fallow for a space. The next crop of thought will certainly +be all the fuller in the ear and the weeds fewer. + +This is the sort of education which I should like any one who was going +to devote himself to my handicraft to undergo. As to knowing anything +about anatomy itself, on the whole I would rather he left that alone +until he took it up seriously in my laboratory. It is hard work enough +to teach, and I should not like to have superadded to that the possible +need of un-teaching. + +Well, but, you will say, this is Hamlet with the Prince of Denmark left +out; your "technical education" is simply a good education, with more +attention to physical science, to drawing, and to modern languages than +is common, and there is nothing specially technical about it. + +Exactly so; that remark takes us straight to the heart of what I have +to say; which is, that, in my judgment, the preparatory education of +the handicraftsman ought to have nothing of what is ordinarily +understood by "technical" about it. + +The workshop is the only real school for a handicraft. The education +which precedes that of the workshop should be entirely devoted to the +strengthening of the body, the elevation of the moral faculties, and +the cultivation of the intelligence; and, especially, to the imbuing +the mind with a broad and clear view of the laws of that natural world +with the components of which the handicraftsman will have to deal. And, +the earlier the period of life at which the handicraftsman has to enter +into actual practice of his craft, the more important is it that he +should devote the precious hours of preliminary education to things of +the mind, which have no direct and immediate bearing on his branch of +industry, though they lie at the foundation of all realities. + + * * * * * + +Now let me apply the lessons I have learned from my handicraft to +yours. If any of you were obliged to take an apprentice, I suppose you +would like to get a good healthy lad, ready and willing to learn, +handy, and with his fingers not all thumbs, as the saying goes. You +would like that he should read, write, and cipher well; and, if you +were an intelligent master, and your trade involved the application of +scientific principles, as so many trades do, you would like him to know +enough of the elementary principles of science to understand what was +going on. I suppose that, in nine trades out of ten, it would be useful +if he could draw; and many of you must have lamented your inability to +find out for yourselves what foreigners are doing or have done. So that +some knowledge of French and German might, in many cases, be very +desirable. + +So it appears to me that what you want is pretty much what I want; and +the practical question is, How you are to get what you need, under the +actual limitations and conditions of life of handicraftsmen in this +country? + +I think I shall have the assent both of the employers of labour and of +the employed as to one of these limitations; which is, that no scheme +of technical education is likely to be seriously entertained which will +delay the entrance of boys into working life, or prevent them from +contributing towards their own support, as early as they do at present. +Not only do I believe that any such scheme could not be carried out, +but I doubt its desirableness, even if it were practicable. + +The period between childhood and manhood is full of difficulties and +dangers, under the most favourable circumstances; and, even among the +well-to-do, who can afford to surround their children with the most +favourable conditions, examples of a career ruined, before it has well +begun, are but too frequent. Moreover, those who have to live by labour +must be shaped to labour early. The colt that is left at grass too long +makes but a sorry draught-horse, though his way of life does not bring +him within the reach of artificial temptations. Perhaps the most +valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the +thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or +not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and, however +early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he +learns thoroughly. + +There is another reason, to which I have already adverted, and which I +would reiterate, why any extension of the time devoted to ordinary +schoolwork is undesirable. In the newly-awakened zeal for education, we +run some risk of forgetting the truth that while under-instruction is a +bad thing, over-instruction may possibly be a worse. + +Success in any kind of practical life is not dependent solely, or +indeed chiefly, upon knowledge. Even in the learned professions, +knowledge alone, is of less consequence than people are apt to suppose. +And, if much expenditure of bodily energy is involved in the day's +work, mere knowledge is of still less importance when weighed against +the probable cost of its acquirement. To do a fair day's work with his +hands, a man needs, above all things, health, strength, and the +patience and cheerfulness which, if they do not always accompany these +blessings, can hardly in the nature of things exist without them; to +which we must add honesty of purpose and a pride in doing what is done +well. + +A good handicraftsman can get on very well without genius, but he will +fare badly without a reasonable share of that which is a more useful +possession for workaday life, namely, mother-wit; and he will be all +the better for a real knowledge, however limited, of the ordinary laws +of nature, and especially of those which apply to his own business. + +Instruction carried so far as to help the scholar to turn his store of +mother-wit to account, to acquire a fair amount of sound elementary +knowledge, and to use his hands and eyes; while leaving him fresh, +vigorous, and with a sense of the dignity of his own calling, whatever +it may be, if fairly and honestly pursued, cannot fail to be of +invaluable service to all those who come under its influence. + +But, on the other hand, if school instruction is carried so far as to +encourage bookishness; if the ambition of the scholar is directed, not +to the gaining of knowledge, but to the being able to pass examinations +successfully; especially if encouragement is given to the mischievous +delusion that brainwork is, in itself, and apart from its quality, a +nobler or more respectable thing than handiwork--such education may be +a deadly mischief to the workman, and lead to the rapid ruin of the +industries it is intended to serve. + +I know that I am expressing the opinion of some of the largest as well +as the most enlightened employers of labour, when I say that there is a +real danger that, from the extreme of no education, we may run to the +other extreme of over-education of handicraftsmen. And I apprehend that +what is true for the ordinary hand-worker is true for the foreman. +Activity, probity, knowledge of men, ready mother-wit, supplemented by +a good knowledge of the general principles involved in his business, +are the making of a good foreman. If he possess these qualities, no +amount of learning will fit him better for his position; while the +course of life and the habit of mind required for the attainment of +such learning may, in various direct and indirect ways, act as direct +disqualifications for it. + +Keeping in mind, then, that the two things to be avoided are, the delay +of the entrance of boys into practical life, and the substitution of +exhausted bookworms for shrewd, handy men, in our works and factories, +let us consider what may be wisely and safely attempted in the way of +improving the education of the handicraftsman. + +First, I look to the elementary schools now happily established all +over the country. I am not going to criticise or find fault with them; +on the contrary, their establishment seems to me to be the most +important and the most beneficial result of the corporate action of the +people in our day. A great deal is said of British interests just now, +but, depend upon it, that no Eastern difficulty needs our intervention +as a nation so seriously, as the putting down both the Bashi-Bazouks of +ignorance and the Cossacks of sectarianism at home. What has already +been achieved in these directions is a great thing; you must have lived +some time to know how great. An education, better in its processes, +better in its substance, than that which was accessible to the great +majority of well-to-do Britons a quarter of a century ago, is now +obtainable by every child in the land. Let any man of my age go into an +ordinary elementary school, and unless he was unusually fortunate in +his youth, he will tell you that the educational method, the +intelligence, patience, and good temper on the teacher's part, which +are now at the disposal of the veriest waifs and wastrels of society, +are things of which he had no experience in those costly, middle-class +schools, which were so ingeniously contrived as to combine all the +evils and shortcomings of the great public schools with none of their +advantages. Many a man, whose so-called education cost a good deal of +valuable money and occupied many a year of invaluable time, leaves the +inspection of a well-ordered elementary school devoutly wishing that, +in his young days, he had had the chance of being as well taught as +these boys and girls are. + +But while in view of such an advance in general education, I willingly +obey the natural impulse to be thankful, I am not willing altogether to +rest. I want to see instruction in elementary science and in art more +thoroughly incorporated in the educational system. At present, it is +being administered by driblets, as if it were a potent medicine, "a few +drops to be taken occasionally in a teaspoon." Every year I notice that +that earnest and untiring friend of yours and of mine, Sir John +Lubbock, stirs up the Government of the day in the House of Commons on +this subject; and also that, every year, he, and the few members of the +House of Commons, such as Dr. Playfair, who sympathise with him, are +met with expressions of warm admiration for science in general, and +reasons at large for doing nothing in particular. But now that Mr. +Forster, to whom the education of the country owes so much, has +announced his conversion to the right faith, I begin to hope that, +sooner or later, things will mend. + +I have given what I believe to be a good reason for the assumption, +that the keeping at school of boys, who are to be handicraftsmen, +beyond the age of thirteen or fourteen is neither practicable nor +desirable; and, as it is quite certain, that, with justice to other and +no less important branches of education, nothing more than the +rudiments of science and art teaching can be introduced into elementary +schools, we must seek elsewhere for a supplementary training in these +subjects, and, if need be, in foreign languages, which may go on after +the workman's life has begun. + +The means of acquiring the scientific and artistic part of this +training already exists in full working order, in the first place, in +the classes of the Science and Art Department, which are, for the most +part, held in the evening, so as to be accessible to all who choose to +avail themselves of them after working hours. The great advantage of +these classes is that they bring the means of instruction to the doors +of the factories and workshops; that they are no artificial creations, +but by their very existence prove the desire of the people for them; +and finally, that they admit of indefinite development in proportion as +they are wanted. I have often expressed the opinion, and I repeat it +here, that, during the eighteen years they have been in existence these +classes have done incalculable good; and I can say, of my own +knowledge, that the Department spares no pains and trouble in trying to +increase their usefulness and ensure the soundness of their work. + +No one knows better than my friend Colonel Donnelly, to whose clear +views and great administrative abilities so much of the successful +working of the science classes is due, that there is much to be done +before the system can be said to be thoroughly satisfactory. The +instruction given needs to be made more systematic and especially more +practical; the teachers are of very unequal excellence, and not a few +stand much in need of instruction themselves, not only in the subject +which they teach, but in the objects for which they teach. I dare say +you have heard of that proceeding, reprobated by all true sportsmen, +which is called "shooting for the pot." Well, there is such a thing as +"teaching for the pot"--teaching, that is, not that your scholar may +know, but that he may count for payment among those who pass the +examination; and there are some teachers, happily not many, who have +yet to learn that the examiners of the Department regard them as +poachers of the worst description. + +Without presuming in any way to speak in the name of the Department, I +think I may say, as a matter which has come under my own observation, +that it is doing its best to meet all these difficulties. It +systematically promotes practical instruction in the classes; it +affords facilities to teachers who desire to learn their business +thoroughly; and it is always ready to aid in the suppression of +pot-teaching. + +All this is, as you may imagine, highly satisfactory to me. I see that +spread of scientific education, about which I have so often permitted +myself to worry the public, become, for all practical purposes, an +accomplished fact. Grateful as I am for all that is now being done, in +the same direction, in our higher schools and universities, I have +ceased to have any anxiety about the wealthier classes. Scientific +knowledge is spreading by what the alchemists called a "distillatio per +ascensum;" and nothing now can prevent it from continuing to distil +upwards and permeate English society, until, in the remote future, +there shall be no member of the legislature who does not know as much +of science as an elementary school-boy; and even the heads of houses in +our venerable seats of learning shall acknowledge that natural science +is not merely a sort of University back-door through which inferior men +may get at their degrees. Perhaps this apocalyptic vision is a little +wild; and I feel I ought to ask pardon for an outbreak of enthusiasm, +which, I assure you, is not my commonest failing. + +I have said that the Government is already doing a great deal in aid of +that kind of technical education for handicraftsmen which, to my mind, +is alone worth seeking. Perhaps it is doing as much as it ought to do, +even in this direction. Certainly there is another kind of help of the +most important character, for which we may look elsewhere than to the +Government. The great mass of mankind have neither the liking, nor the +aptitude, for either literary, or scientific, or artistic pursuits; +nor, indeed, for excellence of any sort. Their ambition is to go +through life with moderate exertion and a fair share of ease, doing +common things in a common way. And a great blessing and comfort it is +that the majority of men are of this mind; for the majority of things +to be done are common things, and are quite well enough done when +commonly done. The great end of life is not knowledge but action. What +men need is, as much knowledge as they can assimilate and organise into +a basis for action; give them more and it may become injurious. One +knows people who are as heavy and stupid from undigested learning as +others are from over-fulness of meat and drink. But a small percentage +of the population is born with that most excellent quality, a desire +for excellence, or with special aptitudes of some sort or another; Mr. +Galton tells us that not more than one in four thousand may be expected +to attain distinction, and not more than one in a million some share of +that intensity of instinctive aptitude, that burning thirst for +excellence, which is called genius. + +Now, the most important object of all educational schemes is to catch +these exceptional people, and turn them to account for the good of +society. No man can say where they will crop up; like their opposites, +the fools and knaves, they appear sometimes in the palace, and +sometimes in the hovel; but the great thing to be aimed at, I was +almost going to say the most important end of all social arrangements, +is to keep these glorious sports of Nature from being either corrupted +by luxury or starved by poverty, and to put them into the position in +which they can do the work for which they are especially fitted. + +Thus, if a lad in an elementary school showed signs of special +capacity, I would try to provide him with the means of continuing his +education after his daily working life had begun; if in the evening +classes he developed special capabilities in the direction of science +or of drawing, I would try to secure him an apprenticeship to some +trade in which those powers would have applicability. Or, if he chose +to become a teacher, he should have the chance of so doing. Finally, to +the lad of genius, the one in a million, I would make accessible the +highest and most complete training the country could afford. Whatever +that might cost, depend upon it the investment would be a good one. I +weigh my words when I say that if the nation could purchase a potential +Watt, or Davy, or Faraday, at the cost of a hundred thousand pounds +down, he would be dirt-cheap at the money. It is a mere commonplace and +everyday piece of knowledge, that what these three men did has produced +untold millions of wealth, in the narrowest economical sense of the +word. + +Therefore, as the sum and crown of what is to be done for technical +education, I look to the provision of a machinery for winnowing out the +capacities and giving them scope. When I was a member of the London +School Board, I said, in the course of a speech, that our business was +to provide a ladder, reaching from the gutter to the university, along +which every child in the three kingdoms should have the chance of +climbing as far as he was fit to go. This phrase was so much bandied +about at the time, that, to say truth, I am rather tired of it; but I +know of no other which so fully expresses my belief, not only about +education in general, but about technical education in particular. + +The essential foundation of all the organisation needed for the +promotion of education among handicraftsmen will, I believe, exist in +this country, when every working lad can feel that society has done as +much as lies in its power to remove all needless and artificial +obstacles from his path; that there is no barrier, except such as +exists in the nature of things, between himself and whatever place in +the social organisation he is fitted to fill; and, more than this, +that, if he has capacity and industry, a hand is held out to help him +along any path which is wisely and honestly chosen. + +I have endeavoured to point out to you that a great deal of such an +organisation already exists; and I am glad to be able to add that there +is a good prospect that what is wanting will, before long, be +supplemented. + +Those powerful and wealthy societies, the livery companies of the City +of London, remembering that they are the heirs and representatives of +the trade guilds of the Middle Ages, are interesting themselves in the +question. So far back as 1872 the Society of Arts organised a system of +instruction in the technology of arts and manufactures, for persons +actually employed in factories and workshops, who desired to extend and +improve their knowledge of the theory and practice of their particular +avocations; [1] and a considerable subsidy, in aid of the efforts of +the Society, was liberally granted by the Clothworkers' Company. We +have here the hopeful commencement of a rational organisation for the +promotion of excellence among handicraftsmen. Quite recently, other of +the livery companies have determined upon giving their powerful, and, +indeed, almost boundless, aid to the improvement of the teaching of +handicrafts. They have already gone so far as to appoint a committee to +act for them; and I betray no confidence in adding that, some time +since, the committee sought the advice and assistance of several +persons, myself among the number. + +Of course I cannot tell you what may be the result of the deliberations +of the committee; but we may all fairly hope that, before long, steps +which will have a weighty and a lasting influence on the growth and +spread of sound and thorough teaching among the handicraftsmen [2] of +this country will be taken by the livery companies of London. + +[This hope has been fully justified by the establishment of the Cowper +Street Schools, and that of the Central Institution of the City and +Guilds of London Institute, September, 1881.] + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] See the _Programme_ for 1878, issued by the Society of Arts, +p. 14. + +[2] It is perhaps advisable to remark that the important question of +the professional education of managers of industrial works is not +touched in the foregoing remarks. + + + + +XVII + +ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF +TECHNICAL EDUCATION + +[1887.] + + +Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen,--It must be a matter of sincere satisfaction +to those who, like myself, have for many years past been convinced of +the vital importance of technical education to this country to see that +that subject is now being taken up by some of the most important of our +manufacturing towns. The evidence which is afforded of the public +interest in the matter by such meetings as those at Liverpool and +Newcastle, and, last but not least, by that at which I have the honour +to be present to-day, may convince us all, I think, that the question +has passed out of the region of speculation into that of action. I need +hardly say to any one here that the task which our Association +contemplates is not only one of primary importance--I may say of vital +importance--to the welfare of the country; but that it is one of great +extent and of vast difficulty. There is a well-worn adage that those +who set out upon a great enterprise would do well to count the cost. I +am not sure that this is always true. I think that some of the very +greatest enterprises in this world have been carried out successfully +simply because the people who undertook them did not count the cost; +and I am much of opinion that, in this very case, the most instructive +consideration for us is the cost of doing nothing. But there is one +thing that is perfectly certain, and it is that, in undertaking all +enterprises, one of the most important conditions of success is to have +a perfectly clear comprehension of what you want to do--to have that +before your minds before you set out, and from that point of view to +consider carefully the measures which are best adapted to the end. + +Mr. Acland has just given you an excellent account of what is properly +and strictly understood by technical education; but I venture to think +that the purpose of this Association may be stated in somewhat broader +terms, and that the object we have in view is the development of the +industrial productivity of the country to the uttermost limits +consistent with social welfare. And you will observe that, in thus +widening the definition of our object, I have gone no further than the +Mayor in his speech, when he not obscurely hinted--and most justly +hinted--that in dealing with this question there are other matters than +technical education, in the strict sense, to be considered. + +It would be extreme presumption on my part if I were to attempt to tell +an audience of gentlemen intimately acquainted with all branches of +industry and commerce, such as I see before me, in what manner the +practical details of the operations that we propose are to be carried +out. I am absolutely ignorant both of trade and of commerce, and upon +such matters I cannot venture to say a solitary word. But there is one +direction in which I think it possible I may be of service--not much +perhaps, but still of some,--because this matter, in the first place, +involves the consideration of methods of education with which it has +been my business to occupy myself during the greater part of my life; +and, in the second place, it involves attention to some of those broad +facts and laws of nature with which it has been my business to acquaint +myself to the best of my ability. And what I think may be possible is +this, that if I succeed in putting before you--as briefly as I can, but +in clear and connected shape--what strikes me as the programme that we +have eventually to carry out, and what are the indispensable conditions +of success, that that proceeding, whether the conclusions at which I +arrive be such as you approve or as you disapprove, will nevertheless +help to clear the course. In this and in all complicated matters we +must remember a saying of Bacon, which may be freely translated thus: +"Consistent error is very often vastly more useful than muddle-headed +truth." At any rate, if there be any error in the conclusions I shall +put before you, I will do my best to make the error perfectly clear and +plain. + +Now, looking at the question of what we want to do in this broad and +general way, it appears to me that it is necessary for us, in the first +place, to amend and improve our system of primary education in such a +fashion as will make it a proper preparation for the business of life. +In the second place, I think we have to consider what measures may best +be adopted for the development to its uttermost of that which may be +called technical skill; and, in the third place, I think we have to +consider what other matters there are for us to attend to, what other +arrangements have to be kept carefully in sight in order that, while +pursuing these ends, we do not forget that which is the end of civil +existence, I mean a stable social state without which all other +measures are merely futile, and, in effect, modes of going faster to +ruin. + +You are aware--no people should know the fact better than Manchester +people--that, within the last seventeen years, a vast system of primary +education has been created and extended over the whole country. I had +some part in the original organisation of this system in London, and I +am glad to think that, after all these years, I can look back upon that +period of my life as perhaps the part of it least wasted. + +No one can doubt that this system of primary education has done wonders +for our population; but, from our point of view, I do not think anybody +can doubt that it still has very considerable defects. It has the +defect which is common to all the educational systems which we have +inherited--it is too bookish, too little practical. The child is +brought too little into contact with actual facts and things, and as +the system stands at present it constitutes next to no education of +those particular faculties which are of the utmost importance to +industrial life--I mean the faculty of observation, the faculty of +working accurately, of dealing with things instead of with words. I do +not propose to enlarge upon this topic, but I would venture to suggest +that there are one or two remedial measures which are imperatively +needed; indeed, they have already been alluded to by Mr. Acland. Those +which strike me as of the greatest importance are two, and the first of +them is the teaching of drawing. In my judgment, there is no mode of +exercising the faculty of observation and the faculty of accurate +reproduction of that which is observed, no discipline which so readily +tests error in these matters, as drawing properly taught. And by that I +do not mean artistic drawing; I mean figuring natural objects: making +plans and sections, approaching geometrical rather than artistic +drawing. I do not wish to exaggerate, but I declare to you that, in my +judgment, the child who has been taught to make an accurate elevation, +plan and section of a pint pot has had an admirable training in +accuracy of eye and hand. I am not talking about artistic education. +That is not the question. Accuracy is the foundation of everything +else, and instruction in artistic drawing is something which may be put +off till a later stage. Nothing has struck me more in the course of my +life than the loss which persons, who are pursuing scientific knowledge +of any kind, sustain from the difficulties which arise because they +never have been taught elementary drawing; and I am glad to say that in +Eton, a school of whose governing body I have the honour of being a +member, we some years ago made drawing imperative on the whole school. + +The other matter in which we want some systematic and good teaching is +what I have hardly a name for, but which may best be explained as a +sort of developed object lessons such as Mr. Acland adverted to. +Anybody who knows his business in science can make anything subservient +to that purpose. You know it was said of Dean Swift that he could write +an admirable poem upon a broomstick, and the man who has a real +knowledge of science can make the commonest object in the world +subservient to an introduction to the principles and greater truths of +natural knowledge. It is in that way that your science must be taught +if it is to be of real service. Do not suppose any amount of book work, +any repetition by rote of catechisms and other abominations of that +kind are of value for our object. That is mere wasting of time. But +take the commonest object and lead the child from that foundation to +such truths of a higher order as may be within his grasp. With regard +to drawing, I do not think there is any practical difficulty; but in +respect to the scientific object lessons you want teachers trained in a +manner different from that which now prevails. + +If it is found practicable to add further training of the hand and eye +by instruction in modelling or in simple carpentry, well and good. But +I should stop at this point. The elementary schools are already charged +with quite as much as they can do properly; and I do not believe that +any good can come of burdening them with special technical instruction. +Out of that, I think, harm would come. + +Now let me pass to my second point, which is the development of +technical skill. Everybody here is aware that at this present moment +there is hardly a branch of trade or of commerce which does not depend, +more or less directly, upon some department or other of physical +science, which does not involve, for its successful pursuit, reasoning +from scientific data. Our machinery, our chemical processes or +dyeworks, and a thousand operations which it is not necessary to +mention, are all directly and immediately connected with science. You +have to look among your workmen and foremen for persons who shall +intelligently grasp the modifications, based upon science, which are +constantly being introduced into these industrial processes. I do not +mean that you want professional chemists, or physicists, or +mathematicians, or the like, but you want people sufficiently familiar +with the broad principles which underlie industrial operations to be +able to adapt themselves to new conditions. Such qualifications can +only be secured by a sort of scientific instruction which occupies a +midway place between those primary notions given in the elementary +schools and those more advanced studies which would be carried out in +the technical schools. + +You are aware that, at present, a very large machinery is in operation +for the purpose of giving this instruction. I don't refer merely to +such work as is being done at Owens College here, for example, or at +other local colleges. I allude to the larger operations of the Science +and Art Department, with which I have been connected for a great many +years. I constantly hear a great many objections raised to the work of +the Science and Art Department. If you will allow me to say so, my +connection with that department--which, I am happy to say, remains, and +which I am very proud of--is purely honorary; and, if it appeared to me +to be right to criticise that department with merciless severity, the +Lord President, if he were inclined to resent my proceedings, could do +nothing more than dismiss me. Therefore you may believe that I speak +with absolute impartiality. My impression is this, not that it is +faultless, nor that it has not various defects, nor that there are not +sundry _lacunae_ which want filling up; but that, if we consider +the conditions under which the department works, we shall see that +certain defects are inseparable from those conditions. People talk of +the want of flexibility of the Department, of its being bound by strict +rules. Now, will any man of common sense who has had anything to do +with the administration of public funds or knows the humour of the +House of Commons on these matters--will any man who is in the smallest +degree acquainted with the practical working of State departments of +any kind, imagine that such a department could be other than bound by +minutely defined regulations? Can he imagine that the work of the +department should go on fairly and in such a manner as to be free from +just criticism, unless it were bound by certain definite and fixed +rules? I cannot imagine it. + +The next objection of importance that I have heard commonly repeated is +that the teaching is too theoretical, that there is insufficient +practical teaching. I venture to say that there is no one who has taken +more pains to insist upon the comparative uselessness of scientific +teaching without practical work than I have; I venture to say that +there are no persons who are more cognisant of these defects in the +work of the Science and Art Department than those who administer it. +But those who talk in this way should acquaint themselves with the fact +that proper practical instruction is a matter of no small difficulty in +the present scarcity of properly taught teachers, that it is very +costly, and that, in some branches of science, there are other +difficulties which I won't allude to. But it is a matter of fact that, +wherever it has been possible, practical teaching has been introduced, +and has been made an essential element in examination; and no doubt if +the House of Commons would grant unlimited means, and if proper +teachers were to hand, as thick as blackberries, there would not be +much difficulty in organising a complete system of practical +instruction and examination ancillary to the present science classes. +Those who quarrel with the present state of affairs would be better +advised if, instead of groaning over the shortcomings of the present +system, they would put before themselves these two questions--Is it +possible under the conditions to invent any better system? Is it +possible under the conditions to enlarge the work of practical teaching +and practical examination which is the one desire of those who +administer the department? That is all I have to say upon that subject. + +Supposing we have this teaching of what I may call intermediate +science, what we want next is technical instruction, in the strict +sense of the word technical; I mean instruction in that kind of +knowledge which is essential to the successful prosecution of the +several branches of trade and industry. Now, the best way of obtaining +this end is a matter about which the most experienced persons entertain +very diverse opinions. I do not for one moment pretend to dogmatise +about it; I can only tell you what the opinion is that I have formed +from hearing the views of those who are certainly best qualified to +judge, from those who have tested the various methods of conveying this +instruction. I think we have before us three possibilities. We have, in +the first place, trade schools--I mean schools in which branches of +trade are taught. We have, in the next place, schools attached to +factories for the purpose of instructing young apprentices and others +who go there, and who aim at becoming intelligent workmen and capable +foremen. We have, lastly, the system of day classes and evening +classes. With regard to the first there is this objection, that they +can be attended only by those who are not obliged to earn their bread, +and consequently that they will reach only a very small fraction of the +population. Moreover, the expense of trade schools is enormous, and +those who are best able to judge assure me that, inasmuch as the work +which they do is not done under conditions of pecuniary success or +failure, it is apt to be too amateurish and speculative, and that it +does not prepare the worker for the real conditions under which he will +have to carry out his work. In any case, the fact that the schools are +very expensive, and the fact that they are accessible only to a small +portion of the population, seem to me to constitute a very serious +objection to them. I suppose the best of all possible organisations is +that of a school attached to a factory, where the employer has an +interest in seeing that the instruction given is of a thoroughly +practical kind, and where the pupils pass gradually by successive +stages to the position of actual workmen. Schools of this kind exist in +various parts of the country, but it is obvious that they are not +likely to be reached by any large part of the population; so that it +appears to me we are shut up practically to schools accessible to those +who are earning their bread, and in such cases they must be essentially +evening classes. I am strongly of opinion that classes of this kind do +an immense amount of good; that they have this admirable quality, that +they involve voluntary attendance, take no man out of his position, but +enable any who chooses, to make the best of the position he happens to +occupy. + +Suppose that all these things are desirable, what is the best way of +obtaining them? I must confess that I have a strong prejudice in favour +of carrying out undertakings of this kind, which at first, at any rate, +must be to a great extent tentative and experimental, by private +effort. I don't believe that the man lives at this present time who is +competent to organise a final system of technical education. I believe +that all attempts made in that direction must for many years to come be +experimental, and that we must get to success through a series of +blunders. Now that work is far better performed by private enterprise +than in any other way. But there is another method which I think is +permissible, and not only permissible but highly recommendable in this +case, and that is the method of allowing the locality itself in which +any branch of industry is pursued to be its own judge of its own wants, +and to tax itself under certain conditions for the purpose of carrying +out any scheme of technical education adapted to its needs. I am aware +that there are many extreme theorists of the individualist school who +hold that all this is very wicked and very wrong, and that by leaving +things to themselves they will get right. Well, my experience of the +world is that things left to themselves don't get right. I believe it +to be sound doctrine that a municipality--and the State itself for that +matter--is a corporation existing for the benefit of its members, and +that here, as in all other cases, it is for the majority to determine +that which is for the good of the whole, and to act upon that. That is +the principle which underlies the whole theory of government in this +country, and if it is wrong we shall have to go back a long way. But +you may ask me, "This process of local taxation can only be carried out +under the authority of an Act of Parliament, and do you propose to let +any municipality or any local authority have _carte blanche_ in +these matters; is the Legislature to allow it to tax the whole body of +its members to any extent it pleases and for any purposes it pleases?" +I should reply, certainly not. + +Let me point out to you that at this present moment it passes the wit +of man, so far as I know, to give a legal definition of technical +education. If you expect to have an Act of Parliament with a definition +which shall include all that ought to be included, and exclude all that +ought to be excluded, I think you will have to wait a very long time. I +imagine the whole matter is in a tentative state. You don't know what +you will be called upon to do, and so you must try and you must +blunder. Under these circumstances it is obvious that there are two +alternatives. One of these is to give a free hand to each locality. +Well, it is within my knowledge that there are a good many people with +wonderful, strange, and wild notions as to what ought to be done in +technical education, and it is quite possible that in some places, and +especially in small places, where there are few persons who take an +interest in these things, you will have very remarkable projects put +forth, and in that case the sole court of appeal for those taxpayers, +who did not approve of such projects, would be a court of law. I +suppose the judges would have to settle what is technical education. +That would not be an edifying process, I think, and certainly it would +be a very costly one. The other alternative is the principle adopted in +the bill of last year now abandoned. I don't say whether the bill was +right or wrong in detail. I am dealing now only with the principle of +the bill, which appears to me to have been very often misunderstood. It +has been said that it gave the whole of technical education into the +hands of the Science and Art Department. It appears to me nothing could +be more unfounded than that assertion. All I understand the Government +proposed to do was to provide some authority who should have power to +say in case any scheme was proposed, "Well, this comes within the four +corners of the Act of Parliament, work it as you like;" or if it was an +obviously questionable project, should take upon itself the +responsibility of saying, "No, that is not what the Legislature +intended; amend your scheme." There was no initiative, no control; +there was simply this power of giving authority to decide upon the +meaning of the Act of Parliament to a particular department of the +State, whichever it might be; and it seems to me that that is a very +much simpler and better process than relegating the whole question to +the law courts. I think that here, or anywhere else, people must be +extremely sanguine if they suppose that the House of Commons and the +House of Lords will ever dream of giving any local authority unlimited +power to tax the inhabitants of a district for any object it pleases. I +should say that was not in the range of practical politics. Well, I put +that before you as a matter for your consideration. + +Another very important point in this connection is the question of the +supply of teachers. I should say that is one of the greatest +difficulties which beset the whole problem before us. I do not wish in +the slightest degree to criticise the existing system of preparing +teachers for ordinary school work. I have nothing to say about it. But +what I do wish to say, and what I trust I may impress on your minds +firmly is this, that for the purpose of obtaining persons competent to +teach science or to act as technical teachers, a different system must +be adopted. For this purpose a man must know what he is about +thoroughly, and be able to deal with his subject as if it were the +business of his ordinary life. For this purpose, for the obtaining of +teachers of science and of technical classes, the system of catching a +boy or girl young, making a pupil teacher of him, compelling the poor +little mortal to pour from his little bucket, into a still smaller +bucket, that which has just been poured into it out of a big bucket; +and passing him afterwards through the training college, where his life +is devoted to filling the bucket from the pump from morning till night, +without time for thought or reflection, is a system which should not +continue. Let me assure you that it will not do for us, that you had +better give the attempt up than try that system. I remember somewhere +reading of an interview between the poet Southey and a good Quaker. +Southey was a man of marvellous powers of work. He had a habit of +dividing his time into little parts each of which was filled up, and he +told the Quaker what he did in this hour and that, and so on through +the day until far into the night. The Quaker listened, and at the close +said, "Well, but, friend Southey, when dost thee think?" The system +which I am now adverting to is arraigned and condemned by putting that +question to it. When does the unhappy pupil teacher, or over-drilled +student of a training college, find any time to think? I am sure if I +were in their place I could not. I repeat, that kind of thing will not +do for science teachers. For science teachers must have knowledge, and +knowledge is not to be acquired on these terms. The power of repetition +is, but that is not knowledge. The knowledge which is absolutely +requisite in dealing with young children is the knowledge you possess, +as you would know your own business, and which you can just turn about +as if you were explaining to a boy a matter of everyday life. + +So far as science teaching and technical education are concerned, the +most important of all things is to provide the machinery for training +proper teachers. The Department of Science and Art has been at that +work for years and years, and though unable under present conditions to +do so much as could be wished, it has, I believe, already begun to +leaven the lump to a very considerable extent. If technical education +is to be carried out on the scale at present contemplated, this +particular necessity must be specially and most seriously provided for. +And there is another difficulty, namely, that when you have got your +science or technical teacher it may not be easy to keep him. You have +educated a man--a clever fellow very likely--on the understanding that +he is to be a teacher. But the business of teaching is not a very +lucrative and not a very attractive one, and an able man who has had a +good training is under extreme temptations to carry his knowledge and +his skill to a better market, in which case you have had all your +trouble for nothing. It has often occurred to me that probably nothing +would be of more service in this matter than the creation of a number +of not very large bursaries or exhibitions, to be gained by persons +nominated by the authorities of the various science colleges and +schools of the country--persons such as they thought to be well +qualified for the teaching business--and to be held for a certain term +of years, during which the holders should be bound to teach. I believe +that some measure of this kind would do more to secure a good supply of +teachers than anything else. Pray note that I do not suggest that you +should try to get hold of good teachers by competitive examination. +That is not the best way of getting men of that special qualification. +An effectual method would be to ask professors and teachers of any +institution to recommend men who, to their own knowledge, are worthy of +such support, and are likely to turn it to good account. + +I trust I am not detaining you too long; but there remains yet one +other matter which I think is of profound importance, perhaps of more +importance than all the rest, on which I earnestly beg to be permitted +to say some few words. It is the need, while doing all these things, of +keeping an eye, and an anxious eye, upon those measures which are +necessary for the preservation of that stable and sound condition of +the whole social organism which is the essential condition of real +progress, and a chief end of all education. You will all recollect that +some time ago there was a scandal and a great outcry about certain +cutlasses and bayonets which had been supplied to our troops and +sailors. These warlike implements were polished as bright as rubbing +could make them; they were very well sharpened; they looked lovely. But +when they were applied to the test of the work of war they broke and +they bent, and proved more likely to hurt the hand of him that used +them than to do any harm to the enemy. Let me apply that analogy to the +effect of education, which is a sharpening and polishing of the mind. +You may develop the intellectual side of people as far as you like, and +you may confer upon them all the skill that training and instruction +can give; but, if there is not, underneath all that outside form and +superficial polish, the firm fibre of healthy manhood and earnest +desire to do well, your labour is absolutely in vain. + +Let me further call your attention to the fact that the terrible battle +of competition between the different nations of the world is no +transitory phenomenon, and does not depend upon this or that +fluctuation of the market, or upon any condition that is likely to pass +away. It is the inevitable result of that which takes place throughout +nature and affects man's part of nature as much as any other--namely, +the struggle for existence, arising out of the constant tendency of all +creatures in the animated world to multiply indefinitely. It is that, +if you look at it, which is at the bottom of all the great movements of +history. It is that inherent tendency of the social organism to +generate the causes of its own destruction, never yet counteracted, +which has been at the bottom of half the catastrophes which have ruined +States. We are at present in the swim of one of those vast movements in +which, with a population far in excess of that which we can feed, we +are saved from a catastrophe, through the impossibility of feeding +them, solely by our possession of a fair share of the markets of the +world. And in order that that fair share may be retained, it is +absolutely necessary that we should be able to produce commodities +which we can exchange with food-growing people, and which they will +take, rather than those of our rivals, on the ground of their greater +cheapness or of their greater excellence. That is the whole story. And +our course, let me say, is not actuated by mere motives of ambition or +by mere motives of greed. Those doubtless are visible enough on the +surface of these great movements, but the movements themselves have far +deeper sources. If there were no such things as ambition and greed in +this world, the struggle for existence would arise from the same +causes. + +Our sole chance of succeeding in a competition, which must constantly +become more and more severe, is that our people shall not only have the +knowledge and the skill which are required, but that they shall have +the will and the energy and the honesty, without which neither +knowledge nor skill can be of any permanent avail. This is what I mean +by a stable social condition, because any other condition than this, +any social condition in which the development of wealth involves the +misery, the physical weakness, and the degradation of the worker, is +absolutely and infallibly doomed to collapse. Your bayonets and +cutlasses will break under your hand, and there will go on accumulating +in society a mass of hopeless, physically incompetent, and morally +degraded people, who are, as it were, a sort of dynamite which, sooner +or later, when its accumulation becomes sufficient and its tension +intolerable, will burst the whole fabric. + +I am quite aware that the problem which I have put before you and which +you know as much about as I do, and a great deal more probably, is one +extremely difficult to solve. I am fully aware that one great factor in +industrial success is reasonable cheapness of labour. That has been +pointed out over and over again, and is in itself an axiomatic +proposition. And it seems to me that of all the social questions which +face us at this present time, the most serious is how to steer a clear +course between the two horns of an obvious dilemma. One of these is the +constant tendency of competition to lower wages beyond a point at which +man can remain man--below a point at which decency and cleanliness and +order and habits of morality and justice can reasonably be expected to +exist. And the other horn of the dilemma is the difficulty of +maintaining wages above this point consistently with success in +industrial competition. I have not the remotest conception how this +problem will eventually work itself out; but of this I am perfectly +convinced, that the sole course compatible with safety lies between the +two extremes; between the Scylla of successful industrial production +with a degraded population, on the one side, and the Charybdis of a +population, maintained in a reasonable and decent state, with failure +in industrial competition, on the other side. Having this strong +conviction, which, indeed, I imagine must be that of every person who +has ever thought seriously about these great problems, I have ventured +to put it before you in this bare and almost cynical fashion because it +will justify the strong appeal, which I make to all concerned in this +work of promoting industrial education, to have a care, at the same +time, that the conditions of industrial life remain those in which the +physical energies of the population may be maintained at a proper +level; in which their moral state may be cared for; in which there may +be some rays of hope and pleasure in their lives; and in which the sole +prospect of a life of labour may not be an old age of penury. + +These are the chief suggestions I have to offer to you, though I have +omitted much that I should like to have said, had time permitted. It +may be that some of you feel inclined to look upon them as the Utopian +dreams of a student. If there be such, let me tell you that there are, +to my knowledge, manufacturing towns in this country, not one-tenth the +size, or boasting one-hundredth part of the wealth, of Manchester, in +which I do not say that the programme that I have put before you is +completely carried out, but in which, at any rate, a wise and +intelligent effort had been made to realise it, and in which the main +parts of the programme are in course of being worked out. This is not +the first time that I have had the privilege and pleasure of addressing +a Manchester audience. I have often enough, before now, thrown myself +with entire confidence upon the hard-headed intelligence and the very +soft-hearted kindness of Manchester people, when I have had a difficult +and complicated scientific argument to put before them. If, after the +considerations which I have put before you--and which, pray be it +understood, I by no means claim particularly for myself, for I presume +they must be in the minds of a large number of people who have thought +about this matter--if it be that these ideas commend themselves to your +mature reflection, then I am perfectly certain that my appeal to you to +carry them into practice, with that abundant energy and will which have +led you to take a foremost part in the great social movements of our +country many a time beforehand, will not be made in vain. I therefore +confidently appeal to you to let those impulses once more have full +sway, and not to rest until you have done something better and greater +than has yet been done in this country in the direction in which we are +now going. I heartily thank you for the attention which you have been +kind enough to bestow upon me. The practice of public speaking is one I +must soon think of leaving off, and I count it a special and peculiar +honour to have had the opportunity of speaking to you on this subject +to-day. + + * * * * * + +THE END OF VOL. III + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, SCIENCE & EDUCATION *** + +This file should be named 7sced10.txt or 7sced10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7sced11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7sced10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Science & Education + +Author: Thomas H. Huxley + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7150] +[This file was first posted on March 18, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, SCIENCE & EDUCATION *** + + + + +Thomas Berger, Carlo Traverso, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +This file was produced from images generously made available by the +Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr. + + + + + + SCIENCE & EDUCATION + + + +ESSAYS + +BY + +THOMAS H. HUXLEY + + + + + +PREFACE + +The apology offered in the Preface to the first volume of this series +for the occurrence of repetitions, is even more needful here I am +afraid. But it could hardly be otherwise with speeches and essays, on +the same topic, addressed at intervals, during more than thirty years, +to widely distant and different hearers and readers. The oldest piece, +that "On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences," +contains some crudities, which I repudiated when the lecture was first +reprinted, more than twenty years ago; but it will be seen that much of +what I have had to say, later on in life, is merely a development of +the propositions enunciated in this early and sadly-imperfect piece of +work. + +In view of the recent attempt to disturb the compromise about the +teaching of dogmatic theology, solemnly agreed to by the first School +Board for London, the fifteenth Essay; and, more particularly, the note +n. 3, may be found interesting. + +T. H. H. + +Hodeslea, Eastbourne, _September 4th, 1893_. + + + + +CONTENTS + +I JOSEPH PRIESTLEY [1874] +(An Address delivered on the occasion of the presentation of a statue +of Priestley to the town of Birmingham) + + +II ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES [1854] +(An Address delivered in S. Martin's Hall) + + +III EMANCIPATION--BLACK AND WHITE [1865] + + +IV A LIBERAL EDUCATION; AND WHERE TO FIND IT [1868] +(An Address to the South London Working Men's College) + + +V SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH [1869] +(Liverpool Philomathic Society) + + +VI SCIENCE AND CULTURE [1880] +(An Address delivered at the opening of Sir Josiah Mason's Science +College, Birmingham) + +VII ON SCIENCE AND ART IN RELATION TO EDUCATION [1882] +(An Address to the members of the Liverpool Institution) + + +VIII UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL [1874] +(Rectorial Address, Aberdeen) + + +IX ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION [1876] +(Delivered at the opening of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore) + + +X ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY [1876] +(A Lecture in connection with the Loan Collection of Scientific +Apparatus, South Kensington Museum) + + +XI ON ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY [1877] + + +XII ON MEDICAL EDUCATION [1870] +(An Address to the students of the Faculty of Medicine in University +College, London) + + +XIII THE STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION [1884] + + +XIV THE CONNECTION OF THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES WITH MEDICINE [1881] +(An Address to the International Medical Congress) + + +XV THE SCHOOL BOARDS: WHAT THEY CAN DO, AND WHAT THEY MAY DO [1870] + + +XVI TECHNICAL EDUCATION [1877] + + +XVII ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF +TECHNICAL EDUCATION [1887] + + + + + +COLLECTED ESSAYS + +VOLUME III + + + + +I + +JOSEPH PRIESTLEY + +[1874] + + +If the man to perpetuate whose memory we have this day raised a statue +had been asked on what part of his busy life's work he set the highest +value, he would undoubtedly have pointed to his voluminous +contributions to theology. In season and out of season, he was the +steadfast champion of that hypothesis respecting the Divine nature +which is termed Unitarianism by its friends and Socinianism by its +foes. Regardless of odds, he was ready to do battle with all comers in +that cause; and if no adversaries entered the lists, he would sally +forth to seek them. + +To this, his highest ideal of duty, Joseph Priestley sacrificed the +vulgar prizes of life, which, assuredly, were within easy reach of a +man of his singular energy and varied abilities. For this object he put +aside, as of secondary importance, those scientific investigations +which he loved so well, and in which he showed himself so competent to +enlarge the boundaries of natural knowledge and to win fame. In this +cause he not only cheerfully suffered obloquy from the bigoted and the +unthinking, and came within sight of martyrdom; but bore with that +which is much harder to be borne than all these, the unfeigned +astonishment and hardly disguised contempt of a brilliant society, +composed of men whose sympathy and esteem must have been most dear to +him, and to whom it was simply incomprehensible that a philosopher +should seriously occupy himself with any form of Christianity. + +It appears to me that the man who, setting before himself such an ideal +of life, acted up to it consistently, is worthy of the deepest respect, +whatever opinion may be entertained as to the real value of the tenets +which he so zealously propagated and defended. + +But I am sure that I speak not only for myself, but for all this +assemblage, when I say that our purpose to-day is to do honour, not to +Priestley, the Unitarian divine, but to Priestley, the fearless +defender of rational freedom in thought and in action: to Priestley, +the philosophic thinker; to that Priestley who held a foremost place +among "the swift runners who hand over the lamp of life," [1] and +transmit from one generation to another the fire kindled, +in the childhood of the world, at the Promethean altar of Science. + +The main incidents of Priestley's life are so well known that I need +dwell upon them at no great length. + +Born in 1733, at Fieldhead, near Leeds, and brought up among Calvinists +of the straitest orthodoxy, the boy's striking natural ability led to +his being devoted to the profession of a minister of religion; and, in +1752, he was sent to the Dissenting Academy at Daventry--an institution +which authority left undisturbed, though its existence contravened the +law. The teachers under whose instruction and influence the young man +came at Daventry, carried out to the letter the injunction to "try all +things: hold fast that which is good," and encouraged the discussion of +every imaginable proposition with complete freedom, the leading +professors taking opposite sides; a discipline which, admirable as it +may be from a purely scientific point of view, would seem to be +calculated to make acute, rather than sound, divines. Priestley tells +us, in his "Autobiography," that he generally found himself on the +unorthodox side: and, as he grew older, and his faculties attained +their maturity, this native tendency towards heterodoxy grew with his +growth and strengthened with his strength. He passed from Calvinism to +Arianism; and finally, in middle life, landed in that very broad form +of Unitarianism by which his craving after a credible and consistent +theory of things was satisfied. + +On leaving Daventry Priestley became minister of a congregation, first +at Needham Market, and secondly at Nantwich; but whether on account of +his heterodox opinions, or of the stuttering which impeded his +expression of them in the pulpit, little success attended his efforts +in this capacity. In 1761, a career much more suited to his abilities +became open to him. He was appointed "tutor in the languages" in the +Dissenting Academy at Warrington, in which capacity, besides giving +three courses of lectures, he taught Latin, Greek, French, and Italian, +and read lectures on the theory of language and universal grammar, on +oratory, philosophical criticism, and civil law. And it is interesting +to observe that, as a teacher, he encouraged and cherished in those +whom he instructed the freedom which he had enjoyed, in his own student +days, at Daventry. One of his pupils tells us that, + + "At the conclusion of his lecture, he always encouraged his + students to express their sentiments relative to the subject of it, + and to urge any objections to what he had delivered, without + reserve. It pleased him when any one commenced such a conversation. + In order to excite the freest discussion, he occasionally invited + the students to drink tea with him, in order to canvass the + subjects of his lectures. I do not recollect that he ever showed + the least displeasure at the strongest objections that were made to + what he delivered, but I distinctly remember the smile of + approbation with which he usually received them: nor did he fail to + point out, in a very encouraging manner, the ingenuity or force of + any remarks that were made, when they merited these characters. His + object, as well as Dr. Aikin's, was to engage the students to + examine and decide for themselves, uninfluenced by the sentiments + of any other persons." [2] + +It would be difficult to give a better description of a model teacher +than that conveyed in these words. + +From his earliest days, Priestley had shown a strong bent towards the +study of nature; and his brother Timothy tells us that the boy put +spiders into bottles, to see how long they would live in the same +air--a curious anticipation of the investigations of his later years. +At Nantwich, where he set up a school, Priestley informs us that he +bought an air pump, an electrical machine, and other instruments, in +the use of which he instructed his scholars. But he does not seem to +have devoted himself seriously to physical science until 1766, when he +had the great good fortune to meet Benjamin Franklin, whose friendship +he ever afterwards enjoyed. Encouraged by Franklin, he wrote a "History +of Electricity," which was published in 1767, and appears to have met +with considerable success. + +In the same year, Priestley left Warrington to become the minister of a +congregation at Leeds; and, here, happening to live next door to a +public brewery, as he says, + + "I, at first, amused myself with making experiments on the fixed + air which I found ready-made in the process of fermentation. When I + removed from that house I was under the necessity of making fixed + air for myself; and one experiment leading to another, as I have + distinctly and faithfully noted in my various publications on the + subject, I by degrees contrived a convenient apparatus for the + purpose, but of the cheapest kind. + + "When I began these experiments I knew very little of _chemistry_, + and had, in a manner, no idea on the subject before I attended a + course of chemical lectures, delivered in the Academy at + Warrington, by Dr. Turner of Liverpool. But I have often thought + that, upon the whole, this circumstance was no disadvantage to me; + as, in this situation, I was led to devise an apparatus and + processes of my own, adapted to my peculiar views; whereas, if I + had been previously accustomed to the usual chemical processes, I + should not have so easily thought of any other, and without new + modes of operation, I should hardly have discovered anything + materially new." [3] + +The first outcome of Priestley's chemical work, published in 1772, was +of a very practical character. He discovered the way of impregnating +water with an excess of "fixed air," or carbonic acid, and thereby +producing what we now know as "soda water"--a service to naturally, and +still more to artificially, thirsty souls, which those whose parched +throats and hot heads are cooled by morning draughts of that beverage, +cannot too gratefully acknowledge. In the same year, Priestley +communicated the extensive series of observations which his industry +and ingenuity had accumulated, in the course of four years, to the +Royal Society, under the title of "Observations on Different Kinds of +Air"--a memoir which was justly regarded of so much merit and +importance, that the Society at once conferred upon the author the +highest distinction in their power, by awarding him the Copley Medal. + +In 1771 a proposal was made to Priestley to accompany Captain Cook in +his second voyage to the South Seas. He accepted it, and his +congregation agreed to pay an assistant to supply his place during his +absence. But the appointment lay in the hands of the Board of +Longitude, of which certain clergymen were members; and whether these +worthy ecclesiastics feared that Priestley's presence among the ship's +company might expose His Majesty's sloop _Resolution_ to the fate +which aforetime befell a certain ship that went from Joppa to Tarshish; +or whether they were alarmed lest a Socinian should undermine that +piety which, in the days of Commodore Trunnion, so strikingly +characterised sailors, does not appear; but, at any rate, they objected +to Priestley "on account of his religious principles," and appointed +the two Forsters, whose "religious principles," if they had been known +to these well-meaning but not far-sighted persons, would probably have +surprised them. + +In 1772 another proposal was made to Priestley. Lord Shelburne, +desiring a "literary companion," had been brought into communication +with Priestley by the good offices of a friend of both, Dr. Price; and +offered him the nominal post of librarian, with a good house and +appointments, and an annuity in case of the termination of the +engagement. Priestley accepted the offer, and remained with Lord +Shelburne for seven years, sometimes residing at Calne, sometimes +travelling abroad with the Earl. + +Why the connection terminated has never been exactly known; but it is +certain that Lord Shelburne behaved with the utmost consideration and +kindness towards Priestley; that he fulfilled his engagements to the +letter; and that, at a later period, he expressed a desire that +Priestley should return to his old footing in his house. Probably +enough, the politician, aspiring to the highest offices in the State, +may have found the position of the protector of a man who was being +denounced all over the country as an infidel and an atheist somewhat +embarrassing. In fact, a passage in Priestley's "Autobiography" on the +occasion of the publication of his "Disquisitions relating to Matter +and Spirit," which took place in 1777, indicates pretty clearly the +state of the case:-- + + "(126) It being probable that this publication would be unpopular, + and might be the means of bringing odium on my patron, several + attempts were made by his friends, though none by himself, to + dissuade me from persisting in it. But being, as I thought, engaged + in the cause of important truth, I proceeded without regard to any + consequences, assuring them that this publication should not be + injurious to his lordship." + +It is not unreasonable to suppose that his lordship, as a keen, +practical man of the world, did not derive much satisfaction from this +assurance. The "evident marks of dissatisfaction" which Priestley says +he first perceived in his patron in 1778, may well have arisen from the +peer's not unnatural uneasiness as to what his domesticated, but not +tamed, philosopher might write next, and what storm might thereby he +brought down on his own head; and it speaks very highly for Lord +Shelburne's delicacy that, in the midst of such perplexities, he made +not the least attempt to interfere with Priestley's freedom of action. +In 1780, however, he intimated to Dr. Price that he should be glad to +establish Priestley on his Irish estates: the suggestion was +interpreted, as Lord Shelburne probably intended it should be, and +Priestley left him, the annuity of £150 a year, which had been promised +in view of such a contingency, being punctually paid. + +After leaving Calne, Priestley spent some little time in London, and +then, having settled in Birmingham at the desire of his brother-in-law, +he was soon invited to become the minister of a large congregation. +This settlement Priestley considered, at the time, to be "the happiest +event of his life." And well he might think so; for it gave him +competence and leisure; placed him within reach of the best makers of +apparatus of the day; made him a member of that remarkable "Lunar +Society," at whose meetings he could exchange thoughts with such men as +Watt, Wedgwood, Darwin, and Boulton; and threw open to him the pleasant +house of the Galtons of Barr, where these men, and others of less note, +formed a society of exceptional charm and intelligence. [4] + +But these halcyon days were ended by a bitter storm. The French +Revolution broke out. An electric shock ran through the nations; +whatever there was of corrupt and retrograde, and, at the same time, a +great deal of what there was of best and noblest, in European society +shuddered at the outburst of long-pent-up social fires. Men's feelings +were excited in a way that we, in this generation, can hardly +comprehend. Party wrath and virulence were expressed in a manner +unparalleled, and it is to be hoped impossible, in our times; and +Priestley and his friends were held up to public scorn, even in +Parliament, as fomenters of sedition. A "Church-and-King" cry was +raised against the Liberal Dissenters; and, in Birmingham, it was +intensified and specially directed towards Priestley by a local +controversy, in which he had engaged with his usual vigour. In 1791, +the celebration of the second anniversary of the taking of the Bastille +by a public dinner, with which Priestley had nothing whatever to do, +gave the signal to the loyal and pious mob, who, unchecked, and indeed +to some extent encouraged, by those who were responsible for order, had +the town at their mercy for three days. The chapels and houses of the +leading Dissenters were wrecked, and Priestley and his family had to +fly for their lives, leaving library, apparatus, papers, and all their +possessions, a prey to the flames. + +Priestley never returned to Birmingham. He bore the outrages and losses +inflicted upon him with extreme patience and sweetness, [5] and betook +himself to London. But even his scientific colleagues gave him a cold +shoulder; and though he was elected minister of a congregation at +Hackney, he felt his position to be insecure, and finally determined on +emigrating to the United States. He landed in America in 1794; lived +quietly with his sons at Northumberland, in Pennsylvania, where his +posterity still flourish; and, clear-headed and busy to the last, died +on the 6th of February 1804. + +Such were the conditions under which Joseph Priestley did the work +which lay before him, and then, as the Norse Sagas say, went out of the +story. The work itself was of the most varied kind. No human interest +was without its attraction for Priestley, and few men have ever had so +many irons in the fire at once; but, though he may have burned his +fingers a little, very few who have tried that operation have burned +their fingers so little. He made admirable discoveries in science; his +philosophical treatises are still well worth reading; his political +works are full of insight and replete with the spirit of freedom; and +while all these sparks flew off from his anvil, the controversial +hammer rained a hail of blows on orthodox priest and bishop. While thus +engaged, the kindly, cheerful doctor felt no more wrath or +uncharitableness towards his opponents than a smith does towards his +iron. But if the iron could only speak!--and the priests and bishops +took the point of view of the iron. + +No doubt what Priestley's friends repeatedly urged upon him--that he +would have escaped the heavier trials of his life and done more for the +advancement of knowledge, if he had confined himself to his scientific +pursuits and let his fellow-men go their way--was true. But it seems to +have been Priestley's feeling that he was a man and a citizen before he +was a philosopher, and that the duties of the two former positions are +at least as imperative as those of the latter. Moreover, there are men +(and I think Priestley was one of them) to whom the satisfaction of +throwing down a triumphant fallacy is as great as that which attends +the discovery of a new truth; who feel better satisfied with the +government of the world, when they have been helping Providence by +knocking an imposture on the head; and who care even more for freedom +of thought than for mere advance of knowledge. These men are the +Carnots who organise victory for truth, and they are, at least, as +important as the generals who visibly fight her battles in the field. + +Priestley's reputation as a man of science rests upon his numerous and +important contributions to the chemistry of gaseous bodies; and to form +a just estimate of the value of his work--of the extent to which it +advanced the knowledge of fact and the development of sound theoretical +views--we must reflect what chemistry was in the first half of the +eighteenth century. + +The vast science which now passes under that name had no existence. +Air, water, and fire were still counted among the elemental bodies; and +though Van Helmont, a century before, had distinguished different +kinds of air as _gas ventosum_ and _gas sylvestre_, and Boyle and Hales +had experimentally defined the physical properties of air, and +discriminated some of the various kinds of aëriform bodies, no one +suspected the existence of the numerous totally distinct gaseous +elements which are now known, or dreamed that the air we breathe and +the water we drink are compounds of gaseous elements. + +But, in 1754, a young Scotch physician, Dr. Black, made the first +clearing in this tangled backwood of knowledge. And it gives one a +wonderful impression of the juvenility of scientific chemistry to think +that Lord Brougham, whom so many of us recollect, attended Black's +lectures when he was a student in Edinburgh. Black's researches gave +the world the novel and startling conception of a gas that was a +permanently elastic fluid like air, but that differed from common air +in being much heavier, very poisonous, and in having the properties of +an acid, capable of neutralising the strongest alkalies; and it took +the world some time to become accustomed to the notion. + +A dozen years later, one of the most sagacious and accurate +investigators who has adorned this, or any other, country, Henry +Cavendish, published a memoir in the "Philosophical Transactions," in +which he deals not only with the "fixed air" (now called carbonic acid +or carbonic anhydride) of Black, but with "inflammable air," or what we +now term hydrogen. + +By the rigorous application of weight and measure to all his processes, +Cavendish implied the belief subsequently formulated by Lavoisier, +that, in chemical processes, matter is neither created nor destroyed, +and indicated the path along which all future explorers must travel. +Nor did he himself halt until this path led him, in 1784, to the +brilliant and fundamental discovery that water is composed of two gases +united in fixed and constant proportions. + +It is a trying ordeal for any man to be compared with Black and +Cavendish, and Priestley cannot be said to stand on their level. +Nevertheless his achievements are not only great in themselves, but +truly wonderful, if we consider the disadvantages under which he +laboured. Without the careful scientific training of Black, without the +leisure and appliances secured by the wealth of Cavendish, he scaled +the walls of science as so many Englishmen have done before and since +his day; and trusting to mother wit to supply the place of training, +and to ingenuity to create apparatus out of washing tubs, he discovered +more new gases than all his predecessors put together had done. He laid +the foundations of gas analysis; he discovered the complementary +actions of animal and vegetable life upon the constituents of the +atmosphere; and, finally, he crowned his work, this day one hundred +years ago, by the discovery of that "pure dephlogisticated air" to +which the French chemists subsequently gave the name of oxygen. Its +importance, as the constituent of the atmosphere which disappears in +the processes of respiration and combustion, and is restored by green +plants growing in sunshine, was proved somewhat later. For these +brilliant discoveries, the Royal Society elected Priestley a fellow and +gave him their medal, while the Academies of Paris and St. Petersburg +conferred their membership upon him. Edinburgh had made him an honorary +doctor of laws at an early period of his career; but, I need hardly +add, that a man of Priestley's opinions received no recognition from +the universities of his own country. + +That Priestley's contributions to the knowledge of chemical fact were +of the greatest importance, and that they richly deserve all the praise +that has been awarded to them, is unquestionable; but it must, at the +same time, be admitted that he had no comprehension of the deeper +significance of his work; and, so far from contributing anything to the +theory of the facts which he discovered, or assisting in their rational +explanation, his influence to the end of his life was warmly exerted in +favour of error. From first to last, he was a stiff adherent of the +phlogiston doctrine which was prevalent when his studies commenced; +and, by a curious irony of fate, the man who by the discovery of what +he called "dephlogisticated air" furnished the essential datum for the +true theory of combustion, of respiration, and of the composition of +water, to the end of his days fought against the inevitable corollaries +from his own labours. His last scientific work, published in 1800, +bears the title, "The Doctrine of Phlogiston established, and that of +the Composition of Water refuted." + +When Priestley commenced his studies, the current belief was, that +atmospheric air, freed from accidental impurities, is a simple +elementary substance, indestructible and unalterable, as water was +supposed to be. When a combustible burned, or when an animal breathed +in air, it was supposed that a substance, "phlogiston," the matter of +heat and light, passed from the burning or breathing body into it, and +destroyed its powers of supporting life and combustion. Thus, air +contained in a vessel in which a lighted candle had gone out, or a +living animal had breathed until it could breathe no longer, was called +"phlogisticated." The same result was supposed to be brought about by +the addition of what Priestley called "nitrous gas" to common air. + +In the course of his researches, Priestley found that the quantity of +common air which can thus become "phlogisticated," amounts to about +one-fifth the volume of the whole quantity submitted to experiment. +Hence it appeared that common air consists, to the extent of +four-fifths of its volume, of air which is already "phlogisticated"; +while the other fifth is free from phlogiston, or "dephlogisticated." +On the other hand, Priestley found that air "phlogisticated" by +combustion or respiration could be "dephlogisticated," or have the +properties of pure common air restored to it, by the action of green +plants in sunshine. The question, therefore, would naturally arise--as +common air can be wholly phlogisticated by combustion, and converted +into a substance which will no longer support combustion, is it +possible to get air that shall be less phlogisticated than common air, +and consequently support combustion better than common air does? + +Now, Priestley says that, in 1774, the possibility of obtaining air +less phlogisticated than common air had not occurred to him. [6] But in +pursuing his experiments on the evolution of air from various bodies by +means of heat, it happened that, on the 1st of August 1774, he threw +the heat of the sun, by means of a large burning glass which he had +recently obtained, upon a substance which was then called _mercurius +calcinatus per se_, and which is commonly known as red precipitate. + + "I presently found that, by means of this lens, air was expelled + from it very readily. Having got about three or four times as much + as the bulk of my materials, I admitted water to it, and found that + it was not imbibed by it. But what surprised me more than I can + well express, was that a candle burned in this air with a + remarkably vigorous flame, very much like that enlarged flame with + which a candle burns in nitrous air, exposed to iron or lime of + sulphur; but as I had got nothing like this remarkable appearance + from any kind of air besides this particular modification of + nitrous air, and I knew no nitrous acid was used in the preparation + of _mercurius calcinatus_, I was utterly at a loss how to + account for it. + + "In this case also, though I did not give sufficient attention to + the circumstance at that time, the flame of the candle, besides + being larger, burned with more splendour and heat than in that + species of nitrous air; and a piece of red-hot wood sparkled in it, + exactly like paper dipped in a solution of nitre, and it consumed + very fast--an experiment which I had never thought of trying with + nitrous air." [7] + +Priestley obtained the same sort of air from red lead, but, as he says +himself, he remained in ignorance of the properties of this new kind of +air for seven months, or until March 1775, when he found that the new +air behaved with "nitrous gas" in the same way as the dephlogisticated +part of common air does; [8] but that, instead of being diminished to +four-fifths, it almost completely vanished, and, therefore, showed +itself to be "between five and six times as good as the best common air +I have ever met with." [9] As this new air thus appeared to be +completely free from phlogiston, Priestley called it "dephlogisticated +air." + +What was the nature of this air? Priestley found that the same kind of +air was to be obtained by moistening with the spirit of nitre (which he +terms nitrous acid) any kind of earth that is free from phlogiston, and +applying heat; and consequently he says: "There remained no doubt on my +mind but that the atmospherical air, or the thing that we breathe, +consists of the nitrous acid and earth, with so much phlogiston as is +necessary to its elasticity, and likewise so much more as is required +to bring it from its state of perfect purity to the mean condition in +which we find it." [10] + +Priestley's view, in fact, is that atmospheric air is a kind of +saltpetre, in which the potash is replaced by some unknown earth. +And in speculating on the manner in which saltpetre is formed, +he enunciates the hypothesis, "that nitre is, formed by a real +_decomposition of the air itself_, the _bases_ that are presented to +it having, in such circumstances, a nearer affinity with the spirit +of nitre than that kind of earth with which it is united in the +atmosphere." [11] + +It would have been hard for the most ingenious person to have wandered +farther from the truth than Priestley does in this hypothesis; and, +though Lavoisier undoubtedly treated Priestley very ill, and pretended +to have discovered dephlogisticated air, or oxygen, as he called it, +independently, we can almost forgive him when we reflect how different +were the ideas which the great French chemist attached to the body +which Priestley discovered. + +They are like two navigators of whom the first sees a new country, but +takes clouds for mountains and mirage for lowlands; while the second +determines its length and breadth, and lays down on a chart its exact +place, so that, thenceforth, it serves as a guide to his successors, +and becomes a secure outpost whence new explorations may be pushed. + +Nevertheless, as Priestley himself somewhere remarks, the first object +of physical science is to ascertain facts, and the service which he +rendered to chemistry by the definite establishment of a large number +of new and fundamentally important facts, is such as to entitle him to +a very high place among the fathers of chemical science. + +It is difficult to say whether Priestley's philosophical, political, +or theological views were most responsible for the bitter hatred which +was borne to him by a large body of his country-men, [12] and which +found its expression in the malignant insinuations in which Burke, to +his everlasting shame, indulged in the House of Commons. + +Without containing much that will be new to the readers of Hobbs, +Spinoza, Collins, Hume, and Hartley, and, indeed, while making no +pretensions to originality, Priestley's "Disquisitions relating to +Matter and Spirit," and his "Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity +Illustrated," are among the most powerful, clear, and unflinching +expositions of materialism and necessarianism which exist in the +English language, and are still well worth reading. + +Priestley denied the freedom of the will in the sense of its +self-determination; he denied the existence of a soul distinct from the +body; and as a natural consequence, he denied the natural immortality +of man. + +In relation to these matters English opinion, a century ago, was very +much what it is now. + +A man may be a necessarian without incurring graver reproach than that +implied in being called a gloomy fanatic, necessarianism, though very +shocking, having a note of Calvanistic orthodoxy; but, if a man is a +materialist; or, if good authorities say he is and must be so, in spite +of his assertion to the contrary; or, if he acknowledge himself unable +to see good reasons for believing in the natural immortality of man, +respectable folks look upon him as an unsafe neighbour of a cash-box, +as an actual or potential sensualist, the more virtuous in outward +seeming, the more certainly loaded with secret "grave personal sins." + +Nevertheless, it is as certain as anything can be, that Joseph +Priestley was no gloomy fanatic, but as cheerful and kindly a soul as +ever breathed, the idol of children; a man who was hated only by those +who did not know him, and who charmed away the bitterest prejudices in +personal intercourse; a man who never lost a friend, and the best +testimony to whose worth is the generous and tender warmth with which +his many friends vied with one another in rendering him substantial +help, in all the crises of his career. + +The unspotted purity of Priestley's life, the strictness of his +performance of every duty, his transparent sincerity, the +unostentatious and deep-seated piety which breathes through all his +correspondence, are in themselves a sufficient refutation of the +hypothesis, invented by bigots to cover uncharitableness, that such +opinions as his must arise from moral defects. And his statue will do +as good service as the brazen image that was set upon a pole before the +Israelites, if those who have been bitten by the fiery serpents of +sectarian hatred, which still haunt this wilderness of a world, are +made whole by looking upon the image of a heretic who was yet a saint. + +Though Priestley did not believe in the natural immortality of man, he +held with an almost naïve realism that man would be raised from the +dead by a direct exertion of the power of God, and thenceforward be +immortal. And it may be as well for those who may be shocked by this +doctrine to know that views, substantially identical with Priestley's, +have been advocated, since his time, by two prelates of the Anglican +Church: by Dr. Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, in his well-known +"Essays"; [13] and by Dr. Courtenay, Bishop of Kingston in Jamaica, +the first edition of whose remarkable book "On the Future States," +dedicated to Archbishop Whately, was published in 1843 and the second +in 1857. According to Bishop Courtenay, + + "The death of the body will cause a cessation of all the activity + of the mind by way of natural consequence; to continue for ever + UNLESS the Creator should interfere." + +And again:-- + + "The natural end of human existence is the 'first death, the + dreamless slumber of the grave, wherein man lies spell-bound, soul + and body, under the dominion of sin and death--that whatever modes + of conscious existence, whatever future states of 'life' or of + 'torment' beyond Hades are reserved for man, are results of our + blessed Lord's victory over sin and death; that the resurrection of + the dead must be preliminary to their entrance into either of the + future states, and that the nature and even existence of these + states, and even the mere fact that there is a futurity of + consciousness, can be known _only_ through God's revelation of + Himself in the Person and the Gospel of His Son."--P. 389. + +And now hear Priestley:-- + + "Man, according to this system (of materialism), is no more than we + now see of him. His being commences at the time of his conception, + or perhaps at an earlier period. The corporeal and mental faculties, + in being in the same substance, grow, ripen, and decay together; and + whenever the system is dissolved it continues in a state of + dissolution till it shall please that Almighty Being who called it + into existence to restore it to life again."--"Matter and Spirit," + p. 49. + +And again:-- + + "The doctrine of the Scripture is, that God made man of the dust of + the ground, and by simply animating this organised matter, made man + that living percipient and intelligent being that he is. According + to Revelation, _death_ is a state of rest and insensibility, + and our only though sure hope of a future life is founded on the + doctrine of the resurrection of the whole man at some distant + period; this assurance being sufficiently confirmed to us both by + the evident tokens of a Divine commission attending the persons who + delivered the doctrine, and especially by the actual resurrection of + Jesus Christ, which is more authentically attested than any other + fact in history."--_Ibid_., p. 247. + +We all know that "a saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn;" but it is +not yet admitted that the views which are consistent with such +saintliness in lawn, become diabolical when held by a mere dissenter. +[14] + +I am not here either to defend or to attack Priestley's philosophical +views, and I cannot say that I am personally disposed to attach much +value to episcopal authority in philosophical questions; but it seems +right to call attention to the fact, that those of Priestley's opinions +which have brought most odium upon him have been openly promulgated, +without challenge, by persons occupying the highest positions in the +State Church. + +I must confess that what interests me most about Priestley's +materialism, is the evidence that he saw dimly the seed of destruction +which such materialism carries within its own bosom. In the course of +his reading for his "History of Discoveries relating to Vision, Light, +and Colours," he had come upon the speculations of Boscovich and +Michell, and had been led to admit the sufficiently obvious truth that +our knowledge of matter is a knowledge of its properties; and that of +its substance--if it have a substance--we know nothing. And this led to +the further admission that, so far as we can know, there may be no +difference between the substance of matter and the substance of spirit +("Disquisitions," p. 16). A step farther would have shown Priestley +that his materialism was, essentially, very little different from the +Idealism of his contemporary, the Bishop of Cloyne. + +As Priestley's philosophy is mainly a clear statement of the views of +the deeper thinkers of his day, so are his political conceptions based +upon those of Locke. Locke's aphorism that "the end of government is +the good of mankind," is thus expanded by Priestley:-- + + "It must necessarily be understood, therefore, whether it be + expressed or not, that all people live in society for their mutual + advantage; so that the good and happiness of the members, that is, + of the majority of the members, of any state, is the great standard + by which everything relating to that state must finally be + determined." [15] + +The little sentence here interpolated, "that is, of the majority of the +members of any state," appears to be that passage which suggested to +Bentham, according to his own acknowledgment, the famous "greatest +happiness" formula, which by substituting "happiness" for "good," has +converted a noble into an ignoble principle. But I do not call to mind +that there is any utterance in Locke quite so outspoken as the +following passage in the "Essay on the First Principles of +Government." After laying down as "a fundamental maxim in all +Governments," the proposition that "kings, senators, and nobles" are +"the servants of the public," Priestley goes on to say:-- + + "But in the largest states, if the abuses of the government should + at any time be great and manifest; if the servants of the people, + forgetting their masters and their masters' interest, should pursue + a separate one of their own; if, instead of considering that they + are made for the people, they should consider the people as made + for them; if the oppressions and violation of right should be + great, flagrant, and universally resented; if the tyrannical + governors should have no friends but a few sycophants, who had long + preyed upon the vitals of their fellow-citizens, and who might be + expected to desert a government whenever their interests should be + detached from it: if, in consequence of these circumstances, it + should become manifest that the risk which would be run in + attempting a revolution would be trifling, and the evils which + might be apprehended from it were far less than those which + were actually suffered and which were daily increasing; in the name + of God, I ask, what principles are those which ought to restrain an + injured and insulted people from asserting their natural rights, + and from changing or even punishing their governors--that is, their + servants--who had abused their trust, or from altering the whole + form of their government, if it appeared to be of a structure so + liable to abuse?" + +As a Dissenter, subject to the operation of the Corporation and Test +Acts, and as a Unitarian excluded from the benefit of the Toleration +Act, it is not surprising to find that Priestley had very definite +opinions about Ecclesiastical Establishments; the only wonder is that +these opinions were so moderate as the following passages show them to +have been:-- + + "Ecclesiastical authority may have been necessary in the infant + state of society, and, for the same reason, it may perhaps continue + to be, in some degree, necessary as long as society is imperfect; + and therefore may not be entirely abolished till civil governments + have arrived at a much greater degree of perfection. If, therefore, + I were asked whether I should approve of the immediate dissolution + of all the ecclesiastical establishments in Europe, I should + answer, No.... Let experiment be first made of _alterations_, + or, which is the same thing, of _better establishments_ than + the present. Let them be reformed in many essential articles, and + then not thrown aside entirely till it be found by experience that + no good can be made of them." + +Priestley goes on to suggest four such reforms of a capital nature:-- + + "1. Let the Articles of Faith to be subscribed by candidates for + the ministry be greatly reduced. In the formulary of the Church of + England, might not thirty-eight out of the thirty-nine be very well + spared? It is a reproach to any Christian establishment if every + man cannot claim the benefit of it who can say that he believes + in the religion of Jesus Christ as it is set forth in the New + Testament. You say the terms are so general that even Deists would + quibble and insinuate themselves. I answer that all the articles + which are subscribed at present by no means exclude Deists who will + prevaricate; and upon this scheme you would at least exclude fewer + honest men." [16] + +The second reform suggested is the equalisation, in proportion to work +done, of the stipends of the clergy; the third, the exclusion of the +Bishops from Parliament; and the fourth, complete toleration, so that +every man may enjoy the rights of a citizen, and be qualified to serve +his country, whether he belong to the Established Church or not. + +Opinions such as those I have quoted, respecting the duties and the +responsibilities of governors, are the commonplaces of modern +Liberalism; and Priestley's views on Ecclesiastical Establishments +would, I fear, meet with but a cool reception, as altogether too +conservative, from a large proportion of the lineal descendants of the +people who taught their children to cry "Damn Priestley;" and with that +love for the practical application of science which is the source of +the greatness of Birmingham, tried to set fire to the doctor's house +with sparks from his own electrical machine; thereby giving the man +they called an incendiary and raiser of sedition against Church and +King, an appropriately experimental illustration of the nature of arson +and riot. + +If I have succeeded in putting before you the main features of +Priestley's work, its value will become apparent when we compare the +condition of the English nation, as he knew it, with its present state. + +The fact that France has been for eighty-five years trying, without +much success, to right herself after the great storm of the Revolution, +is not unfrequently cited among us as an indication of some inherent +incapacity for self-government among the French people. I think, +however, that Englishmen who argue thus, forget that, from the meeting +of the Long Parliament in 1640, to the last Stuart rebellion in 1745, +is a hundred and five years, and that, in the middle of the last +century, we had but just safely freed ourselves from our Bourbons and +all that they represented. The corruption of our state was as bad as +that of the Second Empire. Bribery was the instrument of government, +and peculation its reward. Four-fifths of the seats in the House of +Commons were more or less openly dealt with as property. A minister had +to consider the state of the vote market, and the sovereign secured a +sufficiency of "king's friends" by payments allotted with retail, +rather than royal, sagacity. + +Barefaced and brutal immorality and intemperance pervaded the land, +from the highest to the lowest classes of society. The Established +Church was torpid, as far as it was not a scandal; but those who +dissented from it came within the meshes of the Act of Uniformity, the +Test Act, and the Corporation Act. By law, such a man as Priestley, +being a Unitarian, could neither teach nor preach, and was liable to +ruinous fines and long imprisonment. [17] In those days the guns that +were pointed by the Church against the Dissenters were shotted. The law +was a cesspool of iniquity and cruelty. Adam Smith was a new prophet +whom few regarded, and commerce was hampered by idiotic impediments, +and ruined by still more absurd help, on the part of government. + +Birmingham, though already the centre of a considerable industry, was a +mere village as compared with its present extent. People who travelled +went about armed, by reason of the abundance of highwaymen and the +paucity and inefficiency of the police. Stage coaches had not reached +Birmingham, and it took three days to get to London. Even canals were a +recent and much opposed invention. + +Newton had laid the foundation of a mechanical conception of the +physical universe: Hartley, putting a modern face upon ancient +materialism, had extended that mechanical conception to psychology; +Linnaeus and Haller were beginning to introduce method and order into +the chaotic accumulation of biological facts. But those parts of +physical science which deal with heat, electricity, and magnetism, and +above all, chemistry, in the modern sense, can hardly be said to have +had an existence. No one knew that two of the old elemental bodies, air +and water, are compounds, and that a third, fire, is not a substance +but a motion. The great industries that have grown out of the +applications of modern scientific discoveries had no existence, and the +man who should have foretold their coming into being in the days of his +son, would have been regarded as a mad enthusiast. + +In common with many other excellent persons, Priestley believed that +man is capable of reaching, and will eventually attain, perfection. If +the temperature of space presented no obstacle, I should be glad to +entertain the same idea; but judging from the past progress of our +species, I am afraid that the globe will have cooled down so far, +before the advent of this natural millennium, that we shall be, at +best, perfected Esquimaux. For all practical purposes, however, it is +enough that man may visibly improve his condition in the course of a +century or so. And, if the picture of the state of things in +Priestley's time, which I have just drawn, have any pretence to +accuracy, I think it must be admitted that there has been a +considerable change for the better. + +I need not advert to the well-worn topic of material advancement, in a +place in which the very stones testify to that progress--in the town of +Watt and of Boulton. I will only remark, in passing, that material +advancement has its share in moral and intellectual progress. Becky +Sharp's acute remark that it is not difficult to be virtuous on ten +thousand a year, has its application to nations; and it is futile to +expect a hungry and squalid population to be anything but violent and +gross. But as regards other than material welfare, although perfection +is not yet in sight--even from the mast-head--it is surely true that +things are much better than they were. + +Take the upper and middle classes as a whole, and it may be said that +open immorality and gross intemperance have vanished. Four and six +bottle men are as extinct as the dodo. Women of good repute do not +gamble, and talk modelled upon Dean Swift's "Art of Polite +Conversation" would be tolerated in no decent kitchen. + +Members of the legislature are not to be bought; and constituents are +awakening to the fact that votes must not be sold--even for such +trifles as rabbits and tea and cake. Political power has passed into +the hands of the masses of the people. Those whom Priestley calls their +servants have recognised their position, and have requested the master +to be so good as to go to school and fit himself for the administration +of his property. In ordinary life, no civil disability attaches to any +one on theological grounds, and high offices of the state are open to +Papist, Jew, and Secularist. + +Whatever men's opinions as to the policy of Establishment, no one can +hesitate to admit that the clergy of the Church are men of pure life +and conversation, zealous in the discharge of their duties; and at +present, apparently, more bent on prosecuting one another than on +meddling with Dissenters. Theology itself has broadened so much, that +Anglican divines put forward doctrines more liberal than those of +Priestley; and, in our state-supported churches, one listener may hear +a sermon to which Bossuet might have given his approbation, while +another may hear a discourse in which Socrates would find nothing new. + +But great as these changes may be, they sink into insignificance beside +the progress of physical science, whether we consider the improvement +of methods of investigation, or the increase in bulk of solid +knowledge. Consider that the labours of Laplace, of Young, of Davy, and +of Faraday; of Cuvier, of Lamarck, and of Robert Brown; of Von Baer, +and of Schwann; of Smith and of Hutton, have all been carried on since +Priestley discovered oxygen; and consider that they are now things of +the past, concealed by the industry of those who have built upon them, +as the first founders of a coral reef are hidden beneath the life's +work of their successors; consider that the methods of physical science +are slowly spreading into all investigations, and that proofs as valid +as those required by her canons of investigation are being demanded of +all doctrines which ask for men's assent; and you will have a faint +image of the astounding difference in this respect between the +nineteenth century and the eighteenth. + +If we ask what is the deeper meaning of all these vast changes, I think +there can be but one reply. They mean that reason has asserted and +exercised her primacy over all provinces of human activity: that +ecclesiastical authority has been relegated to its proper place; that +the good of the governed has been finally recognised as the end of +government, and the complete responsibility of governors to the people +as its means; and that the dependence of natural phenomena in general +on the laws of action of what we call matter has become an axiom. + +But it was to bring these things about, and to enforce the recognition +of these truths, that Joseph Priestley laboured. If the nineteenth +century is other and better than the eighteenth, it is, in great +measure, to him, and to such men as he, that we owe the change. If the +twentieth century is to be better than the nineteenth, it will be +because there are among us men who walk in Priestley's footsteps. + +Such men are not those whom their own generation delights to honour; +such men, in fact, rarely trouble themselves about honour, but ask, in +another spirit than Falstaff's, "What is honour? Who hath it? He that +died o' Wednesday." But whether Priestley's lot be theirs, and a future +generation, in justice and in gratitude, set up their statues; or +whether their names and fame are blotted out from remembrance, their +work will live as long as time endures. To all eternity, the sum of +truth and right will have been increased by their means; to all +eternity, falsehood and injustice will be the weaker because they have +lived. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] "Quasi cursores, vitai lampada tradunt."--LUCR. _De Rerum Nat_. ii. +78. + +[2] _Life and Correspondence of Dr. Priestley_, by J. T. Rutt. Vol. I. +p. 50. + +[3] _Autobiography_, §§ 100, 101. + +[4] See _The Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck_. Mrs. +Schimmelpenninck (_née_ Galton) remembered Priestley very well, +and her description of him is worth quotation:--"A man of admirable +simplicity, gentleness and kindness of heart, united with great +acuteness of intellect. I can never forget the impression produced on +me by the serene expression of his countenance. He, indeed, seemed +present with God by recollection, and with man by cheerfulness. I +remember that, in the assembly of these distinguished men, amongst whom +Mr. Boulton, by his noble manner, his fine countenance (which much +resembled that of Louis XIV.), and princely munificence, stood +pre-eminently as the great Mecaenas; even as a child, I used to feel, +when Dr. Priestley entered after him, that the glory of the one was +terrestrial, that of the other celestial; and utterly far as I am +removed from a belief in the sufficiency of Dr. Priestley's theological +creed, I cannot but here record this evidence of the eternal power of +any portion of the truth held in its vitality." + +[5] Even Mrs. Priestley, who might be forgiven for regarding the +destroyers of her household gods with some asperity, contents herself, +in writing to Mrs. Barbauld, with the sarcasm that the Birmingham +people "will scarcely find so many respectable characters, a second +time, to make a bonfire of." + +[6] _Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air_, vol. +ii. p. 31. + +[7] _Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air_, vol. +ii. pp. 34, 35. + +[8] _Ibid_. vol. i. p. 40. + +[9] _Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air_, vol. ii. +p. 48. + +[10] _Ibid_. p. 55. + +[11] _Ibid_. p. 60. The italics are Priestley's own. + +[12] "In all the newspapers and most of the periodical publications I +was represented as an unbeliever in Revelation, and no better than an +atheist."--_Autobiography_, Rutt, vol i. p. 124. "On the walls of +houses, etc., and especially where I usually went, were to be seen, in +large characters, 'MADAN FOR EVER; DAMN PRIESTLEY; NO PRESBYTERIANISM; +DAMN THE PRESBYTERIANS,' etc., etc.; and, at one time, I was followed +by a number of boys, who left their play, repeating what they had seen +on the walls, and shouting out, '_Damn Priestley; damn him, damn +him, for ever, for ever,_' etc., etc. This was no doubt a lesson +which they had been taught by their parents, and what they, I fear, had +learned from their superiors."--_Appeal to the Public on the Subject +of the Riots at Birmingham_. + +[13] First Series. _On Some of the Peculiarities of the Christian +Religion_. Essay I. "Revelation of a Future State." + +[14] Not only is Priestley at one with Bishop Courtenay in this matter, +but with Hartley and Bonnet, both of them stout champions of +Christianity. Moreover, Archbishop Whately's essay is little better +than an expansion of the first paragraph of Hume's famous essay on the +Immortality of the Soul:--"By the mere light of reason it seems +difficult to prove the immortality of the soul; the arguments for it +are commonly derived either from metaphysical topics, or moral, or +physical. But it is in reality the Gospel, and the Gospel alone, that +has brought _life and immortality to light_." It is impossible to +imagine that a man of Whately's tastes and acquirements had not read +Hume or Hartley, though he refers to neither. + +[15] _Essay on the First Principles of Government_, Second edition, +1771. + +[16] "Utility of Establishments," in _Essay on First Principles of +Government_, 1771. + +[17] In 1732 Doddridge was cited for teaching without the Bishop's +leave, at Northampton. + + + + +II + +ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES + +[1854] + + +The subject to which I have to beg your attention during the ensuing +hour is "The Relation of Physiological Science to other branches of +Knowledge." + +Had circumstances permitted of the delivery, in their strict logical +order, of that series of discourses of which the present lecture is a +member, I should have preceded my friend and colleague Mr. Henfrey, who +addressed you on Monday last; but while, for the sake of that order, I +must beg you to suppose that this discussion of the Educational +bearings of Biology in general _does_ precede that of Special +Zoology and Botany, I am rejoiced to be able to take advantage +of the light thus already thrown upon the tendency and methods of +Physiological Science. + +Regarding Physiological Science, then, in its widest sense--as the +equivalent of _Biology_--the Science of Individual Life--we have to +consider in succession: + +1. Its position and scope as a branch of knowledge. + +2. Its value as a means of mental discipline. + +3. Its worth as practical information. + +And lastly, + +4. At what period it may best be made a branch of Education. + +Our conclusions on the first of these heads must depend, of course, +upon the nature of the subject-matter of Biology; and I think a few +preliminary considerations will place before you in a clear light the +vast difference which exists between the living bodies with which +Physiological science is concerned, and the remainder of the +universe;--between the phaenomena of Number and Space, of Physical and +of Chemical force, on the one hand, and those of Life on the other. + +The mathematician, the physicist, and the chemist contemplate things in +a condition of rest; they look upon a state of equilibrium as that to +which all bodies normally tend. + +The mathematician does not suppose that a quantity will alter, or that +a given point in space will change its direction with regard to another +point, spontaneously. And it is the same with the physicist. When +Newton saw the apple fall, he concluded at once that the act of falling +was not the result of any power inherent in the apple, but that it was +the result of the action of something else on the apple. In a similar +manner, all physical force is regarded as the disturbance of an +equilibrium to which things tended before its exertion,--to which they +will tend again after its cessation. + +The chemist equally regards chemical change in a body as the effect of +the action of something external to the body changed. A chemical +compound once formed would persist for ever, if no alteration took +place in surrounding conditions. + +But to the student of Life the aspect of Nature is reversed. Here, +incessant, and, so far as we know, spontaneous change is the rule, rest +the exception--the anomaly to be accounted for. Living things have no +inertia, and tend to no equilibrium. + +Permit me, however, to give more force and clearness to these somewhat +abstract considerations by an illustration or two. + +Imagine a vessel full of water, at the ordinary temperature, in an +atmosphere saturated with vapour. The _quantity_ and the _figure_ of that +water will not change, so far as we know, for ever. + +Suppose a lump of gold be thrown into the vessel--motion and +disturbance of figure exactly proportional to the momentum of the gold +will take place. But after a time the effects of this disturbance will +subside--equilibrium will be restored, and the water will return to its +passive state. + +Expose the water to cold--it will solidify--and in so doing its +particles will arrange themselves in definite crystalline shapes. But +once formed, these crystals change no further. + +Again, substitute for the lump of gold some substance capable of +entering into chemical relations with the water:--say, a mass of that +substance which is called "protein"--the substance of flesh:--a very +considerable disturbance of equilibrium will take place--all sorts of +chemical compositions and decompositions will occur; but in the end, as +before, the result will be the resumption of a condition of rest. + +Instead of such a mass of _dead_ protein, however, take a particle of +_living_ protein--one of those minute microscopic living things which +throng our pools, and are known as Infusoria--such a creature, for +instance, as an Euglena, and place it in our vessel of water. It is +a round mass provided with a long filament, and except in this +peculiarity of shape, presents no appreciable physical or chemical +difference whereby it might be distinguished from the particle of dead +protein. + +But the difference in the phaenomena to which it will give rise is +immense: in the first place it will develop a vast quantity of physical +force--cleaving the water in all directions with considerable rapidity +by means of the vibrations of the long filament or cilium. + +Nor is the amount of chemical energy which the little creature +possesses less striking. It is a perfect laboratory in itself, and it +will act and react upon the water and the matters contained therein; +converting them into new compounds resembling its own substance, and at +the same time giving up portions of its own substance which have become +effete. + +Furthermore, the Euglena will increase in size; but this increase is by +no means unlimited, as the increase of a crystal might be. After it has +grown to a certain extent it divides, and each portion assumes the form +of the original, and proceeds to repeat the process of growth and +division. + +Nor is this all. For after a series of such divisions and subdivisions, +these minute points assume a totally new form, lose their long +tails--round themselves, and secrete a sort of envelope or box, in +which they remain shut up for a time, eventually to resume, directly or +indirectly, their primitive mode of existence. + +Now, so far as we know, there is no natural limit to the existence of +the Euglena, or of any other living germ. A living species once +launched into existence tends to live for ever. + +Consider how widely different this living particle is from the dead +atoms with which the physicist and chemist have to do! + +The particle of gold falls to the bottom and rests--the particle of +dead protein decomposes and disappears--it also rests: but the +_living_ protein mass neither tends to exhaustion of its forces nor +to any permanency of form, but is essentially distinguished as a +disturber of equilibrium so far as force is concerned,--as undergoing +continual metamorphosis and change, in point of form. + +Tendency to equilibrium of force and to permanency of form, then, are +the characters of that portion of the universe which does not live--the +domain of the chemist and physicist. + +Tendency to disturb existing equilibrium--to take on forms which +succeed one another in definite cycles--is the character of the living +world. + +What is the cause of this wonderful difference between the dead +particle and the living particle of matter appearing in other respects +identical? that difference to which we give the name of Life? + +I, for one, cannot tell you. It may be that, by and by, philosophers +will discover some higher laws of which the facts of life are +particular cases--very possibly they will find out some bond between +physico-chemical phaenomena on the one hand, and vital phaenomena on +the other. At present, however, we assuredly know of none; and I think +we shall exercise a wise humility in confessing that, for us at least, +this successive assumption of different states--(external conditions +remaining the same)--this _spontaneity of action_--if I may use a term +which implies more than I would be answerable for--which constitutes +so vast and plain a practical distinction between living bodies and +those which do not live, is an ultimate fact; indicating as such, the +existence of a broad line of demarcation between the subject-matter +of Biological and that of all other sciences. + +For I would have it understood that this simple Euglena is the type of +_all_ living things, so far as the distinction between these and +inert matter is concerned. That cycle of changes, which is constituted +by perhaps not more than two or three steps in the Euglena, is as +clearly manifested in the multitudinous stages through which the germ +of an oak or of a man passes. Whatever forms the Living Being may take +on, whether simple or complex, _production, growth, reproduction,_ are +the phaenomena which distinguish it from that which does not live. + +If this be true, it is clear that the student, in passing from the +physico-chemical to the physiological sciences, enters upon a totally +new order of facts; and it will next be for us to consider how far +these new facts involve _new_ methods, or require a modification of +those with which he is already acquainted. Now a great deal is said +about the peculiarity of the scientific method in general, and of the +different methods which are pursued in the different sciences. The +Mathematics are said to have one special method; Physics another, +Biology a third, and so forth. For my own part, I must confess that I +do not understand this phraseology. + +So far as I can arrive at any clear comprehension of the matter, +Science is not, as many would seem to suppose, a modification of the +black art, suited to the tastes of the nineteenth century, and +flourishing mainly in consequence of the decay of the Inquisition. + +Science is, I believe, nothing but _trained and organised common +sense_, differing from the latter only as a veteran may differ from +a raw recruit: and its methods differ from those of common sense only +so far as the guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in +which a savage wields his club. The primary power is the same in each +case, and perhaps the untutored savage has the more brawny arm of +the two. The _real_ advantage lies in the point and polish of the +swordsman's weapon; in the trained eye quick to spy out the weakness of +the adversary; in the ready hand prompt to follow it on the instant. +But, after all, the sword exercise is only the hewing and poking of the +clubman developed and perfected. + +So, the vast results obtained by Science are won by no mystical +faculties, by no mental processes, other than those which are practised +by every one of us, in the humblest and meanest affairs of life. A +detective policeman discovers a burglar from the marks made by his +shoe, by a mental process identical with that by which Cuvier restored +the extinct animals of Montmartre from fragments of their bones. Nor +does that process of induction and deduction by which a lady, finding a +stain of a peculiar kind upon her dress, concludes that somebody has +upset the inkstand thereon, differ in any way, in kind, from that by +which Adams and Leverrier discovered a new planet. + +The man of science, in fact, simply uses with scrupulous exactness the +methods which we all, habitually and at every moment, use carelessly; +and the man of business must as much avail himself of the scientific +method--must be as truly a man of science--as the veriest bookworm of +us all; though I have no doubt that the man of business will find +himself out to be a philosopher with as much surprise as M. Jourdain +exhibited vhen he discovered that he had been all his life talking +prose. If, however, there be no real difference between the methods of +science and those of common life, it would seem, on the face of the +matter, highly improbable that there should be any difference between +the methods of the different sciences; nevertheless, it is constantly +taken for granted that there is a very wide difference between the +Physiological and other sciences in point of method. + +In the first place it is said--and I take this point first, because the +imputation is too frequently admitted by Physiologists themselves--that +Biology differs from the Physico-chemical and Mathematical sciences in +being "inexact." + +Now, this phrase "inexact" must refer either to the _methods_ or to +the _results_ of Physiological science. + +It cannot be correct to apply it to the methods; for, as I hope to show +you by and by, these are identical in all sciences, and whatever is +true of Physiological method is true of Physical and Mathematical +method. + +Is it then the _results_ of Biological science which are "inexact"? +I think not. If I say that respiration is performed by the +lungs; that digestion is effected in the stomach; that the eye is the +organ of sight; that the jaws of a vertebrated animal never open +sideways, but always up and down; while those of an annulose animal +always open sideways, and never up and down--I am enumerating +propositions which are as exact as anything in Euclid. How then has +this notion of the inexactness of Biological science come about? I +believe from two causes: first, because in consequence of the great +complexity of the science and the multitude of interfering conditions, +we are very often only enabled to predict approximately what will occur +under given circumstances; and secondly, because, on account of the +comparative youth of the Physiological sciences, a great many of their +laws are still imperfectly worked out. But, in an educational point of +view, it is most important to distinguish between the essence of a +science and the accidents which surround it; and essentially, the +methods and results of Physiology are as exact as those of Physics or +Mathematics. + +It is said that the Physiological method is especially _comparative_; +[1] and this dictum also finds favour in the eyes of many. +I should be sorry to suggest that the speculators on scientific +classification have been misled by the accident of the name of one +leading branch of Biology--_Comparative Anatomy_; but I would ask +whether _comparison_, and that classification which is the result of +comparison, are not the essence of every science whatsoever? How is it +possible to discover a relation of cause and effect of _any_ kind +without comparing a series of cases together in which the supposed +cause and effect occur singly, or combined? So far from comparison +being in any way peculiar to Biological science, it is, I think, the +essence of every science. + +A speculative philosopher again tells us that the Biological +sciences are distinguished by being sciences of observation and not +of experiment! [2] Of all the strange assertions into which speculation +without practical acquaintance with a subject may lead even an able +man, I think this is the very strangest. Physiology not an experimental +science? Why, there is not a function of a single organ in the body +which has not been determined wholly and solely by experiment? How did +Harvey determine the nature of the circulation, except by experiment? +How did Sir Charles Bell determine the functions of the roots of the +spinal nerves, save by experiment? How do we know the use of a nerve at +all, except by experiment? Nay, how do you know even that your eye is +your seeing apparatus, unless you make the experiment of shutting it; +or that your ear is your hearing apparatus, unless you close it up and +thereby discover that you become deaf? + +It would really be much more true to say that Physiology is _the_ +experimental science _par excellence_ of all sciences; that in which +there is least to be learnt by mere observation, and that which +affords the greatest field for the exercise of those faculties which +characterise the experimental philosopher. I confess, if any one were +to ask me for a model application of the logic of experiment, I should +know no better work to put into his hands than Bernard's late +Researches on the Functions of the Liver. [3] + +Not to give this lecture a too controversial tone, however, I must +only advert to one more doctrine, held by a thinker of our own age +and country, whose opinions are worthy of all respect. It is, that +the Biological sciences differ from all others, inasmuch as in _them_ +classification takes place by type and not by definition. [4] + +It is said, in short, that a natural-history class is not capable of +being defined--that the class Rosaceae, for instance, or the class of +Fishes, is not accurately and absolutely definable, inasmuch as its +members will present exceptions to every possible definition; and that +the members of the class are united together only by the circumstance +that they are all more like some imaginary average rose or average +fish, than they resemble anything else. + +But here, as before, I think the distinction has arisen entirely from +confusing a transitory imperfection with an essential character. So +long as our information concerning them is imperfect, we class all +objects together according to resemblances which we _feel_, but +cannot _define_; we group them round _types_, in short. Thus +if you ask an ordinary person what kinds of animals there are, he will +probably say, beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, &c. Ask him to +define a beast from a reptile, and he cannot do it; but he says, things +like a cow or a horse are beasts, and things like a frog or a lizard +are reptiles. You see _he does_ class by type, and not by definition. +But how does this classification differ from that of the +scientific Zoologist? How does the meaning of the scientific class-name +of "Mammalia" differ from the unscientific of "Beasts"? + +Why, exactly because the former depends on a definition, the latter on +a type. The class Mammalia is scientifically defined as "all animals +which have a vertebrated skeleton and suckle their young." Here is no +reference to type, but a definition rigorous enough for a geometrician. +And such is the character which every scientific naturalist recognises +as that to which his classes must aspire--knowing, as he does, that +classification by type is simply an acknowledgment of ignorance and a +temporary device. + +So much in the way of negative argument as against the reputed +differences between Biological and other methods. No such differences, +I believe, really exist. The subject-matter of Biological science is +different from that of other sciences, but the methods of all are +identical; and these methods are-- + +1. _Observation_ of facts--including under this head that _artificial +observation_ which is called _experiment_. + +2. That process of tying up similar facts into bundles, ticketed and +ready for use, which is called _Comparison_ and _Classification_,--the +results of the process, the ticketed bundles, being named _General +propositions_. + +3. _Deduction_, which takes us from the general proposition to facts +again--teaches us, if I may so say, to anticipate from the ticket +what is inside the bundle. And finally-- + +4. _Verification_, which is the process of ascertaining whether, in +point of fact, our anticipation is a correct one. + +Such are the methods of all science whatsoever; but perhaps you will +permit me to give you an illustration of their employment in the +science of Life; and I will take as a special case the establishment of +the doctrine of the _Circulation of the Blood_. + +In this case, _simple observation_ yields us a knowledge of the +existence of the blood from some accidental haemorrhage, we will say; +we may even grant that it informs us of the localisation of this blood +in particular vessels, the heart, &c., from some accidental cut or the +like. It teaches also the existence of a pulse in various parts of the +body, and acquaints us with the structure of the heart and vessels. + +Here, however, _simple observation_ stops, and we must have recourse +to _experiment_. + +You tie a vein, and you find that the blood accumulates on the side of +the ligature opposite the heart. You tie an artery, and you find that +the blood accumulates on the side near the heart. Open the chest, and +you see the heart contracting with great force. Make openings into its +principal cavities, and you will find that all the blood flows out, and +no more pressure is exerted on either side of the arterial or venous +ligature. + +Now all these facts, taken together, constitute the evidence that the +blood is propelled by the heart through the arteries, and returns by +the veins--that, in short, the blood circulates. + +Suppose our experiments and observations have been made on horses, then +we group and ticket them into a general proposition, thus:--_all +horses have a circulation of their blood_. + +Henceforward a horse is a sort of indication or label, telling us where +we shall find a peculiar series of phaenomena called the circulation of +the blood. + +Here is our _general proposition_, then. + +How, and when, are we justified in making our next step--a _deduction_ +from it? + +Suppose our physiologist, whose experience is limited to horses, meets +with a zebra for the first time,--will he suppose that this +generalisation holds good for zebras also? + +That depends very much on his turn of mind. But we will suppose him to +be a bold man. He will say, "The zebra is certainly not a horse, but it +is very like one,--so like, that it must be the 'ticket' or mark of a +blood-circulation also; and, I conclude that the zebra has a +circulation." + +That is a deduction, a very fair deduction, but by no means to be +considered scientifically secure. This last quality in fact can only be +given by _verification_--that is, by making a zebra the subject of +all the experiments performed on the horse. Of course, in the present +case, the _deduction_ would be _confirmed_ by this process of +verification, and the result would be, not merely a positive widening +of knowledge, but a fair increase of confidence in the truth of one's +generalisations in other cases. + +Thus, having settled the point in the zebra and horse, our philosopher +would have great confidence in the existence of a circulation in the +ass. Nay, I fancy most persons would excuse him, if in this case he did +not take the trouble to go through the process of verification at all; +and it would not be without a parallel in the history of the human +mind, if our imaginary physiologist now maintained that he was +acquainted with asinine circulation _à priori_. + +However, if I might impress any caution upon your minds, it is, the +utterly conditional nature of all our knowledge,--the danger of +neglecting the process of verification under any circumstances; and the +film upon which we rest, the moment our deductions carry us beyond the +reach of this great process of verification. There is no better +instance of this than is afforded by the history of our knowledge of +the circulation of the blood in the animal kingdom until the year 1824. +In every animal possessing a circulation at all, which had been +observed up to that time, the current of the blood was known to take +one definite and invariable direction. Now, there is a class of animals +called _Ascidians_, which possess a heart and a circulation, and +up to the period of which I speak, no one would have dreamt of +questioning the propriety of the deduction, that these creatures have a +circulation in one direction; nor would any one have thought it worth +while to verify the point. But, in that year, M. von Hasselt, happening +to examine a transparent animal of this class, found, to his infinite +surprise, that after the heart had beat a certain number of times, it +stopped, and then began beating the opposite way--so as to reverse the +course of the current, which returned by and by to its original +direction. + +I have myself timed the heart of these little animals. I found it as +regular as possible in its periods of reversal: and I know no spectacle +in the animal kingdom more wonderful than that which it presents--all +the more wonderful that to this day it remains an unique fact, peculiar +to this class among the whole animated world. At the same time I know +of no more striking case of the necessity of the _verification_ of +even those deductions which seem founded on the widest and safest +inductions. + +Such are the methods of Biology--methods which are obviously identical +with those of all other sciences, and therefore wholly incompetent to +form the ground of any distinction between it and them. [5] + +But I shall be asked at once, Do you mean to say that there is no +difference between the habit of mind of a mathematician and that of a +naturalist? Do you imagine that Laplace might have been put into the +Jardin des Plantes, and Cuvier into the Observatory, with equal +advantage to the progress of the sciences they professed? + +To which I would reply, that nothing could be further from my thoughts. +But different habits and various special tendencies of two sciences do +not imply different methods. The mountaineer and the man of the plains +have very different habits of progression, and each would be at a loss +in the other's place; but the method of progression, by putting one leg +before the other, is the same in each case. Every step of each is a +combination of a lift and a push; but the mountaineer lifts more and +the lowlander pushes more. And I think the case of two sciences +resembles this. + +I do not question for a moment, that while the Mathematician is busy +with deductions _from_ general propositions, the Biologist is more +especially occupied with observation, comparison, and those processes +which lead _to_ general propositions. All I wish to insist upon +is, that this difference depends not on any fundamental distinction in +the sciences themselves, but on the accidents of their subject-matter, +of their relative complexity, and consequent relative perfection. + +The Mathematician deals with two properties of objects only, number and +extension, and all the inductions he wants have been formed and +finished ages ago. He is occupied now with nothing but deduction and +verification. + +The Biologist deals with a vast number of properties of objects, and +his inductions will not be completed, I fear, for ages to come; but +when they are, his science will be as deductive and as exact as the +Mathematics themselves. + +Such is the relation of Biology to those sciences which deal with +objects having fewer properties than itself. But as the student, in +reaching Biology, looks back upon sciences of a less complex and +therefore more perfect nature; so, on the other hand, does he look +forward to other more complex and less perfect branches of knowledge. +Biology deals only with living beings as isolated things--treats only +of the life of the individual: but there is a higher division of +science still, which considers living beings as aggregates--which deals +with the relation of living beings one to another--the science which +_observes_ men--whose _experiments_ are made by nations one +upon another, in battlefields--whose _general propositions_ are +embodied in history, morality, and religion--whose _deductions_ +lead to our happiness or our misery--and whose _verifications_ so +often come too late, and serve only + + "To point a moral, or adorn a tale"-- + +I mean the science of Society or _Sociology_. + +I think it is one of the grandest features of Biology, that it occupies +this central position in human knowledge. There is no side of the human +mind which physiological study leaves uncultivated. Connected by +innumerable ties with abstract science, Physiology is yet in the most +intimate relation with humanity; and by teaching us that law and order, +and a definite scheme of development, regulate even the strangest and +wildest manifestations of individual life, she prepares the student to +look for a goal even amidst the erratic wanderings of mankind, and to +believe that history offers something more than an entertaining +chaos--a journal of a toilsome, tragi-comic march no-whither. + +The preceding considerations have, I hope, served to indicate the +replies which befit the first two of the questions which I set before +you at starting, viz. What is the range and position of Physiological +Science as a branch of knowledge, and what is its value as a means of +mental discipline? + +Its _subject-matter_ is a large moiety of the universe--its +_position_ is midway between the physico-chemical and the social +sciences. Its _value_ as a branch of discipline is partly that +which it has in common with all sciences--the training and +strengthening of common sense; partly that which is more peculiar to +itself--the great exercise which it affords to the faculties of +observation and comparison; and, I may add, the _exactness_ of +knowledge which it requires on the part of those among its votaries who +desire to extend its boundaries. + +If what has been said as to the position and scope of Biology be +correct, our third question--What is the practical value of +physiological instruction?--might, one would think, be left to answer +itself. + +On other grounds even, were mankind deserving of the title "rational," +which they arrogate to themselves, there can be no question that they +would consider, as the most necessary of all branches of instruction +for themselves and for their children, that which professes to acquaint +them with the conditions of the existence they prize so highly--which +teaches them how to avoid disease and to cherish health, in themselves +and those who are dear to them. + +I am addressing, I imagine, an audience of educated persons; and yet I +dare venture to assert that, with the exception of those of my hearers +who may chance to have received a medical education, there is not one +who could tell me what is the meaning and use of an act which he +performs a score of times every minute, and whose suspension would +involve his immediate death;--I mean the act of breathing--or who could +state in precise terms why it is that a confined atmosphere is +injurious to health. + +The _practical value_ of Physiological knowledge! Why is it that +educated men can be found to maintain that a slaughter-house in the +midst of a great city is rather a good thing than otherwise?--that +mothers persist in exposing the largest possible amount of surface of +their children to the cold, by the absurd style of dress they adopt, +and then marvel at the peculiar dispensation of Providence, which +removes their infants by bronchitis and gastric fever? Why is it that +quackery rides rampant over the land; and that not long ago, one of the +largest public rooms in this great city could be filled by an audience +gravely listening to the reverend expositor of the doctrine--that the +simple physiological phaenomena known as spirit-rapping, table-turning, +phreno-magnetism, and I know not what other absurd and inappropriate +names, are due to the direct and personal agency of Satan? + +Why is all this, except from the utter ignorance as to the simplest +laws of their own animal life, which prevails among even the most +highly educated persons in this country? + +But there are other branches of Biological Science, besides Physiology +proper, whose practical influence, though less obvious, is not, as I +believe, less certain. I have heard educated men speak with an +ill-disguised contempt of the studies of the naturalist, and ask, not +without a shrug, "What is the use of knowing all about these miserable +animals--what bearing has it on human life?" + +I will endeavour to answer that question. I take it that all will admit +there is definite Government of this universe--that its pleasures and +pains are not scattered at random, but are distributed in accordance +with orderly and fixed laws, and that it is only in accordance with all +we know of the rest of the world, that there should be an agreement +between one portion of the sensitive creation and another in these +matters. + +Surely then it interests us to know the lot of other animal +creatures--however far below us, they are still the sole created things +which share with us the capability of pleasure and the susceptibility +to pain. + +I cannot but think that he who finds a certain proportion of pain and +evil inseparably woven up in the life of the very worms, will bear his +own share with more courage and submission; and will, at any rate, view +with suspicion those weakly amiable theories of the Divine government, +which would have us believe pain to be an oversight and a mistake,--to +be corrected by and by. On the other hand, the predominance of +happiness among living things--their lavish beauty--the secret and +wonderful harmony which pervades them all, from the highest to the +lowest, are equally striking refutations of that modern Manichean +doctrine, which exhibits the world as a slave-mill, worked with many +tears, for mere utilitarian ends. + +There is yet another way in which natural history may, I am convinced, +take a profound hold upon practical life,--and that is, by its +influence over our finer feelings, as the greatest of all sources of +that pleasure which is derivable from beauty. I do not pretend that +natural-history knowledge, as such, can increase our sense of the +beautiful in natural objects. I do not suppose that the dead soul of +Peter Bell, of whom the great poet of nature says,-- + + A primrose by the river's brim, + A yellow primrose was to him,-- + And it was nothing more,-- + +would have been a whit roused from its apathy by the information that +the primrose is a Dicotyledonous Exogen, with a monopetalous corolla +and central placentation. But I advocate natural-history knowledge from +this point of view, because it would lead us to _seek_ the +beauties of natural objects, instead of trusting to chance to force +them on our attention. To a person uninstructed in natural history, his +country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with +wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to +the wall. Teach him something of natural history, and you place in his +hands a catalogue of those which are worth turning round. Surely our +innocent pleasures are not so abundant in this life, that we can afford +to despise this or any other source of them. We should fear being +banished for our neglect to that limbo, where the great Florentine +tells us are those who, during this life, "wept when they might be +joyful." + +But I shall be trespassing unwarrantably on your kindness, if I do not +proceed at once to my last point--the time at which Physiological +Science should first form a part of the Curriculum of Education. + +The distinction between the teaching of the facts of a science as +instruction, and the teaching it systematically as knowledge, has +already been placed before you in a previous lecture: and it appears to +me that, as with other sciences, the _common facts_ of Biology--the +uses of parts of the body--the names and habits of the living +creatures which surround us--may be taught with advantage to the +youngest child. Indeed, the avidity of children for this kind of +knowledge, and the comparative ease with which they retain it, is +something quite marvellous. I doubt whether any toy would be so +acceptable to young children as a vivarium of the same kind as, but of +course on a smaller scale than, those admirable devices in the +Zoological Gardens. + +On the other hand, systematic teaching in Biology cannot be attempted +with success until the student has attained to a certain knowledge of +physics and chemistry: for though the phaenomena of life are dependent +neither on physical nor on chemical, but on vital forces, yet they +result in all sorts of physical and chemical changes, which can only be +judged by their own laws. + +And now to sum up in a few words the conclusions to which I hope you +see reason to follow me. + +Biology needs no apologist when she demands a place--and a prominent +place--in any scheme of education worthy of the name. Leave out the +Physiological sciences from your curriculum, and you launch the student +into the world, undisciplined in that science whose subject-matter +would best develop his powers of observation; ignorant of facts of the +deepest importance for his own and others' welfare; blind to the +richest sources of beauty in God's creation; and unprovided with that +belief in a living law, and an order manifesting itself in and through +endless change and variety, which might serve to check and moderate +that phase of despair through which, if he take an earnest interest in +social problems, he will assuredly sooner or later pass. + +Finally, one word for myself. I have not hesitated to speak strongly +where I have felt strongly; and I am but too conscious that the +indicative and imperative moods have too often taken the place of the +more becoming subjunctive and conditional. I feel, therefore, how +necessary it is to beg you to forget the personality of him who has +thus ventured to address you, and to consider only the truth or error +in what has been said. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] "In the third place, we have to review the method of Comparison, +which is so specially adapted to the study of living bodies, and by +which, above all others, that study must be advanced. In Astronomy, +this method is necessarily inapplicable; and it is not till we arrive +at Chemistry that this third means of investigation can be used, and +then only in subordination to the two others. It is in the study, both +statical and dynamical, of living bodies that it first acquires its +full development; and its use elsewhere can be only through its +application here."--COMTE'S _Positive Philosophy_, translated by +Miss Martineau. Vol. i. p. 372. + +By what method does M. Comte suppose that the equality or inequality +of forces and quantities and the dissimilarity or similarity of +forms--points of some slight importance not only in Astronomy and +Physics, but even in Mathematics--are ascertained, if not by +Comparison? + +[2] "Proceeding to the second class of means,--Experiment cannot but be +less and less decisive, in proportion to the complexity of the +phaenomena to be explored; and therefore we saw this resource to be +less effectual in chemistry than in physics: and we now find that it is +eminently useful in chemistry in comparison with physiology. _In +fact, the nature of the phenomena seems to offer almost insurmountable +impediments to any extensive and prolific application of such a +procedure in biology._"--COMTE, vol. i. p. 367. + +M. Comte, as his manner is, contradicts himself two pages further on, +but that will hardly relieve him from the responsibility of such a +paragraph as the above. + +[3] _Nouvelle Fonction du Foie considéré comme organe producteur de +matière sucrée chez l'Homme et les Animaux, par_ M. Claude Bernard. + +[4] "_Natural Groups given by Type, not by Definition_.... The +class is steadily fixed, though not precisely limited; it is given, +though not circumscribed; it is determined, not by a boundary-line +without, but by a central point within; not by what it strictly +excludes, but what it eminently includes; by an example, not by a +precept; in short, instead of Definition we have a _Type_ for our +director. A type is an example of any class, for instance, a species of +a genus, which is considered as eminently possessing the characters of +the class. All the species which have a greater affinity with this +type-species than with any others, form the genus, and are ranged about +about it, deviating from it in various directions and different +degrees."--WHEWELL, _The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences_, +vol. i. pp. 476, 477. + +[5] Save for the pleasure of doing so, I need hardly point put my +obligations to Mr. J. S. Mill's _System of Logic_, in this view of +scientific method. + + + + +III + +EMANCIPATION--BLACK AND WHITE + +[1865.] + + +Quashie's plaintive inquiry, "Am I not a man and a brother?" seems at +last to have received its final reply--the recent decision of the +fierce trial by battle on the other side of the Atlantic fully +concurring with that long since delivered here in a more peaceful way. + +The question is settled; but even those who are most thoroughly +convinced that the doom is just, must see good grounds for repudiating +half the arguments which have been employed by the winning side; and +for doubting whether its ultimate results will embody the hopes of the +victors, though they may more than realise the fears of the vanquished. +It may be quite true that some negroes are better than some white men; +but no rational man, cognisant of the facts, believes that the average +negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the average white man. +And, if this be true, it is simply incredible that, when all his +disabilities are removed, and our prognathous relative has a fair field +and no favour, as well as no oppressor, he will be able to compete +successfully with his bigger-brained and smaller-jawed rival, in a +contest which is to be carried on by thoughts and not by bites. The +highest places in the hierarchy of civilisation will assuredly not be +within the reach of our dusky cousins, though it is by no means +necessary that they should be restricted to the lowest. But whatever +the position of stable equilibrium into which the laws of social +gravitation may bring the negro, all responsibility for the result will +henceforward lie between Nature and him. The white man may wash his +hands of it, and the Caucasian conscience be void of reproach for +evermore. And this, if we look to the bottom of the matter, is the real +justification for the abolition policy. + +The doctrine of equal natural rights may be an illogical delusion; +emancipation may convert the slave from a well-fed animal into a +pauperised man; mankind may even have to do without cotton shirts; but +all these evils must be faced if the moral law, that no human being can +arbitrarily dominate over another without grievous damage to his own +nature, be, as many think, as readily demonstrable by experiment as any +physical truth. If this be true, no slavery can be abolished without a +double emancipation, and the master will benefit by freedom more than +the freed-man. + +The like considerations apply to all the other questions of +emancipation which are at present stirring the world--the multifarious +demands that classes of mankind shall be relieved from restrictions +imposed by the artifice of man, and not by the necessities of Nature. +One of the most important, if not the most important, of all these, is +that which daily threatens to become the "irrepressible" woman +question. What social and political rights have women? What ought they +to be allowed, or not allowed, to do, be, and suffer? And, as involved +in, and underlying all these questions, how ought they to be educated? + +There are philogynists as fanatical as any "misogynists" who, reversing +our antiquated notions, bid the man look upon the woman as the higher +type of humanity; who ask us to regard the female intellect as the +clearer and the quicker, if not the stronger; who desire us to look up +to the feminine moral sense as the purer and the nobler; and bid man +abdicate his usurped sovereignty over Nature in favour of the female +line. On the other hand, there are persons not to be outdone in all +loyalty and just respect for womankind, but by nature hard of head and +haters of delusion, however charming, who not only repudiate the new +woman-worship which so many sentimentalists and some philosophers are +desirous of setting up, but, carrying their audacity further, deny even +the natural equality of the sexes. They assert, on the contrary, that +in every excellent character, whether mental or physical, the average +woman is inferior to the average man, in the sense of having that +character less in quantity and lower in quality. Tell these persons of +the rapid perceptions and the instinctive intellectual insight of +women, and they reply that the feminine mental peculiarities, which +pass under these names, are merely the outcome of a greater +impressibility to the superficial aspects of things, and of the absence +of that restraint upon expression which, in men, is imposed by +reflection and a sense of responsibility. Talk of the passive endurance +of the weaker sex, and opponents of this kind remind you that Job was a +man, and that, until quite recent times, patience and long-suffering +were not counted among the specially feminine virtues. Claim passionate +tenderness as especially feminine, and the inquiry is made whether all +the best love-poetry in existence (except, perhaps, the "Sonnets from +the Portuguese ") has not been written by men; whether the song which +embodies the ideal of pure and tender passion--"Adelaida "--was +written by _Frau_ Beethoven; whether it was the Fornarina, or +Raphael, who painted the Sistine Madonna. Nay, we have known one such +heretic go so far as to lay his hands upon the ark itself, so to speak, +and to defend the startling paradox that, even in physical beauty, man +is the superior. He admitted, indeed, that there was a brief period of +early youth when it might be hard to say whether the prize should be +awarded to the graceful undulations of the female figure, or the +perfect balance and supple vigour of the male frame. But while our new +Paris might hesitate between the youthful Bacchus and the Venus +emerging from the foam, he averred that, when Venus and Bacchus had +reached thirty, the point no longer admitted of a doubt; the male form +having then attained its greatest nobility, while the female is far +gone in decadence; and that, at this epoch, womanly beauty, so far as +it is independent of grace or expression, is a question of drapery and +accessories. + +Supposing, however, that all these arguments have a certain foundation; +admitting, for a moment, that they are comparable to those by which the +inferiority of the negro to the white man may be demonstrated, are they +of any value as against woman-emancipation? Do they afford us the +smallest ground for refusing to educate women as well as men--to give +women the same civil and political rights as men? No mistake is so +commonly made by clever people as that of assuming a cause to be bad +because the arguments of its supporters are, to a great extent, +non-sensical. And we conceive that those who may laugh at the arguments +of the extreme philogynists, may yet feel bound to work heart and soul +towards the attainment of their practical ends. + +As regards education, for example. Granting the alleged defects of +women, is it not somewhat absurd to sanction and maintain a system of +education which would seem to have been specially contrived to +exaggerate all these defects? + +Naturally not so firmly strung, nor so well balanced as boys, girls are +in great measure debarred from the sports and physical exercises which +are justly thought absolutely necessary for the full development of the +vigour of the more favoured sex. Women are, by nature, more excitable +than men--prone to be swept by tides of emotion, proceeding from hidden +and inward, as well as from obvious and external causes; and female +education does its best to weaken every physical counterpoise to this +nervous mobility--tends in all ways to stimulate the emotional part of +the mind and stunt the rest. We find girls naturally timid, inclined to +dependence, born conservatives; and we teach them that independence is +unladylike; that blind faith is the right frame of mind; and that +whatever we may be permitted, and indeed encouraged, to do to our +brother, our sister is to be left to the tyranny of authority and +tradition. With few insignificant exceptions, girls have been educated +either to be drudges, or toys, beneath man; or a sort of angels above +him; the highest ideal aimed at oscillating between Clärchen and +Beatrice. The possibility that the ideal of womanhood lies neither in +the fair saint, nor in the fair sinner; that the female type of +character is neither better nor worse than the male, but only weaker; +that women are meant neither to be men's guides nor their play-things, +but their comrades, their fellows, and their equals, so far as Nature +puts no bar to that equality, does not seem to have entered into the +minds of those who have had the conduct of the education of girls. + +If the present system of female education stands self-condemned, as +inherently absurd; and if that which we have just indicated is the true +position of woman, what is the first step towards a better state of +things? We reply, emancipate girls. Recognise the fact that they share +the senses, perceptions, feelings, reasoning powers, emotions, of boys, +and that the mind of the average girl is less different from that of +the average boy, than the mind of one boy is from that of another; so +that whatever argument justifies a given education for all boys, +justifies its application to girls as well. So far from imposing +artificial restrictions upon the acquirement of knowledge by women, +throw every facility in their way. Let our Faustinas, if they will, +toil through the whole round of + + "Juristerei und Medizin, + Und leider! auch Philosophie." + +Let us have "sweet girl graduates" by all means. They will be none the +less sweet for a little wisdom; and the "golden hair" will not curl +less gracefully outside the head by reason of there being brains +within. Nay, if obvious practical difficulties can be overcome, let +those women who feel inclined to do so descend into the gladiatorial +arena of life, not merely in the guise of _retiariae_, as +heretofore, but as bold _sicariae_, breasting the open fray. Let +them, if they so please, become merchants, barristers, politicians. Let +them have a fair field, but let them understand, as the necessary +correlative, that they are to have no favour. Let Nature alone sit high +above the lists, "rain influence and judge the prize." + +And the result? For our parts, though loth to prophesy, we believe it +will be that of other emancipations. Women will find their place, and +it will neither be that in which they have been held, nor that to which +some of them aspire. Nature's old salique law will not be repealed, and +no change of dynasty will be effected. The big chests, the massive +brains, the vigorous muscles and stout frames of the best men will +carry the day, whenever it is worth their while to contest the prizes +of life with the best women. And the hardship of it is, that the very +improvement of the women will lessen their chances. Better mothers will +bring forth better sons, and the impetus gained by the one sex will be +transmitted, in the next generation, to the other. The most Darwinian +of theorists will not venture to propound the doctrine, that the +physical disabilities under which women have hitherto laboured in the +struggle for existence with men are likely to be removed by even the +most skilfully conducted process of educational selection. + +We are, indeed, fully prepared to believe that the bearing of children +may, and ought, to become as free from danger and long disability to +the civilised woman as it is to the savage; nor is it improbable that, +as society advances towards its right organisation, motherhood will +occupy a less space of woman's life than it has hitherto done. But +still, unless the human species is to come to an end altogether--a +consummation which can hardly be desired by even the most ardent +advocate of "women's rights"--somebody must be good enough to take the +trouble and responsibility of annually adding to the world exactly as +many people as die out of it. In consequence of some domestic +difficulties, Sydney Smith is said to have suggested that it would have +been good for the human race had the model offered by the hive been +followed, and had all the working part of the female community been +neuters. Failing any thorough-going reform of this kind, we see nothing +for it but the old division of humanity into men potentially, or +actually, fathers, and women potentially, if not actually, mothers. And +we fear that so long as this potential motherhood is her lot, woman +will be found to be fearfully weighted in the race of life. + +The duty of man is to see that not a grain is piled upon that load +beyond what Nature imposes; that injustice is not added to inequality. + + + + +IV + +A LIBERAL EDUCATION; AND WHERE TO FIND IT + +[1868.] + + +The business which the South London Working Men's College has +undertaken is a great work; indeed, I might say, that Education, with +which that college proposes to grapple, is the greatest work of all +those which lie ready to a man's hand just at present. + +And, at length, this fact is becoming generally recognised. You cannot +go anywhere without hearing a buzz of more or less confused and +contradictory talk on this subject--nor can you fail to notice that, in +one point at any rate, there is a very decided advance upon like +discussions in former days. Nobody outside the agricultural interest +now dares to say that education is a bad thing. If any representative +of the once large and powerful party, which, in former days, proclaimed +this opinion, still exists in a semi-fossil state, he keeps his +thoughts to himself. In fact, there is a chorus of voices, almost +distressing in their harmony, raised in favour of the doctrine that +education is the great panacea for human troubles, and that, if the +country is not shortly to go to the dogs, everybody must be educated. + +The politicians tells us, "You must educate the masses because they are +going to be masters." The clergy join in the cry for education, for +they affirm that the people are drifting away from church and chapel +into the broadest infidelity. The manufacturers and the capitalists +swell the chorus lustily. They declare that ignorance makes bad +workmen; that England will soon be unable to turn out cotton goods, or +steam engines, cheaper than other people; and then, Ichabod! Ichabod! +the glory will be departed from us. And a few voices are lifted up in +favour of the doctrine that the masses should be educated because they +are men and women with unlimited capacities of being, doing, and +suffering, and that it is as true now, as ever it was, that the people +perish for lack of knowledge. + +These members of the minority, with whom I confess I have a good deal +of sympathy, are doubtful whether any of the other reasons urged in +favour of the education of the people are of much value--whether, +indeed, some of them are based upon either wise or noble grounds of +action. They question if it be wise to tell people that you will do for +them, out of fear of their power, what you have left undone, so long as +your only motive was compassion for their weakness and their sorrows. +And, if ignorance of everything which it is needful a ruler should know +is likely to do so much harm in the governing classes of the future, +why is it, they ask reasonably enough, that such ignorance in the +governing classes of the past has not been viewed with equal horror? + +Compare the average artisan and the average country squire, and it may +be doubted if you will find a pin to choose between the two in point of +ignorance, class feeling, or prejudice. It is true that the ignorance +is of a different sort--that the class feeling is in favour of a +different class--and that the prejudice has a distinct savour of +wrong-headedness in each case--but it is questionable if the one is +either a bit better, or a bit worse, than the other. The old +protectionist theory is the doctrine of trades unions as applied by the +squires, and the modern trades unionism is the doctrine of the squires +applied by the artisans. Why should we be worse off under one _régime_ +than under the other? + +Again, this sceptical minority asks the clergy to think whether it is +really want of education which keeps the masses away from their +ministrations--whether the most completely educated men are not as open +to reproach on this score as the workmen; and whether, perchance, this +may not indicate that it is not education which lies at the bottom of +the matter? + +Once more, these people, whom there is no pleasing, venture to doubt +whether the glory, which rests upon being able to undersell all the +rest of the world, is a very safe kind of glory--whether we may not +purchase it too dear; especially if we allow education, which ought to +be directed to the making of men, to be diverted into a process of +manufacturing human tools, wonderfully adroit in the exercise of some +technical industry, but good for nothing else. + +And, finally, these people inquire whether it is the masses alone who +need a reformed and improved education. They ask whether the richest of +our public schools might not well be made to supply knowledge, as well +as gentlemanly habits, a strong class feeling, and eminent proficiency +in cricket. They seem to think that the noble foundations of our old +universities are hardly fulfilling their functions in their present +posture of half-clerical seminaries, half racecourses, where men are +trained to win a senior wranglership, or a double-first, as horses +are trained to win a cup, with as little reference to the needs of +after-life in the case of the man as in that of the racer. And, while +as zealous for education as the rest, they affirm that, if the +education of the richer classes were such as to fit them to be the +leaders and the governors of the poorer; and, if the education of the +poorer classes were such as to enable them to appreciate really wise +guidance and good governance, the politicians need not fear mob-law, +nor the clergy lament their want of flocks, nor the capitalists +prognosticate the annihilation of the prosperity of the country. + +Such is the diversity of opinion upon the why and the wherefore of +education. And my hearers will be prepared to expect that the practical +recommendations which are put forward are not less discordant. There is +a loud cry for compulsory education. We English, in spite of constant +experience to the contrary, preserve a touching faith in the efficacy +of acts of Parliament; and I believe we should have compulsory +education in the course of next session, if there were the least +probability that half a dozen leading statesmen of different parties +would agree what that education should be. + +Some hold that education without theology is worse than none. Others +maintain, quite as strongly, that education with theology is in the +same predicament. But this is certain, that those who hold the first +opinion can by no means agree what theology should be taught; and that +those who maintain the second are in a small minority. + +At any rate "make people learn to read, write, and cipher," say a great +many; and the advice is undoubtedly sensible as far as it goes. But, as +has happened to me in former days, those who, in despair of getting +anything better, advocate this measure, are met with the objection that +it is very like making a child practise the use of a knife, fork, and +spoon, without giving it a particle of meat. I really don't know what +reply is to be made to such an objection. + +But it would be unprofitable to spend more time in disentangling, or +rather in showing up the knots in, the ravelled skeins of our +neighbours. Much more to the purpose is it to ask if we possess any +clue of our own which may guide us among these entanglements. And by +way of a beginning, let us ask ourselves--What is education? Above all +things, what is our ideal of a thoroughly liberal education?--of that +education which, if we could begin life again, we would give +ourselves--of that education which, if we could mould the fates to our +own will, we would give our children? Well, I know not what may be your +conceptions upon this matter, but I will tell you mine, and I hope I +shall find that our views are not very discrepant. + + * * * * * + +Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every +one of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing a +game at chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to be a +primary duty to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces; +to have a notion of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the means of +giving and getting out of check? Do you not think that we should look +with a disapprobation amounting to scorn, upon the father who allowed +his son, or the state which allowed its members, to grow up without +knowing a pawn from a knight? + +Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, the +fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of +those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something +of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than +chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man +and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her +own. The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the +universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. +The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play +is always fair, just and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that +he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for +ignorance. To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with +that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight +in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated--without haste, but +without remorse. + +My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which +Retzsch has depicted Satan playing at chess with man for his soul. +Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel +who is playing for love, as we say, and would rather lose than win--and +I should accept it us an image of human life. + +Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty +game. In other words, education is the instruction of the intellect in +the laws of Nature, under which name I include not merely things and +their forces, but men and their ways; and the fashioning of the +affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in +harmony with those laws. For me, education means neither more nor less +than this. Anything which professes to call itself education must be +tried by this standard, and if it fails to stand the test, I will not +call it education, whatever may be the force of authority, or of +numbers, upon the other side. + +It is important to remember that, in strictness, there is no such thing +as an uneducated man. Take an extreme case. Suppose that an adult man, +in the full vigour of his faculties, could be suddenly placed in the +world, as Adam is said to have been, and then left to do as he best +might. How long would he be left uneducated? Not five minutes. Nature +would begin to teach him, through the eye, the ear, the touch, the +properties of objects. Pain and pleasure would be at his elbow telling +him to do this and avoid that; and by slow degrees the man would +receive an education which, if narrow, would be thorough, real, and +adequate to his circumstances, though there would be no extras and very +few accomplishments. + +And if to this solitary man entered a second Adam, or, better still, an +Eve, a new and greater world, that of social and moral phenomena, would +be revealed. Joys and woes, compared with which all others might seem +but faint shadows, would spring from the new relations. Happiness and +sorrow would take the place of the coarser monitors, pleasure and pain; +but conduct would still be shaped by the observation of the natural +consequences of actions; or, in other words, by the laws of the nature +of man. + +To every one of us the world was once as fresh and new as to Adam. And +then, long before we were susceptible of any other mode of instruction, +Nature took us in hand, and every minute of waking life brought its +educational influence, shaping our actions into rough accordance with +Nature's laws, so that we might not be ended untimely by too gross +disobedience. Nor should I speak of this process of education as past +for any one, be he as old as he may. For every man the world is as +fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for +him who has the eyes to see them. And Nature is still continuing her +patient education of us in that great university, the universe, of +which we are all members--Nature having no Test-Acts. + +Those who take honours in Nature's university, who learn the laws which +govern men and things and obey them, are the really great and +successful men in this world. The great mass of mankind are the +"Poll," who pick up just enough to get through without much discredit. +Those who won't learn at all are plucked; and then you can't come up +again. Nature's pluck means extermination. + +Thus the question of compulsory education is settled so far as Nature +is concerned. Her bill on that question was framed and passed long ago. +But, like all compulsory legislation, that of Nature is harsh and +wasteful in its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as wilful +disobedience--incapacity meets with the same punishment as crime. +Nature's discipline is not even a word and a blow, and the blow first; +but the blow without the word. It is left to you to find out why your +ears are boxed. + +The object of what we commonly call education--that education in +which man intervenes and which I shall distinguish as artificial +education--is to make good these defects in Nature's methods; to +prepare the child to receive Nature's education, neither incapably nor +ignorantly, nor with wilful disobedience; and to understand the +preliminary symptoms of her pleasure, without waiting for the box on +the ear. In short, all artificial education ought to be an anticipation +of natural education. And a liberal education is an artificial education +which has not only prepared a man to escape the great evils +of disobedience to natural laws, but has trained him to appreciate and +to seize upon the rewards, which Nature scatters with as free a hand as +her penalties. + +That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained +in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with +ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; +whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of +equal strength, and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam +engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as +well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a +knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws +of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and +fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous +will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all +beauty, whether of Nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to +respect others as himself. + +Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; for +he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. He will +make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely: +she as his ever beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her conscious +self, her minister and interpreter. + +Where is such an education as this to be had? Where is there any +approximation to it? Has any one tried to found such an education? +Looking over the length and breadth of these islands, I am afraid that +all these questions must receive a negative answer. Consider our +primary schools and what is taught in them. A child learns:-- + +1. To read, write, and cipher, more or less well; but in a very large +proportion of cases not so well as to take pleasure in reading, or to +be able to write the commonest letter properly. + +2. A quantity of dogmatic theology, of which the child, nine times out +of ten, understands next to nothing. + +3. Mixed up with this, so as to seem to stand or fall with it, a few of +the broadest and simplest principles of morality. This, to my mind, is +much as if a man of science should make the story of the fall of the +apple in Newton's garden an integral part of the doctrine of +gravitation, and teach it as of equal authority with the law of the +inverse squares. + +4. A good deal of Jewish history and Syrian geography, and perhaps a +little something about English history and the geography of the child's +own country. But I doubt if there is a primary school in England in +which hangs a map of the hundred in which the village lies, so that the +children may be practically taught by it what a map means. + +5. A certain amount of regularity, attentive obedience, respect for +others: obtained by fear, if the master be incompetent or foolish; by +love and reverence, if he be wise. + +So far as this school course embraces a training in the theory and +practice of obedience to the moral laws of Nature, I gladly admit, not +only that it contains a valuable educational element, but that, so far, +it deals with the most valuable and important part of all education. +Yet, contrast what is done in this direction with what might be done; +with the time given to matters of comparatively no importance; with the +absence of any attention to things of the highest moment; and one is +tempted to think of Falstaff's bill and "the halfpenny worth of bread +to all that quantity of sack." + +Let us consider what a child thus "educated" knows, and what it does +not know. Begin with the most important topic of all--morality, as the +guide of conduct. The child knows well enough that some acts meet with +approbation and some with disapprobation. But it has never heard that +there lies in the nature of things a reason for every moral law, as +cogent and as well defined as that which underlies every physical law; +that stealing and lying are just as certain to be followed by evil +consequences, as putting your hand in the fire, or jumping out of a +garret window. Again, though the scholar may have been made acquainted, +in dogmatic fashion, with the broad laws of morality, he has had no +training in the application of those laws to the difficult problems +which result from the complex conditions of modern civilisation. Would +it not be very hard to expect any one to solve a problem in conic +sections who had merely been taught the axioms and definitions of +mathematical science? + +A workman has to bear hard labour, and perhaps privation, while he sees +others rolling in wealth, and feeding their dogs with what would keep +his children from starvation. Would it not be well to have helped that +man to calm the natural promptings of discontent by showing him, in his +youth, the necessary connection of the moral law which prohibits +stealing with the stability of society--by proving to him, once for +all, that it is better for his own people, better for himself, better +for future generations, that he should starve than steal? If you have +no foundation of knowledge, or habit of thought, to work upon, what +chance have you of persuading a hungry man that a capitalist is not a +thief "with a circumbendibus?" And if he honestly believes that, of +what avail is it to quote the commandment against stealing, when he +proposes to make the capitalist disgorge? + +Again, the child learns absolutely nothing of the history or the +political organisation of his own country. His general impression is, +that everything of much importance happened a very long while ago; and +that the Queen and the gentlefolks govern the country much after the +fashion of King David and the elders and nobles of Israel--his sole +models. Will you give a man with this much information a vote? In easy +times he sells it for a pot of beer. Why should he not? It is of about +as much use to him as a chignon, and he knows as much what to do with +it, for any other purpose. In bad times, on the contrary, he applies +his simple theory of government, and believes that his rulers are the +cause of his sufferings--a belief which sometimes bears remarkable +practical fruits. + +Least of all, does the child gather from this primary "education" of +ours a conception of the laws of the physical world, or of the +relations of cause and effect therein. And this is the more to be +lamented, as the poor are especially exposed to physical evils, and are +more interested in removing them than any other class of the community. +If any one is concerned in knowing the ordinary laws of mechanics one +would think it is the hand-labourer, whose daily toil lies among levers +and pulleys; or among the other implements of artisan work. And if any +one is interested in the laws of health, it is the poor workman, whose +strength is wasted by ill-prepared food, whose health is sapped by bad +ventilation and bad drainage, and half whose children are massacred by +disorders which might be prevented. Not only does our present primary +education carefully abstain from hinting to the workman that some of +his greatest evils are traceable to mere physical agencies, which could +be removed by energy, patience, and frugality; but it does worse--it +renders him, so far as it can, deaf to those who could help him, and +tries to substitute an Oriental submission to what is falsely declared +to be the will of God, for his natural tendency to strive after a +better condition. + +What wonder, then, if very recently an appeal has been made to +statistics for the profoundly foolish purpose of showing that education +is of no good--that it diminishes neither misery nor crime among the +masses of mankind? I reply, why should the thing which has been called +education do either the one or the other? If I am a knave or a fool, +teaching me to read and write won't make me less of either one or the +other--unless somebody shows me how to put my reading and writing to +wise and good purposes. + +Suppose any one were to argue that medicine is of no use, because it +could be proved statistically, that the percentage of deaths was just +the same among people who had been taught how to open a medicine chest, +and among those who did not so much as know the key by sight. The +argument is absurd; but it is not more preposterous than that against +which I am contending. The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all +the other woes of mankind, is wisdom. Teach a man to read and write, +and you have put into his hands the great keys of the wisdom box. But +it is quite another matter whether he ever opens the box or not. And he +is as likely to poison as to cure himself, if, without guidance, he +swallows the first drug that comes to hand. In these times a man may as +well be purblind, as unable to read--lame, as unable to write. But I +protest that, if I thought the alternative were a necessary one, I +would rather that the children of the poor should grow up ignorant of +both these mighty arts, than that they should remain ignorant of that +knowledge to which these arts are means. + + * * * * * + +It may be said that all these animadversions may apply to primary +schools, but that the higher schools, at any rate, must be allowed to +give a liberal education. In fact they professedly sacrifice everything +else to this object. + +Let us inquire into this matter. What do the higher schools, those to +which the great middle class of the country sends its children, teach, +over and above the instruction given in the primary schools? There is a +little more reading and writing of English. But, for all that, every +one knows that it is a rare thing to find a boy of the middle or upper +classes who can read aloud decently, or who can put his thoughts on +paper in clear and grammatical (to say nothing of good or elegant) +language. The "ciphering" of the lower schools expands into elementary +mathematics in the higher; into arithmetic, with a little algebra, a +little Euclid. But I doubt if one boy in five hundred has ever heard +the explanation of a rule of arithmetic, or knows his Euclid otherwise +than by rote. + +Of theology, the middle class schoolboy gets rather less than poorer +children, less absolutely and less relatively, because there are so +many other claims upon his attention. I venture to say that, in the +great majority of cases, his ideas on this subject when he leaves +school are of the most shadowy and vague description, and associated +with painful impressions of the weary hours spent in learning collects +and catechism by heart. + +Modern geography, modern history, modern literature; the English +language as a language; the whole circle of the sciences, physical, +moral and social, are even more completely ignored in the higher than +in the lower schools. Up till within a few years back, a boy might have +passed through any one of the great public schools with the greatest +distinction and credit, and might never so much as have heard of one of +the subjects I have just mentioned. He might never have heard that the +earth goes round the sun; that England underwent a great revolution in +1688, and France another in 1789; that there once lived certain notable +men called Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Voltaire, Goethe, Schiller. +The first might be a German and the last an Englishman for anything he +could tell you to the contrary. And as for Science, the only idea the +word would suggest to his mind would be dexterity in boxing. + +I have said that this was the state of things a few years back, for the +sake of the few righteous who are to be found among the educational +cities of the plain. But I would not have you too sanguine about the +result, if you sound the minds of the existing generation of public +schoolboys, on such topics as those I have mentioned. + +Now let us pause to consider this wonderful state of affairs; for the +time will come when Englishmen will quote it as the stock example of +the stolid stupidity of their ancestors in the nineteenth century. The +most thoroughly commercial people, the greatest voluntary wanderers and +colonists the world has ever seen, are precisely the middle classes of +this country. If there be a people which has been busy making history +on the great scale for the last three hundred years--and the most +profoundly interesting history--history which, if it happened to be +that of Greece or Rome, we should study with avidity--it is the +English. If there be a people which, during the same period, has +developed a remarkable literature, it is our own. If there be a nation +whose prosperity depends absolutely and wholly upon their mastery over +the forces of Nature, upon their intelligent apprehension of, and +obedience to the laws of the creation and distribution of wealth, and +of the stable equilibrium of the forces of society, it is precisely +this nation. And yet this is what these wonderful people tell their +sons:--"At the cost of from one to two thousand pounds of our +hard-earned money, we devote twelve of the most precious years of your +lives to school. There you shall toil, or be supposed to toil; but +there you shall not learn one single thing of all those you will most +want to know directly you leave school and enter upon the practical +business of life. You will in all probability go into business, but you +shall not know where, or how, any article of commerce is produced, or +the difference between an export or an import, or the meaning of the +word "capital." You will very likely settle in a colony, but you shall +not know whether Tasmania is part of New South Wales, or _vice versâ_. + +"Very probably you may become a manufacturer, but you shall not be +provided with the means of understanding the working of one of your own +steam-engines, or the nature of the raw products you employ; and, when +you are asked to buy a patent, you shall not have the slightest means +of judging whether the inventor is an impostor who is contravening the +elementary principles of science, or a man who will make you as rich as +Croesus. + +"You will very likely get into the House of Commons. You will have to +take your share in making laws which may prove a blessing or a curse to +millions of men. But you shall not hear one word respecting the +political organisation of your country; the meaning of the controversy +between free-traders and protectionists shall never have been mentioned +to you; you shall not so much as know that there are such things as +economical laws. + +"The mental power which will be of most importance in your daily life +will be the power of seeing things as they are without regard to +authority; and of drawing accurate general conclusions from particular +facts. But at school and at college you shall know of no source of +truth but authority; nor exercise your reasoning faculty upon anything +but deduction from that which is laid down by authority. + +"You will have to weary your soul with work, and many a time eat your +bread in sorrow and in bitterness, and you shall not have learned to +take refuge in the great source of pleasure without alloy, the serene +resting-place for worn human nature,--the world of art." + +Said I not rightly that we are a wonderful people? I am quite prepared +to allow, that education entirely devoted to these omitted subjects +might not be a completely liberal education. But is an education which +ignores them all a liberal education? Nay, is it too much to say that +the education which should embrace these subjects and no others would +be a real education, though an incomplete one; while an education which +omits them is really not an education at all, but a more or less useful +course of intellectual gymnastics? + +For what does the middle-class school put in the place of all these +things which are left out? It substitutes what is usually comprised +under the compendious title of the "classics"--that is to say, the +languages, the literature, and the history of the ancient Greeks and +Romans, and the geography of so much of the world as was known to these +two great nations of antiquity. Now, do not expect me to depreciate the +earnest and enlightened pursuit of classical learning. I have not the +least desire to speak ill of such occupations, nor any sympathy with +those who run them down. On the contrary, if my opportunities had lain +in that direction, there is no investigation into which I could have +thrown myself with greater delight than that of antiquity. + +What science can present greater attractions than philology? How can a +lover of literary excellence fail to rejoice in the ancient +masterpieces? And with what consistency could I, whose business lies so +much in the attempt to decipher the past, and to build up intelligible +forms out of the scattered fragments of long-extinct beings, fail to +take a sympathetic, though an unlearned, interest in the labours of a +Niebuhr, a Gibbon, or a Grote? Classical history is a great section of +the palaeontology of man; and I have the same double respect for it as +for other kinds of palaeontology--that is to say, a respect for the +facts which it establishes as for all facts, and a still greater +respect for it as a preparation for the discovery of a law of progress. + +But if the classics were taught as they might be taught--if boys and +girls were instructed in Greek and Latin, not merely as languages, but +as illustrations of philological science; if a vivid picture of life on +the shores of the Mediterranean two thousand years ago were imprinted +on the minds of scholars; if ancient history were taught, not as a +weary series of feuds and fights, but traced to its causes in such men +placed under such conditions; if, lastly, the study of the classical +books were followed in such a manner as to impress boys with their +beauties, and with the grand simplicity of their statement of the +everlasting problems of human life, instead of with their verbal and +grammatical peculiarities; I still think it as little proper that they +should form the basis of a liberal education for our contemporaries, as +I should think it fitting to make that sort of palaeontology with which +I am familiar the back-bone of modern education. + +It is wonderful how close a parallel to classical training could be +made out of that palaeontology to which I refer. In the first place I +could get up an osteological primer so arid, so pedantic in its +terminology, so altogether distasteful to the youthful mind, as to beat +the recent famous production of the head-masters out of the field in +all these excellences. Next, I could exercise my boys upon easy +fossils, and bring out all their powers of memory and all their +ingenuity in the application of my osteo-grammatical rules to the +interpretation, or construing, of those fragments. To those who had +reached the higher classes, I might supply odd bones to be built up +into animals, giving great honour and reward to him who succeeded in +fabricating monsters most entirely in accordance with the rules. That +would answer to verse-making and essay-writing in the dead languages. + +To be sure, if a great comparative anatomist were to look at these +fabrications he might shake his head, or laugh. But what then? Would +such a catastrophe destroy the parallel? What, think you, would Cicero, +or Horace, say to the production of the best sixth form going? And +would not Terence stop his ears and run out if he could be present at +an English performance of his own plays? Would _Hamlet_, in the +mouths of a set of French actors, who should insist on pronouncing +English after the fashion of their own tongue, be more hideously +ridiculous? + +But it will be said that I am forgetting the beauty, and the human +interest, which appertain to classical studies. To this I reply that it +is only a very strong man who can appreciate the charms of a landscape +as he is toiling up a steep hill, along a had road. What with +short-windedness, stones, ruts, and a pervading sense of the wisdom of +rest and be thankful, most of us have little enough sense of the +beautiful under these circumstances. The ordinary schoolboy is +precisely in this case. He finds Parnassus uncommonly steep, and there +is no chance of his having much time or inclination to look about him +till he gets to the top. And nine times out of ten he does not get to +the top. + +But if this be a fair picture of the results of classical teaching at +its best--and I gather from those who have authority to speak on such +matters that it is so--what is to be said of classical teaching at its +worst, or in other words, of the classics of our ordinary middle-class +schools? [1] I will tell you. It means getting up endless forms and +rules by heart. It means turning Latin and Greek into English, for the +mere sake of being able to do it, and without the smallest regard to +the worth, or worthlessness, of the author read. It means the learning +of innumerable, not always decent, fables in such a shape that the +meaning they once had is dried up into utter trash; and the only +impression left upon a boy's mind is, that the people who believed such +things must have been the greatest idiots the world ever saw. And it +means, finally, that after a dozen years spent at this kind of work, +the sufferer shall be incompetent to interpret a passage in an author +he has not already got up; that he shall loathe the sight of a Greek or +Latin book; and that he shall never open, or think of, a classical +writer again, until, wonderful to relate, he insists upon submitting +his sons to the same process. + +These be your gods, O Israel! For the sake of this net result (and +respectability) the British father denies his children all the +knowledge they might turn to account in life, not merely for the +achievement of vulgar success, but for guidance in the great crises of +human existence. This is the stone he offers to those whom he is bound +by the strongest and tenderest ties to feed with bread. + + * * * * * + +If primary and secondary education are in this unsatisfactory state, +what is to be said to the universities? This is an awful subject, and +one I almost fear to touch with my unhallowed hands; but I can tell you +what those say who have authority to speak. + +The Rector of Lincoln College, in his lately published valuable +"Suggestions for Academical Organisation with especial reference to +Oxford," tells us (p. 127):-- + +"The colleges were, in their origin, endowments, not for the elements +of a general liberal education, but for the prolonged study of special +and professional faculties by men of riper age. The universities +embraced both these objects. The colleges, while they incidentally +aided in elementary education, were specially devoted to the highest +learning.... + +"This was the theory of the middle-age university and the design of +collegiate foundations in their origin. Time and circumstances have +brought about a total change. The colleges no longer promote the +researches of science, or direct professional study. Here and there +college walls may shelter an occasional student, but not in larger +proportions than may be found in private life. Elementary teaching of +youths under twenty is now the only function performed by the +university, and almost the only object of college endowments. Colleges +were homes for the life-study of the highest and most abstruse parts of +knowledge. They have become boarding schools in which the elements of +the learned languages are taught to youths." + +If Mr. Pattison's high position, and his obvious love and respect for +his university, be insufficient to convince the outside world that +language so severe is yet no more than just, the authority of the +Commissioners who reported on the University of Oxford in 1850 is open +to no challenge. Yet they write:-- + +"It is generally acknowledged that both Oxford and the country at large +suffer greatly from the absence of a body of learned men devoting their +lives to the cultivation of science, and to the direction of academical +education. + +"The fact that so few books of profound research emanate from the +University of Oxford, materially impairs its character as a seat of +learning, and consequently its hold on the respect of the nation." + +Cambridge can claim no exemption from the reproaches addressed to +Oxford. And thus there seems no escape from the admission that what we +fondly call our great seats of learning are simply "boarding schools" +for bigger boys; that learned men are not more numerous in them than +out of them; that the advancement of knowledge is not the object of +fellows of colleges; that, in the philosophic calm and meditative +stillness of their greenswarded courts, philosophy does not thrive, and +meditation bears few fruits. + +It is my great good fortune to reckon amongst my friends resident +members of both universities, who are men of learning and research, +zealous cultivators of science, keeping before their minds a noble +ideal of a university, and doing their best to make that ideal a +reality; and, to me, they would necessarily typify the universities, +did not the authoritative statements I have quoted compel me to believe +that they are exceptional, and not representative men. Indeed, upon +calm consideration, several circumstances lead me to think that the +Rector of Lincoln College and the Commissioners cannot be far wrong. + +I believe there can be no doubt that the foreigner who should wish to +become acquainted with the scientific, or the literary, activity of +modern England, would simply lose his time and his pains if he visited +our universities with that object. + +And, as for works of profound research on any subject, and, above all, +in that classical lore for which the universities profess to sacrifice +almost everything else, why, a third-rate, poverty-stricken German +university turns out more produce of that kind in one year, than our +vast and wealthy foundations elaborate in ten. + +Ask the man who is investigating any question, profoundly and +thoroughly--be it historical, philosophical, philological, physical, +literary, or theological; who is trying to make himself master of any +abstract subject (except, perhaps, political economy and geology, both +of which are intensely Anglican sciences), whether he is not compelled +to read half a dozen times as many German as English books? And +whether, of these English books, more than one in ten is the work of a +fellow of a college, or a professor of an English university? + +Is this from any lack of power in the English as compared with the +German mind? The countrymen of Grote and of Mill, of Faraday, of Robert +Brown, of Lyell, and of Darwin, to go no further back than the +contemporaries of men of middle age, can afford to smile at such a +suggestion. England can show now, as she has been able to show in every +generation since civilisation spread over the West, individual men who +hold their own against the world, and keep alive the old tradition of +her intellectual eminence. + +But, in the majority of cases, these men are what they are in virtue of +their native intellectual force, and of a strength of character which +will not recognise impediments. They are not trained in the courts of +the Temple of Science, but storm the walls of that edifice in all sorts +of irregular ways, and with much loss of time and power, in order to +obtain their legitimate positions. + +Our universities not only do not encourage such men; do not offer them +positions, in which it should be their highest duty to do, thoroughly, +that which they are most capable of doing; but, as far as possible, +university training shuts out of the minds of those among them, who are +subjected to it, the prospect that there is anything in the world for +which they are specially fitted. Imagine the success of the attempt to +still the intellectual hunger of any of the men I have mentioned, by +putting before him, as the object of existence, the successful mimicry +of the measure of a Greek song, or the roll of Ciceronian prose! +Imagine how much success would be likely to attend the attempt to +persuade such men that the education which leads to perfection in such +elegances is alone to be called culture; while the facts of history, +the process of thought, the conditions of moral and social existence, +and the laws of physical nature are left to be dealt with as they may +by outside barbarians! + +It is not thus that the German universities, from being beneath notice +a century ago, have become what they are now--the most intensely +cultivated and the most productive intellectual corporations the world +has ever seen. + +The student who repairs to them sees in the list of classes and of +professors a fair picture of the world of knowledge. Whatever he needs +to know there is some one ready to teach him, some one competent to +discipline him in the way of learning; whatever his special bent, let +him but be able and diligent, and in due time he shall find distinction +and a career. Among his professors, he sees men whose names are known +and revered throughout the civilised world; and their living example +infects him with a noble ambition, and a love for the spirit of work. + +The Germans dominate the intellectual world by virtue of the same +simple secret as that which made Napoleon the master of old Europe. +They have declared _la carrière ouverte aux talents_, and every +Bursch marches with a professor's gown in his knapsack. Let him become +a great scholar, or man of science, and ministers will compete for his +services. In Germany, they do not leave the chance of his holding the +office he would render illustrious to the tender mercies of a hot +canvass, and the final wisdom of a mob of country parsons. + +In short, in Germany, the universities are exactly what the Rector of +Lincoln and the Commissioners tell us the English universities are not; +that is to say, corporations "of learned men devoting their lives to +the cultivation of science, and the direction of academical +education." They are not "boarding schools for youths," nor clerical +seminaries; but institutions for the higher culture of men, in which +the theological faculty is of no more importance, or prominence, than +the rest; and which are truly "universities," since they strive to +represent and embody the totality of human knowledge, and to find room +for all forms of intellectual activity. + +May zealous and clear-headed reformers like Mr. Pattison succeed in +their noble endeavours to shape our universities towards some such +ideal as this, without losing what is valuable and distinctive in their +social tone! But until they have succeeded, a liberal education will be +no more obtainable in our Oxford and Cambridge Universities than in our +public schools. + +If I am justified in my conception of the ideal of a liberal education; +and if what I have said about the existing educational institutions of +the country is also true, it is clear that the two have no sort of +relation to one another; that the best of our schools and the most +complete of our university trainings give but a narrow, one-sided, and +essentially illiberal education--while the worst give what is really +next to no education at all. The South London Working-Men's College +could not copy any of these institutions if it would; I am bold enough +to express the conviction that it ought not if it could. + +For what is wanted is the reality and not the mere name of a liberal +education; and this College must steadily set before itself the +ambition to be able to give that education sooner or later. At present +we are but beginning, sharpening our educational tools, as it were, +and, except a modicum of physical science, we are not able to offer +much more than is to be found in an ordinary school. + +Moral and social science--one of the greatest and most fruitful of our +future classes, I hope--at present lacks only one thing in our +programme, and that is a teacher. A considerable want, no doubt; but it +must be recollected that it is much better to want a teacher than to +want the desire to learn. + +Further, we need what, for want of a better name, I must call +Physical Geography. What I mean is that which the Germans call +"_Erdkunde_." It is a description of the earth, of its place and +relation to other bodies; of its general structure, and of its great +features--winds, tides, mountains, plains: of the chief forms of the +vegetable and animal worlds, of the varieties of man. It is the peg +upon which the greatest quantity of useful and entertaining scientific +information can be suspended. + +Literature is not upon the College programme; but I hope some day to +see it there. For literature is the greatest of all sources of refined +pleasure, and one of the great uses of a liberal education is to enable +us to enjoy that pleasure. There is scope enough for the purposes of +liberal education in the study of the rich treasures of our own +language alone. All that is needed is direction, and the cultivation of +a refined taste by attention to sound criticism. But there is no reason +why French and German should not be mastered sufficiently to read what +is worth reading in those languages with pleasure and with profit. + +And finally, by and by, we must have History; treated not as a +succession of battles and dynasties; not as a series of biographies; +not as evidence that Providence has always been on the side of either +Whigs or Tories; but as the development of man in times past, and in +other conditions than our own. + +But, as it is one of the principles of our College to be +self-supporting, the public must lead, and we must follow, in these +matters. If my hearers take to heart what I have said about liberal +education, they will desire these things, and I doubt not we shall be +able to supply them. But we must wait till the demand is made. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] For a justification of what is here said about these +schools, see that valuable book, _Essays on a Liberal Education, +passim_. + + + + +V + +SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH + +[1869] + + + [Mr. Thackeray, talking of after-dinner speeches, has lamented that + "one never can recollect the fine things one thought of in the + cab," in going to the place of entertainment. I am not aware that + there are any "fine things" in the following pages, but such as + there are stand to a speech which really did get itself spoken, at + the hospitable table of the Liverpool Philomathic Society, more or + less in the position of what "one thought of in the cab."] + + +The introduction of scientific training into the general education of +the country is a topic upon which I could not have spoken, without some +more or less apologetic introduction, a few years ago. But upon this, +as upon other matters, public opinion has of late undergone a rapid +modification. Committees of both Houses of the Legislature have agreed +that something must be done in this direction, and have even thrown out +timid and faltering suggestions as to what should be done; while at the +opposite pole of society, committees of working men have expressed +their conviction that scientific training is the one thing needful for +their advancement, whether as men, or as workmen. Only the other day, +it was my duty to take part in the reception of a deputation of London +working men, who desired to learn from Sir Roderick Murchison, the +Director of the Royal School of Mines, whether the organisation of the +Institution in Jermyn Street could be made available for the supply of +that scientific instruction the need of which could not have been +apprehended, or stated, more clearly than it was by them. + +The heads of colleges in our great universities (who have not the +reputation of being the most mobile of persons) have, in several cases, +thought it well that, out of the great number of honours and rewards at +their disposal, a few should hereafter be given to the cultivators of +the physical sciences. Nay, I hear that some colleges have even gone so +far as to appoint one, or, maybe, two special tutors for the purpose of +putting the facts and principles of physical science before the +undergraduate mind. And I say it with gratitude and great respect for +those eminent persons, that the head masters of our public schools, +Eton, Harrow, Winchester, have addressed themselves to the problem of +introducing instruction in physical science among the studies of those +great educational bodies, with much honesty of purpose and +enlightenment of understanding; and I live in hope that, before long, +important changes in this direction will be carried into effect in +those strongholds of ancient prescription. In fact, such changes have +already been made, and physical science, even now, constitutes a +recognised element of the school curriculum in Harrow and Rugby, whilst +I understand that ample preparations for such studies are being made at +Eton and elsewhere. + +Looking at these facts, I might perhaps spare myself the trouble of +giving any reasons for the introduction of physical science into +elementary education; yet I cannot but think that it may be well if I +place before you some considerations which, perhaps, have hardly +received full attention. + +At other times, and in other places, I have endeavoured to state the +higher and more abstract arguments, by which the study of physical +science may be shown to be indispensable to the complete training of +the human mind; but I do not wish it to be supposed that, because I +happen to be devoted to more or less abstract and "unpractical" +pursuits, I am insensible to the weight which ought to be attached +to that which has been said to be the English conception of +Paradise--namely, "getting on." I look upon it, that "getting on" is a +very important matter indeed. I do not mean merely for the sake of the +coarse and tangible results of success, but because humanity is so +constituted that a vast number of us would never be impelled to those +stretches of exertion which make, us wiser and more capable men, if it +were not for the absolute necessity of putting on our faculties all the +strain they will bear, for the purpose of "getting on" in the most +practical sense. + +Now the value of a knowledge of physical science as a means of getting +on is indubitable. There are hardly any of our trades, except the +merely huckstering ones, in which some knowledge of science may not be +directly profitable to the pursuer of that occupation. As industry +attains higher stages of its development, as its processes become more +complicated and refined, and competition more keen, the sciences are +dragged in, one by one, to take their share in the fray; and he who can +best avail himself of their help is the man who will come out uppermost +in that struggle for existence, which goes on as fiercely beneath the +smooth surface of modern society, as among the wild inhabitants of the +woods. + +But in addition to the bearing of science on ordinary practical life, +let me direct your attention to its immense influence on several of the +professions. I ask any one who has adopted the calling of an engineer, +how much time he lost when he left school, because he had to devote +himself to pursuits which were absolutely novel and strange, and of +which he had not obtained the remotest conception from his instructors? +He had to familiarise himself with ideas of the course and powers of +Nature, to which his attention had never been directed during his +school-life, and to learn, for the first time, that a world of facts +lies outside and beyond the world of words. I appeal to those who know +what engineering is, to say how far I am right in respect to that +profession; but with regard to another, of no less importance, I shall +venture to speak of my own knowledge. There is no one of us who may not +at any moment be thrown, bound hand and foot by physical incapacity, +into the hands of a medical practitioner. The chances of life and death +for all and each of us may, at any moment, depend on the skill with +which that practitioner is able to make out what is wrong in our bodily +frames, and on his ability to apply the proper remedy to the defect. + +The necessities of modern life are such, and the class from which the +medical profession is chiefly recruited is so situated, that few +medical men can hope to spend more than three or four, or it may be +five, years in the pursuit of those studies which are immediately +germane to physic. How is that all too brief period spent at present? I +speak as an old examiner, having served some eleven or twelve years in +that capacity in the University of London, and therefore having a +practical acquaintance with the subject; but I might fortify myself by +the authority of the President of the College of Surgeons, Mr. Quain, +whom I heard the other day in an admirable address (the Hunterian +Oration) deal fully and wisely with this very topic. [1] + +A young man commencing the study of medicine is at once required to +endeavour to make an acquaintance with a number of sciences, such as +Physics, as Chemistry, as Botany, as Physiology, which are absolutely +and entirely strange to him, however excellent his so-called education +at school may have been. Not only is he devoid of all apprehension of +scientific conceptions, not only does he fail to attach any meaning to +the words "matter," "force," or "law" in their scientific senses, but, +worse still, he has no notion of what it is to come into contact with +Nature, or to lay his mind alongside of a physical fact, and try to +conquer it, in the way our great naval hero told his captains to master +their enemies. His whole mind has been given to books, and I am hardly +exaggerating if I say that they are more real to him than Nature. He +imagines that all knowledge can be got out of books, and rests upon the +authority of some master or other; nor does he entertain any misgiving +that the method of learning which led to proficiency in the rules of +grammar will suffice to lead him to a mastery of the laws of Nature. +The youngster, thus unprepared for serious study, is turned loose among +his medical studies, with the result, in nine cases out of ten, that +the first year of his curriculum is spent in learning how to learn. +Indeed, he is lucky if, at the end of the first year, by the exertions +of his teachers and his own industry, he has acquired even that art of +arts. After which there remain not more than three, or perhaps four, +years for the profitable study of such vast sciences as Anatomy, +Physiology, Therapeutics, Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics, and the like, +upon his knowledge or ignorance of which it depends whether the +practitioner shall diminish, or increase, the bills of mortality. Now +what is it but the preposterous condition of ordinary school education +which prevents a young man of seventeen, destined for the practice of +medicine, from being fully prepared for the study of Nature; and from +coming to the medical school, equipped with that preliminary knowledge +of the principles of Physics, of Chemistry and of Biology, upon which +he has now to waste one of the precious years, every moment of which +ought to be given to those studies which bear directly upon the +knowledge of his profession? + +There is another profession, to the members of which, I think, a +certain preliminary knowledge of physical science might be quite as +valuable as to the medical man. The practitioner of medicine sets +before himself the noble object of taking care of man's bodily welfare; +but the members of this other profession undertake to "minister to +minds diseased," and, so far as may be, to diminish sin and soften +sorrow. Like the medical profession, the clerical, of which I now +speak, rests its power to heal upon its knowledge of the order of the +universe--upon certain theories of man's relation to that which lies +outside him. It is not my business to express any opinion about these +theories. I merely wish to point out that, like all other theories, +they are professedly based upon matters of fact. Thus the clerical +profession has to deal with the facts of Nature from a certain point of +view; and hence it comes into contact with that of the man of science, +who has to treat the same facts from another point of view. You know +how often that contact is to be described as collision, or violent +friction; and how great the heat, how little the light, which commonly +results from it. + +In the interests of fair play, to say nothing of those of mankind, I +ask, Why do not the clergy as a body acquire, as a part of their +preliminary education, some such tincture of physical science as will +put them in a position to understand the difficulties in the way of +accepting their theories, which are forced upon the mind of every +thoughtful and intelligent man, who has taken the trouble to instruct +himself in the elements of natural knowledge? + +Some time ago I attended a large meeting of the clergy, for the purpose +of delivering an address which I had been invited to give. I spoke of +some of the most elementary facts in physical science, and of the +manner in which they directly contradict certain of the ordinary +teachings of the clergy. The result was, that, after I had finished, +one section of the assembled ecclesiastics attacked me with all the +intemperance of pious zeal, for stating facts and conclusions which no +competent judge doubts; while, after the first speakers had subsided, +amidst the cheers of the great majority of their colleagues, the more +rational minority rose to tell me that I had taken wholly superfluous +pains, that they already knew all about what I had told them, and +perfectly agreed with me. A hard-headed friend of mine, who was +present, put the not unnatural question, "Then why don't you say so in +your pulpits?" to which inquiry I heard no reply. + +In fact the clergy are at present divisible into three sections: an +immense body who are ignorant and speak out; a small proportion who +know and are silent; and a minute minority who know and speak according +to their knowledge. By the clergy, I mean especially the Protestant +clergy. Our great antagonist--I speak as a man of science--the Roman +Catholic Church, the one great spiritual organisation which is able to +resist, and must, as a matter of life and death, resist, the progress +of science and modern civilisation, manages her affairs much better. + +It was my fortune some time ago to pay a visit to one of the most +important of the institutions in which the clergy of the Roman Catholic +Church in these islands are trained; and it seemed to me that the +difference between these men and the comfortable champions of +Anglicanism and of Dissent, was comparable to the difference between +our gallant Volunteers and the trained veterans of Napoleon's Old +Guard. + +The Catholic priest is trained to know his business, and do it +effectually. The professors of the college in question, learned, +zealous, and determined men, permitted me to speak frankly with them. +We talked like outposts of opposed armies during a truce--as friendly +enemies; and when I ventured to point out the difficulties their +students would have to encounter from scientific thought, they replied: +"Our Church has lasted many ages, and has passed safely through many +storms. The present is but a new gust of the old tempest, and we do not +turn out our young men less fitted to weather it, than they have been, +in former times, to cope with the difficulties of those times. The +heresies of the day are explained to them by their professors of +philosophy and science, and they are taught how those heresies are to +be met." + +I heartily respect an organisation which faces its enemies in this way; +and I wish that all ecclesiastical organisations were in as effective a +condition. I think it would be better, not only for them, but for us. +The army of liberal thought is, at present, in very loose order; and +many a spirited free-thinker makes use of his freedom mainly to vent +nonsense. We should be the better for a vigorous and watchful enemy to +hammer us into cohesion and discipline; and I, for one, lament that the +bench of Bishops cannot show a man of the calibre of Butler of the +"Analogy," who, if he were alive, would make short work of much of the +current _à priori_ "infidelity." + +I hope you will consider that the arguments I have now stated, even if +there were no better ones, constitute a sufficient apology for urging +the introduction of science into schools. The next question to which I +have to address myself is, What sciences ought to be thus taught? And +this is one of the most important of questions, because my side (I am +afraid I am a terribly candid friend) sometimes spoils its cause by +going in for too much. There are other forms of culture beside physical +science; and I should be profoundly sorry to see the fact forgotten, or +even to observe a tendency to starve, or cripple, literary, or +aesthetic, culture for the sake of science. Such a narrow view of the +nature of education has nothing to do with my firm conviction that a +complete and thorough scientific culture ought to be introduced into +all schools. By this, however, I do not mean that every schoolboy +should be taught everything in science. That would be a very absurd +thing to conceive, and a very mischievous thing to attempt. What I mean +is, that no boy nor girl should leave school without possessing a grasp +of the general character of science, and without having been +disciplined, more or less, in the methods of all sciences; so that, +when turned into the world to make their own way, they shall be +prepared to face scientific problems, not by knowing at once the +conditions of every problem, or by being able at once to solve it; but +by being familiar with the general current of scientific thought, and +by being able to apply the methods of science in the proper way, when +they have acquainted themselves with the conditions of the special +problem. + +That is what I understand by scientific education. To furnish a boy +with such an education, it is by no means necessary that he should +devote his whole school existence to physical science: in fact, no one +would lament so one-sided a proceeding more than I. Nay more, it is not +necessary for him to give up more than a moderate share of his time to +such studies, if they be properly selected and arranged, and if he be +trained in them in a fitting manner. + +I conceive the proper course to be somewhat as follows. To begin with, +let every child be instructed in those general views of the phaenomena +of Nature for which we have no exact English name. The nearest +approximation to a name for what I mean, which we possess, is "physical +geography." The Germans have a better, "Erdkunde" ("earth knowledge" or +"geology" in its etymological sense), that is to say, a general +knowledge of the earth, and what is on it, in it, and about it. If any +one who has had experience of the ways of young children will call to +mind their questions, he will find that so far as they can be put into +any scientific category, they come under this head of "Erdkunde." The +child asks, "What is the moon, and why does it shine?" "What is this +water, and where does it run?" "What is the wind?" "What makes this +waves in the sea?" "Where does this animal live, and what is the use of +that plant?" And if not snubbed and stunted by being told not to ask +foolish questions, there is no limit to the intellectual craving of a +young child; nor any bounds to the slow, but solid, accretion of +knowledge and development of the thinking faculty in this way. To all +such questions, answers which are necessarily incomplete, though true +as far as they go, may be given by any teacher whose ideas represent +real knowledge and not mere book learning; and a panoramic view of +Nature, accompanied by a strong infusion of the scientific habit of +mind, may thus be placed within the reach of every child of nine or +ten. + +After this preliminary opening of the eyes to the great spectacle +of the daily progress of Nature, as the reasoning faculties of the +child grow, and he becomes familiar with the use of the tools of +knowledge--reading, writing, and elementary mathematics--he should pass +on to what is, in the more strict sense, physical science. Now there +are two kinds of physical science: the one regards form and the +relation of forms to one another; the other deals with causes and +effects. In many of what we term sciences, these two kinds are mixed up +together; but systematic botany is a pure example of the former kind, +and physics of the latter kind, of science. Every educational advantage +which training in physical science can give is obtainable from the +proper study of these two; and I should be contented, for the present, +if they, added to our "Erdkunde," furnished the whole of the scientific +curriculum of school. Indeed, I conceive it would be one of the +greatest boons which could be conferred upon England, if henceforward +every child in the country were instructed in the general knowledge of +the things about it, in the elements of physics, and of botany. But I +should be still better pleased if there could be added somewhat of +chemistry, and an elementary acquaintance with human physiology. + +So far as school education is concerned, I want to go no further just +now; and I believe that such instruction would make an excellent +introduction to that preparatory scientific training which, as I have +indicated, is so essential for the successful pursuit of our most +important professions. But this modicum of instruction must be so given +as to ensure real knowledge and practical discipline. If scientific +education is to be dealt with as mere bookwork, it will be better not +to attempt it, but to stick to the Latin Grammar which makes no +pretence to be anything but bookwork. + +If the great benefits of scientific training are sought, it is +essential that such training should be real: that is to say, that the +mind of the scholar should be brought into direct relation with fact, +that he should not merely be told a thing, but made to see by the use +of his own intellect and ability that the thing is so and no otherwise. +The great peculiarity of scientific training, that in virtue of which +it cannot be replaced by any other discipline whatsoever, is this +bringing of the mind directly into contact with fact, and practising +the intellect in the completest form of induction; that is to say, in +drawing conclusions from particular facts made known by immediate +observation of Nature. + +The other studies which enter into ordinary education do not discipline +the mind in this way. Mathematical training is almost purely deductive. +The mathematician starts with a few simple propositions, the proof of +which is so obvious that they are called self-evident, and the rest of +his work consists of subtle deductions from them. The teaching of +languages, at any rate as ordinarily practised, is of the same general +nature,--authority and tradition furnish the data, and the mental +operations of the scholar are deductive. + +Again: if history be the subject of study, the facts are still taken +upon the evidence of tradition and authority. You cannot make a boy see +the battle of Thermopylae for himself, or know, of his own knowledge, +that Cromwell once ruled England. There is no getting into direct +contact with natural fact by this road; there is no dispensing with +authority, but rather a resting upon it. + +In all these respects, science differs from other educational +discipline, and prepares the scholar for common life. What have we to +do in every-day life? Most of the business which demands our attention +is matter of fact, which needs, in the first place, to be accurately +observed or apprehended; in the second, to be interpreted by inductive +and deductive reasonings, which are altogether similar in their nature +to those employed in science. In the one case, as in the other, +whatever is taken for granted is so taken at one's own peril; fact and +reason are the ultimate arbiters, and patience and honesty are the +great helpers out of difficulty. + +But if scientific training is to yield its most eminent results, it +must, I repeat, be made practical. That is to say, in explaining to a +child the general phaenomena of Nature, you must, as far as possible, +give reality to your teaching by object-lessons; in teaching him +botany, he must handle the plants and dissect the flowers for himself; +in teaching him physics and chemistry, you must not be solicitous to +fill him with information, but you must be careful that what he learns +he knows of his own knowledge. Don't be satisfied with telling him that +a magnet attracts iron. Let him see that it does; let him feel the pull +of the one upon the other for himself. And, especially, tell him that +it is his duty to doubt until he is compelled, by the absolute +authority of Nature, to believe that which is written in books. Pursue +this discipline carefully and conscientiously, and you may make sure +that, however scanty may be the measure of information which you have +poured into the boy's mind, you have created an intellectual habit of +priceless value in practical life. + +One is constantly asked, When should this scientific education be +commenced? I should say with the dawn of intelligence. As I have +already said, a child seeks for information about matters of physical +science as soon as it begins to talk. The first teaching it wants is an +object-lesson of one sort or another; and as soon as it is fit for +systematic instruction of any kind, it is fit for a modicum of science. + +People talk of the difficulty of teaching young children such matters, +and in the same breath insist upon their learning their Catechism, +which contains propositions far harder to comprehend than anything in +the educational course I have proposed. Again: I am incessantly told +that we, who advocate the introduction of science in schools, make no +allowance for the stupidity of the average boy or girl; but, in my +belief, that stupidity, in nine cases out of ten, "_fit, non +nascitur_," and is developed by a long process of parental and +pedagogic repression of the natural intellectual appetites, +accompanied by a persistent attempt to create artificial ones for food +which is not only tasteless, but essentially indigestible. + +Those who urge the difficulty of instructing young people in +science are apt to forget another very important condition of +success--important in all kinds of teaching, but most essential, I am +disposed to think, when the scholars are very young. This condition is, +that the teacher should himself really and practically know his +subject. If he does, he will be able to speak of it in the easy +language, and with the completeness of conviction, with which he talks +of any ordinary every-day matter. If he does not, he will be afraid to +wander beyond the limits of the technical phraseology which he has got +up; and a dead dogmatism, which oppresses, or raises opposition, will +take the place of the lively confidence, born of personal conviction, +which cheers and encourages the eminently sympathetic mind of +childhood. + +I have already hinted that such scientific training as we seek for may +be given without making any extravagant claim upon the time now devoted +to education. We ask only for "a most favoured nation" clause in our +treaty with the schoolmaster; we demand no more than that science shall +have as much time given to it as any other single subject--say four +hours a week in each class of an ordinary school. + +For the present, I think men of science would be well content with such +an arrangement as this: but speaking for myself, I do not pretend to +believe that such an arrangement can be, or will be, permanent. In +these times the educational tree seems to me to have its roots in the +air, its leaves and flowers in the ground; and, I confess, I should +very much like to turn it upside down, so that its roots might be +solidly embedded among the facts of Nature, and draw thence a sound +nutriment for the foliage and fruit of literature and of art. No +educational system can have a claim to permanence, unless it recognises +the truth that education has two great ends to which everything else +must be subordinated. The one of these is to increase knowledge; the +other is to develop the love of right and the hatred of wrong. + +With wisdom and uprightness a nation can make its way worthily, and +beauty will follow in the footsteps of the two, even if she be not +specially invited; while there is perhaps no sight in the whole world +more saddening and revolting than is offered by men sunk in ignorance +of everything but what other men have written; seemingly devoid of +moral belief or guidance; but with the sense of beauty so keen, and the +power of expression so cultivated, that their sensual caterwauling may +be almost mistaken for the music of the spheres. + +At present, education is almost entirely devoted to the cultivation of +the power of expression, and of the sense of literary beauty. The +matter of having anything to say, beyond a hash of other people's +opinions, or of possessing any criterion of beauty, so that we may +distinguish between the Godlike and the devilish, is left aside as of +no moment. I think I do not err in saying that if science were made a +foundation of education, instead of being, at most, stuck on as cornice +to the edifice, this state of things could not exist. + +In advocating the introduction of physical science as a leading element +in education, I by no means refer only to the higher schools. On the +contrary, I believe that such a change is even more imperatively called +for in those primary schools, in which the children of the poor are +expected to turn to the best account the little time they can devote to +the acquisition of knowledge. A great step in this direction has +already been made by the establishment of science-classes under the +Department of Science and Art,--a measure which came into existence +unnoticed, but which will, I believe, turn out to be of more importance +to the welfare of the people than many political changes over which the +noise of battle has rent the air. + +Under the regulations to which I refer, a schoolmaster can set up a +class in one or more branches of science; his pupils will be examined, +and the State will pay him, at a certain rate, for all who succeed in +passing. I have acted as an examiner under this system from the +beginning of its establishment, and this year I expect to have not +fewer than a couple of thousand sets of answers to questions in +Physiology, mainly from young people of the artisan class, who have +been taught in the schools which are now scattered all over great +Britain and Ireland. Some of my colleagues, who have to deal with +subjects such as Geometry, for which the present teaching power is +better organised, I understand are likely to have three or four times +as many papers. So far as my own subjects are concerned, I can +undertake to say that a great deal of the teaching, the results of +which are before me in these examinations, is very sound and good; and +I think it is in the power of the examiners, not only to keep up the +present standard, but to cause an almost unlimited improvement. Now +what does this mean? It means that by holding out a very moderate +inducement, the masters of primary schools in many parts of the country +have been led to convert them into little foci of scientific +instruction; and that they and their pupils have contrived to find, or +to make, time enough to carry out this object with a very considerable +degree of efficiency. That efficiency will, I doubt not, be very much +increased as the system becomes known and perfected, even with the very +limited leisure left to masters and teachers on week-days. And this +leads me to ask, Why should scientific teaching be limited to +week-days? + +Ecclesiastically-minded persons are in the habit of calling things they +do not like by very hard names, and I should not wonder if they brand +the proposition I am about to make as blasphemous, and worse. But, not +minding this, I venture to ask, Would there really be anything wrong in +using part of Sunday for the purpose of instructing those who have no +other leisure, in a knowledge of the phaenomena of Nature, and of man's +relation to Nature? + +I should like to see a scientific Sunday-school in every parish, not +for the purpose of superseding any existing means of teaching the +people the things that are for their good, but side by side with them. +I cannot but think that there is room for all of us to work in helping +to bridge over the great abyss of ignorance which lies at our feet. + +And if any of the ecclesiastical persons to whom I have referred, +object that they find it derogatory to the honour of the God whom they +worship, to awaken the minds of the young to the infinite wonder and +majesty of the works which they proclaim His, and to teach them those +laws which must needs be His laws, and therefore of all things needful +for man to know--I can only recommend them to be let blood and put on +low diet. There must be something very wrong going on in the instrument +of logic if it turns out such conclusions from such premises. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] Mr. Quam's words (_Medical Times and Gazette_, February 20) +are:--"A few words as to our special Medical course of instruction +and the influence upon it of such changes in the elementary schools as +I have mentioned. The student now enters at once upon several +sciences--physics, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, botany, pharmacy, +therapeutics--all these, the facts and the language and the laws of +each, to be mastered in eighteen months. Up to the beginning of the +Medical course many have learned little. We cannot claim anything +better than the Examiner of the University of London and the Cambridge +Lecturer have reported for their Universities. Supposing that at school +young people had acquired some exact elementary knowledge in physics, +chemistry, and a branch of natural history--say botany--with the +physiology connected with it, they would then have gained necessary +knowledge, with some practice in inductive reasoning. The whole studies +are processes of observation and induction--the best discipline of the +mind for the purposes of life--for our purposes not less than any. 'By +such study (says Dr. Whewell) of one or more departments of inductive +science the mind may escape from the thraldom of mere words.' By that +plan the burden of the early Medical course would be much lightened, +and more time devoted to practical studies, including Sir Thomas +Watson's 'final and supreme stage' of the knowledge of Medicine." + + + + +VI + +SCIENCE AND CULTURE + +[1880] + + +Six years ago, as some of my present hearers may remember, I had the +privilege of addressing a large assemblage of the inhabitants of this +city, who had gathered together to do honour to the memory of their +famous townsman, Joseph Priestley; [1] and, if any satisfaction +attaches to posthumous glory, we may hope that the manes of the +burnt-out philosopher were then finally appeased. + +No man, however, who is endowed with a fair share of common sense, and +not more than a fair share of vanity, will identify either contemporary +or posthumous fame with the highest good; and Priestley's life leaves +no doubt that he, at any rate, set a much higher value upon the +advancement of knowledge, and the promotion of that freedom of thought +which is at once the cause and the consequence of intellectual +progress. + +Hence I am disposed to think that, if Priestley could be amongst us +to-day, the occasion of our meeting would afford him even greater +pleasure than the proceedings which celebrated the centenary of his +chief discovery. The kindly heart would be moved, the high sense of +social duty would be satisfied, by the spectacle of well-earned wealth, +neither squandered in tawdry luxury and vainglorious show, nor +scattered with the careless charity which blesses neither him that +gives nor him that takes, but expended in the execution of a +well-considered plan for the aid of present and future generations of +those who are willing to help themselves. + +We shall all be of one mind thus far. But it is needful to share +Priestley's keen interest in physical science; and to have learned, as +he had learned, the value of scientific training in fields of inquiry +apparently far remote from physical science; in order to appreciate, as +he would have appreciated, the value of the noble gift which Sir Josiah +Mason has bestowed upon the inhabitants of the Midland district. + +For us children of the nineteenth century, however, the establishment +of a college under the conditions of Sir Josiah Mason's Trust, has a +significance apart from any which it could have possessed a hundred +years ago. It appears to be an indication that we are reaching the +crisis of the battle, or rather of the long series of battles, which +have been fought over education in a campaign which began long before +Priestley's time, and will probably not be finished just yet. + +In the last century, the combatants were the champions of ancient +literature on the one side, and those of modern literature on the +other; but, some thirty years [2] ago, the contest became complicated +by the appearance of a third army, ranged round the banner of Physical +Science. + +I am not aware that any one has authority to speak in the name of this +new host. For it must be admitted to be somewhat of a guerilla force, +composed largely of irregulars, each of whom fights pretty much for his +own hand. But the impressions of a full private, who has seen a good +deal of service in the ranks, respecting the present position of +affairs and the conditions of a permanent peace, may not be devoid of +interest; and I do not know that I could make a better use of the +present opportunity than by laying them before you. + + * * * * * + +From the time that the first suggestion to introduce physical science +into ordinary education was timidly whispered, until now, the advocates +of scientific education have met with opposition of two kinds. On the +one hand, they have been pooh-poohed by the men of business who pride +themselves on being the representatives of practicality; while, on the +other hand, they have been excommunicated by the classical scholars, in +their capacity of Levites in charge of the ark of culture and +monopolists of liberal education. + +The practical men believed that the idol whom they worship--rule of +thumb--has been the source of the past prosperity, and will suffice for +the future welfare of the arts and manufactures. They were of opinion +that science is speculative rubbish; that theory and practice have +nothing to do with one another; and that the scientific habit of mind +is an impediment, rather than an aid, in the conduct of ordinary +affairs. + +I have used the past tense in speaking of the practical men--for +although they were very formidable thirty years ago, I am not sure that +the pure species has not been extirpated. In fact, so far as mere +argument goes, they have been subjected to such a _feu d'enfer_ +that it is a miracle if any have escaped. But I have remarked that your +typical practical man has an unexpected resemblance to one of Milton's +angels. His spiritual wounds, such as are inflicted by logical weapons, +may be as deep as a well and as wide as a church door, but beyond +shedding a few drops of ichor, celestial or otherwise, he is no whit +the worse. So, if any of these opponents be left, I will not waste time +in vain repetition of the demonstrative evidence of the practical value +of science; but knowing that a parable will sometimes penetrate where +syllogisms fail to effect an entrance, I will offer a story for their +consideration. + +Once upon a time, a boy, with nothing to depend upon but his own +vigorous nature, was thrown into the thick of the struggle for +existence in the midst of a great manufacturing population. He seems to +have had a hard fight, inasmuch as, by the time he was thirty years of +age, his total disposable funds amounted to twenty pounds. +Nevertheless, middle life found him giving proof of his comprehension +of the practical problems he had been roughly called upon to solve, by +a career of remarkable prosperity. + +Finally, having reached old age with its well-earned surroundings of +"honour, troops of friends," the hero of my story bethought himself of +those who were making a like start in life, and how he could stretch +out a helping hand to them. + +After long and anxious reflection this successful practical man of +business could devise nothing better than to provide them with the +means of obtaining "sound, extensive, and practical scientific +knowledge." And he devoted a large part of his wealth and five years of +incessant work to this end. + +I need not point the moral of a tale which, as the solid and spacious +fabric of the Scientific College assures us, is no fable, nor can +anything which I could say intensify the force of this practical answer +to practical objections. + + * * * * * + +We may take it for granted then, that, in the opinion of those best +qualified to judge, the diffusion of thorough scientific education is +an absolutely essential condition of industrial progress; and that the +College which has been opened to-day will confer an inestimable boon +upon those whose livelihood is to be gained by the practise of the arts +and manufactures of the district. + +The only question worth discussion is, whether the conditions, under +which the work of the College is to be carried out, are such as to give +it the best possible chance of achieving permanent success. + +Sir Josiah Mason, without doubt most wisely, has left very large +freedom of action to the trustees, to whom he proposes ultimately to +commit the administration of the College, so that they may be able to +adjust its arrangements in accordance with the changing conditions of +the future. But, with respect to three points, he has laid most +explicit injunctions upon both administrators and teachers. + +Party politics are forbidden to enter into the minds of either, so far +as the work of the College is concerned; theology is as stonily +banished from its precincts; and finally, it is especially declared +that the College shall make no provision for "mere literary instruction +and education." + +It does not concern me at present to dwell upon the first two +injunctions any longer than may be needful to express my full +conviction of their wisdom. But the third prohibition brings us face to +face with those other opponents of scientific education, who are by no +means in the moribund condition of the practical man, but alive, alert, +and formidable. + +It is not impossible that we shall hear this express exclusion of +"literary instruction and education" from a College which, +nevertheless, professes to give a high and efficient education, sharply +criticised. Certainly the time was that the Levites of culture would +have sounded their trumpets against its walls as against an educational +Jericho. + +How often have we not been told that the study of physical science is +incompetent to confer culture; that it touches none of the higher +problems of life; and, what is worse, that the continual devotion to +scientific studies tends to generate a narrow and bigoted belief in the +applicability of scientific methods to the search after truth of all +kinds? How frequently one has reason to observe that no reply to a +troublesome argument tells so well as calling its author a "mere +scientific specialist." And, as I am afraid it is not permissible to +speak of this form of opposition to scientific education in the past +tense; may we not expect to be told that this, not only omission, but +prohibition, of "mere literary instruction and education" is a patent +example of scientific narrow-mindedness? + +I am not acquainted with Sir Josiah Mason's reasons for the action +which he has taken; but if, as I apprehend is the case, he refers to +the ordinary classical course of our schools and universities by the +name of "mere literary instruction and education," I venture to offer +sundry reasons of my own in support of that action. + +For I hold very strongly by two convictions--The first is, that neither +the discipline nor the subject-matter of classical education is of such +direct value to the student of physical science as to justify the +expenditure of valuable time upon either; and the second is, that for +the purpose of attaining real culture, an exclusively scientific +education is at least as effectual as an exclusively literary +education. + +I need hardly point out to you that these opinions, especially the +latter, are diametrically opposed to those of the great majority of +educated Englishmen, influenced as they are by school and university +traditions. In their belief, culture is obtainable only by a liberal +education; and a liberal education is synonymous, not merely with +education and instruction in literature, but in one particular form of +literature, namely, that of Greek and Roman antiquity. They hold that +the man who has learned Latin and Greek, however little, is educated; +while he who is versed in other branches of knowledge, however deeply, +is a more or less respectable specialist, not admissible into the +cultured caste. The stamp of the educated man, the University degree, +is not for him. + +I am too well acquainted with the generous catholicity of spirit, the +true sympathy with scientific thought, which pervades the writings of +our chief apostle of culture to identify him with these opinions; and +yet one may cull from one and another of those epistles to the +Philistines, which so much delight all who do not answer to that name, +sentences which lend them some support. + +Mr. Arnold tells us that the meaning of culture is "to know the best +that has been thought and said in the world." It is the criticism of +life contained in literature. That criticism regards "Europe as being, +for intellectual and spiritual purposes, one great confederation, bound +to a joint action and working to a common result; and whose members +have, for their common outfit, a knowledge of Greek, Roman, and Eastern +antiquity, and of one another. Special, local, and temporary advantages +being put out of account, that modern nation will in the intellectual +and spiritual sphere make most progress, which most thoroughly carries +out this programme. And what is that but saying that we too, all of us, +as individuals, the more thoroughly we carry it out, shall make the +more progress?" [3] + +We have here to deal with two distinct propositions. The first, that a +criticism of life is the essence of culture; the second, that +literature contains the materials which suffice for the construction of +such a criticism. + +I think that we must all assent to the first proposition. For culture +certainly means something quite different from learning or technical +skill. It implies the possession of an ideal, and the habit of +critically estimating the value of things by comparison with a +theoretic standard. Perfect culture should supply a complete theory of +life, based upon a clear knowledge alike of its possibilities and of +its limitations. + +But we may agree to all this, and yet strongly dissent from the +assumption that literature alone is competent to supply this knowledge. +After having learnt all that Greek, Roman, and Eastern antiquity have +thought and said, and all that modern literatures have to tell us, it +is not self-evident that we have laid a sufficiently broad and deep +foundation for that criticism of life, which constitutes culture. + +Indeed, to any one acquainted with the scope of physical science, it is +not at all evident. Considering progress only in the "intellectual and +spiritual sphere," I find myself wholly unable to admit that either +nations or individuals will really advance, if their common outfit +draws nothing from the stores of physical science. I should say that an +army, without weapons of precision and with no particular base of +operations, might more hopefully enter upon a campaign on the Rhine, +than a man, devoid of a knowledge of what physical science has done in +the last century, upon a criticism of life. + + * * * * * + +When a biologist meets with an anomaly, he instinctively turns to the +study of development to clear it up. The rationale of contradictory +opinions may with equal confidence be sought in history. + +It is, happily, no new thing that Englishmen should employ their wealth +in building and endowing institutions for educational purposes. But, +five or six hundred years ago, deeds of foundation expressed or implied +conditions as nearly as possible contrary to those which have been +thought expedient by Sir Josiah Mason. That is to say, physical science +was practically ignored, while a certain literary training was enjoined +as a means to the acquirement of knowledge which was essentially +theological. + +The reason of this singular contradiction between the actions of men +alike animated by a strong and disinterested desire to promote the +welfare of their fellows, is easily discovered. + +At that time, in fact, if any one desired knowledge beyond such as +could be obtained by his own observation, or by common conversation, +his first necessity was to learn the Latin language, inasmuch as all +the higher knowledge of the western world was contained in works +written in that language. Hence, Latin grammar, with logic and +rhetoric, studied through Latin, were the fundamentals of education. +With respect to the substance of the knowledge imparted through this +channel, the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, as interpreted and +supplemented by the Romish Church, were held to contain a complete and +infallibly true body of information. + +Theological dicta were, to the thinkers of those days, that which the +axioms and definitions of Euclid are to the geometers of these. The +business of the philosophers of the middle ages was to deduce from the +data furnished by the theologians, conclusions in accordance with +ecclesiastical decrees. They were allowed the high privilege of +showing, by logical process, how and why that which the Church said was +true, must be true. And if their demonstrations fell short of or +exceeded this limit, the Church was maternally ready to check their +aberrations; if need were by the help of the secular arm. + +Between the two, our ancestors were furnished with a compact and +complete criticism of life. They were told how the world began and how +it would end; they learned that all material existence was but a base +and insignificant blot upon the fair face of the spiritual world, and +that nature was, to all intents and purposes, the play-ground of the +devil; they learned that the earth is the centre of the visible +universe, and that man is the cynosure of things terrestrial; and more +especially was it inculcated that the course of nature had no fixed +order, but that it could be, and constantly was, altered by the agency +of innumerable spiritual beings, good and bad, according as they were +moved by the deeds and prayers of men. The sum and substance of the +whole doctrine was to produce the conviction that the only thing really +worth knowing in this world was how to secure that place in a better +which, under certain conditions, the Church promised. + +Our ancestors had a living belief in this theory of life, and acted +upon it in their dealings with education, as in all other matters. +Culture meant saintliness--after the fashion of the saints of those +days; the education that led to it was, of necessity, theological; and +the way to theology lay through Latin. + +That the study of nature--further than was requisite for the +satisfaction of everyday wants--should have any bearing on human life +was far from the thoughts of men thus trained. Indeed, as nature had +been cursed for man's sake, it was an obvious conclusion that those who +meddled with nature were likely to come into pretty close contact with +Satan. And, if any born scientific investigator followed his instincts, +he might safely reckon upon earning the reputation, and probably upon +suffering the fate, of a sorcerer. + +Had the western world been left to itself in Chinese isolation, there +is no saying how long this state of things might have endured. But, +happily, it was not left to itself. Even earlier than the thirteenth +century, the development of Moorish civilisation in Spain and the great +movement of the Crusades had introduced the leaven which, from that day +to this, has never ceased to work. At first, through the intermediation +of Arabic translations, afterwards by the study of the originals, the +western nations of Europe became acquainted with the writings of the +ancient philosophers and poets, and, in time, with the whole of the +vast literature of antiquity. + +Whatever there was of high intellectual aspiration or dominant capacity +in Italy, France, Germany, and England, spent itself for centuries in +taking possession of the rich inheritance left by the dead +civilisations of Greece and Rome. Marvellously aided by the invention +of printing, classical learning spread and flourished. Those who +possessed it prided themselves on having attained the highest culture +then within the reach of mankind. + +And justly. For, saving Dante on his solitary pinnacle, there was no +figure in modern literature at the time of the Renascence to compare +with the men of antiquity; there was no art to compete with their +sculpture; there was no physical science but that which Greece had +created. Above all, there was no other example of perfect intellectual +freedom--of the unhesitating acceptance of reason as the sole guide to +truth and the supreme arbiter of conduct. + +The new learning necessarily soon exerted a profound influence upon +education. The language of the monks and schoolmen seemed little better +than gibberish to scholars fresh from Virgil and Cicero, and the study +of Latin was placed upon a new foundation. Moreover, Latin itself +ceased to afford the sole key to knowledge. The student who sought the +highest thought of antiquity, found only a second-hand reflection of it +in Roman literature, and turned his face to the full light of the +Greeks. And after a battle, not altogether dissimilar to that which is +at present being fought over the teaching of physical science, the +study of Greek was recognised as an essential element of all higher +education. + +Thus the Humanists, as they were called, won the day; and the great +reform which they effected was of incalculable service to mankind. But +the Nemesis of all reformers is finality; and the reformers of +education, like those of religion, fell into the profound, however +common, error of mistaking the beginning for the end of the work of +reformation. + +The representatives of the Humanists, in the nineteenth century, take +their stand upon classical education as the sole avenue to culture, as +firmly us if we were still in the age of Renascence. Yet, surely, the +present intellectual relations of the modern and the ancient worlds are +profoundly different from those which obtained three centuries ago. +Leaving aside the existence of a great and characteristically modern +literature, of modern painting, and, especially, of modern music, there +is one feature of the present state of the civilised world which +separates it more widely from the Renascence, than the Renascence was +separated from the middle ages. + +This distinctive character of our own times lies in the vast and +constantly increasing part which is played by natural knowledge. Not +only is our daily life shaped by it, not only does the prosperity of +millions of men depend upon it, but our whole theory of life has long +been influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by the general +conceptions of the universe, which have been forced upon us by physical +science. + +In fact, the most elementary acquaintance with the results of +scientific investigation shows us that they offer a broad and striking +contradiction to the opinion so implicitly credited and taught in the +middle ages. + +The notions of the beginning and the end of the world entertained by +our forefathers are no longer credible. It is very certain that the +earth is not the chief body in the material universe, and that the +world is not subordinated to man's use. It is even more certain that +nature is the expression of a definite order with which nothing +interferes, and that the chief business of mankind is to learn that +order and govern themselves accordingly. Moreover this scientific +"criticism of life" presents itself to us with different credentials +from any other. It appeals not to authority, nor to what anybody may +have thought or said, but to nature. It admits that all our +interpretations of natural fact are more or less imperfect and +symbolic, and bids the learner seek for truth not among words but among +things. It warns us that the assertion which outstrips evidence is not +only a blunder but a crime. + +The purely classical education advocated by the representatives of the +Humanists in our day, gives no inkling of all this. A man may be a +better scholar than Erasmus, and know no more of the chief causes of +the present intellectual fermentation than Erasmus did. Scholarly and +pious persons, worthy of all respect, favour us with allocutions upon +the sadness of the antagonism of science to their mediaeval way of +thinking, which betray an ignorance of the first principles of +scientific investigation, an incapacity for understanding what a man of +science means by veracity, and an unconsciousness of the weight of +established scientific truths, which is almost comical. + +There is no great force in the _tu quoque_ argument, or else the +advocates of scientific education might fairly enough retort upon the +modern Humanists that they may be learned specialists, but that they +possess no such sound foundation for a criticism of life as deserves +the name of culture. And, indeed, if we were disposed to be cruel, we +might urge that the Humanists have brought this reproach upon +themselves, not because they are too full of the spirit of the ancient +Greek, but because they lack it. + +The period of the Renascence is commonly called that of the "Revival of +Letters," as if the influences then brought to bear upon the mind of +Western Europe had been wholly exhausted in the field of literature. I +think it is very commonly forgotten that the revival of science, +effected by the same agency, although less conspicuous, was not less +momentous. + +In fact, the few and scattered students of nature of that day picked up +the clue to her secrets exactly as it fell from the hands of the Greeks +a thousand years before. The foundations of mathematics were so well +laid by them, that our children learn their geometry from a book +written for the schools of Alexandria two thousand years ago. Modern +astronomy is the natural continuation and development of the work of +Hipparchus and of Ptolemy; modern physics of that of Democritus and of +Archimedes; it was long before modern biological science outgrew the +knowledge bequeathed to us by Aristotle, by Theophrastus, and by Galen. + +We cannot know all the best thoughts and sayings of the Greeks unless +we know what they thought about natural phaenomena. We cannot fully +apprehend their criticism of life unless we understand the extent to +which that criticism was affected by scientific conceptions. We falsely +pretend to be the inheritors of their culture, unless we are +penetrated, as the best minds among them were, with an unhesitating +faith that the free employment of reason, in accordance with scientific +method, is the sole method of reaching truth. + +Thus I venture to think that the pretensions of our modern Humanists to +the possession of the monopoly of culture and to the exclusive +inheritance of the spirit of antiquity must be abated, if not +abandoned. But I should be very sorry that anything I have said should +be taken to imply a desire on my part to depreciate the value of +classical education, as it might be and as it sometimes is. The native +capacities of mankind vary no less than their opportunities; and while +culture is one, the road by which one man may best reach it is widely +different from that which is most advantageous to another. Again, while +scientific education is yet inchoate and tentative, classical education +is thoroughly well organised upon the practical experience of +generations of teachers. So that, given ample time for learning and +destination for ordinary life, or for a literary career, I do not think +that a young Englishman in search of culture can do better than follow +the course usually marked out for him, supplementing its deficiencies +by his own efforts. + +But for those who mean to make science their serious occupation; or who +intend to follow the profession of medicine; or who have to enter early +upon the business of life; for all these, in my opinion, classical +education is a mistake; and it is for this reason that I am glad to see +"mere literary education and instruction" shut out from the curriculum +of Sir Josiah Mason's College, seeing that its inclusion would probably +lead to the introduction of the ordinary smattering of Latin and Greek. + +Nevertheless, I am the last person to question the importance of +genuine literary education, or to suppose that intellectual culture can +be complete without it. An exclusively scientific training will bring +about a mental twist as surely as an exclusively literary training. The +value of the cargo does not compensate for a ship's being out of trim; +and I should be very sorry to think that the Scientific College would +turn out none but lop-sided men. + +There is no need, however, that such a catastrophe should happen. +Instruction in English, French, and German is provided, and thus the +three greatest literatures of the modern world are made accessible to +the student. + +French and German, and especially the latter language, are absolutely +indispensable to those who desire full knowledge in any department of +science. But even supposing that the knowledge of these languages +acquired is not more than sufficient for purely scientific purposes, +every Englishman has, in his native tongue, an almost perfect +instrument of literary expression; and, in his own literature, models +of every kind of literary excellence. If an Englishman cannot get +literary culture out of his Bible, his Shakespeare, his Milton, +neither, in my belief, will the profoundest study of Homer and +Sophocles, Virgil and Horace, give it to him. + +Thus, since the constitution of the College makes sufficient provision +for literary as well as for scientific education, and since artistic +instruction is also contemplated, it seems to me that a fairly complete +culture is offered to all who are willing to take advantage of it. + +But I am not sure that at this point the "practical" man, scotched but +not slain, may ask what all this talk about culture has to do with an +Institution, the object of which is defined to be "to promote the +prosperity of the manufactures and the industry of the country." He may +suggest that what is wanted for this end is not culture, nor even a +purely scientific discipline, but simply a knowledge of applied +science. + +I often wish that this phrase, "applied science," had never been +invented. For it suggests that there is a sort of scientific knowledge +of direct practical use, which can be studied apart from another sort +of scientific knowledge, which is of no practical utility, and which is +termed "pure science." But there is no more complete fallacy than this. +What people call applied science is nothing but the application of pure +science to particular classes of problems. It consists of deductions +from those general principles, established by reasoning and +observation, which constitute pure science. No one can safely make +these deductions until he has a firm grasp of the principles; and he +can obtain that grasp only by personal experience of the operations of +observation and of reasoning on which they are founded. + +Almost all the processes employed in the arts and manufactures fall +within the range either of physics or of chemistry. In order to improve +them, one must thoroughly understand them; and no one has a chance of +really understanding them, unless he has obtained that mastery of +principles and that habit of dealing with facts, which is given by +long-continued and well-directed purely scientific training in the +physical and the chemical laboratory. So that there really is no +question as to the necessity of purely scientific discipline, even if +the work of the College were limited by the narrowest interpretation of +its stated aims. + +And, as to the desirableness of a wider culture than that yielded by +science alone, it is to be recollected that the improvement of +manufacturing processes is only one of the conditions which contribute +to the prosperity of industry. Industry is a means and not an end; and +mankind work only to get something which they want. What that something +is depends partly on their innate, and partly on their acquired, +desires. + +If the wealth resulting from prosperous industry is to be spent upon +the gratification of unworthy desires, if the increasing perfection of +manufacturing processes is to be accompanied by an increasing +debasement of those who carry them on, I do not see the good of +industry and prosperity. + +Now it is perfectly true that men's views of what is desirable depend +upon their characters; and that the innate proclivities to which we +give that name are not touched by any amount of instruction. But it +does not follow that even mere intellectual education may not, to an +indefinite extent, modify the practical manifestation of the characters +of men in their actions, by supplying them with motives unknown to the +ignorant. A pleasure-loving character will have pleasure of some sort; +but, if you give him the choice, he may prefer pleasures which do not +degrade him to those which do. And this choice is offered to every man, +who possesses in literary or artistic culture a never-failing source of +pleasures, which are neither withered by age, nor staled by custom, nor +embittered in the recollection by the pangs of self-reproach. + +If the Institution opened to-day fulfils the intention of its founder, +the picked intelligences among all classes of the population of this +district will pass through it. No child born in Birmingham, +henceforward, if he have the capacity to profit by the opportunities +offered to him, first in the primary and other schools, and afterwards +in the Scientific College, need fail to obtain, not merely the +instruction, but the culture most appropriate to the conditions of his +life. + +Within these walls, the future employer and the future artisan may +sojourn together for a while, and carry, through all their lives, the +stamp of the influences then brought to bear upon them. Hence, it is +not beside the mark to remind you, that the prosperity of industry +depends not merely upon the improvement of manufacturing processes, not +merely upon the ennobling of the individual character, but upon a third +condition, namely, a clear understanding of the conditions of social +life, on the part of both the capitalist and the operative, and their +agreement upon common principles of social action. They must learn that +social phaenomena are as much the expression of natural laws as any +others; that no social arrangements can be permanent unless they +harmonise with the requirements of social statics and dynamics; and +that, in the nature of things, there is an arbiter whose decisions +execute themselves. + +But this knowledge is only to be obtained by the application of the +methods of investigation adopted in physical researches to the +investigation of the phaenomena of society. Hence, I confess, I should +like to see one addition made to the excellent scheme of education +propounded for the College, in the shape of provision for the teaching +of Sociology. For though we are all agreed that party politics are to +have no place in the instruction of the College; yet in this country, +practically governed as it is now by universal suffrage, every man who +does his duty must exercise political functions. And, if the evils +which are inseparable from the good of political liberty are to be +checked, if the perpetual oscillation of nations between anarchy and +despotism is to be replaced by the steady march of self-restraining +freedom; it will be because men will gradually bring themselves to deal +with political, as they now deal with scientific questions; to be as +ashamed of undue haste and partisan prejudice in the one case as in the +other; and to believe that the machinery of society is at least as +delicate as that of a spinning-jenny, and as little likely to be +improved by the meddling of those who have not taken the trouble to +master the principles of its action. + +In conclusion, I am sure that I make myself the mouthpiece of all +present in offering to the venerable founder of the Institution, which +now commences its beneficent career, our congratulations on the +completion of his work; and in expressing the conviction, that the +remotest posterity will point to it as a crucial instance of the wisdom +which natural piety leads all men to ascribe to their ancestors. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] See the first essay in this volume. + +[2] The advocacy of the introduction of physical science into general +education by George Combe and others commenced a good deal earlier; but +the movement had acquired hardly any practical force before the time to +which I refer. + +[3] _Essays in Criticism_, p. 37. + + + + +VII + +ON SCIENCE AND ART IN RELATION TO EDUCATION + +[1882] + + +When a man is honoured by such a request as that which reached me from +the authorities of your institution some time ago, I think the first +thing that occurs to him is that which occurred to those who were +bidden to the feast in the Gospel--to begin to make an excuse; and +probably all the excuses suggested on that famous occasion crop up in +his mind one after the other, including his "having married a wife," as +reasons for not doing what he is asked to do. But, in my own case, and +on this particular occasion, there were other difficulties of a sort +peculiar to the time, and more or less personal to myself; because I +felt that, if I came amongst you, I should be expected, and, indeed, +morally compelled, to speak upon the subject of Scientific Education. +And then there arose in my mind the recollection of a fact, which +probably no one here but myself remembers; namely, that some fourteen +years ago I was the guest of a citizen of yours, who bears the honoured +name of Rathbone, at a very charming and pleasant dinner given by the +Philomathic Society; and I there and then, and in this very city, made +a speech upon the topic of Scientific Education. Under these +circumstances, you see, one runs two dangers--the first, of repeating +one's self, although I may fairly hope that everybody has forgotten the +fact I have just now mentioned, except myself; and the second, and even +greater difficulty, is the danger of saying something different from +what one said before, because then, however forgotten your previous +speech may be, somebody finds out its existence, and there goes on that +process so hateful to members of Parliament, which may be denoted by +the term "Hansardisation." Under these circumstances, I came to the +conclusion that the best thing I could do was to take the bull by the +horns, and to "Hansardise" myself,--to put before you, in the briefest +possible way, the three or four propositions which I endeavoured to +support on the occasion of the speech to which I have referred; and +then to ask myself, supposing you were asking me, whether I had +anything to retract, or to modify, in them, in virtue of the increased +experience, and, let us charitably hope, the increased wisdom of an +added fourteen years. + +Now, the points to which I directed particular attention on that +occasion were these: in the first place, that instruction in physical +science supplies information of a character of especial value, both in +a practical and a speculative point of view--information which cannot +be obtained otherwise; and, in the second place, that, as educational +discipline, it supplies, in a better form than any other study can +supply, exercise in a special form of logic, and a peculiar method of +testing the validity of our processes of inquiry. I said further, that, +even at that time, a great and increasing attention was being paid to +physical science in our schools and colleges, and that, most assuredly, +such attention must go on growing and increasing, until education in +these matters occupied a very much larger share of the time which is +given to teaching and training, than had been the case heretofore. And +I threw all the strength of argumentation of which I was possessed into +the support of these propositions. But I venture to remind you, also, +of some other words I used at that time, and which I ask permission to +read to you. They were these:--"There are other forms of culture +besides physical science, and I should be profoundly sorry to see the +fact forgotten, or even to observe a tendency to starve or cripple +literary or aesthetic culture for the sake of science. Such a narrow +view of the nature of education has nothing to do with my firm +conclusion that a complete and thorough scientific culture ought to be +introduced into all schools." + +I say I desire, in commenting upon these various points, and judging +them as fairly as I can by the light of increased experience, to +particularly emphasise this last, because I am told, although I +assuredly do not know it of my own knowledge--though I think if the +fact were so I ought to know it, being tolerably well acquainted with +that which goes on in the scientific world, and which has gone on there +for the last thirty years--that there is a kind of sect, or horde, of +scientific Goths and Vandals, who think it would be proper and +desirable to sweep away all other forms of culture and instruction, +except those in physical science, and to make them the universal and +exclusive, or, at any rate, the dominant training of the human mind of +the future generation. This is not my view--I do not believe that it is +anybody's view,--but it is attributed to those who, like myself, +advocate scientific education. I therefore dwell strongly upon the +point, and I beg you to believe that the words I have just now read +were by no means intended by me as a sop to the Cerberus of culture. I +have not been in the habit of offering sops to any kind of Cerberus; +but it was an expression of profound conviction on my own part--a +conviction forced upon me not only by my mental constitution, but by +the lessons of what is now becoming a somewhat long experience of +varied conditions of life. + +I am not about to trouble you with my autobiography; the omens are +hardly favourable, at present, for work of that kind. But I should like +if I may do so without appearing, what I earnestly desire not to be, +egotistical,--I should like to make it clear to you, that such notions +as these, which are sometimes attributed to me, are, as I have said, +inconsistent with my mental constitution, and still more inconsistent +with the upshot of the teaching of my experience. For I can certainly +claim for myself that sort of mental temperament which can say that +nothing human comes amiss to it. I have never yet met with any branch +of human knowledge which I have found unattractive--which it would not +have been pleasant to me to follow, so far as I could go; and I have +yet to meet with any form of art in which it has not been possible for +me to take as acute a pleasure as, I believe, it is possible for men to +take. + +And with respect to the circumstances of life, it so happens that it +has been my fate to know many lands and many climates, and to be +familiar, by personal experience, with almost every form of society, +from the uncivilised savage of Papua and Australia and the civilised +savages of the slums and dens of the poverty-stricken parts of +great cities, to those who perhaps, are occasionally the somewhat +over-civilised members of our upper ten thousand. And I have never +found, in any of these conditions of life, a deficiency of something +which was attractive. Savagery has its pleasures, I assure you, as well +as civilisation, and I may even venture to confess--if you will not let +a whisper of the matter get back to London, where I am known--I am even +fain to confess, that sometimes in the din and throng of what is called +"a brilliant reception" the vision crosses my mind of waking up from +the soft plank which had afforded me satisfactory sleep during the +hours of the night, in the bright dawn of a tropical morning, when my +comrades were yet asleep, when every sound was hushed, except the +little lap-lap of the ripples against the sides of the boat, and the +distant twitter of the sea-bird on the reef. And when that vision +crosses my mind, I am free to confess I desire to be back in the boat +again. So that, if I share with those strange persons to whose +asserted, but still hypothetical existence I have referred, the want of +appreciation of forms of culture other than the pursuit of physical +science, all I can say is, that it is, in spite of my constitution, and +in spite of my experience, that such should be my fate. + +But now let me turn to another point, or rather to two other points, +with which I propose to occupy myself. How far does the experience of +the last fourteen years justify the estimate which I ventured to put +forward of the value of scientific culture, and of the share--the +increasing share--which it must take in ordinary education? Happily, in +respect to that matter, you need not rely upon my testimony. In the +last half-dozen numbers of the "Journal of Education," you will find a +series of very interesting and remarkable papers, by gentlemen who are +practically engaged in the business of education in our great public +and other schools, telling us what is doing in these schools, and what +is their experience of the results of scientific education there, so +far as it has gone. I am not going to trouble you with an abstract of +those papers, which are well worth your study in their fulness and +completeness, but I have copied out one remarkable passage, because it +seems to me so entirely to bear out what I have formerly ventured to +say about the value of science, both as to its subject-matter and as to +the discipline which the learning of science involves. It is from a +paper by Mr. Worthington--one of the masters at Clifton, the reputation +of which school you know well, and at the head of which is an old +friend of mine, the Rev. Mr. Wilson--to whom much credit is due for +being one of the first, as I can say from my own knowledge, to take up +this question and work it into practical shape. What Mr. Worthington +says is this:-- + + "It is not easy to exaggerate the importance of the information + imparted by certain branches of science; it modifies the + whole criticism of life made in maturer years. The study has + often, on a mass of boys, a certain influence which, I think, was + hardly anticipated, and to which a good deal of value must be + attached--an influence as much moral as intellectual, which is + shown in the increased and increasing respect for precision of + statement, and for that form of veracity which consists in the + acknowledgment of difficulties. It produces a real effect to find + that Nature cannot be imposed upon, and the attention given + to experimental lectures, at first superficial and curious only, + soon becomes minute, serious, and practical." + +Ladies and gentlemen, I could not have chosen better words to +express--in fact, I have, in other words, expressed the same conviction +in former days--what the influence of scientific teaching, if properly +carried out, must be. + +But now comes the question of properly carrying it out, because, when I +hear the value of school teaching in physical science disputed, my +first impulse is to ask the disputer, "What have you known about it?" +and he generally tells me some lamentable case of failure. Then I ask, +"What are the circumstances of the case, and how was the teaching +carried out?" I remember, some few years ago, hearing of the head +master of a large school, who had expressed great dissatisfaction with +the adoption of the teaching of physical science--and that after +experiment. But the experiment consisted in this--in asking one of the +junior masters in the school to get up science, in order to teach it; +and the young gentleman went away for a year and got up science and +taught it. Well, I have no doubt that the result was as disappointing +as the head-master said it was, and I have no doubt that it ought to +have been as disappointing, and far more disappointing too; for, if +this kind of instruction is to be of any good at all, if it is not to +be less than no good, if it is to take the place of that which is +already of some good, then there are several points which must be +attended to. + +And the first of these is the proper selection of topics, the second is +practical teaching, the third is practical teachers, and the fourth is +sufficiency of time. If these four points are not carefully attended to +by anybody who undertakes the teaching of physical science in schools, +my advice to him is, to let it alone. I will not dwell at any length +upon the first point, because there is a general consensus of opinion +as to the nature of the topics which should be chosen. The second +point--practical teaching--is one of great importance, because it +requires more capital to set it agoing, demands more time, and, last, +but by no means least, it requires much more personal exertion and +trouble on the part of those professing to teach, than is the case with +other kinds of instruction. + +When I accepted the invitation to be here this evening, your secretary +was good enough to send me the addresses which have been given by +distinguished persons who have previously occupied this chair. I don't +know whether he had a malicious desire to alarm me; but, however that +may be, I read the addresses, and derived the greatest pleasure and +profit from some of them, and from none more than from the one given by +the great historian, Mr. Freeman, which delighted me most of all; and, +if I had not been ashamed of plagiarising, and if I had not been sure +of being found out, I should have been glad to have copied very much of +what Mr. Freeman said, simply putting in the word science for history. +There was one notable passage,--"The difference between good and bad +teaching mainly consists in this, whether the words used are really +clothed with a meaning or not." And Mr. Freeman gives a remarkable +example of this. He says, when a little girl was asked where Turkey +was, she answered that it was in the yard with the other fowls, and +that showed she had a definite idea connected with the word Turkey, and +was, so far, worthy of praise. I quite agree with that commendation; +but what a curious thing it is that one should now find it necessary to +urge that this is the be-all and end-all of scientific instruction--the +_sine quâ non_, the absolutely necessary condition,--and yet that +it was insisted upon more than two hundred years ago by one of the +greatest men science ever possessed in this country, William Harvey. +Harvey wrote, or at least published, only two small books, one of which +is the well-known treatise on the circulation of the blood. The other, +the "Exercitationes de Generatione," is less known, but not less +remarkable. And not the least valuable part of it is the preface, in +which there occurs this passage: "Those who, reading the words of +authors, do not form sensible images of the things referred to, obtain +no true ideas, but conceive false imaginations and inane phantasms." +You see, William Harvey's words are just the same in substance as those +of Mr. Freeman, only they happen to be rather more than two centuries +older. So that what I am now saying has its application elsewhere than +in science; but assuredly in science the condition of knowing, of your +own knowledge, things which you talk about, is absolutely imperative. + +I remember, in my youth, there were detestable books which ought to +have been burned by the hands of the common hangman, for they contained +questions and answers to be learned by heart, of this sort, "What is a +horse? The horse is termed _Equus caballus_; belongs to the class +Mammalia; order, Pachydermata; family, Solidungula." Was any human +being wiser for learning that magic formula? Was he not more foolish, +inasmuch as he was deluded into taking words for knowledge? It is that +kind of teaching that one wants to get rid of, and banished out of +science. Make it as little as you like, but, unless that which is +taught is based on actual observation and familiarity with facts, it is +better left alone. + +There are a great many people who imagine that elementary teaching +might be properly carried out by teachers provided with only elementary +knowledge. Let me assure you that that is the profoundest mistake in +the world. There is nothing so difficult to do as to write a good +elementary book, and there is nobody so hard to teach properly and well +as people who know nothing about a subject, and I will tell you why. If +I address an audience of persons who are occupied in the same line of +work as myself, I can assume that they know a vast deal, and that they +can find out the blunders I make. If they don't, it is their fault and +not mine; but when I appear before a body of people who know nothing +about the matter, who take for gospel whatever I say, surely it becomes +needful that I consider what I say, make sure that it will bear +examination, and that I do not impose upon the credulity of those who +have faith in me. In the second place, it involves that difficult +process of knowing what you know so well that you can talk about it as +you can talk about your ordinary business. A man can always talk about +his own business. He can always make it plain; but, if his knowledge is +hearsay, he is afraid to go beyond what he has recollected, and put it +before those that are ignorant in such a shape that they shall +comprehend it. That is why, to be a good elementary teacher, to teach +the elements of any subject, requires most careful consideration, if +you are a master of the subject; and, if you are not a master of it, it +is needful you should familiarise yourself with so much as you are +called upon to teach--soak yourself in it, so to speak--until you know +it as part of your daily life and daily knowledge, and then you will be +able to teach anybody. That is what I mean by practical teachers, and, +although the deficiency of such teachers is being remedied to a large +extent, I think it is one which has long existed, and which has existed +from no fault of those who undertook to teach, but because, until the +last score of years, it absolutely was not possible for any one in a +great many branches of science, whatever his desire might be, to get +instruction which would enable him to be a good teacher of elementary +things. All that is being rapidly altered, and I hope it will soon +become a thing of the past. + +The last point I have referred to is the question of the sufficiency of +time. And here comes the rub. The teaching of science needs time, as +any other subject; but it needs more time proportionally than other +subjects, for the amount of work obviously done, if the teaching is to +be, as I have said, practical. Work done in a laboratory involves a +good deal of expenditure of time without always an obvious result, +because we do not see anything of that quiet process of soaking the +facts into the mind, which takes place through the organs of the +senses. On this ground there must be ample time given to science +teaching. What that amount of time should be is a point which I need +not discuss now; in fact, it is a point which cannot be settled until +one has made up one's mind about various other questions. + +All, then, that I have to ask for, on behalf of the scientific people, +if I may venture to speak for more than myself, is that you should put +scientific teaching into what statesmen call the condition of "the most +favoured nation"; that is to say, that it shall have as large a share +of the time given to education as any other principal subject. You may +say that that is a very vague statement, because the value of the +allotment of time, under those circumstances, depends upon the number +of principal subjects. It is _x_ the time, and an unknown quantity +of principal subjects dividing that, and science taking shares with the +rest. That shows that we cannot deal with this question fully until we +have made up our minds as to what the principal subjects of education +ought to be. + +I know quite well that launching myself into this discussion is a very +dangerous operation; that it is a very large subject, and one which is +difficult to deal with, however much I may trespass upon your patience +in the time allotted to me. But the discussion is so fundamental, it is +so completely impossible to make up one's mind on these matters until +one has settled the question, that I will even venture to make the +experiment. A great lawyer-statesman and philosopher of a former age--I +mean Francis Bacon--said that truth came out of error much more rapidly +than it came out of confusion. There is a wonderful truth in that +saying. Next to being right in this world, the best of all things is to +be clearly and definitely wrong, because you will come out somewhere. +If you go buzzing about between right and wrong, vibrating and +fluctuating, you come out nowhere; but if you are absolutely and +thoroughly and persistently wrong, you must, some of these days, have +the extreme good fortune of knocking your head against a fact, and that +sets you all straight again. So I will not trouble myself as to whether +I may be right or wrong in what I am about to say, but at any rate I +hope to be clear and definite; and then you will be able to judge for +yourselves whether, in following out the train of thought I have to +introduce, you knock your heads against facts or not. + +I take it that the whole object of education is, in the first place, to +train the faculties of the young in such a manner as to give their +possessors the best chance of being happy and useful in their +generation; and, in the second place, to furnish them with the most +important portions of that immense capitalised experience of the human +race which we call knowledge of various kinds. I am using the term +knowledge in its widest possible sense; and the question is, what +subjects to select by training and discipline, in which the object I +have just defined may be best attained. + +I must call your attention further to this fact, that all the subjects +of our thoughts--all feelings and propositions (leaving aside our +sensations as the mere materials and occasions of thinking and +feeling), all our mental furniture--may be classified under one of two +heads--as either within the province of the intellect, something that +can be put into propositions and affirmed or denied; or as within the +province of feeling, or that which, before the name was defiled, was +called the aesthetic side of our nature, and which can neither be +proved nor disproved, but only felt and known. + +According to the classification which I have put before you, then, the +subjects of all knowledge are divisible into the two groups, matters of +science and matters of art; for all things with which the reasoning +faculty alone is occupied, come under the province of science; and in +the broadest sense, and not in the narrow and technical sense in which +we are now accustomed to use the word art, all things feelable, all +things which stir our emotions, come under the term of art, in the +sense of the subject-matter of the aesthetic faculty. So that we are +shut up to this--that the business of education is, in the first place, +to provide the young with the means and the habit of observation; and, +secondly, to supply the subject-matter of knowledge either in the shape +of science or of art, or of both combined. + +Now, it is a very remarkable fact--but it is true of most things in +this world--that there is hardly anything one-sided, or of one nature; +and it is not immediately obvious what of the things that interest us +may be regarded as pure science, and what may be regarded as pure art. +It may be that there are some peculiarly constituted persons who, +before they have advanced far into the depths of geometry, find +artistic beauty about it; but, taking the generality of mankind, I +think it may be said that, when they begin to learn mathematics, their +whole souls are absorbed in tracing the connection between the +premisses and the conclusion, and that to them geometry is pure +science. So I think it may be said that mechanics and osteology are +pure science. On the other hand, melody in music is pure art. You +cannot reason about it; there is no proposition involved in it. So, +again, in the pictorial art, an arabesque, or a "harmony in grey," +touches none but the aesthetic faculty. But a great mathematician, and +even many persons who are not great mathematicians, will tell you that +they derive immense pleasure from geometrical reasonings. Everybody +knows mathematicians speak of solutions and problems as "elegant," and +they tell you that a certain mass of mystic symbols is "beautiful, +quite lovely." Well, you do not see it. They do see it, because the +intellectual process, the process of comprehending the reasons +symbolised by these figures and these signs, confers upon them a sort +of pleasure, such as an artist has in visual symmetry. Take a science +of which I may speak with more confidence, and which is the most +attractive of those I am concerned with. It is what we call morphology, +which consists in tracing out the unity in variety of the infinitely +diversified structures of animals and plants. I cannot give you any +example of a thorough aesthetic pleasure more intensely real than a +pleasure of this kind--the pleasure which arises in one's mind when a +whole mass of different structures run into one harmony as the +expression of a central law. That is where the province of art overlays +and embraces the province of intellect. And, if I may venture to +express an opinion on such a subject, the great majority of forms of +art are not in the sense what I just now defined them to be--pure art; +but they derive much of their quality from simultaneous and even +unconscious excitement of the intellect. + +When I was a boy, I was very fond of music, and I am so now; and it so +happened that I had the opportunity of hearing much good music. Among +other things, I had abundant opportunities of hearing that great old +master, Sebastian Bach. I remember perfectly well--though I knew +nothing about music then, and, I may add, know nothing whatever about +it now--the intense satisfaction and delight which I had in listening, +by the hour together, to Bach's fugues. It is a pleasure which remains +with me, I am glad to think; but, of late years, I have tried to find +out the why and wherefore, and it has often occurred to me that the +pleasure derived from musical compositions of this kind is essentially +of the same nature as that which is derived from pursuits which are +commonly regarded as purely intellectual. I mean, that the source +of pleasure is exactly the same as in most of my problems in +morphology--that you have the theme in one of the old master's works +followed out in all its endless variations, always appearing and always +reminding you of unity in variety. So in painting; what is called +"truth to nature" is the intellectual element coming in, and truth to +nature depends entirely upon the intellectual culture of the person to +whom art is addressed. If you are in Australia, you may get credit for +being a good artist--I mean among the natives--if you can draw a +kangaroo after a fashion. But, among men of higher civilisation, the +intellectual knowledge we possess brings its criticism into our +appreciation of works of art, and we are obliged to satisfy it, as well +as the mere sense of beauty in colour and in outline. And so, the +higher the culture and information of those whom art addresses, the +more exact and precise must be what we call its "truth to nature." + +If we turn to literature, the same thing is true, and you find works of +literature which may be said to be pure art. A little song of +Shakespeare or of Goethe is pure art; it is exquisitely beautiful, +although its intellectual content may be nothing. A series of pictures +is made to pass before your mind by the meaning of words, and the +effect is a melody of ideas. Nevertheless, the great mass of the +literature we esteem is valued, not merely because of having artistic +form, but because of its intellectual content; and the value is the +higher the more precise, distinct, and true is that intellectual +content. And, if you will let me for a moment speak of the very highest +forms of literature, do we not regard them as highest simply because +the more we know the truer they seem, and the more competent we are to +appreciate beauty the more beautiful they are? No man ever understands +Shakespeare until he is old, though the youngest may admire him, the +reason being that he satisfies the artistic instinct of the youngest +and harmonises with the ripest and richest experience of the oldest. + +I have said this much to draw your attention to what, to my mind, lies +at the root of all this matter, and at the understanding of one another +by the men of science on the one hand, and the men of literature, and +history, and art, on the other. It is not a question whether one order +of study or another should predominate. It is a question of what topics +of education you shall select which will combine all the needful +elements in such due proportion as to give the greatest amount of food, +support, and encouragement to those faculties which enable us to +appreciate truth, and to profit by those sources of innocent happiness +which are open to us, and, at the same time, to avoid that which is +bad, and coarse, and ugly, and keep clear of the multitude of pitfalls +and dangers which beset those who break through the natural or moral +laws. + +I address myself, in this spirit, to the consideration of the question +of the value of purely literary education. Is it good and sufficient, +or is it insufficient and bad? Well, here I venture to say that there +are literary educations and literary educations. If I am to understand +by that term the education that was current in the great majority of +middle-class schools, and upper schools too, in this country when I was +a boy, and which consisted absolutely and almost entirely in keeping +boys for eight or ten years at learning the rules of Latin and Greek +grammar, construing certain Latin and Greek authors, and possibly +making verses which, had they been English verses, would have been +condemned as abominable doggerel,--if that is what you mean by liberal +education, then I say it is scandalously insufficient and almost +worthless. My reason for saying so is not from the point of view of +science at all, but from the point of view of literature. I say the +thing professes to be literary education that is not a literary +education at all. It was not literature at all that was taught, but +science in a very bad form. It is quite obvious that grammar is science +and not literature. The analysis of a text by the help of the rules of +grammar is just as much a scientific operation as the analysis of a +chemical compound by the help of the rules of chemical analysis. There +is nothing that appeals to the aesthetic faculty in that operation; and +I ask multitudes of men of my own age, who went through this process, +whether they ever had a conception of art or literature until they +obtained it for themselves after leaving school? Then you may say, "If +that is so, if the education was scientific, why cannot you be +satisfied with it?" I say, because although it is a scientific +training, it is of the most inadequate and inappropriate kind. If there +is any good at all in scientific education it is that men should be +trained, as I said before, to know things for themselves at first hand, +and that they should understand every step of the reason of that which +they do. + +I desire to speak with the utmost respect of that science--philology--of +which grammar is a part and parcel; yet everybody knows that +grammar, as it is usually learned at school, affords no scientific +training. It is taught just as you would teach the rules of chess or +draughts. On the other hand, if I am to understand by a literary +education the study of the literatures of either ancient or modern +nations--but especially those of antiquity, and especially that of +ancient Greece; if this literature is studied, not merely from the +point of view of philological science, and its practical application to +the interpretation of texts, but as an exemplification of and +commentary upon the principles of art; if you look upon the literature +of a people as a chapter in the development of the human mind, if you +work out this in a broad spirit, and with such collateral references to +morals and politics, and physical geography, and the like as are +needful to make you comprehend what the meaning of ancient literature +and civilisation is,--then, assuredly, it affords a splendid and noble +education. But I still think it is susceptible of improvement, and that +no man will ever comprehend the real secret of the difference between +the ancient world and our present time, unless he has learned to see +the difference which the late development of physical science has made +between the thought of this day and the thought of that, and he will +never see that difference, unless he has some practical insight into +some branches of physical science; and you must remember that a +literary education such as that which I have just referred to, is out +of the reach of those whose school life is cut short at sixteen or +seventeen. + +But, you will say, all this is fault-finding; let us hear what you have +in the way of positive suggestion. Then I am bound to tell you that, if +I could make a clean sweep of everything--I am very glad I cannot +because I might, and probably should, make mistakes,--but if I could +make a clean sweep of everything and start afresh, I should, in the +first place, secure that training of the young in reading and writing, +and in the habit of attention and observation, both to that which is +told them, and that which they see, which everybody agrees to. But in +addition to that, I should make it absolutely necessary for everybody, +for a longer or shorter period, to learn to draw. Now, you may say, +there are some people who cannot draw, however much they may be taught. +I deny that _in toto_, because I never yet met with anybody who +could not learn to write. Writing is a form of drawing; therefore if +you give the same attention and trouble to drawing as you do to +writing, depend upon it, there is nobody who cannot be made to draw, +more or less well. Do not misapprehend me. I do not say for one moment +you would make an artistic draughtsman. Artists are not made; they +grow. You may improve the natural faculty in that direction, but you +cannot make it; but you can teach simple drawing, and you will find it +an implement of learning of extreme value. I do not think its value can +be exaggerated, because it gives you the means of training the young in +attention and accuracy, which are the two things in which all mankind +are more deficient than in any other mental quality whatever. The whole +of my life has been spent in trying to give my proper attention to +things and to be accurate, and I have not succeeded as well as I could +wish; and other people, I am afraid, are not much more fortunate. You +cannot begin this habit too early, and I consider there is nothing of +so great a value as the habit of drawing, to secure those two desirable +ends. + +Then we come to the subject-matter, whether scientific or aesthetic, of +education, and I should naturally have no question at all about +teaching the elements of physical science of the kind I have sketched, +in a practical manner; but among scientific topics, using the word +scientific in the broadest sense, I would also include the elements of +the theory of morals and of that of political and social life, which, +strangely enough, it never seems to occur to anybody to teach a child. +I would have the history of our own country, and of all the influences +which have been brought to bear upon it, with incidental geography, not +as a mere chronicle of reigns and battles, but as a chapter in the +development of the race, and the history of civilisation. + +Then with respect to aesthetic knowledge and discipline, we have +happily in the English language one of the most magnificent storehouses +of artistic beauty and of models of literary excellence which exists in +the world at the present time. I have said before, and I repeat it +here, that if a man cannot get literary culture of the highest kind out +of his Bible, and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and Milton, and Hobbes, and +Bishop Berkeley, to mention only a few of our illustrious writers--I +say, if he cannot get it out of those writers, he cannot get it out of +anything; and I would assuredly devote a very large portion of the time +of every English child to the careful study of the models of English +writing of such varied and wonderful kind as we possess, and, what is +still more important and still more neglected, the habit of using that +language with precision, with force, and with art. I fancy we are +almost the only nation in the world who seem to think that composition +comes by nature. The French attend to their own language, the Germans +study theirs; but Englishmen do not seem to think it is worth their +while. Nor would I fail to include, in the course of study I am +sketching, translations of all the best works of antiquity, or of the +modern world. It is a very desirable thing to read Homer in Greek; but +if you don't happen to know Greek, the next best thing we can do is to +read as good a translation of it as we have recently been furnished +with in prose. You won't get all you would get from the original, but +you may get a great deal; and to refuse to know this great deal because +you cannot get all, seems to be as sensible as for a hungry man to +refuse bread because he cannot get partridge. Finally, I would add +instruction in either music or painting, or, if the child should be so +unhappy, as sometimes happens, as to have no faculty for either of +those, and no possibility of doing anything in any artistic sense with +them, then I would see what could be done with literature alone; but I +would provide, in the fullest sense, for the development of the +aesthetic side of the mind. In my judgment, those are all the +essentials of education for an English child. With that outfit, such as +it might be made in the time given to education which is within the +reach of nine-tenths of the population--with that outfit, an +Englishman, within the limits of English life, is fitted to go +anywhere, to occupy the highest positions, to fill the highest offices +of the State, and to become distinguished in practical pursuits, in +science, or in art. For, if he have the opportunity to learn all those +things, and have his mind disciplined in the various directions the +teaching of those topics would have necessitated, then, assuredly, he +will be able to pick up, on his road through life, all the rest of the +intellectual baggage he wants. + +If the educational time at our disposition were sufficient, there are +one or two things I would add to those I have just now called the +essentials; and perhaps you will be surprised to hear, though I hope +you will not, that I should add, not more science, but one, or, if +possible, two languages. The knowledge of some other language than +one's own is, in fact, of singular intellectual value. Many of the +faults and mistakes of the ancient philosophers are traceable to the +fact that they knew no language but their own, and were often led into +confusing the symbol with the thought which it embodied. I think it is +Locke who says that one-half of the mistakes of philosophers have +arisen from questions about words; and one of the safest ways of +delivering yourself from the bondage of words is, to know how ideas +look in words to which you are not accustomed. That is one reason for +the study of language; another reason is, that it opens new fields in +art and in science. Another is the practical value of such knowledge; +and yet another is this, that if your languages are properly chosen, +from the time of learning the additional languages you will know your +own language better than ever you did. So, I say, if the time given to +education permits, add Latin and German. Latin, because it is the key +to nearly one-half of English and to all the Romance languages; and +German, because it is the key to almost all the remainder of English, +and helps you to understand a race from whom most of us have sprung, +and who have a character and a literature of a fateful force in the +history of the world, such as probably has been allotted to those of no +other people, except the Jews, the Greeks, and ourselves. Beyond these, +the essential and the eminently desirable elements of all education, +let each man take up his special line--the historian devote himself to +his history, the man of science to his science, the man of letters to +his culture of that kind, and the artist to his special pursuit. + +Bacon has prefaced some of his works with no more than this: +_Franciscus Bacon sic cogitavit;_ let "sic cogitavi" be the epilogue +to what I have ventured to address to you to-night. + + + + +VIII + +UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL + +[1874] + + +Elected by the suffrages of your four Nations Rector of the ancient +University of which you are scholars, I take the earliest opportunity +which has presented itself since my restoration to health, of +delivering the Address which, by long custom, is expected of the holder +of my office. + +My first duty in opening that Address, is to offer you my most hearty +thanks for the signal honour you have conferred upon me--an honour of +which, as a man unconnected with you by personal or by national ties, +devoid of political distinction, and a plebeian who stands by his +order, I could not have dreamed. And it was the more surprising to +me, as the five-and-twenty years which have passed over my head +since I reached intellectual manhood, have been largely spent in no +half-hearted advocacy of doctrines which have not yet found favour in +the eyes of Academic respectability; so that, when the proposal to +nominate me for your Rector came, I was almost as much astonished as +was Hal o' the Wynd, "who fought for his own hand," by the Black +Douglas's proffer of knighthood. And I fear that my acceptance must be +taken as evidence that, less wise than the Armourer of Perth, I have +not yet done with soldiering. + +In fact, if, for a moment, I imagined that your intention was simply, +in the kindness of your hearts, to do me honour; and that the Rector of +your University, like that of some other Universities was one of those +happy beings who sit in glory for three years, with nothing to do for +it save the making of a speech, a conversation with my distinguished +predecessor soon dispelled the dream. I found that, by the constitution +of the University of Aberdeen, the incumbent of the Rectorate is, if +not a power, at any rate a potential energy; and that, whatever may be +his chances of success or failure, it is his duty to convert that +potential energy into a living force, directed towards such ends as may +seem to him conducive to the welfare of the corporation of which he is +the theoretical head. + +I need not tell you that your late Lord Rector took this view of his +position, and acted upon it with the comprehensive, far-seeing insight +into the actual condition and tendencies, not merely of his own, but of +other countries, which is his honourable characteristic among +statesmen. I have already done my best, and, as long as I hold my +office, I shall continue my endeavours, to follow in the path which he +trod; to do what in me lies, to bring this University nearer to +the ideal--alas, that I should be obliged to say ideal--of all +Universities; which, as I conceive, should be places in which thought +is free from all fetters; and in which all sources of knowledge, and +all aids to learning, should be accessible to all comers, without +distinction of creed or country, riches or poverty. + +Do not suppose, however, that I am sanguine enough to expect much to +come of any poor efforts of mine. If your annals take any notice of my +incumbency, I shall probably go down to posterity as the Rector who was +always beaten. But if they add, as I think they will, that my defeats +became victories in the hands of my successors, I shall be well +content. + + * * * * * + +The scenes are shifting in the great theatre of the world. The act +which commenced with the Protestant Reformation is nearly played out, +and a wider and deeper change than that effected three centuries ago--a +reformation, or rather a revolution of thought, the extremes of which +are represented by the intellectual heirs of John of Leyden and of +Ignatius Loyola, rather than by those of Luther and of Leo--is waiting +to come on, nay, visible behind the scenes to those who have good eyes. +Men are beginning, once more, to awake to the fact that matters of +belief and of speculation are of absolutely infinite practical +importance; and are drawing off from that sunny country "where it is +always afternoon"--the sleepy hollow of broad indifferentism--to range +themselves under their natural banners. Change is in the air. It is +whirling feather-heads into all sorts of eccentric orbits, and filling +the steadiest with a sense of insecurity. It insists on reopening all +questions and asking all institutions, however venerable, by what right +they exist, and whether they are, or are not, in harmony with the real +or supposed wants of mankind. And it is remarkable that these searching +inquiries are not so much forced on institutions from without, as +developed from within. Consummate scholars question the value of +learning; priests contemn dogma; and women turn their backs upon man's +ideal of perfect womanhood, and seek satisfaction in apocalyptic +visions of some, as yet, unrealised epicene reality. + +If there be a type of stability in this world, one would be inclined to +look for it in the old Universities of England. But it has been my +business of late to hear a good deal about what is going on in these +famous corporations; and I have been filled with astonishment by the +evidences of internal fermentation which they exhibit. If Gibbon could +revisit the ancient seat of learning of which he has written so +cavalierly, assuredly he would no longer speak of "the monks of Oxford +sunk in prejudice and port." There, as elsewhere, port has gone out of +fashion, and so has prejudice--at least that particular fine, old, +crusted sort of prejudice to which the great historian alludes. + +Indeed, things are moving so fast in Oxford and Cambridge, that, for my +part, I rejoiced when the Royal Commission, of which I am a member, had +finished and presented the Report which related to these Universities; +for we should have looked like mere plagiarists, if, in consequence of +a little longer delay in issuing it, all the measures of reform we +proposed had been anticipated by the spontaneous action of the +Universities themselves. + +A month ago I should have gone on to say that one might speedily expect +changes of another kind in Oxford and Cambridge. A Commission has been +inquiring into the revenues of the many wealthy societies, in more or +less direct connection with the Universities, resident in those towns. +It is said that the Commission has reported, and that, for the first +time in recorded history, the nation, and perhaps the Colleges +themselves, will know what they are worth. And it was announced that a +statesman, who, whatever his other merits or defects, has aims above +the level of mere party fighting, and a clear vision into the most +complex practical problems, meant to deal with these revenues. + +But, _Bos locutus est_. That mysterious independent variable of +political calculation, Public Opinion--which some whisper is, in the +present case, very much the same thing as publican's opinion--has +willed otherwise. The Heads may return to their wonted slumbers--at any +rate for a space. + +Is the spirit of change, which is working thus vigorously in the South, +likely to affect the Northern Universities, and if so, to what extent? +The violence of fermentation depends, not so much on the quantity of +the yeast, as on the composition of the wort, and its richness in +fermentable material; and, as a preliminary to the discussion of this +question, I venture to call to your minds the essential and fundamental +differences between the Scottish and the English type of University. + +Do not charge me with anything worse than official egotism, if I say +that these differences appear to be largely symbolised by my own +existence. There is no Rector in an English University. Now, the +organisation of the members of a University into Nations, with their +elective Rector, is the last relic of the primitive constitution of +Universities. The Rectorate was the most important of all offices in +that University of Paris, upon the model of which the University of +Aberdeen was fashioned; and which was certainly a great and flourishing +institution in the twelfth century. + +Enthusiasts for the antiquity of one of the two acknowledged parents of +all Universities, indeed, do not hesitate to trace the origin of the +"Studium Parisiense" up to that wonderful king of the Franks and +Lombards, Karl, surnamed the Great, whom we all called Charlemagne, and +believed to be a Frenchman, until a learned historian, by beneficent +iteration, taught us better. Karl is said not to have been much of a +scholar himself, but he had the wisdom of which knowledge is only the +servitor. And that wisdom enabled him to see that ignorance is one of +the roots of all evil. + +In the Capitulary which enjoins the foundation of monasterial and +cathedral schools, he says: "Right action is better than knowledge; but +in order to do what is right, we must know what is right." [1] An +irrefragable truth, I fancy. Acting upon it, the king took pretty full +compulsory powers, and carried into effect a really considerable and +effectual scheme of elementary education through the length and breadth +of his dominions. + +No doubt the idolaters out by the Elbe, in what is now part of Prussia, +objected to the Frankish king's measures; no doubt the priests, who had +never hesitated about sacrificing all unbelievers in their fantastic +deities and futile conjurations, were the loudest in chanting the +virtues of toleration; no doubt they denounced as a cruel persecutor +the man who would not allow them, however sincere they might be, to go +on spreading delusions which debased the intellect, as much as they +deadened the moral sense, and undermined the bonds of civil allegiance; +no doubt, if they had lived in these times, they would have been able +to show, with ease, that the king's proceedings were totally contrary +to the best liberal principles. But it may be said, in justification of +the Teutonic ruler, first, that he was born before those principles, +and did not suspect that the best way of getting disorder into order +was to let it alone; and, secondly, that his rough and questionable +proceedings did, more or less, bring about the end he had in view. For, +in a couple of centuries, the schools he sowed broadcast produced their +crop of men, thirsting for knowledge and craving for culture. Such men +gravitating towards Paris, as a light amidst the darkness of evil days, +from Germany, from Spain, from Britain, and from Scandinavia, came +together by natural affinity. By degrees they banded themselves into a +society, which, as its end was the knowledge of all things knowable, +called itself a "_Studium Generale_;" and when it had grown into a +recognised corporation, acquired the name of "_Universitas Studii +Generalis_," which, mark you, means not a "Useful Knowledge +Society," but a "Knowledge-of-things-in-general Society." + +And thus the first "University," at any rate on this side of the Alps, +came into being. Originally it had but one Faculty, that of Arts. Its +aim was to be a centre of knowledge and culture; not to be, in any +sense, a technical school. + +The scholars seem to have studied Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric; +Arithmetic and Geometry; Astronomy; Theology; and Music. Thus, their +work, however imperfect and faulty, judged by modern lights, it may +have been, brought them face to face with all the leading aspects of +the many-sided mind of man. For these studies did really contain, at +any rate in embryo--sometimes, it may be, in caricature--what we now +call Philosophy, Mathematical and Physical Science, and Art. And I +doubt if the curriculum of any modern University shows so clear and +generous a comprehension of what is meant by culture, as this old +Trivium and Quadrivium does. + +The students who had passed through the University course, and had +proved themselves competent to teach, became masters and teachers of +their younger brethren. Whence the distinction of Masters and Regents +on the one hand, and Scholars on the other. + +Rapid growth necessitated organisation. The Masters and Scholars of +various tongues and countries grouped themselves into four Nations; and +the Nations, by their own votes at first, and subsequently by those of +their Procurators, or representatives, elected their supreme head and +governor, the Rector--at that time the sole representative of the +University, and a very real power, who could defy Provosts interfering +from without; or could inflict even corporal punishment on disobedient +members within the University. + +Such was the primitive constitution of the University of Paris. It is +in reference to this original state of things that I have spoken of the +Rectorate, and all that appertains to it, as the sole relic of that +constitution. + +But this original organisation did not last long. Society was not then, +any more than it is now, patient of culture, as such. It says to +everything, "Be useful to me, or away with you." And to the learned, +the unlearned man said then, as he does now, "What is the use of all +your learning, unless you can tell me what I want to know? I am here +blindly groping about, and constantly damaging myself by collision with +three mighty powers, the power of the invisible God, the power of my +fellow Man, and the power of brute Nature. Let your learning be turned +to the study of these powers, that I may know how I am to comport +myself with regard to them." In answer to this demand, some of the +Masters of the Faculty of Arts devoted themselves to the study of +Theology, some to that of Law, and some to that of Medicine; and they +became Doctors--men learned in those technical, or, as we now call +them, professional, branches of knowledge. Like cleaving to like, the +Doctors formed schools, or Faculties, of Theology, Law, and Medicine, +which sometimes assumed airs of superiority over their parent, the +Faculty of Arts, though the latter always asserted and maintained its +fundamental supremacy. + +The Faculties arose by process of natural differentiation out of the +primitive University. Other constituents, foreign to its nature, were +speedily grafted upon it. One of these extraneous elements was forced +into it by the Roman Church, which in those days asserted with effect, +that which it now asserts, happily without any effect in these realms, +its right of censorship and control over all teaching. The local +habitation of the University lay partly in the lands attached to the +monastery of S. Geneviève, partly in the diocese of the Bishop of +Paris; and he who would teach must have the licence of the Abbot, or of +the Bishop, as the nearest representative of the Pope, so to do, which +licence was granted by the Chancellors of these Ecclesiastics. + +Thus, if I am what archaeologists call a "survival" of the primitive +head and ruler of the University, your Chancellor stands in the same +relation to the Papacy; and, with all respect for his Grace, I think I +may say that we both look terribly shrunken when compared with our +great originals. + +Not so is it with a second foreign element, which silently dropped into +the soil of Universities, like the grain of mustard-seed in the +parable; and, like that grain, grew into a tree, in whose branches a +whole aviary of fowls took shelter. That element is the element of +Endowment. It differed from the preceding, in its original design to +serve as a prop to the young plant, not to be a parasite upon it. The +charitable and the humane, blessed with wealth, were very early +penetrated by the misery of the poor student. And the wise saw that +intellectual ability is not so common or so unimportant a gift that it +should be allowed to run to waste upon mere handicrafts and chares. The +man who was a blessing to his contemporaries, but who so often has been +converted into a curse, by the blind adherence of his posterity to the +letter, rather than to the spirit, of his wishes--I mean the "pious +founder"--gave money and lands, that the student, who was rich in brain +and poor in all else, might be taken from the plough or from the +stithy, and enabled to devote himself to the higher service of mankind; +and built colleges and halls in which he might be not only housed and +fed, but taught. + +The Colleges were very generally placed in strict subordination to the +University by their founders; but, in many cases, their endowment, +consisting of land, has undergone an "unearned increment," which has +given these societies a continually increasing weight and importance as +against the unendowed, or fixedly endowed, University. In Pharaoh's +dream, the seven lean kine eat up the seven fat ones. In the reality of +historical fact, the fat Colleges have eaten up the lean Universities. + +Even here in Aberdeen, though the causes at work may have been somewhat +different, the effects have been similar; and you see how much more +substantial an entity is the Very Reverend the Principal, analogue, if +not homologue, of the Principals of King's College, than the Rector, +lineal representative of the ancient monarchs of the University, though +now, little more than a "king of shreds and patches." + +Do not suppose that, in thus briefly tracing the process of University +metamorphosis, I have had any intention of quarrelling with its +results. Practically, it seems to me that the broad changes effected in +1858 have given the Scottish Universities a very liberal constitution, +with as much real approximation to the primitive state of things as is +at all desirable. If your fat kine have eaten the lean, they have not +lain down to chew the cud ever since. The Scottish Universities, like +the English, have diverged widely enough from their primitive model; +but I cannot help thinking that the northern form has remained more +faithful to its original, not only in constitution, but, what is more +to the purpose, in view of the cry for change, in the practical +application of the endowments connected with it. + +In Aberdeen, these endowments are numerous, but so small that, taken +altogether, they are not equal to the revenue of a single third-rate +English college. They are scholarships, not fellowships; aids to do +work--not rewards for such work as it lies within the reach of an +ordinary, or even an extraordinary, young man to do. You do not think +that passing a respectable examination is a fair equivalent for an +income, such as many a grey-headed veteran, or clergyman would envy; +and which is larger than the endowment of many Regius chairs. You do +not care to make your University a school of manners for the rich; of +sports for the athletic; or a hot-bed of high-fed, hypercritical +refinement, more destructive to vigour and originality than are +starvation and oppression. No; your little Bursaries of ten and twenty +(I believe even fifty) pounds a year, enabled any boy who has shown +ability in the course of his education in those remarkable primary +schools, which have made Scotland the power she is, to obtain the +highest culture the country can give him; and when he is armed and +equipped, his Spartan Alma Mater tells him that, so far, he has had his +wages for his work, and that he may go and earn the rest. + +When I think of the host of pleasant, moneyed, well-bred young +gentlemen, who do a little learning and much boating by Cam and Isis, +the vision is a pleasant one; and, as a patriot, I rejoice that the +youth of the upper and richer classes of the nation receive a wholesome +and a manly training, however small may be the modicum of knowledge +they gather, in the intervals of this, their serious business. I admit, +to the full, the social and political value of that training. But, when +I proceed to consider that these young men may be said to represent the +great bulk of what the Colleges have to show for their enormous wealth, +plus, at least, a hundred and fifty pounds a year apiece which each +undergraduate costs his parents or guardians, I feel inclined to ask, +whether the rate-in-aid of the education of the wealthy and +professional classes, thus levied on the resources of the community, is +not, after all, a little heavy? And, still further, I am tempted to +inquire what has become of the indigent scholars, the sons of the +masses of the people whose daily labour just suffices to meet their +daily wants, for whose benefit these rich foundations were largely, if +not mainly, instituted? It seems as if Pharaoh's dream had been +rigorously carried out, and that even the fat scholar has eaten the +lean one. And when I turn from this picture to the no less real vision +of many a brave and frugal Scotch boy, spending his summer in hard +manual labour, that he may have the privilege of wending his way in +autumn to this University, with a bag of oatmeal, ten pounds in his +pocket, and his own stout heart to depend upon through the northern +winter; not bent on seeking + + "The bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth," + +but determined to wring knowledge from the hard hands of penury; when I +see him win through all such outward obstacles to positions of wide +usefulness and well-earned fame; I cannot but think that, in essence, +Aberdeen has departed but little from the primitive intention of the +founders of Universities, and that the spirit of reform has so much to +do on the other side of the Border, that it may be long before he has +leisure to look this way. + +As compared with other actual Universities, then, Aberdeen, may, +perhaps, be well satisfied with itself. But do not think me an +impracticable dreamer, if I ask you not to rest and be thankful in this +state of satisfaction; if I ask you to consider awhile, how this actual +good stands related to that ideal better, towards which both men and +institutions must progress, if they would not retrograde. + +In an ideal University, as I conceive it, a man should be able to +obtain instruction in all forms of knowledge, and discipline in the use +of all the methods by which knowledge is obtained. In such a +University, the force of living example should fire the student with a +noble ambition to emulate the learning of learned men, and to follow in +the footsteps of the explorers of new fields of knowledge. And the very +air he breathes should be charged with that enthusiasm for truth, that +fanaticism of veracity, which is a greater possession than much +learning; a nobler gift than the power of increasing knowledge; by so +much greater and nobler than these, as the moral nature of man is +greater than the intellectual; for veracity is the heart of morality. + +But the man who is all morality and intellect, although he may be good +and even great, is, after all, only half a man. There is beauty in the +moral world and in the intellectual world; but there is also a beauty +which is neither moral nor intellectual--the beauty of the world of +Art. There are men who are devoid of the power of seeing it, as there +are men who are born deaf and blind, and the loss of those, as of +these, is simply infinite. There are others in whom it is an +overpowering passion; happy men, born with the productive, or at +lowest, the appreciative, genius of the Artist. But, in the mass of +mankind, the Aesthetic faculty, like the reasoning power and the moral +sense, needs to be roused, directed, and cultivated; and I know not why +the development of that side of his nature, through which man has +access to a perennial spring of ennobling pleasure, should be omitted +from any comprehensive scheme of University education. + +All Universities recognise Literature in the sense of the old Rhetoric, +which is art incarnate in words. Some, to their credit, recognise Art +in its narrower sense, to a certain extent, and confer degrees for +proficiency in some of its branches. If there are Doctors of Music, why +should there be no Masters of painting, of Sculpture, of Architecture? +I should like to see Professors of the Fine Arts in every University; +and instruction in some branch of their work made a part of the Arts +curriculum. + +I just now expressed the opinion that, in our ideal University, a man +should be able to obtain instruction in all forms of knowledge. Now, by +"forms of knowledge" I mean the great classes of things knowable; of +which the first, in logical, though not in natural, order is knowledge +relating to the scope and limits of the mental faculties of man, a form +of knowledge which, in its positive aspect, answers pretty much to +Logic and part of Psychology, while, on its negative and critical side, +it corresponds with Metaphysics. + +A second class comprehends all that knowledge which relates to man's +welfare, so far as it is determined by his own acts, or what we call +his conduct. It answers to Moral and Religious philosophy. Practically, +it is the most directly valuable of all forms of knowledge, but +speculatively, it is limited and criticised by that which precedes and +by that which follows it in my order of enumeration. + +A third class embraces knowledge of the phaenomena of the Universe, as +that which lies about the individual man; and of the rules which those +phaenomena are observed to follow in the order of their occurrence, +which we term the laws of Nature. + +This is what ought to be called Natural Science, or Physiology, though +those terms are hopelessly diverted from such a meaning; and it +includes all exact knowledge of natural fact, whether Mathematical, +Physical, Biological, or Social. + +Kant has said that the ultimate object of all knowledge is to give +replies to these three questions: What can I do? What ought I to do? +What may I hope for? The forms of knowledge which I have enumerated, +should furnish such replies as are within human reach, to the first and +second of these questions. While to the third, perhaps the wisest +answer is, "Do what you can to do what you ought, and leave hoping and +fearing alone." + +If this be a just and an exhaustive classification of the forms of +knowledge, no question as to their relative importance, or as to the +superiority of one to the other, can be seriously raised. + +On the face of the matter, it is absurd to ask whether it is more +important to know the limits of one's powers; or the ends for which +they ought to be exerted; or the conditions under which they must be +exerted. One may as well inquire which of the terms of a Rule of Three +sum one ought to know, in order to get a trustworthy result. Practical +life is such a sum, in which your duty multiplied into your capacity, +and divided by your circumstances, gives you the fourth term in the +proportion, which is your deserts, with great accuracy. All agree, I +take it, that men ought to have these three kinds of knowledge. The +so-called "conflict of studies" turns upon the question of how they may +best be obtained. + +The founders of Universities held the theory that the Scriptures and +Aristotle taken together, the latter being limited by the former, +contained all knowledge worth having, and that the business of +philosophy was to interpret and co-ordinate these two. I imagine that +in the twelfth century this was a very fair conclusion from known +facts. Nowhere in the world, in those days, was there such an +encyclopaedia of knowledge of all three classes, as is to be found in +those writings. The scholastic philosophy is a wonderful monument of +the patience and ingenuity with which the human mind toiled to build up +a logically consistent theory of the Universe, out of such materials. +And that philosophy is by no means dead and buried, as many vainly +suppose. On the contrary, numbers of men of no mean learning and +accomplishment, and sometimes of rare power and subtlety of thought, +hold by it as the best theory of things which has yet been stated. And, +what is still more remarkable, men who speak the language of modern +philosophy, nevertheless think the thoughts of the schoolmen. "The +voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau." +Every day I hear "Cause," "Law," "Force," "Vitality," spoken of as +entities, by people who can enjoy Swift's joke about the meat-roasting +quality of the smoke-jack, and comfort themselves with the reflection +that they are not even as those benighted schoolmen. + +Well, this great system had its day, and then it was sapped and mined +by two influences. The first was the study of classical literature, +which familiarised men with methods of philosophising; with conceptions +of the highest Good; with ideas of the order of Nature; with notions of +Literary and Historical Criticism; and, above all, with visions of Art, +of a kind which not only would not fit into the scholastic scheme, but +showed them a pre-Christian, and indeed altogether un-Christian world, +of such grandeur and beauty that they ceased to think of any other. +They were as men who had kissed the Fairy Queen, and wandering with her +in the dim loveliness of the under-world, cared not to return to the +familiar ways of home and fatherland, though they lay, at arm's length, +overhead. Cardinals were more familiar with Virgil than with Isaiah; +and Popes laboured, with great success, to re-paganise Rome. + +The second influence was the slow, but sure, growth of the physical +sciences. It was discovered that some results of speculative thought, +of immense practical and theoretical importance, can be verified by +observation; and are always true, however severely they may be tested. +Here, at any rate, was knowledge, to the certainty of which no +authority could add, or take away, one jot or tittle, and to which the +tradition of a thousand years was as insignificant as the hearsay of +yesterday. To the scholastic system, the study of classical literature +might be inconvenient and distracting, but it was possible to hope that +it could be kept within bounds. Physical science, on the other hand, +was an irreconcilable enemy, to be excluded at all hazards. The College +of Cardinals has not distinguished itself in Physics or Physiology; and +no Pope has, as yet, set up public laboratories in the Vatican. + +People do not always formulate the beliefs on which they act. The +instinct of fear and dislike is quicker than the reasoning process; and +I suspect that, taken in conjunction with some other causes, such +instinctive aversion is at the bottom of the long exclusion of any +serious discipline in the physical sciences from the general curriculum +of Universities; while, on the other hand, classical literature has +been gradually made the backbone of the Arts course. + +I am ashamed to repeat here what I have said elsewhere, in season and +out of season, respecting the value of Science as knowledge and +discipline. But the other day I met with some passages in the Address +to another Scottish University, of a great thinker, recently lost to +us, which express so fully and yet so tersely, the truth in this matter +that I am fain to quote them:-- + +"To question all things;--never to turn away from any difficulty; to +accept no doctrine either from ourselves or from other people without a +rigid scrutiny by negative criticism; letting no fallacy, or +incoherence, or confusion of thought, step by unperceived; above all, +to insist upon having the meaning of a word clearly understood before +using it, and the meaning of a proposition before assenting to +it;--these are the lessons we learn" from workers in Science. "With all +this vigorous management of the negative element, they inspire no +scepticism about the reality of truth or indifference to its pursuit. +The noblest enthusiasm, both for the search after truth and for +applying it to its highest uses, pervades those writers." "In +cultivating, therefore," science as an essential ingredient in +education, "we are all the while laying an admirable foundation for +ethical and philosophical culture." [2] + +The passages I have quoted were uttered by John Stuart Mill; but you +cannot hear inverted commas, and it is therefore right that I should +add, without delay, that I have taken the liberty of substituting +"workers in science" for "ancient dialecticians," and "Science as an +essential ingredient in education" for "the ancient languages as our +best literary education." Mill did, in fact, deliver a noble panegyric +upon classical studies. I do not doubt its justice, nor presume to +question its wisdom. But I venture to maintain that no wise or just +judge, who has a knowledge of the facts, will hesitate to say that it +applies with equal force to scientific training. + +But it is only fair to the Scottish Universities to point out that they +have long understood the value of Science as a branch of general +education. I observe, with the greatest satisfaction, that candidates +for the degree of Master of Arts in this University are required to +have a knowledge, not only of Mental and Moral Philosophy, and of +Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, but of Natural History, in addition +to the ordinary Latin and Greek course; and that a candidate may take +honours in these subjects and in Chemistry. + +I do not know what the requirements of your examiners may be, but I +sincerely trust they are not satisfied with a mere book knowledge of +these matters. For my own part I would not raise a finger, if I could +thereby introduce mere book work in science into every Arts curriculum +in the country. Let those who want to study books devote themselves to +Literature, in which we have the perfection of books, both as to +substance and as to form. If I may paraphrase Hobbes's well-known +aphorism, I would say that "books are the money of Literature, but only +the counters of Science," Science (in the sense in which I now use the +term) being the knowledge of fact, of which every verbal description is +but an incomplete and symbolic expression. And be assured that no +teaching of science is worth anything, as a mental discipline, which is +not based upon direct perception of the facts, and practical exercise +of the observing and logical faculties upon them. Even in such a simple +matter as the mere comprehension of form, ask the most practised and +widely informed anatomist what is the difference between his knowledge +of a structure which he has read about, and his knowledge of the same +structure when he has seen it for himself; and he will tell you that +the two things are not comparable--the difference is infinite. Thus I +am very strongly inclined to agree with some learned schoolmasters who +say that, in their experience, the teaching of science is all waste +time. As they teach it, I have no doubt it is. But to teach it +otherwise requires an amount of personal labour and a development of +means and appliances, which must strike horror and dismay into a man +accustomed to mere book work; and who has been in the habit of teaching +a class of fifty without much strain upon his energies. And this is one +of the real difficulties in the way of the introduction of physical +science into the ordinary University course, to which I have alluded. +It is a difficulty which will not be overcome, until years of patient +study have organised scientific teaching as well as, or I hope better +than, classical teaching has been organised hitherto. + +A little while ago, I ventured to hint a doubt as to the perfection of +some of the arrangements in the ancient Universities of England; but, +in their provision for giving instruction in Science as such, and +without direct reference to any of its practical applications, they +have set a brilliant example. Within the last twenty years, Oxford +alone has sunk more than a hundred and twenty thousand pounds in +building and furnishing Physical, Chemical, and Physiological +Laboratories, and a magnificent Museum, arranged with an almost +luxurious regard for the needs of the student. Cambridge, less rich, +but aided by the munificence of her Chancellor, is taking the same +course; and in a few years, it will be for no lack of the means and +appliances of sound teaching, if the mass of English University men +remain in their present state of barbarous ignorance of even the +rudiments of scientific culture. + +Yet another step needs to be made before Science can be said to have +taken its proper place in the Universities. That is its recognition as +a Faculty, or branch of study demanding recognition and special +organisation, on account of its bearing on the wants of mankind. The +Faculties of Theology, Law, and Medicine, are technical schools, +intended to equip men who have received general culture, with the +special knowledge which is needed for the proper performance of the +duties of clergymen, lawyers, and medical practitioners. + +When the material well-being of the country depended upon rude pasture +and agriculture, and still ruder mining; in the days when all the +innumerable applications of the principles of physical science to +practical purposes were non-existent even as dreams; days which men +living may have heard their fathers speak of; what little physical +science could be seen to bear directly upon human life, lay within the +province of Medicine. Medicine was the foster-mother of Chemistry, +because it has to do with the preparation of drugs and the detection of +poisons; of Botany, because it enabled the physician to recognise +medicinal herbs; of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, because the man +who studied Human Anatomy and Physiology for purely medical purposes +was led to extend his studies to the rest of the animal world. + +Within my recollection, the only way in which a student could obtain +anything like a training in Physical Science, was by attending the +lectures of the Professors of Physical and Natural Science attached to +the Medical Schools. But, in the course of the last thirty years, both +foster-mother and child have grown so big, that they threaten not only +to crush one another, but to press the very life out of the unhappy +student who enters the nursery; to the great detriment of all three. + +I speak in the presence of those who know practically what medical +education is; for I may assume that a large proportion of my hearers +are more or less advanced students of medicine. I appeal to the most +industrious and conscientious among you, to those who are most deeply +penetrated with a sense of the extremely serious responsibilities which +attach to the calling of a medical practitioner, when I ask whether, +out of the four years which you devote to your studies, you ought to +spare even so much as an hour for any work which does not tend directly +to fit you for your duties? + +Consider what that work is. Its foundation is a sound and practical +acquaintance with the structure of the human organism, and with the +modes and conditions of its action in health. I say a sound and +practical acquaintance, to guard against the supposition that my +intention is to suggest that you ought all to be minute anatomists and +accomplished physiologists. The devotion of your whole four years to +Anatomy and Physiology alone, would be totally insufficient to attain +that end. What I mean is, the sort of practical, familiar, finger-end +knowledge which a watchmaker has of a watch, and which you expect that +craftsman, as an honest man, to have, when you entrust a watch that +goes badly, to him. It is a kind of knowledge which is to be acquired, +not in the lecture-room, nor in the library, but in the dissecting-room +and the laboratory. It is to be had not by sharing your attention +between these and sundry other subjects, but by concentrating your +minds, week after week, and month after month, six or seven hours a +day, upon all the complexities of organ and function, until each of the +greater truths of anatomy and physiology has become an organic part of +your minds--until you would know them if you were roused and questioned +in the middle of the night, as a man knows the geography of his native +place and the daily life of his home. That is the sort of knowledge +which, once obtained, is a life-long possession. Other occupations may +fill your minds--it may grow dim, and seem to be forgotten--but there +it is, like the inscription on a battered and defaced coin, which comes +out when you warm it. + +If I had the power to remodel Medical Education, the first two years of +the medical curriculum should be devoted to nothing but such thorough +study of Anatomy and Physiology, with Physiological Chemistry and +Physics; the student should then pass a real, practical examination in +these subjects; and, having gone through that ordeal satisfactorily, he +should be troubled no more with them. His whole mind should then be +given with equal intentness to Therapeutics, in its broadest sense, to +Practical Medicine and to Surgery, with instruction in Hygiene and in +Medical Jurisprudence; and of these subjects only--surely there are +enough of them--should he be required to show a knowledge in his final +examination. + +I cannot claim any special property in this theory of what the medical +curriculum should be, for I find that views, more or less closely +approximating these, are held by all who have seriously considered the +very grave and pressing question of Medical Reform; and have, indeed, +been carried into practice, to some extent, by the most enlightened +Examining Boards. I have heard but two kinds of objections to them. +There is first, the objection of vested interests, which I will not +deal with here, because I want to make myself as pleasant as I can, and +no discussions are so unpleasant as those which turn on such points. +And there is, secondly, the much more respectable objection, which +takes the general form of the reproach that, in thus limiting the +curriculum, we are seeking to narrow it. We are told that the medical +man ought to be a person of good education and general information, if +his profession is to hold its own among other professions; that he +ought to know Botany, or else, if he goes abroad, he will not be able +to tell poisonous fruits from edible ones; that he ought to know drugs, +as a druggist knows them, or he will not be able to tell sham bark +and senna from the real articles; that he ought to know Zoology, +because--well, I really have never been able to learn exactly why he is +to be expected to know zoology. There is, indeed, a popular +superstition, that doctors know all about things that are queer or +nasty to the general mind, and may, therefore, be reasonably expected +to know the "barbarous binomials" applicable to snakes, snails, and +slugs; an amount of information with which the general mind is usually +completely satisfied. And there is a scientific superstition that +Physiology is largely aided by Comparative Anatomy--a superstition +which, like most superstitions, once had a grain of truth at bottom; +but the grain has become homoeopathic, since Physiology took its modern +experimental development, and became what it is now, the application of +the principles of Physics and Chemistry to the elucidation of the +phaenomena of life. + +I hold as strongly as any one can do, that the medical practitioner +ought to be a person of education and good general culture; but I also +hold by the old theory of a Faculty, that a man should have his general +culture before he devotes himself to the special studies of that +Faculty; and I venture to maintain, that, if the general culture +obtained in the Faculty of Arts were what it ought to be, the student +would have quite as much knowledge of the fundamental principles of +Physics, of Chemistry, and of Biology, as he needs, before he commenced +his special medical studies. + +Moreover, I would urge, that a thorough study of Human Physiology is, +in itself, an education broader and more comprehensive than much that +passes under that name. There is no side of the intellect which it does +not call into play, no region of human knowledge into which either its +roots, or its branches, do not extend; like the Atlantic between the +Old and the New Worlds, its waves wash the shores of the two worlds of +matter and of mind; its tributary streams flow from both; through its +waters, as yet unfurrowed by the keel of any Columbus, lies the road, +if such there be, from the one to the other; far away from that +North-west Passage of mere speculation, in which so many brave souls +have been hopelessly frozen up. + +But whether I am right or wrong about all this, the patent fact of the +limitation of time remains. As the song runs:-- + + "If a man could be sure + That his life would endure + For the space of a thousand long years------" + +he might do a number of things not practicable under present +conditions. Methuselah might, with much propriety, have taken half a +century to get his doctor's degree; and might, very fairly, have been +required to pass a practical examination upon the contents of the +British Museum, before commencing practice as a promising young fellow +of two hundred, or thereabouts. But you have four years to do your work +in, and are turned loose, to save or slay, at two or three and twenty. + +Now, I put it to you, whether you think that, when you come down to the +realities of life--when you stand by the sick-bed, racking you brains +for the principles which shall furnish you with the means of +interpreting symptoms, and forming a rational theory of the condition +of your patient, it will be satisfactory for you to find that those +principles are not there--although, to use the examination slang which +is unfortunately too familiar to me, you can quite easily "give an +account of the leading peculiarities of the _Marsupialia_," or +"enumerate the chief characters of the _Compositae_," or "state +the class and order of the animal from which Castoreum is obtained." + +I really do not think that state of things will be satisfactory to +you; I am very sure it will not be so to your patient. Indeed, I +am so narrow-minded myself, that if I had to choose between two +physicians--one who did not know whether a whale is a fish or not, and +could not tell gentian from ginger, but did understand the applications +of the institutes of medicine to his art; while the other, like +Talleyrand's doctor, "knew everything, even a little physic"--with all +my love for breadth of culture, I should assuredly consult the former. + +It is not pleasant to incur the suspicion of an inclination to injure +or depreciate particular branches of knowledge. But the fact that one +of those which I should have no hesitation in excluding from the +medical curriculum, is that to which my own life has been specially +devoted, should, at any rate, defend me from the suspicion of being +urged to this course by any but the very gravest considerations of the +public welfare. + +And I should like, further, to call your attention to the important +circumstance that, in thus proposing the exclusion of the study of such +branches of knowledge as Zoology and Botany, from those compulsory upon +the medical student, I am not, for a moment, suggesting their exclusion +from the University. I think that sound and practical instruction in +the elementary facts and broad principles of Biology should form part +of the Arts Curriculum: and here, happily, my theory is in entire +accordance with your practice. Moreover, as I have already said, I have +no sort of doubt that, in view of the relation of Physical Science to +the practical life of the present day, it has the same right as +Theology, Law, and Medicine, to a Faculty of its own in which men shall +be trained to be professional men of science. It may be doubted whether +Universities are the places for technical schools of Engineering or +applied Chemistry, or Agriculture. But there can surely be little +question, that instruction in the branches of Science which lie at the +foundation of these Arts, of a far more advanced and special character +than could, with any propriety, be included in the ordinary Arts +Curriculum, ought to be obtainable by means of a duly organised Faculty +of Science in every University. + +The establishment of such a Faculty would have the additional advantage +of providing, in some measure, for one of the greatest wants of our +time and country. I mean the proper support and encouragement of +original research. + +The other day, an emphatic friend of mine committed himself to the +opinion that, in England, it is better for a man's worldly prospects to +be a drunkard, than to be smitten with the divine dipsomania of the +original investigator. I am inclined to think he was not far wrong. +And, be it observed, that the question is not, whether such a man shall +be able to make as much out of his abilities as his brother, of like +ability, who goes into Law, or Engineering, or Commerce; it is not a +question of "maintaining a due number of saddle horses," as George +Eliot somewhere puts it--it is a question of living or starving. + +If a student of my own subject shows power and originality, I dare not +advise him to adopt a scientific career; for, supposing he is able to +maintain himself until he has attained distinction, I cannot give him +the assurance that any amount of proficiency in the Biological Sciences +will be convertible into, even the most modest, bread and cheese. And I +believe that the case is as bad, or perhaps worse, with other branches +of Science. In this respect Britain, whose immense wealth and +prosperity hang upon the thread of Applied Science, is far behind +France, and infinitely behind Germany. + +And the worst of it is, that it is very difficult to see one's way to +any immediate remedy for this state of affairs which shall be free from +a tendency to become worse than the disease. + +Great schemes for the Endowment of Research have been proposed. It has +been suggested, that Laboratories for all branches of Physical Science, +provided with every apparatus needed by the investigator, shall be +established by the State: and shall be accessible, under due conditions +and regulations, to all properly qualified persons. I see no objection +to the principle of such a proposal. If it be legitimate to spend great +sums of money on public Libraries and public collections of Painting +and Sculpture, in aid of the Man of Letters, or the Artist, or for the +mere sake of affording pleasure to the general public. I apprehend that +it cannot be illegitimate to do as much for the promotion of scientific +investigation. To take the lowest ground, as a mere investment of +money, the latter is likely to be much more immediately profitable. To +my mind, the difficulty in the way of such schemes is not theoretical, +but practical. Given the laboratories, how are the investigators to be +maintained? What career is open to those who have been thus encouraged +to leave bread-winning pursuits? If they are to be provided for by +endowment, we come back to the College Fellowship system, the results +of which, for Literature, have not been so brilliant that one would +wish to see it extended to Science; unless some much better securities +than at present exist can be taken that it will foster real work. You +know that among the Bees, it depends on the kind of cell in which the +egg is deposited, and the quantity and quality of food which is +supplied to the grub, whether it shall turn out a busy little worker or +a big idle queen. And, in the human hive, the cells of the endowed +larvae are always tending to enlarge, and their food to improve, until +we get queens, beautiful to behold, but which gather no honey and build +no comb. + +I do not say that these difficulties may not be overcome, but their +gravity is not to be lightly estimated. + +In the meanwhile, there is one step in the direction of the endowment +of research which is free from such objections. It is possible to place +the scientific enquirer in a position in which he shall have ample +leisure and opportunity for original work, and yet shall give a fair +and tangible equivalent for those privileges. The establishment of a +Faculty of Science in every University, implies that of a corresponding +number of Professorial chairs, the incumbents of which need not be so +burdened with teaching as to deprive them of ample leisure for original +work. I do not think that it is any impediment to an original +investigator to have to devote a moderate portion of his time to +lecturing, or superintending practical instruction. On the contrary, I +think it may be, and often is, a benefit to be obliged to take a +comprehensive survey of your subject; or to bring your results to a +point, and give them, as it were, a tangible objective existence. The +besetting sins of the investigator are two: the one is the desire to +put aside a subject, the general bearings of which he has mastered +himself, and pass on to something which has the attraction of novelty; +and the other, the desire for too much perfection, which leads him to + + "Add and alter many times, + Till all be ripe and rotten;" + +to spend the energies which should be reserved for action in whitening +the decks and polishing the guns. + +The obligation to produce results for the instruction of others, seems +to me to be a more effectual check on these tendencies than even the +love of usefulness or the ambition for fame. + +But supposing the Professorial forces of our University to be duly +organised, there remains an important question, relating to the +teaching power, to be considered. Is the Professorial system--the +system, I mean, of teaching in the lecture-room alone, and +leaving the student to find his own way when he is outside the +lecture-room--adequate to the wants of learners? In answering this +question, I confine myself to my own province, and I venture to reply +for Physical Science, assuredly and undoubtedly, No. As I have +already intimated, practical work in the Laboratory is absolutely +indispensable, and that practical work must be guided and superintended +by a sufficient staff of Demonstrators, who are for Science what Tutors +are for other branches of study. And there must be a good supply of +such Demonstrators. I doubt if the practical work of more than twenty +students can be properly superintended by one Demonstrator. If we +take the working day at six hours, that is less than twenty minutes +apiece--not a very large allowance of time for helping a dull man, for +correcting an inaccurate one, or even for making an intelligent student +clearly apprehend what he is about. And, no doubt, the supplying of a +proper amount of this tutorial, practical teaching, is a difficulty in +the way of giving proper instruction in Physical Science in such +Universities as that of Aberdeen, which are devoid of endowments; and, +unlike the English Universities, have no moral claim on the funds of +richly endowed bodies to supply their wants. + +Examination--thorough, searching examination--is an indispensable +accompaniment of teaching; but I am almost inclined to commit myself to +the very heterodox proposition that it is a necessary evil. I am a very +old Examiner, having, for some twenty years past, been occupied with +examinations on a considerable scale, of all sorts and conditions of +men, and women too,--from the boys and girls of elementary schools to +the candidates for Honours and Fellowships in the Universities. I will +not say that, in this case as in so many others, the adage, that +familiarity breeds contempt, holds good; but my admiration for the +existing system of examination and its products, does not wax warmer as +I see more of it. Examination, like fire, is a good servant, but a bad +master; and there seems to me to be some danger of its becoming our +master. I by no means stand alone in this opinion. Experienced friends +of mine do not hesitate to say that students whose career they watch, +appear to them to become deteriorated by the constant effort to pass +this or that examination, just as we hear of men's brains becoming +affected by the daily necessity of catching a train. They work to pass, +not to know; and outraged Science takes her revenge. They do pass, and +they don't know. I have passed sundry examinations in my time, not +without credit, and I confess I am ashamed to think how very little +real knowledge underlay the torrent of stuff which I was able to pour +out on paper. In fact, that which examination, as ordinarily conducted, +tests, is simply a man's power of work under stimulus, and his capacity +for rapidly and clearly producing that which, for the time, he has got +into his mind. Now, these faculties are by no means to be despised. +They are of great value in practical life, and are the making of many +an advocate, and of many a so-called statesman. But in the pursuit of +truth, scientific or other, they count for very little, unless they are +supplemented by that long-continued, patient "intending of the mind," +as Newton phrased it, which makes very little show in Examinations. I +imagine that an Examiner who knows his students personally, must not +unfrequently have found himself in the position of finding A's paper +better than B's, though his own judgment tells him, quite clearly, that +B is the man who has the larger share of genuine capacity. + +Again, there is a fallacy about Examiners. It is commonly supposed that +any one who knows a subject is competent to teach it; and no one seems +to doubt that any one who knows a subject is competent to examine in +it. I believe both these opinions to be serious mistakes: the latter, +perhaps, the more serious of the two. In the first place, I do not +believe that any one who is not, or has not been, a teacher is really +qualified to examine advanced students. And in the second place, +Examination is an Art, and a difficult one, which has to be learned +like all other arts. + +Beginners always set too difficult questions--partly because they are +afraid of being suspected of ignorance if they set easy ones, and +partly from not understanding their business. Suppose that you want to +test the relative physical strength of a score of young men. You do not +put a hundredweight down before them, and tell each to swing it round. +If you do, half of them won't be able to lift it at all, and only one +or two will be able to perform the task. You must give them half a +hundredweight, and see how they manoeuvre that, if you want to form any +estimate of the muscular strength of each. So, a practised Examiner +will seek for information respecting the mental vigour and training of +candidates from the way in which they deal with questions easy enough +to let reason, memory, and method have free play. + +No doubt, a great deal is to be done by the careful selection of +Examiners, and by the copious introduction of practical work, to remove +the evils inseparable from examination; but, under the best of +circumstances, I believe that examination will remain but an imperfect +test of knowledge, and a still more imperfect test of capacity, while +it tells next to nothing about a man's power as an investigator. + +There is much to be said in favour of restricting the highest degrees +in each Faculty, to those who have shown evidence of such original +power, by prosecuting a research under the eye of the Professor in +whose province it lies; or, at any rate, under conditions which shall +afford satisfactory proof that the work is theirs. The notion may sound +revolutionary, but it is really very old; for, I take it, that it lies +at the bottom of that presentation of a thesis by the candidate for a +doctorate, which has now, too often, become little better than a matter +of form. + + * * * * * + +Thus far, I have endeavoured to lay before you, in a too brief and +imperfect manner, my views respecting the teaching half--the Magistri +and Regentes--of the University of the Future. Now let me turn to the +learning half--the Scholares. + +If the Universities are to be the sanctuaries of the highest culture of +the country, those who would enter that sanctuary must not come with +unwashed hands. If the good seed is to yield its hundredfold harvest, +it must not be scattered amidst the stones of ignorance, or the tares +of undisciplined indolence and wantonness. On the contrary, the soil +must have been carefully prepared, and the Professor should find that +the operations of clod-crushing, draining, and weeding, and even a good +deal of planting, have been done by the Schoolmaster. + +That is exactly what the Professor does not find in any University in +the three Kingdoms that I can hear of--the reason of which state of +things lies in the extremely faulty organisation of the majority of +secondary schools. Students come to the Universities ill-prepared in +classics and mathematics, not at all prepared in anything else; and +half their time is spent in learning that which they ought to have +known when they came. + +I sometimes hear it said that the Scottish Universities differ from the +English, in being to a much greater extent places of comparatively +elementary education for a younger class of students. But it would seem +doubtful if any great difference of this kind really exists; for a high +authority, himself Head of an English College, has solemnly affirmed +that: "Elementary teaching of youths under twenty is now the only +function performed by the University;" and that Colleges are "boarding +schools in which the elements of the learned languages are taught to +youths." [3] + +This is not the first time that I have quoted those remarkable +assertions. I should like to engrave them in public view, for they have +not been refuted; and I am convinced that if their import is once +clearly apprehended, they will play no mean part when the question of +University reorganisation, with a view to practical measures, comes on +for discussion. You are not responsible for this anomalous state of +affairs now; but, as you pass into active life and acquire the +political influence to which your education and your position should +entitle you, you will become responsible for it, unless each in his +sphere does his best to alter it, by insisting on the improvement of +secondary schools. + +Your present responsibility is of another, though not less serious, +kind. Institutions do not make men, any more than organisation makes +life; and even the ideal University we have been dreaming about will be +but a superior piece of mechanism, unless each student strive after the +ideal of the Scholar. And that ideal, it seems to me, has never been +better embodied than by the great Poet, who, though lapped in luxury, +the favourite of a Court, and the idol of his countrymen, remained +through all the length of his honoured years a Scholar in Art, in +Science, and in Life. + + + "Wouldst shape a noble life! Then cast + No backward glances towards the past: + And though somewhat be lost and gone, + Yet do thou act as one new-born. + What each day needs, that shalt thou ask; + Each day will set its proper task. + Give others' work just share of praise; + Not of thine own the merits raise. + Beware no fellow man thou hate: + And so in God's hands leave thy fate." [4] + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] "Quamvis enim melius sit bene facere quam nosse, prius tamen est +nosse quam facere."--"Karoli Magni Regis Constitutio de Scholis per +singula Episcopia et Monasteria instituendis," addressed to the Abbot +of Fulda. Baluzius, _Capitularia Regum Francorum_, T. i., p. 202. + +[2] Inaugural Address delivered to the University of St. Andrew, +February 1, 1867, by J. S. Mill, Rector of the University (pp. 32, 33). + +[3] _Suggestions for Academical Organisation, with Especial Reference +to Oxford_. By the Rector of Lincoln. + +[4] Goethe, _Zahme Xenien, Vierte Abtheilung_. I should be glad to +take credit for the close and vigorous English version; but it is my +wife's, and not mine. + + + + +IX + +ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION [1] + +[1876] + + +The actual work of the University founded in this city by the +well-considered munificence of Johns Hopkins commences to-morrow, and +among the many marks of confidence and good-will which have been +bestowed upon me in the United States, there is none which I value more +highly than that conferred by the authorities of the University when +they invited me to deliver an address on such an occasion. + +For the event which has brought us together is, in many respects, +unique. A vast property is handed over to an administrative body, +hampered by no conditions save these:--That the principal shall not be +employed in building: that the funds shall be appropriated, in equal +proportions, to the promotion of natural knowledge and to the +alleviation of the bodily sufferings of mankind; and, finally, that +neither political nor ecclesiastical sectarianism shall be permitted to +disturb the impartial distribution of the testator's benefactions. + +In my experience of life a truth which sounds very much like a paradox +has often asserted itself: namely, that a man's worst difficulties +begin when he is able to do as he likes. So long as a man is struggling +with obstacles he has an excuse for failure or shortcoming; but when +fortune removes them all and gives him the power of doing as he thinks +best, then comes the time of trial. There is but one right, and the +possibilities of wrong are infinite. I doubt not that the trustees of +the Johns Hopkins University felt the full force of this truth when +they entered on the administration of their trust a year and a half +ago; and I can but admire the activity and resolution which have +enabled them, aided by the able president whom they have selected, to +lay down the great outlines of their plan, and carry it thus far into +execution. It is impossible to study that plan without perceiving that +great care, forethought, and sagacity, have been bestowed upon it, and +that it demands the most respectful consideration. I have been +endeavouring to ascertain how far the principles which underlie it are +in accordance with those which have been established in my own mind by +much and long-continued thought upon educational questions. Permit me +to place before you the result of my reflections. + +Under one aspect a university is a particular kind of educational +institution, and the views which we may take of the proper nature of a +university are corollaries from those which we hold respecting +education in general. I think it must be admitted that the school +should prepare for the university, and that the university should crown +the edifice, the foundations of which are laid in the school. +University education should not be something distinct from elementary +education, but should be the natural outgrowth and development of the +latter. Now I have a very clear conviction as to what elementary +education ought to be; what it really may be, when properly organised; +and what I think it will be, before many years have passed over our +heads, in England and in America. Such education should enable an +average boy of fifteen or sixteen to read and write his own language +with ease and accuracy, and with a sense of literary excellence derived +from the study of our classic writers: to have a general acquaintance +with the history of his own country and with the great laws of social +existence; to have acquired the rudiments of the physical and +psychological sciences, and a fair knowledge of elementary arithmetic +and geometry. He should have obtained an acquaintance with logic rather +by example than by precept; while the acquirement of the elements of +music and drawing should have been pleasure rather than work. + +It may sound strange to many ears if I venture to maintain the +proposition that a young person, educated thus far, has had a liberal, +though perhaps not a full, education. But it seems to me that such +training as that to which I have referred may be termed liberal, in +both the senses in which that word is employed, with perfect accuracy. +In the first place, it is liberal in breadth. It extends over the whole +ground of things to be known and of faculties to be trained, and it +gives equal importance to the two great sides of human activity--art +and science. In the second place, it is liberal in the sense of being +an education fitted for free men; for men to whom every career is open, +and from whom their country may demand that they should be fitted to +perform the duties of any career. I cannot too strongly impress upon +you the fact that, with such a primary education as this, and with no +more than is to be obtained by building strictly upon its lines, a man +of ability may become a great writer or speaker, a statesman, a lawyer, +a man of science, painter, sculptor, architect, or musician. That even +development of all a man's faculties, which is what properly +constitutes culture, may be effected by such an education, while it +opens the way for the indefinite strengthening of any special +capabilities with which he may be gifted. + +In a country like this, where most men have to carve out their own +fortunes and devote themselves early to the practical affairs of life, +comparatively few can hope to pursue their studies up to, still less +beyond, the age of manhood. But it is of vital importance to the +welfare of the community that those who are relieved from the need of +making a livelihood, and still more, those who are stirred by the +divine impulses of intellectual thirst or artistic genius, should be +enabled to devote themselves to the higher service of their kind, as +centres of intelligence, interpreters of Nature, or creators of new +forms of beauty. And it is the function of a university to furnish such +men with the means of becoming that which it is their privilege and +duty to be. To this end the university need cover no ground foreign to +that occupied by the elementary school. Indeed it cannot; for the +elementary instruction which I have referred to embraces all the kinds +of real knowledge and mental activity possible to man. The university +can add no new departments of knowledge, can offer no new fields of +mental activity; but what it can do is to intensify and specialise the +instruction in each department. Thus literature and philology, +represented in the elementary school by English alone, in the +university will extend over the ancient and modern languages. History, +which, like charity, best begins at home, but, like charity, should not +end there, will ramify into anthropology, archaeology, political +history, and geography, with the history of the growth of the human +mind and of its products in the shape of philosophy, science, and art. +And the university will present to the student libraries, museums of +antiquities, collections of coins, and the like, which will efficiently +subserve these studies. Instruction in the elements of social economy, +a most essential, but hitherto sadly-neglected part of elementary +education, will develop in the university into political economy, +sociology, and law. Physical science will have its great divisions of +physical geography, with geology and astronomy; physics; chemistry and +biology; represented not merely by professors and their lectures, but +by laboratories, in which the students, under guidance of +demonstrators, will work out facts for themselves and come into that +direct contact with reality which constitutes the fundamental +distinction of scientific education. Mathematics will soar into its +highest regions; while the high peaks of philosophy may be scaled by +those whose aptitude for abstract thought has been awakened by +elementary logic. Finally, schools of pictorial and plastic art, of +architecture, and of music, will offer a thorough discipline in the +principles and practice of art to those in whom lies nascent the rare +faculty of aesthetic representation, or the still rarer powers of +creative genius. + +The primary school and the university are the alpha and omega of +education. Whether institutions intermediate between these (so-called +secondary schools) should exist, appears to me to be a question of +practical convenience. If such schools are established, the important +thing is that they should be true intermediaries between the primary +school and the university, keeping on the wide track of general +culture, and not sacrificing one branch of knowledge for another. + +Such appear to me to be the broad outlines of the relations which the +university, regarded as a place of education, ought to bear to the +school, but a number of points of detail require some consideration, +however briefly and imperfectly I can deal with them. In the first +place, there is the important question of the limitations which should +be fixed to the entrance into the university; or, what qualifications +should be required of those who propose to take advantage of the higher +training offered by the university. On the one hand, it is obviously +desirable that the time and opportunities of the university should not +be wasted in conferring such elementary instruction as can be obtained +elsewhere; while, on the other hand, it is no less desirable that the +higher instruction of the university should be made accessible to every +one who can take advantage of it, although he may not have been able to +go through any very extended course of education. My own feeling is +distinctly against any absolute and defined preliminary examination, +the passing of which shall be an essential condition of admission to +the university. I would admit to the university any one who could be +reasonably expected to profit by the instruction offered to him; and I +should be inclined, on the whole, to test the fitness of the student, +not by examination before he enters the university, but at the end of +his first term of study. If, on examination in the branches of +knowledge to which he has devoted himself, he show himself deficient in +industry or in capacity, it will be best for the university and best +for himself, to prevent him from pursuing a vocation for which he is +obviously unfit. And I hardly know of any other method than this by +which his fitness or unfitness can be safely ascertained, though no +doubt a good deal may be done, not by formal cut and dried examination, +but by judicious questioning, at the outset of his career. + +Another very important and difficult practical question is, whether a +definite course of study shall be laid down for those who enter the +university; whether a curriculum shall be prescribed; or whether the +student shall be allowed to range at will among the subjects which are +open to him. And this question is inseparably connected with another, +namely, the conferring of degrees. It is obviously impossible that any +student should pass through the whole of the series of courses of +instruction offered by a university. If a degree is to be conferred as +a mark of proficiency in knowledge, it must be given on the ground that +the candidate is proficient in a certain fraction of those studies; and +then will arise the necessity of insuring an equivalency of degrees, so +that the course by which a degree is obtained shall mark approximately +an equal amount of labour and of acquirements, in all cases. But this +equivalency can hardly be secured in any other way than by prescribing +a series of definite lines of study. This is a matter which will +require grave consideration. The important points to bear in mind, I +think, are that there should not be too many subjects in the +curriculum, and that the aim should be the attainment of thorough and +sound knowledge of each. + +One half of the Johns Hopkins bequest is devoted to the establishment +of a hospital, and it was the desire of the testator that the +university and the hospital should co-operate in the promotion of +medical education. The trustees will unquestionably take the best +advice that is to be had as to the construction and administration of +the hospital. In respect to the former point, they will doubtless +remember that a hospital may be so arranged as to kill more than it +cures; and, in regard to the latter, that a hospital may spread the +spirit of pauperism among the well-to-do, as well as relieve the +sufferings of the destitute. It is not for me to speak on these +topics--rather let me confine myself to the one matter on which my +experience as a student of medicine, and an examiner of long standing, +who has taken a great interest in the subject of medical education, may +entitle me to a hearing. I mean the nature of medical education itself, +and the co-operation of the university in its promotion. + +What is the object of medical education? It is to enable the +practitioner, on the one hand, to prevent disease by his knowledge of +hygiene; on the other hand, to divine its nature, and to alleviate or +cure it, by his knowledge of pathology, therapeutics, and practical +medicine. That is his business in life, and if he has not a thorough +and practical knowledge of the conditions of health, of the causes +which tend to the establishment of disease, of the meaning of symptoms, +and of the uses of medicines and operative appliances, he is +incompetent, even if he were the best anatomist, or physiologist, or +chemist, that ever took a gold medal or won a prize certificate. This +is one great truth respecting medical education. Another is, that all +practice in medicine is based upon theory of some sort or other; and +therefore, that it is desirable to have such theory in the closest +possible accordance with fact. The veriest empiric who gives a drug in +one case because he has seen it do good in another of apparently the +same sort, acts upon the theory that similarity of superficial symptoms +means similarity of lesions; which, by the way, is perhaps as wild an +hypothesis as could be invented. To understand the nature of disease we +must understand health, and the understanding of the healthy body means +the having a knowledge of its structure and of the way in which its +manifold actions are performed, which is what is technically termed +human anatomy and human physiology. The physiologist again must needs +possess an acquaintance with physics and chemistry, inasmuch as +physiology is, to a great extent, applied physics and chemistry. For +ordinary purposes a limited amount of such knowledge is all that is +needful; but for the pursuit of the higher branches of physiology no +knowledge of these branches of science can be too extensive, or too +profound. Again, what we call therapeutics, which has to do with the +action of drugs and medicines on the living organism, is, strictly +speaking, a branch of experimental physiology, and is daily receiving a +greater and greater experimental development. + +The third great fact which is to be taken into consideration in dealing +with medical education, is that the practical necessities of life do +not, as a rule, allow aspirants to medical practice to give more than +three, or it may be four years to their studies. Let us put it at four +years, and then reflect that, in the course of this time, a young man +fresh from school has to acquaint himself with medicine, surgery, +obstetrics, therapeutics, pathology, hygiene, as well as with the +anatomy and the physiology of the human body; and that his knowledge +should be of such a character that it can be relied upon in any +emergency, and always ready for practical application. Consider, in +addition, that the medical practitioner may be called upon, at any +moment, to give evidence in a court of justice in a criminal case; and +that it is therefore well that he should know something of the laws of +evidence, and of what we call medical jurisprudence. On a medical +certificate, a man may be taken from his home and from his business and +confined in a lunatic asylum; surely, therefore, it is desirable that +the medical practitioner should have some rational and clear +conceptions as to the nature and symptoms of mental disease. Bearing in +mind all these requirements of medical education, you will admit that +the burden on the young aspirant for the medical profession is somewhat +of the heaviest, and that it needs some care to prevent his +intellectual back from being broken. + +Those who are acquainted with the existing systems of medical education +will observe that, long as is the catalogue of studies which I have +enumerated, I have omitted to mention several that enter into the usual +medical curriculum of the present day. I have said not a word about +zoology, comparative anatomy, botany, or materia medica. Assuredly this +is from no light estimate of the value or importance of such studies in +themselves. It may be taken for granted that I should be the last +person in the world to object to the teaching of zoology, or +comparative anatomy, in themselves; but I have the strongest feeling +that, considering the number and the gravity of those studies through +which a medical man must pass, if he is to be competent to discharge +the serious duties which devolve upon him, subjects which lie so remote +as these do from his practical pursuits should be rigorously excluded. +The young man, who has enough to do in order to acquire such +familiarity with the structure of the human body as will enable him to +perform the operations of surgery, ought not, in my judgment, to be +occupied with investigations into the anatomy of crabs and starfishes. +Undoubtedly the doctor should know the common poisonous plants of his +own country when he sees them; but that knowledge may be obtained by a +few hours devoted to the examination of specimens of such plants, and +the desirableness of such knowledge is no justification, to my mind, +for spending three months over the study of systematic botany. Again, +materia medica, so far as it is a knowledge of drugs, is the business +of the druggist. In all other callings the necessity of the division of +labour is fully recognised, and it is absurd to require of the medical +man that he should not avail himself of the special knowledge of those +whose business it is to deal in the drugs which he uses. It is all very +well that the physician should know that castor oil comes from a plant, +and castoreum from an animal, and how they are to be prepared; but for +all the practical purposes of his profession that knowledge is not of +one whit more value, has no more relevancy, than the knowledge of how +the steel of his scalpel is made. + +All knowledge is good. It is impossible to say that any fragment of +knowledge, however insignificant or remote from one's ordinary +pursuits, may not some day be turned to account. But in medical +education, above all things, it is to be recollected that, in order to +know a little well, one must be content to be ignorant of a great deal. + +Let it not be supposed that I am proposing to narrow medical education, +or, as the cry is, to lower the standard of the profession. Depend upon +it there is only one way of really ennobling any calling, and that is +to make those who pursue it real masters of their craft, men who can +truly do that which they profess to be able to do, and which they are +credited with being able to do by the public. And there is no position +so ignoble as that of the so-called "liberally-educated practitioner," +who may be able to read Galen in the original; who knows all the +plants, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop upon the wall; but who +finds himself, with the issues of life and death in his hands, +ignorant, blundering, and bewildered, because of his ignorance of the +essential and fundamental truths upon which practice must be based. +Moreover, I venture to say, that any man who has seriously studied all +the essential branches of medical knowledge; who has the needful +acquaintance with the elements of physical science; who has been +brought by medical jurisprudence into contact with law; whose study of +insanity has taken him into the fields of psychology; has _ipso facto_ +received a liberal education. + +Having lightened the medical curriculum by culling out of it everything +which is unessential, we may next consider whether something may not be +done to aid the medical student toward the acquirement of real +knowledge by modifying the system of examination. In England, within my +recollection, it was the practice to require of the medical student +attendance on lectures upon the most diverse topics during three years; +so that it often happened that he would have to listen, in the course +of a day, to four or five lectures upon totally different subjects, in +addition to the hours given to dissection and to hospital practice: and +he was required to keep all the knowledge he could pick up, in this +distracting fashion, at examination point, until, at the end of three +years, he was set down to a table and questioned pell-mell upon all the +different matters with which he had been striving to make acquaintance. +A worse system and one more calculated to obstruct the acquisition of +sound knowledge and to give full play to the "crammer" and the +"grinder" could hardly have been devised by human ingenuity. Of late +years great reforms have taken place. Examinations have been divided so +as to diminish the number of subjects among which the attention has to +be distributed. Practical examination has been largely introduced; but +there still remains, even under the present system, too much of the old +evil inseparable from the contemporaneous pursuit of a multiplicity of +diverse studies. + +Proposals have recently been made to get rid of general examinations +altogether, to permit the student to be examined in each subject at the +end of his attendance on the class; and then, in case of the result +being satisfactory, to allow him to have done with it; and I may say +that this method has been pursued for many years in the Royal School of +Mines in London, and has been found to work very well. It allows the +student to concentrate his mind upon what he is about for the time +being, and then to dismiss it. Those who are occupied in intellectual +work, will, I think, agree with me that it is important, not so much to +know a thing, as to have known it, and known it thoroughly. If you have +once known a thing in this way it is easy to renew your knowledge when +you have forgotten it; and when you begin to take the subject up again, +it slides back upon the familiar grooves with great facility. + +Lastly comes the question as to how the university may co-operate in +advancing medical education. A medical school is strictly a technical +school--a school in which a practical profession is taught--while a +university ought to be a place in which knowledge is obtained without +direct reference to professional purposes. It is clear, therefore, that +a university and its antecedent, the school, may best co-operate with +the medical school by making due provision for the study of those +branches of knowledge which lie at the foundation of medicine. + +At present, young men come to the medical schools without a conception +of even the elements of physical science; they learn, for the first +time, that there are such sciences as physics, chemistry, and +physiology, and are introduced to anatomy as a new thing. It may be +safely said that, with a large proportion of medical students, much of +the first session is wasted in learning how to learn--in familiarising +themselves with utterly strange conceptions, and in awakening their +dormant and wholly untrained powers of observation and of manipulation. +It is difficult to over-estimate the magnitude of the obstacles which +are thrown in the way of scientific training by the existing system of +school education. Not only are men trained in mere book-work, ignorant +of what observation means, but the habit of learning from books alone +begets a disgust of observation. The book-learned student will rather +trust to what he sees in a book than to the witness of his own eyes. + +There is not the least reason why this should be so, and, in fact, when +elementary education becomes that which I have assumed it ought to be, +this state of things will no longer exist. There is not the slightest +difficulty in giving sound elementary instruction in physics, in +chemistry, and in the elements of human physiology, in ordinary +schools. In other words, there is no reason why the student should not +come to the medical school, provided with as much knowledge of these +several sciences as he ordinarily picks up in the course of his first +year of attendance at the medical school. + +I am not saying this without full practical justification for the +statement. For the last eighteen years we have had in England a system +of elementary science teaching carried out under the auspices of the +Science and Art Department, by which elementary scientific instruction +is made readily accessible to the scholars of all the elementary +schools in the country. Commencing with small beginnings, carefully +developed and improved, that system now brings up for examination as +many as seven thousand scholars in the subject of human physiology +alone. I can say that, out of that number, a large proportion have +acquired a fair amount of substantial knowledge; and that no +inconsiderable percentage show as good an acquaintance with human +physiology as used to be exhibited by the average candidates for +medical degrees in the University of London, when I was first an +examiner there twenty years ago; and quite as much knowledge as is +possessed by the ordinary student of medicine at the present day. I am +justified, therefore, in looking forward to the time when the student +who proposes to devote himself to medicine will come, not absolutely +raw and inexperienced as he is at present, but in a certain state of +preparation for further study; and I look to the university to help him +still further forward in that stage of preparation, through the +organisation of its biological department. Here the student will find +means of acquainting himself with the phenomena of life in their +broadest acceptation. He will study not botany and zoology, which, as I +have said, would take him too far away from his ultimate goal; but, by +duly arranged instruction, combined with work in the laboratory upon +the leading types of animal and vegetable life, he will lay a broad, +and at the same time solid, foundation of biological knowledge; he will +come to his medical studies with a comprehension of the great truths of +morphology and of physiology, with his hands trained to dissect and his +eyes taught to see. I have no hesitation in saying that such +preparation is worth a full year added on to the medical curriculum. In +other words, it will set free that much time for attention to those +studies which bear directly upon the student's most grave and serious +duties as a medical practitioner. + +Up to this point I have considered only the teaching aspect of your +great foundation, that function of the university in virtue of which it +plays the part of a reservoir of ascertained truth, so far as our +symbols can ever interpret nature. All can learn; all can drink of this +lake. It is given to few to add to the store of knowledge, to strike +new springs of thought, or to shape new forms of beauty. But so sure as +it is that men live not by bread, but by ideas, so sure is it that the +future of the world lies in the hands of those who are able to carry +the interpretation of nature a step further than their predecessors; so +certain is it that the highest function of a university is to seek out +those men, cherish them, and give their ability to serve their kind +full play. + +I rejoice to observe that the encouragement of research occupies so +prominent a place in your official documents, and in the wise and +liberal inaugural address of your president. This subject of the +encouragement, or, as it is sometimes called, the endowment of +research, has of late years greatly exercised the minds of men in +England. It was one of the main topics of discussion by the members of +the Royal Commission of whom I was one, and who not long since issued +their report, after five years' labour. Many seem to think that this +question is mainly one of money; that you can go into the market and +buy research, and that supply will follow demand, as in the ordinary +course of commerce. This view does not commend itself to my mind. I +know of no more difficult practical problem than the discovery of a +method of encouraging and supporting the original investigator without +opening the door to nepotism and jobbery. My own conviction is +admirably summed up in the passage of your president's address, "that +the best investigators are usually those who have also the +responsibilities of instruction, gaining thus the incitement of +colleagues, the encouragement of pupils, and the observation of the +public." + +At the commencement of this address I ventured to assume that I might, +if I thought fit, criticise the arrangements which have been made by +the board of trustees, but I confess that I have little to do but to +applaud them. Most wise and sagacious seems to me the determination not +to build for the present. It has been my fate to see great educational +funds fossilise into mere bricks and mortar, in the petrifying springs +of architecture, with nothing left to work the institution they were +intended to support. A great warrior is said to have made a desert and +called it peace. Administrators of educational funds have sometimes +made a palace and called it a university. If I may venture to give +advice in a matter which lies out of my proper competency, I would say +that whenever you do build, get an honest bricklayer, and make him +build you just such rooms as you really want, leaving ample space for +expansion. And a century hence, when the Baltimore and Ohio shares are +at one thousand premium, and you have endowed all the professors you +need, and built all the laboratories that are wanted, and have the best +museum and the finest library that can be imagined; then, if you have a +few hundred thousand dollars you don't know what to do with, send for +an architect and tell him to put up a façade. If American is similar to +English experience, any other course will probably lead you into having +some stately structure, good for your architect's fame, but not in the +least what you want. + +It appears to me that what I have ventured to lay down as the +principles which should govern the relations of a university to +education in general, are entirely in accordance with the measures you +have adopted. You have set no restrictions upon access to the +instruction you propose to give; you have provided that such +instruction, either as given by the university or by associated +institutions, should cover the field of human intellectual activity. +You have recognised the importance of encouraging research. You propose +to provide means by which young men, who may be full of zeal for a +literary or for a scientific career, but who also may have mistaken +aspiration for inspiration, may bring their capacities to a test, and +give their powers a fair trial. If such a one fail, his endowment +terminates, and there is no harm done. If he succeed, you may give +power of flight to the genius of a Davy or a Faraday, a Carlyle or a +Locke, whose influence on the future of his fellow-men shall be +absolutely incalculable. + +You have enunciated the principle that "the glory of the university +should rest upon the character of the teachers and scholars, and not +upon their numbers or buildings constructed for their use." And I look +upon it as an essential and most important feature of your plan that +the income of the professors and teachers shall be independent of the +number of students whom they can attract. In this way you provide +against the danger, patent elsewhere, of finding attempts at +improvement obstructed by vested interests; and, in the department of +medical education especially, you are free of the temptation to set +loose upon the world men utterly incompetent to perform the serious and +responsible duties of their profession. + +It is a delicate matter for a stranger to the practical working of your +institutions, like myself, to pretend to give an opinion as to the +organisation of your governing power. I can conceive nothing better +than that it should remain as it is, if you can secure a succession of +wise, liberal, honest, and conscientious men to fill the vacancies that +occur among you. I do not greatly believe in the efficacy of any kind +of machinery for securing such a result; but I would venture to suggest +that the exclusive adoption of the method of co-optation for filling +the vacancies which must occur in your body, appears to me to be +somewhat like a tempting of Providence. Doubtless there are grave +practical objections to the appointment of persons outside of your body +and not directly interested in the welfare of the university; but might +it not be well if there were an understanding that your academic staff +should be officially represented on the board, perhaps even the heads +of one or two independent learned bodies, so that academic opinion and +the views of the outside world might have a certain influence in that +most important matter, the appointment of your professors? I throw out +these suggestions, as I have said, in ignorance of the practical +difficulties that may lie in the way of carrying them into effect, on +the general ground that personal and local influences are very subtle, +and often unconscious, while the future greatness and efficiency of the +noble institution which now commences its work must largely depend upon +its freedom from them. + + * * * * * + +I constantly hear Americans speak of the charm which our old mother +country has for them, of the delight with which they wander through the +streets of ancient towns, or climb the battlements of mediaeval +strongholds, the names of which are indissolubly associated with the +great epochs of that noble literature which is our common inheritance; +or with the blood-stained steps of that secular progress, by which the +descendants of the savage Britons and of the wild pirates of the North +Sea have become converted into warriors of order and champions of +peaceful freedom, exhausting what still remains of the old Berserk +spirit in subduing nature, and turning the wilderness into a garden. +But anticipation has no less charm than retrospect, and to an +Englishman landing upon your shores for the first time, travelling for +hundreds of miles through strings of great and well-ordered cities, +seeing your enormous actual, and almost infinite potential, wealth in +all commodities, and in the energy and ability which turn wealth to +account, there is something sublime in the vista of the future. Do not +suppose that I am pandering to what is commonly understood by national +pride. I cannot say that I am in the slightest degree impressed by your +bigness, or your material resources, as such. Size is not grandeur, and +territory does not make a nation. The great issue, about which hangs a +true sublimity, and the terror of overhanging fate, is what are you +going to do with all these things? What is to be the end to which these +are to be the means? You are making a novel experiment in politics on +the greatest scale which the world has yet seen. Forty millions at +your first centenary, it is reasonably to be expected that, at the +second, these states will be occupied by two hundred millions of +English-speaking people, spread over an area as large as that of +Europe, and with climates and interests as diverse as those of Spain +and Scandinavia, England and Russia. You and your descendants have to +ascertain whether this great mass will hold together under the forms of +a republic, and the despotic reality of universal suffrage; whether +state rights will hold out against centralisation, without separation; +whether centralisation will get the better, without actual or disguised +monarchy; whether shifting corruption is better than a permanent +bureaucracy; and as population thickens in your great cities, and the +pressure of want is felt, the gaunt spectre of pauperism will stalk +among you, and communism and socialism will claim to be heard. Truly +America has a great future before her; great in toil, in care, and in +responsibility; great in true glory if she be guided in wisdom and +righteousness; great in shame if she fail. I cannot understand why +other nations should envy you, or be blind to the fact that it is for +the highest interest of mankind that you should succeed; but the one +condition of success, your sole safeguard, is the moral worth and +intellectual clearness of the individual citizen. Education cannot give +these, but it may cherish them and bring them to the front in whatever +station of society they are to be found; and the universities ought to +be, and may be, the fortresses of the higher life of the nation. + +May the university which commences its practical activity to-morrow +abundantly fulfil its high purpose; may its renown as a seat of true +learning, a centre of free inquiry, a focus of intellectual light, +increase year by year, until men wander hither from all parts of the +earth, as of old they sought Bologna, or Paris, or Oxford. + +And it is pleasant to me to fancy that, among the English students who +are drawn to you at that time, there may linger a dim tradition that +a countryman of theirs was permitted to address you as he has done +to-day, and to feel as if your hopes were his hopes and your success +his joy. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] Delivered at the formal opening of the Johns Hopkins University at +Baltimore, U.S., September 12. The total amount bequeathed by Johns +Hopkins is more than 7,000,000 dollars. The sum of 3,500,000 dollars is +appropriated to a university, a like sum to a hospital, and the rest to +local institutions of education and charity. + + + + +X + +ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY + +[1876] + + +It is my duty to-night to speak about the study of Biology, and while +it may be that there are many of my audience who are quite familiar +with that study, yet as a lecturer of some standing, it would, I know +by experience, be very bad policy on my part to suppose such to be +extensively the case. On the contrary, I must imagine that there are +many of you who would like to know what Biology is; that there are +others who have that amount of information, but would nevertheless +gladly hear why it should be worth their while to study Biology; and +yet others, again, to whom these two points are clear, but who desire +to learn how they had best study it, and, finally, when they had best +study it. + +I shall, therefore, address myself to the endeavour to give you some +answer to these four questions--what Biology is; why it should be +studied; how it should be studied; and when it should be studied. + +In the first place, in respect to what Biology is, there are, I +believe, some persons who imagine that the term "Biology" is simply a +new-fangled denomination, a neologism in short, for what used to be +known under the title of "Natural History;" but I shall try to show +you, on the contrary, that the word is the expression of the growth of +science during the last 200 years, and came into existence half a +century ago. + +At the revival of learning, knowledge was divided into two kinds--the +knowledge of nature and the knowledge of man; for it was the current +idea then (and a great deal of that ancient conception still remains) +that there was a sort of essential antithesis, not to say antagonism, +between nature and man; and that the two had not very much to do with +one another, except that the one was oftentimes exceedingly troublesome +to the other. Though it is one of the salient merits of our great +philosophers of the seventeenth century, that they recognised but one +scientific method, applicable alike to man and to nature, we find this +notion of the existence of a broad distinction between nature and man +in the writings both of Bacon and of Hobbes of Malmesbury; and I have +brought with me that famous work which is now so little known, greatly +as it deserves to be studied, "The Leviathan," in order that I may put +to you in the wonderfully terse and clear language of Thomas Hobbes, +what was his view of the matter. He says:-- + +"The register of knowledge of fact is called history. Whereof there be +two sorts, one called natural history; which is the history of such +facts or effects of nature as have no dependence on man's will; such as +are the histories of metals, plants, animals, regions, and the like. +The other is civil history; which is the history of the voluntary +actions of men in commonwealths." + +So that all history of fact was divided into these two great groups of +natural and of civil history. The Royal Society was in course of +foundation about the time that Hobbes was writing this book, which was +published in 1651; and that Society was termed a "Society for the +Improvement of Natural Knowledge," which was then nearly the same thing +as a "Society for the Improvement of Natural History." As time went on, +and the various branches of human knowledge became more distinctly +developed and separated from one another, it was found that some were +much more susceptible of precise mathematical treatment than others. +The publication of the "Principia" of Newton, which probably gave a +greater stimulus to physical science than any work ever published +before, or which is likely to be published hereafter, showed that +precise mathematical methods were applicable to those branches of +science such as astronomy, and what we now call physics, which occupy a +very large portion of the domain of what the older writers understood +by natural history. And inasmuch as the partly deductive and partly +experimental methods of treatment to which Newton and others subjected +these branches of human knowledge, showed that the phenomena of nature +which belonged to them were susceptible of explanation, and thereby +came within the reach of what was called "philosophy" in those days; so +much of this kind of knowledge as was not included under astronomy came +to be spoken of as "natural philosophy"--a term which Bacon had +employed in a much wider sense. Time went on, and yet other branches of +science developed themselves. Chemistry took a definite shape; and +since all these sciences, such as astronomy, natural philosophy, and +chemistry, were susceptible either of mathematical treatment or of +experimental treatment, or of both, a broad distinction was drawn +between the experimental branches of what had previously been called +natural history and the observational branches--those in which +experiment was (or appeared to be) of doubtful use, and where, at that +time, mathematical methods were inapplicable. Under these circumstances +the old name of "Natural History" stuck by the residuum, by those +phenomena which were not, at that time, susceptible of mathematical or +experimental treatment; that is to say, those phenomena of nature which +come now under the general heads of physical geography, geology, +mineralogy, the history of plants, and the history of animals. It was +in this sense that the term was understood by the great writers of the +middle of the last century--Buffon and Linnaeus--by Buffon in his great +work, the "Histoire Naturelle Générale," and by Linnaeus in his +splendid achievement, the "Systema Naturae." The subjects they deal +with are spoken of as "Natural History," and they called themselves and +were called "Naturalists." But you will observe that this was not the +original meaning of these terms; but that they had, by this time, +acquired a signification widely different from that which they +possessed primitively. + +The sense in which "Natural History" was used at the time I am now +speaking of has, to a certain extent, endured to the present day. There +are now in existence in some of our northern universities, chairs of +"Civil and Natural History," in which "Natural History" is used to +indicate exactly what Hobbes and Bacon meant by that term. The unhappy +incumbent of the chair of Natural History is, or was, supposed to cover +the whole ground of geology, mineralogy, and zoology, perhaps even +botany, in his lectures. + +But as science made the marvellous progress which it did make at the +latter end of the last and the beginning of the present century, +thinking men began to discern that under this title of "Natural +History" there were included very heterogeneous constituents--that, for +example, geology and mineralogy were, in many respects, widely +different from botany and zoology; that a man might obtain an extensive +knowledge of the structure and functions of plants and animals, without +having need to enter upon the study of geology or mineralogy, and +_vice versâ_; and, further as knowledge advanced, it became clear +that there was a great analogy, a very close alliance, between those +two sciences, of botany and zoology which deal with human beings, while +they are much more widely separated from all other studies. It is due +to Buffon to remark that he clearly recognised this great fact. He +says: "Ces deux genres d'êtres organisés [les animaux et les végétaux] +ont beaucoup plus de propriétés communes que de différences réelles." +Therefore, it is not wonderful that, at the beginning of the present +century, in two different countries, and so far as I know, without any +intercommunication, two famous men clearly conceived the notion of +uniting the sciences which deal with living matter into one whole, and +of dealing with them as one discipline. In fact, I may say there were +three men to whom this idea occurred contemporaneously, although there +were but two who carried it into effect, and only one who worked it out +completely. The persons to whom I refer were the eminent physiologist +Bichat, and the great naturalist Lamarck, in France; and a +distinguished German, Treviranus. Bichat [1] assumed the existence of a +special group of "physiological" sciences. Lamarck, in a work published +in 1801, [2] for the first time made use of the name "Biologie," from +the two Greek words which signify a discourse upon life and living +things. About the same time, it occurred to Treviranus, that all those +sciences which deal with living matter are essentially and +fundamentally one, and ought to be treated as a whole; and, in the year +1802, he published the first volume of what he also called "Biologie." +Treviranus's great merit lies in this, that he worked out his idea, and +wrote the very remarkable book to which I refer. It consists of six +volumes, and occupied its author for twenty years--from 1802 to 1822. + +That is the origin of the term "Biology"; and that is how it has come +about that all clear thinkers and lovers of consistent nomenclature +have substituted for the old confusing name of "Natural History," which +has conveyed so many meanings, the term "Biology" which denotes the +whole of the sciences which deal with living things, whether they be +animals or whether they be plants. Some little time ago--in the course +of this year, I think--I was favoured by a learned classic, Dr. Field +of Norwich, with a disquisition, in which he endeavourved to prove +that, from a philological point of view, neither Treviranus nor Lamarck +had any right to coin this new word "Biology" for their purpose; that, +in fact, the Greek word "Bios" had relation only to human life and +human affairs, and that a different word was employed by the Greeks +when they wished to speak of the life of animals and plants. So Dr. +Field tells us we are all wrong in using the term biology, and that we +ought to employ another; only he is not sure about the propriety of +that which he proposes as a substitute. It is a somewhat hard +one--"zootocology." I am sorry we are wrong, because we are likely to +continue so. In these matters we must have some sort of "Statute of +Limitations." When a name has been employed for half a century, persons +of authority [3] have been using it, and its sense has become well +understood, I am afraid people will go on using it, whatever the weight +of philological objection. + +Now that we have arrived at the origin of this word "Biology," the next +point to consider is: What ground does it cover? I have said that in +its strict technical sense, it denotes all the phenomena which are +exhibited by living things, as distinguished from those which are not +living; but while that is all very well, so long as we confine +ourselves to the lower animals and to plants, it lands us in +considerable difficulties when we reach the higher forms of living +things. For whatever view we may entertain about the nature of man, one +thing is perfectly certain, that he is a living creature. Hence, if our +definition is to be interpreted strictly, we must include man and all +his ways and works under the head of Biology; in which case, we should +find that psychology, politics, and political economy would be absorbed +into the province of Biology. In fact, civil history would be merged in +natural history. In strict logic it may be hard to object to this +course, because no one can doubt that the rudiments and outlines of our +own mental phenomena are traceable among the lower animals. They have +their economy and their polity, and if, as is always admitted, the +polity of bees and the commonwealth of wolves fall within the purview +of the biologist proper, it becomes hard to say why we should not +include therein human affairs, which, in so many cases, resemble those +of the bees in zealous getting, and are not without a certain parity in +the proceedings of the wolves. The real fact is that we biologists are +a self-sacrificing people; and inasmuch as, on a moderate estimate, +there are about a quarter of a million different species of animals and +plants to know about already, we feel that we have more than sufficient +territory. There has been a sort of practical convention by which we +give up to a different branch of science what Bacon and Hobbes would +have called "Civil History." That branch of science has constituted +itself under the head of Sociology. I may use phraseology which, at +present, will be well understood and say that we have allowed that +province of Biology to become autonomous; but I should like you to +recollect that that is a sacrifice, and that you should not be +surprised if it occasionally happens that you see a biologist +apparently trespassing in the region of philosophy or politics; or +meddling with human education; because, after all, that is a part of +his kingdom which he has only voluntarily forsaken. + +Having now defined the meaning of the word Biology, and having +indicated the general scope of Biological Science, I turn to my second +question, which is--Why should we study Biology? Possibly the time may +come when that will seem a very odd question. That we, living +creatures, should not feel a certain amount of interest in what it is +that constitutes our life will eventually, under altered ideas of the +fittest objects of human inquiry, appear to be a singular phenomenon; +but at present, judging by the practice of teachers and educators, +Biology would seem to be a topic that does not concern us at all. I +propose to put before you a few considerations with which I dare say +many will be familiar already, but which will suffice to show--not +fully, because to demonstrate this point fully would take a great many +lectures--that there are some very good and substantial reasons why it +may be advisable that we should know something about this branch of +human learning. + +I myself entirely agree with another sentiment of the philosopher of +Malmesbury, "that the scope of all speculation is the performance of +some action or thing to be done," and I have not any very great respect +for, or interest in, mere knowing as such. I judge of the value of +human pursuits by their bearing upon human interests; in other words, +by their utility; but I should like that we should quite clearly +understand what it is that we mean by this word "utility." In an +Englishman's mouth it generally means that by which we get pudding or +praise, or both. I have no doubt that is one meaning of the word +utility, but it by no means includes all I mean by utility. I think +that knowledge of every kind is useful in proportion as it tends to +give people right ideas, which are essential to the foundation of right +practice, and to remove wrong ideas, which are the no less essential +foundations and fertile mothers of every description of error in +practice. And inasmuch as, whatever practical people may say, this +world is, after all, absolutely governed by ideas, and very often by +the wildest and most hypothetical ideas, it is a matter of the very +greatest importance that our theories of things, and even of things +that seem a long way apart from our daily lives, should be as far as +possible true, and as far as possible removed from error. It is not +only in the coarser, practical sense of the word "utility," but in this +higher and broader sense, that I measure the value of the study of +biology by its utility; and I shall try to point out to you that you +will feel the need of some knowledge of biology at a great many turns +of this present nineteenth century life of ours. For example, most of +us attach great importance to the conception which we entertain of the +position of man in this universe and his relation to the rest of +nature. We have almost all been told, and most of us hold by the +tradition, that man occupies an isolated and peculiar position in +nature; that though he is in the world he is not of the world; that his +relations to things about him are of a remote character; that his +origin is recent, his duration likely to be short, and that he is the +great central figure round which other things in this world revolve. +But this is not what the biologist tells us. + +At the present moment you will be kind enough to separate me from them, +because it is in no way essential to my present argument that I should +advocate their views. Don't suppose that I am saying this for the +purpose of escaping the responsibility of their beliefs; indeed, at +other times and in other places, I do not think that point has been +left doubtful; but I want clearly to point out to you that for my +present argument they may all be wrong; and, nevertheless, my argument +will hold good. The biologists tell us that all this is an entire +mistake. They turn to the physical organisation of man. They examine +his whole structure, his bony frame and all that clothes it. They +resolve him into the finest particles into which the microscope will +enable them to break him up. They consider the performance of his +various functions and activities, and they look at the manner in which +he occurs on the surface of the world. Then they turn to other animals, +and taking the first handy domestic animal--say a dog--they profess to +be able to demonstrate that the analysis of the dog leads them, in +gross, to precisely the same results as the analysis of the man; that +they find almost identically the same bones, having the same relations; +that they can name the muscles of the dog by the names of the muscles +of the man, and the nerves of the dog by those of the nerves of the +man, and that, such structures and organs of sense as we find in the +man such also we find in the dog; they analyse the brain and spinal +cord and they find that the nomenclature which fits, the one answers +for the other. They carry their microscopic inquiries in the case of +the dog as far as they can, and they find that his body is resolvable +into the same elements as those of the man. Moreover, they trace back +the dog's and the man's development, and they find that, at a certain +stage of their existence, the two creatures are not distinguishable the +one from the other; they find that the dog and his kind have a certain +distribution over the surface of the world, comparable in its way to +the distribution of the human species. What is true of the dog they +tell us is true of all the higher animals; and they assert that they +can lay down a common plan for the whole of these creatures, and regard +the man and the dog, the horse and the ox as minor modifications of one +great fundamental unity. Moreover, the investigations of the last +three-quarters of a century have proved, they tell us, that similar +inquiries, carried out through all the different kinds of animals which +are met with in nature, will lead us, not in one straight series, but +by many roads, step by step, gradation by gradation, from man, at the +summit, to specks of animated jelly at the bottom of the series. So +that the idea of Leibnitz, and of Bonnet, that animals form a great +scale of being, in which there are a series of gradations from the most +complicated form to the lowest and simplest; that idea, though not +exactly in the form in which it was propounded by those philosophers, +turns out to be substantially correct. More than this, when biologists +pursue their investigations into the vegetable world, they find that +they can, in the same way, follow out the structure of the plant, from +the most gigantic and complicated trees down through a similar series +of gradations, until they arrive at specks of animated jelly, which +they are puzzled to distinguish from those specks which they reached by +the animal road. + +Thus, biologists have arrived at the conclusion that a fundamental +uniformity of structure pervades the animal and vegetable worlds, and +that plants and animals differ from one another simply as diverse +modifications of the same great general plan. + +Again, they tell us the same story in regard to the study of function. +They admit the large and important interval which, at the present time, +separates the manifestations of the mental faculties observable in the +higher forms of mankind, and even in the lower forms, such as we know +them, from those exhibited by other animals; but, at the same time, +they tell us that the foundations, or rudiments, of almost all the +faculties of man are to be met with in the lower animals; that there is +a unity of mental faculty as well as of bodily structure, and that, +here also, the difference is a difference of degree and not of kind. I +said "almost all," for a reason. Among the many distinctions which have +been drawn between the lower creatures and ourselves, there is one +which is hardly ever insisted on, [4] but which may be very fitly +spoken of in a place so largely devoted to Art as that in which we are +assembled. It is this, that while, among various kinds of animals, it +is possible to discover traces of all the other faculties of man, +especially the faculty of mimicry, yet that particular form of mimicry +which shows itself in the imitation of form, either by modelling or by +drawing, is not to be met with. As far as I know, there is no sculpture +or modelling, and decidedly no painting or drawing, of animal origin. I +mention the fact, in order that such comfort may be derived therefrom +as artists may feel inclined to take. + +If what the biologists tell us is true, it will be needful to get rid +of our erroneous conceptions of man, and of his place in nature, and to +substitute right ones for them. But it is impossible to form any +judgment as to whether the biologists are right or wrong, unless we are +able to appreciate the nature of the arguments which they have to +offer. + +One would almost think this to be a self-evident proposition. I wonder +what a scholar would say to the man who should undertake to criticise a +difficult passage in a Greek play, but who obviously had not acquainted +himself with the rudiments of Greek grammar. And yet, before giving +positive opinions about these high questions of Biology, people not +only do not seem to think it necessary to be acquainted with the +grammar of the subject, but they have not even mastered the alphabet. +You find criticism and denunciation showered about by persons who not +only have not attempted to go through the discipline necessary to +enable them to be judges, but who have not even reached that stage of +emergence from ignorance in which the knowledge that such a discipline +is necessary dawns upon the mind. I have had to watch with some +attention--in fact I have been favoured with a good deal of it +myself--the sort of criticism with which biologists and biological +teachings are visited. I am told every now and then that there is a +"brilliant article" [5] in so-and-so, in which we are all demolished. I +used to read these things once, but I am getting old now, and I have +ceased to attend very much to this cry of "wolf." When one does read +any of these productions, what one finds generally, on the face of it +is, that the brilliant critic is devoid of even the elements of +biological knowledge, and that his brilliancy is like the light given +out by the crackling of thorns under a pot of which Solomon speaks. So +far as I recollect, Solomon makes use of the image for purposes of +comparison; but I will not proceed further into that matter. + +Two things must be obvious: in the first place, that every man who has +the interests of truth at heart must earnestly desire that every +well-founded and just criticism that can be made should be made; but +that, in the second place, it is essential to anybody's being able to +benefit by criticism, that the critic should know what he is talking +about, and be in a position to form a mental image of the facts +symbolised by the words he uses. If not, it is as obvious in the case +of a biological argument, as it is in that of a historical or +philological discussion, that such criticism is a mere waste of time on +the part of its author, and wholly undeserving of attention on the part +of those who are criticised. Take it then as an illustration of the +importance of biological study, that thereby alone are men able to form +something like a rational conception of what constitutes valuable +criticism of the teachings of biologists. [6] + +Next, I may mention another bearing of biological knowledge--a more +practical one in the ordinary sense of the word. Consider the theory of +infectious disease. Surely that is of interest to all of us. Now the +theory of infectious disease is rapidly being elucidated by biological +study. It is possible to produce, from among the lower animals, +examples of devastating diseases which spread in the same manner as our +infectious disorders, and which are certainly and unmistakably caused +by living organisms. This fact renders it possible, at any rate, that +that doctrine of the causation of infectious disease which is known +under the name of "the germ theory" may be well-founded; and, if so, it +must needs lead to the most important practical measures in dealing +with those terrible visitations. It may be well that the general, as +well as the professional, public should have a sufficient knowledge of +biological truths to be able to take a rational interest in the +discussion of such problems, and to see, what I think they may hope to +see, that, to those who possess a sufficient elementary knowledge of +Biology, they are not all quite open questions. + +Let me mention another important practical illustration of the value of +biological study. Within the last forty years the theory of agriculture +has been revolutionised. The researches of Liebig, and those of our own +Lawes and Gilbert, have had a bearing upon that branch of industry the +importance of which cannot be over-estimated; but the whole of these +new views have grown out of the better explanation of certain processes +which go on in plants; and which, of course, form a part of the +subject-matter of Biology. + +I might go on multiplying these examples, but I see that the clock +won't wait for me, and I must therefore pass to the third question to +which I referred:--Granted that Biology is something worth studying, +what is the best way of studying it? Here I must point out that, since +Biology is a physical science, the method of studying it must needs be +analogous to that which is followed in the other physical sciences. It +has now long been recognised that, if a man wishes to be a chemist, it +is not only necessary that he should read chemical books and attend +chemical lectures, but that he should actually perform the fundamental +experiments in the laboratory for himself, and thus learn exactly what +the words which he finds in his books and hears from his teachers, +mean. If he does not do so, he may read till the crack of doom, but he +will never know much about chemistry. That is what every chemist will +tell you, and the physicist will do the same for his branch of science. +The great changes and improvements in physical and chemical scientific +education, which have taken place of late, have all resulted from the +combination of practical teaching with the reading of books and with +the hearing of lectures. The same thing is true in Biology. Nobody +will ever know anything about Biology except in a dilettante +"paper-philosopher" way, who contents himself with reading books on +botany, zoology, and the like; and the reason of this is simple and +easy to understand. It is that all language is merely symbolical of the +things of which it treats; the more complicated the things, the more +bare is the symbol, and the more its verbal definition requires to be +supplemented by the information derived directly from the handling, and +the seeing, and the touching of the thing symbolised:--that is really +what is at the bottom of the whole matter. It is plain common sense, as +all truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified. If you want +a man to be a tea merchant, you don't tell him to read books about +China or about tea, but you put him into a tea-merchant's office where +he has the handling, the smelling, and the tasting of tea. Without the +sort of knowledge which can be gained only in this practical way, his +exploits as a tea merchant will soon come to a bankrupt termination. +The "paper-philosophers" are under the delusion that physical science +can be mastered as literary accomplishments are acquired, but +unfortunately it is not so. You may read any quantity of books, and you +may be almost as ignorant as you were at starting, if you don't have, +at the back of your minds, the change for words in definite images +which can only be acquired through the operation of your observing +faculties on the phenomena of nature. + +It may be said:--"That is all very well, but you told us just now that +there are probably something like a quarter of a million different +kinds of living and extinct animals and plants, and a human life could +not suffice for the examination of one-fiftieth part of all these." +That is true, but then comes the great convenience of the way things +are arranged; which is, that although there are these immense numbers +of different kinds of living things in existence, yet they are built +up, after all, upon marvellously few plans. + +There are certainly more than 100,000 species of insects, and yet +anybody who knows one insect--if a properly chosen one--will be able +to have a very fair conception of the structure of the whole. I do not +mean to say he will know that structure thoroughly, or as well as it is +desirable he should know it; but he will have enough real knowledge to +enable him to understand what he reads, to have genuine images in his +mind of those structures which become so variously modified in all the +forms of insects he has not seen. In fact, there are such things as +types of form among animals and vegetables, and for the purpose of +getting a definite knowledge of what constitutes the leading +modifications of animal and plant life, it is not needful to examine +more than a comparatively small number of animals and plants. + +Let me tell you what we do in the biological laboratory which is lodged +in a building adjacent to this. There I lecture to a class of students +daily for about four-and-a-half months, and my class have, of course, +their text-books; but the essential part of the whole teaching, and +that which I regard as really the most important part of it, is a +laboratory for practical work, which is simply a room with all the +appliances needed for ordinary dissection. We have tables properly +arranged in regard to light, microscopes, and dissecting instruments, +and we work through the structure of a certain number of animals and +plants. As, for example, among the plants, we take a yeast plant, a +_Protococcus_, a common mould, a _Chara_, a fern, and some +flowering plant; among animals we examine such things as an _Amoeba_, +_a Vorticella_, and a fresh-water polype. We dissect a star-fish, +an earth-worm, a snail, a squid, and a fresh-water mussel. We +examine a lobster and a cray-fish, and a black beetle. We go on to a +common skate, a cod-fish, a frog, a tortoise, a pigeon, and a rabbit, +and that takes us about all the time we have to give. The purpose of +this course is not to make skilled dissectors, but to give every +student a clear and definite conception, by means of sense-images, of +the characteristic structure of each of the leading modifications of +the animal kingdom; and that is perfectly possible, by going no further +than the length of that list of forms which I have enumerated. If a man +knows the structure of the animals I have mentioned, he has a clear and +exact, however limited, apprehension of the essential features of the +organisation of all those great divisions of the animal and vegetable +kingdoms to which the forms I have mentioned severally belong. And it +then becomes possible for him to read with profit; because every time +he meets with the name of a structure, he has a definite image in his +mind of what the name means in the particular creature he is reading +about, and therefore the reading is not mere reading. It is not mere +repetition of words; but every term employed in the description, we +will say, of a horse, or of an elephant, will call up the image of the +things he had seen in the rabbit, and he is able to form a distinct +conception of that which he has not seen, as a modification of that +which he has seen. + +I find this system to yield excellent results; and I have no hesitation +whatever in saying, that any one who has gone through such a course, +attentively, is in a better position to form a conception of the great +truths of Biology, especially of morphology (which is what we chiefly +deal with), than if he had merely read all the books on that topic put +together. + +The connection of this discourse with the Loan Collection of Scientific +Apparatus arises out of the exhibition in that collection of certain +aids to our laboratory work. Such of you as have visited that very +interesting collection may have noticed a series of diagrams and of +preparations illustrating the structure of a frog. Those diagrams and +preparations have been made for the use of the students in the +biological laboratory. Similar diagrams and preparations illustrating +the structure of all the other forms of life we examine, are either +made or in course of preparation. Thus the student has before him, +first, a picture of the structure he ought to see; secondly, the +structure itself worked out; and if with these aids, and such needful +explanations and practical hints as a demonstrator can supply, he +cannot make out the facts for himself in the materials supplied to him, +he had better take to some other pursuit than that of biological +science. + +I should have been glad to have said a few words about the use of +museums in the study of Biology, but I see that my time is becoming +short, and I have yet another question to answer. Nevertheless, I must, +at the risk of wearying you, say a word or two upon the important +subject of museums. Without doubt there are no helps to the study of +Biology, or rather to some branches of it, which are, or may be, more +important than natural history museums; but, in order to take this +place in regard to Biology, they must be museums of the future. The +museums of the present do not, by any means, do so much for us as they +might do. I do not wish to particularise, but I dare say many of you, +seeking knowledge, or in the laudable desire to employ a holiday +usefully, have visited some great natural history museum. You have +walked through a quarter of a mile of animals, more or less well +stuffed, with their long names written out underneath them; and, unless +your experience is very different from that of most people, the upshot +of it all is that you leave that splendid pile with sore feet, a bad +headache, and a general idea that the animal kingdom is a "mighty maze +without a plan." I do not think that a museum which brings about this +result does all that may be reasonably expected from such an +institution. What is needed in a collection of natural history is that +it should be made as accessible and as useful as possible, on the one +hand to the general public, and on the other to scientific workers. +That need is not met by constructing a sort of happy hunting-ground of +miles of glass cases; and, under the pretence of exhibiting everything +putting the maximum amount of obstacle in the way of those who wish +properly to see anything. + +What the public want is easy and unhindered access to such a collection +as they can understand and appreciate; and what the men of science want +is similar access to the materials of science. To this end the +vast mass of objects of natural history should be divided into two +parts--one open to the public, the other to men of science, every day. +The former division should exemplify all the more important and +interesting forms of life. Explanatory tablets should be attached to +them, and catalogues containing clearly-written popular expositions of +the general significance of the objects exhibited should be provided. +The latter should contain, packed into a comparatively small space, in +rooms adapted for working purposes, the objects of purely scientific +interest. For example, we will say I am an ornithologist. I go to +examine a collection of birds. It is a positive nuisance to have them +stuffed. It is not only sheer waste, but I have to reckon with the +ideas of the bird-stuffer, while, if I have the skin and nobody has +interfered with it, I can form my own judgment as to what the bird was +like. For ornithological purposes, what is needed is not glass cases +full of stuffed birds on perches, but convenient drawers into each of +which a great quantity of skins will go. They occupy no great space and +do not require any expenditure beyond their original cost. But for the +edification of the public, who want to learn indeed, but do not seek +for minute and technical knowledge, the case is different. What one of +the general public walking into a collection of birds desires to see is +not all the birds that can be got together. He does not want to compare +a hundred species of the sparrow tribe side by side; but he wishes to +know what a bird is, and what are the great modifications of bird +structure, and to be able to get at that knowledge easily. What will +best serve his purpose is a comparatively small number of birds +carefully selected, and artistically, as well as accurately, set up; +with their different ages, their nests, their young, their eggs, and +their skeletons side by side; and in accordance with the admirable plan +which is pursued in this museum, a tablet, telling the spectator +in legible characters what they are and what they mean. For the +instruction and recreation of the public such a typical collection +would be of far greater value than any many-acred imitation of Noah's +ark. + +Lastly comes the question as to when biological study may best be +pursued. I do not see any valid reason why it should not be made, to +a certain extent, a part of ordinary school training. I have long +advocated this view, and I am perfectly certain that it can be carried +out with ease, and not only with ease, but with very considerable +profit to those who are taught; but then such instruction must be +adapted to the minds and needs of the scholars. They used to have a +very odd way of teaching the classical languages when I was a boy. The +first task set you was to learn the rules of the Latin grammar in the +Latin language--that being the language you were going to learn! I +thought then that this was an odd way of learning a language, but +did not venture to rebel against the judgment of my superiors. Now, +perhaps, I am not so modest as I was then, and I allow myself to think +that it was a very absurd fashion. But it would be no less absurd, if +we were to set about teaching Biology by putting into the hands of +boys a series of definitions of the classes and orders of the animal +kingdom, and making them repeat them by heart. That is so very +favourite a method of teaching, that I sometimes fancy the spirit of +the old classical system has entered into the new scientific system, in +which case I would much rather that any pretence at scientific teaching +were abolished altogether. What really has to be done is to get into +the young mind some notion of what animal and vegetable life is. In +this matter, you have to consider practical convenience as well as +other things. There are difficulties in the way of a lot of boys making +messes with slugs and snails; it might not work in practice. But there +is a very convenient and handy animal which everybody has at hand, and +that is himself; and it is a very easy and simple matter to obtain +common plants. Hence the general truths of anatomy and physiology can +be taught to young people in a very real fashion by dealing with the +broad facts of human structure. Such viscera as they cannot very well +examine in themselves, such as hearts, lungs, and livers, may be +obtained from the nearest butcher's shop. In respect to teaching +something about the biology of plants, there is no practical +difficulty, because almost any of the common plants will do, and plants +do not make a mess--at least they do not make an unpleasant mess; so +that, in my judgment, the best form of Biology for teaching to very +young people is elementary human physiology on the one hand, and the +elements of botany on the other; beyond that I do not think it will be +feasible to advance for some time to come. But then I see no reason, +why, in secondary schools, and in the Science Classes which are under +the control of the Science and Art Department--and which I may say, in +passing, have in my judgment, done so very much for the diffusion of a +knowledge of science over the country--we should not hope to see +instruction in the elements of Biology carried out, not perhaps to the +same extent, but still upon somewhat the same principle as here. There +is no difficulty, when you have to deal with students of the ages of +fifteen or sixteen, in practising a little dissection and in getting a +notion of, at any rate, the four or five great modifications of the +animal form; and the like is true in regard to the higher anatomy of +plants. + +While, lastly, to all those who are studying biological science with +a view to their own edification merely, or with the intention of +becoming zoologists or botanists; to all those who intend to pursue +physiology--and especially to those who propose to employ the working +years of their lives in the practice of medicine--I say that there is +no training so fitted, or which may be of such important service to +them, as the discipline in practical biological work which I have +sketched out as being pursued in the laboratory hard by. + + * * * * * + +I may add that, beyond all these different classes of persons who may +profit by the study of Biology, there is yet one other. I remember, a +number of years ago, that a gentleman who was a vehement opponent of +Mr. Darwin's views and had written some terrible articles against them, +applied to me to know what was the best way in which he could acquaint +himself with the strongest arguments in favour of evolution. I wrote +back, in all good faith and simplicity, recommending him to go through +a course of comparative anatomy and physiology, and then to study +development. I am sorry to say he was very much displeased, as people +often are with good advice. Notwithstanding this discouraging result, I +venture, as a parting word, to repeat the suggestion, and to say to all +the more or less acute lay and clerical "paper-philosophers" [7] who +venture into the regions of biological controversy--Get a little sound, +thorough, practical, elementary instruction in biology. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] See the distinction between the "sciences physiques" and the +"sciences physiologiques" in the _Anatomie Générale_, 1801. + +[2] _Hydrogéologie_, an. x. (1801). + +[3] "The term _Biology_, which means exactly what we wish to +express, _the Science of Life_, has often been used, and has of +late become not uncommon, among good writers."--Whewell, _Philosophy +of the Inductive Sciences_, vol. i. p. 544 (edition of 1847). + +[4] I think that my friend, Professor Allman, was the first to draw +attention to it. + +[5] Galileo was troubled by a sort of people whom he called "paper +philosophers," because they fancied that the true reading of nature was +to be detected by the collation of texts. The race is not extinct, but, +as of old, brings forth its "winds of doctrine" by which the +weathercock heads among us are much exercised. + +[6] Some critics do not even take the trouble to read. I have recently +been adjured with much solemnity; to state publicly why I have "changed +my opinion" as to the value of the palaeontological evidence of the +occurrence of evolution. + +To this my reply is, Why should I, when that statement was made seven +years ago? An address delivered from the Presidential Chair of the +Geological Society, in 1870, may be said to be a public document, +inasmuch as it not only appeared in the _Journal_ of that learned +body, but was re-published, in 1873, in a volume of _Critiques and +Addresses_, to which my name is attached. Therein will be found a +pretty full statement of my reasons for enunciating two propositions: +(1) that "when we turn to the higher _Vertebrata_, the results of +recent investigations, however we may sift and criticise them, seem to +me to leave a clear balance in favour of the evolution of living forms +one from another;" and (2) that the case of the horse is one which +"will stand rigorous criticism." Thus I do not see clearly in what way +I can be said to have changed my opinion, except in the way of +intensifying it, when in consequence of the accumulation of similar +evidence since 1870, I recently spoke of the denial of evolution as not +worth serious consideration. + +[7] Writers of this stamp are fond of talking about the Baconian +method. I beg them therefore to lay to heart these two weighty sayings +of the herald of Modern Science:-- + +"Syllogismus ex propositionibus constat, propositiones ex verbis, verba +notionum tesserae sunt. Itaque si notiones ipsae (_id quod basis rei +est_) confusae sint et temere a rebus abstractae, nihil in iis quae +superstruuntur est firmitudinis."--_Novum Organon_, ii. 14. + +"Huic autem vanitati nonnulli ex modernis summa levitate ita +indulserunt, ut in primo capitulo Geneseos et in libro Job et aliis +scripturis sacris, philosophiam naturalem fundare conati sint; _inter +vivos quaerentes mortua_."--_Ibid_. 65. + + + + +XI + +ON ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY + +[1877] + + +The chief ground upon which I venture to recommend that the teaching of +elementary physiology should form an essential part of any organised +course of instruction in matters pertaining to domestic economy, is, +that a knowledge of even the elements of this subject supplies those +conceptions of the constitution and mode of action of the living body, +and of the nature of health and disease, which prepare the mind to +receive instruction from sanitary science. + +It is, I think, eminently desirable that the hygienist and the +physician should find something in the public mind to which they can +appeal; some little stock of universally acknowledged truths, which may +serve as a foundation for their warnings, and predispose towards an +intelligent obedience to their recommendations. + +Listening to ordinary talk about health, disease, and death, one is +often led to entertain a doubt whether the speakers believe that the +course of natural causation runs as smoothly in the human body as +elsewhere. Indications are too often obvious of a strong, though +perhaps an unavowed and half unconscious, under-current of opinion that +the phenomena of life are not only widely different, in their +superficial characters and in their practical importance, from other +natural events, but that they do not follow in that definite order +which characterises the succession of all other occurrences, and the +statement of which we call a law of nature. + +Hence, I think, arises the want of heartiness of belief in the value of +knowledge respecting the laws of health and disease, and of the +foresight and care to which knowledge is the essential preliminary, +which is so often noticeable; and a corresponding laxity and +carelessness in practice, the results of which are too frequently +lamentable. + +It is said that among the many religious sects of Russia, there is one +which holds that all disease is brought about by the direct and special +interference of the Deity, and which, therefore, looks with repugnance +upon both preventive and curative measures as alike blasphemous +interferences with the will of God. Among ourselves, the "Peculiar +People" are, I believe, the only persons who hold the like doctrine in +its integrity, and carry it out with logical rigour. But many of us are +old enough to recollect that the administration of chloroform in +assuagement of the pangs of child-birth was, at its introduction, +strenuously resisted upon similar grounds. + +I am not sure that the feeling, of which the doctrine to which I have +referred is the full expression, does not lie at the bottom of the +minds of a great many people who yet would vigorously object to give a +verbal assent to the doctrine itself. However this may be, the main +point is that sufficient knowledge has now been acquired of vital +phenomena, to justify the assertion, that the notion, that there is +anything exceptional about these phenomena, receives not a particle of +support from any known fact. On the contrary, there is a vast and an +increasing mass of evidence that birth and death, health and disease, +are as much parts of the ordinary stream of events as the rising and +setting of the sun, or the changes of the moon; and that the living +body is a mechanism, the proper working of which we term health; its +disturbance, disease; its stoppage, death. The activity of this +mechanism is dependent upon many and complicated conditions, some of +which are hopelessly beyond our control, while others are readily +accessible, and are capable of being indefinitely modified by our own +actions. The business of the hygienist and of the physician is to know +the range of these modifiable conditions, and how to influence them +towards the maintenance of health and the prolongation of life; the +business of the general public is to give an intelligent assent, and a +ready obedience based upon that assent, to the rules laid down for +their guidance by such experts. But an intelligent assent is an assent +based upon knowledge, and the knowledge which is here in question means +an acquaintance with the elements of physiology. + +It is not difficult to acquire such knowledge. What is true, to +a certain extent, of all the physical sciences, is eminently +characteristic of physiology--the difficulty of the subject begins +beyond the stage of elementary knowledge, and increases with every +stage of progress. While the most highly trained and the best furnished +intellect may find all its resources insufficient, when it strives to +reach the heights and penetrate into the depths of the problems of +physiology, the elementary and fundamental truths can be made clear to +a child. + +No one can have any difficulty in comprehending the mechanism of +circulation or respiration; or the general mode of operation of the +organ of vision; though the unravelling of all the minutiae of these +processes, may, for the present, baffle the conjoined attacks of the +most accomplished physicists, chemists, and mathematicians. To know the +anatomy of the human body, with even an approximation to thoroughness, +is the work of a life; but as much as is needed for a sound +comprehension of elementary physiological truths, may be learned in a +week. + +A knowledge of the elements of physiology is not only easy of +acquirement, but it may be made a real and practical acquaintance with +the facts, as far as it goes. The subject of study is always at hand, +in one's self. The principal constituents of the skeleton, and the +changes of form of contracting muscles, may be felt through one's own +skin. The beating of one's heart, and its connection with the pulse, +may be noted; the influence of the valves of one's own veins may be +shown; the movements of respiration may be observed; while the +wonderful phenomena of sensation afford an endless field for curious +and interesting self-study. The prick of a needle will yield, in a drop +of one's own blood, material for microscopic observation of phenomena +which lie at the foundation of all biological conceptions; and a cold, +with its concomitant coughing and sneezing, may prove the sweet uses of +adversity by helping one to a clear conception of what is meant by +"reflex action." + +Of course there is a limit to this physiological self-examination. But +there is so close a solidarity between ourselves and our poor relations +of the animal world, that our inaccessible inward parts may be +supplemented by theirs. A comparative anatomist knows that a sheep's +heart and lungs, or eye, must not be confounded with those of a man; +but, so far as the comprehension of the elementary facts of the +physiology of circulation, of respiration, and of vision goes, the one +furnishes the needful anatomical data as well as the other. + +Thus, it is quite possible to give instruction in elementary physiology +in such a manner as, not only to confer knowledge, which, for the +reason I have mentioned, is useful in itself; but to serve the purposes +of a training in accurate observation, and in the methods of reasoning +of physical science. But that is an advantage which I mention only +incidentally, as the present Conference does not deal with education in +the ordinary sense of the word. + +It will not be suspected that I wish to make physiologists of all the +world. It would be as reasonable to accuse an advocate of the "three +R's" of a desire to make an orator, an author, and a mathematician of +everybody. A stumbling reader, a pot-hook writer, and an arithmetician +who has not got beyond the rule of three, is not a person of brilliant +acquirements; but the difference between such a member of society and +one who can neither read, write, nor cipher is almost inexpressible; +and no one nowadays doubts the value of instruction, even if it goes no +farther. + +The saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is, to my mind, +a very dangerous adage. If knowledge is real and genuine, I do not +believe that it is other than a very valuable possession, however +infinitesimal its quantity may be. Indeed, if a little knowledge is +dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger? + +If William Harvey's life-long labours had revealed to him a tenth part +of that which may be made sound and real knowledge to our boys and +girls, he would not only have been what he was, the greatest +physiologist of his age, but he would have loomed upon the seventeenth +century as a sort of intellectual portent. Our "little knowledge" would +have been to him a great, astounding, unlooked-for vision of scientific +truth. + +I really see no harm which can come of giving our children a little +knowledge of physiology. But then, as I have said, the instruction must +be real, based upon observation, eked out by good explanatory diagrams +and models, and conveyed by a teacher whose own knowledge has been +acquired by a study of the facts; and not the mere catechismal +parrot-work which too often usurps the place of elementary teaching. + +It is, I hope, unnecessary for me to give a formal contradiction to the +silly fiction, which is assiduously circulated by fanatics who not only +ought to know, but do know, that their assertions are untrue, that I +have advocated the introduction of that experimental discipline which +is absolutely indispensable to the professed physiologist, into +elementary teaching. + +But while I should object to any experimentation which can justly be +called painful, for the purpose of elementary instruction; and, while, +as a member of a late Royal Commission, I gladly did my best to prevent +the infliction of needless pain, for any purpose; I think it is my duty +to take this opportunity of expressing my regret at a condition of the +law which permits a boy to troll for pike, or set lines with live frog +bait, for idle amusement; and, at the same time, lays the teacher of +that boy open to the penalty of fine and imprisonment, if he uses the +same animal for the purpose of exhibiting one of the most beautiful and +instructive of physiological spectacles, the circulation in the web of +the foot. No one could undertake to affirm that a frog is not +inconvenienced by being wrapped up in a wet rag, and having his toes +tied out; and it cannot be denied that inconvenience is a sort of pain. +But you must not inflict the least pain on a vertebrated animal for +scientific purposes (though you may do a good deal in that way for gain +or for sport) without due licence of the Secretary of State for the +Home Department, granted under the authority of the Vivisection Act. + +So it comes about, that, in this present year of grace 1877, two +persons may be charged with cruelty to animals. One has impaled a frog, +and suffered the creature to writhe about in that condition for hours; +the other has pained the animal no more than one of us would be pained +by tying strings round his fingers, and keeping him in the position of +a hydropathic patient. The first offender says "I did it because I find +fishing very amusing," and the magistrate bids him depart in peace; +nay, probably wishes him good sport. The second pleads, "I wanted to +impress a scientific truth, with a distinctness attainable in no other +way, on the minds of my scholars," and the magistrate fines him five +pounds. + +I cannot but think that this is an anomalous and not wholly creditable +state of things. + + + + +XII + +ON MEDICAL EDUCATION + +[1870] + + +It has given me sincere pleasure to be here today, at the desire of +your highly respected President and the Council of the College. In +looking back upon my own past, I am sorry to say that I have found that +it is a quarter of a century since I took part in those hopes and in +those fears by which you have all recently been agitated, and which now +are at an end. But, although so long a time has elapsed since I was +moved by the same feelings, I beg leave to assure you that my sympathy +with both victors and vanquished remains fresh--so fresh, indeed, that +I could almost try to persuade myself that, after all, it cannot be so +very long ago. My business during the last hour, however, has been to +show that sympathy with one side only, and I assure you I have done my +best to play my part heartily, and to rejoice in the success of those +who have succeeded. Still, I should like to remind you at the end of it +all, that success on an occasion of this kind, valuable and important +as it is, is in reality only putting the foot upon one rung of the +ladder which leads upwards; and that the rung of a ladder was never +meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable +him to put the other somewhat higher. I trust that you will all regard +these successes as simply reminders that your next business is, having +enjoyed the success of the day, no longer to look at that success, but +to look forward to the next difficulty that is to be conquered. And +now, having had so much to say to the successful candidates, you must +forgive me if I add that a sort of under-current of sympathy has been +going on in my mind all the time for those who have not been +successful, for those valiant knights who have been overthrown in your +tourney, and have not made their appearance in public. I trust that, in +accordance with old custom, they, wounded and bleeding, have been +carried off to their tents, to be carefully tended by the fairest of +maidens; and in these days, when the chances are that every one of such +maidens will be a qualified practitioner, I have no doubt that all the +splinters will have been carefully extracted, and that they are now +physically healed. But there may remain some little fragment of moral +or intellectual discouragement, and therefore I will take the liberty +to remark that your chairman to-day, if he occupied his proper place, +would be among them. Your chairman, in virtue of his position, and for +the brief hour that he occupies that position, is a person of +importance; and it may be some consolation to those who have failed if +I say, that the quarter of a century which I have been speaking of, +takes me back to the time when I was up at the University of London, a +candidate for honours in anatomy and physiology, and when I was +exceedingly well beaten by my excellent friend, Dr. Ransom, of +Nottingham. There is a person here who recollects that circumstance +very well. I refer to your venerated teacher and mine, Dr. Sharpey. He +was at that time one of the examiners in anatomy and physiology, and +you may be quite sure that, as he was one of the examiners, there +remained not the smallest doubt in my mind of the propriety of his +judgment, and I accepted my defeat with the most comfortable assurance +that I had thoroughly well earned it. But, gentlemen, the competitor +having been a worthy one, and the examination a fair one, I cannot say +that I found in that circumstance anything very discouraging. I said to +myself, "Never mind; what's the next thing to be done?" And I found +that policy of "never minding" and going on to the next thing to be +done, to be the most important of all policies in the conduct of +practical life. It does not matter how many tumbles you have in this +life, so long as you do not get dirty when you tumble; it is only the +people who have to stop to be washed and made clean, who must +necessarily lose the race. And I can assure you that there is the +greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. You +learn that which is of inestimable importance--that there are a great +many people in the world who are just as clever as you are. You learn +to put your trust, by and by, in an economy and frugality of the +exercise of your powers, both moral and intellectual; and you very soon +find out, if you have not found it out before, that patience and +tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of +cleverness. In fact, if I were to go on discoursing on this subject, I +should become almost eloquent in praise of non-success; but, lest so +doing should seem, in any way, to wither well-earned laurels, I +will turn from that topic, and ask you to accompany me in some +considerations touching another subject which has a very profound +interest for me, and which I think ought to have an equally profound +interest for you. + +I presume that the great majority of those whom I address propose to +devote themselves to the profession of medicine; and I do not doubt, +from the evidences of ability which have been given to-day, that I have +before me a number of men who will rise to eminence in that profession, +and who will exert a great and deserved influence upon its future. That +in which I am interested, and about which I wish to speak, is the +subject of medical education, and I venture to speak about it for the +purpose, if I can, of influencing you, who may have the power of +influencing the medical education of the future. You may ask, by what +authority do I venture, being a person not concerned in the practice of +medicine, to meddle with that subject? I can only tell you it is a +fact, of which a number of you I dare say are aware by experience (and +I trust the experience has no painful associations), that I have been +for a considerable number of years (twelve or thirteen years to the +best of my recollection) one of the examiners in the University of +London. You are further aware that the men who come up to the +University of London are the picked men of the medical schools of +London, and therefore such observations as I may have to make upon the +state of knowledge of these gentlemen, if they be justified, in regard +to any faults I may have to find, cannot be held to indicate defects in +the capacity, or in the power of application of those gentlemen, but +must be laid, more or less, to the account of the prevalent system of +medical education. I will tell you what has struck me--but in speaking +in this frank way, as one always does about the defects of one's +friends, I must beg you to disabuse your minds of the notion that I am +alluding to any particular school, or to any particular college, or to +any particular person; and to believe that if I am silent when I should +be glad to speak with high praise, it is because that praise would come +too close to this locality. What has struck me, then, in this long +experience of the men best instructed in physiology from the medical +schools of London is (with the many and brilliant exceptions to which I +have referred), taking it as a whole, and broadly, the singular +unreality of their knowledge of physiology. Now, I use that word +"unreality" advisedly. I do not say "scanty;" on the contrary, there is +plenty of it--a great deal too much of it--but it is the quality, the +nature of the knowledge, which I quarrel with. I know I used to have--I +don't know whether I have now, but I had once upon a time--a bad +reputation among students for setting up a very high standard of +acquirement, and I dare say you may think that the standard of this old +examiner, who happily is now very nearly an extinct examiner, has been +pitched too high. Nothing of the kind, I assure you. The defects I have +noticed, and the faults I have to find, arise entirely from the +circumstance that my standard is pitched too low. This is no paradox, +gentlemen, but quite simply the fact. The knowledge I have looked for +was a real, precise, thorough, and practical knowledge of fundamentals; +whereas that which the best of the candidates, in a large proportion of +cases, have had to give me was a large, extensive, and inaccurate +knowledge of superstructure; and that is what I mean by saying that my +demands went too low and not too high. What I have had to complain of +is, that a large proportion of the gentlemen who come up for physiology +to the University of London do not know it as they know their anatomy, +and have not been taught it as they have been taught their anatomy. +Now, I should not wonder at all if I heard a great many "No, noes" +here; but I am not talking about University College; as I have told you +before, I am talking about the average education of medical schools. +What I have found, and found so much reason to lament, is, that while +anatomy has been taught as a science ought to be taught, as a matter of +autopsy, and observation, and strict discipline; in a very large number +of cases, physiology has been taught as if it were a mere matter of +books and of hearsay. I declare to you, gentlemen, that I have often +expected to be told, when I have asked a question about the circulation +of the blood, that Professor Breitkopf is of opinion that it +circulates, but that the whole thing is an open question. I assure you +that I am hardly exaggerating the state of mind on matters of +fundamental importance which I have found over and over again to obtain +among gentlemen coming up to that picked examination of the University +of London. Now, I do not think that is a desirable state of things. I +cannot understand why physiology should not be taught--in fact, you +have here abundant evidence that it can be taught--with the same +definiteness and the same precision as anatomy is taught. And you may +depend upon this, that the only physiology which is to be of any good +whatever in medical practice, or in its application to the study of +medicine, is that physiology which a man knows of his own knowledge; +just as the only anatomy which would be of any good to the surgeon is +the anatomy which he knows of his own knowledge. Another peculiarity I +have found in the physiology which has been current, and that is, that +in the minds of a great many gentlemen it has been supplanted by +histology. They have learnt a great deal of histology, and they have +fancied that histology and physiology are the same things. I have asked +for some knowledge of the physics and the mechanics and the chemistry +of the human body, and I have been met by talk about cells. I declare +to you I believe it will take me two years, at least, of absolute rest +from the business of an examiner to hear the word "cell," "germinal +matter," or "carmine," without a sort of inward shudder. + +Well, now, gentlemen, I am sure my colleagues in this examination will +bear me out in saying that I have not been exaggerating the evils and +defects which are current--have been current--in a large quantity of +the physiological teaching the results of which come before examiners. +And it becomes a very interesting question to know how all this comes +about, and in what way it can be remedied. How it comes about will be +perfectly obvious to any one who has considered the growth of medicine. +I suppose that medicine and surgery first began by some savage more +intelligent than the rest, discovering that a certain herb was good for +a certain pain, and that a certain pull, somehow or other, set a +dislocated joint right. I suppose all things had their humble +beginnings, and medicine and surgery were in the same condition. People +who wear watches know nothing about watchmaking. A watch goes wrong and +it stops; you see the owner giving it a shake, or, if he is very bold, +he opens the case, and gives the balance-wheel a push. Gentlemen, that +is empirical practice, and you know what are the results upon the +watch. I should think you can divine what are the results of analogous +operations upon the human body. And because men of sense very soon +found that such were the effects of meddling with very complicated +machinery they did not understand, I suppose the first thing, as being +the easiest, was to study the nature of the works of the human watch, +and the next thing was to study the way the parts worked together, and +the way the watch worked. Thus, by degrees, we have had growing up our +body of anatomists, or knowers of the construction of the human watch, +and our physiologists, who know how the machine works. And just as any +sensible man, who has a valuable watch, does not meddle with it +himself, but goes to some one who has studied watchmaking, and +understands what the effect of doing this or that may be; so, I +suppose, the man who, having charge of that valuable machine, his own +body, wants to have it kept in good order, comes to a professor of the +medical art for the purpose of having it set right, believing that, by +deduction from the facts of structure and from the facts of function, +the physician will divine what may be the matter with his bodily watch +at that particular time, and what may be the best means of setting it +right. If that may be taken as a just representation of the relation of +the theoretical branches of medicine--what we may call the institutes +of medicine, to use an old term--to the practical branches, I think it +will be obvious to you that they are of prime and fundamental +importance. Whatever tends to affect the teaching of them injuriously +must tend to destroy and to disorganise the whole fabric of the medical +art. I think every sensible man has seen this long ago; but the +difficulties in the way of attaining good teaching in the different +branches of the theory, or institutes, of medicine are very serious. It +is a comparatively easy matter--pray mark that I use the word +"comparatively "--it is a comparatively easy matter to learn anatomy +and to teach it; it is a very difficult matter to learn physiology and +to teach it. It is a very difficult matter to know and to teach those +branches of physics and those branches of chemistry which bear directly +upon physiology; and hence it is that, as a matter of fact, the +teaching of physiology, and the teaching of the physics and the +chemistry which bear upon it, must necessarily be in a state of +relative imperfection; and there is nothing to be grumbled at in the +fact that this relative imperfection exists. But is the relative +imperfection which exists only such as is necessary, or is it made +worse by our practical arrangements? I believe--and if I did not so +believe I should not have troubled you with these observations--I +believe it is made infinitely worse by our practical arrangements, or +rather, I ought to say, our very unpractical arrangements. Some very +wise man long ago affirmed that every question, in the long run, was a +question of finance; and there is a good deal to be said for that view. +Most assuredly the question of medical teaching is, in a very large and +broad sense, a question of finance. What I mean is this: that in London +the arrangements of the medical schools, and the number of them, are +such as to render it almost impossible that men who confine themselves +to the teaching of the theoretical branches of the profession should be +able to make their bread by that operation; and, you know, if a man +cannot make his bread he cannot teach--at least his teaching comes to a +speedy end. That is a matter of physiology. Anatomy is fairly well +taught, because it lies in the direction of practice, and a man is all +the better surgeon for being a good anatomist. It does not absolutely +interfere with the pursuits of a practical surgeon if he should hold a +Chair of Anatomy--though I do not for one moment say that he would not +be a better teacher if he did not devote himself to practice. +(Applause.) Yes, I know exactly what that cheer means, but I am keeping +as carefully as possible from any sort of allusion to Professor Ellis. +But the fact is, that even human anatomy has now grown to be so large a +matter, that it takes the whole devotion of a man's life to put the +great mass of knowledge upon that subject into such a shape that it can +be teachable to the mind of the ordinary student. What the student +wants in a professor is a man who shall stand between him and the +infinite diversity and variety of human knowledge, and who shall gather +all that together, and extract from it that which is capable of being +assimilated by the mind. That function is a vast and an important one, +and unless, in such subjects as anatomy, a man is wholly free from +other cares, it is almost impossible that he can perform it thoroughly +and well. But if it be hardly possible for a man to pursue anatomy +without actually breaking with his profession, how is it possible for +him to pursue physiology? + +I get every year those very elaborate reports of Henle and +Meissner--volumes of, I suppose, 400 pages altogether--and they consist +merely of abstracts of the memoirs and works which have been written on +Anatomy and Physiology--only abstracts of them! How is a man to keep up +his acquaintance with all that is doing in the physiological world--in +a world advancing with enormous strides every day and every hour--if he +has to be distracted with the cares of practice? You know very well it +must be impracticable to do so. Our men of ability join our medical +schools with an eye to the future. They take the Chairs of Anatomy or +of Physiology; and by and by they leave those Chairs for the more +profitable pursuits into which they have drifted by professional +success, and so they become clothed, and physiology is bare. The result +is, that in those schools in which physiology is thus left to the +benevolence, so to speak, of those who have no time to look to it, the +effect of such teaching comes out obviously, and is made manifest in +what I spoke of just now--the unreality, the bookishness of the +knowledge of the taught. And if this is the case in physiology, still +more must it be the case in those branches of physics which are the +foundation of physiology; although it may be less the case in +chemistry, because for an able chemist a certain honourable and +independent career lies in the direction of his work, and he is able, +like the anatomist, to look upon what he may teach to the student as +not absolutely taking him away from his bread-winning pursuits. + +But it is of no use to grumble about this state of things unless one is +prepared to indicate some sort of practical remedy. And I believe--and +I venture to make the statement because I am wholly independent of all +sorts of medical schools, and may, therefore, say what I believe +without being supposed to be affected by any personal interest--but I +say I believe that the remedy for this state of things, for that +imperfection of our theoretical knowledge which keeps down the ability +of England at the present time in medical matters, is a mere affair of +mechanical arrangement; that so long as you have a dozen medical +schools scattered about in different parts of the metropolis, and +dividing the students among them, so long, in all the smaller schools +at any rate, it is impossible that any other state of things than that +which I have been depicting should obtain. Professors must live; to +live they must occupy themselves with practice, and if they occupy +themselves with practice, the pursuit of the abstract branches of +science must go to the wall. All this is a plain and obvious matter of +common-sense reasoning. I believe you will never alter this state of +things until, either by consent or by _force majeure_--and I +should be very sorry to see the latter applied--but until there is some +new arrangement, and until all the theoretical branches of the +profession, the institutes of medicine, are taught in London in not +more than one or two, or at the outside three, central institutions, no +good will be effected. If that large body of men, the medical students +of London, were obliged in the first place to get a knowledge of the +theoretical branches of their profession in two or three central +schools, there would be abundant means for maintaining able +professors--not, indeed, for enriching them, as they would be able to +enrich themselves by practice--but for enabling them to make that +choice which such men are so willing to make; namely, the choice +between wealth and a modest competency, when that modest competency is +to be combined with a scientific career, and the means of advancing +knowledge. I do not believe that all the talking about, and tinkering +of, medical education will do the slightest good until the fact is +clearly recognised, that men must be thoroughly grounded in the +theoretical branches of their profession, and that to this end the +teaching of those theoretical branches must be confined to two or three +centres. + +Now let me add one other word, and that is, that if I were a despot, I +would cut down these branches to a very considerable extent. The next +thing to be done beyond that which I mentioned just now, is to go back +to primary education. The great step towards a thorough medical +education is to insist upon the teaching of the elements of the +physical sciences in all schools, so that medical students shall not go +up to the medical colleges utterly ignorant of that with which they +have to deal; to insist on the elements of chemistry, the elements of +botany, and the elements of physics being taught in our ordinary and +common schools, so that there shall be some preparation for the +discipline of medical colleges. And, if this reform were once effected, +you might confine the "Institutes of Medicine" to physics as applied to +physiology--to chemistry as applied to physiology--to physiology +itself, and to anatomy. Afterwards, the student, thoroughly grounded in +these matters, might go to any hospital he pleased for the purpose of +studying the practical branches of his profession. The practical +teaching might be made as local as you like; and you might use to +advantage the opportunities afforded by all these local institutions +for acquiring a knowledge of the practice of the profession. But you +may say: "This is abolishing a great deal; you are getting rid of +botany and zoology to begin with." I have not a doubt that they ought +to be got rid of, as branches of special medical education; they ought +to be put back to an earlier stage, and made branches of general +education. Let me say, by way of self-denying ordinance, for which you +will, I am sure, give me credit, that I believe that comparative +anatomy ought to be absolutely abolished. I say so, not without a +certain fear of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of London who +sits upon my left. But I do not think the charter gives him very much +power over me; moreover, I shall soon come to an end of my +examinership, and therefore I am not afraid, but shall go on to say +what I was going to say, and that is, that in my belief it is a +downright cruelty--I have no other word for it--to require from +gentlemen who are engaged in medical studies, the pretence--for it is +nothing else, and can be nothing else, than a pretence--of a knowledge +of comparative anatomy as part of their medical curriculum. Make it +part of their Arts teaching if you like, make it part of their general +education if you like, make it part of their qualification for the +scientific degree by all means--that is its proper place; but to +require that gentlemen whose whole faculties should be bent upon the +acquirement of a real knowledge of human physiology should worry +themselves with getting up hearsay about the alternation of generations +in the Salpae is really monstrous. I cannot characterise it in any +other way. And having sacrificed my own pursuit, I am sure I may +sacrifice other people's; and I make this remark with all the more +willingness because I discovered, on reading the names of your +Professors just now, that the Professor of Materia Medica is not +present. I must confess, if I had my way I should abolish Materia +Medica [1] altogether. I recollect, when I was first under examination +at the University of London, Dr. Pereira was the examiner, and you know +that Pereira's "Materia Medica" was a book _de omnibus rebus_. I +recollect my struggles with that book late at night and early in the +morning (I worked very hard in those days), and I do believe that I got +that book into my head somehow or other, but then I will undertake to +say that I forgot it all a week afterwards. Not one trace of a +knowledge of drugs has remained in my memory from that time to this; +and really, as a matter of common sense, I cannot understand the +arguments for obliging a medical man to know all about drugs and where +they come from. Why not make him belong to the Iron and Steel +Institute, and learn something about cutlery, because he uses knives? + +But do not suppose that, after all these deductions, there would not be +ample room for your activity. Let us count up what we have left. I +suppose all the time for medical education that can be hoped for is, at +the outside, about four years. Well, what have you to master in those +four years upon my supposition? Physics applied to physiology; +chemistry applied to physiology; physiology; anatomy; surgery; medicine +(including therapeutics); obstetrics; hygiene; and medical +jurisprudence--nine subjects for four years! And when you consider what +those subjects are, and that the acquisition of anything beyond the +rudiments of any one of them may tax the energies of a lifetime, I +think that even those energies which you young gentlemen have been +displaying for the last hour or two might be taxed to keep you +thoroughly up to what is wanted for your medical career. + +I entertain a very strong conviction that any one who adds to medical +education one iota or tittle beyond what is absolutely necessary, is +guilty of a very grave offence. Gentlemen, it will depend upon the +knowledge that you happen to possess,--upon your means of applying it +within your own field of action,--whether the bills of mortality of +your district are increased or diminished; and that, gentlemen, is a +very serious consideration indeed. And, under those circumstances, the +subjects with which you have to deal being so difficult, their extent +so enormous, and the time at your disposal so limited, I could not feel +my conscience easy if I did not, on such an occasion as this, raise a +protest against employing your energies upon the acquisition of any +knowledge which may not be absolutely needed in your future career. + + + * * * * * + +[1] It will, I hope, be understood that I do not include Therapeutics +under this head. + + + + +XIII + +THE STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION + +[1884] + + +At intervals during the last quarter of a century committees of the +Houses of the Legislature and specially appointed commissions have +occupied themselves with the affairs of the medical profession. Much +evidence has been taken, much wrangling has gone on over the reports of +these bodies; and sometimes much trouble has been taken to get measures +based upon all this work through Parliament, but very little has been +achieved. + +The Bill introduced last session was not more fortunate than several +predecessors. I suppose that it is not right to rejoice in the +misfortunes of anything, even a Bill; but I confess that this event +afforded me lively satisfaction, for I was a member of the Royal +Commission on the report of which the Bill was founded, and I did my +best to oppose and nullify that report. + +That the question must be taken up again and finally dealt with by the +Legislature before long cannot be doubted; but in the meanwhile there +is time for reflection, and I think that the non-medical public would +be wise if they paid a little attention to a subject which is really of +considerable importance to them. + +The first question which a plain man is disposed to ask himself is, Why +should the State interfere with the profession of medicine any more +than it does, say, with the profession of engineering? Anybody who +pleases may call himself an engineer, and may practice as such. The +State confers no title upon engineers, and does not profess to tell the +public that one man is a qualified engineer and that another is not so. + +The answers which are given to the question are various, and most of +them, I think, are bad. A large number of persons seem to be of opinion +that the State is bound no less to take care of the general public, +than to see that it is protected against incompetent persons, against +quacks and medical impostors in general. I do not take that view of the +case. I think it is very much wholesomer for the public to take care of +itself in this as in all other matters; and although I am not such a +fanatic for the liberty of the subject as to plead that interfering +with the way in which a man may choose to be killed is a violation of +that liberty, yet I do think that it is far better to let everybody do +as he likes. Whether that be so or not, I am perfectly certain that, as +a matter of practice, it is absolutely impossible to prohibit the +practice of medicine by people who have no special qualification for +it. Consider the terrible consequences of attempting to prohibit +practice by a very large class of persons who are certainly not +technically qualified--I am far from saying a word as to whether +they are otherwise qualified or not. The number of Ladies +Bountiful--grandmothers, aunts, and mothers-in-law--whose chief delight +lies in the administration of their cherished provision of domestic +medicine, is past computation, and one shudders to think of what might +happen if their energies were turned from this innocuous, if not +beneficent channel, by the strong arm of the law. But the thing is +impracticable. + +Another reason for intervention is propounded, I am sorry to say, by +some, though not many, members of the medical profession, and is simply +an expression of that trades unionism which tends to infest professions +no less than trades. + +The general practitioner trying to make both ends meet on a poor +practice, whose medical training has cost him a good deal of time and +money, finds that many potential patients, whose small fees would be +welcome as the little that helps, prefer to go and get their shilling's +worth of "doctor's stuff" and advice from the chemist and druggist +round the corner, who has not paid sixpence for his medical training, +because he has never had any. + +The general practitioner thinks this is very hard upon him and ought to +be stopped. It is perhaps natural that he should think so, though it +would be very difficult for him to justify his opinion on any ground of +public policy. But the question is really not worth discussion, as it +is obvious that it would be utterly impracticable to stop the practice +"over the counter" even it it were desirable. + +Is a man who has a sudden attack of pain in tooth or stomach not to be +permitted to go to the nearest druggist's shop and ask for something +that will relieve him? The notion is preposterous. But if this is to be +legal, the whole principle of the permissibility of counter practice is +granted. + +In my judgment the intervention of the State in the affairs of the +medical profession can be justified not upon any pretence of protecting +the public, and still less upon that of protecting the medical +profession, but simply and solely upon the fact that the State employs +medical men for certain purposes, and, as employer, has a right to +define the conditions on which it will accept service. It is for the +interest of the community that no person shall die without there being +some official recognition of the cause of his death. It is a matter of +the highest importance to the community that, in civil and criminal +cases, the law shall be able to have recourse to persons whose evidence +may be taken as that of experts; and it will not be doubted that the +State has a right to dictate the conditions under which it will appoint +persons to the vast number of naval, military, and civil medical +offices held directly or indirectly under the Government. Here, and +here only, it appears to me, lies the justification for the +intervention of the State in medical affairs. It says, or, in my +judgment, should say, to the public, "Practice medicine if you like--go +to be practised upon by anybody;" and to the medical practitioner, +"Have a qualification, or do not have a qualification if people don't +mind it; but if the State is to receive your certificate of death, if +the State is to take your evidence as that of an expert, if the State +is to give you any kind of civil, or military, or naval appointment, +then we can call upon you to comply with our conditions, and to produce +evidence that you are, in our sense of the word, qualified. Without +that we will not place you in that position." As a matter of fact, that +is the relation of the State to the medical profession in this country. +For my part, I think it an extremely healthy relation; and it is one +that I should be very sorry to see altered, except in so far that it +would certainly be better if greater facilities were given for the +swift and sharp punishment of those who profess to have the State +qualification when, in point of fact, they do not possess it. They are +simply cheats and swindlers, like other people who profess to be what +they are not, and should be punished as such. + +But supposing we are agreed about the justification of State +intervention in medical affairs, new questions arise as to the manner +in which that intervention should take place and the extent to which it +should go, on which the divergence of opinion is even greater than it +is on the general question of intervention. + +It is now, I am sorry to say, something over forty years since I began +my medical studies; and, at that time, the state of affairs was +extremely singular. I should think it hardly possible that it could +have obtained anywhere but in such a country as England, which +cherishes a fine old crusted abuse as much as it does its port wine. At +that time there were twenty-one licensing bodies--that is to say, +bodies whose certificate was received by the State as evidence that the +persons who possessed that certificate were medical experts. How these +bodies came to possess these powers is a very curious chapter in +history, in which it would be out of place to enlarge. They were partly +universities, partly medical guilds and corporations, partly the +Archbishop of Canterbury. Those were the three sources from which the +licence to practice came in that day. There was no central authority, +there was nothing to prevent any one of those licensing authorities +from granting a licence to any one upon any conditions it thought fit. +The examination might be a sham, the curriculum might be a sham, the +certificate might be bought and sold like anything in a shop; or, on +the other hand, the examination might be fairly good and the diploma +correspondingly valuable; but there was not the smallest guarantee, +except the personal character of the people who composed the +administration of each of these licensing bodies, as to what might +happen. It was possible for a young man to come to London and to spend +two years and six months of the time of his compulsory three years +"walking the hospitals" in idleness or worse; he could then, by putting +himself in the hands of a judicious "grinder" for the remaining six +months, pass triumphantly through the ordeal of one hour's _vivâ voce_ +examination, which was all that was absolutely necessary, to +enable him to be turned loose upon the public, like death on the pale +horse, "conquering and to conquer," with the full sanction of the law, +as a "qualified practitioner." + +It is difficult to imagine, at present, such a state of things, still +more difficult to depict the consequences of it, because they would +appear like a gross and malignant caricature; but it may be said that +there was never a system, or want of system, which was better +calculated to ruin the students who came under it, or to degrade the +profession as a whole. My memory goes back to a time when models from +whom the Bob Sawyer of the _Pickwick Papers_ might have been drawn +were anything but rare. + +Shortly before my student days, however, the dawn of a better state of +things in England began to be visible, in consequence of the +establishment of the University of London, and the comparatively very +high standard which it placed before its medical graduates. + +I say comparatively high standard, for the requirements of the +University in those days, and even during the twelve years at a later +period, when I was one of the examiners of the medical faculty, were +such as would not now be thought more than respectable, and indeed were +in many respects very imperfect. But, relatively to the means of +learning, the standard was high, and none but the more able and +ambitious of the students dreamed of passing the University. +Nevertheless, the fact that many men of this stamp did succeed in +obtaining their degrees, led others to follow in their steps, and +slowly but surely reacted upon the standard of teaching in the better +medical schools. Then came the Medical Act of 1858. That Act introduced +two immense improvements: one of them was the institution of what is +called the Medical Register, upon which the names of all persons +recognised by the State as medical practitioners are entered: and the +other was the establishment of the Medical Council, which is a kind of +Medical Parliament, composed of representatives of the licensing bodies +and of leading men in the medical profession nominated by the Crown. +The powers given by the Legislature to the Medical Council were found +practically to be very limited, but I think that no fair observer of +the work will doubt that this much attacked body has excited no small +influence in bringing about the great change for the better, which has +been effected in the training of men for the medical profession within +my recollection. + +Another source of improvement must be recognised in the Scottish +Universities, and especially in the medical faculty of the University +of Edinburgh. The medical education and examinations of this body were +for many years the best of their kind in these islands, and I doubt if, +at the present moment, the three kingdoms can show a better school of +medicine than that of Edinburgh. The vast number of medical students at +that University is sufficient evidence of the opinion of those most +interested in this subject. + +Owing to all those influences, and to the revolution which has taken +place in the course of the last twenty years in our conceptions of the +proper method of teaching physical science, the training of the medical +student in a good school, and the examination test applied by the great +majority of the present licensing bodies, reduced now to nineteen, in +consequence of the retirement of the Archbishop and the fusion of two +of the other licensing bodies, are totally different from what they +were even twenty years ago. + +I was perfectly astonished, upon one of my sons commencing his medical +career the other day, when I contrasted the carefully-watched courses +of theoretical and practical instruction, which he is expected to +follow with regularity and industry, and the number and nature of the +examinations which he will have to pass before he can receive his +licence, not only with the monstrous laxity of my own student days, but +even with the state of things which obtained when my term of office as +examiner in the University of London expired some sixteen years ago. + +I have no hesitation in expressing the opinion, which is fully borne +out by the evidence taken before the late Royal Commission, that a +large proportion of the existing licensing bodies grant their licence +on conditions which ensure quite as high a standard as it is +practicable or advisable to exact under present circumstances, and that +they show every desire to keep pace with the improvements of the times. +And I think there can be no doubt that the great majority have so much +improved their ways, that their standard is far above that of the +ordinary qualification thirty years ago, and I cannot see what excuse +there would be for meddling with them if it were not for two other +defects which have to be remedied. + +Unfortunately there remain two or three black sheep--licensing bodies +which simply trade upon their privilege, and sell the cheapest wares +they can for shame's sake supply to the bidder. Another defect in the +existing system, even where the examination has been so greatly +improved as to be good of its kind, is that there are certain licensing +bodies which give a qualification for an acquaintance with either +medicine or surgery alone, and which more or less ignore obstetrics. +This is a revival of the archaic condition of the profession when +surgical operations were mostly left to the barbers and obstetrics to +the mid-wives, and when the physicians thought themselves, and were +considered by the world, the "superior persons" of the profession. I +remember a story was current in my young days of a great court +physician who was travelling with a friend, like himself, bound on a +visit to a country house. The friend fell down in an apoplectic fit, +and the physician refused to bleed him because it was contrary to +professional etiquette for a physician to perform that operation. +Whether the friend died or whether he got better because he was not +bled I do not remember, but the moral of the story is the same. On the +other hand, a famous surgeon was asked whether he meant to bring up his +son to his own calling, "No," he said, "he is such a fool, I mean to +make a physician of him." + +Nowadays, it is happily recognised that medicine is one and +indivisible, and that no one can properly practice one branch who is +not familiar with at any rate the principles of all. Thus the two great +things that are wanted now are, in the first place, some means of +enforcing such a degree of uniformity upon all the examining bodies +that none should present a disgracefully low minimum or pass +examination; and the second point is that some body or other shall have +the power of enforcing upon every candidate for the licence to practice +the study of the three branches, what is called the tripartite +qualification. All the members of the late commission were agreed that +these were the main points to be attended to in any proposals for the +further improvement of medical training and qualification. + +But such being the ends in view, our notions as to the best way of +attaining them were singularly divergent; so that it came about that +eleven commissioners made seven reports. There was one main majority +report and six minor reports, which differed more or less from it, +chiefly as to the best method of attaining these two objects. + +The majority report recommended the adoption of what is known as the +conjoint scheme. According to this plan the power of granting a licence +to practise is to be taken away from all the existing bodies, whether +they have done well or ill, and to be placed in the hands of a body of +delegates (divisional boards), one for each of the three kingdoms. The +licence to practise is to be conferred by passing the delegate +examination. The licensee may afterwards, if he pleases, go before any +of the existing bodies and indulge in the luxury of another examination +and the payment of another fee in order to obtain a title, which does +not legally place him in any better position than that which he would +occupy without it. + +Under these circumstances, of course, the only motive for obtaining the +degree of a University or the licence of a medical corporation would be +the prestige of these bodies. Hence the "black sheep" would certainly +be deserted, while those bodies which have acquired a reputation by +doing their duty would suffer less. + +But, as the majority report proposes that the existing bodies should be +compensated for any loss they might suffer out of the fees of the +examiners for the State licence, the curious result would be brought +about that the profession of the future would be taxed, for all time, +for the purpose of handing over to wholly irresponsible bodies a sum, +the amount of which would be large for those who had failed in their +duty and small for those who had done it. + +The scheme in fact involved a perpetual endowment of the "black +sheep," calculated on the maximum of their ill-gained profits. [1] I +confess that I found myself unable to assent to a plan which, in +addition to the rewarding the evil doers, proposed to take away the +privileges of a number of examining bodies which confessedly were doing +their duty well, for the sake of getting rid of a few who had failed. +It was too much like the Chinaman's device of burning down his house to +obtain a poor dish of roast pig--uncertain whether in the end he might +not find a mere mass of cinders. What we do know is that the great +majority of the existing licensing bodies have marvellously improved in +the course of the last twenty years, and are improving. What we do not +know is that the complicated scheme of the divisional boards will ever +be got to work at all. + +My own belief is that every necessary reform may be effected, without +any interference with vested interests, without any unjust interference +with the prestige of institutions which have been, and still are, +extremely valuable, without any question of compensation arising, and +by an extremely simple operation. It is only necessary in fact to add a +couple of clauses to the Medical Act to this effect: (1) That from and +after such a date no person shall be placed upon the Medical Register +unless he possesses the threefold qualification. (2) That from and +after this date no examination shall be accepted as satisfactory +from any licensing body except such as has been carried on in part +by examiners appointed by the licensing body, and in part by +coadjutor-examiners of equal authority appointed by the Medical Council +or other central authority, and acting under their instructions. + +In laying down a rule of this kind the State confiscates nothing, and +meddles with nobody, but simply acts within its undoubted right of +laying down the conditions under which it will confer certain +privileges upon medical practitioners. No one can say that the State +has not the right to do this; no one can say that the State interferes +with any private enterprise or corporate interest unjustly, in laying +down its own conditions for its own service. The plan would have the +further advantage that all those corporate bodies which have obtained +(as many of them have) a great and just prestige by the admirable way +in which they have done their work, would reap their just reward in the +thronging of students, thenceforward as formerly, to obtain their +qualifications; while those who have neglected their duties, who have +in some one or two cases, I am sorry to say, absolutely disgraced +themselves, would sink into oblivion, and come to a happy and natural +euthanasia, in which their misdeeds and themselves would be entirely +forgotten. + +Two of my colleagues, Professor Turner and Mr. Bryce, M.P., whose +practical familiarity with examinations gave their opinions a high +value, expressed their substantial approval of this scheme, and I am +unable to see the weight of the objections urged against it. It is +urged that the difficulty and expense of adequately inspecting so many +examinations and of guaranteeing their efficiency would be great, and +the difficulty in the way of a fair adjustment of the representation of +existing interests and of the representation of new interests upon the +general Medical Council would be almost insuperable. + +The latter objection is unintelligible to me. I am not aware that any +attempt at such adjustment has been fairly discussed, and until that +has been done it may be well not to talk about insuperable +difficulties. As to the notion that there is any difficulty in getting +the coadjutor-examiners, or that the expense will be overwhelming, we +have the experience of Scotland, in which every University does, at the +present time, appoint its coadjutor-examiners, who do their work just +in the way proposed. + +Whether in the way I have proposed, or by the Conjoint Scheme, however, +this is perfectly certain: the two things I refer to have to be done: +you must have the threefold qualification; you must have the limitation +of the minimum qualification also; and any scheme for the improvement +of the relations of the State to medicine which does not profess to do +these two things thoroughly and well, has no chance of finality. + +But when these reforms are witnessed, when there is a Medical Council +armed with a more real authority than it at present possesses; when a +license to practice cannot be obtained without the threefold +qualification; and when an even minimum of qualification is exacted for +every licence, is there anything else that remains that any one +seriously interested in the welfare of the medical profession, as I may +most conscientiously declare myself to be, would like to see done? I +think there are three things. + +In the first place, even now, when a four years' curriculum is +required, the time allotted for medical education is too brief. A young +man of eighteen beginning to study medicine is probably absolutely +ignorant of the existence of such a thing as anatomy, or physiology, or +indeed of any branch of physical science. He comes into an entirely new +world; he addresses himself to a kind of work of which he has not the +smallest experience. Up to that time his work has been with books; he +rushes suddenly into work with things, which is as different from work +with books as anything can well be. I am quite sure that a very +considerable number of young men spend a very large portion of their +first session in simply learning how to learn subjects which are +entirely new to them. And yet recollect that in this period of four +years they have to acquire a knowledge of all the branches of a great +and responsible practical calling of medicine, surgery, obstetrics, +general pathology, medical jurisprudence, and so forth. Anybody who +knows what these things are, and who knows what is the kind of work +which is necessary to give a man the confidence which will enable him +to stand at the bedside and say to the satisfaction of his own +conscience what shall be done, and what shall not be done, must be +aware that if a man has only four years to do all that in he will not +have much time to spare. But that is not all. As I have said, the young +man comes up, probably ignorant of the existence of science; he has +never heard a word of chemistry, he has never heard a word of physics, +he has not the smallest conception of the outlines of biological +science; and all these things have to be learned as well and crammed +into the time which in itself is barely sufficient to acquire a fair +amount of that knowledge which is requisite for the satisfactory +discharge of his professional duties. + +Therefore it is quite clear to me that, somehow or other, the +curriculum must be lightened. It is not that any of the subjects which +I have mentioned need not to be studied, and may be eliminated. The +only alternative therefore is to lengthen the time given to study. +Everybody will agree with me that the practical necessities of life in +this country are such that, for the average medical practitioner at any +rate, it is hopeless to think of extending the period of professional +study beyond the age of twenty-two. So that as the period of study +cannot be extended forwards, the only thing to be done is to extend it +backwards. + +The question is how this can be done. My own belief is that if the +Medical Council, instead of insisting upon that examination in general +education which I am sorry to say I believe to be entirely futile, were +to insist upon a knowledge of elementary physics, and chemistry, and +biology, they would be taking one of the greatest steps which at +present can be made for the improvement of medical education. And the +improvement would be this. The great majority of the young men who are +going into the profession have practically completed their general +education--or they might very well have done so--by the age of sixteen +or seventeen. If the interval between this age and that at which they +commence their purely medical studies were employed in obtaining a +practical acquaintance with elementary physics, chemistry, and biology, +in my judgment it would be as good as two years added to the course of +medical study. And for two reasons: in the first place, because the +subject-matter of that which they would learn is germane to their +future studies, and is so much gained; in the second place, because you +might clear out of the course of their professional study a great deal +which at present occupies time and attention; and last, but not +least--probably most--they would then come to their medical studies +prepared for that learning from Nature which is what they have to do in +the course of becoming skilful medical men, and for which at present +they are not in the slightest degree prepared by their previous +education. + +The second wish I have to express concerns London especially, and I may +speak of it briefly as a more economical use of the teaching power in +the medical schools. At this present time every great hospital in +London--and there are ten or eleven of them--has its complete medical +school, in which not only are the branches of practical medicine +taught, but also those studies in general science, such as chemistry, +elementary physics, general anatomy, and a variety of other topics +which are what used to be called (and the term was an extremely useful +one) the institutes of medicine. That was all very well half a century +ago; it is all very ill now, simply because those general branches of +science, such as anatomy, physiology, chemistry, physiological +chemistry, physiological physics, and so forth, have now become so +large, and the mode of teaching them is so completely altered, that it +is absolutely impossible for any man to be a thoroughly competent +teacher of them, or for any student to be effectually taught without +the devotion of the whole time of the person who is engaged in +teaching. I undertake to say that it is hopelessly impossible for any +man at the present time to keep abreast with the progress of physiology +unless he gives his whole mind to it; and the bigger the mind is, the +more scope he will find for its employment. Again, teaching has become, +and must become still more, practical, and that also involves a large +expenditure of time. But if a man is to give his whole time to my +business he must live by it, and the resources of the schools do not +permit them to maintain ten or eleven physiological specialists. + +If the students in their first one or two years were taught the +institutes of medicine, in two or three central institutions, it would +be perfectly easy to have those subjects taught thoroughly and +effectually by persons who gave their whole mind and attention to the +subject; while at the same time the medical schools at the hospitals +would remain what they ought to be--great institutions in which the +largest possible opportunities are laid open for acquiring practical +acquaintance with the phenomena of disease. So that the preliminary or +earlier half of medical education would take place in the central +institutions, and the final half would be devoted altogether to +practical studies in the hospitals. + +I happen to know that this conception has been entertained, not only by +myself, but by a great many of those persons who are most interested in +the improvement of medical study for a considerable number of years. I +do not know whether anything will come of it this half-century or not; +but the thing has to be done. It is not a speculative notion; it lies +patent to everybody who is accustomed to teaching, and knows what the +necessities of teaching are; and I should very much like to see the +first step taken--people making up their minds that it has to be done +somehow or other. + +The last point to which I may advert is one which concerns the action +of the profession itself more than anything else. We have arrangements +for teaching, we have arrangements for the testing of qualifications, +we have marvellous aids and appliances for the treatment of disease in +all sorts of ways; but I do not find in London at the present time, in +this little place of four or five million inhabitants which supports so +many things, any organisation or any arrangement for advancing the +science of medicine, considered as a pure science. I am quite aware +that there are medical societies of various kinds; I am not ignorant of +the lectureships at the College of Physicians and the College of +Surgeons; there is the Brown Institute; and there is the Society for +the Advancement of Medicine by Research, but there is no means, so far +as I know, by which any person who has the inborn gifts of the +investigator and discoverer of new truth, and who desires to apply that +to the improvement of medical science, can carry out his intention. In +Paris there is the University of Paris, which gives degrees; but there +are also the Sorbonne and the Collége de France, places in which +professoriates are established for the express purpose of enabling men +who have the power of investigation, the power of advancing knowledge +and thereby reacting on practice, to do that which it is their special +mission to do. I do not know of anything of the kind in London; and if +it should so happen that a Claude Bernard or a Ludwig should turn up in +London, I really have not the slightest notion of what we could do with +him. We could not turn him to account, and I think we should have to +export him to Germany or France. I doubt whether that is a good or a +wise condition of things. I do not think it is a condition of things +which can exist for any great length of time, now that people are every +day becoming more and more awake to the importance of scientific +investigation and to the astounding and unexpected manner in which it +everywhere reacts upon practical pursuits. I should look upon the +establishment of some institution of that kind as a recognition on the +part of the medical profession in general, that if their great and +beneficent work is to be carried on, they must, like other people who +have great and beneficent work to do, contribute to the advancement of +knowledge in the only way in which experience shows that it can be +advanced. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1]The fees to be paid by candidates for admission to the examinations +of the Divisional Board should be of such an amount as will be +sufficient to cover the cost of the examinations and the other expenses +of the Divisional Board, _and also to provide the sum required to +compensate the medical authorities, or such of them as may be entitled +to compensation, for any pecuniary losses they may hereafter sustain by +reason of the abolition of their privilege of conferring a licence to +practise. Report_ 50, p. xii. + + + + +XIV + +THE CONNECTION OF THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES WITH MEDICINE + +[1881] + + +The great body of theoretical and practical knowledge which has been +accumulated by the labours of some eighty generations, since the dawn +of scientific thought in Europe, has no collective English name to +which an objection may not be raised; and I use the term "medicine" as +that which is least likely to be misunderstood; though, as every one +knows, the name is commonly applied, in a narrower sense, to one of the +chief divisions of the totality of medical science. + +Taken in this broad sense, "medicine" not merely denotes a kind of +knowledge, but it comprehends the various applications of that +knowledge to the alleviation of the sufferings, the repair of the +injuries, and the conservation of the health, of living beings. In +fact, the practical aspect of medicine so far dominates over every +other, that the "Healing Art" is one of its most widely-received +synonyms. It is so difficult to think of medicine otherwise than as +something which is necessarily connected with curative treatment, that +we are apt to forget that there must be, and is, such a thing as a pure +science of medicine--a "pathology" which has no more necessary +subservience to practical ends than has zoology or botany. + +The logical connection between this purely scientific doctrine of +disease, or pathology, and ordinary biology, is easily traced. Living +matter is characterised by its innate tendency to exhibit a definite +series of the morphological and physiological phenomena which +constitute organisation and life. Given a certain range of conditions, +and these phenomena remain the same, within narrow limits, for each +kind of living thing. They furnish the normal and typical character of +the species, and, as such, they are the subject-matter of ordinary +biology. + +Outside the range of these conditions, the normal course of the cycle +of vital phenomena is disturbed; abnormal structure makes its +appearance, or the proper character and mutual adjustment of the +functions cease to be preserved. The extent and the importance of these +deviations from the typical life may vary indefinitely. They may have +no noticeable influence on the general well-being of the economy, or +they may favour it. On the other hand, they may be of such a nature as +to impede the activities of the organism, or even to involve its +destruction. + +In the first case, these perturbations are ranged under the wide and +somewhat vague category of "variations"; in the second, they are called +lesions, states of poisoning, or diseases; and, as morbid states, they +lie within the province of pathology. No sharp line of demarcation can +be drawn between the two classes of phenomena. No one can say where +anatomical variations end and tumours begin, nor where modification of +function, which may at first promote health, passes into disease. All +that can be said is, that whatever change of structure or function is +hurtful belongs to pathology. Hence it is obvious that pathology is a +branch of biology; it is the morphology, the physiology, the +distribution, the aetiology of abnormal life. + +However obvious this conclusion may be now, it was nowise apparent in +the infancy of medicine. For it is a peculiarity of the physical +sciences that they are independent in proportion as they are imperfect; +and it is only as they advance that the bonds which really unite them +all become apparent. Astronomy had no manifest connection with +terrestrial physics before the publication of the "Principia"; that of +chemistry with physics is of still more modern revelation; that of +physics and chemistry with physiology, has been stoutly denied within +the recollection of most of us, and perhaps still may be. + + +Or, to take a case which affords a closer parallel with that of +medicine. Agriculture has been cultivated from the earliest times, and, +from a remote antiquity, men have attained considerable practical skill +in the cultivation of the useful plants, and have empirically +established many scientific truths concerning the conditions under +which they flourish. But, it is within the memory of many of us, that +chemistry on the one hand, and vegetable physiology on the other, +attained a stage of development such that they were able to furnish a +sound basis for scientific agriculture. Similarly, medicine took its +rise in the practical needs of mankind. At first, studied without +reference to any other branch of knowledge, it long maintained, indeed +still to some extent maintains, that independence. Historically, its +connection with the biological sciences has been slowly established, +and the full extent and intimacy of that connection are only now +beginning to be apparent. I trust I have not been mistaken in supposing +that an attempt to give a brief sketch of the steps by which a +philosophical necessity has become an historical reality, may not be +devoid of interest, possibly of instruction, to the members of this +great Congress, profoundly interested as all are in the scientific +development of medicine. + +The history of medicine is more complete and fuller than that of any +other science, except, perhaps, astronomy; and, if we follow back the +long record as far as clear evidence lights us, we find ourselves taken +to the early stages of the civilisation of Greece. The oldest hospitals +were the temples of Aesculapius; to these Asclepeia, always erected on +healthy sites, hard by fresh springs and surrounded by shady groves, +the sick and the maimed resorted to seek the aid of the god of health. +Votive tablets or inscriptions recorded the symptoms, no less than the +gratitude, of those who were healed; and, from these primitive clinical +records, the half-priestly, half-philosophic caste of the Asclepiads +compiled the data upon which the earliest generalisations of medicine, +as an inductive science, were based. + +In this state, pathology, like all the inductive sciences at their +origin, was merely natural history; it registered the phenomena of +disease, classified them, and ventured upon a prognosis, wherever the +observation of constant co-existences and sequences suggested a +rational expectation of the like recurrence under similar +circumstances. + +Further than this it hardly went. In fact, in the then state of +knowledge, and in the condition of philosophical speculation at that +time, neither the causes of the morbid state, nor the _rationale_ +of treatment, were likely to be sought for as we seek for them now. The +anger of a god was a sufficient reason for the existence of a malady, +and a dream ample warranty for therapeutic measures; that a physical +phenomenon must needs have a physical cause was not the implied or +expressed axiom that it is to us moderns. + +The great man whose name is inseparably connected with the foundation +of medicine, Hippocrates, certainly knew very little, indeed +practically nothing, of anatomy or physiology; and he would, probably, +have been perplexed even to imagine the possibility of a connection +between the zoological studies of his contemporary Democritus and +medicine. Nevertheless, in so far as he, and those who worked before +and after him, in the same spirit, ascertained, as matters of +experience, that a wound, or a luxation, or a fever, presented such and +such symptoms, and that the return of the patient to health was +facilitated by such and such measures, they established laws of nature, +and began the construction of the science of pathology. All true +science begins with empiricism--though all true science is such +exactly, in so far as it strives to pass out of the empirical stage +into that of the deduction of empirical from more general truths. Thus, +it is not wonderful, that the early physicians had little or nothing to +do with the development of biological science; and, on the other hand, +that the early biologists did not much concern themselves with +medicine. There is nothing to show that the Asclepiads took any +prominent share in the work of founding anatomy, physiology, zoology, +and botany. Rather do these seem to have sprung from the early +philosophers, who were essentially natural philosophers, animated by +the characteristically Greek thirst for knowledge as such. Pythagoras, +Alcmeon, Democritus, Diogenes of Apollonia, are all credited with +anatomical and physiological investigations; and, though Aristotle is +said to have belonged to an Asclepiad family, and not improbably owed +his taste for anatomical and zoological inquiries to the teachings of +his father, the physician Nicomachus, the "Historia Animalium," and the +treatise "De Partibus Animalium," are as free from any allusion to +medicine as if they had issued from a modern biological laboratory. + +It may be added, that it is not easy to see in what way it could have +benefited a physician of Alexander's time to know all that Aristotle +knew on these subjects. His human anatomy was too rough to avail much +in diagnosis; his physiology was too erroneous to supply data for +pathological reasoning. But when the Alexandrian school, with +Erasistratus and Herophilus at their head, turned to account the +opportunities of studying human structure, afforded to them by the +Ptolemies, the value of the large amount of accurate knowledge thus +obtained to the surgeon for his operations, and to the physician for +his diagnosis of internal disorders, became obvious, and a connection +was established between anatomy and medicine, which has ever become +closer and closer. Since the revival of learning, surgery, medical +diagnosis, and anatomy have gone hand in hand. Morgagni called his +great work, "De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis," and +not only showed the way to search out the localities and the causes of +disease by anatomy, but himself travelled wonderfully far upon the +road. Bichat, discriminating the grosser constituents of the organs and +parts of the body, one from another, pointed out the direction which +modern research must take; until, at length, histology, a science of +yesterday, as it seems to many of us, has carried the work of Morgagni +as far as the microscope can take us, and has extended the realm of +pathological anatomy to the limits of the invisible world. + +Thanks to the intimate alliance of morphology with medicine, the +natural history of disease has, at the present day, attained a high +degree of perfection. Accurate regional anatomy has rendered +practicable the exploration of the most hidden parts of the organism, +and the determination, during life, of morbid changes in them; +anatomical and histological post-mortem investigations have supplied +physicians with a clear basis upon which to rest the classification, of +diseases, and with unerring tests of the accuracy or inaccuracy of +their diagnoses. + +If men could be satisfied with pure knowledge, the extreme precision +with which, in these days, a sufferer may be told what is happening, +and what is likely to happen, even in the most recondite parts of his +bodily frame, should be as satisfactory to the patient as it is to +the scientific pathologist who gives him the information. But I am +afraid it is not; and even the practising physician, while nowise +under-estimating the regulative value of accurate diagnosis, must often +lament that so much of his knowledge rather prevents him from doing +wrong than helps him to do right. + +A scorner of physic once said that nature and disease may be compared +to two men fighting, the doctor to a blind man with a club, who strikes +into the _mêlée_, sometimes hitting the disease, and sometimes +hitting nature. The matter is not mended if you suppose the blind man's +hearing to be so acute that he can register every stage of the +struggle, and pretty clearly predict how it will end. He had better not +meddle at all, until his eyes are opened, until he can see the exact +position of the antagonists, and make sure of the effect of his blows. +But that which it behoves the physician to see, not, indeed, with his +bodily eye, but with clear, intellectual vision, is a process, and the +chain of causation involved in that process. Disease, as we have seen, +is a perturbation of the normal activities of a living body, and it is, +and must remain, unintelligible, so long as we are ignorant of the +nature of these normal activities. In other words, there could be no +real science of pathology until the science of physiology had reached a +degree of perfection unattained, and indeed unattainable, until quite +recent times. + +So far as medicine is concerned, I am not sure that physiology, such as +it was down to the time of Harvey, might as well not have existed. Nay, +it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that, within the memory of living +men, justly renowned practitioners of medicine and surgery knew +less physiology than is now to be learned from the most elementary +text-book; and, beyond a few broad facts, regarded what they did know +as of extremely little practical importance. Nor am I disposed to blame +them for this conclusion; physiology must be useless, or worse than +useless, to pathology, so long as its fundamental conceptions are +erroneous. + +Harvey is often said to be the founder of modern physiology; and there +can be no question that the elucidations of the function of the heart, +of the nature of the pulse, and of the course of the blood, put forth +in the ever-memorable little essay, "De motu cordis," directly worked a +revolution in men's views of the nature and of the concatenation of +some of the most important physiological processes among the higher +animals; while, indirectly, their influence was perhaps even more +remarkable. + +But, though Harvey made this signal and perennially important +contribution to the physiology of the moderns, his general conception +of vital processes was essentially identical with that of the ancients; +and, in the "Exercitationes de generatione," and notably in the +singular chapter "De calido innato," he shows himself a true son of +Galen and of Aristotle. + +For Harvey, the blood possesses powers superior to those of the +elements; it is the seat of a soul which is not only vegetative, but +also sensitive and motor. The blood maintains and fashions all parts of +the body, "idque summâ cum providentiâ et intellectu in finem certum +agens, quasi ratiocinio quodam uteretur." + +Here is the doctrine of the "pneuma," the product of the philosophical +mould into which the animism of primitive men ran in Greece, in full +force. Nor did its strength abate for long after Harvey's time. The +same ingrained tendency of the human mind to suppose that a process is +explained when it is ascribed to a power of which nothing is known +except that it is the hypothetical agent of the process, gave rise, in +the next century, to the animism of Stahl; and, later, to the doctrine +of a vital principle, that "asylum ignorantiae" of physiologists, which +has so easily accounted for everything and explained nothing, down to +our own times. + +Now the essence of modern, as contrasted with ancient, physiological +science appears to me to lie in its antagonism to animistic hypotheses +and animistic phraseology. It offers physical explanations of vital +phenomena, or frankly confesses that it has none to offer. And, so far +as I know, the first person who gave expression to this modern view of +physiology, who was bold enough to enunciate the proposition that vital +phenomena, like all the other phenomena of the physical world, are, in +ultimate analysis, resolvable into matter and motion, was René +Descartes. + +The fifty-four years of life of this most original and powerful thinker +are widely overlapped, on both sides, by the eighty of Harvey, who +survived his younger contemporary by seven years, and takes pleasure in +acknowledging the French philosopher's appreciation of his great +discovery. + +In fact, Descartes accepted the doctrine of the circulation as +propounded by "Harvaeus médecin d'Angleterre," and gave a full account +of it in his first work, the famous "Discours de la Méthode," which was +published in 1637, only nine years after the exercitation "De motu +cordis"; and, though differing from Harvey on some important points (in +which it may be noted, in passing, Descartes was wrong and Harvey +right), he always speaks of him with great respect. And so important +does the subject seem to Descartes, that he returns to it in the +"Traité des Passions," and in the "Traité de l'Homme." + +It is easy to see that Harvey's work must have had a peculiar +significance for the subtle thinker, to whom we owe both the +spiritualistic and the materialistic philosophies of modern times. It +was in the very year of its publication, 1628, that Descartes withdrew +into that life of solitary investigation and meditation of which his +philosophy was the fruit. And, as the course of his speculations led +him to establish an absolute distinction of nature between the material +and the mental worlds, he was logically compelled to seek for the +explanation of the phenomena of the material world within itself; and +having allotted the realm of thought to the soul, to see nothing but +extension and motion in the rest of nature. Descartes uses "thought" as +the equivalent of our modern term "consciousness." Thought is the +function of the soul, and its only function. Our natural heat and all +the movements of the body, says he, do not depend on the soul. Death +does not take place from any fault of the soul, but only because some +of the principal parts of the body become corrupted. The body of a +living man differs from that of a dead man in the same way as a watch +or other automaton (that is to say, a machine which moves of itself) +when it is wound up and has, in itself, the physical principle of the +movements which the mechanism is adapted to perform, differs from the +same watch, or other machine, when it is broken, and the physical +principle of its movement no longer exists. All the actions which are +common to us and the lower animals depend only on the conformation of +our organs, and the course which the animal spirits take in the brain, +the nerves, and the muscles; in the same way as the movement of a watch +is produced by nothing but the force of its spring and the figure of +its wheels and other parts. + +Descartes' "Treatise on Man" is a sketch of human physiology, in which +a bold attempt is made to explain all the phenomena of life, except +those of consciousness, by physical reasonings. To a mind turned in +this direction, Harvey's exposition of the heart and vessels as a +hydraulic mechanism must have been supremely welcome. + +Descartes was not a mere philosophical theorist, but a hardworking +dissector and experimenter, and he held the strongest opinion +respecting the practical value of the new conception which he was +introducing. He speaks of the importance of preserving health, and of +the dependence of the mind on the body being so close that, perhaps, +the only way of making men wiser and better than they are, is to be +sought in medical science. "It is true," says he, "that as medicine is +now practised it contains little that is very useful; but without any +desire to depreciate, I am sure that there is no one, even among +professional men, who will not declare that all we know is very little +as compared with that which remains to be known; and that we might +escape an infinity of diseases of the mind, no less than of the body, +and even perhaps from the weakness of old age, if we had sufficient +knowledge of their causes, and of all the remedies with which nature +has provided us." [1] So strongly impressed was Descartes with this, +that he resolved to spend the rest of his life in trying to acquire +such a knowledge of nature as would lead to the construction of a +better medical doctrine. [2] The anti-Cartesians found material for +cheap ridicule in these aspirations of the philosopher; and it is +almost needless to say that, in the thirteen years which elapsed +between the publication of the "Discours" and the death of Descartes, +he did not contribute much to their realisation. But, for the next +century, all progress in physiology took place along the lines which +Descartes laid down. + +The greatest physiological and pathological work of the seventeenth +century, Borelli's treatise "De Motu Animalium," is, to all intents and +purposes, a development of Descartes' fundamental conception; and the +same may be said of the physiology and pathology of Boerhaave, whose +authority dominated in the medical world of the first half of the +eighteenth century. + +With the origin of modern chemistry, and of electrical science, in the +latter half of the eighteenth century, aids in the analysis of the +phenomena of life, of which Descartes could not have dreamed, were +offered to the physiologist. And the greater part of the gigantic +progress which has been made in the present century is a justification +of the prevision of Descartes. For it consists, essentially, in a more +and more complete resolution of the grosser organs of the living body +into physicochemical mechanisms. + +"I shall try to explain our whole bodily machinery in such a way, that +it will be no more necessary for us to suppose that the soul produces +such movements as are not voluntary, than it is to think that there is +in a clock a soul which causes it to show the hours." [3] These words +of Descartes might be appropriately taken as a motto by the author of +any modern treatise on physiology. + +But though, as I think, there is no doubt that Descartes was the first +to propound the fundamental conception of the living body as a physical +mechanism, which is the distinctive feature of modern, as contrasted +with ancient physiology, he was misled by the natural temptation to +carry out, in all its details, a parallel between the machines with +which he was familiar, such as clocks and pieces of hydraulic +apparatus, and the living machine. In all such machines there is a +central source of power, and the parts of the machine are merely +passive distributors of that power. The Cartesian school conceived of +the living body as a machine of this kind; and herein they might have +learned from Galen, who, whatever ill use he may have made of the +doctrine of "natural faculties," nevertheless had the great merit of +perceiving that local forces play a great part in physiology. + +The same truth was recognised by Glisson, but it was first prominently +brought forward in the Hallerian doctrine of the "vis insita" of +muscles. If muscle can contract without nerve, there is an end of the +Cartesian mechanical explanation of its contraction by the influx of +animal spirits. + +The discoveries of Trembley tended in the same direction. In the +freshwater _Hydra_, no trace was to be found of that complicated +machinery upon which the performance of the functions in the higher +animals was supposed to depend. And yet the hydra moved, fed, grew, +multiplied, and its fragments exhibited all the powers of the whole. +And, finally, the work of Caspar F. Wolff, [4] by demonstrating the +fact that the growth and development of both plants and animals take +place antecedently to the existence of their grosser organs, and are, +in fact, the causes and not the consequences of organisation (as then +understood), sapped the foundations of the Cartesian physiology as a +complete expression of vital phenomena. + +For Wolff, the physical basis of life is a fluid, possessed of a "vis +essentialis" and a "solidescibilitas," in virtue of which it gives rise +to organisation; and, as he points out, this conclusion strikes at the +root of the whole iatro-mechanical system. + +In this country, the great authority of John Hunter exerted a similar +influence; though it must be admitted that the too sibylline utterances +which are the outcome of Hunter's struggles to define his conceptions +are often susceptible of more than one interpretation. Nevertheless, on +some points Hunter is clear enough. For example, he is of opinion that +"Spirit is only a property of matter" ("Introduction to Natural +History," p. 6), he is prepared to renounce animism, (_l.c._ p. +8), and his conception of life is so completely physical that he thinks +of it as something which can exist in a state of combination in the +food. "The aliment we take in has in it, in a fixed state, the real +life; and this does not become active until it has got into the lungs; +for there it is freed from its prison" ("Observations on Physiology," +p. 113). He also thinks that "It is more in accord with the general +principles of the animal machine to suppose that none of its effects +are produced from any mechanical principle whatever; and that every +effect is produced from an action in the part; which action is produced +by a stimulus upon the part which acts, or upon some other part with +which this part sympathises so as to take up the whole action" (_l.c._ +p. 152). + +And Hunter is as clear as Wolff, with whose work he was probably +unacquainted, that "whatever life is, it most certainly does not depend +upon structure or organisation" (_l.c._ p. 114). + +Of course it is impossible that Hunter could have intended to deny the +existence of purely mechanical operations in the animal body. But +while, with Borelli and Boerhaave, he looked upon absorption, +nutrition, and secretion as operations effected by means of the small +vessels, he differed from the mechanical physiologists, who regarded +these operations as the result of the mechanical properties of the +small vessels, such as the size, form, and disposition of their canals +and apertures. Hunter, on the contrary, considers them to be the effect +of properties of these vessels which are not mechanical but vital. "The +vessels," says he, "have more of the polypus in them than any other +part of the body," and he talks of the "living and sensitive principles +of the arteries," and even of the "dispositions or feelings of the +arteries." "When the blood is good and genuine the sensations of the +arteries, or the dispositions for sensation, are agreeable.... It is +then they dispose of the blood to the best advantage, increasing the +growth of the whole, supplying any losses, keeping up a due succession, +etc." (_l.c._ p. 133). + +If we follow Hunter's conceptions to their logical issue, the life of +one of the higher animals is essentially the sum of the lives of all +the vessels, each of which is a sort of physiological unit, answering +to a polype; and, as health is the result of the normal "action of the +vessels," so is disease an effect of their abnormal action. Hunter thus +stands in thought, as in time, midway between Borelli on the one hand, +and Bichat on the other. + +The acute founder of general anatomy, in fact, outdoes Hunter in his +desire to exclude physical reasonings from the realm of life. Except in +the interpretation of the action of the sense organs, he will not allow +physics to have anything to do with physiology. + +"To apply the physical sciences to physiology is to explain the +phenomena of living bodies by the laws of inert bodies. Now this is a +false principle, hence all its consequences are marked with the same +stamp. Let us leave to chemistry its affinity; to physics, its +elasticity and its gravity. Let us invoke for physiology only +sensibility and contractility." [5] + +Of all the unfortunate dicta of men of eminent ability this seems one +of the most unhappy, when we think of what the application of the +methods and the data of physics and chemistry has done towards bringing +physiology into its present state. It is not too much to say that +one-half of a modern text-book of physiology consists of applied +physics and chemistry; and that it is exactly in the exploration of the +phenomena of sensibility and contractility that physics and chemistry +have exerted the most potent influence. + +Nevertheless, Bichat rendered a solid service to physiological progress +by insisting upon the fact that what we call life, in one of the higher +animals, is not an indivisible unitary archaeus dominating, from its +central seat, the parts of the organism, but a compound result of the +synthesis of the separate lives of those parts. + +"All animals," says he, "are assemblages of different organs, each of +which performs its function and concurs, after its fashion, in the +preservation of the whole. They are so many special machines in the +general machine which constitutes the individual. But each of these +special machines is itself compounded of many tissues of very different +natures, which in truth constitute the elements of those organs" +(_l.c._ lxxix.). "The conception of a proper vitality is applicable +only to these simple tissues, and not to the organs themselves" +(_l.c._ lxxxiv.). + +And Bichat proceeds to make the obvious application of this doctrine of +synthetic life, if I may so call it, to pathology. Since diseases are +only alterations of vital properties, and the properties of each tissue +are distinct from those of the rest, it is evident that the diseases of +each tissue must be different from those of the rest. Therefore, in any +organ composed of different tissues, one may be diseased and the other +remain healthy; and this is what happens in most cases (_l.c._ lxxxv.). + +In a spirit of true prophecy, Bichat says, "We have arrived at an epoch +in which pathological anatomy should start afresh." For, as the +analysis of the organs had led him to the tissues as the physiological +units of the organism; so, in a succeeding generation, the analysis of +the tissues led to the cell as the physiological element of the +tissues. The contemporaneous study of development brought out the same +result; and the zoologists and botanists, exploring the simplest and +the lowest forms of animated beings, confirmed the great induction of +the cell theory. Thus the apparently opposed views, which have been +battling with one another ever since the middle of the last century, +have proved to be each half the truth. + +The proposition of Descartes that the body of a living man is a +machine, the actions of which are explicable by the known laws of +matter and motion, is unquestionably largely true. But it is also true, +that the living body is a synthesis of innumerable physiological +elements, each of which may nearly be described, in Wolff's words, as a +fluid possessed of a "vis essentialis" and a "solidescibilitas"; or, in +modern phrase, as protoplasm susceptible of structural metamorphosis +and functional metabolism: and that the only machinery, in the precise +sense in which the Cartesian school understood mechanism, is, that +which co-ordinates and regulates these physiological units into an +organic whole. + +In fact, the body is a machine of the nature of an army, not of that of +a watch or of a hydraulic apparatus. Of this army each cell is a +soldier, an organ a brigade, the central nervous system headquarters +and field telegraph, the alimentary and circulatory system the +commissariat. Losses are made good by recruits born in camp, and the +life of the individual is a campaign, conducted successfully for a +number of years, but with certain defeat in the long run. + +The efficacy of an army, at any given moment, depends on the health of +the individual soldier, and on the perfection of the machinery by which +he is led and brought into action at the proper time; and, therefore, +if the analogy holds good, there can be only two kinds of diseases, the +one dependent on abnormal states of the physiological units, the other +on perturbations of their co-ordinating and alimentative machinery. + +Hence, the establishment of the cell theory, in normal biology, was +swiftly followed by a "cellular pathology," as its logical counterpart. +I need not remind you how great an instrument of investigation this +doctrine has proved in the hands of the man of genius to whom its +development is due, and who would probably be the last to forget that +abnormal conditions of the co-ordinative and distributive machinery of +the body are no less important factors of disease. + +Henceforward, as it appears to me, the connection of medicine with the +biological sciences is clearly indicated. Pure pathology is that branch +of biology which defines the particular perturbation of cell-life, or +of the co-ordinating machinery, or of both, on which the phenomena of +disease depend. + +Those who are conversant with the present state of biology will hardly +hesitate to admit that the conception of the life of one of the higher +animals as the summation of the lives of a cell aggregate, brought into +harmonious action by a co-ordinative machinery formed by some of these +cells, constitutes a permanent acquisition of physiological science. +But the last form of the battle between the animistic and the physical +views of life is seen in the contention whether the physical analysis +of vital phenomena can be carried beyond this point or not. + +There are some to whom living protoplasm is a substance, even such as +Harvey conceived the blood to be, "summâ cum providentiâ et intellectu +in finem certum agens, quasi ratiocinio quodam;" and who look with as +little favour as Bichat did, upon any attempt to apply the principles +and the methods of physics and chemistry to the investigation of the +vital processes of growth, metabolism, and contractility. They stand +upon the ancient ways; only, in accordance with that progress towards +democracy, which a great political writer has declared to be the fatal +characteristic of modern times, they substitute a republic formed by a +few billion of "animulae" for the monarchy of the all-pervading +"anima." + +Others, on the contrary, supported by a robust faith in the universal +applicability of the principles laid down by Descartes, and seeing that +the actions called "vital" are, so far as we have any means of knowing, +nothing but changes of place of particles of matter, look to molecular +physics to achieve the analysis of the living protoplasm itself into a +molecular mechanism. If there is any truth in the received doctrines of +physics, that contrast between living and inert matter, on which Bichat +lays so much stress, does not exist. In nature, nothing is at rest, +nothing is amorphous; the simplest particle of that which men in their +blindness are pleased to call "brute matter" is a vast aggregate of +molecular mechanisms performing complicated movements of immense +rapidity, and sensitively adjusting themselves to every change in the +surrounding world. Living matter differs from other matter in degree +and not in kind; the microcosm repeats the macrocosm; and one chain of +causation connects the nebulous original of suns and planetary systems +with the protoplasmic foundation of life and organisation. + +From this point of view, pathology is the analogue of the theory of +perturbations in astronomy; and therapeutics resolves itself into the +discovery of the means by which a system of forces competent to +eliminate any given perturbation may be introduced into the economy. +And, as pathology bases itself upon normal physiology, so therapeutics +rests upon pharmacology; which is, strictly speaking, a part of the +great biological topic of the influence of conditions on the living +organism, and has no scientific foundation apart from physiology. + +It appears to me that there is no more hopeful indication of the +progress of medicine towards the ideal of Descartes than is to be +derived from a comparison of the state of pharmacology, at the present +day, with that which existed forty years ago. If we consider the +knowledge positively acquired, in this short time, of the _modus +operandi_ of urari, of atropia, of physostigmin, of veratria, of +casca, of strychnia, of bromide of potassium, of phosphorus, there can +surely be no ground for doubting that, sooner or later, the +pharmacologist will supply the physician with the means of affecting, +in any desired sense, the functions of any physiological element of the +body. It will, in short, become possible to introduce into the economy +a molecular mechanism which, like a very cunningly-contrived torpedo, +shall find its way to some particular group of living elements, and +cause an explosion among them, leaving the rest untouched. + +The search for the explanation of diseased states in modified +cell-life; the discovery of the important part played by parasitic +organisms in the aetiology of disease; the elucidation of the action of +medicaments by the methods and the data of experimental physiology; +appear to me to be the greatest steps which have ever been made towards +the establishment of medicine on a scientific basis. I need hardly say +they could not have been made except for the advance of normal biology. + +There can be no question, then, as to the nature or the value of the +connection between medicine and the biological sciences. There can be +no doubt that the future of pathology and of therapeutics, and, +therefore, that of practical medicine, depends upon the extent to which +those who occupy themselves with these subjects are trained in the +methods and impregnated with the fundamental truths of biology. + +And, in conclusion, I venture to suggest that the collective sagacity +of this congress could occupy itself with no more important question +than with this: How is medical education to be arranged, so that, +without entangling the student in those details of the systematist +which are valueless to him, he may be enabled to obtain a firm grasp of +the great truths respecting animal and vegetable life, without which, +notwithstanding all the progress of scientific medicine, he will still +find himself an empiric? + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] _Discours de la Méthode_, 6e partie, Ed. Cousin, p. 193. + +[2] _Ibid_. pp. 193 and 211. + +[3] _De la Formation du Foetus_. + +[4] _Theoria Generationis_, 1759. + +[5] _Anatomie générale_, i. p. liv. + + + + +XV + +THE SCHOOL BOARDS: WHAT THEY CAN DO, AND WHAT THEY MAY DO. + +[1870] + + +An electioneering manifesto would be out of place in the pages of this +Review; but any suspicion that may arise in the mind of the reader that +the following pages partake of that nature, will be dispelled, if he +reflect that they cannot be published [1] until after the day on which +the ratepayers of the metropolis will have decided which candidates for +seats upon the Metropolitan School Board they will take, and which they +will leave. + +As one of those candidates, I may be permitted to say, that I feel much +in the frame of mind of the Irish bricklayer's labourer, who bet +another that he could not carry him to the top of the ladder in his +hod. The challenged hodman won his wager, but as the stakes were handed +over, the challenger wistfully remarked, "I'd great hopes of falling at +the third round from the top." And, in view of the work and the worry +which awaits the members of the School Boards, I must confess to an +occasional ungrateful hope that the friends who are toiling upwards +with me in their hod, may, when they reach "the third round from the +top," let me fall back into peace and quietness. + +But whether fortune befriend me in this rough method, or not, I should +like to submit to those of whom I am potential, but of whom I may not +be an actual, colleague, and to others who may be interested in this +most important problem--how to get the Education Act to work +efficiently--some considerations as to what are the duties of the +members of the School Boards, and what are the limits of their power. + +I suppose no one will be disposed to dispute the proposition, that the +prime duty of every member of such a Board is to endeavour to +administer the Act honestly; or in accordance, not only with its +letter, but with its spirit. And if so, it would seem that the first +step towards this very desirable end is, to obtain a clear notion of +what that letter signifies, and what that spirit implies; or, in other +words, what the clauses of the Act are intended to enjoin and to +forbid. So that it is really not admissible, except for factious and +abusive purposes, to assume that any one who endeavours to get at this +clear meaning is desirous only of raising quibbles and making +difficulties. + +Reading the Act with this desire to understand it, I find that its +provisions may be classified, as might naturally be expected, under two +heads: the one set relating to the subject-matter of education; the +other to the establishment, maintenance, and administration of the +schools in which that education is to be conducted. + +Now it is a most important circumstance, that all the sections of the +Act, except four, belong to the latter division; that is, they refer to +mere matters of administration. The four sections in question are the +seventh, the fourteenth, the sixteenth, and the ninety-seventh. Of +these, the seventh, the fourteenth, and the ninety-seventh deal with +the subject-matter of education, while the sixteenth defines the nature +of the relations which are to exist between the "Education Department" +(an euphemism for the future Minister of Education) and the School +Boards. It is the sixteenth clause which is the most important, and, in +some respects, the most remarkable of all. It runs thus:-- + + "If the School Board do, or permit, any act in contravention of, or + fail to comply with, the regulations, according to which a school + provided by them is required by this Act to be conducted, the + Education Department may declare the School Board to be, and such + Board shall accordingly be deemed to be, a Board in default, and + the Education Department may proceed accordingly; and every act, or + omission, of any member of the School Board, or manager appointed + by them, or any person under the control of the Board, shall be + deemed to be permitted by the Board, unless the contrary be proved. + + "If any dispute arises as to whether the School Board have done, or + permitted, any act in contravention of, or have failed to comply + with, the said regulations, _the matter shall be referred to the + Education Department, whose decision thereon shall be final_." + +It will be observed that this clause gives the Minister of Education +absolute power over the doings of the School Boards. He is not only the +administrator of the Act, but he is its interpreter. I had imagined +that on the occurrence of a dispute, not as regards a question of pure +administration, but as to the meaning of a clause of the Act, a case +might be taken and referred to a court of justice. But I am led to +believe that the Legislature has, in the present instance, deliberately +taken this power out of the hands of the judges and lodged it in those +of the Minister of Education, who, in accordance with our method of +making Ministers, will necessarily be a political partisan, and who may +be a strong theological sectary into the bargain. And I am informed by +members of Parliament who watched the progress of the Act, that the +responsibility for this unusual state of things rests, not with the +Government, but with the Legislature, which exhibited a singular +disposition to accumulate power in the hands of the future Minister of +Education, and to evade the more troublesome difficulties of the +education question by leaving them to be settled between that Minister +and the School Boards. + +I express no opinion whether it is, or is not, desirable that such +powers of controlling all the School Boards in the country should be +possessed by a person who may be, like Mr. Forster, eminently likely to +use these powers justly and wisely, but who also may be quite the +reverse. I merely wish to draw attention to the fact that such powers +are given to the Minister, whether he be fit or unfit. The extent of +these powers becomes apparent when the other sections of the Act +referred to are considered. The fourth clause of the seventh section +says:-- + + "The school shall be conducted in accordance with the conditions + required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in order to obtain + an annual Parliamentary grant." + +What these conditions are appears from the following clauses of the +ninety-seventh section:-- + + "The conditions required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in + order to obtain an annual Parliamentary grant shall be those + contained in the minutes of the Education Department in force for + the time being.... Provided that no such minute of the Education + Department, not in force at the time of the passing of this Act, + shall be deemed to be in force until it has lain for not less than + one month on the table of both Houses of Parliament." + +Let us consider how this will work in practice. A school established by +a School Board may receive support from three sources--from the rates, +the school fees, and the Parliamentary grant. The latter may be as +great as the two former taken together; and as it may be assumed, +without much risk of error, that a constant pressure will be exerted by +the ratepayers on the members who represent them to get as much out of +the Government, and as little out of the rates, as possible, the School +Boards will have a very strong motive for shaping the education they +give, as nearly as may be, on the model which the Education Minister +offers for their imitation, and for the copying of which he is prepared +to pay. + +The Revised Code did not compel any schoolmaster to leave off teaching +anything; but, by the very simple process of refusing to pay for many +kinds of teaching, it has practically put an end to them. Mr. Forster +is said to be engaged in revising the Revised Code; a successor of his +may re-revise it--and there will be no sort of check upon these +revisions and counter revisions, except the possibility of a +Parliamentary debate, when the revised, or added, minutes are laid upon +the table. What chance is there that any such debate will take place on +a matter of detail relating to elementary education--a subject with +which members of the Legislature, having been, for the most part, sent +to our public schools thirty years ago, have not the least practical +acquaintance, and for which they care nothing, unless it derives a +political value from its connection with sectarian politics? + +I cannot but think, then, that the School Boards will have the +appearance, but not the reality, of freedom of action, in regard to the +subject-matter of what is commonly called "secular" education. + +As respects what is commonly called "religious" education, the power of +the Minister of Education is even more despotic. An interest, almost +amounting to pathos, attaches itself, in my mind, to the frantic +exertions which are at present going on in almost every school +division, to elect certain candidates whose names have never before +been heard of in connection with education, and who are either +sectarian partisans, or nothing. In my own particular division, a body +organised _ad hoc_ is moving heaven and earth to get the seven +seats filled by seven gentlemen, four of whom are good Churchmen, and +three no less good Dissenters. But why should this seven times heated +fiery furnace of theological zeal be so desirous to shed its genial +warmth over the London School Board? Can it be that these zealous +sectaries mean to evade the solemn pledge given in the Act? + + "No religious catechism or religious formulary which is distinctive + of any particular denomination shall be taught in the school." + +I confess I should have thought it my duty to reject any such +suggestion, as dishonouring to a number of worthy persons, if it had +not been for a leading article and some correspondence which appeared +in the _Guardian_ of November 9th, 1870. + +The _Guardian_ is, as everybody knows, one of the best of the +"religious" newspapers; and, personally, I have every reason to speak +highly of the fairness, and indeed kindness, with which the editor is +good enough to deal with a writer who must, in many ways, be so +objectionable to him as myself. I quote the following passages from a +leading article on a letter of mine, therefore, with all respect, and +with a genuine conviction that the course of conduct advocated by the +writer must appear to him in a very different light from that under +which I see it:-- + + "The first of these points is the interpretation which Professor + Huxley puts on the 'Cowper-Temple clause.' It is, in fact, that + which we foretold some time ago as likely to be forced upon it by + those who think with him. The clause itself was one of those + compromises which it is very difficult to define or to maintain + logically. On the one side was the simple freedom to School Boards + to establish what schools they pleased, which Mr. Forster + originally gave, but against which the Nonconformists lifted up + their voices, because they conceived it likely to give too much + power to the Church. On the other side there was the proposition to + make the schools secular--intelligible enough, but in the + consideration of public opinion simply impossible--and there was + the vague impracticable idea, which Mr. Gladstone thoroughly tore + to pieces, of enacting that the teaching of all school-masters in + the new schools should be strictly 'undenominational.' The + Cowper-Temple clause was, we repeat, proposed simply to tide over + the difficulty. It was to satisfy the Nonconformists and the + 'unsectarian,' as distinct from the secular party of the League, by + forbidding all distinctive 'catechisms and formularies,' which + might have the effect of openly assigning the schools to this or + that religious body. It refused, at the same time, to attempt the + impossible task of defining what was undenominational; and its + author even contended, if we understood him correctly, that it + would in no way, even indirectly, interfere with the substantial + teaching of any master in any school. This assertion we always + believed to be untenable; we could not see how, in the face of this + clause, a distinctly denominational tone could be honestly given to + schools nominally general. But beyond this mere suggestion of + an attempt at a general tone of comprehensiveness in religious + teaching it was not intended to go, and only because such was its + limitation was it accepted by the Government and by the House. + + "But now we are told that it is to be construed as doing precisely + that which it refused to do. A 'formulary,' it seems, is a + collection of formulas, and formulas are simply propositions of + whatever kind touching religious faith. All such propositions, if + they cannot be accepted by all Christian denominations, are to be + proscribed; and it is added significantly that the Jews also are a + denomination, and so that any teaching distinctively Christian is + perhaps to be excluded, lest it should interfere with their freedom + and rights. Are we then to fall back on the simple reading of the + letter of the Bible? No! this, it is granted, would be an 'unworthy + pretence.' The teacher is to give 'grammatical, geographical, or + historical explanations;' but he is to keep clear of 'theology + proper,' because, as Professor Huxley takes great pains to prove, + there is no theological teaching which is not opposed by some sect + or other, from Roman Catholicism on the one hand to Unitarianism on + the other. It was not, perhaps, hard to see that this difficulty + would be started; and to those who, like Professor Huxley look at + it theoretically, without much practical experience of schools, it + may appear serious or unanswerable. But there is very little in it + practically; when it is faced determinately and handled firmly, it + will soon shrink into its true dimensions. The class who are least + frightened at it are the school teachers, simply because they know + most about it. It is quite clear that the school managers must be + cautioned against allowing their schools to be made places of + proselytism: but when this is done, the case is simple enough. + Leave the masters under this general understanding to teach freely; + if there in ground of complaint, let it be made, but leave the + _onus probandi_ on the objectors. For extreme peculiarities of + belief or unbelief there is the Conscience Clause; as to the mass + of parents, they will be more anxious to have religion taught than + afraid of its assuming this or that particular shade. They will + trust the school managers and teachers till they have reason to + distrust them, and experience has shown that they may trust them + safely enough. Any attempt to throw the burden of making the + teaching undenominational upon the managers must be sternly + resisted: it is simply evading the intentions of the Act in an + elaborate attempt to carry them out. We thank Professor Huxley for + the warning. To be forewarned is to be forearmed." + +A good deal of light seems to me to be thrown on the practical +significance of the opinions expressed in the foregoing extract by the +following interesting letter, which appeared in the same paper:-- + + "Sir,--I venture to send to you the substance of a correspondence + with the Education Department upon the question of the lawfulness + of religious teaching in rate schools under section 14 (2) of the + Act. I asked whether the words 'which is distinctive,' &c., taken + grammatically as limiting the prohibition of any religious + formulary, might be construed as allowing (subject, however, to the + other provisions of the Act) any religious formulary common to any + two denominations anywhere in England to be taught in such schools; + and if practically the limit could not be so extended, but would + have to be fixed according to the special circumstances of each + district, then what degree of general acceptance in a district + would exempt such a formulary from the prohibition? The answer to + this was as follows:--'It was understood, when clause 14 of the + Education Act was discussed in the House of Commons, that, + according to a well-known rule of interpreting Acts of Parliament, + "denomination" must be held to include "denominations." When any + dispute is referred to the Education Department under the last + paragraph of section 16, it will be dealt with according to the + circumstances of the case.' + + "Upon my asking further if I might hence infer that the lawfulness + of teaching any religious formulary in a rate school would thus + depend _exclusively_ on local circumstances, and would + accordingly be so decided by the Education Department in case of + dispute, I was informed in explanation that 'their lordships'' + letter was intended to convey to me that no general rule, beyond + that stated in the first paragraph of their letter, could at + present be laid down by them; and that their decision in each + particular case must depend on the special circumstances + accompanying it. + + "I think it would appear from this that it may yet be in many cases + both lawful and expedient to teach religious formularies in rate + schools. H. I. + + "Steyning, _November_ 5, 1870." + +Of course I do not mean to suggest that the editor of the _Guardian_ +is bound by the opinions of his correspondent; but I cannot help +thinking that I do not misrepresent him, when I say that he also thinks +"that it may yet be, in many cases, both lawful and expedient to teach +religious formularies in rate schools under these circumstances." + +It is not uncharitable, therefore, to assume that, the express words of +the Act of Parliament notwithstanding, all the sectaries who are +toiling so hard for seats in the London School Board have the lively +hope of the gentleman from Steyning, that it may be "both lawful and +expedient to teach religious formularies in rate schools;" and that +they mean to do their utmost to bring this happy consummation about. [2] + +Now the pathetic emotion to which I have referred, as accompanying my +contemplations of the violent struggles of so many excellent persons, +is caused by the circumstance that, so far as I can judge, their labour +is in vain. + +Supposing that the London School Board contains, as it probably will +do, a majority of sectaries; and that they carry over the heads of a +minority, a resolution that certain theological formulas, about which +they all happen to agree,--say, for example, the doctrine of the +Trinity,--shall be taught in the schools. Do they fondly imagine that +the minority will not at once dispute their interpretation of the Act, +and appeal to the Education Department to settle that dispute? And if +so, do they suppose that any Minister of Education, who wants to keep +his place, will tighten boundaries which the Legislature has left +loose; and will give a "final decision" which shall be offensive to +every Unitarian and to every Jew in the House of Commons, besides +creating a precedent which will afterwards be used to the injury of +every Nonconformist? The editor of the _Guardian_ tells his +friends sternly to resist every attempt to throw the burden of making +the teaching undenominational on the managers, and thanks me for the +warning I have given him. I return the thanks, with interest, for +_his_ warning, as to the course the party he represents intends to +pursue, and for enabling me thus to draw public attention to a +perfectly constitutional and effectual mode of checkmating them. + +And, in truth, it is wonderful to note the surprising entanglement into +which our able editor gets himself in the struggle between his native +honesty and judgment and the necessities of his party. "We could not +see," says he, "in the face of this clause how a distinct +denominational tone could be honestly given to schools nominally +general." There speaks the honest and clear-headed man. "Any attempt to +throw the burden of making the teaching undenominational must be +sternly resisted." There speaks the advocate holding a brief for his +party. "Verily," as Trinculo says, "the monster hath two mouths:" the +one, the forward mouth, tells us very justly that the teaching cannot +"honestly" be "distinctly denominational;" but the other, the +backward mouth, asserts that it must by no manner of means be +"undenominational." Putting the two utterances together, I can only +interpret them to mean that the teaching is to be "indistinctly +denominational." If the editor of the _Guardian_ had not shown +signs of anger at my use of the term "theological fog," I should have +been tempted to suppose it must have been what he had in his mind, +under the name of "indistinct denominationalism." But this reading +being plainly inadmissible, I can only imagine that he inculcates the +teaching of formulas common to a number of denominations. + +But the Education Department has already told the gentleman from +Steyning that any such proceeding will be illegal. "According to a +well-known rule of interpreting Acts of Parliament, 'denomination' +would be held to include 'denominations.'" In other words, we must read +the Act thus:-- + +"No religious catechism or religious formulary which is distinctive of +any particular _denominations_ shall be taught." + +Thus we are really very much indebted to the editor of the _Guardian_ +and his correspondent. The one has shown us that the sectaries +mean to try to get as much denominational teaching as they can agree +upon among themselves, forced into the elementary schools; while the +other has obtained a formal declaration from the Educational Department +that any such attempt will contravene the Act of Parliament, and that, +therefore, the unsectarian, law-abiding members of the School Boards +may safely reckon upon bringing down upon their opponents the heavy +hand of the Minister of Education. [3] + +So much for the powers of the School Boards. Limited as they seem to +be, it by no means follows that such Boards, if they are composed of +intelligent and practical men, really more in earnest about education +than about sectarian squabbles, may not exert a very great amount of +influence. And, from many circumstances, this is especially likely to +be the case with the London School Board, which, if it conducts itself +wisely, may become a true educational parliaments as subordinate in +authority to the Minister of Education, theoretically, as the +Legislature is to the Crown, and yet, like the Legislature, possessed +of great practical authority. And I suppose that no Minister of +Education would be other than glad to have the aid of the deliberations +of such a body, or fail to pay careful attention to its +recommendations. + +What, then, ought to be the nature and scope of the education which a +School Board should endeavour to give to every child under its +influence, and for which it should try to obtain the aid of the +Parliamentary grants? In my judgment it should include at least the +following kinds of instruction and of discipline:-- + +1. Physical training and drill, as part of the regular business of the +school. + +It is impossible to insist too much on the importance of this part +of education for the children of the poor of great towns. All the +conditions of their lives are unfavourable to their physical +well-being. They are badly lodged, badly housed, badly fed, and live +from one year's end to another in bad air, without chance of a change. +They have no play-grounds; they amuse themselves with marbles and +chuck-farthing, instead of cricket or hare-and-hounds; and if it were +not for the wonderful instinct which leads all poor children of tender +years to run under the feet of cab-horses whenever they can, I know not +how they would learn to use their limbs with agility. + +Now there is no real difficulty about teaching drill and the simpler +kinds of gymnastics. It is done admirably well, for example, in the +North Surrey Union schools; and a year or two ago when I had an +opportunity of inspecting these schools, I was greatly struck with the +effect of such training upon the poor little waifs and strays of +humanity, mostly picked out of the gutter, who are being made into +cleanly, healthy, and useful members of society in that excellent +institution. + +Whatever doubts people may entertain about the efficacy of natural +selection, there can be none about artificial selection; and the +breeder who should attempt to make, or keep up, a fine stock of pigs, +or sheep, under the conditions to which the children of the poor are +exposed, would be the laughing-stock even of the bucolic mind. +Parliament has already done something in this direction by declining to +be an accomplice in the asphyxiation of school children. It refuses +to make any grant to a school in which the cubical contents of the +school-room are inadequate to allow of proper respiration. I should +like to see it make another step in the same direction, and either +refuse to give a grant to a school in which physical training is not +a part of the programme, or, at any rate, offer to pay upon such +training. If something of the kind is not done, the English physique, +which has been, and is still, on the whole, a grand one, will become as +extinct as the dodo in the great towns. + +And then the moral and intellectual effect of drill, as an introduction +to, and aid of, all other sorts of training, must not be overlooked. If +you want to break in a colt, surely the first thing to do is to catch +him and get him quietly to face his trainer; to know his voice and bear +his hand; to learn that colts have something else to do with their +heels than to kick them up whenever they feel so inclined; and to +discover that the dreadful human figure has no desire to devour, or +even to beat him, but that, in case of attention and obedience, he may +hope for patting and even a sieve of oats. + +But, your "street Arabs," and other neglected poor children, are rather +worse and wilder than colts; for the reason that the horse-colt has +only his animal instincts in him, and his mother, the mare, has been +always tender over him, and never came home drunk and kicked him in her +life; while the man-colt is inspired by that very real devil, perverted +manhood, and _his_ mother may have done all that and more. So, on +the whole, it may probably be even more expedient to begin your attempt +to get at the higher nature of the child, than at that of the colt, +from the physical side. + +2. Next in order to physical training I put the instruction of +children, and especially of girls, in the elements of household work +and of domestic economy; in the first place for their own sakes, and in +the second for that of their future employers. + +Every one who knows anything of the life of the English poor is aware +of the misery and waste caused by their want of knowledge of domestic +economy, and by their lack of habits of frugality and method. I suppose +it is no exaggeration to say that a poor Frenchwoman would make the +money which the wife of a poor Englishman spends in food go twice as +far, and at the same time turn out twice as palatable a dinner. Why +Englishmen, who are so notoriously fond of good living, should be so +helplessly incompetent in the art of cookery, is one of the great +mysteries of nature; but from the varied abominations of the railway +refreshment-rooms to the monotonous dinners of the poor, English +feeding is either wasteful or nasty, or both. + +And as to domestic service, the groans of the housewives of England +ascend to heaven! In five cases out of six the girl who takes a +"place" has to be trained by her mistress in the first rudiments of +decency and order; and it is a mercy if she does not turn up her nose +at anything like the mention of an honest and proper economy. Thousands +of young girls are said to starve, or worse, yearly in London; and at +the same time thousands of mistresses of households are ready to pay +high wages for a decent housemaid, or cook, or a fair workwoman; and +can by no means get what they want. + +Surely, if the elementary schools are worth anything, they may put an +end to a state of things which is demoralising the poor, while it is +wasting the lives of those better off in small worries and annoyances. + +3. But the boys and girls for whose education the School Boards have to +provide, have not merely to discharge domestic duties, but each of them +is a member of a social and political organisation of great complexity, +and has, in future life, to fit himself into that organisation, or be +crushed by it. To this end it is surely needful, not only that they +should be made acquainted with the elementary laws of conduct, but that +their affections should be trained, so as to love with all their hearts +that conduct which tends to the attainment of the highest good for +themselves and their fellow men, and to hate with all their hearts that +opposite course of action which is fraught with evil. + +So far as the laws of conduct are determined by the intellect, I +apprehend that they belong to science, and to that part of science +which is called morality. But the engagement of the affections in +favour of that particular kind of conduct which we call good, seems to +me to be something quite beyond mere science. And I cannot but think +that it, together with the awe and reverence, which have no kinship +with base fear, but arise whenever one tries to pierce below the +surface of things, whether they be material or spiritual, constitutes +all that has any unchangeable reality in religion. + +And just as I think it would be a mistake to confound the science, +morality, with the affection, religion; so do I conceive it to be a +most lamentable and mischievous error, that the science, theology, is +so confounded in the minds of many--indeed, I might say, of the +majority of men. + +I do not express any opinion as to whether theology is a true science, +or whether it does not come under the apostolic definition of "science +falsely so called;" though I may be permitted to express the belief +that if the Apostle to whom that much misapplied phrase is due could +make the acquaintance of much of modern theology, he would not hesitate +a moment in declaring that it is exactly what he meant the words to +denote. + +But it is at any rate conceivable, that the nature of the Deity, and +his relations to the universe, and more especially to mankind, are +capable of being ascertained, either inductively or deductively, or by +both processes. And, if they have been ascertained, then a body of +science has been formed which is very properly called theology. + +Further, there can be no doubt that affection for the Being thus +defined and described by theologic science would be properly termed +religion; but it would not be the whole of religion. The affection for +the ethical ideal defined by moral science would claim equal if not +superior rights. For suppose theology established the existence of an +evil deity--and some theologies, even Christian ones, have come very +near this,--is the religious affection to be transferred from the +ethical ideal to any such omnipotent demon? I trow not. Better a +thousand times that the human race should perish under his thunderbolts +than it should say, "Evil, be thou my good." + +There is nothing new, that I know of, in this statement of the +relations of religion with the science of morality on the one hand and +that of theology on the other. But I believe it to be altogether true, +and very needful, at this time, to be clearly and emphatically +recognised as such, by those who have to deal with the education +question. + +We are divided into two parties--the advocates of so-called +"religious" teaching on the one hand, and those of so-called "secular" +teaching on the other. And both parties seem to me to be not only +hopelessly wrong, but in such a position that if either succeeded +completely, it would discover, before many years were over, that it had +made a great mistake and done serious evil to the cause of education. + +For, leaving aside the more far-seeing minority on each side, what +the "religious" party is crying for is mere theology, under the name +of religion; while the "secularists" have unwisely and wrongfully +admitted the assumption of their opponents, and demand the abolition +of all "religious" teaching, when they only want to be free +of theology--Burning your ship to get rid of the cockroaches! + +But my belief is, that no human being, and no society composed of human +beings, ever did, or ever will, come to much, unless their conduct was +governed and guided by the love of some ethical ideal. Undoubtedly, +your gutter child may be converted by mere intellectual drill into "the +subtlest of all the beasts of the field;" but we know what has become +of the original of that description, and there is no need to increase +the number of those who imitate him successfully without being aided by +the rates. And if I were compelled to choose for one of my own +children, between a school in which real religious instruction is +given, and one without it, I should prefer the former, even though the +child might have to take a good deal of theology with it. Nine-tenths +of a dose of bark is mere half-rotten wood; but one swallows it for the +sake of the particles of quinine, the beneficial effect of which may be +weakened, but is not destroyed, by the wooden dilution, unless in a few +cases of exceptionally tender stomachs. + +Hence, when the great mass of the English people declare that they want +to have the children in the elementary schools taught the Bible, and +when it is plain from the terms of the Act, the debates in and out +of Parliament, and especially the emphatic declarations of the +Vice-President of the Council, that it was intended that such +Bible-reading should be permitted, unless good cause for prohibiting it +could be shown, I do not see what reason there is for opposing that +wish. Certainly, I, individually, could with no shadow of consistency +oppose the teaching of the children of other people to do that which my +own children are taught to do. And, even if the reading the Bible were +not, as I think it is, consonant with political reason and justice, and +with a desire to act in the spirit of the education measure, I am +disposed to think it might still be well to read that book in the +elementary schools. + +I have always been strongly in favour of secular education, in the +sense of education without theology; but I must confess I have been no +less seriously perplexed to know by what practical measures the +religious feeling, which is the essential basis of conduct, was to be +kept up, in the present utterly chaotic state of opinion on these +matters, without the use of the Bible. The Pagan moralists lack life +and colour, and even the noble Stoic, Marcus Antonius, is too high and +refined for an ordinary child. Take the Bible as a whole; make the +severest deductions which fair criticism can dictate for shortcomings +and positive errors; eliminate, as a sensible lay-teacher would do, if +left to himself, all that it is not desirable for children to occupy +themselves with; and there still remains in this old literature a vast +residuum of moral beauty and grandeur. And then consider the great +historical fact that, for three centuries, this book has been woven +into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history; that +it has become the national epic of Britain, and is as familiar to noble +and simple, from John-o'-Groat's House to Land's End, as Dante and +Tasso once were to the Italians; that it is written in the noblest and +purest English, and abounds in exquisite beauties of mere literary +form; and, finally, that it forbids the veriest hind who never left his +village to be ignorant of the existence of other countries and other +civilisations, and of a great past, stretching back to the furthest +limits of the oldest nations in the world. By the study of what other +book could children be so much humanised and made to feel that each +figure in that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, but a +momentary space in the interval between two eternities; and earns the +blessings or the curses of all time, according to its effort to do good +and hate evil, even as they also are earning their payment for their +work? + +On the whole, then, I am in favour of reading the Bible, with such +grammatical, geographical, and historical explanations by a lay-teacher +as may be needful, with rigid exclusion of any further theological +teaching than that contained in the Bible itself. And in stating what +this is, the teacher would do well not to go beyond the precise words +of the Bible; for if he does, he will, in the first place, undertake a +task beyond his strength, seeing that all the Jewish and Christian +sects have been at work upon that subject for more than two thousand +years, and have not yet arrived, and are not in the least likely to +arrive, at an agreement; and, in the second place, he will certainly +begin to teach something distinctively denominational, and thereby come +into violent collision with the Act of Parliament. + +4. The intellectual training to be given in the elementary schools must +of course, in the first place, consist in learning to use the means of +acquiring knowledge, or reading, writing, and arithmetic; and it will +be a great matter to teach reading so completely that the act shall +have become easy and pleasant. If reading remains "hard," that +accomplishment will not be much resorted to for instruction, and still +less for amusement--which last is one of its most valuable uses to +hard-worked people. But along with a due proficiency in the use of the +means of learning, a certain amount of knowledge, of intellectual +discipline, and of artistic training should be conveyed in the +elementary schools; and in this direction--for reasons which I am +afraid to repeat, having urged them so often--I can conceive no +subject-matter of education so appropriate and so important as the +rudiments of physical science, with drawing, modelling, and singing. +Not only would such teaching afford the best possible preparation for +the technical schools about which so much is now said, but the +organisation for carrying it into effect already exists. The Science +and Art Department, the operations of which have already attained +considerable magnitude, not only offers to examine and pay the results +of such examination in elementary science and art, but it provides what +is still more important, viz. a means of giving children of high +natural ability, who are just as abundant among the poor as among the +rich, a helping hand. A good old proverb tells us that "One should not +take a razor to cut a block:" the razor is soon spoiled, and the block +is not so well cut as it would be with a hatchet. But it is worse +economy to prevent a possible Watt from being anything but a stoker, or +to give a possible Faraday no chance of doing anything but to bind +books. Indeed, the loss in such cases of mistaken vocation has no +measure; it is absolutely infinite and irreparable. And among the +arguments in favour of the interference of the State in education, none +seems to be stronger than this--that it is the interest of every one +that ability should be neither wasted, nor misapplied, by any one: and, +therefore, that every one's representative, the State, is necessarily +fulfilling the wishes of its constituents when it is helping the +capacities to reach their proper places. + +It may be said that the scheme of education here sketched is too large +to be effected in the time during which the children will remain at +school; and, secondly, that even if this objection did not exist, it +would cost too much. + +I attach no importance whatever to the first objection until the +experiment has been fairly tried. Considering how much catechism, lists +of the kings of Israel, geography of Palestine, and the like, children +are made to swallow now, I cannot believe there will be any difficulty +in inducing them to go through the physical training, which is more +than half play; or the instruction in household work, or in those +duties to one another and to themselves, which have a daily and hourly +practical interest. That children take kindly to elementary science and +art no one can doubt who has tried the experiment properly. And if +Bible-reading is not accompanied by constraint and solemnity, as if it +were a sacramental operation, I do not believe there is anything in +which children take more pleasure. At least I know that some of the +pleasantest recollections of my childhood are connected with the +voluntary study of an ancient Bible which belonged to my grandmother. +There were splendid pictures in it, to be sure; but I recollect little +or nothing about them save a portrait of the high priest in his +vestments. What come vividly back on my mind are remembrances of my +delight in the histories of Joseph and of David; and of my keen +appreciation of the chivalrous kindness of Abraham in his dealing with +Lot. Like a sudden flash there returns back upon me, my utter scorn of +the pettifogging meanness of Jacob, and my sympathetic grief over the +heartbreaking lamentation of the cheated Esau, "Hast thou not a +blessing for me also, O my father?" And I see, as in a cloud, pictures +of the grand phantasmagoria of the Book of Revelation. + +I enumerate, as they issue, the childish impressions which come +crowding out of the pigeon-holes in my brain, in which they have lain +almost undisturbed for forty years. I prize them as an evidence that a +child of five or six years old, left to his own devices, may be deeply +interested in the Bible, and draw sound moral sustenance from it. And I +rejoice that I was left to deal with the Bible alone; for if I had had +some theological "explainer" at my side, he might have tried, as such +do, to lessen my indignation against Jacob, and thereby have warped my +moral sense for ever; while the great apocalyptic spectacle of the +ultimate triumph of right and justice might have been turned to the +base purposes of a pious lampooner of the Papacy. + +And as to the second objection--costliness--the reply is, first, that +the rate and the Parliamentary grant together ought to be enough, +considering that science and art teaching is already provided for; and, +secondly, that if they are not, it may be well for the educational +parliament to consider what has become of those endowments which were +originally intended to be devoted, more or less largely, to the +education of the poor. + +When the monasteries were spoiled, some of their endowments were +applied to the foundation of cathedrals; and in all such cases it was +ordered that a certain portion of the endowment should be applied to +the purposes of education. How much is so applied? Is that which may be +so applied given to help the poor, who cannot pay for education, or +does it virtually subsidise the comparatively rich, who can? How are +Christ's Hospital and Alleyn's foundation securing their right +purposes, or how far are they perverted into contrivances for affording +relief to the classes who can afford to pay for education? How-- But +this paper is already too long, and, if I begin, I may find it hard to +stop asking questions of this kind, which after all are worthy only of +the lowest of Radicals. + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] Notwithstanding Mr. Huxley's intentions, the Editor took upon +himself, in what seemed to him to be the public interest, to send an +extract from this article to the newspapers--before the day of the +election of the School Board.--EDITOR of the _Contemporary Review_. + +[2] A passage in an article on the "Working of the Education Act," in +the _Saturday Review_ for Nov. 19, 1870, completely justifies this +anticipation of the line of action which the sectaries mean to take. +After commending the Liverpool compromise, the writer goes on to say:-- + +"If this plan is fairly adopted in Liverpool, the fourteenth clause of +the Act will in effect be restored to its original form, and the +majority of the ratepayers in each district be permitted to decide to +what denomination the school shall belong." + +In a previous paragraph the writer speaks of a possible "mistrust" of +one another by the members of the Board, and seems to anticipate +"accusations of dishonesty." If any of the members of the Board adopt +his views, I think it highly probable that he may turn out to be a true +prophet. + +[3] Since this paragraph was written, Mr. Forster, in speaking at the +Birkbeck Institution, has removed all doubt as to what his "final +decision" will be in the case of such disputes being referred to +him:--"I have the fullest confidence that in the reading and explaining +of the Bible, what the children will be taught will be the great truths +of Christian life and conduct, which all of us desire they should know, +and that no effort will be made to cram into their poor little minds, +theological dogmas which their tender age prevents them from +understanding." + + + + +XVI + +TECHNICAL EDUCATION + +[1877] + + +Any candid observer of the phenomena of modern society will readily +admit that bores must be classed among the enemies of the human race; +and a little consideration will probably lead him to the further +admission, that no species of that extensive genus of noxious creatures +is more objectionable than the educational bore. Convinced as I am of +the truth of this great social generalisation, it is not without a +certain trepidation that I venture to address you on an educational +topic. For, in the course of the last ten years, to go back no farther, +I am afraid to say how often I have ventured to speak of education, +from that given in the primary schools to that which is to be had in +the universities and medical colleges; indeed, the only part of this +wide region into which, as yet, I have not adventured is that into +which I propose to intrude to-day. + +Thus, I cannot but be aware that I am dangerously near becoming the +thing which all men fear and fly. But I have deliberately elected to +run the risk. For when you did me the honour to ask me to address you, +an unexpected circumstance had led me to occupy myself seriously with +the question of technical education; and I had acquired the conviction +that there are few subjects respecting which it is more important for +all classes of the community to have clear and just ideas than this; +while, certainly, there is none which is more deserving of attention by +the Working Men's Club and Institute Union. + +It is not for me to express an opinion whether the considerations, +which I am about to submit to you, will be proved by experience to be +just or not, but I will do my best to make them clear. Among the many +good things to be found in Lord Bacon's works, none is more full of +wisdom than the saying that "truth more easily comes out of error than +out of confusion." Clear and consecutive wrong-thinking is the next +best thing to right-thinking; so that, if I succeed in clearing your +ideas on this topic, I shall have wasted neither your time nor my own. + +"Technical education," in the sense in which the term is ordinarily +used, and in which I am now employing it, means that sort of education +which is specially adapted to the needs of men whose business in life +it is to pursue some kind of handicraft; it is, in fact, a fine +Greco-Latin equivalent for what in good vernacular English would be +called "the teaching of handicrafts." And probably, at this stage of +our progress, it may occur to many of you to think of the story of the +cobbler and his last, and to say to yourselves, though you will be too +polite to put the question openly to me, What does the speaker know +practically about this matter? What is his handicraft? I think the +question is a very proper one, and unless I were prepared to answer it, +I hope satisfactorily, I should have chosen some other theme. + +The fact is, I am, and have been, any time these thirty years, a man +who works with his hands--a handicraftsman. I do not say this in the +broadly metaphorical sense in which fine gentlemen, with all the +delicacy of Agag about them, trip to the hustings about election time, +and protest that they too are working men. I really mean my words to be +taken in their direct, literal, and straightforward sense. In fact, if +the most nimble-fingered watchmaker among you will come to my workshop, +he may set me to put a watch together, and I will set him to dissect, +say, a blackbeetle's nerves. I do not wish to vaunt, but I am inclined +to think that I shall manage my job to his satisfaction sooner than he +will do his piece of work to mine. + +In truth, anatomy, which is my handicraft, is one of the most difficult +kinds of mechanical labour, involving, as it does, not only lightness +and dexterity of hand, but sharp eyes and endless patience. And you +must not suppose that my particular branch of science is especially +distinguished for the demand it makes upon skill in manipulation. A +similar requirement is made upon all students of physical science. The +astronomer, the electrician, the chemist, the mineralogist, the +botanist, are constantly called upon to perform manual operations of +exceeding delicacy. The progress of all branches of physical science +depends upon observation, or on that artificial observation which is +termed experiment, of one kind or another; and, the farther we advance, +the more practical difficulties surround the investigation of the +conditions of the problems offered to us; so that mobile and yet steady +hands, guided by clear vision, are more and more in request in the +workshops of science. + +Indeed, it has struck me that one of the grounds of that sympathy +between the handicraftsmen of this country and the men of science, by +which it has so often been my good fortune to profit, may, perhaps, lie +here. You feel and we feel that, among the so-called learned folks, we +alone are brought into contact with tangible facts in the way that you +are. You know well enough that it is one thing to write a history of +chairs in general, or to address a poem to a throne, or to speculate +about the occult powers of the chair of St. Peter; and quite another +thing to make with your own hands a veritable chair, that will stand +fair and square, and afford a safe and satisfactory resting-place to a +frame of sensitiveness and solidity. + +So it is with us, when we look out from our scientific handicrafts upon +the doings of our learned brethren, whose work is untrammelled by +anything "base and mechanical," as handicrafts used to be called when +the world was younger, and, in some respects, less wise than now. We +take the greatest interest in their pursuits; we are edified by their +histories and are charmed with their poems, which sometimes illustrate +so remarkably the powers of man's imagination; some of us admire and +even humbly try to follow them in their high philosophical excursions, +though we know the risk of being snubbed by the inquiry whether +grovelling dissectors of monkeys and blackbeetles can hope to enter +into the empyreal kingdom of speculation. But still we feel that our +business is different; humbler if you will, though the diminution of +dignity is, perhaps, compensated by the increase of reality; and that +we, like you, have to get our work done in a region where little +avails, if the power of dealing with practical tangible facts is +wanting. You know that clever talk touching joinery will not make a +chair; and I know that it is of about as much value in the physical +sciences. Mother Nature is serenely obdurate to honeyed words; only +those who understand the ways of things, and can silently and +effectually handle them, get any good out of her. + +And now, having, as I hope, justified my assumption of a place among +handicraftsmen, and put myself right with you as to my qualification, +from practical knowledge, to speak about technical education, I will +proceed to lay before you the results of my experience as a teacher of +a handicraft, and tell you what sort of education I should think best +adapted for a boy whom one wanted to make a professional anatomist. + +I should say, in the first place, let him have a good English +elementary education. I do not mean that he shall be able to pass in +such and such a standard--that may or may not be an equivalent +expression--but that his teaching shall have been such as to have given +him command of the common implements of learning and to have created a +desire for the things of the understanding. + +Further, I should like him to know the elements of physical science, +and especially of physics and chemistry, and I should take care that +this elementary knowledge was real. I should like my aspirant to be +able to read a scientific treatise in Latin, French, or German, because +an enormous amount of anatomical knowledge is locked up in those +languages. And especially, I should require some ability to draw--I do +not mean artistically, for that is a gift which may be cultivated but +cannot be learned, but with fair accuracy. I will not say that +everybody can learn, even this; for the negative development of the +faculty of drawing in some people is almost miraculous. Still +everybody, or almost everybody, can learn to write; and, as writing is +a kind of drawing, I suppose that the majority of the people who say +they cannot draw, and give copious evidence of the accuracy of their +assertion, could draw, after a fashion, if they tried. And that "after +a fashion" would be better than nothing for my purposes. + +Above all things, let my imaginary pupil have preserved the freshness +and vigour of youth in his mind as well as his body. The educational +abomination of desolation of the present day is the stimulation of +young people to work at high pressure by incessant competitive +examinations. Some wise man (who probably was not an early riser) has +said of early risers in general, that they are conceited all the +forenoon and stupid all the afternoon. Now whether this is true of +early risers in the common acceptation of the word or not, I will not +pretend to say; but it is too often true of the unhappy children who +are forced to rise too early in their classes. They are conceited all +the forenoon of life, and stupid all its afternoon. The vigour and +freshness, which should have been stored up for the purposes of the +hard struggle for existence in practical life, have been washed out of +them by precocious mental debauchery--by book gluttony and lesson +bibbing. Their faculties are worn out by the strain put upon their +callow brains, and they are demoralised by worthless childish triumphs +before the real work of life begins. I have no compassion for sloth, +but youth has more need for intellectual rest than age; and the +cheerfulness, the tenacity of purpose, the power of work which make +many a successful man what he is, must often be placed to the credit, +not of his hours of industry, but to that of his hours of idleness, in +boyhood. Even the hardest worker of us all, if he has to deal with +anything above mere details, will do well, now and again, to let his +brain lie fallow for a space. The next crop of thought will certainly +be all the fuller in the ear and the weeds fewer. + +This is the sort of education which I should like any one who was going +to devote himself to my handicraft to undergo. As to knowing anything +about anatomy itself, on the whole I would rather he left that alone +until he took it up seriously in my laboratory. It is hard work enough +to teach, and I should not like to have superadded to that the possible +need of un-teaching. + +Well, but, you will say, this is Hamlet with the Prince of Denmark left +out; your "technical education" is simply a good education, with more +attention to physical science, to drawing, and to modern languages than +is common, and there is nothing specially technical about it. + +Exactly so; that remark takes us straight to the heart of what I have +to say; which is, that, in my judgment, the preparatory education of +the handicraftsman ought to have nothing of what is ordinarily +understood by "technical" about it. + +The workshop is the only real school for a handicraft. The education +which precedes that of the workshop should be entirely devoted to the +strengthening of the body, the elevation of the moral faculties, and +the cultivation of the intelligence; and, especially, to the imbuing +the mind with a broad and clear view of the laws of that natural world +with the components of which the handicraftsman will have to deal. And, +the earlier the period of life at which the handicraftsman has to enter +into actual practice of his craft, the more important is it that he +should devote the precious hours of preliminary education to things of +the mind, which have no direct and immediate bearing on his branch of +industry, though they lie at the foundation of all realities. + + * * * * * + +Now let me apply the lessons I have learned from my handicraft to +yours. If any of you were obliged to take an apprentice, I suppose you +would like to get a good healthy lad, ready and willing to learn, +handy, and with his fingers not all thumbs, as the saying goes. You +would like that he should read, write, and cipher well; and, if you +were an intelligent master, and your trade involved the application of +scientific principles, as so many trades do, you would like him to know +enough of the elementary principles of science to understand what was +going on. I suppose that, in nine trades out of ten, it would be useful +if he could draw; and many of you must have lamented your inability to +find out for yourselves what foreigners are doing or have done. So that +some knowledge of French and German might, in many cases, be very +desirable. + +So it appears to me that what you want is pretty much what I want; and +the practical question is, How you are to get what you need, under the +actual limitations and conditions of life of handicraftsmen in this +country? + +I think I shall have the assent both of the employers of labour and of +the employed as to one of these limitations; which is, that no scheme +of technical education is likely to be seriously entertained which will +delay the entrance of boys into working life, or prevent them from +contributing towards their own support, as early as they do at present. +Not only do I believe that any such scheme could not be carried out, +but I doubt its desirableness, even if it were practicable. + +The period between childhood and manhood is full of difficulties and +dangers, under the most favourable circumstances; and, even among the +well-to-do, who can afford to surround their children with the most +favourable conditions, examples of a career ruined, before it has well +begun, are but too frequent. Moreover, those who have to live by labour +must be shaped to labour early. The colt that is left at grass too long +makes but a sorry draught-horse, though his way of life does not bring +him within the reach of artificial temptations. Perhaps the most +valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the +thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or +not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and, however +early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he +learns thoroughly. + +There is another reason, to which I have already adverted, and which I +would reiterate, why any extension of the time devoted to ordinary +schoolwork is undesirable. In the newly-awakened zeal for education, we +run some risk of forgetting the truth that while under-instruction is a +bad thing, over-instruction may possibly be a worse. + +Success in any kind of practical life is not dependent solely, or +indeed chiefly, upon knowledge. Even in the learned professions, +knowledge alone, is of less consequence than people are apt to suppose. +And, if much expenditure of bodily energy is involved in the day's +work, mere knowledge is of still less importance when weighed against +the probable cost of its acquirement. To do a fair day's work with his +hands, a man needs, above all things, health, strength, and the +patience and cheerfulness which, if they do not always accompany these +blessings, can hardly in the nature of things exist without them; to +which we must add honesty of purpose and a pride in doing what is done +well. + +A good handicraftsman can get on very well without genius, but he will +fare badly without a reasonable share of that which is a more useful +possession for workaday life, namely, mother-wit; and he will be all +the better for a real knowledge, however limited, of the ordinary laws +of nature, and especially of those which apply to his own business. + +Instruction carried so far as to help the scholar to turn his store of +mother-wit to account, to acquire a fair amount of sound elementary +knowledge, and to use his hands and eyes; while leaving him fresh, +vigorous, and with a sense of the dignity of his own calling, whatever +it may be, if fairly and honestly pursued, cannot fail to be of +invaluable service to all those who come under its influence. + +But, on the other hand, if school instruction is carried so far as to +encourage bookishness; if the ambition of the scholar is directed, not +to the gaining of knowledge, but to the being able to pass examinations +successfully; especially if encouragement is given to the mischievous +delusion that brainwork is, in itself, and apart from its quality, a +nobler or more respectable thing than handiwork--such education may be +a deadly mischief to the workman, and lead to the rapid ruin of the +industries it is intended to serve. + +I know that I am expressing the opinion of some of the largest as well +as the most enlightened employers of labour, when I say that there is a +real danger that, from the extreme of no education, we may run to the +other extreme of over-education of handicraftsmen. And I apprehend that +what is true for the ordinary hand-worker is true for the foreman. +Activity, probity, knowledge of men, ready mother-wit, supplemented by +a good knowledge of the general principles involved in his business, +are the making of a good foreman. If he possess these qualities, no +amount of learning will fit him better for his position; while the +course of life and the habit of mind required for the attainment of +such learning may, in various direct and indirect ways, act as direct +disqualifications for it. + +Keeping in mind, then, that the two things to be avoided are, the delay +of the entrance of boys into practical life, and the substitution of +exhausted bookworms for shrewd, handy men, in our works and factories, +let us consider what may be wisely and safely attempted in the way of +improving the education of the handicraftsman. + +First, I look to the elementary schools now happily established all +over the country. I am not going to criticise or find fault with them; +on the contrary, their establishment seems to me to be the most +important and the most beneficial result of the corporate action of the +people in our day. A great deal is said of British interests just now, +but, depend upon it, that no Eastern difficulty needs our intervention +as a nation so seriously, as the putting down both the Bashi-Bazouks of +ignorance and the Cossacks of sectarianism at home. What has already +been achieved in these directions is a great thing; you must have lived +some time to know how great. An education, better in its processes, +better in its substance, than that which was accessible to the great +majority of well-to-do Britons a quarter of a century ago, is now +obtainable by every child in the land. Let any man of my age go into an +ordinary elementary school, and unless he was unusually fortunate in +his youth, he will tell you that the educational method, the +intelligence, patience, and good temper on the teacher's part, which +are now at the disposal of the veriest waifs and wastrels of society, +are things of which he had no experience in those costly, middle-class +schools, which were so ingeniously contrived as to combine all the +evils and shortcomings of the great public schools with none of their +advantages. Many a man, whose so-called education cost a good deal of +valuable money and occupied many a year of invaluable time, leaves the +inspection of a well-ordered elementary school devoutly wishing that, +in his young days, he had had the chance of being as well taught as +these boys and girls are. + +But while in view of such an advance in general education, I willingly +obey the natural impulse to be thankful, I am not willing altogether to +rest. I want to see instruction in elementary science and in art more +thoroughly incorporated in the educational system. At present, it is +being administered by driblets, as if it were a potent medicine, "a few +drops to be taken occasionally in a teaspoon." Every year I notice that +that earnest and untiring friend of yours and of mine, Sir John +Lubbock, stirs up the Government of the day in the House of Commons on +this subject; and also that, every year, he, and the few members of the +House of Commons, such as Dr. Playfair, who sympathise with him, are +met with expressions of warm admiration for science in general, and +reasons at large for doing nothing in particular. But now that Mr. +Forster, to whom the education of the country owes so much, has +announced his conversion to the right faith, I begin to hope that, +sooner or later, things will mend. + +I have given what I believe to be a good reason for the assumption, +that the keeping at school of boys, who are to be handicraftsmen, +beyond the age of thirteen or fourteen is neither practicable nor +desirable; and, as it is quite certain, that, with justice to other and +no less important branches of education, nothing more than the +rudiments of science and art teaching can be introduced into elementary +schools, we must seek elsewhere for a supplementary training in these +subjects, and, if need be, in foreign languages, which may go on after +the workman's life has begun. + +The means of acquiring the scientific and artistic part of this +training already exists in full working order, in the first place, in +the classes of the Science and Art Department, which are, for the most +part, held in the evening, so as to be accessible to all who choose to +avail themselves of them after working hours. The great advantage of +these classes is that they bring the means of instruction to the doors +of the factories and workshops; that they are no artificial creations, +but by their very existence prove the desire of the people for them; +and finally, that they admit of indefinite development in proportion as +they are wanted. I have often expressed the opinion, and I repeat it +here, that, during the eighteen years they have been in existence these +classes have done incalculable good; and I can say, of my own +knowledge, that the Department spares no pains and trouble in trying to +increase their usefulness and ensure the soundness of their work. + +No one knows better than my friend Colonel Donnelly, to whose clear +views and great administrative abilities so much of the successful +working of the science classes is due, that there is much to be done +before the system can be said to be thoroughly satisfactory. The +instruction given needs to be made more systematic and especially more +practical; the teachers are of very unequal excellence, and not a few +stand much in need of instruction themselves, not only in the subject +which they teach, but in the objects for which they teach. I dare say +you have heard of that proceeding, reprobated by all true sportsmen, +which is called "shooting for the pot." Well, there is such a thing as +"teaching for the pot"--teaching, that is, not that your scholar may +know, but that he may count for payment among those who pass the +examination; and there are some teachers, happily not many, who have +yet to learn that the examiners of the Department regard them as +poachers of the worst description. + +Without presuming in any way to speak in the name of the Department, I +think I may say, as a matter which has come under my own observation, +that it is doing its best to meet all these difficulties. It +systematically promotes practical instruction in the classes; it +affords facilities to teachers who desire to learn their business +thoroughly; and it is always ready to aid in the suppression of +pot-teaching. + +All this is, as you may imagine, highly satisfactory to me. I see that +spread of scientific education, about which I have so often permitted +myself to worry the public, become, for all practical purposes, an +accomplished fact. Grateful as I am for all that is now being done, in +the same direction, in our higher schools and universities, I have +ceased to have any anxiety about the wealthier classes. Scientific +knowledge is spreading by what the alchemists called a "distillatio per +ascensum;" and nothing now can prevent it from continuing to distil +upwards and permeate English society, until, in the remote future, +there shall be no member of the legislature who does not know as much +of science as an elementary school-boy; and even the heads of houses in +our venerable seats of learning shall acknowledge that natural science +is not merely a sort of University back-door through which inferior men +may get at their degrees. Perhaps this apocalyptic vision is a little +wild; and I feel I ought to ask pardon for an outbreak of enthusiasm, +which, I assure you, is not my commonest failing. + +I have said that the Government is already doing a great deal in aid of +that kind of technical education for handicraftsmen which, to my mind, +is alone worth seeking. Perhaps it is doing as much as it ought to do, +even in this direction. Certainly there is another kind of help of the +most important character, for which we may look elsewhere than to the +Government. The great mass of mankind have neither the liking, nor the +aptitude, for either literary, or scientific, or artistic pursuits; +nor, indeed, for excellence of any sort. Their ambition is to go +through life with moderate exertion and a fair share of ease, doing +common things in a common way. And a great blessing and comfort it is +that the majority of men are of this mind; for the majority of things +to be done are common things, and are quite well enough done when +commonly done. The great end of life is not knowledge but action. What +men need is, as much knowledge as they can assimilate and organise into +a basis for action; give them more and it may become injurious. One +knows people who are as heavy and stupid from undigested learning as +others are from over-fulness of meat and drink. But a small percentage +of the population is born with that most excellent quality, a desire +for excellence, or with special aptitudes of some sort or another; Mr. +Galton tells us that not more than one in four thousand may be expected +to attain distinction, and not more than one in a million some share of +that intensity of instinctive aptitude, that burning thirst for +excellence, which is called genius. + +Now, the most important object of all educational schemes is to catch +these exceptional people, and turn them to account for the good of +society. No man can say where they will crop up; like their opposites, +the fools and knaves, they appear sometimes in the palace, and +sometimes in the hovel; but the great thing to be aimed at, I was +almost going to say the most important end of all social arrangements, +is to keep these glorious sports of Nature from being either corrupted +by luxury or starved by poverty, and to put them into the position in +which they can do the work for which they are especially fitted. + +Thus, if a lad in an elementary school showed signs of special +capacity, I would try to provide him with the means of continuing his +education after his daily working life had begun; if in the evening +classes he developed special capabilities in the direction of science +or of drawing, I would try to secure him an apprenticeship to some +trade in which those powers would have applicability. Or, if he chose +to become a teacher, he should have the chance of so doing. Finally, to +the lad of genius, the one in a million, I would make accessible the +highest and most complete training the country could afford. Whatever +that might cost, depend upon it the investment would be a good one. I +weigh my words when I say that if the nation could purchase a potential +Watt, or Davy, or Faraday, at the cost of a hundred thousand pounds +down, he would be dirt-cheap at the money. It is a mere commonplace and +everyday piece of knowledge, that what these three men did has produced +untold millions of wealth, in the narrowest economical sense of the +word. + +Therefore, as the sum and crown of what is to be done for technical +education, I look to the provision of a machinery for winnowing out the +capacities and giving them scope. When I was a member of the London +School Board, I said, in the course of a speech, that our business was +to provide a ladder, reaching from the gutter to the university, along +which every child in the three kingdoms should have the chance of +climbing as far as he was fit to go. This phrase was so much bandied +about at the time, that, to say truth, I am rather tired of it; but I +know of no other which so fully expresses my belief, not only about +education in general, but about technical education in particular. + +The essential foundation of all the organisation needed for the +promotion of education among handicraftsmen will, I believe, exist in +this country, when every working lad can feel that society has done as +much as lies in its power to remove all needless and artificial +obstacles from his path; that there is no barrier, except such as +exists in the nature of things, between himself and whatever place in +the social organisation he is fitted to fill; and, more than this, +that, if he has capacity and industry, a hand is held out to help him +along any path which is wisely and honestly chosen. + +I have endeavoured to point out to you that a great deal of such an +organisation already exists; and I am glad to be able to add that there +is a good prospect that what is wanting will, before long, be +supplemented. + +Those powerful and wealthy societies, the livery companies of the City +of London, remembering that they are the heirs and representatives of +the trade guilds of the Middle Ages, are interesting themselves in the +question. So far back as 1872 the Society of Arts organised a system of +instruction in the technology of arts and manufactures, for persons +actually employed in factories and workshops, who desired to extend and +improve their knowledge of the theory and practice of their particular +avocations; [1] and a considerable subsidy, in aid of the efforts of +the Society, was liberally granted by the Clothworkers' Company. We +have here the hopeful commencement of a rational organisation for the +promotion of excellence among handicraftsmen. Quite recently, other of +the livery companies have determined upon giving their powerful, and, +indeed, almost boundless, aid to the improvement of the teaching of +handicrafts. They have already gone so far as to appoint a committee to +act for them; and I betray no confidence in adding that, some time +since, the committee sought the advice and assistance of several +persons, myself among the number. + +Of course I cannot tell you what may be the result of the deliberations +of the committee; but we may all fairly hope that, before long, steps +which will have a weighty and a lasting influence on the growth and +spread of sound and thorough teaching among the handicraftsmen [2] of +this country will be taken by the livery companies of London. + +[This hope has been fully justified by the establishment of the Cowper +Street Schools, and that of the Central Institution of the City and +Guilds of London Institute, September, 1881.] + + * * * * * + +Footnotes: + +[1] See the _Programme_ for 1878, issued by the Society of Arts, +p. 14. + +[2] It is perhaps advisable to remark that the important question of +the professional education of managers of industrial works is not +touched in the foregoing remarks. + + + + +XVII + +ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF +TECHNICAL EDUCATION + +[1887.] + + +Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen,--It must be a matter of sincere satisfaction +to those who, like myself, have for many years past been convinced of +the vital importance of technical education to this country to see that +that subject is now being taken up by some of the most important of our +manufacturing towns. The evidence which is afforded of the public +interest in the matter by such meetings as those at Liverpool and +Newcastle, and, last but not least, by that at which I have the honour +to be present to-day, may convince us all, I think, that the question +has passed out of the region of speculation into that of action. I need +hardly say to any one here that the task which our Association +contemplates is not only one of primary importance--I may say of vital +importance--to the welfare of the country; but that it is one of great +extent and of vast difficulty. There is a well-worn adage that those +who set out upon a great enterprise would do well to count the cost. I +am not sure that this is always true. I think that some of the very +greatest enterprises in this world have been carried out successfully +simply because the people who undertook them did not count the cost; +and I am much of opinion that, in this very case, the most instructive +consideration for us is the cost of doing nothing. But there is one +thing that is perfectly certain, and it is that, in undertaking all +enterprises, one of the most important conditions of success is to have +a perfectly clear comprehension of what you want to do--to have that +before your minds before you set out, and from that point of view to +consider carefully the measures which are best adapted to the end. + +Mr. Acland has just given you an excellent account of what is properly +and strictly understood by technical education; but I venture to think +that the purpose of this Association may be stated in somewhat broader +terms, and that the object we have in view is the development of the +industrial productivity of the country to the uttermost limits +consistent with social welfare. And you will observe that, in thus +widening the definition of our object, I have gone no further than the +Mayor in his speech, when he not obscurely hinted--and most justly +hinted--that in dealing with this question there are other matters than +technical education, in the strict sense, to be considered. + +It would be extreme presumption on my part if I were to attempt to tell +an audience of gentlemen intimately acquainted with all branches of +industry and commerce, such as I see before me, in what manner the +practical details of the operations that we propose are to be carried +out. I am absolutely ignorant both of trade and of commerce, and upon +such matters I cannot venture to say a solitary word. But there is one +direction in which I think it possible I may be of service--not much +perhaps, but still of some,--because this matter, in the first place, +involves the consideration of methods of education with which it has +been my business to occupy myself during the greater part of my life; +and, in the second place, it involves attention to some of those broad +facts and laws of nature with which it has been my business to acquaint +myself to the best of my ability. And what I think may be possible is +this, that if I succeed in putting before you--as briefly as I can, but +in clear and connected shape--what strikes me as the programme that we +have eventually to carry out, and what are the indispensable conditions +of success, that that proceeding, whether the conclusions at which I +arrive be such as you approve or as you disapprove, will nevertheless +help to clear the course. In this and in all complicated matters we +must remember a saying of Bacon, which may be freely translated thus: +"Consistent error is very often vastly more useful than muddle-headed +truth." At any rate, if there be any error in the conclusions I shall +put before you, I will do my best to make the error perfectly clear and +plain. + +Now, looking at the question of what we want to do in this broad and +general way, it appears to me that it is necessary for us, in the first +place, to amend and improve our system of primary education in such a +fashion as will make it a proper preparation for the business of life. +In the second place, I think we have to consider what measures may best +be adopted for the development to its uttermost of that which may be +called technical skill; and, in the third place, I think we have to +consider what other matters there are for us to attend to, what other +arrangements have to be kept carefully in sight in order that, while +pursuing these ends, we do not forget that which is the end of civil +existence, I mean a stable social state without which all other +measures are merely futile, and, in effect, modes of going faster to +ruin. + +You are aware--no people should know the fact better than Manchester +people--that, within the last seventeen years, a vast system of primary +education has been created and extended over the whole country. I had +some part in the original organisation of this system in London, and I +am glad to think that, after all these years, I can look back upon that +period of my life as perhaps the part of it least wasted. + +No one can doubt that this system of primary education has done wonders +for our population; but, from our point of view, I do not think anybody +can doubt that it still has very considerable defects. It has the +defect which is common to all the educational systems which we have +inherited--it is too bookish, too little practical. The child is +brought too little into contact with actual facts and things, and as +the system stands at present it constitutes next to no education of +those particular faculties which are of the utmost importance to +industrial life--I mean the faculty of observation, the faculty of +working accurately, of dealing with things instead of with words. I do +not propose to enlarge upon this topic, but I would venture to suggest +that there are one or two remedial measures which are imperatively +needed; indeed, they have already been alluded to by Mr. Acland. Those +which strike me as of the greatest importance are two, and the first of +them is the teaching of drawing. In my judgment, there is no mode of +exercising the faculty of observation and the faculty of accurate +reproduction of that which is observed, no discipline which so readily +tests error in these matters, as drawing properly taught. And by that I +do not mean artistic drawing; I mean figuring natural objects: making +plans and sections, approaching geometrical rather than artistic +drawing. I do not wish to exaggerate, but I declare to you that, in my +judgment, the child who has been taught to make an accurate elevation, +plan and section of a pint pot has had an admirable training in +accuracy of eye and hand. I am not talking about artistic education. +That is not the question. Accuracy is the foundation of everything +else, and instruction in artistic drawing is something which may be put +off till a later stage. Nothing has struck me more in the course of my +life than the loss which persons, who are pursuing scientific knowledge +of any kind, sustain from the difficulties which arise because they +never have been taught elementary drawing; and I am glad to say that in +Eton, a school of whose governing body I have the honour of being a +member, we some years ago made drawing imperative on the whole school. + +The other matter in which we want some systematic and good teaching is +what I have hardly a name for, but which may best be explained as a +sort of developed object lessons such as Mr. Acland adverted to. +Anybody who knows his business in science can make anything subservient +to that purpose. You know it was said of Dean Swift that he could write +an admirable poem upon a broomstick, and the man who has a real +knowledge of science can make the commonest object in the world +subservient to an introduction to the principles and greater truths of +natural knowledge. It is in that way that your science must be taught +if it is to be of real service. Do not suppose any amount of book work, +any repetition by rote of catechisms and other abominations of that +kind are of value for our object. That is mere wasting of time. But +take the commonest object and lead the child from that foundation to +such truths of a higher order as may be within his grasp. With regard +to drawing, I do not think there is any practical difficulty; but in +respect to the scientific object lessons you want teachers trained in a +manner different from that which now prevails. + +If it is found practicable to add further training of the hand and eye +by instruction in modelling or in simple carpentry, well and good. But +I should stop at this point. The elementary schools are already charged +with quite as much as they can do properly; and I do not believe that +any good can come of burdening them with special technical instruction. +Out of that, I think, harm would come. + +Now let me pass to my second point, which is the development of +technical skill. Everybody here is aware that at this present moment +there is hardly a branch of trade or of commerce which does not depend, +more or less directly, upon some department or other of physical +science, which does not involve, for its successful pursuit, reasoning +from scientific data. Our machinery, our chemical processes or +dyeworks, and a thousand operations which it is not necessary to +mention, are all directly and immediately connected with science. You +have to look among your workmen and foremen for persons who shall +intelligently grasp the modifications, based upon science, which are +constantly being introduced into these industrial processes. I do not +mean that you want professional chemists, or physicists, or +mathematicians, or the like, but you want people sufficiently familiar +with the broad principles which underlie industrial operations to be +able to adapt themselves to new conditions. Such qualifications can +only be secured by a sort of scientific instruction which occupies a +midway place between those primary notions given in the elementary +schools and those more advanced studies which would be carried out in +the technical schools. + +You are aware that, at present, a very large machinery is in operation +for the purpose of giving this instruction. I don't refer merely to +such work as is being done at Owens College here, for example, or at +other local colleges. I allude to the larger operations of the Science +and Art Department, with which I have been connected for a great many +years. I constantly hear a great many objections raised to the work of +the Science and Art Department. If you will allow me to say so, my +connection with that department--which, I am happy to say, remains, and +which I am very proud of--is purely honorary; and, if it appeared to me +to be right to criticise that department with merciless severity, the +Lord President, if he were inclined to resent my proceedings, could do +nothing more than dismiss me. Therefore you may believe that I speak +with absolute impartiality. My impression is this, not that it is +faultless, nor that it has not various defects, nor that there are not +sundry _lacunae_ which want filling up; but that, if we consider +the conditions under which the department works, we shall see that +certain defects are inseparable from those conditions. People talk of +the want of flexibility of the Department, of its being bound by strict +rules. Now, will any man of common sense who has had anything to do +with the administration of public funds or knows the humour of the +House of Commons on these matters--will any man who is in the smallest +degree acquainted with the practical working of State departments of +any kind, imagine that such a department could be other than bound by +minutely defined regulations? Can he imagine that the work of the +department should go on fairly and in such a manner as to be free from +just criticism, unless it were bound by certain definite and fixed +rules? I cannot imagine it. + +The next objection of importance that I have heard commonly repeated is +that the teaching is too theoretical, that there is insufficient +practical teaching. I venture to say that there is no one who has taken +more pains to insist upon the comparative uselessness of scientific +teaching without practical work than I have; I venture to say that +there are no persons who are more cognisant of these defects in the +work of the Science and Art Department than those who administer it. +But those who talk in this way should acquaint themselves with the fact +that proper practical instruction is a matter of no small difficulty in +the present scarcity of properly taught teachers, that it is very +costly, and that, in some branches of science, there are other +difficulties which I won't allude to. But it is a matter of fact that, +wherever it has been possible, practical teaching has been introduced, +and has been made an essential element in examination; and no doubt if +the House of Commons would grant unlimited means, and if proper +teachers were to hand, as thick as blackberries, there would not be +much difficulty in organising a complete system of practical +instruction and examination ancillary to the present science classes. +Those who quarrel with the present state of affairs would be better +advised if, instead of groaning over the shortcomings of the present +system, they would put before themselves these two questions--Is it +possible under the conditions to invent any better system? Is it +possible under the conditions to enlarge the work of practical teaching +and practical examination which is the one desire of those who +administer the department? That is all I have to say upon that subject. + +Supposing we have this teaching of what I may call intermediate +science, what we want next is technical instruction, in the strict +sense of the word technical; I mean instruction in that kind of +knowledge which is essential to the successful prosecution of the +several branches of trade and industry. Now, the best way of obtaining +this end is a matter about which the most experienced persons entertain +very diverse opinions. I do not for one moment pretend to dogmatise +about it; I can only tell you what the opinion is that I have formed +from hearing the views of those who are certainly best qualified to +judge, from those who have tested the various methods of conveying this +instruction. I think we have before us three possibilities. We have, in +the first place, trade schools--I mean schools in which branches of +trade are taught. We have, in the next place, schools attached to +factories for the purpose of instructing young apprentices and others +who go there, and who aim at becoming intelligent workmen and capable +foremen. We have, lastly, the system of day classes and evening +classes. With regard to the first there is this objection, that they +can be attended only by those who are not obliged to earn their bread, +and consequently that they will reach only a very small fraction of the +population. Moreover, the expense of trade schools is enormous, and +those who are best able to judge assure me that, inasmuch as the work +which they do is not done under conditions of pecuniary success or +failure, it is apt to be too amateurish and speculative, and that it +does not prepare the worker for the real conditions under which he will +have to carry out his work. In any case, the fact that the schools are +very expensive, and the fact that they are accessible only to a small +portion of the population, seem to me to constitute a very serious +objection to them. I suppose the best of all possible organisations is +that of a school attached to a factory, where the employer has an +interest in seeing that the instruction given is of a thoroughly +practical kind, and where the pupils pass gradually by successive +stages to the position of actual workmen. Schools of this kind exist in +various parts of the country, but it is obvious that they are not +likely to be reached by any large part of the population; so that it +appears to me we are shut up practically to schools accessible to those +who are earning their bread, and in such cases they must be essentially +evening classes. I am strongly of opinion that classes of this kind do +an immense amount of good; that they have this admirable quality, that +they involve voluntary attendance, take no man out of his position, but +enable any who chooses, to make the best of the position he happens to +occupy. + +Suppose that all these things are desirable, what is the best way of +obtaining them? I must confess that I have a strong prejudice in favour +of carrying out undertakings of this kind, which at first, at any rate, +must be to a great extent tentative and experimental, by private +effort. I don't believe that the man lives at this present time who is +competent to organise a final system of technical education. I believe +that all attempts made in that direction must for many years to come be +experimental, and that we must get to success through a series of +blunders. Now that work is far better performed by private enterprise +than in any other way. But there is another method which I think is +permissible, and not only permissible but highly recommendable in this +case, and that is the method of allowing the locality itself in which +any branch of industry is pursued to be its own judge of its own wants, +and to tax itself under certain conditions for the purpose of carrying +out any scheme of technical education adapted to its needs. I am aware +that there are many extreme theorists of the individualist school who +hold that all this is very wicked and very wrong, and that by leaving +things to themselves they will get right. Well, my experience of the +world is that things left to themselves don't get right. I believe it +to be sound doctrine that a municipality--and the State itself for that +matter--is a corporation existing for the benefit of its members, and +that here, as in all other cases, it is for the majority to determine +that which is for the good of the whole, and to act upon that. That is +the principle which underlies the whole theory of government in this +country, and if it is wrong we shall have to go back a long way. But +you may ask me, "This process of local taxation can only be carried out +under the authority of an Act of Parliament, and do you propose to let +any municipality or any local authority have _carte blanche_ in +these matters; is the Legislature to allow it to tax the whole body of +its members to any extent it pleases and for any purposes it pleases?" +I should reply, certainly not. + +Let me point out to you that at this present moment it passes the wit +of man, so far as I know, to give a legal definition of technical +education. If you expect to have an Act of Parliament with a definition +which shall include all that ought to be included, and exclude all that +ought to be excluded, I think you will have to wait a very long time. I +imagine the whole matter is in a tentative state. You don't know what +you will be called upon to do, and so you must try and you must +blunder. Under these circumstances it is obvious that there are two +alternatives. One of these is to give a free hand to each locality. +Well, it is within my knowledge that there are a good many people with +wonderful, strange, and wild notions as to what ought to be done in +technical education, and it is quite possible that in some places, and +especially in small places, where there are few persons who take an +interest in these things, you will have very remarkable projects put +forth, and in that case the sole court of appeal for those taxpayers, +who did not approve of such projects, would be a court of law. I +suppose the judges would have to settle what is technical education. +That would not be an edifying process, I think, and certainly it would +be a very costly one. The other alternative is the principle adopted in +the bill of last year now abandoned. I don't say whether the bill was +right or wrong in detail. I am dealing now only with the principle of +the bill, which appears to me to have been very often misunderstood. It +has been said that it gave the whole of technical education into the +hands of the Science and Art Department. It appears to me nothing could +be more unfounded than that assertion. All I understand the Government +proposed to do was to provide some authority who should have power to +say in case any scheme was proposed, "Well, this comes within the four +corners of the Act of Parliament, work it as you like;" or if it was an +obviously questionable project, should take upon itself the +responsibility of saying, "No, that is not what the Legislature +intended; amend your scheme." There was no initiative, no control; +there was simply this power of giving authority to decide upon the +meaning of the Act of Parliament to a particular department of the +State, whichever it might be; and it seems to me that that is a very +much simpler and better process than relegating the whole question to +the law courts. I think that here, or anywhere else, people must be +extremely sanguine if they suppose that the House of Commons and the +House of Lords will ever dream of giving any local authority unlimited +power to tax the inhabitants of a district for any object it pleases. I +should say that was not in the range of practical politics. Well, I put +that before you as a matter for your consideration. + +Another very important point in this connection is the question of the +supply of teachers. I should say that is one of the greatest +difficulties which beset the whole problem before us. I do not wish in +the slightest degree to criticise the existing system of preparing +teachers for ordinary school work. I have nothing to say about it. But +what I do wish to say, and what I trust I may impress on your minds +firmly is this, that for the purpose of obtaining persons competent to +teach science or to act as technical teachers, a different system must +be adopted. For this purpose a man must know what he is about +thoroughly, and be able to deal with his subject as if it were the +business of his ordinary life. For this purpose, for the obtaining of +teachers of science and of technical classes, the system of catching a +boy or girl young, making a pupil teacher of him, compelling the poor +little mortal to pour from his little bucket, into a still smaller +bucket, that which has just been poured into it out of a big bucket; +and passing him afterwards through the training college, where his life +is devoted to filling the bucket from the pump from morning till night, +without time for thought or reflection, is a system which should not +continue. Let me assure you that it will not do for us, that you had +better give the attempt up than try that system. I remember somewhere +reading of an interview between the poet Southey and a good Quaker. +Southey was a man of marvellous powers of work. He had a habit of +dividing his time into little parts each of which was filled up, and he +told the Quaker what he did in this hour and that, and so on through +the day until far into the night. The Quaker listened, and at the close +said, "Well, but, friend Southey, when dost thee think?" The system +which I am now adverting to is arraigned and condemned by putting that +question to it. When does the unhappy pupil teacher, or over-drilled +student of a training college, find any time to think? I am sure if I +were in their place I could not. I repeat, that kind of thing will not +do for science teachers. For science teachers must have knowledge, and +knowledge is not to be acquired on these terms. The power of repetition +is, but that is not knowledge. The knowledge which is absolutely +requisite in dealing with young children is the knowledge you possess, +as you would know your own business, and which you can just turn about +as if you were explaining to a boy a matter of everyday life. + +So far as science teaching and technical education are concerned, the +most important of all things is to provide the machinery for training +proper teachers. The Department of Science and Art has been at that +work for years and years, and though unable under present conditions to +do so much as could be wished, it has, I believe, already begun to +leaven the lump to a very considerable extent. If technical education +is to be carried out on the scale at present contemplated, this +particular necessity must be specially and most seriously provided for. +And there is another difficulty, namely, that when you have got your +science or technical teacher it may not be easy to keep him. You have +educated a man--a clever fellow very likely--on the understanding that +he is to be a teacher. But the business of teaching is not a very +lucrative and not a very attractive one, and an able man who has had a +good training is under extreme temptations to carry his knowledge and +his skill to a better market, in which case you have had all your +trouble for nothing. It has often occurred to me that probably nothing +would be of more service in this matter than the creation of a number +of not very large bursaries or exhibitions, to be gained by persons +nominated by the authorities of the various science colleges and +schools of the country--persons such as they thought to be well +qualified for the teaching business--and to be held for a certain term +of years, during which the holders should be bound to teach. I believe +that some measure of this kind would do more to secure a good supply of +teachers than anything else. Pray note that I do not suggest that you +should try to get hold of good teachers by competitive examination. +That is not the best way of getting men of that special qualification. +An effectual method would be to ask professors and teachers of any +institution to recommend men who, to their own knowledge, are worthy of +such support, and are likely to turn it to good account. + +I trust I am not detaining you too long; but there remains yet one +other matter which I think is of profound importance, perhaps of more +importance than all the rest, on which I earnestly beg to be permitted +to say some few words. It is the need, while doing all these things, of +keeping an eye, and an anxious eye, upon those measures which are +necessary for the preservation of that stable and sound condition of +the whole social organism which is the essential condition of real +progress, and a chief end of all education. You will all recollect that +some time ago there was a scandal and a great outcry about certain +cutlasses and bayonets which had been supplied to our troops and +sailors. These warlike implements were polished as bright as rubbing +could make them; they were very well sharpened; they looked lovely. But +when they were applied to the test of the work of war they broke and +they bent, and proved more likely to hurt the hand of him that used +them than to do any harm to the enemy. Let me apply that analogy to the +effect of education, which is a sharpening and polishing of the mind. +You may develop the intellectual side of people as far as you like, and +you may confer upon them all the skill that training and instruction +can give; but, if there is not, underneath all that outside form and +superficial polish, the firm fibre of healthy manhood and earnest +desire to do well, your labour is absolutely in vain. + +Let me further call your attention to the fact that the terrible battle +of competition between the different nations of the world is no +transitory phenomenon, and does not depend upon this or that +fluctuation of the market, or upon any condition that is likely to pass +away. It is the inevitable result of that which takes place throughout +nature and affects man's part of nature as much as any other--namely, +the struggle for existence, arising out of the constant tendency of all +creatures in the animated world to multiply indefinitely. It is that, +if you look at it, which is at the bottom of all the great movements of +history. It is that inherent tendency of the social organism to +generate the causes of its own destruction, never yet counteracted, +which has been at the bottom of half the catastrophes which have ruined +States. We are at present in the swim of one of those vast movements in +which, with a population far in excess of that which we can feed, we +are saved from a catastrophe, through the impossibility of feeding +them, solely by our possession of a fair share of the markets of the +world. And in order that that fair share may be retained, it is +absolutely necessary that we should be able to produce commodities +which we can exchange with food-growing people, and which they will +take, rather than those of our rivals, on the ground of their greater +cheapness or of their greater excellence. That is the whole story. And +our course, let me say, is not actuated by mere motives of ambition or +by mere motives of greed. Those doubtless are visible enough on the +surface of these great movements, but the movements themselves have far +deeper sources. If there were no such things as ambition and greed in +this world, the struggle for existence would arise from the same +causes. + +Our sole chance of succeeding in a competition, which must constantly +become more and more severe, is that our people shall not only have the +knowledge and the skill which are required, but that they shall have +the will and the energy and the honesty, without which neither +knowledge nor skill can be of any permanent avail. This is what I mean +by a stable social condition, because any other condition than this, +any social condition in which the development of wealth involves the +misery, the physical weakness, and the degradation of the worker, is +absolutely and infallibly doomed to collapse. Your bayonets and +cutlasses will break under your hand, and there will go on accumulating +in society a mass of hopeless, physically incompetent, and morally +degraded people, who are, as it were, a sort of dynamite which, sooner +or later, when its accumulation becomes sufficient and its tension +intolerable, will burst the whole fabric. + +I am quite aware that the problem which I have put before you and which +you know as much about as I do, and a great deal more probably, is one +extremely difficult to solve. I am fully aware that one great factor in +industrial success is reasonable cheapness of labour. That has been +pointed out over and over again, and is in itself an axiomatic +proposition. And it seems to me that of all the social questions which +face us at this present time, the most serious is how to steer a clear +course between the two horns of an obvious dilemma. One of these is the +constant tendency of competition to lower wages beyond a point at which +man can remain man--below a point at which decency and cleanliness and +order and habits of morality and justice can reasonably be expected to +exist. And the other horn of the dilemma is the difficulty of +maintaining wages above this point consistently with success in +industrial competition. I have not the remotest conception how this +problem will eventually work itself out; but of this I am perfectly +convinced, that the sole course compatible with safety lies between the +two extremes; between the Scylla of successful industrial production +with a degraded population, on the one side, and the Charybdis of a +population, maintained in a reasonable and decent state, with failure +in industrial competition, on the other side. Having this strong +conviction, which, indeed, I imagine must be that of every person who +has ever thought seriously about these great problems, I have ventured +to put it before you in this bare and almost cynical fashion because it +will justify the strong appeal, which I make to all concerned in this +work of promoting industrial education, to have a care, at the same +time, that the conditions of industrial life remain those in which the +physical energies of the population may be maintained at a proper +level; in which their moral state may be cared for; in which there may +be some rays of hope and pleasure in their lives; and in which the sole +prospect of a life of labour may not be an old age of penury. + +These are the chief suggestions I have to offer to you, though I have +omitted much that I should like to have said, had time permitted. It +may be that some of you feel inclined to look upon them as the Utopian +dreams of a student. If there be such, let me tell you that there are, +to my knowledge, manufacturing towns in this country, not one-tenth the +size, or boasting one-hundredth part of the wealth, of Manchester, in +which I do not say that the programme that I have put before you is +completely carried out, but in which, at any rate, a wise and +intelligent effort had been made to realise it, and in which the main +parts of the programme are in course of being worked out. This is not +the first time that I have had the privilege and pleasure of addressing +a Manchester audience. I have often enough, before now, thrown myself +with entire confidence upon the hard-headed intelligence and the very +soft-hearted kindness of Manchester people, when I have had a difficult +and complicated scientific argument to put before them. If, after the +considerations which I have put before you--and which, pray be it +understood, I by no means claim particularly for myself, for I presume +they must be in the minds of a large number of people who have thought +about this matter--if it be that these ideas commend themselves to your +mature reflection, then I am perfectly certain that my appeal to you to +carry them into practice, with that abundant energy and will which have +led you to take a foremost part in the great social movements of our +country many a time beforehand, will not be made in vain. I therefore +confidently appeal to you to let those impulses once more have full +sway, and not to rest until you have done something better and greater +than has yet been done in this country in the direction in which we are +now going. I heartily thank you for the attention which you have been +kind enough to bestow upon me. The practice of public speaking is one I +must soon think of leaving off, and I count it a special and peculiar +honour to have had the opportunity of speaking to you on this subject +to-day. + + * * * * * + +THE END OF VOL. III + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, SCIENCE & EDUCATION *** + +This file should be named 8sced10.txt or 8sced10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8sced11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8sced10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Science & Education + +Author: Thomas H. Huxley + +Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7150] +[This file was first posted on March 18, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, SCIENCE & EDUCATION *** + + + + +Thomas Berger, Carlo Traverso, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +This file was produced from images generously made available by the +Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at http://gallica.bnf.fr. + + + +</PRE> + +<div align="center"> +<h1>SCIENCE & EDUCATION</h1> + +<P>ESSAYS</P> + +<P>BY</P> + +<h1>THOMAS H. HUXLEY</h1> +</div> + +<br><hr><br> +<h3>PREFACE</h3> + +<P>The apology offered in the Preface to the first volume of this series +for the occurrence of repetitions, is even more needful here I am +afraid. But it could hardly be otherwise with speeches and essays, on +the same topic, addressed at intervals, during more than thirty years, +to widely distant and different hearers and readers. The oldest piece, +that "On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences," +contains some crudities, which I repudiated when the lecture was first +reprinted, more than twenty years ago; but it will be seen that much of +what I have had to say, later on in life, is merely a development of +the propositions enunciated in this early and sadly-imperfect piece of +work.</P> + +<P>In view of the recent attempt to disturb the compromise about the +teaching of dogmatic theology, solemnly agreed to by the first School +Board for London, the fifteenth Essay; and, more particularly, the note +on p. <a href="#XV3">388</a>, may be found interesting.</P> + +<P>T. H. H.</P> + +<P>Hodeslea, Eastbourne, <i>September 4th, 1893</i>.</P> +<br><hr><br> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<OL type="I"> + <LI><p><a href="#I">JOSEPH PRIESTLEY</a> [1874]</p> + +<P>(An Address delivered on the occasion of the presentation of a statue +of Priestley to the town of Birmingham)</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#II">ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES</a> [1854]</P> + +<P>(An Address delivered in S. Martin's Hall)</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#III">EMANCIPATION--BLACK AND WHITE</a> [1865]</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#IV">A LIBERAL EDUCATION; AND WHERE TO FIND IT</a> [1868]</P> + +<P>(An Address to the South London Working Men's College)</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#V">SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH</a> [1869]</P> + +<P>(Liverpool Philomathic Society)</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#VI">SCIENCE AND CULTURE</a> [1880]</P> + +<P>(An Address delivered at the opening of Sir Josiah Mason's Science +College, Birmingham)</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#VII">ON SCIENCE AND ART IN RELATION TO EDUCATION</a> [1882]</P> + +<P>(An Address to the members of the Liverpool Institution)</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#VIII">UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL</a> [1874]</P> + +<P>(Rectorial Address, Aberdeen)</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#IX">ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION</a> [1876]</P> + +<P>(Delivered at the opening of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore)</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#X">ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY</a> [1876]</P> + +<P>(A Lecture in connection with the Loan Collection of Scientific +Apparatus, South Kensington Museum)</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#XI">ON ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY</a> [1877]</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#XII">ON MEDICAL EDUCATION</a> [1870]</P> + +<P>(An Address to the students of the Faculty of Medicine in University +College, London)</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#XIII">THE STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION</a> [1884]</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#XIV">THE CONNECTION OF THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES WITH MEDICINE</a> [1881]</P> + +<P>(An Address to the International Medical Congress)</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#XV">THE SCHOOL BOARDS: WHAT THEY CAN DO, AND WHAT THEY MAY DO</a> [1870]</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#XVI">TECHNICAL EDUCATION</a> [1877]</P> +</LI> + <LI><P><a href="#XVII">ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF +TECHNICAL EDUCATION</a> [1887]</P> + +</LI> +</OL> +<br><hr><br> + +<div align="center"> +<P>COLLECTED ESSAYS</P> + +<P>VOLUME III</P> +</div> +<br><hr><br> + +<P><a name="I">I</a></P> + +<h4>JOSEPH PRIESTLEY</h4> + +<P>[1874]</P> + +<P>If the man to perpetuate whose memory we have this day raised a statue +had been asked on what part of his busy life's work he set the highest +value, he would undoubtedly have pointed to his voluminous +contributions to theology. In season and out of season, he was the +steadfast champion of that hypothesis respecting the Divine nature +which is termed Unitarianism by its friends and Socinianism by its +foes. Regardless of odds, he was ready to do battle with all comers in +that cause; and if no adversaries entered the lists, he would sally +forth to seek them.</P> + +<P>To this, his highest ideal of duty, Joseph Priestley sacrificed the +vulgar prizes of life, which, assuredly, were within easy reach of a +man of his singular energy and varied abilities. For this object he put +aside, as of secondary importance, those scientific investigations +which he loved so well, and in which he showed himself so competent to +enlarge the boundaries of natural knowledge and to win fame. In this +cause he not only cheerfully suffered obloquy from the bigoted and the +unthinking, and came within sight of martyrdom; but bore with that +which is much harder to be borne than all these, the unfeigned +astonishment and hardly disguised contempt of a brilliant society, +composed of men whose sympathy and esteem must have been most dear to +him, and to whom it was simply incomprehensible that a philosopher +should seriously occupy himself with any form of Christianity.</P> + +<P>It appears to me that the man who, setting before himself such an ideal +of life, acted up to it consistently, is worthy of the deepest respect, +whatever opinion may be entertained as to the real value of the tenets +which he so zealously propagated and defended.</P> + +<P>But I am sure that I speak not only for myself, but for all this +assemblage, when I say that our purpose to-day is to do honour, not to +Priestley, the Unitarian divine, but to Priestley, the fearless +defender of rational freedom in thought and in action: to Priestley, +the philosophic thinker; to that Priestley who held a foremost place +among "the swift runners who hand over the lamp of life," [<a href="#I1">1</a>] and +transmit from one generation to another the fire kindled, +in the childhood of the world, at the Promethean altar of Science.</P> + +<P>The main incidents of Priestley's life are so well known that I need +dwell upon them at no great length.</P> + +<P>Born in 1733, at Fieldhead, near Leeds, and brought up among Calvinists +of the straitest orthodoxy, the boy's striking natural ability led to +his being devoted to the profession of a minister of religion; and, in +1752, he was sent to the Dissenting Academy at Daventry--an institution +which authority left undisturbed, though its existence contravened the +law. The teachers under whose instruction and influence the young man +came at Daventry, carried out to the letter the injunction to "try all +things: hold fast that which is good," and encouraged the discussion of +every imaginable proposition with complete freedom, the leading +professors taking opposite sides; a discipline which, admirable as it +may be from a purely scientific point of view, would seem to be +calculated to make acute, rather than sound, divines. Priestley tells +us, in his "Autobiography," that he generally found himself on the +unorthodox side: and, as he grew older, and his faculties attained +their maturity, this native tendency towards heterodoxy grew with his +growth and strengthened with his strength. He passed from Calvinism to +Arianism; and finally, in middle life, landed in that very broad form +of Unitarianism by which his craving after a credible and consistent +theory of things was satisfied.</P> + +<P>On leaving Daventry Priestley became minister of a congregation, first +at Needham Market, and secondly at Nantwich; but whether on account of +his heterodox opinions, or of the stuttering which impeded his +expression of them in the pulpit, little success attended his efforts +in this capacity. In 1761, a career much more suited to his abilities +became open to him. He was appointed "tutor in the languages" in the +Dissenting Academy at Warrington, in which capacity, besides giving +three courses of lectures, he taught Latin, Greek, French, and Italian, +and read lectures on the theory of language and universal grammar, on +oratory, philosophical criticism, and civil law. And it is interesting +to observe that, as a teacher, he encouraged and cherished in those +whom he instructed the freedom which he had enjoyed, in his own student +days, at Daventry. One of his pupils tells us that,</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"At the conclusion of his lecture, he always encouraged his +students to express their sentiments relative to the subject of it, +and to urge any objections to what he had delivered, without +reserve. It pleased him when any one commenced such a conversation. +In order to excite the freest discussion, he occasionally invited +the students to drink tea with him, in order to canvass the +subjects of his lectures. I do not recollect that he ever showed +the least displeasure at the strongest objections that were made to +what he delivered, but I distinctly remember the smile of +approbation with which he usually received them: nor did he fail to +point out, in a very encouraging manner, the ingenuity or force of +any remarks that were made, when they merited these characters. His +object, as well as Dr. Aikin's, was to engage the students to +examine and decide for themselves, uninfluenced by the sentiments +of any other persons." [<a href="#I2">2</a>]</P> +</blockquote> +<P>It would be difficult to give a better description of a model teacher +than that conveyed in these words.</P> + +<P>From his earliest days, Priestley had shown a strong bent towards the +study of nature; and his brother Timothy tells us that the boy put +spiders into bottles, to see how long they would live in the same +air--a curious anticipation of the investigations of his later years. +At Nantwich, where he set up a school, Priestley informs us that he +bought an air pump, an electrical machine, and other instruments, in +the use of which he instructed his scholars. But he does not seem to +have devoted himself seriously to physical science until 1766, when he +had the great good fortune to meet Benjamin Franklin, whose friendship +he ever afterwards enjoyed. Encouraged by Franklin, he wrote a "History +of Electricity," which was published in 1767, and appears to have met +with considerable success.</P> + +<P>In the same year, Priestley left Warrington to become the minister of a +congregation at Leeds; and, here, happening to live next door to a +public brewery, as he says,</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"I, at first, amused myself with making experiments on the fixed +air which I found ready-made in the process of fermentation. When I +removed from that house I was under the necessity of making fixed +air for myself; and one experiment leading to another, as I have +distinctly and faithfully noted in my various publications on the +subject, I by degrees contrived a convenient apparatus for the +purpose, but of the cheapest kind.</P> + +<P>"When I began these experiments I knew very little of <i>chemistry</i>, +and had, in a manner, no idea on the subject before I attended a +course of chemical lectures, delivered in the Academy at +Warrington, by Dr. Turner of Liverpool. But I have often thought +that, upon the whole, this circumstance was no disadvantage to me; +as, in this situation, I was led to devise an apparatus and +processes of my own, adapted to my peculiar views; whereas, if I +had been previously accustomed to the usual chemical processes, I +should not have so easily thought of any other, and without new +modes of operation, I should hardly have discovered anything +materially new." [<a href="#I3">3</a>]</P> +</blockquote> +<P>The first outcome of Priestley's chemical work, published in 1772, was +of a very practical character. He discovered the way of impregnating +water with an excess of "fixed air," or carbonic acid, and thereby +producing what we now know as "soda water"--a service to naturally, and +still more to artificially, thirsty souls, which those whose parched +throats and hot heads are cooled by morning draughts of that beverage, +cannot too gratefully acknowledge. In the same year, Priestley +communicated the extensive series of observations which his industry +and ingenuity had accumulated, in the course of four years, to the +Royal Society, under the title of "Observations on Different Kinds of +Air"--a memoir which was justly regarded of so much merit and +importance, that the Society at once conferred upon the author the +highest distinction in their power, by awarding him the Copley Medal.</P> + +<P>In 1771 a proposal was made to Priestley to accompany Captain Cook in +his second voyage to the South Seas. He accepted it, and his +congregation agreed to pay an assistant to supply his place during his +absence. But the appointment lay in the hands of the Board of +Longitude, of which certain clergymen were members; and whether these +worthy ecclesiastics feared that Priestley's presence among the ship's +company might expose His Majesty's sloop <i>Resolution</i> to the fate +which aforetime befell a certain ship that went from Joppa to Tarshish; +or whether they were alarmed lest a Socinian should undermine that +piety which, in the days of Commodore Trunnion, so strikingly +characterised sailors, does not appear; but, at any rate, they objected +to Priestley "on account of his religious principles," and appointed +the two Forsters, whose "religious principles," if they had been known +to these well-meaning but not far-sighted persons, would probably have +surprised them.</P> + +<P>In 1772 another proposal was made to Priestley. Lord Shelburne, +desiring a "literary companion," had been brought into communication +with Priestley by the good offices of a friend of both, Dr. Price; and +offered him the nominal post of librarian, with a good house and +appointments, and an annuity in case of the termination of the +engagement. Priestley accepted the offer, and remained with Lord +Shelburne for seven years, sometimes residing at Calne, sometimes +travelling abroad with the Earl.</P> + +<P>Why the connection terminated has never been exactly known; but it is +certain that Lord Shelburne behaved with the utmost consideration and +kindness towards Priestley; that he fulfilled his engagements to the +letter; and that, at a later period, he expressed a desire that +Priestley should return to his old footing in his house. Probably +enough, the politician, aspiring to the highest offices in the State, +may have found the position of the protector of a man who was being +denounced all over the country as an infidel and an atheist somewhat +embarrassing. In fact, a passage in Priestley's "Autobiography" on the +occasion of the publication of his "Disquisitions relating to Matter +and Spirit," which took place in 1777, indicates pretty clearly the +state of the case:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"(126) It being probable that this publication would be unpopular, +and might be the means of bringing odium on my patron, several +attempts were made by his friends, though none by himself, to +dissuade me from persisting in it. But being, as I thought, engaged +in the cause of important truth, I proceeded without regard to any +consequences, assuring them that this publication should not be +injurious to his lordship."</P> +</blockquote> +<P>It is not unreasonable to suppose that his lordship, as a keen, +practical man of the world, did not derive much satisfaction from this +assurance. The "evident marks of dissatisfaction" which Priestley says +he first perceived in his patron in 1778, may well have arisen from the +peer's not unnatural uneasiness as to what his domesticated, but not +tamed, philosopher might write next, and what storm might thereby he +brought down on his own head; and it speaks very highly for Lord +Shelburne's delicacy that, in the midst of such perplexities, he made +not the least attempt to interfere with Priestley's freedom of action. +In 1780, however, he intimated to Dr. Price that he should be glad to +establish Priestley on his Irish estates: the suggestion was +interpreted, as Lord Shelburne probably intended it should be, and +Priestley left him, the annuity of £150 a year, which had been promised +in view of such a contingency, being punctually paid.</P> + +<P>After leaving Calne, Priestley spent some little time in London, and +then, having settled in Birmingham at the desire of his brother-in-law, +he was soon invited to become the minister of a large congregation. +This settlement Priestley considered, at the time, to be "the happiest +event of his life." And well he might think so; for it gave him +competence and leisure; placed him within reach of the best makers of +apparatus of the day; made him a member of that remarkable "Lunar +Society," at whose meetings he could exchange thoughts with such men as +Watt, Wedgwood, Darwin, and Boulton; and threw open to him the pleasant +house of the Galtons of Barr, where these men, and others of less note, +formed a society of exceptional charm and intelligence. [<a href="#I4">4</a>]</P> + +<P>But these halcyon days were ended by a bitter storm. The French +Revolution broke out. An electric shock ran through the nations; +whatever there was of corrupt and retrograde, and, at the same time, a +great deal of what there was of best and noblest, in European society +shuddered at the outburst of long-pent-up social fires. Men's feelings +were excited in a way that we, in this generation, can hardly +comprehend. Party wrath and virulence were expressed in a manner +unparalleled, and it is to be hoped impossible, in our times; and +Priestley and his friends were held up to public scorn, even in +Parliament, as fomenters of sedition. A "Church-and-King" cry was +raised against the Liberal Dissenters; and, in Birmingham, it was +intensified and specially directed towards Priestley by a local +controversy, in which he had engaged with his usual vigour. In 1791, +the celebration of the second anniversary of the taking of the Bastille +by a public dinner, with which Priestley had nothing whatever to do, +gave the signal to the loyal and pious mob, who, unchecked, and indeed +to some extent encouraged, by those who were responsible for order, had +the town at their mercy for three days. The chapels and houses of the +leading Dissenters were wrecked, and Priestley and his family had to +fly for their lives, leaving library, apparatus, papers, and all their +possessions, a prey to the flames.</P> + +<P>Priestley never returned to Birmingham. He bore the outrages and losses +inflicted upon him with extreme patience and sweetness, [<a href="#I5">5</a>] and betook +himself to London. But even his scientific colleagues gave him a cold +shoulder; and though he was elected minister of a congregation at +Hackney, he felt his position to be insecure, and finally determined on +emigrating to the United States. He landed in America in 1794; lived +quietly with his sons at Northumberland, in Pennsylvania, where his +posterity still flourish; and, clear-headed and busy to the last, died +on the 6th of February 1804.</P> + +<P>Such were the conditions under which Joseph Priestley did the work +which lay before him, and then, as the Norse Sagas say, went out of the +story. The work itself was of the most varied kind. No human interest +was without its attraction for Priestley, and few men have ever had so +many irons in the fire at once; but, though he may have burned his +fingers a little, very few who have tried that operation have burned +their fingers so little. He made admirable discoveries in science; his +philosophical treatises are still well worth reading; his political +works are full of insight and replete with the spirit of freedom; and +while all these sparks flew off from his anvil, the controversial +hammer rained a hail of blows on orthodox priest and bishop. While thus +engaged, the kindly, cheerful doctor felt no more wrath or +uncharitableness towards his opponents than a smith does towards his +iron. But if the iron could only speak!--and the priests and bishops +took the point of view of the iron.</P> + +<P>No doubt what Priestley's friends repeatedly urged upon him--that he +would have escaped the heavier trials of his life and done more for the +advancement of knowledge, if he had confined himself to his scientific +pursuits and let his fellow-men go their way--was true. But it seems to +have been Priestley's feeling that he was a man and a citizen before he +was a philosopher, and that the duties of the two former positions are +at least as imperative as those of the latter. Moreover, there are men +(and I think Priestley was one of them) to whom the satisfaction of +throwing down a triumphant fallacy is as great as that which attends +the discovery of a new truth; who feel better satisfied with the +government of the world, when they have been helping Providence by +knocking an imposture on the head; and who care even more for freedom +of thought than for mere advance of knowledge. These men are the +Carnots who organise victory for truth, and they are, at least, as +important as the generals who visibly fight her battles in the field.</P> + +<P>Priestley's reputation as a man of science rests upon his numerous and +important contributions to the chemistry of gaseous bodies; and to form +a just estimate of the value of his work--of the extent to which it +advanced the knowledge of fact and the development of sound theoretical +views--we must reflect what chemistry was in the first half of the +eighteenth century.</P> + +<P>The vast science which now passes under that name had no existence. +Air, water, and fire were still counted among the elemental bodies; and +though Van Helmont, a century before, had distinguished different +kinds of air as <i>gas ventosum</i> and <i>gas sylvestre</i>, and Boyle and Hales +had experimentally defined the physical properties of air, and +discriminated some of the various kinds of aëriform bodies, no one +suspected the existence of the numerous totally distinct gaseous +elements which are now known, or dreamed that the air we breathe and +the water we drink are compounds of gaseous elements.</P> + +<P>But, in 1754, a young Scotch physician, Dr. Black, made the first +clearing in this tangled backwood of knowledge. And it gives one a +wonderful impression of the juvenility of scientific chemistry to think +that Lord Brougham, whom so many of us recollect, attended Black's +lectures when he was a student in Edinburgh. Black's researches gave +the world the novel and startling conception of a gas that was a +permanently elastic fluid like air, but that differed from common air +in being much heavier, very poisonous, and in having the properties of +an acid, capable of neutralising the strongest alkalies; and it took +the world some time to become accustomed to the notion.</P> + +<P>A dozen years later, one of the most sagacious and accurate +investigators who has adorned this, or any other, country, Henry +Cavendish, published a memoir in the "Philosophical Transactions," in +which he deals not only with the "fixed air" (now called carbonic acid +or carbonic anhydride) of Black, but with "inflammable air," or what we +now term hydrogen.</P> + +<P>By the rigorous application of weight and measure to all his processes, +Cavendish implied the belief subsequently formulated by Lavoisier, +that, in chemical processes, matter is neither created nor destroyed, +and indicated the path along which all future explorers must travel. +Nor did he himself halt until this path led him, in 1784, to the +brilliant and fundamental discovery that water is composed of two gases +united in fixed and constant proportions.</P> + +<P>It is a trying ordeal for any man to be compared with Black and +Cavendish, and Priestley cannot be said to stand on their level. +Nevertheless his achievements are not only great in themselves, but +truly wonderful, if we consider the disadvantages under which he +laboured. Without the careful scientific training of Black, without the +leisure and appliances secured by the wealth of Cavendish, he scaled +the walls of science as so many Englishmen have done before and since +his day; and trusting to mother wit to supply the place of training, +and to ingenuity to create apparatus out of washing tubs, he discovered +more new gases than all his predecessors put together had done. He laid +the foundations of gas analysis; he discovered the complementary +actions of animal and vegetable life upon the constituents of the +atmosphere; and, finally, he crowned his work, this day one hundred +years ago, by the discovery of that "pure dephlogisticated air" to +which the French chemists subsequently gave the name of oxygen. Its +importance, as the constituent of the atmosphere which disappears in +the processes of respiration and combustion, and is restored by green +plants growing in sunshine, was proved somewhat later. For these +brilliant discoveries, the Royal Society elected Priestley a fellow and +gave him their medal, while the Academies of Paris and St. Petersburg +conferred their membership upon him. Edinburgh had made him an honorary +doctor of laws at an early period of his career; but, I need hardly +add, that a man of Priestley's opinions received no recognition from +the universities of his own country.</P> + +<P>That Priestley's contributions to the knowledge of chemical fact were +of the greatest importance, and that they richly deserve all the praise +that has been awarded to them, is unquestionable; but it must, at the +same time, be admitted that he had no comprehension of the deeper +significance of his work; and, so far from contributing anything to the +theory of the facts which he discovered, or assisting in their rational +explanation, his influence to the end of his life was warmly exerted in +favour of error. From first to last, he was a stiff adherent of the +phlogiston doctrine which was prevalent when his studies commenced; +and, by a curious irony of fate, the man who by the discovery of what +he called "dephlogisticated air" furnished the essential datum for the +true theory of combustion, of respiration, and of the composition of +water, to the end of his days fought against the inevitable corollaries +from his own labours. His last scientific work, published in 1800, +bears the title, "The Doctrine of Phlogiston established, and that of +the Composition of Water refuted."</P> + +<P>When Priestley commenced his studies, the current belief was, that +atmospheric air, freed from accidental impurities, is a simple +elementary substance, indestructible and unalterable, as water was +supposed to be. When a combustible burned, or when an animal breathed +in air, it was supposed that a substance, "phlogiston," the matter of +heat and light, passed from the burning or breathing body into it, and +destroyed its powers of supporting life and combustion. Thus, air +contained in a vessel in which a lighted candle had gone out, or a +living animal had breathed until it could breathe no longer, was called +"phlogisticated." The same result was supposed to be brought about by +the addition of what Priestley called "nitrous gas" to common air.</P> + +<P>In the course of his researches, Priestley found that the quantity of +common air which can thus become "phlogisticated," amounts to about +one-fifth the volume of the whole quantity submitted to experiment. +Hence it appeared that common air consists, to the extent of +four-fifths of its volume, of air which is already "phlogisticated"; +while the other fifth is free from phlogiston, or "dephlogisticated." +On the other hand, Priestley found that air "phlogisticated" by +combustion or respiration could be "dephlogisticated," or have the +properties of pure common air restored to it, by the action of green +plants in sunshine. The question, therefore, would naturally arise--as +common air can be wholly phlogisticated by combustion, and converted +into a substance which will no longer support combustion, is it +possible to get air that shall be less phlogisticated than common air, +and consequently support combustion better than common air does?</P> + +<P>Now, Priestley says that, in 1774, the possibility of obtaining air +less phlogisticated than common air had not occurred to him. [<a href="#I6">6</a>] But in +pursuing his experiments on the evolution of air from various bodies by +means of heat, it happened that, on the 1st of August 1774, he threw +the heat of the sun, by means of a large burning glass which he had +recently obtained, upon a substance which was then called <i>mercurius +calcinatus per se</i>, and which is commonly known as red precipitate.</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"I presently found that, by means of this lens, air was expelled +from it very readily. Having got about three or four times as much +as the bulk of my materials, I admitted water to it, and found that +it was not imbibed by it. But what surprised me more than I can +well express, was that a candle burned in this air with a +remarkably vigorous flame, very much like that enlarged flame with +which a candle burns in nitrous air, exposed to iron or lime of +sulphur; but as I had got nothing like this remarkable appearance +from any kind of air besides this particular modification of +nitrous air, and I knew no nitrous acid was used in the preparation +of <i>mercurius calcinatus</i>, I was utterly at a loss how to +account for it.</P> + +<P>"In this case also, though I did not give sufficient attention to +the circumstance at that time, the flame of the candle, besides +being larger, burned with more splendour and heat than in that +species of nitrous air; and a piece of red-hot wood sparkled in it, +exactly like paper dipped in a solution of nitre, and it consumed +very fast--an experiment which I had never thought of trying with +nitrous air." [<a href="#I7">7</a>]</P> +</blockquote> +<P>Priestley obtained the same sort of air from red lead, but, as he says +himself, he remained in ignorance of the properties of this new kind of +air for seven months, or until March 1775, when he found that the new +air behaved with "nitrous gas" in the same way as the dephlogisticated +part of common air does; [<a href="#I8">8</a>] but that, instead of being diminished to +four-fifths, it almost completely vanished, and, therefore, showed +itself to be "between five and six times as good as the best common air +I have ever met with." [<a href="#I9">9</a>] As this new air thus appeared to be +completely free from phlogiston, Priestley called it "dephlogisticated +air."</P> + +<P>What was the nature of this air? Priestley found that the same kind of +air was to be obtained by moistening with the spirit of nitre (which he +terms nitrous acid) any kind of earth that is free from phlogiston, and +applying heat; and consequently he says: "There remained no doubt on my +mind but that the atmospherical air, or the thing that we breathe, +consists of the nitrous acid and earth, with so much phlogiston as is +necessary to its elasticity, and likewise so much more as is required +to bring it from its state of perfect purity to the mean condition in +which we find it." [<a href="#I10">10</a>]</P> + +<P>Priestley's view, in fact, is that atmospheric air is a kind of +saltpetre, in which the potash is replaced by some unknown earth. +And in speculating on the manner in which saltpetre is formed, +he enunciates the hypothesis, "that nitre is, formed by a real +<i>decomposition of the air itself</i>, the <i>bases</i> that are presented to +it having, in such circumstances, a nearer affinity with the spirit +of nitre than that kind of earth with which it is united in the +atmosphere." [<a href="#I11">11</a>]</P> + +<P>It would have been hard for the most ingenious person to have wandered +farther from the truth than Priestley does in this hypothesis; and, +though Lavoisier undoubtedly treated Priestley very ill, and pretended +to have discovered dephlogisticated air, or oxygen, as he called it, +independently, we can almost forgive him when we reflect how different +were the ideas which the great French chemist attached to the body +which Priestley discovered.</P> + +<P>They are like two navigators of whom the first sees a new country, but +takes clouds for mountains and mirage for lowlands; while the second +determines its length and breadth, and lays down on a chart its exact +place, so that, thenceforth, it serves as a guide to his successors, +and becomes a secure outpost whence new explorations may be pushed.</P> + +<P>Nevertheless, as Priestley himself somewhere remarks, the first object +of physical science is to ascertain facts, and the service which he +rendered to chemistry by the definite establishment of a large number +of new and fundamentally important facts, is such as to entitle him to +a very high place among the fathers of chemical science.</P> + +<P>It is difficult to say whether Priestley's philosophical, political, +or theological views were most responsible for the bitter hatred which +was borne to him by a large body of his country-men, [<a href="#I12">12</a>] and which +found its expression in the malignant insinuations in which Burke, to +his everlasting shame, indulged in the House of Commons.</P> + +<P>Without containing much that will be new to the readers of Hobbs, +Spinoza, Collins, Hume, and Hartley, and, indeed, while making no +pretensions to originality, Priestley's "Disquisitions relating to +Matter and Spirit," and his "Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity +Illustrated," are among the most powerful, clear, and unflinching +expositions of materialism and necessarianism which exist in the +English language, and are still well worth reading.</P> + +<P>Priestley denied the freedom of the will in the sense of its +self-determination; he denied the existence of a soul distinct from the +body; and as a natural consequence, he denied the natural immortality +of man.</P> + +<P>In relation to these matters English opinion, a century ago, was very +much what it is now.</P> + +<P>A man may be a necessarian without incurring graver reproach than that +implied in being called a gloomy fanatic, necessarianism, though very +shocking, having a note of Calvanistic orthodoxy; but, if a man is a +materialist; or, if good authorities say he is and must be so, in spite +of his assertion to the contrary; or, if he acknowledge himself unable +to see good reasons for believing in the natural immortality of man, +respectable folks look upon him as an unsafe neighbour of a cash-box, +as an actual or potential sensualist, the more virtuous in outward +seeming, the more certainly loaded with secret "grave personal sins."</P> + +<P>Nevertheless, it is as certain as anything can be, that Joseph +Priestley was no gloomy fanatic, but as cheerful and kindly a soul as +ever breathed, the idol of children; a man who was hated only by those +who did not know him, and who charmed away the bitterest prejudices in +personal intercourse; a man who never lost a friend, and the best +testimony to whose worth is the generous and tender warmth with which +his many friends vied with one another in rendering him substantial +help, in all the crises of his career.</P> + +<P>The unspotted purity of Priestley's life, the strictness of his +performance of every duty, his transparent sincerity, the +unostentatious and deep-seated piety which breathes through all his +correspondence, are in themselves a sufficient refutation of the +hypothesis, invented by bigots to cover uncharitableness, that such +opinions as his must arise from moral defects. And his statue will do +as good service as the brazen image that was set upon a pole before the +Israelites, if those who have been bitten by the fiery serpents of +sectarian hatred, which still haunt this wilderness of a world, are +made whole by looking upon the image of a heretic who was yet a saint.</P> + +<P>Though Priestley did not believe in the natural immortality of man, he +held with an almost naïve realism that man would be raised from the +dead by a direct exertion of the power of God, and thenceforward be +immortal. And it may be as well for those who may be shocked by this +doctrine to know that views, substantially identical with Priestley's, +have been advocated, since his time, by two prelates of the Anglican +Church: by Dr. Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, in his well-known +"Essays"; [<a href="#I13">13</a>] and by Dr. Courtenay, Bishop of Kingston in Jamaica, +the first edition of whose remarkable book "On the Future States," +dedicated to Archbishop Whately, was published in 1843 and the second +in 1857. According to Bishop Courtenay,</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"The death of the body will cause a cessation of all the activity +of the mind by way of natural consequence; to continue for ever +UNLESS the Creator should interfere."</P> +</blockquote> +<P>And again:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"The natural end of human existence is the 'first death, the +dreamless slumber of the grave, wherein man lies spell-bound, soul +and body, under the dominion of sin and death--that whatever modes +of conscious existence, whatever future states of 'life' or of +'torment' beyond Hades are reserved for man, are results of our +blessed Lord's victory over sin and death; that the resurrection of +the dead must be preliminary to their entrance into either of the +future states, and that the nature and even existence of these +states, and even the mere fact that there is a futurity of +consciousness, can be known <i>only</i> through God's revelation of +Himself in the Person and the Gospel of His Son."--P. 389.</P> +</blockquote> +<P>And now hear Priestley:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"Man, according to this system (of materialism), is no more than we +now see of him. His being commences at the time of his conception, +or perhaps at an earlier period. The corporeal and mental faculties, +in being in the same substance, grow, ripen, and decay together; and +whenever the system is dissolved it continues in a state of +dissolution till it shall please that Almighty Being who called it +into existence to restore it to life again."--"Matter and Spirit," +p. 49.</P> +</blockquote> +<P>And again:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"The doctrine of the Scripture is, that God made man of the dust of +the ground, and by simply animating this organised matter, made man +that living percipient and intelligent being that he is. According +to Revelation, <i>death</i> is a state of rest and insensibility, +and our only though sure hope of a future life is founded on the +doctrine of the resurrection of the whole man at some distant +period; this assurance being sufficiently confirmed to us both by +the evident tokens of a Divine commission attending the persons who +delivered the doctrine, and especially by the actual resurrection of +Jesus Christ, which is more authentically attested than any other +fact in history."--<i>Ibid</i>., p. 247.</P> +</blockquote> +<P>We all know that "a saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn;" but it is +not yet admitted that the views which are consistent with such +saintliness in lawn, become diabolical when held by a mere dissenter. +[<a href="#I14">14</a>]</P> + +<P>I am not here either to defend or to attack Priestley's philosophical +views, and I cannot say that I am personally disposed to attach much +value to episcopal authority in philosophical questions; but it seems +right to call attention to the fact, that those of Priestley's opinions +which have brought most odium upon him have been openly promulgated, +without challenge, by persons occupying the highest positions in the +State Church.</P> + +<P>I must confess that what interests me most about Priestley's +materialism, is the evidence that he saw dimly the seed of destruction +which such materialism carries within its own bosom. In the course of +his reading for his "History of Discoveries relating to Vision, Light, +and Colours," he had come upon the speculations of Boscovich and +Michell, and had been led to admit the sufficiently obvious truth that +our knowledge of matter is a knowledge of its properties; and that of +its substance--if it have a substance--we know nothing. And this led to +the further admission that, so far as we can know, there may be no +difference between the substance of matter and the substance of spirit +("Disquisitions," p. 16). A step farther would have shown Priestley +that his materialism was, essentially, very little different from the +Idealism of his contemporary, the Bishop of Cloyne.</P> + +<P>As Priestley's philosophy is mainly a clear statement of the views of +the deeper thinkers of his day, so are his political conceptions based +upon those of Locke. Locke's aphorism that "the end of government is +the good of mankind," is thus expanded by Priestley:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"It must necessarily be understood, therefore, whether it be +expressed or not, that all people live in society for their mutual +advantage; so that the good and happiness of the members, that is, +of the majority of the members, of any state, is the great standard +by which everything relating to that state must finally be +determined." [<a href="#I15">15</a>]</P> +</blockquote> +<P>The little sentence here interpolated, "that is, of the majority of the +members of any state," appears to be that passage which suggested to +Bentham, according to his own acknowledgment, the famous "greatest +happiness" formula, which by substituting "happiness" for "good," has +converted a noble into an ignoble principle. But I do not call to mind +that there is any utterance in Locke quite so outspoken as the +following passage in the "Essay on the First Principles of +Government." After laying down as "a fundamental maxim in all +Governments," the proposition that "kings, senators, and nobles" are +"the servants of the public," Priestley goes on to say:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"But in the largest states, if the abuses of the government should +at any time be great and manifest; if the servants of the people, +forgetting their masters and their masters' interest, should pursue +a separate one of their own; if, instead of considering that they +are made for the people, they should consider the people as made +for them; if the oppressions and violation of right should be +great, flagrant, and universally resented; if the tyrannical +governors should have no friends but a few sycophants, who had long +preyed upon the vitals of their fellow-citizens, and who might be +expected to desert a government whenever their interests should be +detached from it: if, in consequence of these circumstances, it +should become manifest that the risk which would be run in +attempting a revolution would be trifling, and the evils which +might be apprehended from it were far less than those which +were actually suffered and which were daily increasing; in the name +of God, I ask, what principles are those which ought to restrain an +injured and insulted people from asserting their natural rights, +and from changing or even punishing their governors--that is, their +servants--who had abused their trust, or from altering the whole +form of their government, if it appeared to be of a structure so +liable to abuse?"</P> +</blockquote> +<P>As a Dissenter, subject to the operation of the Corporation and Test +Acts, and as a Unitarian excluded from the benefit of the Toleration +Act, it is not surprising to find that Priestley had very definite +opinions about Ecclesiastical Establishments; the only wonder is that +these opinions were so moderate as the following passages show them to +have been:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"Ecclesiastical authority may have been necessary in the infant +state of society, and, for the same reason, it may perhaps continue +to be, in some degree, necessary as long as society is imperfect; +and therefore may not be entirely abolished till civil governments +have arrived at a much greater degree of perfection. If, therefore, +I were asked whether I should approve of the immediate dissolution +of all the ecclesiastical establishments in Europe, I should +answer, No.... Let experiment be first made of <i>alterations</i>, +or, which is the same thing, of <i>better establishments</i> than +the present. Let them be reformed in many essential articles, and +then not thrown aside entirely till it be found by experience that +no good can be made of them."</P> +</blockquote> +<P>Priestley goes on to suggest four such reforms of a capital nature:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"1. Let the Articles of Faith to be subscribed by candidates for +the ministry be greatly reduced. In the formulary of the Church of +England, might not thirty-eight out of the thirty-nine be very well +spared? It is a reproach to any Christian establishment if every +man cannot claim the benefit of it who can say that he believes +in the religion of Jesus Christ as it is set forth in the New +Testament. You say the terms are so general that even Deists would +quibble and insinuate themselves. I answer that all the articles +which are subscribed at present by no means exclude Deists who will +prevaricate; and upon this scheme you would at least exclude fewer +honest men." [<a href="#I16">16</a>]</P> +</blockquote> +<P>The second reform suggested is the equalisation, in proportion to work +done, of the stipends of the clergy; the third, the exclusion of the +Bishops from Parliament; and the fourth, complete toleration, so that +every man may enjoy the rights of a citizen, and be qualified to serve +his country, whether he belong to the Established Church or not.</P> + +<P>Opinions such as those I have quoted, respecting the duties and the +responsibilities of governors, are the commonplaces of modern +Liberalism; and Priestley's views on Ecclesiastical Establishments +would, I fear, meet with but a cool reception, as altogether too +conservative, from a large proportion of the lineal descendants of the +people who taught their children to cry "Damn Priestley;" and with that +love for the practical application of science which is the source of +the greatness of Birmingham, tried to set fire to the doctor's house +with sparks from his own electrical machine; thereby giving the man +they called an incendiary and raiser of sedition against Church and +King, an appropriately experimental illustration of the nature of arson +and riot.</P> + +<P>If I have succeeded in putting before you the main features of +Priestley's work, its value will become apparent when we compare the +condition of the English nation, as he knew it, with its present state.</P> + +<P>The fact that France has been for eighty-five years trying, without +much success, to right herself after the great storm of the Revolution, +is not unfrequently cited among us as an indication of some inherent +incapacity for self-government among the French people. I think, +however, that Englishmen who argue thus, forget that, from the meeting +of the Long Parliament in 1640, to the last Stuart rebellion in 1745, +is a hundred and five years, and that, in the middle of the last +century, we had but just safely freed ourselves from our Bourbons and +all that they represented. The corruption of our state was as bad as +that of the Second Empire. Bribery was the instrument of government, +and peculation its reward. Four-fifths of the seats in the House of +Commons were more or less openly dealt with as property. A minister had +to consider the state of the vote market, and the sovereign secured a +sufficiency of "king's friends" by payments allotted with retail, +rather than royal, sagacity.</P> + +<P>Barefaced and brutal immorality and intemperance pervaded the land, +from the highest to the lowest classes of society. The Established +Church was torpid, as far as it was not a scandal; but those who +dissented from it came within the meshes of the Act of Uniformity, the +Test Act, and the Corporation Act. By law, such a man as Priestley, +being a Unitarian, could neither teach nor preach, and was liable to +ruinous fines and long imprisonment. [<a href="#I17">17</a>] In those days the guns that +were pointed by the Church against the Dissenters were shotted. The law +was a cesspool of iniquity and cruelty. Adam Smith was a new prophet +whom few regarded, and commerce was hampered by idiotic impediments, +and ruined by still more absurd help, on the part of government.</P> + +<P>Birmingham, though already the centre of a considerable industry, was a +mere village as compared with its present extent. People who travelled +went about armed, by reason of the abundance of highwaymen and the +paucity and inefficiency of the police. Stage coaches had not reached +Birmingham, and it took three days to get to London. Even canals were a +recent and much opposed invention.</P> + +<P>Newton had laid the foundation of a mechanical conception of the +physical universe: Hartley, putting a modern face upon ancient +materialism, had extended that mechanical conception to psychology; +Linnaeus and Haller were beginning to introduce method and order into +the chaotic accumulation of biological facts. But those parts of +physical science which deal with heat, electricity, and magnetism, and +above all, chemistry, in the modern sense, can hardly be said to have +had an existence. No one knew that two of the old elemental bodies, air +and water, are compounds, and that a third, fire, is not a substance +but a motion. The great industries that have grown out of the +applications of modern scientific discoveries had no existence, and the +man who should have foretold their coming into being in the days of his +son, would have been regarded as a mad enthusiast.</P> + +<P>In common with many other excellent persons, Priestley believed that +man is capable of reaching, and will eventually attain, perfection. If +the temperature of space presented no obstacle, I should be glad to +entertain the same idea; but judging from the past progress of our +species, I am afraid that the globe will have cooled down so far, +before the advent of this natural millennium, that we shall be, at +best, perfected Esquimaux. For all practical purposes, however, it is +enough that man may visibly improve his condition in the course of a +century or so. And, if the picture of the state of things in +Priestley's time, which I have just drawn, have any pretence to +accuracy, I think it must be admitted that there has been a +considerable change for the better.</P> + +<P>I need not advert to the well-worn topic of material advancement, in a +place in which the very stones testify to that progress--in the town of +Watt and of Boulton. I will only remark, in passing, that material +advancement has its share in moral and intellectual progress. Becky +Sharp's acute remark that it is not difficult to be virtuous on ten +thousand a year, has its application to nations; and it is futile to +expect a hungry and squalid population to be anything but violent and +gross. But as regards other than material welfare, although perfection +is not yet in sight--even from the mast-head--it is surely true that +things are much better than they were.</P> + +<P>Take the upper and middle classes as a whole, and it may be said that +open immorality and gross intemperance have vanished. Four and six +bottle men are as extinct as the dodo. Women of good repute do not +gamble, and talk modelled upon Dean Swift's "Art of Polite +Conversation" would be tolerated in no decent kitchen.</P> + +<P>Members of the legislature are not to be bought; and constituents are +awakening to the fact that votes must not be sold--even for such +trifles as rabbits and tea and cake. Political power has passed into +the hands of the masses of the people. Those whom Priestley calls their +servants have recognised their position, and have requested the master +to be so good as to go to school and fit himself for the administration +of his property. In ordinary life, no civil disability attaches to any +one on theological grounds, and high offices of the state are open to +Papist, Jew, and Secularist.</P> + +<P>Whatever men's opinions as to the policy of Establishment, no one can +hesitate to admit that the clergy of the Church are men of pure life +and conversation, zealous in the discharge of their duties; and at +present, apparently, more bent on prosecuting one another than on +meddling with Dissenters. Theology itself has broadened so much, that +Anglican divines put forward doctrines more liberal than those of +Priestley; and, in our state-supported churches, one listener may hear +a sermon to which Bossuet might have given his approbation, while +another may hear a discourse in which Socrates would find nothing new.</P> + +<P>But great as these changes may be, they sink into insignificance beside +the progress of physical science, whether we consider the improvement +of methods of investigation, or the increase in bulk of solid +knowledge. Consider that the labours of Laplace, of Young, of Davy, and +of Faraday; of Cuvier, of Lamarck, and of Robert Brown; of Von Baer, +and of Schwann; of Smith and of Hutton, have all been carried on since +Priestley discovered oxygen; and consider that they are now things of +the past, concealed by the industry of those who have built upon them, +as the first founders of a coral reef are hidden beneath the life's +work of their successors; consider that the methods of physical science +are slowly spreading into all investigations, and that proofs as valid +as those required by her canons of investigation are being demanded of +all doctrines which ask for men's assent; and you will have a faint +image of the astounding difference in this respect between the +nineteenth century and the eighteenth.</P> + +<P>If we ask what is the deeper meaning of all these vast changes, I think +there can be but one reply. They mean that reason has asserted and +exercised her primacy over all provinces of human activity: that +ecclesiastical authority has been relegated to its proper place; that +the good of the governed has been finally recognised as the end of +government, and the complete responsibility of governors to the people +as its means; and that the dependence of natural phenomena in general +on the laws of action of what we call matter has become an axiom.</P> + +<P>But it was to bring these things about, and to enforce the recognition +of these truths, that Joseph Priestley laboured. If the nineteenth +century is other and better than the eighteenth, it is, in great +measure, to him, and to such men as he, that we owe the change. If the +twentieth century is to be better than the nineteenth, it will be +because there are among us men who walk in Priestley's footsteps.</P> + +<P>Such men are not those whom their own generation delights to honour; +such men, in fact, rarely trouble themselves about honour, but ask, in +another spirit than Falstaff's, "What is honour? Who hath it? He that +died o' Wednesday." But whether Priestley's lot be theirs, and a future +generation, in justice and in gratitude, set up their statues; or +whether their names and fame are blotted out from remembrance, their +work will live as long as time endures. To all eternity, the sum of +truth and right will have been increased by their means; to all +eternity, falsehood and injustice will be the weaker because they have +lived.</P> + +<br><hr><br> + +<b>Footnotes</b> + +<OL> + <LI><a name="I1">"Quasi</a> cursores, vitai lampada tradunt."--LUCR. <i>De Rerum Nat</i>. ii. +78.</LI> + <LI><a name="I2"><i>Life</i></a> <i>and Correspondence of Dr. Priestley</i>, by J. T. Rutt. Vol. I. +p. 50.</LI> + <LI><a name="I3"><i>Autobiography</i>,</a> §§ 100, 101.</LI> + <LI><a name="I4">See</a> <i>The Life of Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck</i>. Mrs. +Schimmelpenninck (<i>née</i> Galton) remembered Priestley very well, +and her description of him is worth quotation:--"A man of admirable +simplicity, gentleness and kindness of heart, united with great +acuteness of intellect. I can never forget the impression produced on +me by the serene expression of his countenance. He, indeed, seemed +present with God by recollection, and with man by cheerfulness. I +remember that, in the assembly of these distinguished men, amongst whom +Mr. Boulton, by his noble manner, his fine countenance (which much +resembled that of Louis XIV.), and princely munificence, stood +pre-eminently as the great Mecaenas; even as a child, I used to feel, +when Dr. Priestley entered after him, that the glory of the one was +terrestrial, that of the other celestial; and utterly far as I am +removed from a belief in the sufficiency of Dr. Priestley's theological +creed, I cannot but here record this evidence of the eternal power of +any portion of the truth held in its vitality."</LI> + <LI><a name="I5">Even</a> Mrs. Priestley, who might be forgiven for regarding the +destroyers of her household gods with some asperity, contents herself, +in writing to Mrs. Barbauld, with the sarcasm that the Birmingham +people "will scarcely find so many respectable characters, a second +time, to make a bonfire of."</LI> + <LI><a name="I6"><i>Experiments</i></a> <i>and Observations on Different Kinds of Air</i>, vol. +ii. p. 31.</LI> + <LI><a name="I7"><i>Experiments</i></a> <i>and Observations on Different Kinds of Air</i>, vol. +ii. pp. 34, 35.</LI> + <LI><a name="I8"><i>Ibid</i>.</a> vol. i. p. 40.</LI> + <LI><a name="I9"><i>Experiments</i></a> <i>and Observations on Different Kinds of Air</i>, vol. ii. +p. 48.</LI> + <LI><a name="I10"><i>Ibid</i>.</a> p. 55.</LI> + <LI><a name="I11"><i>Ibid</i>.</a> p. 60. The italics are Priestley's own.</LI> + <LI><a name="I12">"In</a> all the newspapers and most of the periodical publications I +was represented as an unbeliever in Revelation, and no better than an +atheist."--<i>Autobiography</i>, Rutt, vol i. p. 124. "On the walls of +houses, etc., and especially where I usually went, were to be seen, in +large characters, 'MADAN FOR EVER; DAMN PRIESTLEY; NO PRESBYTERIANISM; +DAMN THE PRESBYTERIANS,' etc., etc.; and, at one time, I was followed +by a number of boys, who left their play, repeating what they had seen +on the walls, and shouting out, '<i>Damn Priestley; damn him, damn +him, for ever, for ever,</i>' etc., etc. This was no doubt a lesson +which they had been taught by their parents, and what they, I fear, had +learned from their superiors."--<i>Appeal to the Public on the Subject +of the Riots at Birmingham</i>. +</LI> + <LI><a name="I13">First</a> Series. <i>On Some of the Peculiarities of the Christian +Religion</i>. Essay I. "Revelation of a Future State."</LI> + <LI><a name="I14">Not</a> only is Priestley at one with Bishop Courtenay in this matter, +but with Hartley and Bonnet, both of them stout champions of +Christianity. Moreover, Archbishop Whately's essay is little better +than an expansion of the first paragraph of Hume's famous essay on the +Immortality of the Soul:--"By the mere light of reason it seems +difficult to prove the immortality of the soul; the arguments for it +are commonly derived either from metaphysical topics, or moral, or +physical. But it is in reality the Gospel, and the Gospel alone, that +has brought <i>life and immortality to light</i>." It is impossible to +imagine that a man of Whately's tastes and acquirements had not read +Hume or Hartley, though he refers to neither. +</LI> + <LI><a name="I15"><i>Essay</i></a> <i>on the First Principles of Government</i>, Second edition, +1771.</LI> + <LI><a name="I16">"Utility</a> of Establishments," in <i>Essay on First Principles of +Government</i>, 1771.</LI> + <LI><a name="I17">In</a> 1732 Doddridge was cited for teaching without the Bishop's +leave, at Northampton.</LI> +</OL> + + +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="II">II</a></P> + +<h4>ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES</h4> + +<P>[1854]</P> + +<P>The subject to which I have to beg your attention during the ensuing +hour is "The Relation of Physiological Science to other branches of +Knowledge."</P> + +<P>Had circumstances permitted of the delivery, in their strict logical +order, of that series of discourses of which the present lecture is a +member, I should have preceded my friend and colleague Mr. Henfrey, who +addressed you on Monday last; but while, for the sake of that order, I +must beg you to suppose that this discussion of the Educational +bearings of Biology in general <i>does</i> precede that of Special +Zoology and Botany, I am rejoiced to be able to take advantage +of the light thus already thrown upon the tendency and methods of +Physiological Science.</P> + +<P>Regarding Physiological Science, then, in its widest sense--as the +equivalent of <i>Biology</i>--the Science of Individual Life--we have to +consider in succession:</P> + +<P>1. Its position and scope as a branch of knowledge.</P> + +<P>2. Its value as a means of mental discipline.</P> + +<P>3. Its worth as practical information.</P> + +<P>And lastly,</P> + +<P>4. At what period it may best be made a branch of Education.</P> + +<P>Our conclusions on the first of these heads must depend, of course, +upon the nature of the subject-matter of Biology; and I think a few +preliminary considerations will place before you in a clear light the +vast difference which exists between the living bodies with which +Physiological science is concerned, and the remainder of the +universe;--between the phaenomena of Number and Space, of Physical and +of Chemical force, on the one hand, and those of Life on the other.</P> + +<P>The mathematician, the physicist, and the chemist contemplate things in +a condition of rest; they look upon a state of equilibrium as that to +which all bodies normally tend.</P> + +<P>The mathematician does not suppose that a quantity will alter, or that +a given point in space will change its direction with regard to another +point, spontaneously. And it is the same with the physicist. When +Newton saw the apple fall, he concluded at once that the act of falling +was not the result of any power inherent in the apple, but that it was +the result of the action of something else on the apple. In a similar +manner, all physical force is regarded as the disturbance of an +equilibrium to which things tended before its exertion,--to which they +will tend again after its cessation.</P> + +<P>The chemist equally regards chemical change in a body as the effect of +the action of something external to the body changed. A chemical +compound once formed would persist for ever, if no alteration took +place in surrounding conditions.</P> + +<P>But to the student of Life the aspect of Nature is reversed. Here, +incessant, and, so far as we know, spontaneous change is the rule, rest +the exception--the anomaly to be accounted for. Living things have no +inertia, and tend to no equilibrium.</P> + +<P>Permit me, however, to give more force and clearness to these somewhat +abstract considerations by an illustration or two.</P> + +<P>Imagine a vessel full of water, at the ordinary temperature, in an +atmosphere saturated with vapour. The <i>quantity</i> and the <i>figure</i> of that +water will not change, so far as we know, for ever.</P> + +<P>Suppose a lump of gold be thrown into the vessel--motion and +disturbance of figure exactly proportional to the momentum of the gold +will take place. But after a time the effects of this disturbance will +subside--equilibrium will be restored, and the water will return to its +passive state.</P> + +<P>Expose the water to cold--it will solidify--and in so doing its +particles will arrange themselves in definite crystalline shapes. But +once formed, these crystals change no further.</P> + +<P>Again, substitute for the lump of gold some substance capable of +entering into chemical relations with the water:--say, a mass of that +substance which is called "protein"--the substance of flesh:--a very +considerable disturbance of equilibrium will take place--all sorts of +chemical compositions and decompositions will occur; but in the end, as +before, the result will be the resumption of a condition of rest.</P> + +<P>Instead of such a mass of <i>dead</i> protein, however, take a particle of +<i>living</i> protein--one of those minute microscopic living things which +throng our pools, and are known as Infusoria--such a creature, for +instance, as an Euglena, and place it in our vessel of water. It is +a round mass provided with a long filament, and except in this +peculiarity of shape, presents no appreciable physical or chemical +difference whereby it might be distinguished from the particle of dead +protein.</P> + +<P>But the difference in the phaenomena to which it will give rise is +immense: in the first place it will develop a vast quantity of physical +force--cleaving the water in all directions with considerable rapidity +by means of the vibrations of the long filament or cilium.</P> + +<P>Nor is the amount of chemical energy which the little creature +possesses less striking. It is a perfect laboratory in itself, and it +will act and react upon the water and the matters contained therein; +converting them into new compounds resembling its own substance, and at +the same time giving up portions of its own substance which have become +effete.</P> + +<P>Furthermore, the Euglena will increase in size; but this increase is by +no means unlimited, as the increase of a crystal might be. After it has +grown to a certain extent it divides, and each portion assumes the form +of the original, and proceeds to repeat the process of growth and +division.</P> + +<P>Nor is this all. For after a series of such divisions and subdivisions, +these minute points assume a totally new form, lose their long +tails--round themselves, and secrete a sort of envelope or box, in +which they remain shut up for a time, eventually to resume, directly or +indirectly, their primitive mode of existence.</P> + +<P>Now, so far as we know, there is no natural limit to the existence of +the Euglena, or of any other living germ. A living species once +launched into existence tends to live for ever.</P> + +<P>Consider how widely different this living particle is from the dead +atoms with which the physicist and chemist have to do!</P> + +<P>The particle of gold falls to the bottom and rests--the particle of +dead protein decomposes and disappears--it also rests: but the +<i>living</i> protein mass neither tends to exhaustion of its forces nor +to any permanency of form, but is essentially distinguished as a +disturber of equilibrium so far as force is concerned,--as undergoing +continual metamorphosis and change, in point of form.</P> + +<P>Tendency to equilibrium of force and to permanency of form, then, are +the characters of that portion of the universe which does not live--the +domain of the chemist and physicist.</P> + +<P>Tendency to disturb existing equilibrium--to take on forms which +succeed one another in definite cycles--is the character of the living +world.</P> + +<P>What is the cause of this wonderful difference between the dead +particle and the living particle of matter appearing in other respects +identical? that difference to which we give the name of Life?</P> + +<P>I, for one, cannot tell you. It may be that, by and by, philosophers +will discover some higher laws of which the facts of life are +particular cases--very possibly they will find out some bond between +physico-chemical phaenomena on the one hand, and vital phaenomena on +the other. At present, however, we assuredly know of none; and I think +we shall exercise a wise humility in confessing that, for us at least, +this successive assumption of different states--(external conditions +remaining the same)--this <i>spontaneity of action</i>--if I may use a term +which implies more than I would be answerable for--which constitutes +so vast and plain a practical distinction between living bodies and +those which do not live, is an ultimate fact; indicating as such, the +existence of a broad line of demarcation between the subject-matter +of Biological and that of all other sciences.</P> + +<P>For I would have it understood that this simple Euglena is the type of +<i>all</i> living things, so far as the distinction between these and +inert matter is concerned. That cycle of changes, which is constituted +by perhaps not more than two or three steps in the Euglena, is as +clearly manifested in the multitudinous stages through which the germ +of an oak or of a man passes. Whatever forms the Living Being may take +on, whether simple or complex, <i>production, growth, reproduction,</i> are +the phaenomena which distinguish it from that which does not live.</P> + +<P>If this be true, it is clear that the student, in passing from the +physico-chemical to the physiological sciences, enters upon a totally +new order of facts; and it will next be for us to consider how far +these new facts involve <i>new</i> methods, or require a modification of +those with which he is already acquainted. Now a great deal is said +about the peculiarity of the scientific method in general, and of the +different methods which are pursued in the different sciences. The +Mathematics are said to have one special method; Physics another, +Biology a third, and so forth. For my own part, I must confess that I +do not understand this phraseology.</P> + +<P>So far as I can arrive at any clear comprehension of the matter, +Science is not, as many would seem to suppose, a modification of the +black art, suited to the tastes of the nineteenth century, and +flourishing mainly in consequence of the decay of the Inquisition.</P> + +<P>Science is, I believe, nothing but <i>trained and organised common +sense</i>, differing from the latter only as a veteran may differ from +a raw recruit: and its methods differ from those of common sense only +so far as the guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in +which a savage wields his club. The primary power is the same in each +case, and perhaps the untutored savage has the more brawny arm of +the two. The <i>real</i> advantage lies in the point and polish of the +swordsman's weapon; in the trained eye quick to spy out the weakness of +the adversary; in the ready hand prompt to follow it on the instant. +But, after all, the sword exercise is only the hewing and poking of the +clubman developed and perfected.</P> + +<P>So, the vast results obtained by Science are won by no mystical +faculties, by no mental processes, other than those which are practised +by every one of us, in the humblest and meanest affairs of life. A +detective policeman discovers a burglar from the marks made by his +shoe, by a mental process identical with that by which Cuvier restored +the extinct animals of Montmartre from fragments of their bones. Nor +does that process of induction and deduction by which a lady, finding a +stain of a peculiar kind upon her dress, concludes that somebody has +upset the inkstand thereon, differ in any way, in kind, from that by +which Adams and Leverrier discovered a new planet.</P> + +<P>The man of science, in fact, simply uses with scrupulous exactness the +methods which we all, habitually and at every moment, use carelessly; +and the man of business must as much avail himself of the scientific +method--must be as truly a man of science--as the veriest bookworm of +us all; though I have no doubt that the man of business will find +himself out to be a philosopher with as much surprise as M. Jourdain +exhibited vhen he discovered that he had been all his life talking +prose. If, however, there be no real difference between the methods of +science and those of common life, it would seem, on the face of the +matter, highly improbable that there should be any difference between +the methods of the different sciences; nevertheless, it is constantly +taken for granted that there is a very wide difference between the +Physiological and other sciences in point of method.</P> + +<P>In the first place it is said--and I take this point first, because the +imputation is too frequently admitted by Physiologists themselves--that +Biology differs from the Physico-chemical and Mathematical sciences in +being "inexact."</P> + +<P>Now, this phrase "inexact" must refer either to the <i>methods</i> or to +the <i>results</i> of Physiological science.</P> + +<P>It cannot be correct to apply it to the methods; for, as I hope to show +you by and by, these are identical in all sciences, and whatever is +true of Physiological method is true of Physical and Mathematical +method.</P> + +<P>Is it then the <i>results</i> of Biological science which are "inexact"? +I think not. If I say that respiration is performed by the +lungs; that digestion is effected in the stomach; that the eye is the +organ of sight; that the jaws of a vertebrated animal never open +sideways, but always up and down; while those of an annulose animal +always open sideways, and never up and down--I am enumerating +propositions which are as exact as anything in Euclid. How then has +this notion of the inexactness of Biological science come about? I +believe from two causes: first, because in consequence of the great +complexity of the science and the multitude of interfering conditions, +we are very often only enabled to predict approximately what will occur +under given circumstances; and secondly, because, on account of the +comparative youth of the Physiological sciences, a great many of their +laws are still imperfectly worked out. But, in an educational point of +view, it is most important to distinguish between the essence of a +science and the accidents which surround it; and essentially, the +methods and results of Physiology are as exact as those of Physics or +Mathematics.</P> + +<P>It is said that the Physiological method is especially <i>comparative</i>; +[<a href="#II1">1</a>] and this dictum also finds favour in the eyes of many. +I should be sorry to suggest that the speculators on scientific +classification have been misled by the accident of the name of one +leading branch of Biology--<i>Comparative Anatomy</i>; but I would ask +whether <i>comparison</i>, and that classification which is the result of +comparison, are not the essence of every science whatsoever? How is it +possible to discover a relation of cause and effect of <i>any</i> kind +without comparing a series of cases together in which the supposed +cause and effect occur singly, or combined? So far from comparison +being in any way peculiar to Biological science, it is, I think, the +essence of every science.</P> + +<P>A speculative philosopher again tells us that the Biological +sciences are distinguished by being sciences of observation and not +of experiment! [<a href="#II2">2</a>] Of all the strange assertions into which speculation +without practical acquaintance with a subject may lead even an able +man, I think this is the very strangest. Physiology not an experimental +science? Why, there is not a function of a single organ in the body +which has not been determined wholly and solely by experiment? How did +Harvey determine the nature of the circulation, except by experiment? +How did Sir Charles Bell determine the functions of the roots of the +spinal nerves, save by experiment? How do we know the use of a nerve at +all, except by experiment? Nay, how do you know even that your eye is +your seeing apparatus, unless you make the experiment of shutting it; +or that your ear is your hearing apparatus, unless you close it up and +thereby discover that you become deaf?</P> + +<P>It would really be much more true to say that Physiology is <i>the</i> +experimental science <i>par excellence</i> of all sciences; that in which +there is least to be learnt by mere observation, and that which +affords the greatest field for the exercise of those faculties which +characterise the experimental philosopher. I confess, if any one were +to ask me for a model application of the logic of experiment, I should +know no better work to put into his hands than Bernard's late +Researches on the Functions of the Liver. [<a href="#II3">3</a>]</P> + +<P>Not to give this lecture a too controversial tone, however, I must +only advert to one more doctrine, held by a thinker of our own age +and country, whose opinions are worthy of all respect. It is, that +the Biological sciences differ from all others, inasmuch as in <i>them</i> +classification takes place by type and not by definition. [<a href="#II4">4</a>]</P> + +<P>It is said, in short, that a natural-history class is not capable of +being defined--that the class Rosaceae, for instance, or the class of +Fishes, is not accurately and absolutely definable, inasmuch as its +members will present exceptions to every possible definition; and that +the members of the class are united together only by the circumstance +that they are all more like some imaginary average rose or average +fish, than they resemble anything else.</P> + +<P>But here, as before, I think the distinction has arisen entirely from +confusing a transitory imperfection with an essential character. So +long as our information concerning them is imperfect, we class all +objects together according to resemblances which we <i>feel</i>, but +cannot <i>define</i>; we group them round <i>types</i>, in short. Thus +if you ask an ordinary person what kinds of animals there are, he will +probably say, beasts, birds, reptiles, fishes, insects, &c. Ask him to +define a beast from a reptile, and he cannot do it; but he says, things +like a cow or a horse are beasts, and things like a frog or a lizard +are reptiles. You see <i>he does</i> class by type, and not by definition. +But how does this classification differ from that of the +scientific Zoologist? How does the meaning of the scientific class-name +of "Mammalia" differ from the unscientific of "Beasts"?</P> + +<P>Why, exactly because the former depends on a definition, the latter on +a type. The class Mammalia is scientifically defined as "all animals +which have a vertebrated skeleton and suckle their young." Here is no +reference to type, but a definition rigorous enough for a geometrician. +And such is the character which every scientific naturalist recognises +as that to which his classes must aspire--knowing, as he does, that +classification by type is simply an acknowledgment of ignorance and a +temporary device.</P> + +<P>So much in the way of negative argument as against the reputed +differences between Biological and other methods. No such differences, +I believe, really exist. The subject-matter of Biological science is +different from that of other sciences, but the methods of all are +identical; and these methods are--</P> + +<P>1. <i>Observation</i> of facts--including under this head that <i>artificial +observation</i> which is called <i>experiment</i>.</P> + +<P>2. That process of tying up similar facts into bundles, ticketed and +ready for use, which is called <i>Comparison</i> and <i>Classification</i>,--the +results of the process, the ticketed bundles, being named <i>General +propositions</i>.</P> + +<P>3. <i>Deduction</i>, which takes us from the general proposition to facts +again--teaches us, if I may so say, to anticipate from the ticket +what is inside the bundle. And finally--</P> + +<P>4. <i>Verification</i>, which is the process of ascertaining whether, in +point of fact, our anticipation is a correct one.</P> + +<P>Such are the methods of all science whatsoever; but perhaps you will +permit me to give you an illustration of their employment in the +science of Life; and I will take as a special case the establishment of +the doctrine of the <i>Circulation of the Blood</i>.</P> + +<P>In this case, <i>simple observation</i> yields us a knowledge of the +existence of the blood from some accidental haemorrhage, we will say; +we may even grant that it informs us of the localisation of this blood +in particular vessels, the heart, &c., from some accidental cut or the +like. It teaches also the existence of a pulse in various parts of the +body, and acquaints us with the structure of the heart and vessels.</P> + +<P>Here, however, <i>simple observation</i> stops, and we must have recourse +to <i>experiment</i>.</P> + +<P>You tie a vein, and you find that the blood accumulates on the side of +the ligature opposite the heart. You tie an artery, and you find that +the blood accumulates on the side near the heart. Open the chest, and +you see the heart contracting with great force. Make openings into its +principal cavities, and you will find that all the blood flows out, and +no more pressure is exerted on either side of the arterial or venous +ligature.</P> + +<P>Now all these facts, taken together, constitute the evidence that the +blood is propelled by the heart through the arteries, and returns by +the veins--that, in short, the blood circulates.</P> + +<P>Suppose our experiments and observations have been made on horses, then +we group and ticket them into a general proposition, thus:--<i>all +horses have a circulation of their blood</i>.</P> + +<P>Henceforward a horse is a sort of indication or label, telling us where +we shall find a peculiar series of phaenomena called the circulation of +the blood.</P> + +<P>Here is our <i>general proposition</i>, then.</P> + +<P>How, and when, are we justified in making our next step--a <i>deduction</i> +from it?</P> + +<P>Suppose our physiologist, whose experience is limited to horses, meets +with a zebra for the first time,--will he suppose that this +generalisation holds good for zebras also?</P> + +<P>That depends very much on his turn of mind. But we will suppose him to +be a bold man. He will say, "The zebra is certainly not a horse, but it +is very like one,--so like, that it must be the 'ticket' or mark of a +blood-circulation also; and, I conclude that the zebra has a +circulation."</P> + +<P>That is a deduction, a very fair deduction, but by no means to be +considered scientifically secure. This last quality in fact can only be +given by <i>verification</i>--that is, by making a zebra the subject of +all the experiments performed on the horse. Of course, in the present +case, the <i>deduction</i> would be <i>confirmed</i> by this process of +verification, and the result would be, not merely a positive widening +of knowledge, but a fair increase of confidence in the truth of one's +generalisations in other cases.</P> + +<P>Thus, having settled the point in the zebra and horse, our philosopher +would have great confidence in the existence of a circulation in the +ass. Nay, I fancy most persons would excuse him, if in this case he did +not take the trouble to go through the process of verification at all; +and it would not be without a parallel in the history of the human +mind, if our imaginary physiologist now maintained that he was +acquainted with asinine circulation <i>à priori</i>.</P> + +<P>However, if I might impress any caution upon your minds, it is, the +utterly conditional nature of all our knowledge,--the danger of +neglecting the process of verification under any circumstances; and the +film upon which we rest, the moment our deductions carry us beyond the +reach of this great process of verification. There is no better +instance of this than is afforded by the history of our knowledge of +the circulation of the blood in the animal kingdom until the year 1824. +In every animal possessing a circulation at all, which had been +observed up to that time, the current of the blood was known to take +one definite and invariable direction. Now, there is a class of animals +called <i>Ascidians</i>, which possess a heart and a circulation, and +up to the period of which I speak, no one would have dreamt of +questioning the propriety of the deduction, that these creatures have a +circulation in one direction; nor would any one have thought it worth +while to verify the point. But, in that year, M. von Hasselt, happening +to examine a transparent animal of this class, found, to his infinite +surprise, that after the heart had beat a certain number of times, it +stopped, and then began beating the opposite way--so as to reverse the +course of the current, which returned by and by to its original +direction.</P> + +<P>I have myself timed the heart of these little animals. I found it as +regular as possible in its periods of reversal: and I know no spectacle +in the animal kingdom more wonderful than that which it presents--all +the more wonderful that to this day it remains an unique fact, peculiar +to this class among the whole animated world. At the same time I know +of no more striking case of the necessity of the <i>verification</i> of +even those deductions which seem founded on the widest and safest +inductions.</P> + +<P>Such are the methods of Biology--methods which are obviously identical +with those of all other sciences, and therefore wholly incompetent to +form the ground of any distinction between it and them. [<a href="#II5">5</a>]</P> + +<P>But I shall be asked at once, Do you mean to say that there is no +difference between the habit of mind of a mathematician and that of a +naturalist? Do you imagine that Laplace might have been put into the +Jardin des Plantes, and Cuvier into the Observatory, with equal +advantage to the progress of the sciences they professed?</P> + +<P>To which I would reply, that nothing could be further from my thoughts. +But different habits and various special tendencies of two sciences do +not imply different methods. The mountaineer and the man of the plains +have very different habits of progression, and each would be at a loss +in the other's place; but the method of progression, by putting one leg +before the other, is the same in each case. Every step of each is a +combination of a lift and a push; but the mountaineer lifts more and +the lowlander pushes more. And I think the case of two sciences +resembles this.</P> + +<P>I do not question for a moment, that while the Mathematician is busy +with deductions <i>from</i> general propositions, the Biologist is more +especially occupied with observation, comparison, and those processes +which lead <i>to</i> general propositions. All I wish to insist upon +is, that this difference depends not on any fundamental distinction in +the sciences themselves, but on the accidents of their subject-matter, +of their relative complexity, and consequent relative perfection.</P> + +<P>The Mathematician deals with two properties of objects only, number and +extension, and all the inductions he wants have been formed and +finished ages ago. He is occupied now with nothing but deduction and +verification.</P> + +<P>The Biologist deals with a vast number of properties of objects, and +his inductions will not be completed, I fear, for ages to come; but +when they are, his science will be as deductive and as exact as the +Mathematics themselves.</P> + +<P>Such is the relation of Biology to those sciences which deal with +objects having fewer properties than itself. But as the student, in +reaching Biology, looks back upon sciences of a less complex and +therefore more perfect nature; so, on the other hand, does he look +forward to other more complex and less perfect branches of knowledge. +Biology deals only with living beings as isolated things--treats only +of the life of the individual: but there is a higher division of +science still, which considers living beings as aggregates--which deals +with the relation of living beings one to another--the science which +<i>observes</i> men--whose <i>experiments</i> are made by nations one +upon another, in battlefields--whose <i>general propositions</i> are +embodied in history, morality, and religion--whose <i>deductions</i> +lead to our happiness or our misery--and whose <i>verifications</i> so +often come too late, and serve only</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"To point a moral, or adorn a tale"--</P> +</blockquote> +<P>I mean the science of Society or <i>Sociology</i>.</P> + +<P>I think it is one of the grandest features of Biology, that it occupies +this central position in human knowledge. There is no side of the human +mind which physiological study leaves uncultivated. Connected by +innumerable ties with abstract science, Physiology is yet in the most +intimate relation with humanity; and by teaching us that law and order, +and a definite scheme of development, regulate even the strangest and +wildest manifestations of individual life, she prepares the student to +look for a goal even amidst the erratic wanderings of mankind, and to +believe that history offers something more than an entertaining +chaos--a journal of a toilsome, tragi-comic march no-whither.</P> + +<P>The preceding considerations have, I hope, served to indicate the +replies which befit the first two of the questions which I set before +you at starting, viz. What is the range and position of Physiological +Science as a branch of knowledge, and what is its value as a means of +mental discipline?</P> + +<P>Its <i>subject-matter</i> is a large moiety of the universe--its +<i>position</i> is midway between the physico-chemical and the social +sciences. Its <i>value</i> as a branch of discipline is partly that +which it has in common with all sciences--the training and +strengthening of common sense; partly that which is more peculiar to +itself--the great exercise which it affords to the faculties of +observation and comparison; and, I may add, the <i>exactness</i> of +knowledge which it requires on the part of those among its votaries who +desire to extend its boundaries.</P> + +<P>If what has been said as to the position and scope of Biology be +correct, our third question--What is the practical value of +physiological instruction?--might, one would think, be left to answer +itself.</P> + +<P>On other grounds even, were mankind deserving of the title "rational," +which they arrogate to themselves, there can be no question that they +would consider, as the most necessary of all branches of instruction +for themselves and for their children, that which professes to acquaint +them with the conditions of the existence they prize so highly--which +teaches them how to avoid disease and to cherish health, in themselves +and those who are dear to them.</P> + +<P>I am addressing, I imagine, an audience of educated persons; and yet I +dare venture to assert that, with the exception of those of my hearers +who may chance to have received a medical education, there is not one +who could tell me what is the meaning and use of an act which he +performs a score of times every minute, and whose suspension would +involve his immediate death;--I mean the act of breathing--or who could +state in precise terms why it is that a confined atmosphere is +injurious to health.</P> + +<P>The <i>practical value</i> of Physiological knowledge! Why is it that +educated men can be found to maintain that a slaughter-house in the +midst of a great city is rather a good thing than otherwise?--that +mothers persist in exposing the largest possible amount of surface of +their children to the cold, by the absurd style of dress they adopt, +and then marvel at the peculiar dispensation of Providence, which +removes their infants by bronchitis and gastric fever? Why is it that +quackery rides rampant over the land; and that not long ago, one of the +largest public rooms in this great city could be filled by an audience +gravely listening to the reverend expositor of the doctrine--that the +simple physiological phaenomena known as spirit-rapping, table-turning, +phreno-magnetism, and I know not what other absurd and inappropriate +names, are due to the direct and personal agency of Satan?</P> + +<P>Why is all this, except from the utter ignorance as to the simplest +laws of their own animal life, which prevails among even the most +highly educated persons in this country?</P> + +<P>But there are other branches of Biological Science, besides Physiology +proper, whose practical influence, though less obvious, is not, as I +believe, less certain. I have heard educated men speak with an +ill-disguised contempt of the studies of the naturalist, and ask, not +without a shrug, "What is the use of knowing all about these miserable +animals--what bearing has it on human life?"</P> + +<P>I will endeavour to answer that question. I take it that all will admit +there is definite Government of this universe--that its pleasures and +pains are not scattered at random, but are distributed in accordance +with orderly and fixed laws, and that it is only in accordance with all +we know of the rest of the world, that there should be an agreement +between one portion of the sensitive creation and another in these +matters.</P> + +<P>Surely then it interests us to know the lot of other animal +creatures--however far below us, they are still the sole created things +which share with us the capability of pleasure and the susceptibility +to pain.</P> + +<P>I cannot but think that he who finds a certain proportion of pain and +evil inseparably woven up in the life of the very worms, will bear his +own share with more courage and submission; and will, at any rate, view +with suspicion those weakly amiable theories of the Divine government, +which would have us believe pain to be an oversight and a mistake,--to +be corrected by and by. On the other hand, the predominance of +happiness among living things--their lavish beauty--the secret and +wonderful harmony which pervades them all, from the highest to the +lowest, are equally striking refutations of that modern Manichean +doctrine, which exhibits the world as a slave-mill, worked with many +tears, for mere utilitarian ends.</P> + +<P>There is yet another way in which natural history may, I am convinced, +take a profound hold upon practical life,--and that is, by its +influence over our finer feelings, as the greatest of all sources of +that pleasure which is derivable from beauty. I do not pretend that +natural-history knowledge, as such, can increase our sense of the +beautiful in natural objects. I do not suppose that the dead soul of +Peter Bell, of whom the great poet of nature says,--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>A primrose by the river's brim,<br> +A yellow primrose was to him,--<br> +And it was nothing more,--</P> +</blockquote> +<P>would have been a whit roused from its apathy by the information that +the primrose is a Dicotyledonous Exogen, with a monopetalous corolla +and central placentation. But I advocate natural-history knowledge from +this point of view, because it would lead us to <i>seek</i> the +beauties of natural objects, instead of trusting to chance to force +them on our attention. To a person uninstructed in natural history, his +country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with +wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to +the wall. Teach him something of natural history, and you place in his +hands a catalogue of those which are worth turning round. Surely our +innocent pleasures are not so abundant in this life, that we can afford +to despise this or any other source of them. We should fear being +banished for our neglect to that limbo, where the great Florentine +tells us are those who, during this life, "wept when they might be +joyful."</P> + +<P>But I shall be trespassing unwarrantably on your kindness, if I do not +proceed at once to my last point--the time at which Physiological +Science should first form a part of the Curriculum of Education.</P> + +<P>The distinction between the teaching of the facts of a science as +instruction, and the teaching it systematically as knowledge, has +already been placed before you in a previous lecture: and it appears to +me that, as with other sciences, the <i>common facts</i> of Biology--the +uses of parts of the body--the names and habits of the living +creatures which surround us--may be taught with advantage to the +youngest child. Indeed, the avidity of children for this kind of +knowledge, and the comparative ease with which they retain it, is +something quite marvellous. I doubt whether any toy would be so +acceptable to young children as a vivarium of the same kind as, but of +course on a smaller scale than, those admirable devices in the +Zoological Gardens.</P> + +<P>On the other hand, systematic teaching in Biology cannot be attempted +with success until the student has attained to a certain knowledge of +physics and chemistry: for though the phaenomena of life are dependent +neither on physical nor on chemical, but on vital forces, yet they +result in all sorts of physical and chemical changes, which can only be +judged by their own laws.</P> + +<P>And now to sum up in a few words the conclusions to which I hope you +see reason to follow me.</P> + +<P>Biology needs no apologist when she demands a place--and a prominent +place--in any scheme of education worthy of the name. Leave out the +Physiological sciences from your curriculum, and you launch the student +into the world, undisciplined in that science whose subject-matter +would best develop his powers of observation; ignorant of facts of the +deepest importance for his own and others' welfare; blind to the +richest sources of beauty in God's creation; and unprovided with that +belief in a living law, and an order manifesting itself in and through +endless change and variety, which might serve to check and moderate +that phase of despair through which, if he take an earnest interest in +social problems, he will assuredly sooner or later pass.</P> + +<P>Finally, one word for myself. I have not hesitated to speak strongly +where I have felt strongly; and I am but too conscious that the +indicative and imperative moods have too often taken the place of the +more becoming subjunctive and conditional. I feel, therefore, how +necessary it is to beg you to forget the personality of him who has +thus ventured to address you, and to consider only the truth or error +in what has been said.</P> + +<br><hr><br> + +<P><b>Footnotes</b></P> + +<OL> + <LI><a name="II1">"In</a> the third place, we have to review the method of Comparison, +which is so specially adapted to the study of living bodies, and by +which, above all others, that study must be advanced. In Astronomy, +this method is necessarily inapplicable; and it is not till we arrive +at Chemistry that this third means of investigation can be used, and +then only in subordination to the two others. It is in the study, both +statical and dynamical, of living bodies that it first acquires its +full development; and its use elsewhere can be only through its +application here."--COMTE'S <i>Positive Philosophy</i>, translated by +Miss Martineau. Vol. i. p. 372.<br><br> +By what method does M. Comte suppose that the equality or inequality +of forces and quantities and the dissimilarity or similarity of +forms--points of some slight importance not only in Astronomy and +Physics, but even in Mathematics--are ascertained, if not by +Comparison? + +</LI> + <LI><a name="II2">"Proceeding</a> to the second class of means,--Experiment cannot but be +less and less decisive, in proportion to the complexity of the +phaenomena to be explored; and therefore we saw this resource to be +less effectual in chemistry than in physics: and we now find that it is +eminently useful in chemistry in comparison with physiology. <i>In +fact, the nature of the phenomena seems to offer almost insurmountable +impediments to any extensive and prolific application of such a +procedure in biology.</i>"--COMTE, vol. i. p. 367.<br> + +<br>M. Comte, as his manner is, contradicts himself two pages further on, +but that will hardly relieve him from the responsibility of such a +paragraph as the above. +</LI> + <LI><a name="II3"><i>Nouvelle</i></a> <i>Fonction du Foie considéré comme organe producteur de +matière sucrée chez l'Homme et les Animaux, par</i> M. Claude Bernard.</LI> + <LI><a name="II4">"<i>Natural</i></a> <i>Groups given by Type, not by Definition</i>.... The +class is steadily fixed, though not precisely limited; it is given, +though not circumscribed; it is determined, not by a boundary-line +without, but by a central point within; not by what it strictly +excludes, but what it eminently includes; by an example, not by a +precept; in short, instead of Definition we have a <i>Type</i> for our +director. A type is an example of any class, for instance, a species of +a genus, which is considered as eminently possessing the characters of +the class. All the species which have a greater affinity with this +type-species than with any others, form the genus, and are ranged about +about it, deviating from it in various directions and different +degrees."--WHEWELL, <i>The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences</i>, +vol. i. pp. 476, 477.</LI> + <LI><a name="II5">Save</a> for the pleasure of doing so, I need hardly point put my +obligations to Mr. J. S. Mill's <i>System of Logic</i>, in this view of +scientific method.</LI> +</OL> + + +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="III">III</a></P> + +<h4>EMANCIPATION--BLACK AND WHITE</h4> + +<P>[1865.]</P> + +<P>Quashie's plaintive inquiry, "Am I not a man and a brother?" seems at +last to have received its final reply--the recent decision of the +fierce trial by battle on the other side of the Atlantic fully +concurring with that long since delivered here in a more peaceful way.</P> + +<P>The question is settled; but even those who are most thoroughly +convinced that the doom is just, must see good grounds for repudiating +half the arguments which have been employed by the winning side; and +for doubting whether its ultimate results will embody the hopes of the +victors, though they may more than realise the fears of the vanquished. +It may be quite true that some negroes are better than some white men; +but no rational man, cognisant of the facts, believes that the average +negro is the equal, still less the superior, of the average white man. +And, if this be true, it is simply incredible that, when all his +disabilities are removed, and our prognathous relative has a fair field +and no favour, as well as no oppressor, he will be able to compete +successfully with his bigger-brained and smaller-jawed rival, in a +contest which is to be carried on by thoughts and not by bites. The +highest places in the hierarchy of civilisation will assuredly not be +within the reach of our dusky cousins, though it is by no means +necessary that they should be restricted to the lowest. But whatever +the position of stable equilibrium into which the laws of social +gravitation may bring the negro, all responsibility for the result will +henceforward lie between Nature and him. The white man may wash his +hands of it, and the Caucasian conscience be void of reproach for +evermore. And this, if we look to the bottom of the matter, is the real +justification for the abolition policy.</P> + +<P>The doctrine of equal natural rights may be an illogical delusion; +emancipation may convert the slave from a well-fed animal into a +pauperised man; mankind may even have to do without cotton shirts; but +all these evils must be faced if the moral law, that no human being can +arbitrarily dominate over another without grievous damage to his own +nature, be, as many think, as readily demonstrable by experiment as any +physical truth. If this be true, no slavery can be abolished without a +double emancipation, and the master will benefit by freedom more than +the freed-man.</P> + +<P>The like considerations apply to all the other questions of +emancipation which are at present stirring the world--the multifarious +demands that classes of mankind shall be relieved from restrictions +imposed by the artifice of man, and not by the necessities of Nature. +One of the most important, if not the most important, of all these, is +that which daily threatens to become the "irrepressible" woman +question. What social and political rights have women? What ought they +to be allowed, or not allowed, to do, be, and suffer? And, as involved +in, and underlying all these questions, how ought they to be educated?</P> + +<P>There are philogynists as fanatical as any "misogynists" who, reversing +our antiquated notions, bid the man look upon the woman as the higher +type of humanity; who ask us to regard the female intellect as the +clearer and the quicker, if not the stronger; who desire us to look up +to the feminine moral sense as the purer and the nobler; and bid man +abdicate his usurped sovereignty over Nature in favour of the female +line. On the other hand, there are persons not to be outdone in all +loyalty and just respect for womankind, but by nature hard of head and +haters of delusion, however charming, who not only repudiate the new +woman-worship which so many sentimentalists and some philosophers are +desirous of setting up, but, carrying their audacity further, deny even +the natural equality of the sexes. They assert, on the contrary, that +in every excellent character, whether mental or physical, the average +woman is inferior to the average man, in the sense of having that +character less in quantity and lower in quality. Tell these persons of +the rapid perceptions and the instinctive intellectual insight of +women, and they reply that the feminine mental peculiarities, which +pass under these names, are merely the outcome of a greater +impressibility to the superficial aspects of things, and of the absence +of that restraint upon expression which, in men, is imposed by +reflection and a sense of responsibility. Talk of the passive endurance +of the weaker sex, and opponents of this kind remind you that Job was a +man, and that, until quite recent times, patience and long-suffering +were not counted among the specially feminine virtues. Claim passionate +tenderness as especially feminine, and the inquiry is made whether all +the best love-poetry in existence (except, perhaps, the "Sonnets from +the Portuguese ") has not been written by men; whether the song which +embodies the ideal of pure and tender passion--"Adelaida "--was +written by <i>Frau</i> Beethoven; whether it was the Fornarina, or +Raphael, who painted the Sistine Madonna. Nay, we have known one such +heretic go so far as to lay his hands upon the ark itself, so to speak, +and to defend the startling paradox that, even in physical beauty, man +is the superior. He admitted, indeed, that there was a brief period of +early youth when it might be hard to say whether the prize should be +awarded to the graceful undulations of the female figure, or the +perfect balance and supple vigour of the male frame. But while our new +Paris might hesitate between the youthful Bacchus and the Venus +emerging from the foam, he averred that, when Venus and Bacchus had +reached thirty, the point no longer admitted of a doubt; the male form +having then attained its greatest nobility, while the female is far +gone in decadence; and that, at this epoch, womanly beauty, so far as +it is independent of grace or expression, is a question of drapery and +accessories.</P> + +<P>Supposing, however, that all these arguments have a certain foundation; +admitting, for a moment, that they are comparable to those by which the +inferiority of the negro to the white man may be demonstrated, are they +of any value as against woman-emancipation? Do they afford us the +smallest ground for refusing to educate women as well as men--to give +women the same civil and political rights as men? No mistake is so +commonly made by clever people as that of assuming a cause to be bad +because the arguments of its supporters are, to a great extent, +non-sensical. And we conceive that those who may laugh at the arguments +of the extreme philogynists, may yet feel bound to work heart and soul +towards the attainment of their practical ends.</P> + +<P>As regards education, for example. Granting the alleged defects of +women, is it not somewhat absurd to sanction and maintain a system of +education which would seem to have been specially contrived to +exaggerate all these defects?</P> + +<P>Naturally not so firmly strung, nor so well balanced as boys, girls are +in great measure debarred from the sports and physical exercises which +are justly thought absolutely necessary for the full development of the +vigour of the more favoured sex. Women are, by nature, more excitable +than men--prone to be swept by tides of emotion, proceeding from hidden +and inward, as well as from obvious and external causes; and female +education does its best to weaken every physical counterpoise to this +nervous mobility--tends in all ways to stimulate the emotional part of +the mind and stunt the rest. We find girls naturally timid, inclined to +dependence, born conservatives; and we teach them that independence is +unladylike; that blind faith is the right frame of mind; and that +whatever we may be permitted, and indeed encouraged, to do to our +brother, our sister is to be left to the tyranny of authority and +tradition. With few insignificant exceptions, girls have been educated +either to be drudges, or toys, beneath man; or a sort of angels above +him; the highest ideal aimed at oscillating between Clärchen and +Beatrice. The possibility that the ideal of womanhood lies neither in +the fair saint, nor in the fair sinner; that the female type of +character is neither better nor worse than the male, but only weaker; +that women are meant neither to be men's guides nor their play-things, +but their comrades, their fellows, and their equals, so far as Nature +puts no bar to that equality, does not seem to have entered into the +minds of those who have had the conduct of the education of girls.</P> + +<P>If the present system of female education stands self-condemned, as +inherently absurd; and if that which we have just indicated is the true +position of woman, what is the first step towards a better state of +things? We reply, emancipate girls. Recognise the fact that they share +the senses, perceptions, feelings, reasoning powers, emotions, of boys, +and that the mind of the average girl is less different from that of +the average boy, than the mind of one boy is from that of another; so +that whatever argument justifies a given education for all boys, +justifies its application to girls as well. So far from imposing +artificial restrictions upon the acquirement of knowledge by women, +throw every facility in their way. Let our Faustinas, if they will, +toil through the whole round of</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"Juristerei und Medizin,<br> +Und leider! auch Philosophie."</P> +</blockquote> +<P>Let us have "sweet girl graduates" by all means. They will be none the +less sweet for a little wisdom; and the "golden hair" will not curl +less gracefully outside the head by reason of there being brains +within. Nay, if obvious practical difficulties can be overcome, let +those women who feel inclined to do so descend into the gladiatorial +arena of life, not merely in the guise of <i>retiariae</i>, as +heretofore, but as bold <i>sicariae</i>, breasting the open fray. Let +them, if they so please, become merchants, barristers, politicians. Let +them have a fair field, but let them understand, as the necessary +correlative, that they are to have no favour. Let Nature alone sit high +above the lists, "rain influence and judge the prize."</P> + +<P>And the result? For our parts, though loth to prophesy, we believe it +will be that of other emancipations. Women will find their place, and +it will neither be that in which they have been held, nor that to which +some of them aspire. Nature's old salique law will not be repealed, and +no change of dynasty will be effected. The big chests, the massive +brains, the vigorous muscles and stout frames of the best men will +carry the day, whenever it is worth their while to contest the prizes +of life with the best women. And the hardship of it is, that the very +improvement of the women will lessen their chances. Better mothers will +bring forth better sons, and the impetus gained by the one sex will be +transmitted, in the next generation, to the other. The most Darwinian +of theorists will not venture to propound the doctrine, that the +physical disabilities under which women have hitherto laboured in the +struggle for existence with men are likely to be removed by even the +most skilfully conducted process of educational selection.</P> + +<P>We are, indeed, fully prepared to believe that the bearing of children +may, and ought, to become as free from danger and long disability to +the civilised woman as it is to the savage; nor is it improbable that, +as society advances towards its right organisation, motherhood will +occupy a less space of woman's life than it has hitherto done. But +still, unless the human species is to come to an end altogether--a +consummation which can hardly be desired by even the most ardent +advocate of "women's rights"--somebody must be good enough to take the +trouble and responsibility of annually adding to the world exactly as +many people as die out of it. In consequence of some domestic +difficulties, Sydney Smith is said to have suggested that it would have +been good for the human race had the model offered by the hive been +followed, and had all the working part of the female community been +neuters. Failing any thorough-going reform of this kind, we see nothing +for it but the old division of humanity into men potentially, or +actually, fathers, and women potentially, if not actually, mothers. And +we fear that so long as this potential motherhood is her lot, woman +will be found to be fearfully weighted in the race of life.</P> + +<P>The duty of man is to see that not a grain is piled upon that load +beyond what Nature imposes; that injustice is not added to inequality.</P> + +<br><hr><br> + +<P><a name="IV">IV</a></P> + +<h4>A LIBERAL EDUCATION; AND WHERE TO FIND IT</h4> + +<P>[1868.]</P> + +<P>The business which the South London Working Men's College has +undertaken is a great work; indeed, I might say, that Education, with +which that college proposes to grapple, is the greatest work of all +those which lie ready to a man's hand just at present.</P> + +<P>And, at length, this fact is becoming generally recognised. You cannot +go anywhere without hearing a buzz of more or less confused and +contradictory talk on this subject--nor can you fail to notice that, in +one point at any rate, there is a very decided advance upon like +discussions in former days. Nobody outside the agricultural interest +now dares to say that education is a bad thing. If any representative +of the once large and powerful party, which, in former days, proclaimed +this opinion, still exists in a semi-fossil state, he keeps his +thoughts to himself. In fact, there is a chorus of voices, almost +distressing in their harmony, raised in favour of the doctrine that +education is the great panacea for human troubles, and that, if the +country is not shortly to go to the dogs, everybody must be educated.</P> + +<P>The politicians tells us, "You must educate the masses because they are +going to be masters." The clergy join in the cry for education, for +they affirm that the people are drifting away from church and chapel +into the broadest infidelity. The manufacturers and the capitalists +swell the chorus lustily. They declare that ignorance makes bad +workmen; that England will soon be unable to turn out cotton goods, or +steam engines, cheaper than other people; and then, Ichabod! Ichabod! +the glory will be departed from us. And a few voices are lifted up in +favour of the doctrine that the masses should be educated because they +are men and women with unlimited capacities of being, doing, and +suffering, and that it is as true now, as ever it was, that the people +perish for lack of knowledge.</P> + +<P>These members of the minority, with whom I confess I have a good deal +of sympathy, are doubtful whether any of the other reasons urged in +favour of the education of the people are of much value--whether, +indeed, some of them are based upon either wise or noble grounds of +action. They question if it be wise to tell people that you will do for +them, out of fear of their power, what you have left undone, so long as +your only motive was compassion for their weakness and their sorrows. +And, if ignorance of everything which it is needful a ruler should know +is likely to do so much harm in the governing classes of the future, +why is it, they ask reasonably enough, that such ignorance in the +governing classes of the past has not been viewed with equal horror?</P> + +<P>Compare the average artisan and the average country squire, and it may +be doubted if you will find a pin to choose between the two in point of +ignorance, class feeling, or prejudice. It is true that the ignorance +is of a different sort--that the class feeling is in favour of a +different class--and that the prejudice has a distinct savour of +wrong-headedness in each case--but it is questionable if the one is +either a bit better, or a bit worse, than the other. The old +protectionist theory is the doctrine of trades unions as applied by the +squires, and the modern trades unionism is the doctrine of the squires +applied by the artisans. Why should we be worse off under one <i>régime</i> +than under the other?</P> + +<P>Again, this sceptical minority asks the clergy to think whether it is +really want of education which keeps the masses away from their +ministrations--whether the most completely educated men are not as open +to reproach on this score as the workmen; and whether, perchance, this +may not indicate that it is not education which lies at the bottom of +the matter?</P> + +<P>Once more, these people, whom there is no pleasing, venture to doubt +whether the glory, which rests upon being able to undersell all the +rest of the world, is a very safe kind of glory--whether we may not +purchase it too dear; especially if we allow education, which ought to +be directed to the making of men, to be diverted into a process of +manufacturing human tools, wonderfully adroit in the exercise of some +technical industry, but good for nothing else.</P> + +<P>And, finally, these people inquire whether it is the masses alone who +need a reformed and improved education. They ask whether the richest of +our public schools might not well be made to supply knowledge, as well +as gentlemanly habits, a strong class feeling, and eminent proficiency +in cricket. They seem to think that the noble foundations of our old +universities are hardly fulfilling their functions in their present +posture of half-clerical seminaries, half racecourses, where men are +trained to win a senior wranglership, or a double-first, as horses +are trained to win a cup, with as little reference to the needs of +after-life in the case of the man as in that of the racer. And, while +as zealous for education as the rest, they affirm that, if the +education of the richer classes were such as to fit them to be the +leaders and the governors of the poorer; and, if the education of the +poorer classes were such as to enable them to appreciate really wise +guidance and good governance, the politicians need not fear mob-law, +nor the clergy lament their want of flocks, nor the capitalists +prognosticate the annihilation of the prosperity of the country.</P> + +<P>Such is the diversity of opinion upon the why and the wherefore of +education. And my hearers will be prepared to expect that the practical +recommendations which are put forward are not less discordant. There is +a loud cry for compulsory education. We English, in spite of constant +experience to the contrary, preserve a touching faith in the efficacy +of acts of Parliament; and I believe we should have compulsory +education in the course of next session, if there were the least +probability that half a dozen leading statesmen of different parties +would agree what that education should be.</P> + +<P>Some hold that education without theology is worse than none. Others +maintain, quite as strongly, that education with theology is in the +same predicament. But this is certain, that those who hold the first +opinion can by no means agree what theology should be taught; and that +those who maintain the second are in a small minority.</P> + +<P>At any rate "make people learn to read, write, and cipher," say a great +many; and the advice is undoubtedly sensible as far as it goes. But, as +has happened to me in former days, those who, in despair of getting +anything better, advocate this measure, are met with the objection that +it is very like making a child practise the use of a knife, fork, and +spoon, without giving it a particle of meat. I really don't know what +reply is to be made to such an objection.</P> + +<P>But it would be unprofitable to spend more time in disentangling, or +rather in showing up the knots in, the ravelled skeins of our +neighbours. Much more to the purpose is it to ask if we possess any +clue of our own which may guide us among these entanglements. And by +way of a beginning, let us ask ourselves--What is education? Above all +things, what is our ideal of a thoroughly liberal education?--of that +education which, if we could begin life again, we would give +ourselves--of that education which, if we could mould the fates to our +own will, we would give our children? Well, I know not what may be your +conceptions upon this matter, but I will tell you mine, and I hope I +shall find that our views are not very discrepant.</P> + +<P> * * * * *</P> + +<P>Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every +one of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing a +game at chess. Don't you think that we should all consider it to be a +primary duty to learn at least the names and the moves of the pieces; +to have a notion of a gambit, and a keen eye for all the means of +giving and getting out of check? Do you not think that we should look +with a disapprobation amounting to scorn, upon the father who allowed +his son, or the state which allowed its members, to grow up without +knowing a pawn from a knight?</P> + +<P>Yet it is a very plain and elementary truth, that the life, the +fortune, and the happiness of every one of us, and, more or less, of +those who are connected with us, do depend upon our knowing something +of the rules of a game infinitely more difficult and complicated than +chess. It is a game which has been played for untold ages, every man +and woman of us being one of the two players in a game of his or her +own. The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the +universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. +The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play +is always fair, just and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that +he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for +ignorance. To the man who plays well, the highest stakes are paid, with +that sort of overflowing generosity with which the strong shows delight +in strength. And one who plays ill is checkmated--without haste, but +without remorse.</P> + +<P>My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which +Retzsch has depicted Satan playing at chess with man for his soul. +Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel +who is playing for love, as we say, and would rather lose than win--and +I should accept it us an image of human life.</P> + +<P>Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty +game. In other words, education is the instruction of the intellect in +the laws of Nature, under which name I include not merely things and +their forces, but men and their ways; and the fashioning of the +affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in +harmony with those laws. For me, education means neither more nor less +than this. Anything which professes to call itself education must be +tried by this standard, and if it fails to stand the test, I will not +call it education, whatever may be the force of authority, or of +numbers, upon the other side.</P> + +<P>It is important to remember that, in strictness, there is no such thing +as an uneducated man. Take an extreme case. Suppose that an adult man, +in the full vigour of his faculties, could be suddenly placed in the +world, as Adam is said to have been, and then left to do as he best +might. How long would he be left uneducated? Not five minutes. Nature +would begin to teach him, through the eye, the ear, the touch, the +properties of objects. Pain and pleasure would be at his elbow telling +him to do this and avoid that; and by slow degrees the man would +receive an education which, if narrow, would be thorough, real, and +adequate to his circumstances, though there would be no extras and very +few accomplishments.</P> + +<P>And if to this solitary man entered a second Adam, or, better still, an +Eve, a new and greater world, that of social and moral phenomena, would +be revealed. Joys and woes, compared with which all others might seem +but faint shadows, would spring from the new relations. Happiness and +sorrow would take the place of the coarser monitors, pleasure and pain; +but conduct would still be shaped by the observation of the natural +consequences of actions; or, in other words, by the laws of the nature +of man.</P> + +<P>To every one of us the world was once as fresh and new as to Adam. And +then, long before we were susceptible of any other mode of instruction, +Nature took us in hand, and every minute of waking life brought its +educational influence, shaping our actions into rough accordance with +Nature's laws, so that we might not be ended untimely by too gross +disobedience. Nor should I speak of this process of education as past +for any one, be he as old as he may. For every man the world is as +fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for +him who has the eyes to see them. And Nature is still continuing her +patient education of us in that great university, the universe, of +which we are all members--Nature having no Test-Acts.</P> + +<P>Those who take honours in Nature's university, who learn the laws which +govern men and things and obey them, are the really great and +successful men in this world. The great mass of mankind are the +"Poll," who pick up just enough to get through without much discredit. +Those who won't learn at all are plucked; and then you can't come up +again. Nature's pluck means extermination.</P> + +<P>Thus the question of compulsory education is settled so far as Nature +is concerned. Her bill on that question was framed and passed long ago. +But, like all compulsory legislation, that of Nature is harsh and +wasteful in its operation. Ignorance is visited as sharply as wilful +disobedience--incapacity meets with the same punishment as crime. +Nature's discipline is not even a word and a blow, and the blow first; +but the blow without the word. It is left to you to find out why your +ears are boxed.</P> + +<P>The object of what we commonly call education--that education in +which man intervenes and which I shall distinguish as artificial +education--is to make good these defects in Nature's methods; to +prepare the child to receive Nature's education, neither incapably nor +ignorantly, nor with wilful disobedience; and to understand the +preliminary symptoms of her pleasure, without waiting for the box on +the ear. In short, all artificial education ought to be an anticipation +of natural education. And a liberal education is an artificial education +which has not only prepared a man to escape the great evils +of disobedience to natural laws, but has trained him to appreciate and +to seize upon the rewards, which Nature scatters with as free a hand as +her penalties.</P> + +<P>That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained +in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with +ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of; +whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of +equal strength, and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam +engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as +well as forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a +knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws +of her operations; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and +fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous +will, the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all +beauty, whether of Nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to +respect others as himself.</P> + +<P>Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; for +he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. He will +make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together rarely: +she as his ever beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her conscious +self, her minister and interpreter.</P> + +<P>Where is such an education as this to be had? Where is there any +approximation to it? Has any one tried to found such an education? +Looking over the length and breadth of these islands, I am afraid that +all these questions must receive a negative answer. Consider our +primary schools and what is taught in them. A child learns:--</P> + +<P>1. To read, write, and cipher, more or less well; but in a very large +proportion of cases not so well as to take pleasure in reading, or to +be able to write the commonest letter properly.</P> + +<P>2. A quantity of dogmatic theology, of which the child, nine times out +of ten, understands next to nothing.</P> + +<P>3. Mixed up with this, so as to seem to stand or fall with it, a few of +the broadest and simplest principles of morality. This, to my mind, is +much as if a man of science should make the story of the fall of the +apple in Newton's garden an integral part of the doctrine of +gravitation, and teach it as of equal authority with the law of the +inverse squares.</P> + +<P>4. A good deal of Jewish history and Syrian geography, and perhaps a +little something about English history and the geography of the child's +own country. But I doubt if there is a primary school in England in +which hangs a map of the hundred in which the village lies, so that the +children may be practically taught by it what a map means.</P> + +<P>5. A certain amount of regularity, attentive obedience, respect for +others: obtained by fear, if the master be incompetent or foolish; by +love and reverence, if he be wise.</P> + +<P>So far as this school course embraces a training in the theory and +practice of obedience to the moral laws of Nature, I gladly admit, not +only that it contains a valuable educational element, but that, so far, +it deals with the most valuable and important part of all education. +Yet, contrast what is done in this direction with what might be done; +with the time given to matters of comparatively no importance; with the +absence of any attention to things of the highest moment; and one is +tempted to think of Falstaff's bill and "the halfpenny worth of bread +to all that quantity of sack."</P> + +<P>Let us consider what a child thus "educated" knows, and what it does +not know. Begin with the most important topic of all--morality, as the +guide of conduct. The child knows well enough that some acts meet with +approbation and some with disapprobation. But it has never heard that +there lies in the nature of things a reason for every moral law, as +cogent and as well defined as that which underlies every physical law; +that stealing and lying are just as certain to be followed by evil +consequences, as putting your hand in the fire, or jumping out of a +garret window. Again, though the scholar may have been made acquainted, +in dogmatic fashion, with the broad laws of morality, he has had no +training in the application of those laws to the difficult problems +which result from the complex conditions of modern civilisation. Would +it not be very hard to expect any one to solve a problem in conic +sections who had merely been taught the axioms and definitions of +mathematical science?</P> + +<P>A workman has to bear hard labour, and perhaps privation, while he sees +others rolling in wealth, and feeding their dogs with what would keep +his children from starvation. Would it not be well to have helped that +man to calm the natural promptings of discontent by showing him, in his +youth, the necessary connection of the moral law which prohibits +stealing with the stability of society--by proving to him, once for +all, that it is better for his own people, better for himself, better +for future generations, that he should starve than steal? If you have +no foundation of knowledge, or habit of thought, to work upon, what +chance have you of persuading a hungry man that a capitalist is not a +thief "with a circumbendibus?" And if he honestly believes that, of +what avail is it to quote the commandment against stealing, when he +proposes to make the capitalist disgorge?</P> + +<P>Again, the child learns absolutely nothing of the history or the +political organisation of his own country. His general impression is, +that everything of much importance happened a very long while ago; and +that the Queen and the gentlefolks govern the country much after the +fashion of King David and the elders and nobles of Israel--his sole +models. Will you give a man with this much information a vote? In easy +times he sells it for a pot of beer. Why should he not? It is of about +as much use to him as a chignon, and he knows as much what to do with +it, for any other purpose. In bad times, on the contrary, he applies +his simple theory of government, and believes that his rulers are the +cause of his sufferings--a belief which sometimes bears remarkable +practical fruits.</P> + +<P>Least of all, does the child gather from this primary "education" of +ours a conception of the laws of the physical world, or of the +relations of cause and effect therein. And this is the more to be +lamented, as the poor are especially exposed to physical evils, and are +more interested in removing them than any other class of the community. +If any one is concerned in knowing the ordinary laws of mechanics one +would think it is the hand-labourer, whose daily toil lies among levers +and pulleys; or among the other implements of artisan work. And if any +one is interested in the laws of health, it is the poor workman, whose +strength is wasted by ill-prepared food, whose health is sapped by bad +ventilation and bad drainage, and half whose children are massacred by +disorders which might be prevented. Not only does our present primary +education carefully abstain from hinting to the workman that some of +his greatest evils are traceable to mere physical agencies, which could +be removed by energy, patience, and frugality; but it does worse--it +renders him, so far as it can, deaf to those who could help him, and +tries to substitute an Oriental submission to what is falsely declared +to be the will of God, for his natural tendency to strive after a +better condition.</P> + +<P>What wonder, then, if very recently an appeal has been made to +statistics for the profoundly foolish purpose of showing that education +is of no good--that it diminishes neither misery nor crime among the +masses of mankind? I reply, why should the thing which has been called +education do either the one or the other? If I am a knave or a fool, +teaching me to read and write won't make me less of either one or the +other--unless somebody shows me how to put my reading and writing to +wise and good purposes.</P> + +<P>Suppose any one were to argue that medicine is of no use, because it +could be proved statistically, that the percentage of deaths was just +the same among people who had been taught how to open a medicine chest, +and among those who did not so much as know the key by sight. The +argument is absurd; but it is not more preposterous than that against +which I am contending. The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all +the other woes of mankind, is wisdom. Teach a man to read and write, +and you have put into his hands the great keys of the wisdom box. But +it is quite another matter whether he ever opens the box or not. And he +is as likely to poison as to cure himself, if, without guidance, he +swallows the first drug that comes to hand. In these times a man may as +well be purblind, as unable to read--lame, as unable to write. But I +protest that, if I thought the alternative were a necessary one, I +would rather that the children of the poor should grow up ignorant of +both these mighty arts, than that they should remain ignorant of that +knowledge to which these arts are means.</P> + +<P> * * * * *</P> + +<P>It may be said that all these animadversions may apply to primary +schools, but that the higher schools, at any rate, must be allowed to +give a liberal education. In fact they professedly sacrifice everything +else to this object.</P> + +<P>Let us inquire into this matter. What do the higher schools, those to +which the great middle class of the country sends its children, teach, +over and above the instruction given in the primary schools? There is a +little more reading and writing of English. But, for all that, every +one knows that it is a rare thing to find a boy of the middle or upper +classes who can read aloud decently, or who can put his thoughts on +paper in clear and grammatical (to say nothing of good or elegant) +language. The "ciphering" of the lower schools expands into elementary +mathematics in the higher; into arithmetic, with a little algebra, a +little Euclid. But I doubt if one boy in five hundred has ever heard +the explanation of a rule of arithmetic, or knows his Euclid otherwise +than by rote.</P> + +<P>Of theology, the middle class schoolboy gets rather less than poorer +children, less absolutely and less relatively, because there are so +many other claims upon his attention. I venture to say that, in the +great majority of cases, his ideas on this subject when he leaves +school are of the most shadowy and vague description, and associated +with painful impressions of the weary hours spent in learning collects +and catechism by heart.</P> + +<P>Modern geography, modern history, modern literature; the English +language as a language; the whole circle of the sciences, physical, +moral and social, are even more completely ignored in the higher than +in the lower schools. Up till within a few years back, a boy might have +passed through any one of the great public schools with the greatest +distinction and credit, and might never so much as have heard of one of +the subjects I have just mentioned. He might never have heard that the +earth goes round the sun; that England underwent a great revolution in +1688, and France another in 1789; that there once lived certain notable +men called Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Voltaire, Goethe, Schiller. +The first might be a German and the last an Englishman for anything he +could tell you to the contrary. And as for Science, the only idea the +word would suggest to his mind would be dexterity in boxing.</P> + +<P>I have said that this was the state of things a few years back, for the +sake of the few righteous who are to be found among the educational +cities of the plain. But I would not have you too sanguine about the +result, if you sound the minds of the existing generation of public +schoolboys, on such topics as those I have mentioned.</P> + +<P>Now let us pause to consider this wonderful state of affairs; for the +time will come when Englishmen will quote it as the stock example of +the stolid stupidity of their ancestors in the nineteenth century. The +most thoroughly commercial people, the greatest voluntary wanderers and +colonists the world has ever seen, are precisely the middle classes of +this country. If there be a people which has been busy making history +on the great scale for the last three hundred years--and the most +profoundly interesting history--history which, if it happened to be +that of Greece or Rome, we should study with avidity--it is the +English. If there be a people which, during the same period, has +developed a remarkable literature, it is our own. If there be a nation +whose prosperity depends absolutely and wholly upon their mastery over +the forces of Nature, upon their intelligent apprehension of, and +obedience to the laws of the creation and distribution of wealth, and +of the stable equilibrium of the forces of society, it is precisely +this nation. And yet this is what these wonderful people tell their +sons:--"At the cost of from one to two thousand pounds of our +hard-earned money, we devote twelve of the most precious years of your +lives to school. There you shall toil, or be supposed to toil; but +there you shall not learn one single thing of all those you will most +want to know directly you leave school and enter upon the practical +business of life. You will in all probability go into business, but you +shall not know where, or how, any article of commerce is produced, or +the difference between an export or an import, or the meaning of the +word "capital." You will very likely settle in a colony, but you shall +not know whether Tasmania is part of New South Wales, or <i>vice versâ</i>.</P> + +<P>"Very probably you may become a manufacturer, but you shall not be +provided with the means of understanding the working of one of your own +steam-engines, or the nature of the raw products you employ; and, when +you are asked to buy a patent, you shall not have the slightest means +of judging whether the inventor is an impostor who is contravening the +elementary principles of science, or a man who will make you as rich as +Croesus.</P> + +<P>"You will very likely get into the House of Commons. You will have to +take your share in making laws which may prove a blessing or a curse to +millions of men. But you shall not hear one word respecting the +political organisation of your country; the meaning of the controversy +between free-traders and protectionists shall never have been mentioned +to you; you shall not so much as know that there are such things as +economical laws.</P> + +<P>"The mental power which will be of most importance in your daily life +will be the power of seeing things as they are without regard to +authority; and of drawing accurate general conclusions from particular +facts. But at school and at college you shall know of no source of +truth but authority; nor exercise your reasoning faculty upon anything +but deduction from that which is laid down by authority.</P> + +<P>"You will have to weary your soul with work, and many a time eat your +bread in sorrow and in bitterness, and you shall not have learned to +take refuge in the great source of pleasure without alloy, the serene +resting-place for worn human nature,--the world of art."</P> + +<P>Said I not rightly that we are a wonderful people? I am quite prepared +to allow, that education entirely devoted to these omitted subjects +might not be a completely liberal education. But is an education which +ignores them all a liberal education? Nay, is it too much to say that +the education which should embrace these subjects and no others would +be a real education, though an incomplete one; while an education which +omits them is really not an education at all, but a more or less useful +course of intellectual gymnastics?</P> + +<P>For what does the middle-class school put in the place of all these +things which are left out? It substitutes what is usually comprised +under the compendious title of the "classics"--that is to say, the +languages, the literature, and the history of the ancient Greeks and +Romans, and the geography of so much of the world as was known to these +two great nations of antiquity. Now, do not expect me to depreciate the +earnest and enlightened pursuit of classical learning. I have not the +least desire to speak ill of such occupations, nor any sympathy with +those who run them down. On the contrary, if my opportunities had lain +in that direction, there is no investigation into which I could have +thrown myself with greater delight than that of antiquity.</P> + +<P>What science can present greater attractions than philology? How can a +lover of literary excellence fail to rejoice in the ancient +masterpieces? And with what consistency could I, whose business lies so +much in the attempt to decipher the past, and to build up intelligible +forms out of the scattered fragments of long-extinct beings, fail to +take a sympathetic, though an unlearned, interest in the labours of a +Niebuhr, a Gibbon, or a Grote? Classical history is a great section of +the palaeontology of man; and I have the same double respect for it as +for other kinds of palaeontology--that is to say, a respect for the +facts which it establishes as for all facts, and a still greater +respect for it as a preparation for the discovery of a law of progress.</P> + +<P>But if the classics were taught as they might be taught--if boys and +girls were instructed in Greek and Latin, not merely as languages, but +as illustrations of philological science; if a vivid picture of life on +the shores of the Mediterranean two thousand years ago were imprinted +on the minds of scholars; if ancient history were taught, not as a +weary series of feuds and fights, but traced to its causes in such men +placed under such conditions; if, lastly, the study of the classical +books were followed in such a manner as to impress boys with their +beauties, and with the grand simplicity of their statement of the +everlasting problems of human life, instead of with their verbal and +grammatical peculiarities; I still think it as little proper that they +should form the basis of a liberal education for our contemporaries, as +I should think it fitting to make that sort of palaeontology with which +I am familiar the back-bone of modern education.</P> + +<P>It is wonderful how close a parallel to classical training could be +made out of that palaeontology to which I refer. In the first place I +could get up an osteological primer so arid, so pedantic in its +terminology, so altogether distasteful to the youthful mind, as to beat +the recent famous production of the head-masters out of the field in +all these excellences. Next, I could exercise my boys upon easy +fossils, and bring out all their powers of memory and all their +ingenuity in the application of my osteo-grammatical rules to the +interpretation, or construing, of those fragments. To those who had +reached the higher classes, I might supply odd bones to be built up +into animals, giving great honour and reward to him who succeeded in +fabricating monsters most entirely in accordance with the rules. That +would answer to verse-making and essay-writing in the dead languages.</P> + +<P>To be sure, if a great comparative anatomist were to look at these +fabrications he might shake his head, or laugh. But what then? Would +such a catastrophe destroy the parallel? What, think you, would Cicero, +or Horace, say to the production of the best sixth form going? And +would not Terence stop his ears and run out if he could be present at +an English performance of his own plays? Would <i>Hamlet</i>, in the +mouths of a set of French actors, who should insist on pronouncing +English after the fashion of their own tongue, be more hideously +ridiculous?</P> + +<P>But it will be said that I am forgetting the beauty, and the human +interest, which appertain to classical studies. To this I reply that it +is only a very strong man who can appreciate the charms of a landscape +as he is toiling up a steep hill, along a had road. What with +short-windedness, stones, ruts, and a pervading sense of the wisdom of +rest and be thankful, most of us have little enough sense of the +beautiful under these circumstances. The ordinary schoolboy is +precisely in this case. He finds Parnassus uncommonly steep, and there +is no chance of his having much time or inclination to look about him +till he gets to the top. And nine times out of ten he does not get to +the top.</P> + +<P>But if this be a fair picture of the results of classical teaching at +its best--and I gather from those who have authority to speak on such +matters that it is so--what is to be said of classical teaching at its +worst, or in other words, of the classics of our ordinary middle-class +schools? [<a href="#IV1">1</a>] I will tell you. It means getting up endless forms and +rules by heart. It means turning Latin and Greek into English, for the +mere sake of being able to do it, and without the smallest regard to +the worth, or worthlessness, of the author read. It means the learning +of innumerable, not always decent, fables in such a shape that the +meaning they once had is dried up into utter trash; and the only +impression left upon a boy's mind is, that the people who believed such +things must have been the greatest idiots the world ever saw. And it +means, finally, that after a dozen years spent at this kind of work, +the sufferer shall be incompetent to interpret a passage in an author +he has not already got up; that he shall loathe the sight of a Greek or +Latin book; and that he shall never open, or think of, a classical +writer again, until, wonderful to relate, he insists upon submitting +his sons to the same process.</P> + +<P>These be your gods, O Israel! For the sake of this net result (and +respectability) the British father denies his children all the +knowledge they might turn to account in life, not merely for the +achievement of vulgar success, but for guidance in the great crises of +human existence. This is the stone he offers to those whom he is bound +by the strongest and tenderest ties to feed with bread.</P> + +<P> * * * * *</P> + +<P>If primary and secondary education are in this unsatisfactory state, +what is to be said to the universities? This is an awful subject, and +one I almost fear to touch with my unhallowed hands; but I can tell you +what those say who have authority to speak.</P> + +<P>The Rector of Lincoln College, in his lately published valuable +"Suggestions for Academical Organisation with especial reference to +Oxford," tells us (p. 127):--</P> + +<P>"The colleges were, in their origin, endowments, not for the elements +of a general liberal education, but for the prolonged study of special +and professional faculties by men of riper age. The universities +embraced both these objects. The colleges, while they incidentally +aided in elementary education, were specially devoted to the highest +learning....</P> + +<P>"This was the theory of the middle-age university and the design of +collegiate foundations in their origin. Time and circumstances have +brought about a total change. The colleges no longer promote the +researches of science, or direct professional study. Here and there +college walls may shelter an occasional student, but not in larger +proportions than may be found in private life. Elementary teaching of +youths under twenty is now the only function performed by the +university, and almost the only object of college endowments. Colleges +were homes for the life-study of the highest and most abstruse parts of +knowledge. They have become boarding schools in which the elements of +the learned languages are taught to youths."</P> + +<P>If Mr. Pattison's high position, and his obvious love and respect for +his university, be insufficient to convince the outside world that +language so severe is yet no more than just, the authority of the +Commissioners who reported on the University of Oxford in 1850 is open +to no challenge. Yet they write:--</P> + +<P>"It is generally acknowledged that both Oxford and the country at large +suffer greatly from the absence of a body of learned men devoting their +lives to the cultivation of science, and to the direction of academical +education.</P> + +<P>"The fact that so few books of profound research emanate from the +University of Oxford, materially impairs its character as a seat of +learning, and consequently its hold on the respect of the nation."</P> + +<P>Cambridge can claim no exemption from the reproaches addressed to +Oxford. And thus there seems no escape from the admission that what we +fondly call our great seats of learning are simply "boarding schools" +for bigger boys; that learned men are not more numerous in them than +out of them; that the advancement of knowledge is not the object of +fellows of colleges; that, in the philosophic calm and meditative +stillness of their greenswarded courts, philosophy does not thrive, and +meditation bears few fruits.</P> + +<P>It is my great good fortune to reckon amongst my friends resident +members of both universities, who are men of learning and research, +zealous cultivators of science, keeping before their minds a noble +ideal of a university, and doing their best to make that ideal a +reality; and, to me, they would necessarily typify the universities, +did not the authoritative statements I have quoted compel me to believe +that they are exceptional, and not representative men. Indeed, upon +calm consideration, several circumstances lead me to think that the +Rector of Lincoln College and the Commissioners cannot be far wrong.</P> + +<P>I believe there can be no doubt that the foreigner who should wish to +become acquainted with the scientific, or the literary, activity of +modern England, would simply lose his time and his pains if he visited +our universities with that object.</P> + +<P>And, as for works of profound research on any subject, and, above all, +in that classical lore for which the universities profess to sacrifice +almost everything else, why, a third-rate, poverty-stricken German +university turns out more produce of that kind in one year, than our +vast and wealthy foundations elaborate in ten.</P> + +<P>Ask the man who is investigating any question, profoundly and +thoroughly--be it historical, philosophical, philological, physical, +literary, or theological; who is trying to make himself master of any +abstract subject (except, perhaps, political economy and geology, both +of which are intensely Anglican sciences), whether he is not compelled +to read half a dozen times as many German as English books? And +whether, of these English books, more than one in ten is the work of a +fellow of a college, or a professor of an English university?</P> + +<P>Is this from any lack of power in the English as compared with the +German mind? The countrymen of Grote and of Mill, of Faraday, of Robert +Brown, of Lyell, and of Darwin, to go no further back than the +contemporaries of men of middle age, can afford to smile at such a +suggestion. England can show now, as she has been able to show in every +generation since civilisation spread over the West, individual men who +hold their own against the world, and keep alive the old tradition of +her intellectual eminence.</P> + +<P>But, in the majority of cases, these men are what they are in virtue of +their native intellectual force, and of a strength of character which +will not recognise impediments. They are not trained in the courts of +the Temple of Science, but storm the walls of that edifice in all sorts +of irregular ways, and with much loss of time and power, in order to +obtain their legitimate positions.</P> + +<P>Our universities not only do not encourage such men; do not offer them +positions, in which it should be their highest duty to do, thoroughly, +that which they are most capable of doing; but, as far as possible, +university training shuts out of the minds of those among them, who are +subjected to it, the prospect that there is anything in the world for +which they are specially fitted. Imagine the success of the attempt to +still the intellectual hunger of any of the men I have mentioned, by +putting before him, as the object of existence, the successful mimicry +of the measure of a Greek song, or the roll of Ciceronian prose! +Imagine how much success would be likely to attend the attempt to +persuade such men that the education which leads to perfection in such +elegances is alone to be called culture; while the facts of history, +the process of thought, the conditions of moral and social existence, +and the laws of physical nature are left to be dealt with as they may +by outside barbarians!</P> + +<P>It is not thus that the German universities, from being beneath notice +a century ago, have become what they are now--the most intensely +cultivated and the most productive intellectual corporations the world +has ever seen.</P> + +<P>The student who repairs to them sees in the list of classes and of +professors a fair picture of the world of knowledge. Whatever he needs +to know there is some one ready to teach him, some one competent to +discipline him in the way of learning; whatever his special bent, let +him but be able and diligent, and in due time he shall find distinction +and a career. Among his professors, he sees men whose names are known +and revered throughout the civilised world; and their living example +infects him with a noble ambition, and a love for the spirit of work.</P> + +<P>The Germans dominate the intellectual world by virtue of the same +simple secret as that which made Napoleon the master of old Europe. +They have declared <i>la carrière ouverte aux talents</i>, and every +Bursch marches with a professor's gown in his knapsack. Let him become +a great scholar, or man of science, and ministers will compete for his +services. In Germany, they do not leave the chance of his holding the +office he would render illustrious to the tender mercies of a hot +canvass, and the final wisdom of a mob of country parsons.</P> + +<P>In short, in Germany, the universities are exactly what the Rector of +Lincoln and the Commissioners tell us the English universities are not; +that is to say, corporations "of learned men devoting their lives to +the cultivation of science, and the direction of academical +education." They are not "boarding schools for youths," nor clerical +seminaries; but institutions for the higher culture of men, in which +the theological faculty is of no more importance, or prominence, than +the rest; and which are truly "universities," since they strive to +represent and embody the totality of human knowledge, and to find room +for all forms of intellectual activity.</P> + +<P>May zealous and clear-headed reformers like Mr. Pattison succeed in +their noble endeavours to shape our universities towards some such +ideal as this, without losing what is valuable and distinctive in their +social tone! But until they have succeeded, a liberal education will be +no more obtainable in our Oxford and Cambridge Universities than in our +public schools.</P> + +<P>If I am justified in my conception of the ideal of a liberal education; +and if what I have said about the existing educational institutions of +the country is also true, it is clear that the two have no sort of +relation to one another; that the best of our schools and the most +complete of our university trainings give but a narrow, one-sided, and +essentially illiberal education--while the worst give what is really +next to no education at all. The South London Working-Men's College +could not copy any of these institutions if it would; I am bold enough +to express the conviction that it ought not if it could.</P> + +<P>For what is wanted is the reality and not the mere name of a liberal +education; and this College must steadily set before itself the +ambition to be able to give that education sooner or later. At present +we are but beginning, sharpening our educational tools, as it were, +and, except a modicum of physical science, we are not able to offer +much more than is to be found in an ordinary school.</P> + +<P>Moral and social science--one of the greatest and most fruitful of our +future classes, I hope--at present lacks only one thing in our +programme, and that is a teacher. A considerable want, no doubt; but it +must be recollected that it is much better to want a teacher than to +want the desire to learn.</P> + +<P>Further, we need what, for want of a better name, I must call +Physical Geography. What I mean is that which the Germans call +"<i>Erdkunde</i>." It is a description of the earth, of its place and +relation to other bodies; of its general structure, and of its great +features--winds, tides, mountains, plains: of the chief forms of the +vegetable and animal worlds, of the varieties of man. It is the peg +upon which the greatest quantity of useful and entertaining scientific +information can be suspended.</P> + +<P>Literature is not upon the College programme; but I hope some day to +see it there. For literature is the greatest of all sources of refined +pleasure, and one of the great uses of a liberal education is to enable +us to enjoy that pleasure. There is scope enough for the purposes of +liberal education in the study of the rich treasures of our own +language alone. All that is needed is direction, and the cultivation of +a refined taste by attention to sound criticism. But there is no reason +why French and German should not be mastered sufficiently to read what +is worth reading in those languages with pleasure and with profit.</P> + +<P>And finally, by and by, we must have History; treated not as a +succession of battles and dynasties; not as a series of biographies; +not as evidence that Providence has always been on the side of either +Whigs or Tories; but as the development of man in times past, and in +other conditions than our own.</P> + +<P>But, as it is one of the principles of our College to be +self-supporting, the public must lead, and we must follow, in these +matters. If my hearers take to heart what I have said about liberal +education, they will desire these things, and I doubt not we shall be +able to supply them. But we must wait till the demand is made.</P> + +<br><hr><br> + +<P><b>Footnotes</b></P> +<ol> +<li><a name="IV1">For</a> a justification of what is here said about these +schools, see that valuable book, <i>Essays on a Liberal Education, +passim</i>.</li> +</ol> +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="V">V</a></P> + +<h4>SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH</h4> + +<P>[1869]</P> +<blockquote> +<P>[Mr. Thackeray, talking of after-dinner speeches, has lamented that +"one never can recollect the fine things one thought of in the +cab," in going to the place of entertainment. I am not aware that +there are any "fine things" in the following pages, but such as +there are stand to a speech which really did get itself spoken, at +the hospitable table of the Liverpool Philomathic Society, more or +less in the position of what "one thought of in the cab."]</P> +</blockquote> +<P>The introduction of scientific training into the general education of +the country is a topic upon which I could not have spoken, without some +more or less apologetic introduction, a few years ago. But upon this, +as upon other matters, public opinion has of late undergone a rapid +modification. Committees of both Houses of the Legislature have agreed +that something must be done in this direction, and have even thrown out +timid and faltering suggestions as to what should be done; while at the +opposite pole of society, committees of working men have expressed +their conviction that scientific training is the one thing needful for +their advancement, whether as men, or as workmen. Only the other day, +it was my duty to take part in the reception of a deputation of London +working men, who desired to learn from Sir Roderick Murchison, the +Director of the Royal School of Mines, whether the organisation of the +Institution in Jermyn Street could be made available for the supply of +that scientific instruction the need of which could not have been +apprehended, or stated, more clearly than it was by them.</P> + +<P>The heads of colleges in our great universities (who have not the +reputation of being the most mobile of persons) have, in several cases, +thought it well that, out of the great number of honours and rewards at +their disposal, a few should hereafter be given to the cultivators of +the physical sciences. Nay, I hear that some colleges have even gone so +far as to appoint one, or, maybe, two special tutors for the purpose of +putting the facts and principles of physical science before the +undergraduate mind. And I say it with gratitude and great respect for +those eminent persons, that the head masters of our public schools, +Eton, Harrow, Winchester, have addressed themselves to the problem of +introducing instruction in physical science among the studies of those +great educational bodies, with much honesty of purpose and +enlightenment of understanding; and I live in hope that, before long, +important changes in this direction will be carried into effect in +those strongholds of ancient prescription. In fact, such changes have +already been made, and physical science, even now, constitutes a +recognised element of the school curriculum in Harrow and Rugby, whilst +I understand that ample preparations for such studies are being made at +Eton and elsewhere.</P> + +<P>Looking at these facts, I might perhaps spare myself the trouble of +giving any reasons for the introduction of physical science into +elementary education; yet I cannot but think that it may be well if I +place before you some considerations which, perhaps, have hardly +received full attention.</P> + +<P>At other times, and in other places, I have endeavoured to state the +higher and more abstract arguments, by which the study of physical +science may be shown to be indispensable to the complete training of +the human mind; but I do not wish it to be supposed that, because I +happen to be devoted to more or less abstract and "unpractical" +pursuits, I am insensible to the weight which ought to be attached +to that which has been said to be the English conception of +Paradise--namely, "getting on." I look upon it, that "getting on" is a +very important matter indeed. I do not mean merely for the sake of the +coarse and tangible results of success, but because humanity is so +constituted that a vast number of us would never be impelled to those +stretches of exertion which make, us wiser and more capable men, if it +were not for the absolute necessity of putting on our faculties all the +strain they will bear, for the purpose of "getting on" in the most +practical sense.</P> + +<P>Now the value of a knowledge of physical science as a means of getting +on is indubitable. There are hardly any of our trades, except the +merely huckstering ones, in which some knowledge of science may not be +directly profitable to the pursuer of that occupation. As industry +attains higher stages of its development, as its processes become more +complicated and refined, and competition more keen, the sciences are +dragged in, one by one, to take their share in the fray; and he who can +best avail himself of their help is the man who will come out uppermost +in that struggle for existence, which goes on as fiercely beneath the +smooth surface of modern society, as among the wild inhabitants of the +woods.</P> + +<P>But in addition to the bearing of science on ordinary practical life, +let me direct your attention to its immense influence on several of the +professions. I ask any one who has adopted the calling of an engineer, +how much time he lost when he left school, because he had to devote +himself to pursuits which were absolutely novel and strange, and of +which he had not obtained the remotest conception from his instructors? +He had to familiarise himself with ideas of the course and powers of +Nature, to which his attention had never been directed during his +school-life, and to learn, for the first time, that a world of facts +lies outside and beyond the world of words. I appeal to those who know +what engineering is, to say how far I am right in respect to that +profession; but with regard to another, of no less importance, I shall +venture to speak of my own knowledge. There is no one of us who may not +at any moment be thrown, bound hand and foot by physical incapacity, +into the hands of a medical practitioner. The chances of life and death +for all and each of us may, at any moment, depend on the skill with +which that practitioner is able to make out what is wrong in our bodily +frames, and on his ability to apply the proper remedy to the defect.</P> + +<P>The necessities of modern life are such, and the class from which the +medical profession is chiefly recruited is so situated, that few +medical men can hope to spend more than three or four, or it may be +five, years in the pursuit of those studies which are immediately +germane to physic. How is that all too brief period spent at present? I +speak as an old examiner, having served some eleven or twelve years in +that capacity in the University of London, and therefore having a +practical acquaintance with the subject; but I might fortify myself by +the authority of the President of the College of Surgeons, Mr. Quain, +whom I heard the other day in an admirable address (the Hunterian +Oration) deal fully and wisely with this very topic. [<a href="#V1">1</a>]</P> + +<P>A young man commencing the study of medicine is at once required to +endeavour to make an acquaintance with a number of sciences, such as +Physics, as Chemistry, as Botany, as Physiology, which are absolutely +and entirely strange to him, however excellent his so-called education +at school may have been. Not only is he devoid of all apprehension of +scientific conceptions, not only does he fail to attach any meaning to +the words "matter," "force," or "law" in their scientific senses, but, +worse still, he has no notion of what it is to come into contact with +Nature, or to lay his mind alongside of a physical fact, and try to +conquer it, in the way our great naval hero told his captains to master +their enemies. His whole mind has been given to books, and I am hardly +exaggerating if I say that they are more real to him than Nature. He +imagines that all knowledge can be got out of books, and rests upon the +authority of some master or other; nor does he entertain any misgiving +that the method of learning which led to proficiency in the rules of +grammar will suffice to lead him to a mastery of the laws of Nature. +The youngster, thus unprepared for serious study, is turned loose among +his medical studies, with the result, in nine cases out of ten, that +the first year of his curriculum is spent in learning how to learn. +Indeed, he is lucky if, at the end of the first year, by the exertions +of his teachers and his own industry, he has acquired even that art of +arts. After which there remain not more than three, or perhaps four, +years for the profitable study of such vast sciences as Anatomy, +Physiology, Therapeutics, Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics, and the like, +upon his knowledge or ignorance of which it depends whether the +practitioner shall diminish, or increase, the bills of mortality. Now +what is it but the preposterous condition of ordinary school education +which prevents a young man of seventeen, destined for the practice of +medicine, from being fully prepared for the study of Nature; and from +coming to the medical school, equipped with that preliminary knowledge +of the principles of Physics, of Chemistry and of Biology, upon which +he has now to waste one of the precious years, every moment of which +ought to be given to those studies which bear directly upon the +knowledge of his profession?</P> + +<P>There is another profession, to the members of which, I think, a +certain preliminary knowledge of physical science might be quite as +valuable as to the medical man. The practitioner of medicine sets +before himself the noble object of taking care of man's bodily welfare; +but the members of this other profession undertake to "minister to +minds diseased," and, so far as may be, to diminish sin and soften +sorrow. Like the medical profession, the clerical, of which I now +speak, rests its power to heal upon its knowledge of the order of the +universe--upon certain theories of man's relation to that which lies +outside him. It is not my business to express any opinion about these +theories. I merely wish to point out that, like all other theories, +they are professedly based upon matters of fact. Thus the clerical +profession has to deal with the facts of Nature from a certain point of +view; and hence it comes into contact with that of the man of science, +who has to treat the same facts from another point of view. You know +how often that contact is to be described as collision, or violent +friction; and how great the heat, how little the light, which commonly +results from it.</P> + +<P>In the interests of fair play, to say nothing of those of mankind, I +ask, Why do not the clergy as a body acquire, as a part of their +preliminary education, some such tincture of physical science as will +put them in a position to understand the difficulties in the way of +accepting their theories, which are forced upon the mind of every +thoughtful and intelligent man, who has taken the trouble to instruct +himself in the elements of natural knowledge?</P> + +<P>Some time ago I attended a large meeting of the clergy, for the purpose +of delivering an address which I had been invited to give. I spoke of +some of the most elementary facts in physical science, and of the +manner in which they directly contradict certain of the ordinary +teachings of the clergy. The result was, that, after I had finished, +one section of the assembled ecclesiastics attacked me with all the +intemperance of pious zeal, for stating facts and conclusions which no +competent judge doubts; while, after the first speakers had subsided, +amidst the cheers of the great majority of their colleagues, the more +rational minority rose to tell me that I had taken wholly superfluous +pains, that they already knew all about what I had told them, and +perfectly agreed with me. A hard-headed friend of mine, who was +present, put the not unnatural question, "Then why don't you say so in +your pulpits?" to which inquiry I heard no reply.</P> + +<P>In fact the clergy are at present divisible into three sections: an +immense body who are ignorant and speak out; a small proportion who +know and are silent; and a minute minority who know and speak according +to their knowledge. By the clergy, I mean especially the Protestant +clergy. Our great antagonist--I speak as a man of science--the Roman +Catholic Church, the one great spiritual organisation which is able to +resist, and must, as a matter of life and death, resist, the progress +of science and modern civilisation, manages her affairs much better.</P> + +<P>It was my fortune some time ago to pay a visit to one of the most +important of the institutions in which the clergy of the Roman Catholic +Church in these islands are trained; and it seemed to me that the +difference between these men and the comfortable champions of +Anglicanism and of Dissent, was comparable to the difference between +our gallant Volunteers and the trained veterans of Napoleon's Old +Guard.</P> + +<P>The Catholic priest is trained to know his business, and do it +effectually. The professors of the college in question, learned, +zealous, and determined men, permitted me to speak frankly with them. +We talked like outposts of opposed armies during a truce--as friendly +enemies; and when I ventured to point out the difficulties their +students would have to encounter from scientific thought, they replied: +"Our Church has lasted many ages, and has passed safely through many +storms. The present is but a new gust of the old tempest, and we do not +turn out our young men less fitted to weather it, than they have been, +in former times, to cope with the difficulties of those times. The +heresies of the day are explained to them by their professors of +philosophy and science, and they are taught how those heresies are to +be met."</P> + +<P>I heartily respect an organisation which faces its enemies in this way; +and I wish that all ecclesiastical organisations were in as effective a +condition. I think it would be better, not only for them, but for us. +The army of liberal thought is, at present, in very loose order; and +many a spirited free-thinker makes use of his freedom mainly to vent +nonsense. We should be the better for a vigorous and watchful enemy to +hammer us into cohesion and discipline; and I, for one, lament that the +bench of Bishops cannot show a man of the calibre of Butler of the +"Analogy," who, if he were alive, would make short work of much of the +current <i>à priori</i> "infidelity."</P> + +<P>I hope you will consider that the arguments I have now stated, even if +there were no better ones, constitute a sufficient apology for urging +the introduction of science into schools. The next question to which I +have to address myself is, What sciences ought to be thus taught? And +this is one of the most important of questions, because my side (I am +afraid I am a terribly candid friend) sometimes spoils its cause by +going in for too much. There are other forms of culture beside physical +science; and I should be profoundly sorry to see the fact forgotten, or +even to observe a tendency to starve, or cripple, literary, or +aesthetic, culture for the sake of science. Such a narrow view of the +nature of education has nothing to do with my firm conviction that a +complete and thorough scientific culture ought to be introduced into +all schools. By this, however, I do not mean that every schoolboy +should be taught everything in science. That would be a very absurd +thing to conceive, and a very mischievous thing to attempt. What I mean +is, that no boy nor girl should leave school without possessing a grasp +of the general character of science, and without having been +disciplined, more or less, in the methods of all sciences; so that, +when turned into the world to make their own way, they shall be +prepared to face scientific problems, not by knowing at once the +conditions of every problem, or by being able at once to solve it; but +by being familiar with the general current of scientific thought, and +by being able to apply the methods of science in the proper way, when +they have acquainted themselves with the conditions of the special +problem.</P> + +<P>That is what I understand by scientific education. To furnish a boy +with such an education, it is by no means necessary that he should +devote his whole school existence to physical science: in fact, no one +would lament so one-sided a proceeding more than I. Nay more, it is not +necessary for him to give up more than a moderate share of his time to +such studies, if they be properly selected and arranged, and if he be +trained in them in a fitting manner.</P> + +<P>I conceive the proper course to be somewhat as follows. To begin with, +let every child be instructed in those general views of the phaenomena +of Nature for which we have no exact English name. The nearest +approximation to a name for what I mean, which we possess, is "physical +geography." The Germans have a better, "Erdkunde" ("earth knowledge" or +"geology" in its etymological sense), that is to say, a general +knowledge of the earth, and what is on it, in it, and about it. If any +one who has had experience of the ways of young children will call to +mind their questions, he will find that so far as they can be put into +any scientific category, they come under this head of "Erdkunde." The +child asks, "What is the moon, and why does it shine?" "What is this +water, and where does it run?" "What is the wind?" "What makes this +waves in the sea?" "Where does this animal live, and what is the use of +that plant?" And if not snubbed and stunted by being told not to ask +foolish questions, there is no limit to the intellectual craving of a +young child; nor any bounds to the slow, but solid, accretion of +knowledge and development of the thinking faculty in this way. To all +such questions, answers which are necessarily incomplete, though true +as far as they go, may be given by any teacher whose ideas represent +real knowledge and not mere book learning; and a panoramic view of +Nature, accompanied by a strong infusion of the scientific habit of +mind, may thus be placed within the reach of every child of nine or +ten.</P> + +<P>After this preliminary opening of the eyes to the great spectacle +of the daily progress of Nature, as the reasoning faculties of the +child grow, and he becomes familiar with the use of the tools of +knowledge--reading, writing, and elementary mathematics--he should pass +on to what is, in the more strict sense, physical science. Now there +are two kinds of physical science: the one regards form and the +relation of forms to one another; the other deals with causes and +effects. In many of what we term sciences, these two kinds are mixed up +together; but systematic botany is a pure example of the former kind, +and physics of the latter kind, of science. Every educational advantage +which training in physical science can give is obtainable from the +proper study of these two; and I should be contented, for the present, +if they, added to our "Erdkunde," furnished the whole of the scientific +curriculum of school. Indeed, I conceive it would be one of the +greatest boons which could be conferred upon England, if henceforward +every child in the country were instructed in the general knowledge of +the things about it, in the elements of physics, and of botany. But I +should be still better pleased if there could be added somewhat of +chemistry, and an elementary acquaintance with human physiology.</P> + +<P>So far as school education is concerned, I want to go no further just +now; and I believe that such instruction would make an excellent +introduction to that preparatory scientific training which, as I have +indicated, is so essential for the successful pursuit of our most +important professions. But this modicum of instruction must be so given +as to ensure real knowledge and practical discipline. If scientific +education is to be dealt with as mere bookwork, it will be better not +to attempt it, but to stick to the Latin Grammar which makes no +pretence to be anything but bookwork.</P> + +<P>If the great benefits of scientific training are sought, it is +essential that such training should be real: that is to say, that the +mind of the scholar should be brought into direct relation with fact, +that he should not merely be told a thing, but made to see by the use +of his own intellect and ability that the thing is so and no otherwise. +The great peculiarity of scientific training, that in virtue of which +it cannot be replaced by any other discipline whatsoever, is this +bringing of the mind directly into contact with fact, and practising +the intellect in the completest form of induction; that is to say, in +drawing conclusions from particular facts made known by immediate +observation of Nature.</P> + +<P>The other studies which enter into ordinary education do not discipline +the mind in this way. Mathematical training is almost purely deductive. +The mathematician starts with a few simple propositions, the proof of +which is so obvious that they are called self-evident, and the rest of +his work consists of subtle deductions from them. The teaching of +languages, at any rate as ordinarily practised, is of the same general +nature,--authority and tradition furnish the data, and the mental +operations of the scholar are deductive.</P> + +<P>Again: if history be the subject of study, the facts are still taken +upon the evidence of tradition and authority. You cannot make a boy see +the battle of Thermopylae for himself, or know, of his own knowledge, +that Cromwell once ruled England. There is no getting into direct +contact with natural fact by this road; there is no dispensing with +authority, but rather a resting upon it.</P> + +<P>In all these respects, science differs from other educational +discipline, and prepares the scholar for common life. What have we to +do in every-day life? Most of the business which demands our attention +is matter of fact, which needs, in the first place, to be accurately +observed or apprehended; in the second, to be interpreted by inductive +and deductive reasonings, which are altogether similar in their nature +to those employed in science. In the one case, as in the other, +whatever is taken for granted is so taken at one's own peril; fact and +reason are the ultimate arbiters, and patience and honesty are the +great helpers out of difficulty.</P> + +<P>But if scientific training is to yield its most eminent results, it +must, I repeat, be made practical. That is to say, in explaining to a +child the general phaenomena of Nature, you must, as far as possible, +give reality to your teaching by object-lessons; in teaching him +botany, he must handle the plants and dissect the flowers for himself; +in teaching him physics and chemistry, you must not be solicitous to +fill him with information, but you must be careful that what he learns +he knows of his own knowledge. Don't be satisfied with telling him that +a magnet attracts iron. Let him see that it does; let him feel the pull +of the one upon the other for himself. And, especially, tell him that +it is his duty to doubt until he is compelled, by the absolute +authority of Nature, to believe that which is written in books. Pursue +this discipline carefully and conscientiously, and you may make sure +that, however scanty may be the measure of information which you have +poured into the boy's mind, you have created an intellectual habit of +priceless value in practical life.</P> + +<P>One is constantly asked, When should this scientific education be +commenced? I should say with the dawn of intelligence. As I have +already said, a child seeks for information about matters of physical +science as soon as it begins to talk. The first teaching it wants is an +object-lesson of one sort or another; and as soon as it is fit for +systematic instruction of any kind, it is fit for a modicum of science.</P> + +<P>People talk of the difficulty of teaching young children such matters, +and in the same breath insist upon their learning their Catechism, +which contains propositions far harder to comprehend than anything in +the educational course I have proposed. Again: I am incessantly told +that we, who advocate the introduction of science in schools, make no +allowance for the stupidity of the average boy or girl; but, in my +belief, that stupidity, in nine cases out of ten, "<i>fit, non nascitur +</i>," and is developed by a long process of parental and pedagogic +repression of the natural intellectual appetites, accompanied by a +persistent attempt to create artificial ones for food which is not only +tasteless, but essentially indigestible.</P> + +<P>Those who urge the difficulty of instructing young people in +science are apt to forget another very important condition of +success--important in all kinds of teaching, but most essential, I am +disposed to think, when the scholars are very young. This condition is, +that the teacher should himself really and practically know his +subject. If he does, he will be able to speak of it in the easy +language, and with the completeness of conviction, with which he talks +of any ordinary every-day matter. If he does not, he will be afraid to +wander beyond the limits of the technical phraseology which he has got +up; and a dead dogmatism, which oppresses, or raises opposition, will +take the place of the lively confidence, born of personal conviction, +which cheers and encourages the eminently sympathetic mind of +childhood.</P> + +<P>I have already hinted that such scientific training as we seek for may +be given without making any extravagant claim upon the time now devoted +to education. We ask only for "a most favoured nation" clause in our +treaty with the schoolmaster; we demand no more than that science shall +have as much time given to it as any other single subject--say four +hours a week in each class of an ordinary school.</P> + +<P>For the present, I think men of science would be well content with such +an arrangement as this: but speaking for myself, I do not pretend to +believe that such an arrangement can be, or will be, permanent. In +these times the educational tree seems to me to have its roots in the +air, its leaves and flowers in the ground; and, I confess, I should +very much like to turn it upside down, so that its roots might be +solidly embedded among the facts of Nature, and draw thence a sound +nutriment for the foliage and fruit of literature and of art. No +educational system can have a claim to permanence, unless it recognises +the truth that education has two great ends to which everything else +must be subordinated. The one of these is to increase knowledge; the +other is to develop the love of right and the hatred of wrong.</P> + +<P>With wisdom and uprightness a nation can make its way worthily, and +beauty will follow in the footsteps of the two, even if she be not +specially invited; while there is perhaps no sight in the whole world +more saddening and revolting than is offered by men sunk in ignorance +of everything but what other men have written; seemingly devoid of +moral belief or guidance; but with the sense of beauty so keen, and the +power of expression so cultivated, that their sensual caterwauling may +be almost mistaken for the music of the spheres.</P> + +<P>At present, education is almost entirely devoted to the cultivation of +the power of expression, and of the sense of literary beauty. The +matter of having anything to say, beyond a hash of other people's +opinions, or of possessing any criterion of beauty, so that we may +distinguish between the Godlike and the devilish, is left aside as of +no moment. I think I do not err in saying that if science were made a +foundation of education, instead of being, at most, stuck on as cornice +to the edifice, this state of things could not exist.</P> + +<P>In advocating the introduction of physical science as a leading element +in education, I by no means refer only to the higher schools. On the +contrary, I believe that such a change is even more imperatively called +for in those primary schools, in which the children of the poor are +expected to turn to the best account the little time they can devote to +the acquisition of knowledge. A great step in this direction has +already been made by the establishment of science-classes under the +Department of Science and Art,--a measure which came into existence +unnoticed, but which will, I believe, turn out to be of more importance +to the welfare of the people than many political changes over which the +noise of battle has rent the air.</P> + +<P>Under the regulations to which I refer, a schoolmaster can set up a +class in one or more branches of science; his pupils will be examined, +and the State will pay him, at a certain rate, for all who succeed in +passing. I have acted as an examiner under this system from the +beginning of its establishment, and this year I expect to have not +fewer than a couple of thousand sets of answers to questions in +Physiology, mainly from young people of the artisan class, who have +been taught in the schools which are now scattered all over great +Britain and Ireland. Some of my colleagues, who have to deal with +subjects such as Geometry, for which the present teaching power is +better organised, I understand are likely to have three or four times +as many papers. So far as my own subjects are concerned, I can +undertake to say that a great deal of the teaching, the results of +which are before me in these examinations, is very sound and good; and +I think it is in the power of the examiners, not only to keep up the +present standard, but to cause an almost unlimited improvement. Now +what does this mean? It means that by holding out a very moderate +inducement, the masters of primary schools in many parts of the country +have been led to convert them into little foci of scientific +instruction; and that they and their pupils have contrived to find, or +to make, time enough to carry out this object with a very considerable +degree of efficiency. That efficiency will, I doubt not, be very much +increased as the system becomes known and perfected, even with the very +limited leisure left to masters and teachers on week-days. And this +leads me to ask, Why should scientific teaching be limited to +week-days?</P> + +<P>Ecclesiastically-minded persons are in the habit of calling things they +do not like by very hard names, and I should not wonder if they brand +the proposition I am about to make as blasphemous, and worse. But, not +minding this, I venture to ask, Would there really be anything wrong in +using part of Sunday for the purpose of instructing those who have no +other leisure, in a knowledge of the phaenomena of Nature, and of man's +relation to Nature?</P> + +<P>I should like to see a scientific Sunday-school in every parish, not +for the purpose of superseding any existing means of teaching the +people the things that are for their good, but side by side with them. +I cannot but think that there is room for all of us to work in helping +to bridge over the great abyss of ignorance which lies at our feet.</P> + +<P>And if any of the ecclesiastical persons to whom I have referred, +object that they find it derogatory to the honour of the God whom they +worship, to awaken the minds of the young to the infinite wonder and +majesty of the works which they proclaim His, and to teach them those +laws which must needs be His laws, and therefore of all things needful +for man to know--I can only recommend them to be let blood and put on +low diet. There must be something very wrong going on in the instrument +of logic if it turns out such conclusions from such premises.</P> + +<br><hr><br> + +<P><b>Footnotes</b></P> +<ol> +<li><a name="V1">Mr.</a> Quam's words (<i>Medical Times and Gazette</i>, February 20) +are:--"A few words as to our special Medical course of instruction +and the influence upon it of such changes in the elementary schools as +I have mentioned. The student now enters at once upon several +sciences--physics, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, botany, pharmacy, +therapeutics--all these, the facts and the language and the laws of +each, to be mastered in eighteen months. Up to the beginning of the +Medical course many have learned little. We cannot claim anything +better than the Examiner of the University of London and the Cambridge +Lecturer have reported for their Universities. Supposing that at school +young people had acquired some exact elementary knowledge in physics, +chemistry, and a branch of natural history--say botany--with the +physiology connected with it, they would then have gained necessary +knowledge, with some practice in inductive reasoning. The whole studies +are processes of observation and induction--the best discipline of the +mind for the purposes of life--for our purposes not less than any. 'By +such study (says Dr. Whewell) of one or more departments of inductive +science the mind may escape from the thraldom of mere words.' By that +plan the burden of the early Medical course would be much lightened, +and more time devoted to practical studies, including Sir Thomas +Watson's 'final and supreme stage' of the knowledge of Medicine."</li> +</ol> +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="VI">VI</a></P> + +<h4>SCIENCE AND CULTURE</h4> + +<P>[1880]</P> + +<P>Six years ago, as some of my present hearers may remember, I had the +privilege of addressing a large assemblage of the inhabitants of this +city, who had gathered together to do honour to the memory of their +famous townsman, Joseph Priestley; [<a href="#VI1">1</a>] and, if any satisfaction +attaches to posthumous glory, we may hope that the manes of the +burnt-out philosopher were then finally appeased.</P> + +<P>No man, however, who is endowed with a fair share of common sense, and +not more than a fair share of vanity, will identify either contemporary +or posthumous fame with the highest good; and Priestley's life leaves +no doubt that he, at any rate, set a much higher value upon the +advancement of knowledge, and the promotion of that freedom of thought +which is at once the cause and the consequence of intellectual +progress.</P> + +<P>Hence I am disposed to think that, if Priestley could be amongst us +to-day, the occasion of our meeting would afford him even greater +pleasure than the proceedings which celebrated the centenary of his +chief discovery. The kindly heart would be moved, the high sense of +social duty would be satisfied, by the spectacle of well-earned wealth, +neither squandered in tawdry luxury and vainglorious show, nor +scattered with the careless charity which blesses neither him that +gives nor him that takes, but expended in the execution of a +well-considered plan for the aid of present and future generations of +those who are willing to help themselves.</P> + +<P>We shall all be of one mind thus far. But it is needful to share +Priestley's keen interest in physical science; and to have learned, as +he had learned, the value of scientific training in fields of inquiry +apparently far remote from physical science; in order to appreciate, as +he would have appreciated, the value of the noble gift which Sir Josiah +Mason has bestowed upon the inhabitants of the Midland district.</P> + +<P>For us children of the nineteenth century, however, the establishment +of a college under the conditions of Sir Josiah Mason's Trust, has a +significance apart from any which it could have possessed a hundred +years ago. It appears to be an indication that we are reaching the +crisis of the battle, or rather of the long series of battles, which +have been fought over education in a campaign which began long before +Priestley's time, and will probably not be finished just yet.</P> + +<P>In the last century, the combatants were the champions of ancient +literature on the one side, and those of modern literature on the +other; but, some thirty years [<a href="#VI2">2</a>] ago, the contest became complicated +by the appearance of a third army, ranged round the banner of Physical +Science.</P> + +<P>I am not aware that any one has authority to speak in the name of this +new host. For it must be admitted to be somewhat of a guerilla force, +composed largely of irregulars, each of whom fights pretty much for his +own hand. But the impressions of a full private, who has seen a good +deal of service in the ranks, respecting the present position of +affairs and the conditions of a permanent peace, may not be devoid of +interest; and I do not know that I could make a better use of the +present opportunity than by laying them before you.</P> + +<P> * * * * *</P> + +<P>From the time that the first suggestion to introduce physical science +into ordinary education was timidly whispered, until now, the advocates +of scientific education have met with opposition of two kinds. On the +one hand, they have been pooh-poohed by the men of business who pride +themselves on being the representatives of practicality; while, on the +other hand, they have been excommunicated by the classical scholars, in +their capacity of Levites in charge of the ark of culture and +monopolists of liberal education.</P> + +<P>The practical men believed that the idol whom they worship--rule of +thumb--has been the source of the past prosperity, and will suffice for +the future welfare of the arts and manufactures. They were of opinion +that science is speculative rubbish; that theory and practice have +nothing to do with one another; and that the scientific habit of mind +is an impediment, rather than an aid, in the conduct of ordinary +affairs.</P> + +<P>I have used the past tense in speaking of the practical men--for +although they were very formidable thirty years ago, I am not sure that +the pure species has not been extirpated. In fact, so far as mere +argument goes, they have been subjected to such a <i>feu d'enfer</i> +that it is a miracle if any have escaped. But I have remarked that your +typical practical man has an unexpected resemblance to one of Milton's +angels. His spiritual wounds, such as are inflicted by logical weapons, +may be as deep as a well and as wide as a church door, but beyond +shedding a few drops of ichor, celestial or otherwise, he is no whit +the worse. So, if any of these opponents be left, I will not waste time +in vain repetition of the demonstrative evidence of the practical value +of science; but knowing that a parable will sometimes penetrate where +syllogisms fail to effect an entrance, I will offer a story for their +consideration.</P> + +<P>Once upon a time, a boy, with nothing to depend upon but his own +vigorous nature, was thrown into the thick of the struggle for +existence in the midst of a great manufacturing population. He seems to +have had a hard fight, inasmuch as, by the time he was thirty years of +age, his total disposable funds amounted to twenty pounds. +Nevertheless, middle life found him giving proof of his comprehension +of the practical problems he had been roughly called upon to solve, by +a career of remarkable prosperity.</P> + +<P>Finally, having reached old age with its well-earned surroundings of +"honour, troops of friends," the hero of my story bethought himself of +those who were making a like start in life, and how he could stretch +out a helping hand to them.</P> + +<P>After long and anxious reflection this successful practical man of +business could devise nothing better than to provide them with the +means of obtaining "sound, extensive, and practical scientific +knowledge." And he devoted a large part of his wealth and five years of +incessant work to this end.</P> + +<P>I need not point the moral of a tale which, as the solid and spacious +fabric of the Scientific College assures us, is no fable, nor can +anything which I could say intensify the force of this practical answer +to practical objections.</P> + +<P> * * * * *</P> + +<P>We may take it for granted then, that, in the opinion of those best +qualified to judge, the diffusion of thorough scientific education is +an absolutely essential condition of industrial progress; and that the +College which has been opened to-day will confer an inestimable boon +upon those whose livelihood is to be gained by the practise of the arts +and manufactures of the district.</P> + +<P>The only question worth discussion is, whether the conditions, under +which the work of the College is to be carried out, are such as to give +it the best possible chance of achieving permanent success.</P> + +<P>Sir Josiah Mason, without doubt most wisely, has left very large +freedom of action to the trustees, to whom he proposes ultimately to +commit the administration of the College, so that they may be able to +adjust its arrangements in accordance with the changing conditions of +the future. But, with respect to three points, he has laid most +explicit injunctions upon both administrators and teachers.</P> + +<P>Party politics are forbidden to enter into the minds of either, so far +as the work of the College is concerned; theology is as stonily +banished from its precincts; and finally, it is especially declared +that the College shall make no provision for "mere literary instruction +and education."</P> + +<P>It does not concern me at present to dwell upon the first two +injunctions any longer than may be needful to express my full +conviction of their wisdom. But the third prohibition brings us face to +face with those other opponents of scientific education, who are by no +means in the moribund condition of the practical man, but alive, alert, +and formidable.</P> + +<P>It is not impossible that we shall hear this express exclusion of +"literary instruction and education" from a College which, +nevertheless, professes to give a high and efficient education, sharply +criticised. Certainly the time was that the Levites of culture would +have sounded their trumpets against its walls as against an educational +Jericho.</P> + +<P>How often have we not been told that the study of physical science is +incompetent to confer culture; that it touches none of the higher +problems of life; and, what is worse, that the continual devotion to +scientific studies tends to generate a narrow and bigoted belief in the +applicability of scientific methods to the search after truth of all +kinds? How frequently one has reason to observe that no reply to a +troublesome argument tells so well as calling its author a "mere +scientific specialist." And, as I am afraid it is not permissible to +speak of this form of opposition to scientific education in the past +tense; may we not expect to be told that this, not only omission, but +prohibition, of "mere literary instruction and education" is a patent +example of scientific narrow-mindedness?</P> + +<P>I am not acquainted with Sir Josiah Mason's reasons for the action +which he has taken; but if, as I apprehend is the case, he refers to +the ordinary classical course of our schools and universities by the +name of "mere literary instruction and education," I venture to offer +sundry reasons of my own in support of that action.</P> + +<P>For I hold very strongly by two convictions--The first is, that neither +the discipline nor the subject-matter of classical education is of such +direct value to the student of physical science as to justify the +expenditure of valuable time upon either; and the second is, that for +the purpose of attaining real culture, an exclusively scientific +education is at least as effectual as an exclusively literary +education.</P> + +<P>I need hardly point out to you that these opinions, especially the +latter, are diametrically opposed to those of the great majority of +educated Englishmen, influenced as they are by school and university +traditions. In their belief, culture is obtainable only by a liberal +education; and a liberal education is synonymous, not merely with +education and instruction in literature, but in one particular form of +literature, namely, that of Greek and Roman antiquity. They hold that +the man who has learned Latin and Greek, however little, is educated; +while he who is versed in other branches of knowledge, however deeply, +is a more or less respectable specialist, not admissible into the +cultured caste. The stamp of the educated man, the University degree, +is not for him.</P> + +<P>I am too well acquainted with the generous catholicity of spirit, the +true sympathy with scientific thought, which pervades the writings of +our chief apostle of culture to identify him with these opinions; and +yet one may cull from one and another of those epistles to the +Philistines, which so much delight all who do not answer to that name, +sentences which lend them some support.</P> + +<P>Mr. Arnold tells us that the meaning of culture is "to know the best +that has been thought and said in the world." It is the criticism of +life contained in literature. That criticism regards "Europe as being, +for intellectual and spiritual purposes, one great confederation, bound +to a joint action and working to a common result; and whose members +have, for their common outfit, a knowledge of Greek, Roman, and Eastern +antiquity, and of one another. Special, local, and temporary advantages +being put out of account, that modern nation will in the intellectual +and spiritual sphere make most progress, which most thoroughly carries +out this programme. And what is that but saying that we too, all of us, +as individuals, the more thoroughly we carry it out, shall make the +more progress?" [<a href="#VI3">3</a>]</P> + +<P>We have here to deal with two distinct propositions. The first, that a +criticism of life is the essence of culture; the second, that +literature contains the materials which suffice for the construction of +such a criticism.</P> + +<P>I think that we must all assent to the first proposition. For culture +certainly means something quite different from learning or technical +skill. It implies the possession of an ideal, and the habit of +critically estimating the value of things by comparison with a +theoretic standard. Perfect culture should supply a complete theory of +life, based upon a clear knowledge alike of its possibilities and of +its limitations.</P> + +<P>But we may agree to all this, and yet strongly dissent from the +assumption that literature alone is competent to supply this knowledge. +After having learnt all that Greek, Roman, and Eastern antiquity have +thought and said, and all that modern literatures have to tell us, it +is not self-evident that we have laid a sufficiently broad and deep +foundation for that criticism of life, which constitutes culture.</P> + +<P>Indeed, to any one acquainted with the scope of physical science, it is +not at all evident. Considering progress only in the "intellectual and +spiritual sphere," I find myself wholly unable to admit that either +nations or individuals will really advance, if their common outfit +draws nothing from the stores of physical science. I should say that an +army, without weapons of precision and with no particular base of +operations, might more hopefully enter upon a campaign on the Rhine, +than a man, devoid of a knowledge of what physical science has done in +the last century, upon a criticism of life.</P> + +<P> * * * * *</P> + +<P>When a biologist meets with an anomaly, he instinctively turns to the +study of development to clear it up. The rationale of contradictory +opinions may with equal confidence be sought in history.</P> + +<P>It is, happily, no new thing that Englishmen should employ their wealth +in building and endowing institutions for educational purposes. But, +five or six hundred years ago, deeds of foundation expressed or implied +conditions as nearly as possible contrary to those which have been +thought expedient by Sir Josiah Mason. That is to say, physical science +was practically ignored, while a certain literary training was enjoined +as a means to the acquirement of knowledge which was essentially +theological.</P> + +<P>The reason of this singular contradiction between the actions of men +alike animated by a strong and disinterested desire to promote the +welfare of their fellows, is easily discovered.</P> + +<P>At that time, in fact, if any one desired knowledge beyond such as +could be obtained by his own observation, or by common conversation, +his first necessity was to learn the Latin language, inasmuch as all +the higher knowledge of the western world was contained in works +written in that language. Hence, Latin grammar, with logic and +rhetoric, studied through Latin, were the fundamentals of education. +With respect to the substance of the knowledge imparted through this +channel, the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, as interpreted and +supplemented by the Romish Church, were held to contain a complete and +infallibly true body of information.</P> + +<P>Theological dicta were, to the thinkers of those days, that which the +axioms and definitions of Euclid are to the geometers of these. The +business of the philosophers of the middle ages was to deduce from the +data furnished by the theologians, conclusions in accordance with +ecclesiastical decrees. They were allowed the high privilege of +showing, by logical process, how and why that which the Church said was +true, must be true. And if their demonstrations fell short of or +exceeded this limit, the Church was maternally ready to check their +aberrations; if need were by the help of the secular arm.</P> + +<P>Between the two, our ancestors were furnished with a compact and +complete criticism of life. They were told how the world began and how +it would end; they learned that all material existence was but a base +and insignificant blot upon the fair face of the spiritual world, and +that nature was, to all intents and purposes, the play-ground of the +devil; they learned that the earth is the centre of the visible +universe, and that man is the cynosure of things terrestrial; and more +especially was it inculcated that the course of nature had no fixed +order, but that it could be, and constantly was, altered by the agency +of innumerable spiritual beings, good and bad, according as they were +moved by the deeds and prayers of men. The sum and substance of the +whole doctrine was to produce the conviction that the only thing really +worth knowing in this world was how to secure that place in a better +which, under certain conditions, the Church promised.</P> + +<P>Our ancestors had a living belief in this theory of life, and acted +upon it in their dealings with education, as in all other matters. +Culture meant saintliness--after the fashion of the saints of those +days; the education that led to it was, of necessity, theological; and +the way to theology lay through Latin.</P> + +<P>That the study of nature--further than was requisite for the +satisfaction of everyday wants--should have any bearing on human life +was far from the thoughts of men thus trained. Indeed, as nature had +been cursed for man's sake, it was an obvious conclusion that those who +meddled with nature were likely to come into pretty close contact with +Satan. And, if any born scientific investigator followed his instincts, +he might safely reckon upon earning the reputation, and probably upon +suffering the fate, of a sorcerer.</P> + +<P>Had the western world been left to itself in Chinese isolation, there +is no saying how long this state of things might have endured. But, +happily, it was not left to itself. Even earlier than the thirteenth +century, the development of Moorish civilisation in Spain and the great +movement of the Crusades had introduced the leaven which, from that day +to this, has never ceased to work. At first, through the intermediation +of Arabic translations, afterwards by the study of the originals, the +western nations of Europe became acquainted with the writings of the +ancient philosophers and poets, and, in time, with the whole of the +vast literature of antiquity.</P> + +<P>Whatever there was of high intellectual aspiration or dominant capacity +in Italy, France, Germany, and England, spent itself for centuries in +taking possession of the rich inheritance left by the dead +civilisations of Greece and Rome. Marvellously aided by the invention +of printing, classical learning spread and flourished. Those who +possessed it prided themselves on having attained the highest culture +then within the reach of mankind.</P> + +<P>And justly. For, saving Dante on his solitary pinnacle, there was no +figure in modern literature at the time of the Renascence to compare +with the men of antiquity; there was no art to compete with their +sculpture; there was no physical science but that which Greece had +created. Above all, there was no other example of perfect intellectual +freedom--of the unhesitating acceptance of reason as the sole guide to +truth and the supreme arbiter of conduct.</P> + +<P>The new learning necessarily soon exerted a profound influence upon +education. The language of the monks and schoolmen seemed little better +than gibberish to scholars fresh from Virgil and Cicero, and the study +of Latin was placed upon a new foundation. Moreover, Latin itself +ceased to afford the sole key to knowledge. The student who sought the +highest thought of antiquity, found only a second-hand reflection of it +in Roman literature, and turned his face to the full light of the +Greeks. And after a battle, not altogether dissimilar to that which is +at present being fought over the teaching of physical science, the +study of Greek was recognised as an essential element of all higher +education.</P> + +<P>Thus the Humanists, as they were called, won the day; and the great +reform which they effected was of incalculable service to mankind. But +the Nemesis of all reformers is finality; and the reformers of +education, like those of religion, fell into the profound, however +common, error of mistaking the beginning for the end of the work of +reformation.</P> + +<P>The representatives of the Humanists, in the nineteenth century, take +their stand upon classical education as the sole avenue to culture, as +firmly us if we were still in the age of Renascence. Yet, surely, the +present intellectual relations of the modern and the ancient worlds are +profoundly different from those which obtained three centuries ago. +Leaving aside the existence of a great and characteristically modern +literature, of modern painting, and, especially, of modern music, there +is one feature of the present state of the civilised world which +separates it more widely from the Renascence, than the Renascence was +separated from the middle ages.</P> + +<P>This distinctive character of our own times lies in the vast and +constantly increasing part which is played by natural knowledge. Not +only is our daily life shaped by it, not only does the prosperity of +millions of men depend upon it, but our whole theory of life has long +been influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by the general +conceptions of the universe, which have been forced upon us by physical +science.</P> + +<P>In fact, the most elementary acquaintance with the results of +scientific investigation shows us that they offer a broad and striking +contradiction to the opinion so implicitly credited and taught in the +middle ages.</P> + +<P>The notions of the beginning and the end of the world entertained by +our forefathers are no longer credible. It is very certain that the +earth is not the chief body in the material universe, and that the +world is not subordinated to man's use. It is even more certain that +nature is the expression of a definite order with which nothing +interferes, and that the chief business of mankind is to learn that +order and govern themselves accordingly. Moreover this scientific +"criticism of life" presents itself to us with different credentials +from any other. It appeals not to authority, nor to what anybody may +have thought or said, but to nature. It admits that all our +interpretations of natural fact are more or less imperfect and +symbolic, and bids the learner seek for truth not among words but among +things. It warns us that the assertion which outstrips evidence is not +only a blunder but a crime.</P> + +<P>The purely classical education advocated by the representatives of the +Humanists in our day, gives no inkling of all this. A man may be a +better scholar than Erasmus, and know no more of the chief causes of +the present intellectual fermentation than Erasmus did. Scholarly and +pious persons, worthy of all respect, favour us with allocutions upon +the sadness of the antagonism of science to their mediaeval way of +thinking, which betray an ignorance of the first principles of +scientific investigation, an incapacity for understanding what a man of +science means by veracity, and an unconsciousness of the weight of +established scientific truths, which is almost comical.</P> + +<P>There is no great force in the <i>tu quoque</i> argument, or else the +advocates of scientific education might fairly enough retort upon the +modern Humanists that they may be learned specialists, but that they +possess no such sound foundation for a criticism of life as deserves +the name of culture. And, indeed, if we were disposed to be cruel, we +might urge that the Humanists have brought this reproach upon +themselves, not because they are too full of the spirit of the ancient +Greek, but because they lack it.</P> + +<P>The period of the Renascence is commonly called that of the "Revival of +Letters," as if the influences then brought to bear upon the mind of +Western Europe had been wholly exhausted in the field of literature. I +think it is very commonly forgotten that the revival of science, +effected by the same agency, although less conspicuous, was not less +momentous.</P> + +<P>In fact, the few and scattered students of nature of that day picked up +the clue to her secrets exactly as it fell from the hands of the Greeks +a thousand years before. The foundations of mathematics were so well +laid by them, that our children learn their geometry from a book +written for the schools of Alexandria two thousand years ago. Modern +astronomy is the natural continuation and development of the work of +Hipparchus and of Ptolemy; modern physics of that of Democritus and of +Archimedes; it was long before modern biological science outgrew the +knowledge bequeathed to us by Aristotle, by Theophrastus, and by Galen.</P> + +<P>We cannot know all the best thoughts and sayings of the Greeks unless +we know what they thought about natural phaenomena. We cannot fully +apprehend their criticism of life unless we understand the extent to +which that criticism was affected by scientific conceptions. We falsely +pretend to be the inheritors of their culture, unless we are +penetrated, as the best minds among them were, with an unhesitating +faith that the free employment of reason, in accordance with scientific +method, is the sole method of reaching truth.</P> + +<P>Thus I venture to think that the pretensions of our modern Humanists to +the possession of the monopoly of culture and to the exclusive +inheritance of the spirit of antiquity must be abated, if not +abandoned. But I should be very sorry that anything I have said should +be taken to imply a desire on my part to depreciate the value of +classical education, as it might be and as it sometimes is. The native +capacities of mankind vary no less than their opportunities; and while +culture is one, the road by which one man may best reach it is widely +different from that which is most advantageous to another. Again, while +scientific education is yet inchoate and tentative, classical education +is thoroughly well organised upon the practical experience of +generations of teachers. So that, given ample time for learning and +destination for ordinary life, or for a literary career, I do not think +that a young Englishman in search of culture can do better than follow +the course usually marked out for him, supplementing its deficiencies +by his own efforts.</P> + +<P>But for those who mean to make science their serious occupation; or who +intend to follow the profession of medicine; or who have to enter early +upon the business of life; for all these, in my opinion, classical +education is a mistake; and it is for this reason that I am glad to see +"mere literary education and instruction" shut out from the curriculum +of Sir Josiah Mason's College, seeing that its inclusion would probably +lead to the introduction of the ordinary smattering of Latin and Greek.</P> + +<P>Nevertheless, I am the last person to question the importance of +genuine literary education, or to suppose that intellectual culture can +be complete without it. An exclusively scientific training will bring +about a mental twist as surely as an exclusively literary training. The +value of the cargo does not compensate for a ship's being out of trim; +and I should be very sorry to think that the Scientific College would +turn out none but lop-sided men.</P> + +<P>There is no need, however, that such a catastrophe should happen. +Instruction in English, French, and German is provided, and thus the +three greatest literatures of the modern world are made accessible to +the student.</P> + +<P>French and German, and especially the latter language, are absolutely +indispensable to those who desire full knowledge in any department of +science. But even supposing that the knowledge of these languages +acquired is not more than sufficient for purely scientific purposes, +every Englishman has, in his native tongue, an almost perfect +instrument of literary expression; and, in his own literature, models +of every kind of literary excellence. If an Englishman cannot get +literary culture out of his Bible, his Shakespeare, his Milton, +neither, in my belief, will the profoundest study of Homer and +Sophocles, Virgil and Horace, give it to him.</P> + +<P>Thus, since the constitution of the College makes sufficient provision +for literary as well as for scientific education, and since artistic +instruction is also contemplated, it seems to me that a fairly complete +culture is offered to all who are willing to take advantage of it.</P> + +<P>But I am not sure that at this point the "practical" man, scotched but +not slain, may ask what all this talk about culture has to do with an +Institution, the object of which is defined to be "to promote the +prosperity of the manufactures and the industry of the country." He may +suggest that what is wanted for this end is not culture, nor even a +purely scientific discipline, but simply a knowledge of applied +science.</P> + +<P>I often wish that this phrase, "applied science," had never been +invented. For it suggests that there is a sort of scientific knowledge +of direct practical use, which can be studied apart from another sort +of scientific knowledge, which is of no practical utility, and which is +termed "pure science." But there is no more complete fallacy than this. +What people call applied science is nothing but the application of pure +science to particular classes of problems. It consists of deductions +from those general principles, established by reasoning and +observation, which constitute pure science. No one can safely make +these deductions until he has a firm grasp of the principles; and he +can obtain that grasp only by personal experience of the operations of +observation and of reasoning on which they are founded.</P> + +<P>Almost all the processes employed in the arts and manufactures fall +within the range either of physics or of chemistry. In order to improve +them, one must thoroughly understand them; and no one has a chance of +really understanding them, unless he has obtained that mastery of +principles and that habit of dealing with facts, which is given by +long-continued and well-directed purely scientific training in the +physical and the chemical laboratory. So that there really is no +question as to the necessity of purely scientific discipline, even if +the work of the College were limited by the narrowest interpretation of +its stated aims.</P> + +<P>And, as to the desirableness of a wider culture than that yielded by +science alone, it is to be recollected that the improvement of +manufacturing processes is only one of the conditions which contribute +to the prosperity of industry. Industry is a means and not an end; and +mankind work only to get something which they want. What that something +is depends partly on their innate, and partly on their acquired, +desires.</P> + +<P>If the wealth resulting from prosperous industry is to be spent upon +the gratification of unworthy desires, if the increasing perfection of +manufacturing processes is to be accompanied by an increasing +debasement of those who carry them on, I do not see the good of +industry and prosperity.</P> + +<P>Now it is perfectly true that men's views of what is desirable depend +upon their characters; and that the innate proclivities to which we +give that name are not touched by any amount of instruction. But it +does not follow that even mere intellectual education may not, to an +indefinite extent, modify the practical manifestation of the characters +of men in their actions, by supplying them with motives unknown to the +ignorant. A pleasure-loving character will have pleasure of some sort; +but, if you give him the choice, he may prefer pleasures which do not +degrade him to those which do. And this choice is offered to every man, +who possesses in literary or artistic culture a never-failing source of +pleasures, which are neither withered by age, nor staled by custom, nor +embittered in the recollection by the pangs of self-reproach.</P> + +<P>If the Institution opened to-day fulfils the intention of its founder, +the picked intelligences among all classes of the population of this +district will pass through it. No child born in Birmingham, +henceforward, if he have the capacity to profit by the opportunities +offered to him, first in the primary and other schools, and afterwards +in the Scientific College, need fail to obtain, not merely the +instruction, but the culture most appropriate to the conditions of his +life.</P> + +<P>Within these walls, the future employer and the future artisan may +sojourn together for a while, and carry, through all their lives, the +stamp of the influences then brought to bear upon them. Hence, it is +not beside the mark to remind you, that the prosperity of industry +depends not merely upon the improvement of manufacturing processes, not +merely upon the ennobling of the individual character, but upon a third +condition, namely, a clear understanding of the conditions of social +life, on the part of both the capitalist and the operative, and their +agreement upon common principles of social action. They must learn that +social phaenomena are as much the expression of natural laws as any +others; that no social arrangements can be permanent unless they +harmonise with the requirements of social statics and dynamics; and +that, in the nature of things, there is an arbiter whose decisions +execute themselves.</P> + +<P>But this knowledge is only to be obtained by the application of the +methods of investigation adopted in physical researches to the +investigation of the phaenomena of society. Hence, I confess, I should +like to see one addition made to the excellent scheme of education +propounded for the College, in the shape of provision for the teaching +of Sociology. For though we are all agreed that party politics are to +have no place in the instruction of the College; yet in this country, +practically governed as it is now by universal suffrage, every man who +does his duty must exercise political functions. And, if the evils +which are inseparable from the good of political liberty are to be +checked, if the perpetual oscillation of nations between anarchy and +despotism is to be replaced by the steady march of self-restraining +freedom; it will be because men will gradually bring themselves to deal +with political, as they now deal with scientific questions; to be as +ashamed of undue haste and partisan prejudice in the one case as in the +other; and to believe that the machinery of society is at least as +delicate as that of a spinning-jenny, and as little likely to be +improved by the meddling of those who have not taken the trouble to +master the principles of its action.</P> + +<P>In conclusion, I am sure that I make myself the mouthpiece of all +present in offering to the venerable founder of the Institution, which +now commences its beneficent career, our congratulations on the +completion of his work; and in expressing the conviction, that the +remotest posterity will point to it as a crucial instance of the wisdom +which natural piety leads all men to ascribe to their ancestors.</P> + +<br><hr><br> + +<P><b>Footnotes</b></P> +<ol> +<li><a name="VI1">See</a> the first essay in this volume.</li> +<li><a name="VI2">The</a> advocacy of the introduction of physical science into general +education by George Combe and others commenced a good deal earlier; but +the movement had acquired hardly any practical force before the time to +which I refer.</li> +<li><a name="VI3"><i>Essays</i></a> <i>in Criticism</i>, p. 37.</li> +</ol> +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="VII">VII</a></P> + +<h4>ON SCIENCE AND ART IN RELATION TO EDUCATION</h4> + +<P>[1882]</P> + +<P>When a man is honoured by such a request as that which reached me from +the authorities of your institution some time ago, I think the first +thing that occurs to him is that which occurred to those who were +bidden to the feast in the Gospel--to begin to make an excuse; and +probably all the excuses suggested on that famous occasion crop up in +his mind one after the other, including his "having married a wife," as +reasons for not doing what he is asked to do. But, in my own case, and +on this particular occasion, there were other difficulties of a sort +peculiar to the time, and more or less personal to myself; because I +felt that, if I came amongst you, I should be expected, and, indeed, +morally compelled, to speak upon the subject of Scientific Education. +And then there arose in my mind the recollection of a fact, which +probably no one here but myself remembers; namely, that some fourteen +years ago I was the guest of a citizen of yours, who bears the honoured +name of Rathbone, at a very charming and pleasant dinner given by the +Philomathic Society; and I there and then, and in this very city, made +a speech upon the topic of Scientific Education. Under these +circumstances, you see, one runs two dangers--the first, of repeating +one's self, although I may fairly hope that everybody has forgotten the +fact I have just now mentioned, except myself; and the second, and even +greater difficulty, is the danger of saying something different from +what one said before, because then, however forgotten your previous +speech may be, somebody finds out its existence, and there goes on that +process so hateful to members of Parliament, which may be denoted by +the term "Hansardisation." Under these circumstances, I came to the +conclusion that the best thing I could do was to take the bull by the +horns, and to "Hansardise" myself,--to put before you, in the briefest +possible way, the three or four propositions which I endeavoured to +support on the occasion of the speech to which I have referred; and +then to ask myself, supposing you were asking me, whether I had +anything to retract, or to modify, in them, in virtue of the increased +experience, and, let us charitably hope, the increased wisdom of an +added fourteen years.</P> + +<P>Now, the points to which I directed particular attention on that +occasion were these: in the first place, that instruction in physical +science supplies information of a character of especial value, both in +a practical and a speculative point of view--information which cannot +be obtained otherwise; and, in the second place, that, as educational +discipline, it supplies, in a better form than any other study can +supply, exercise in a special form of logic, and a peculiar method of +testing the validity of our processes of inquiry. I said further, that, +even at that time, a great and increasing attention was being paid to +physical science in our schools and colleges, and that, most assuredly, +such attention must go on growing and increasing, until education in +these matters occupied a very much larger share of the time which is +given to teaching and training, than had been the case heretofore. And +I threw all the strength of argumentation of which I was possessed into +the support of these propositions. But I venture to remind you, also, +of some other words I used at that time, and which I ask permission to +read to you. They were these:--"There are other forms of culture +besides physical science, and I should be profoundly sorry to see the +fact forgotten, or even to observe a tendency to starve or cripple +literary or aesthetic culture for the sake of science. Such a narrow +view of the nature of education has nothing to do with my firm +conclusion that a complete and thorough scientific culture ought to be +introduced into all schools."</P> + +<P>I say I desire, in commenting upon these various points, and judging +them as fairly as I can by the light of increased experience, to +particularly emphasise this last, because I am told, although I +assuredly do not know it of my own knowledge--though I think if the +fact were so I ought to know it, being tolerably well acquainted with +that which goes on in the scientific world, and which has gone on there +for the last thirty years--that there is a kind of sect, or horde, of +scientific Goths and Vandals, who think it would be proper and +desirable to sweep away all other forms of culture and instruction, +except those in physical science, and to make them the universal and +exclusive, or, at any rate, the dominant training of the human mind of +the future generation. This is not my view--I do not believe that it is +anybody's view,--but it is attributed to those who, like myself, +advocate scientific education. I therefore dwell strongly upon the +point, and I beg you to believe that the words I have just now read +were by no means intended by me as a sop to the Cerberus of culture. I +have not been in the habit of offering sops to any kind of Cerberus; +but it was an expression of profound conviction on my own part--a +conviction forced upon me not only by my mental constitution, but by +the lessons of what is now becoming a somewhat long experience of +varied conditions of life.</P> + +<P>I am not about to trouble you with my autobiography; the omens are +hardly favourable, at present, for work of that kind. But I should like +if I may do so without appearing, what I earnestly desire not to be, +egotistical,--I should like to make it clear to you, that such notions +as these, which are sometimes attributed to me, are, as I have said, +inconsistent with my mental constitution, and still more inconsistent +with the upshot of the teaching of my experience. For I can certainly +claim for myself that sort of mental temperament which can say that +nothing human comes amiss to it. I have never yet met with any branch +of human knowledge which I have found unattractive--which it would not +have been pleasant to me to follow, so far as I could go; and I have +yet to meet with any form of art in which it has not been possible for +me to take as acute a pleasure as, I believe, it is possible for men to +take.</P> + +<P>And with respect to the circumstances of life, it so happens that it +has been my fate to know many lands and many climates, and to be +familiar, by personal experience, with almost every form of society, +from the uncivilised savage of Papua and Australia and the civilised +savages of the slums and dens of the poverty-stricken parts of +great cities, to those who perhaps, are occasionally the somewhat +over-civilised members of our upper ten thousand. And I have never +found, in any of these conditions of life, a deficiency of something +which was attractive. Savagery has its pleasures, I assure you, as well +as civilisation, and I may even venture to confess--if you will not let +a whisper of the matter get back to London, where I am known--I am even +fain to confess, that sometimes in the din and throng of what is called +"a brilliant reception" the vision crosses my mind of waking up from +the soft plank which had afforded me satisfactory sleep during the +hours of the night, in the bright dawn of a tropical morning, when my +comrades were yet asleep, when every sound was hushed, except the +little lap-lap of the ripples against the sides of the boat, and the +distant twitter of the sea-bird on the reef. And when that vision +crosses my mind, I am free to confess I desire to be back in the boat +again. So that, if I share with those strange persons to whose +asserted, but still hypothetical existence I have referred, the want of +appreciation of forms of culture other than the pursuit of physical +science, all I can say is, that it is, in spite of my constitution, and +in spite of my experience, that such should be my fate.</P> + +<P>But now let me turn to another point, or rather to two other points, +with which I propose to occupy myself. How far does the experience of +the last fourteen years justify the estimate which I ventured to put +forward of the value of scientific culture, and of the share--the +increasing share--which it must take in ordinary education? Happily, in +respect to that matter, you need not rely upon my testimony. In the +last half-dozen numbers of the "Journal of Education," you will find a +series of very interesting and remarkable papers, by gentlemen who are +practically engaged in the business of education in our great public +and other schools, telling us what is doing in these schools, and what +is their experience of the results of scientific education there, so +far as it has gone. I am not going to trouble you with an abstract of +those papers, which are well worth your study in their fulness and +completeness, but I have copied out one remarkable passage, because it +seems to me so entirely to bear out what I have formerly ventured to +say about the value of science, both as to its subject-matter and as to +the discipline which the learning of science involves. It is from a +paper by Mr. Worthington--one of the masters at Clifton, the reputation +of which school you know well, and at the head of which is an old +friend of mine, the Rev. Mr. Wilson--to whom much credit is due for +being one of the first, as I can say from my own knowledge, to take up +this question and work it into practical shape. What Mr. Worthington +says is this:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"It is not easy to exaggerate the importance of the information +imparted by certain branches of science; it modifies the +whole criticism of life made in maturer years. The study has +often, on a mass of boys, a certain influence which, I think, was +hardly anticipated, and to which a good deal of value must be +attached--an influence as much moral as intellectual, which is +shown in the increased and increasing respect for precision of +statement, and for that form of veracity which consists in the +acknowledgment of difficulties. It produces a real effect to find +that Nature cannot be imposed upon, and the attention given +to experimental lectures, at first superficial and curious only, +soon becomes minute, serious, and practical."</P> +</blockquote> +<P>Ladies and gentlemen, I could not have chosen better words to +express--in fact, I have, in other words, expressed the same conviction +in former days--what the influence of scientific teaching, if properly +carried out, must be.</P> + +<P>But now comes the question of properly carrying it out, because, when I +hear the value of school teaching in physical science disputed, my +first impulse is to ask the disputer, "What have you known about it?" +and he generally tells me some lamentable case of failure. Then I ask, +"What are the circumstances of the case, and how was the teaching +carried out?" I remember, some few years ago, hearing of the head +master of a large school, who had expressed great dissatisfaction with +the adoption of the teaching of physical science--and that after +experiment. But the experiment consisted in this--in asking one of the +junior masters in the school to get up science, in order to teach it; +and the young gentleman went away for a year and got up science and +taught it. Well, I have no doubt that the result was as disappointing +as the head-master said it was, and I have no doubt that it ought to +have been as disappointing, and far more disappointing too; for, if +this kind of instruction is to be of any good at all, if it is not to +be less than no good, if it is to take the place of that which is +already of some good, then there are several points which must be +attended to.</P> + +<P>And the first of these is the proper selection of topics, the second is +practical teaching, the third is practical teachers, and the fourth is +sufficiency of time. If these four points are not carefully attended to +by anybody who undertakes the teaching of physical science in schools, +my advice to him is, to let it alone. I will not dwell at any length +upon the first point, because there is a general consensus of opinion +as to the nature of the topics which should be chosen. The second +point--practical teaching--is one of great importance, because it +requires more capital to set it agoing, demands more time, and, last, +but by no means least, it requires much more personal exertion and +trouble on the part of those professing to teach, than is the case with +other kinds of instruction.</P> + +<P>When I accepted the invitation to be here this evening, your secretary +was good enough to send me the addresses which have been given by +distinguished persons who have previously occupied this chair. I don't +know whether he had a malicious desire to alarm me; but, however that +may be, I read the addresses, and derived the greatest pleasure and +profit from some of them, and from none more than from the one given by +the great historian, Mr. Freeman, which delighted me most of all; and, +if I had not been ashamed of plagiarising, and if I had not been sure +of being found out, I should have been glad to have copied very much of +what Mr. Freeman said, simply putting in the word science for history. +There was one notable passage,--"The difference between good and bad +teaching mainly consists in this, whether the words used are really +clothed with a meaning or not." And Mr. Freeman gives a remarkable +example of this. He says, when a little girl was asked where Turkey +was, she answered that it was in the yard with the other fowls, and +that showed she had a definite idea connected with the word Turkey, and +was, so far, worthy of praise. I quite agree with that commendation; +but what a curious thing it is that one should now find it necessary to +urge that this is the be-all and end-all of scientific instruction--the +<i>sine quâ non</i>, the absolutely necessary condition,--and yet that +it was insisted upon more than two hundred years ago by one of the +greatest men science ever possessed in this country, William Harvey. +Harvey wrote, or at least published, only two small books, one of which +is the well-known treatise on the circulation of the blood. The other, +the "Exercitationes de Generatione," is less known, but not less +remarkable. And not the least valuable part of it is the preface, in +which there occurs this passage: "Those who, reading the words of +authors, do not form sensible images of the things referred to, obtain +no true ideas, but conceive false imaginations and inane phantasms." +You see, William Harvey's words are just the same in substance as those +of Mr. Freeman, only they happen to be rather more than two centuries +older. So that what I am now saying has its application elsewhere than +in science; but assuredly in science the condition of knowing, of your +own knowledge, things which you talk about, is absolutely imperative.</P> + +<P>I remember, in my youth, there were detestable books which ought to +have been burned by the hands of the common hangman, for they contained +questions and answers to be learned by heart, of this sort, "What is a +horse? The horse is termed <i>Equus caballus</i>; belongs to the class +Mammalia; order, Pachydermata; family, Solidungula." Was any human +being wiser for learning that magic formula? Was he not more foolish, +inasmuch as he was deluded into taking words for knowledge? It is that +kind of teaching that one wants to get rid of, and banished out of +science. Make it as little as you like, but, unless that which is +taught is based on actual observation and familiarity with facts, it is +better left alone.</P> + +<P>There are a great many people who imagine that elementary teaching +might be properly carried out by teachers provided with only elementary +knowledge. Let me assure you that that is the profoundest mistake in +the world. There is nothing so difficult to do as to write a good +elementary book, and there is nobody so hard to teach properly and well +as people who know nothing about a subject, and I will tell you why. If +I address an audience of persons who are occupied in the same line of +work as myself, I can assume that they know a vast deal, and that they +can find out the blunders I make. If they don't, it is their fault and +not mine; but when I appear before a body of people who know nothing +about the matter, who take for gospel whatever I say, surely it becomes +needful that I consider what I say, make sure that it will bear +examination, and that I do not impose upon the credulity of those who +have faith in me. In the second place, it involves that difficult +process of knowing what you know so well that you can talk about it as +you can talk about your ordinary business. A man can always talk about +his own business. He can always make it plain; but, if his knowledge is +hearsay, he is afraid to go beyond what he has recollected, and put it +before those that are ignorant in such a shape that they shall +comprehend it. That is why, to be a good elementary teacher, to teach +the elements of any subject, requires most careful consideration, if +you are a master of the subject; and, if you are not a master of it, it +is needful you should familiarise yourself with so much as you are +called upon to teach--soak yourself in it, so to speak--until you know +it as part of your daily life and daily knowledge, and then you will be +able to teach anybody. That is what I mean by practical teachers, and, +although the deficiency of such teachers is being remedied to a large +extent, I think it is one which has long existed, and which has existed +from no fault of those who undertook to teach, but because, until the +last score of years, it absolutely was not possible for any one in a +great many branches of science, whatever his desire might be, to get +instruction which would enable him to be a good teacher of elementary +things. All that is being rapidly altered, and I hope it will soon +become a thing of the past.</P> + +<P>The last point I have referred to is the question of the sufficiency of +time. And here comes the rub. The teaching of science needs time, as +any other subject; but it needs more time proportionally than other +subjects, for the amount of work obviously done, if the teaching is to +be, as I have said, practical. Work done in a laboratory involves a +good deal of expenditure of time without always an obvious result, +because we do not see anything of that quiet process of soaking the +facts into the mind, which takes place through the organs of the +senses. On this ground there must be ample time given to science +teaching. What that amount of time should be is a point which I need +not discuss now; in fact, it is a point which cannot be settled until +one has made up one's mind about various other questions.</P> + +<P>All, then, that I have to ask for, on behalf of the scientific people, +if I may venture to speak for more than myself, is that you should put +scientific teaching into what statesmen call the condition of "the most +favoured nation"; that is to say, that it shall have as large a share +of the time given to education as any other principal subject. You may +say that that is a very vague statement, because the value of the +allotment of time, under those circumstances, depends upon the number +of principal subjects. It is <i>x</i> the time, and an unknown quantity +of principal subjects dividing that, and science taking shares with the +rest. That shows that we cannot deal with this question fully until we +have made up our minds as to what the principal subjects of education +ought to be.</P> + +<P>I know quite well that launching myself into this discussion is a very +dangerous operation; that it is a very large subject, and one which is +difficult to deal with, however much I may trespass upon your patience +in the time allotted to me. But the discussion is so fundamental, it is +so completely impossible to make up one's mind on these matters until +one has settled the question, that I will even venture to make the +experiment. A great lawyer-statesman and philosopher of a former age--I +mean Francis Bacon--said that truth came out of error much more rapidly +than it came out of confusion. There is a wonderful truth in that +saying. Next to being right in this world, the best of all things is to +be clearly and definitely wrong, because you will come out somewhere. +If you go buzzing about between right and wrong, vibrating and +fluctuating, you come out nowhere; but if you are absolutely and +thoroughly and persistently wrong, you must, some of these days, have +the extreme good fortune of knocking your head against a fact, and that +sets you all straight again. So I will not trouble myself as to whether +I may be right or wrong in what I am about to say, but at any rate I +hope to be clear and definite; and then you will be able to judge for +yourselves whether, in following out the train of thought I have to +introduce, you knock your heads against facts or not.</P> + +<P>I take it that the whole object of education is, in the first place, to +train the faculties of the young in such a manner as to give their +possessors the best chance of being happy and useful in their +generation; and, in the second place, to furnish them with the most +important portions of that immense capitalised experience of the human +race which we call knowledge of various kinds. I am using the term +knowledge in its widest possible sense; and the question is, what +subjects to select by training and discipline, in which the object I +have just defined may be best attained.</P> + +<P>I must call your attention further to this fact, that all the subjects +of our thoughts--all feelings and propositions (leaving aside our +sensations as the mere materials and occasions of thinking and +feeling), all our mental furniture--may be classified under one of two +heads--as either within the province of the intellect, something that +can be put into propositions and affirmed or denied; or as within the +province of feeling, or that which, before the name was defiled, was +called the aesthetic side of our nature, and which can neither be +proved nor disproved, but only felt and known.</P> + +<P>According to the classification which I have put before you, then, the +subjects of all knowledge are divisible into the two groups, matters of +science and matters of art; for all things with which the reasoning +faculty alone is occupied, come under the province of science; and in +the broadest sense, and not in the narrow and technical sense in which +we are now accustomed to use the word art, all things feelable, all +things which stir our emotions, come under the term of art, in the +sense of the subject-matter of the aesthetic faculty. So that we are +shut up to this--that the business of education is, in the first place, +to provide the young with the means and the habit of observation; and, +secondly, to supply the subject-matter of knowledge either in the shape +of science or of art, or of both combined.</P> + +<P>Now, it is a very remarkable fact--but it is true of most things in +this world--that there is hardly anything one-sided, or of one nature; +and it is not immediately obvious what of the things that interest us +may be regarded as pure science, and what may be regarded as pure art. +It may be that there are some peculiarly constituted persons who, +before they have advanced far into the depths of geometry, find +artistic beauty about it; but, taking the generality of mankind, I +think it may be said that, when they begin to learn mathematics, their +whole souls are absorbed in tracing the connection between the +premisses and the conclusion, and that to them geometry is pure +science. So I think it may be said that mechanics and osteology are +pure science. On the other hand, melody in music is pure art. You +cannot reason about it; there is no proposition involved in it. So, +again, in the pictorial art, an arabesque, or a "harmony in grey," +touches none but the aesthetic faculty. But a great mathematician, and +even many persons who are not great mathematicians, will tell you that +they derive immense pleasure from geometrical reasonings. Everybody +knows mathematicians speak of solutions and problems as "elegant," and +they tell you that a certain mass of mystic symbols is "beautiful, +quite lovely." Well, you do not see it. They do see it, because the +intellectual process, the process of comprehending the reasons +symbolised by these figures and these signs, confers upon them a sort +of pleasure, such as an artist has in visual symmetry. Take a science +of which I may speak with more confidence, and which is the most +attractive of those I am concerned with. It is what we call morphology, +which consists in tracing out the unity in variety of the infinitely +diversified structures of animals and plants. I cannot give you any +example of a thorough aesthetic pleasure more intensely real than a +pleasure of this kind--the pleasure which arises in one's mind when a +whole mass of different structures run into one harmony as the +expression of a central law. That is where the province of art overlays +and embraces the province of intellect. And, if I may venture to +express an opinion on such a subject, the great majority of forms of +art are not in the sense what I just now defined them to be--pure art; +but they derive much of their quality from simultaneous and even +unconscious excitement of the intellect.</P> + +<P>When I was a boy, I was very fond of music, and I am so now; and it so +happened that I had the opportunity of hearing much good music. Among +other things, I had abundant opportunities of hearing that great old +master, Sebastian Bach. I remember perfectly well--though I knew +nothing about music then, and, I may add, know nothing whatever about +it now--the intense satisfaction and delight which I had in listening, +by the hour together, to Bach's fugues. It is a pleasure which remains +with me, I am glad to think; but, of late years, I have tried to find +out the why and wherefore, and it has often occurred to me that the +pleasure derived from musical compositions of this kind is essentially +of the same nature as that which is derived from pursuits which are +commonly regarded as purely intellectual. I mean, that the source +of pleasure is exactly the same as in most of my problems in +morphology--that you have the theme in one of the old master's works +followed out in all its endless variations, always appearing and always +reminding you of unity in variety. So in painting; what is called +"truth to nature" is the intellectual element coming in, and truth to +nature depends entirely upon the intellectual culture of the person to +whom art is addressed. If you are in Australia, you may get credit for +being a good artist--I mean among the natives--if you can draw a +kangaroo after a fashion. But, among men of higher civilisation, the +intellectual knowledge we possess brings its criticism into our +appreciation of works of art, and we are obliged to satisfy it, as well +as the mere sense of beauty in colour and in outline. And so, the +higher the culture and information of those whom art addresses, the +more exact and precise must be what we call its "truth to nature."</P> + +<P>If we turn to literature, the same thing is true, and you find works of +literature which may be said to be pure art. A little song of +Shakespeare or of Goethe is pure art; it is exquisitely beautiful, +although its intellectual content may be nothing. A series of pictures +is made to pass before your mind by the meaning of words, and the +effect is a melody of ideas. Nevertheless, the great mass of the +literature we esteem is valued, not merely because of having artistic +form, but because of its intellectual content; and the value is the +higher the more precise, distinct, and true is that intellectual +content. And, if you will let me for a moment speak of the very highest +forms of literature, do we not regard them as highest simply because +the more we know the truer they seem, and the more competent we are to +appreciate beauty the more beautiful they are? No man ever understands +Shakespeare until he is old, though the youngest may admire him, the +reason being that he satisfies the artistic instinct of the youngest +and harmonises with the ripest and richest experience of the oldest.</P> + +<P>I have said this much to draw your attention to what, to my mind, lies +at the root of all this matter, and at the understanding of one another +by the men of science on the one hand, and the men of literature, and +history, and art, on the other. It is not a question whether one order +of study or another should predominate. It is a question of what topics +of education you shall select which will combine all the needful +elements in such due proportion as to give the greatest amount of food, +support, and encouragement to those faculties which enable us to +appreciate truth, and to profit by those sources of innocent happiness +which are open to us, and, at the same time, to avoid that which is +bad, and coarse, and ugly, and keep clear of the multitude of pitfalls +and dangers which beset those who break through the natural or moral +laws.</P> + +<P>I address myself, in this spirit, to the consideration of the question +of the value of purely literary education. Is it good and sufficient, +or is it insufficient and bad? Well, here I venture to say that there +are literary educations and literary educations. If I am to understand +by that term the education that was current in the great majority of +middle-class schools, and upper schools too, in this country when I was +a boy, and which consisted absolutely and almost entirely in keeping +boys for eight or ten years at learning the rules of Latin and Greek +grammar, construing certain Latin and Greek authors, and possibly +making verses which, had they been English verses, would have been +condemned as abominable doggerel,--if that is what you mean by liberal +education, then I say it is scandalously insufficient and almost +worthless. My reason for saying so is not from the point of view of +science at all, but from the point of view of literature. I say the +thing professes to be literary education that is not a literary +education at all. It was not literature at all that was taught, but +science in a very bad form. It is quite obvious that grammar is science +and not literature. The analysis of a text by the help of the rules of +grammar is just as much a scientific operation as the analysis of a +chemical compound by the help of the rules of chemical analysis. There +is nothing that appeals to the aesthetic faculty in that operation; and +I ask multitudes of men of my own age, who went through this process, +whether they ever had a conception of art or literature until they +obtained it for themselves after leaving school? Then you may say, "If +that is so, if the education was scientific, why cannot you be +satisfied with it?" I say, because although it is a scientific +training, it is of the most inadequate and inappropriate kind. If there +is any good at all in scientific education it is that men should be +trained, as I said before, to know things for themselves at first hand, +and that they should understand every step of the reason of that which +they do.</P> + +<P>I desire to speak with the utmost respect of that science--philology--of +which grammar is a part and parcel; yet everybody knows that +grammar, as it is usually learned at school, affords no scientific +training. It is taught just as you would teach the rules of chess or +draughts. On the other hand, if I am to understand by a literary +education the study of the literatures of either ancient or modern +nations--but especially those of antiquity, and especially that of +ancient Greece; if this literature is studied, not merely from the +point of view of philological science, and its practical application to +the interpretation of texts, but as an exemplification of and +commentary upon the principles of art; if you look upon the literature +of a people as a chapter in the development of the human mind, if you +work out this in a broad spirit, and with such collateral references to +morals and politics, and physical geography, and the like as are +needful to make you comprehend what the meaning of ancient literature +and civilisation is,--then, assuredly, it affords a splendid and noble +education. But I still think it is susceptible of improvement, and that +no man will ever comprehend the real secret of the difference between +the ancient world and our present time, unless he has learned to see +the difference which the late development of physical science has made +between the thought of this day and the thought of that, and he will +never see that difference, unless he has some practical insight into +some branches of physical science; and you must remember that a +literary education such as that which I have just referred to, is out +of the reach of those whose school life is cut short at sixteen or +seventeen.</P> + +<P>But, you will say, all this is fault-finding; let us hear what you have +in the way of positive suggestion. Then I am bound to tell you that, if +I could make a clean sweep of everything--I am very glad I cannot +because I might, and probably should, make mistakes,--but if I could +make a clean sweep of everything and start afresh, I should, in the +first place, secure that training of the young in reading and writing, +and in the habit of attention and observation, both to that which is +told them, and that which they see, which everybody agrees to. But in +addition to that, I should make it absolutely necessary for everybody, +for a longer or shorter period, to learn to draw. Now, you may say, +there are some people who cannot draw, however much they may be taught. +I deny that <i>in toto</i>, because I never yet met with anybody who +could not learn to write. Writing is a form of drawing; therefore if +you give the same attention and trouble to drawing as you do to +writing, depend upon it, there is nobody who cannot be made to draw, +more or less well. Do not misapprehend me. I do not say for one moment +you would make an artistic draughtsman. Artists are not made; they +grow. You may improve the natural faculty in that direction, but you +cannot make it; but you can teach simple drawing, and you will find it +an implement of learning of extreme value. I do not think its value can +be exaggerated, because it gives you the means of training the young in +attention and accuracy, which are the two things in which all mankind +are more deficient than in any other mental quality whatever. The whole +of my life has been spent in trying to give my proper attention to +things and to be accurate, and I have not succeeded as well as I could +wish; and other people, I am afraid, are not much more fortunate. You +cannot begin this habit too early, and I consider there is nothing of +so great a value as the habit of drawing, to secure those two desirable +ends.</P> + +<P>Then we come to the subject-matter, whether scientific or aesthetic, of +education, and I should naturally have no question at all about +teaching the elements of physical science of the kind I have sketched, +in a practical manner; but among scientific topics, using the word +scientific in the broadest sense, I would also include the elements of +the theory of morals and of that of political and social life, which, +strangely enough, it never seems to occur to anybody to teach a child. +I would have the history of our own country, and of all the influences +which have been brought to bear upon it, with incidental geography, not +as a mere chronicle of reigns and battles, but as a chapter in the +development of the race, and the history of civilisation.</P> + +<P>Then with respect to aesthetic knowledge and discipline, we have +happily in the English language one of the most magnificent storehouses +of artistic beauty and of models of literary excellence which exists in +the world at the present time. I have said before, and I repeat it +here, that if a man cannot get literary culture of the highest kind out +of his Bible, and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and Milton, and Hobbes, and +Bishop Berkeley, to mention only a few of our illustrious writers--I +say, if he cannot get it out of those writers, he cannot get it out of +anything; and I would assuredly devote a very large portion of the time +of every English child to the careful study of the models of English +writing of such varied and wonderful kind as we possess, and, what is +still more important and still more neglected, the habit of using that +language with precision, with force, and with art. I fancy we are +almost the only nation in the world who seem to think that composition +comes by nature. The French attend to their own language, the Germans +study theirs; but Englishmen do not seem to think it is worth their +while. Nor would I fail to include, in the course of study I am +sketching, translations of all the best works of antiquity, or of the +modern world. It is a very desirable thing to read Homer in Greek; but +if you don't happen to know Greek, the next best thing we can do is to +read as good a translation of it as we have recently been furnished +with in prose. You won't get all you would get from the original, but +you may get a great deal; and to refuse to know this great deal because +you cannot get all, seems to be as sensible as for a hungry man to +refuse bread because he cannot get partridge. Finally, I would add +instruction in either music or painting, or, if the child should be so +unhappy, as sometimes happens, as to have no faculty for either of +those, and no possibility of doing anything in any artistic sense with +them, then I would see what could be done with literature alone; but I +would provide, in the fullest sense, for the development of the +aesthetic side of the mind. In my judgment, those are all the +essentials of education for an English child. With that outfit, such as +it might be made in the time given to education which is within the +reach of nine-tenths of the population--with that outfit, an +Englishman, within the limits of English life, is fitted to go +anywhere, to occupy the highest positions, to fill the highest offices +of the State, and to become distinguished in practical pursuits, in +science, or in art. For, if he have the opportunity to learn all those +things, and have his mind disciplined in the various directions the +teaching of those topics would have necessitated, then, assuredly, he +will be able to pick up, on his road through life, all the rest of the +intellectual baggage he wants.</P> + +<P>If the educational time at our disposition were sufficient, there are +one or two things I would add to those I have just now called the +essentials; and perhaps you will be surprised to hear, though I hope +you will not, that I should add, not more science, but one, or, if +possible, two languages. The knowledge of some other language than +one's own is, in fact, of singular intellectual value. Many of the +faults and mistakes of the ancient philosophers are traceable to the +fact that they knew no language but their own, and were often led into +confusing the symbol with the thought which it embodied. I think it is +Locke who says that one-half of the mistakes of philosophers have +arisen from questions about words; and one of the safest ways of +delivering yourself from the bondage of words is, to know how ideas +look in words to which you are not accustomed. That is one reason for +the study of language; another reason is, that it opens new fields in +art and in science. Another is the practical value of such knowledge; +and yet another is this, that if your languages are properly chosen, +from the time of learning the additional languages you will know your +own language better than ever you did. So, I say, if the time given to +education permits, add Latin and German. Latin, because it is the key +to nearly one-half of English and to all the Romance languages; and +German, because it is the key to almost all the remainder of English, +and helps you to understand a race from whom most of us have sprung, +and who have a character and a literature of a fateful force in the +history of the world, such as probably has been allotted to those of no +other people, except the Jews, the Greeks, and ourselves. Beyond these, +the essential and the eminently desirable elements of all education, +let each man take up his special line--the historian devote himself to +his history, the man of science to his science, the man of letters to +his culture of that kind, and the artist to his special pursuit.</P> + +<P>Bacon has prefaced some of his works with no more than this: +<i>Franciscus Bacon sic cogitavit;</i> let "sic cogitavi" be the epilogue +to what I have ventured to address to you to-night.</P> + +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="VIII">VIII</a></P> + +<h4>UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL</h4> + +<P>[1874]</P> + +<P>Elected by the suffrages of your four Nations Rector of the ancient +University of which you are scholars, I take the earliest opportunity +which has presented itself since my restoration to health, of +delivering the Address which, by long custom, is expected of the holder +of my office.</P> + +<P>My first duty in opening that Address, is to offer you my most hearty +thanks for the signal honour you have conferred upon me--an honour of +which, as a man unconnected with you by personal or by national ties, +devoid of political distinction, and a plebeian who stands by his +order, I could not have dreamed. And it was the more surprising to +me, as the five-and-twenty years which have passed over my head +since I reached intellectual manhood, have been largely spent in no +half-hearted advocacy of doctrines which have not yet found favour in +the eyes of Academic respectability; so that, when the proposal to +nominate me for your Rector came, I was almost as much astonished as +was Hal o' the Wynd, "who fought for his own hand," by the Black +Douglas's proffer of knighthood. And I fear that my acceptance must be +taken as evidence that, less wise than the Armourer of Perth, I have +not yet done with soldiering.</P> + +<P>In fact, if, for a moment, I imagined that your intention was simply, +in the kindness of your hearts, to do me honour; and that the Rector of +your University, like that of some other Universities was one of those +happy beings who sit in glory for three years, with nothing to do for +it save the making of a speech, a conversation with my distinguished +predecessor soon dispelled the dream. I found that, by the constitution +of the University of Aberdeen, the incumbent of the Rectorate is, if +not a power, at any rate a potential energy; and that, whatever may be +his chances of success or failure, it is his duty to convert that +potential energy into a living force, directed towards such ends as may +seem to him conducive to the welfare of the corporation of which he is +the theoretical head.</P> + +<P>I need not tell you that your late Lord Rector took this view of his +position, and acted upon it with the comprehensive, far-seeing insight +into the actual condition and tendencies, not merely of his own, but of +other countries, which is his honourable characteristic among +statesmen. I have already done my best, and, as long as I hold my +office, I shall continue my endeavours, to follow in the path which he +trod; to do what in me lies, to bring this University nearer to +the ideal--alas, that I should be obliged to say ideal--of all +Universities; which, as I conceive, should be places in which thought +is free from all fetters; and in which all sources of knowledge, and +all aids to learning, should be accessible to all comers, without +distinction of creed or country, riches or poverty.</P> + +<P>Do not suppose, however, that I am sanguine enough to expect much to +come of any poor efforts of mine. If your annals take any notice of my +incumbency, I shall probably go down to posterity as the Rector who was +always beaten. But if they add, as I think they will, that my defeats +became victories in the hands of my successors, I shall be well +content.</P> + +<P> * * * * *</P> + +<P>The scenes are shifting in the great theatre of the world. The act +which commenced with the Protestant Reformation is nearly played out, +and a wider and deeper change than that effected three centuries ago--a +reformation, or rather a revolution of thought, the extremes of which +are represented by the intellectual heirs of John of Leyden and of +Ignatius Loyola, rather than by those of Luther and of Leo--is waiting +to come on, nay, visible behind the scenes to those who have good eyes. +Men are beginning, once more, to awake to the fact that matters of +belief and of speculation are of absolutely infinite practical +importance; and are drawing off from that sunny country "where it is +always afternoon"--the sleepy hollow of broad indifferentism--to range +themselves under their natural banners. Change is in the air. It is +whirling feather-heads into all sorts of eccentric orbits, and filling +the steadiest with a sense of insecurity. It insists on reopening all +questions and asking all institutions, however venerable, by what right +they exist, and whether they are, or are not, in harmony with the real +or supposed wants of mankind. And it is remarkable that these searching +inquiries are not so much forced on institutions from without, as +developed from within. Consummate scholars question the value of +learning; priests contemn dogma; and women turn their backs upon man's +ideal of perfect womanhood, and seek satisfaction in apocalyptic +visions of some, as yet, unrealised epicene reality.</P> + +<P>If there be a type of stability in this world, one would be inclined to +look for it in the old Universities of England. But it has been my +business of late to hear a good deal about what is going on in these +famous corporations; and I have been filled with astonishment by the +evidences of internal fermentation which they exhibit. If Gibbon could +revisit the ancient seat of learning of which he has written so +cavalierly, assuredly he would no longer speak of "the monks of Oxford +sunk in prejudice and port." There, as elsewhere, port has gone out of +fashion, and so has prejudice--at least that particular fine, old, +crusted sort of prejudice to which the great historian alludes.</P> + +<P>Indeed, things are moving so fast in Oxford and Cambridge, that, for my +part, I rejoiced when the Royal Commission, of which I am a member, had +finished and presented the Report which related to these Universities; +for we should have looked like mere plagiarists, if, in consequence of +a little longer delay in issuing it, all the measures of reform we +proposed had been anticipated by the spontaneous action of the +Universities themselves.</P> + +<P>A month ago I should have gone on to say that one might speedily expect +changes of another kind in Oxford and Cambridge. A Commission has been +inquiring into the revenues of the many wealthy societies, in more or +less direct connection with the Universities, resident in those towns. +It is said that the Commission has reported, and that, for the first +time in recorded history, the nation, and perhaps the Colleges +themselves, will know what they are worth. And it was announced that a +statesman, who, whatever his other merits or defects, has aims above +the level of mere party fighting, and a clear vision into the most +complex practical problems, meant to deal with these revenues.</P> + +<P>But, <i>Bos locutus est</i>. That mysterious independent variable of +political calculation, Public Opinion--which some whisper is, in the +present case, very much the same thing as publican's opinion--has +willed otherwise. The Heads may return to their wonted slumbers--at any +rate for a space.</P> + +<P>Is the spirit of change, which is working thus vigorously in the South, +likely to affect the Northern Universities, and if so, to what extent? +The violence of fermentation depends, not so much on the quantity of +the yeast, as on the composition of the wort, and its richness in +fermentable material; and, as a preliminary to the discussion of this +question, I venture to call to your minds the essential and fundamental +differences between the Scottish and the English type of University.</P> + +<P>Do not charge me with anything worse than official egotism, if I say +that these differences appear to be largely symbolised by my own +existence. There is no Rector in an English University. Now, the +organisation of the members of a University into Nations, with their +elective Rector, is the last relic of the primitive constitution of +Universities. The Rectorate was the most important of all offices in +that University of Paris, upon the model of which the University of +Aberdeen was fashioned; and which was certainly a great and flourishing +institution in the twelfth century.</P> + +<P>Enthusiasts for the antiquity of one of the two acknowledged parents of +all Universities, indeed, do not hesitate to trace the origin of the +"Studium Parisiense" up to that wonderful king of the Franks and +Lombards, Karl, surnamed the Great, whom we all called Charlemagne, and +believed to be a Frenchman, until a learned historian, by beneficent +iteration, taught us better. Karl is said not to have been much of a +scholar himself, but he had the wisdom of which knowledge is only the +servitor. And that wisdom enabled him to see that ignorance is one of +the roots of all evil.</P> + +<P>In the Capitulary which enjoins the foundation of monasterial and +cathedral schools, he says: "Right action is better than knowledge; but +in order to do what is right, we must know what is right." [<a href="#VIII1">1</a>] An +irrefragable truth, I fancy. Acting upon it, the king took pretty full +compulsory powers, and carried into effect a really considerable and +effectual scheme of elementary education through the length and breadth +of his dominions.</P> + +<P>No doubt the idolaters out by the Elbe, in what is now part of Prussia, +objected to the Frankish king's measures; no doubt the priests, who had +never hesitated about sacrificing all unbelievers in their fantastic +deities and futile conjurations, were the loudest in chanting the +virtues of toleration; no doubt they denounced as a cruel persecutor +the man who would not allow them, however sincere they might be, to go +on spreading delusions which debased the intellect, as much as they +deadened the moral sense, and undermined the bonds of civil allegiance; +no doubt, if they had lived in these times, they would have been able +to show, with ease, that the king's proceedings were totally contrary +to the best liberal principles. But it may be said, in justification of +the Teutonic ruler, first, that he was born before those principles, +and did not suspect that the best way of getting disorder into order +was to let it alone; and, secondly, that his rough and questionable +proceedings did, more or less, bring about the end he had in view. For, +in a couple of centuries, the schools he sowed broadcast produced their +crop of men, thirsting for knowledge and craving for culture. Such men +gravitating towards Paris, as a light amidst the darkness of evil days, +from Germany, from Spain, from Britain, and from Scandinavia, came +together by natural affinity. By degrees they banded themselves into a +society, which, as its end was the knowledge of all things knowable, +called itself a "<i>Studium Generale</i>;" and when it had grown into a +recognised corporation, acquired the name of "<i>Universitas Studii +Generalis</i>," which, mark you, means not a "Useful Knowledge +Society," but a "Knowledge-of-things-in-general Society."</P> + +<P>And thus the first "University," at any rate on this side of the Alps, +came into being. Originally it had but one Faculty, that of Arts. Its +aim was to be a centre of knowledge and culture; not to be, in any +sense, a technical school.</P> + +<P>The scholars seem to have studied Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric; +Arithmetic and Geometry; Astronomy; Theology; and Music. Thus, their +work, however imperfect and faulty, judged by modern lights, it may +have been, brought them face to face with all the leading aspects of +the many-sided mind of man. For these studies did really contain, at +any rate in embryo--sometimes, it may be, in caricature--what we now +call Philosophy, Mathematical and Physical Science, and Art. And I +doubt if the curriculum of any modern University shows so clear and +generous a comprehension of what is meant by culture, as this old +Trivium and Quadrivium does.</P> + +<P>The students who had passed through the University course, and had +proved themselves competent to teach, became masters and teachers of +their younger brethren. Whence the distinction of Masters and Regents +on the one hand, and Scholars on the other.</P> + +<P>Rapid growth necessitated organisation. The Masters and Scholars of +various tongues and countries grouped themselves into four Nations; and +the Nations, by their own votes at first, and subsequently by those of +their Procurators, or representatives, elected their supreme head and +governor, the Rector--at that time the sole representative of the +University, and a very real power, who could defy Provosts interfering +from without; or could inflict even corporal punishment on disobedient +members within the University.</P> + +<P>Such was the primitive constitution of the University of Paris. It is +in reference to this original state of things that I have spoken of the +Rectorate, and all that appertains to it, as the sole relic of that +constitution.</P> + +<P>But this original organisation did not last long. Society was not then, +any more than it is now, patient of culture, as such. It says to +everything, "Be useful to me, or away with you." And to the learned, +the unlearned man said then, as he does now, "What is the use of all +your learning, unless you can tell me what I want to know? I am here +blindly groping about, and constantly damaging myself by collision with +three mighty powers, the power of the invisible God, the power of my +fellow Man, and the power of brute Nature. Let your learning be turned +to the study of these powers, that I may know how I am to comport +myself with regard to them." In answer to this demand, some of the +Masters of the Faculty of Arts devoted themselves to the study of +Theology, some to that of Law, and some to that of Medicine; and they +became Doctors--men learned in those technical, or, as we now call +them, professional, branches of knowledge. Like cleaving to like, the +Doctors formed schools, or Faculties, of Theology, Law, and Medicine, +which sometimes assumed airs of superiority over their parent, the +Faculty of Arts, though the latter always asserted and maintained its +fundamental supremacy.</P> + +<P>The Faculties arose by process of natural differentiation out of the +primitive University. Other constituents, foreign to its nature, were +speedily grafted upon it. One of these extraneous elements was forced +into it by the Roman Church, which in those days asserted with effect, +that which it now asserts, happily without any effect in these realms, +its right of censorship and control over all teaching. The local +habitation of the University lay partly in the lands attached to the +monastery of S. Geneviève, partly in the diocese of the Bishop of +Paris; and he who would teach must have the licence of the Abbot, or of +the Bishop, as the nearest representative of the Pope, so to do, which +licence was granted by the Chancellors of these Ecclesiastics.</P> + +<P>Thus, if I am what archaeologists call a "survival" of the primitive +head and ruler of the University, your Chancellor stands in the same +relation to the Papacy; and, with all respect for his Grace, I think I +may say that we both look terribly shrunken when compared with our +great originals.</P> + +<P>Not so is it with a second foreign element, which silently dropped into +the soil of Universities, like the grain of mustard-seed in the +parable; and, like that grain, grew into a tree, in whose branches a +whole aviary of fowls took shelter. That element is the element of +Endowment. It differed from the preceding, in its original design to +serve as a prop to the young plant, not to be a parasite upon it. The +charitable and the humane, blessed with wealth, were very early +penetrated by the misery of the poor student. And the wise saw that +intellectual ability is not so common or so unimportant a gift that it +should be allowed to run to waste upon mere handicrafts and chares. The +man who was a blessing to his contemporaries, but who so often has been +converted into a curse, by the blind adherence of his posterity to the +letter, rather than to the spirit, of his wishes--I mean the "pious +founder"--gave money and lands, that the student, who was rich in brain +and poor in all else, might be taken from the plough or from the +stithy, and enabled to devote himself to the higher service of mankind; +and built colleges and halls in which he might be not only housed and +fed, but taught.</P> + +<P>The Colleges were very generally placed in strict subordination to the +University by their founders; but, in many cases, their endowment, +consisting of land, has undergone an "unearned increment," which has +given these societies a continually increasing weight and importance as +against the unendowed, or fixedly endowed, University. In Pharaoh's +dream, the seven lean kine eat up the seven fat ones. In the reality of +historical fact, the fat Colleges have eaten up the lean Universities.</P> + +<P>Even here in Aberdeen, though the causes at work may have been somewhat +different, the effects have been similar; and you see how much more +substantial an entity is the Very Reverend the Principal, analogue, if +not homologue, of the Principals of King's College, than the Rector, +lineal representative of the ancient monarchs of the University, though +now, little more than a "king of shreds and patches."</P> + +<P>Do not suppose that, in thus briefly tracing the process of University +metamorphosis, I have had any intention of quarrelling with its +results. Practically, it seems to me that the broad changes effected in +1858 have given the Scottish Universities a very liberal constitution, +with as much real approximation to the primitive state of things as is +at all desirable. If your fat kine have eaten the lean, they have not +lain down to chew the cud ever since. The Scottish Universities, like +the English, have diverged widely enough from their primitive model; +but I cannot help thinking that the northern form has remained more +faithful to its original, not only in constitution, but, what is more +to the purpose, in view of the cry for change, in the practical +application of the endowments connected with it.</P> + +<P>In Aberdeen, these endowments are numerous, but so small that, taken +altogether, they are not equal to the revenue of a single third-rate +English college. They are scholarships, not fellowships; aids to do +work--not rewards for such work as it lies within the reach of an +ordinary, or even an extraordinary, young man to do. You do not think +that passing a respectable examination is a fair equivalent for an +income, such as many a grey-headed veteran, or clergyman would envy; +and which is larger than the endowment of many Regius chairs. You do +not care to make your University a school of manners for the rich; of +sports for the athletic; or a hot-bed of high-fed, hypercritical +refinement, more destructive to vigour and originality than are +starvation and oppression. No; your little Bursaries of ten and twenty +(I believe even fifty) pounds a year, enabled any boy who has shown +ability in the course of his education in those remarkable primary +schools, which have made Scotland the power she is, to obtain the +highest culture the country can give him; and when he is armed and +equipped, his Spartan Alma Mater tells him that, so far, he has had his +wages for his work, and that he may go and earn the rest.</P> + +<P>When I think of the host of pleasant, moneyed, well-bred young +gentlemen, who do a little learning and much boating by Cam and Isis, +the vision is a pleasant one; and, as a patriot, I rejoice that the +youth of the upper and richer classes of the nation receive a wholesome +and a manly training, however small may be the modicum of knowledge +they gather, in the intervals of this, their serious business. I admit, +to the full, the social and political value of that training. But, when +I proceed to consider that these young men may be said to represent the +great bulk of what the Colleges have to show for their enormous wealth, +plus, at least, a hundred and fifty pounds a year apiece which each +undergraduate costs his parents or guardians, I feel inclined to ask, +whether the rate-in-aid of the education of the wealthy and +professional classes, thus levied on the resources of the community, is +not, after all, a little heavy? And, still further, I am tempted to +inquire what has become of the indigent scholars, the sons of the +masses of the people whose daily labour just suffices to meet their +daily wants, for whose benefit these rich foundations were largely, if +not mainly, instituted? It seems as if Pharaoh's dream had been +rigorously carried out, and that even the fat scholar has eaten the +lean one. And when I turn from this picture to the no less real vision +of many a brave and frugal Scotch boy, spending his summer in hard +manual labour, that he may have the privilege of wending his way in +autumn to this University, with a bag of oatmeal, ten pounds in his +pocket, and his own stout heart to depend upon through the northern +winter; not bent on seeking</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"The bubble reputation at the cannon's mouth,"</P> +</blockquote> +<P>but determined to wring knowledge from the hard hands of penury; when I +see him win through all such outward obstacles to positions of wide +usefulness and well-earned fame; I cannot but think that, in essence, +Aberdeen has departed but little from the primitive intention of the +founders of Universities, and that the spirit of reform has so much to +do on the other side of the Border, that it may be long before he has +leisure to look this way.</P> + +<P>As compared with other actual Universities, then, Aberdeen, may, +perhaps, be well satisfied with itself. But do not think me an +impracticable dreamer, if I ask you not to rest and be thankful in this +state of satisfaction; if I ask you to consider awhile, how this actual +good stands related to that ideal better, towards which both men and +institutions must progress, if they would not retrograde.</P> + +<P>In an ideal University, as I conceive it, a man should be able to +obtain instruction in all forms of knowledge, and discipline in the use +of all the methods by which knowledge is obtained. In such a +University, the force of living example should fire the student with a +noble ambition to emulate the learning of learned men, and to follow in +the footsteps of the explorers of new fields of knowledge. And the very +air he breathes should be charged with that enthusiasm for truth, that +fanaticism of veracity, which is a greater possession than much +learning; a nobler gift than the power of increasing knowledge; by so +much greater and nobler than these, as the moral nature of man is +greater than the intellectual; for veracity is the heart of morality.</P> + +<P>But the man who is all morality and intellect, although he may be good +and even great, is, after all, only half a man. There is beauty in the +moral world and in the intellectual world; but there is also a beauty +which is neither moral nor intellectual--the beauty of the world of +Art. There are men who are devoid of the power of seeing it, as there +are men who are born deaf and blind, and the loss of those, as of +these, is simply infinite. There are others in whom it is an +overpowering passion; happy men, born with the productive, or at +lowest, the appreciative, genius of the Artist. But, in the mass of +mankind, the Aesthetic faculty, like the reasoning power and the moral +sense, needs to be roused, directed, and cultivated; and I know not why +the development of that side of his nature, through which man has +access to a perennial spring of ennobling pleasure, should be omitted +from any comprehensive scheme of University education.</P> + +<P>All Universities recognise Literature in the sense of the old Rhetoric, +which is art incarnate in words. Some, to their credit, recognise Art +in its narrower sense, to a certain extent, and confer degrees for +proficiency in some of its branches. If there are Doctors of Music, why +should there be no Masters of painting, of Sculpture, of Architecture? +I should like to see Professors of the Fine Arts in every University; +and instruction in some branch of their work made a part of the Arts +curriculum.</P> + +<P>I just now expressed the opinion that, in our ideal University, a man +should be able to obtain instruction in all forms of knowledge. Now, by +"forms of knowledge" I mean the great classes of things knowable; of +which the first, in logical, though not in natural, order is knowledge +relating to the scope and limits of the mental faculties of man, a form +of knowledge which, in its positive aspect, answers pretty much to +Logic and part of Psychology, while, on its negative and critical side, +it corresponds with Metaphysics.</P> + +<P>A second class comprehends all that knowledge which relates to man's +welfare, so far as it is determined by his own acts, or what we call +his conduct. It answers to Moral and Religious philosophy. Practically, +it is the most directly valuable of all forms of knowledge, but +speculatively, it is limited and criticised by that which precedes and +by that which follows it in my order of enumeration.</P> + +<P>A third class embraces knowledge of the phaenomena of the Universe, as +that which lies about the individual man; and of the rules which those +phaenomena are observed to follow in the order of their occurrence, +which we term the laws of Nature.</P> + +<P>This is what ought to be called Natural Science, or Physiology, though +those terms are hopelessly diverted from such a meaning; and it +includes all exact knowledge of natural fact, whether Mathematical, +Physical, Biological, or Social.</P> + +<P>Kant has said that the ultimate object of all knowledge is to give +replies to these three questions: What can I do? What ought I to do? +What may I hope for? The forms of knowledge which I have enumerated, +should furnish such replies as are within human reach, to the first and +second of these questions. While to the third, perhaps the wisest +answer is, "Do what you can to do what you ought, and leave hoping and +fearing alone."</P> + +<P>If this be a just and an exhaustive classification of the forms of +knowledge, no question as to their relative importance, or as to the +superiority of one to the other, can be seriously raised.</P> + +<P>On the face of the matter, it is absurd to ask whether it is more +important to know the limits of one's powers; or the ends for which +they ought to be exerted; or the conditions under which they must be +exerted. One may as well inquire which of the terms of a Rule of Three +sum one ought to know, in order to get a trustworthy result. Practical +life is such a sum, in which your duty multiplied into your capacity, +and divided by your circumstances, gives you the fourth term in the +proportion, which is your deserts, with great accuracy. All agree, I +take it, that men ought to have these three kinds of knowledge. The +so-called "conflict of studies" turns upon the question of how they may +best be obtained.</P> + +<P>The founders of Universities held the theory that the Scriptures and +Aristotle taken together, the latter being limited by the former, +contained all knowledge worth having, and that the business of +philosophy was to interpret and co-ordinate these two. I imagine that +in the twelfth century this was a very fair conclusion from known +facts. Nowhere in the world, in those days, was there such an +encyclopaedia of knowledge of all three classes, as is to be found in +those writings. The scholastic philosophy is a wonderful monument of +the patience and ingenuity with which the human mind toiled to build up +a logically consistent theory of the Universe, out of such materials. +And that philosophy is by no means dead and buried, as many vainly +suppose. On the contrary, numbers of men of no mean learning and +accomplishment, and sometimes of rare power and subtlety of thought, +hold by it as the best theory of things which has yet been stated. And, +what is still more remarkable, men who speak the language of modern +philosophy, nevertheless think the thoughts of the schoolmen. "The +voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau." +Every day I hear "Cause," "Law," "Force," "Vitality," spoken of as +entities, by people who can enjoy Swift's joke about the meat-roasting +quality of the smoke-jack, and comfort themselves with the reflection +that they are not even as those benighted schoolmen.</P> + +<P>Well, this great system had its day, and then it was sapped and mined +by two influences. The first was the study of classical literature, +which familiarised men with methods of philosophising; with conceptions +of the highest Good; with ideas of the order of Nature; with notions of +Literary and Historical Criticism; and, above all, with visions of Art, +of a kind which not only would not fit into the scholastic scheme, but +showed them a pre-Christian, and indeed altogether un-Christian world, +of such grandeur and beauty that they ceased to think of any other. +They were as men who had kissed the Fairy Queen, and wandering with her +in the dim loveliness of the under-world, cared not to return to the +familiar ways of home and fatherland, though they lay, at arm's length, +overhead. Cardinals were more familiar with Virgil than with Isaiah; +and Popes laboured, with great success, to re-paganise Rome.</P> + +<P>The second influence was the slow, but sure, growth of the physical +sciences. It was discovered that some results of speculative thought, +of immense practical and theoretical importance, can be verified by +observation; and are always true, however severely they may be tested. +Here, at any rate, was knowledge, to the certainty of which no +authority could add, or take away, one jot or tittle, and to which the +tradition of a thousand years was as insignificant as the hearsay of +yesterday. To the scholastic system, the study of classical literature +might be inconvenient and distracting, but it was possible to hope that +it could be kept within bounds. Physical science, on the other hand, +was an irreconcilable enemy, to be excluded at all hazards. The College +of Cardinals has not distinguished itself in Physics or Physiology; and +no Pope has, as yet, set up public laboratories in the Vatican.</P> + +<P>People do not always formulate the beliefs on which they act. The +instinct of fear and dislike is quicker than the reasoning process; and +I suspect that, taken in conjunction with some other causes, such +instinctive aversion is at the bottom of the long exclusion of any +serious discipline in the physical sciences from the general curriculum +of Universities; while, on the other hand, classical literature has +been gradually made the backbone of the Arts course.</P> + +<P>I am ashamed to repeat here what I have said elsewhere, in season and +out of season, respecting the value of Science as knowledge and +discipline. But the other day I met with some passages in the Address +to another Scottish University, of a great thinker, recently lost to +us, which express so fully and yet so tersely, the truth in this matter +that I am fain to quote them:--</P> + +<P>"To question all things;--never to turn away from any difficulty; to +accept no doctrine either from ourselves or from other people without a +rigid scrutiny by negative criticism; letting no fallacy, or +incoherence, or confusion of thought, step by unperceived; above all, +to insist upon having the meaning of a word clearly understood before +using it, and the meaning of a proposition before assenting to +it;--these are the lessons we learn" from workers in Science. "With all +this vigorous management of the negative element, they inspire no +scepticism about the reality of truth or indifference to its pursuit. +The noblest enthusiasm, both for the search after truth and for +applying it to its highest uses, pervades those writers." "In +cultivating, therefore," science as an essential ingredient in +education, "we are all the while laying an admirable foundation for +ethical and philosophical culture." [<a href="#VIII2">2</a>]</P> + +<P>The passages I have quoted were uttered by John Stuart Mill; but you +cannot hear inverted commas, and it is therefore right that I should +add, without delay, that I have taken the liberty of substituting +"workers in science" for "ancient dialecticians," and "Science as an +essential ingredient in education" for "the ancient languages as our +best literary education." Mill did, in fact, deliver a noble panegyric +upon classical studies. I do not doubt its justice, nor presume to +question its wisdom. But I venture to maintain that no wise or just +judge, who has a knowledge of the facts, will hesitate to say that it +applies with equal force to scientific training.</P> + +<P>But it is only fair to the Scottish Universities to point out that they +have long understood the value of Science as a branch of general +education. I observe, with the greatest satisfaction, that candidates +for the degree of Master of Arts in this University are required to +have a knowledge, not only of Mental and Moral Philosophy, and of +Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, but of Natural History, in addition +to the ordinary Latin and Greek course; and that a candidate may take +honours in these subjects and in Chemistry.</P> + +<P>I do not know what the requirements of your examiners may be, but I +sincerely trust they are not satisfied with a mere book knowledge of +these matters. For my own part I would not raise a finger, if I could +thereby introduce mere book work in science into every Arts curriculum +in the country. Let those who want to study books devote themselves to +Literature, in which we have the perfection of books, both as to +substance and as to form. If I may paraphrase Hobbes's well-known +aphorism, I would say that "books are the money of Literature, but only +the counters of Science," Science (in the sense in which I now use the +term) being the knowledge of fact, of which every verbal description is +but an incomplete and symbolic expression. And be assured that no +teaching of science is worth anything, as a mental discipline, which is +not based upon direct perception of the facts, and practical exercise +of the observing and logical faculties upon them. Even in such a simple +matter as the mere comprehension of form, ask the most practised and +widely informed anatomist what is the difference between his knowledge +of a structure which he has read about, and his knowledge of the same +structure when he has seen it for himself; and he will tell you that +the two things are not comparable--the difference is infinite. Thus I +am very strongly inclined to agree with some learned schoolmasters who +say that, in their experience, the teaching of science is all waste +time. As they teach it, I have no doubt it is. But to teach it +otherwise requires an amount of personal labour and a development of +means and appliances, which must strike horror and dismay into a man +accustomed to mere book work; and who has been in the habit of teaching +a class of fifty without much strain upon his energies. And this is one +of the real difficulties in the way of the introduction of physical +science into the ordinary University course, to which I have alluded. +It is a difficulty which will not be overcome, until years of patient +study have organised scientific teaching as well as, or I hope better +than, classical teaching has been organised hitherto.</P> + +<P>A little while ago, I ventured to hint a doubt as to the perfection of +some of the arrangements in the ancient Universities of England; but, +in their provision for giving instruction in Science as such, and +without direct reference to any of its practical applications, they +have set a brilliant example. Within the last twenty years, Oxford +alone has sunk more than a hundred and twenty thousand pounds in +building and furnishing Physical, Chemical, and Physiological +Laboratories, and a magnificent Museum, arranged with an almost +luxurious regard for the needs of the student. Cambridge, less rich, +but aided by the munificence of her Chancellor, is taking the same +course; and in a few years, it will be for no lack of the means and +appliances of sound teaching, if the mass of English University men +remain in their present state of barbarous ignorance of even the +rudiments of scientific culture.</P> + +<P>Yet another step needs to be made before Science can be said to have +taken its proper place in the Universities. That is its recognition as +a Faculty, or branch of study demanding recognition and special +organisation, on account of its bearing on the wants of mankind. The +Faculties of Theology, Law, and Medicine, are technical schools, +intended to equip men who have received general culture, with the +special knowledge which is needed for the proper performance of the +duties of clergymen, lawyers, and medical practitioners.</P> + +<P>When the material well-being of the country depended upon rude pasture +and agriculture, and still ruder mining; in the days when all the +innumerable applications of the principles of physical science to +practical purposes were non-existent even as dreams; days which men +living may have heard their fathers speak of; what little physical +science could be seen to bear directly upon human life, lay within the +province of Medicine. Medicine was the foster-mother of Chemistry, +because it has to do with the preparation of drugs and the detection of +poisons; of Botany, because it enabled the physician to recognise +medicinal herbs; of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, because the man +who studied Human Anatomy and Physiology for purely medical purposes +was led to extend his studies to the rest of the animal world.</P> + +<P>Within my recollection, the only way in which a student could obtain +anything like a training in Physical Science, was by attending the +lectures of the Professors of Physical and Natural Science attached to +the Medical Schools. But, in the course of the last thirty years, both +foster-mother and child have grown so big, that they threaten not only +to crush one another, but to press the very life out of the unhappy +student who enters the nursery; to the great detriment of all three.</P> + +<P>I speak in the presence of those who know practically what medical +education is; for I may assume that a large proportion of my hearers +are more or less advanced students of medicine. I appeal to the most +industrious and conscientious among you, to those who are most deeply +penetrated with a sense of the extremely serious responsibilities which +attach to the calling of a medical practitioner, when I ask whether, +out of the four years which you devote to your studies, you ought to +spare even so much as an hour for any work which does not tend directly +to fit you for your duties?</P> + +<P>Consider what that work is. Its foundation is a sound and practical +acquaintance with the structure of the human organism, and with the +modes and conditions of its action in health. I say a sound and +practical acquaintance, to guard against the supposition that my +intention is to suggest that you ought all to be minute anatomists and +accomplished physiologists. The devotion of your whole four years to +Anatomy and Physiology alone, would be totally insufficient to attain +that end. What I mean is, the sort of practical, familiar, finger-end +knowledge which a watchmaker has of a watch, and which you expect that +craftsman, as an honest man, to have, when you entrust a watch that +goes badly, to him. It is a kind of knowledge which is to be acquired, +not in the lecture-room, nor in the library, but in the dissecting-room +and the laboratory. It is to be had not by sharing your attention +between these and sundry other subjects, but by concentrating your +minds, week after week, and month after month, six or seven hours a +day, upon all the complexities of organ and function, until each of the +greater truths of anatomy and physiology has become an organic part of +your minds--until you would know them if you were roused and questioned +in the middle of the night, as a man knows the geography of his native +place and the daily life of his home. That is the sort of knowledge +which, once obtained, is a life-long possession. Other occupations may +fill your minds--it may grow dim, and seem to be forgotten--but there +it is, like the inscription on a battered and defaced coin, which comes +out when you warm it.</P> + +<P>If I had the power to remodel Medical Education, the first two years of +the medical curriculum should be devoted to nothing but such thorough +study of Anatomy and Physiology, with Physiological Chemistry and +Physics; the student should then pass a real, practical examination in +these subjects; and, having gone through that ordeal satisfactorily, he +should be troubled no more with them. His whole mind should then be +given with equal intentness to Therapeutics, in its broadest sense, to +Practical Medicine and to Surgery, with instruction in Hygiene and in +Medical Jurisprudence; and of these subjects only--surely there are +enough of them--should he be required to show a knowledge in his final +examination.</P> + +<P>I cannot claim any special property in this theory of what the medical +curriculum should be, for I find that views, more or less closely +approximating these, are held by all who have seriously considered the +very grave and pressing question of Medical Reform; and have, indeed, +been carried into practice, to some extent, by the most enlightened +Examining Boards. I have heard but two kinds of objections to them. +There is first, the objection of vested interests, which I will not +deal with here, because I want to make myself as pleasant as I can, and +no discussions are so unpleasant as those which turn on such points. +And there is, secondly, the much more respectable objection, which +takes the general form of the reproach that, in thus limiting the +curriculum, we are seeking to narrow it. We are told that the medical +man ought to be a person of good education and general information, if +his profession is to hold its own among other professions; that he +ought to know Botany, or else, if he goes abroad, he will not be able +to tell poisonous fruits from edible ones; that he ought to know drugs, +as a druggist knows them, or he will not be able to tell sham bark +and senna from the real articles; that he ought to know Zoology, +because--well, I really have never been able to learn exactly why he is +to be expected to know zoology. There is, indeed, a popular +superstition, that doctors know all about things that are queer or +nasty to the general mind, and may, therefore, be reasonably expected +to know the "barbarous binomials" applicable to snakes, snails, and +slugs; an amount of information with which the general mind is usually +completely satisfied. And there is a scientific superstition that +Physiology is largely aided by Comparative Anatomy--a superstition +which, like most superstitions, once had a grain of truth at bottom; +but the grain has become homoeopathic, since Physiology took its modern +experimental development, and became what it is now, the application of +the principles of Physics and Chemistry to the elucidation of the +phaenomena of life.</P> + +<P>I hold as strongly as any one can do, that the medical practitioner +ought to be a person of education and good general culture; but I also +hold by the old theory of a Faculty, that a man should have his general +culture before he devotes himself to the special studies of that +Faculty; and I venture to maintain, that, if the general culture +obtained in the Faculty of Arts were what it ought to be, the student +would have quite as much knowledge of the fundamental principles of +Physics, of Chemistry, and of Biology, as he needs, before he commenced +his special medical studies.</P> + +<P>Moreover, I would urge, that a thorough study of Human Physiology is, +in itself, an education broader and more comprehensive than much that +passes under that name. There is no side of the intellect which it does +not call into play, no region of human knowledge into which either its +roots, or its branches, do not extend; like the Atlantic between the +Old and the New Worlds, its waves wash the shores of the two worlds of +matter and of mind; its tributary streams flow from both; through its +waters, as yet unfurrowed by the keel of any Columbus, lies the road, +if such there be, from the one to the other; far away from that +North-west Passage of mere speculation, in which so many brave souls +have been hopelessly frozen up.</P> + +<P>But whether I am right or wrong about all this, the patent fact of the +limitation of time remains. As the song runs:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"If a man could be sure<br> +That his life would endure<br> +For the space of a thousand long years------"</P> +</blockquote> +<P>he might do a number of things not practicable under present +conditions. Methuselah might, with much propriety, have taken half a +century to get his doctor's degree; and might, very fairly, have been +required to pass a practical examination upon the contents of the +British Museum, before commencing practice as a promising young fellow +of two hundred, or thereabouts. But you have four years to do your work +in, and are turned loose, to save or slay, at two or three and twenty.</P> + +<P>Now, I put it to you, whether you think that, when you come down to the +realities of life--when you stand by the sick-bed, racking you brains +for the principles which shall furnish you with the means of +interpreting symptoms, and forming a rational theory of the condition +of your patient, it will be satisfactory for you to find that those +principles are not there--although, to use the examination slang which +is unfortunately too familiar to me, you can quite easily "give an +account of the leading peculiarities of the <i>Marsupialia</i>," or +"enumerate the chief characters of the <i>Compositae</i>," or "state +the class and order of the animal from which Castoreum is obtained."</P> + +<P>I really do not think that state of things will be satisfactory to +you; I am very sure it will not be so to your patient. Indeed, I +am so narrow-minded myself, that if I had to choose between two +physicians--one who did not know whether a whale is a fish or not, and +could not tell gentian from ginger, but did understand the applications +of the institutes of medicine to his art; while the other, like +Talleyrand's doctor, "knew everything, even a little physic"--with all +my love for breadth of culture, I should assuredly consult the former.</P> + +<P>It is not pleasant to incur the suspicion of an inclination to injure +or depreciate particular branches of knowledge. But the fact that one +of those which I should have no hesitation in excluding from the +medical curriculum, is that to which my own life has been specially +devoted, should, at any rate, defend me from the suspicion of being +urged to this course by any but the very gravest considerations of the +public welfare.</P> + +<P>And I should like, further, to call your attention to the important +circumstance that, in thus proposing the exclusion of the study of such +branches of knowledge as Zoology and Botany, from those compulsory upon +the medical student, I am not, for a moment, suggesting their exclusion +from the University. I think that sound and practical instruction in +the elementary facts and broad principles of Biology should form part +of the Arts Curriculum: and here, happily, my theory is in entire +accordance with your practice. Moreover, as I have already said, I have +no sort of doubt that, in view of the relation of Physical Science to +the practical life of the present day, it has the same right as +Theology, Law, and Medicine, to a Faculty of its own in which men shall +be trained to be professional men of science. It may be doubted whether +Universities are the places for technical schools of Engineering or +applied Chemistry, or Agriculture. But there can surely be little +question, that instruction in the branches of Science which lie at the +foundation of these Arts, of a far more advanced and special character +than could, with any propriety, be included in the ordinary Arts +Curriculum, ought to be obtainable by means of a duly organised Faculty +of Science in every University.</P> + +<P>The establishment of such a Faculty would have the additional advantage +of providing, in some measure, for one of the greatest wants of our +time and country. I mean the proper support and encouragement of +original research.</P> + +<P>The other day, an emphatic friend of mine committed himself to the +opinion that, in England, it is better for a man's worldly prospects to +be a drunkard, than to be smitten with the divine dipsomania of the +original investigator. I am inclined to think he was not far wrong. +And, be it observed, that the question is not, whether such a man shall +be able to make as much out of his abilities as his brother, of like +ability, who goes into Law, or Engineering, or Commerce; it is not a +question of "maintaining a due number of saddle horses," as George +Eliot somewhere puts it--it is a question of living or starving.</P> + +<P>If a student of my own subject shows power and originality, I dare not +advise him to adopt a scientific career; for, supposing he is able to +maintain himself until he has attained distinction, I cannot give him +the assurance that any amount of proficiency in the Biological Sciences +will be convertible into, even the most modest, bread and cheese. And I +believe that the case is as bad, or perhaps worse, with other branches +of Science. In this respect Britain, whose immense wealth and +prosperity hang upon the thread of Applied Science, is far behind +France, and infinitely behind Germany.</P> + +<P>And the worst of it is, that it is very difficult to see one's way to +any immediate remedy for this state of affairs which shall be free from +a tendency to become worse than the disease.</P> + +<P>Great schemes for the Endowment of Research have been proposed. It has +been suggested, that Laboratories for all branches of Physical Science, +provided with every apparatus needed by the investigator, shall be +established by the State: and shall be accessible, under due conditions +and regulations, to all properly qualified persons. I see no objection +to the principle of such a proposal. If it be legitimate to spend great +sums of money on public Libraries and public collections of Painting +and Sculpture, in aid of the Man of Letters, or the Artist, or for the +mere sake of affording pleasure to the general public. I apprehend that +it cannot be illegitimate to do as much for the promotion of scientific +investigation. To take the lowest ground, as a mere investment of +money, the latter is likely to be much more immediately profitable. To +my mind, the difficulty in the way of such schemes is not theoretical, +but practical. Given the laboratories, how are the investigators to be +maintained? What career is open to those who have been thus encouraged +to leave bread-winning pursuits? If they are to be provided for by +endowment, we come back to the College Fellowship system, the results +of which, for Literature, have not been so brilliant that one would +wish to see it extended to Science; unless some much better securities +than at present exist can be taken that it will foster real work. You +know that among the Bees, it depends on the kind of cell in which the +egg is deposited, and the quantity and quality of food which is +supplied to the grub, whether it shall turn out a busy little worker or +a big idle queen. And, in the human hive, the cells of the endowed +larvae are always tending to enlarge, and their food to improve, until +we get queens, beautiful to behold, but which gather no honey and build +no comb.</P> + +<P>I do not say that these difficulties may not be overcome, but their +gravity is not to be lightly estimated.</P> + +<P>In the meanwhile, there is one step in the direction of the endowment +of research which is free from such objections. It is possible to place +the scientific enquirer in a position in which he shall have ample +leisure and opportunity for original work, and yet shall give a fair +and tangible equivalent for those privileges. The establishment of a +Faculty of Science in every University, implies that of a corresponding +number of Professorial chairs, the incumbents of which need not be so +burdened with teaching as to deprive them of ample leisure for original +work. I do not think that it is any impediment to an original +investigator to have to devote a moderate portion of his time to +lecturing, or superintending practical instruction. On the contrary, I +think it may be, and often is, a benefit to be obliged to take a +comprehensive survey of your subject; or to bring your results to a +point, and give them, as it were, a tangible objective existence. The +besetting sins of the investigator are two: the one is the desire to +put aside a subject, the general bearings of which he has mastered +himself, and pass on to something which has the attraction of novelty; +and the other, the desire for too much perfection, which leads him to</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"Add and alter many times,<br> +Till all be ripe and rotten;"</P> +</blockquote> +<P>to spend the energies which should be reserved for action in whitening +the decks and polishing the guns.</P> + +<P>The obligation to produce results for the instruction of others, seems +to me to be a more effectual check on these tendencies than even the +love of usefulness or the ambition for fame.</P> + +<P>But supposing the Professorial forces of our University to be duly +organised, there remains an important question, relating to the +teaching power, to be considered. Is the Professorial system--the +system, I mean, of teaching in the lecture-room alone, and +leaving the student to find his own way when he is outside the +lecture-room--adequate to the wants of learners? In answering this +question, I confine myself to my own province, and I venture to reply +for Physical Science, assuredly and undoubtedly, No. As I have +already intimated, practical work in the Laboratory is absolutely +indispensable, and that practical work must be guided and superintended +by a sufficient staff of Demonstrators, who are for Science what Tutors +are for other branches of study. And there must be a good supply of +such Demonstrators. I doubt if the practical work of more than twenty +students can be properly superintended by one Demonstrator. If we +take the working day at six hours, that is less than twenty minutes +apiece--not a very large allowance of time for helping a dull man, for +correcting an inaccurate one, or even for making an intelligent student +clearly apprehend what he is about. And, no doubt, the supplying of a +proper amount of this tutorial, practical teaching, is a difficulty in +the way of giving proper instruction in Physical Science in such +Universities as that of Aberdeen, which are devoid of endowments; and, +unlike the English Universities, have no moral claim on the funds of +richly endowed bodies to supply their wants.</P> + +<P>Examination--thorough, searching examination--is an indispensable +accompaniment of teaching; but I am almost inclined to commit myself to +the very heterodox proposition that it is a necessary evil. I am a very +old Examiner, having, for some twenty years past, been occupied with +examinations on a considerable scale, of all sorts and conditions of +men, and women too,--from the boys and girls of elementary schools to +the candidates for Honours and Fellowships in the Universities. I will +not say that, in this case as in so many others, the adage, that +familiarity breeds contempt, holds good; but my admiration for the +existing system of examination and its products, does not wax warmer as +I see more of it. Examination, like fire, is a good servant, but a bad +master; and there seems to me to be some danger of its becoming our +master. I by no means stand alone in this opinion. Experienced friends +of mine do not hesitate to say that students whose career they watch, +appear to them to become deteriorated by the constant effort to pass +this or that examination, just as we hear of men's brains becoming +affected by the daily necessity of catching a train. They work to pass, +not to know; and outraged Science takes her revenge. They do pass, and +they don't know. I have passed sundry examinations in my time, not +without credit, and I confess I am ashamed to think how very little +real knowledge underlay the torrent of stuff which I was able to pour +out on paper. In fact, that which examination, as ordinarily conducted, +tests, is simply a man's power of work under stimulus, and his capacity +for rapidly and clearly producing that which, for the time, he has got +into his mind. Now, these faculties are by no means to be despised. +They are of great value in practical life, and are the making of many +an advocate, and of many a so-called statesman. But in the pursuit of +truth, scientific or other, they count for very little, unless they are +supplemented by that long-continued, patient "intending of the mind," +as Newton phrased it, which makes very little show in Examinations. I +imagine that an Examiner who knows his students personally, must not +unfrequently have found himself in the position of finding A's paper +better than B's, though his own judgment tells him, quite clearly, that +B is the man who has the larger share of genuine capacity.</P> + +<P>Again, there is a fallacy about Examiners. It is commonly supposed that +any one who knows a subject is competent to teach it; and no one seems +to doubt that any one who knows a subject is competent to examine in +it. I believe both these opinions to be serious mistakes: the latter, +perhaps, the more serious of the two. In the first place, I do not +believe that any one who is not, or has not been, a teacher is really +qualified to examine advanced students. And in the second place, +Examination is an Art, and a difficult one, which has to be learned +like all other arts.</P> + +<P>Beginners always set too difficult questions--partly because they are +afraid of being suspected of ignorance if they set easy ones, and +partly from not understanding their business. Suppose that you want to +test the relative physical strength of a score of young men. You do not +put a hundredweight down before them, and tell each to swing it round. +If you do, half of them won't be able to lift it at all, and only one +or two will be able to perform the task. You must give them half a +hundredweight, and see how they manoeuvre that, if you want to form any +estimate of the muscular strength of each. So, a practised Examiner +will seek for information respecting the mental vigour and training of +candidates from the way in which they deal with questions easy enough +to let reason, memory, and method have free play.</P> + +<P>No doubt, a great deal is to be done by the careful selection of +Examiners, and by the copious introduction of practical work, to remove +the evils inseparable from examination; but, under the best of +circumstances, I believe that examination will remain but an imperfect +test of knowledge, and a still more imperfect test of capacity, while +it tells next to nothing about a man's power as an investigator.</P> + +<P>There is much to be said in favour of restricting the highest degrees +in each Faculty, to those who have shown evidence of such original +power, by prosecuting a research under the eye of the Professor in +whose province it lies; or, at any rate, under conditions which shall +afford satisfactory proof that the work is theirs. The notion may sound +revolutionary, but it is really very old; for, I take it, that it lies +at the bottom of that presentation of a thesis by the candidate for a +doctorate, which has now, too often, become little better than a matter +of form.</P> + +<P> * * * * *</P> + +<P>Thus far, I have endeavoured to lay before you, in a too brief and +imperfect manner, my views respecting the teaching half--the Magistri +and Regentes--of the University of the Future. Now let me turn to the +learning half--the Scholares.</P> + +<P>If the Universities are to be the sanctuaries of the highest culture of +the country, those who would enter that sanctuary must not come with +unwashed hands. If the good seed is to yield its hundredfold harvest, +it must not be scattered amidst the stones of ignorance, or the tares +of undisciplined indolence and wantonness. On the contrary, the soil +must have been carefully prepared, and the Professor should find that +the operations of clod-crushing, draining, and weeding, and even a good +deal of planting, have been done by the Schoolmaster.</P> + +<P>That is exactly what the Professor does not find in any University in +the three Kingdoms that I can hear of--the reason of which state of +things lies in the extremely faulty organisation of the majority of +secondary schools. Students come to the Universities ill-prepared in +classics and mathematics, not at all prepared in anything else; and +half their time is spent in learning that which they ought to have +known when they came.</P> + +<P>I sometimes hear it said that the Scottish Universities differ from the +English, in being to a much greater extent places of comparatively +elementary education for a younger class of students. But it would seem +doubtful if any great difference of this kind really exists; for a high +authority, himself Head of an English College, has solemnly affirmed +that: "Elementary teaching of youths under twenty is now the only +function performed by the University;" and that Colleges are "boarding +schools in which the elements of the learned languages are taught to +youths." [<a href="#VIII3">3</a>]</P> + +<P>This is not the first time that I have quoted those remarkable +assertions. I should like to engrave them in public view, for they have +not been refuted; and I am convinced that if their import is once +clearly apprehended, they will play no mean part when the question of +University reorganisation, with a view to practical measures, comes on +for discussion. You are not responsible for this anomalous state of +affairs now; but, as you pass into active life and acquire the +political influence to which your education and your position should +entitle you, you will become responsible for it, unless each in his +sphere does his best to alter it, by insisting on the improvement of +secondary schools.</P> + +<P>Your present responsibility is of another, though not less serious, +kind. Institutions do not make men, any more than organisation makes +life; and even the ideal University we have been dreaming about will be +but a superior piece of mechanism, unless each student strive after the +ideal of the Scholar. And that ideal, it seems to me, has never been +better embodied than by the great Poet, who, though lapped in luxury, +the favourite of a Court, and the idol of his countrymen, remained +through all the length of his honoured years a Scholar in Art, in +Science, and in Life.</P> +<blockquote> +<P> +"Wouldst shape a noble life! Then cast<br> +No backward glances towards the past:<br> +And though somewhat be lost and gone,<br> +Yet do thou act as one new-born.<br> +What each day needs, that shalt thou ask;<br> +Each day will set its proper task.<br> +Give others' work just share of praise;<br> +Not of thine own the merits raise.<br> +Beware no fellow man thou hate:<br> +And so in God's hands leave thy fate." [<a href="#VIII4">4</a>]</P> +</blockquote> +<br><hr><br> + +<P><b>Footnotes</b></P> +<ol> +<li><a name="VIII1">"Quamvis</a> enim melius sit bene facere quam nosse, prius tamen est +nosse quam facere."--"Karoli Magni Regis Constitutio de Scholis per +singula Episcopia et Monasteria instituendis," addressed to the Abbot +of Fulda. Baluzius, <i>Capitularia Regum Francorum</i>, T. i., p. 202.</li> + +<li><a name="VIII2">Inaugural</a> Address delivered to the University of St. Andrew, +February 1, 1867, by J. S. Mill, Rector of the University (pp. 32, 33).</li> + +<li><a name="VIII3"><i>Suggestions</i></a> <i>for Academical Organisation, with Especial Reference +to Oxford</i>. By the Rector of Lincoln.</li> + +<li><a name="VIII4">Goethe</a>, <i>Zahme Xenien, Vierte Abtheilung</i>. I should be glad to +take credit for the close and vigorous English version; but it is my +wife's, and not mine.</li> +</ol> +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="IX">IX</a></P> + +<h4>ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION [<a href="#IX1">1</a>]</h4> + +<P>[1876]</P> + +<P>The actual work of the University founded in this city by the +well-considered munificence of Johns Hopkins commences to-morrow, and +among the many marks of confidence and good-will which have been +bestowed upon me in the United States, there is none which I value more +highly than that conferred by the authorities of the University when +they invited me to deliver an address on such an occasion.</P> + +<P>For the event which has brought us together is, in many respects, +unique. A vast property is handed over to an administrative body, +hampered by no conditions save these:--That the principal shall not be +employed in building: that the funds shall be appropriated, in equal +proportions, to the promotion of natural knowledge and to the +alleviation of the bodily sufferings of mankind; and, finally, that +neither political nor ecclesiastical sectarianism shall be permitted to +disturb the impartial distribution of the testator's benefactions.</P> + +<P>In my experience of life a truth which sounds very much like a paradox +has often asserted itself: namely, that a man's worst difficulties +begin when he is able to do as he likes. So long as a man is struggling +with obstacles he has an excuse for failure or shortcoming; but when +fortune removes them all and gives him the power of doing as he thinks +best, then comes the time of trial. There is but one right, and the +possibilities of wrong are infinite. I doubt not that the trustees of +the Johns Hopkins University felt the full force of this truth when +they entered on the administration of their trust a year and a half +ago; and I can but admire the activity and resolution which have +enabled them, aided by the able president whom they have selected, to +lay down the great outlines of their plan, and carry it thus far into +execution. It is impossible to study that plan without perceiving that +great care, forethought, and sagacity, have been bestowed upon it, and +that it demands the most respectful consideration. I have been +endeavouring to ascertain how far the principles which underlie it are +in accordance with those which have been established in my own mind by +much and long-continued thought upon educational questions. Permit me +to place before you the result of my reflections.</P> + +<P>Under one aspect a university is a particular kind of educational +institution, and the views which we may take of the proper nature of a +university are corollaries from those which we hold respecting +education in general. I think it must be admitted that the school +should prepare for the university, and that the university should crown +the edifice, the foundations of which are laid in the school. +University education should not be something distinct from elementary +education, but should be the natural outgrowth and development of the +latter. Now I have a very clear conviction as to what elementary +education ought to be; what it really may be, when properly organised; +and what I think it will be, before many years have passed over our +heads, in England and in America. Such education should enable an +average boy of fifteen or sixteen to read and write his own language +with ease and accuracy, and with a sense of literary excellence derived +from the study of our classic writers: to have a general acquaintance +with the history of his own country and with the great laws of social +existence; to have acquired the rudiments of the physical and +psychological sciences, and a fair knowledge of elementary arithmetic +and geometry. He should have obtained an acquaintance with logic rather +by example than by precept; while the acquirement of the elements of +music and drawing should have been pleasure rather than work.</P> + +<P>It may sound strange to many ears if I venture to maintain the +proposition that a young person, educated thus far, has had a liberal, +though perhaps not a full, education. But it seems to me that such +training as that to which I have referred may be termed liberal, in +both the senses in which that word is employed, with perfect accuracy. +In the first place, it is liberal in breadth. It extends over the whole +ground of things to be known and of faculties to be trained, and it +gives equal importance to the two great sides of human activity--art +and science. In the second place, it is liberal in the sense of being +an education fitted for free men; for men to whom every career is open, +and from whom their country may demand that they should be fitted to +perform the duties of any career. I cannot too strongly impress upon +you the fact that, with such a primary education as this, and with no +more than is to be obtained by building strictly upon its lines, a man +of ability may become a great writer or speaker, a statesman, a lawyer, +a man of science, painter, sculptor, architect, or musician. That even +development of all a man's faculties, which is what properly +constitutes culture, may be effected by such an education, while it +opens the way for the indefinite strengthening of any special +capabilities with which he may be gifted.</P> + +<P>In a country like this, where most men have to carve out their own +fortunes and devote themselves early to the practical affairs of life, +comparatively few can hope to pursue their studies up to, still less +beyond, the age of manhood. But it is of vital importance to the +welfare of the community that those who are relieved from the need of +making a livelihood, and still more, those who are stirred by the +divine impulses of intellectual thirst or artistic genius, should be +enabled to devote themselves to the higher service of their kind, as +centres of intelligence, interpreters of Nature, or creators of new +forms of beauty. And it is the function of a university to furnish such +men with the means of becoming that which it is their privilege and +duty to be. To this end the university need cover no ground foreign to +that occupied by the elementary school. Indeed it cannot; for the +elementary instruction which I have referred to embraces all the kinds +of real knowledge and mental activity possible to man. The university +can add no new departments of knowledge, can offer no new fields of +mental activity; but what it can do is to intensify and specialise the +instruction in each department. Thus literature and philology, +represented in the elementary school by English alone, in the +university will extend over the ancient and modern languages. History, +which, like charity, best begins at home, but, like charity, should not +end there, will ramify into anthropology, archaeology, political +history, and geography, with the history of the growth of the human +mind and of its products in the shape of philosophy, science, and art. +And the university will present to the student libraries, museums of +antiquities, collections of coins, and the like, which will efficiently +subserve these studies. Instruction in the elements of social economy, +a most essential, but hitherto sadly-neglected part of elementary +education, will develop in the university into political economy, +sociology, and law. Physical science will have its great divisions of +physical geography, with geology and astronomy; physics; chemistry and +biology; represented not merely by professors and their lectures, but +by laboratories, in which the students, under guidance of +demonstrators, will work out facts for themselves and come into that +direct contact with reality which constitutes the fundamental +distinction of scientific education. Mathematics will soar into its +highest regions; while the high peaks of philosophy may be scaled by +those whose aptitude for abstract thought has been awakened by +elementary logic. Finally, schools of pictorial and plastic art, of +architecture, and of music, will offer a thorough discipline in the +principles and practice of art to those in whom lies nascent the rare +faculty of aesthetic representation, or the still rarer powers of +creative genius.</P> + +<P>The primary school and the university are the alpha and omega of +education. Whether institutions intermediate between these (so-called +secondary schools) should exist, appears to me to be a question of +practical convenience. If such schools are established, the important +thing is that they should be true intermediaries between the primary +school and the university, keeping on the wide track of general +culture, and not sacrificing one branch of knowledge for another.</P> + +<P>Such appear to me to be the broad outlines of the relations which the +university, regarded as a place of education, ought to bear to the +school, but a number of points of detail require some consideration, +however briefly and imperfectly I can deal with them. In the first +place, there is the important question of the limitations which should +be fixed to the entrance into the university; or, what qualifications +should be required of those who propose to take advantage of the higher +training offered by the university. On the one hand, it is obviously +desirable that the time and opportunities of the university should not +be wasted in conferring such elementary instruction as can be obtained +elsewhere; while, on the other hand, it is no less desirable that the +higher instruction of the university should be made accessible to every +one who can take advantage of it, although he may not have been able to +go through any very extended course of education. My own feeling is +distinctly against any absolute and defined preliminary examination, +the passing of which shall be an essential condition of admission to +the university. I would admit to the university any one who could be +reasonably expected to profit by the instruction offered to him; and I +should be inclined, on the whole, to test the fitness of the student, +not by examination before he enters the university, but at the end of +his first term of study. If, on examination in the branches of +knowledge to which he has devoted himself, he show himself deficient in +industry or in capacity, it will be best for the university and best +for himself, to prevent him from pursuing a vocation for which he is +obviously unfit. And I hardly know of any other method than this by +which his fitness or unfitness can be safely ascertained, though no +doubt a good deal may be done, not by formal cut and dried examination, +but by judicious questioning, at the outset of his career.</P> + +<P>Another very important and difficult practical question is, whether a +definite course of study shall be laid down for those who enter the +university; whether a curriculum shall be prescribed; or whether the +student shall be allowed to range at will among the subjects which are +open to him. And this question is inseparably connected with another, +namely, the conferring of degrees. It is obviously impossible that any +student should pass through the whole of the series of courses of +instruction offered by a university. If a degree is to be conferred as +a mark of proficiency in knowledge, it must be given on the ground that +the candidate is proficient in a certain fraction of those studies; and +then will arise the necessity of insuring an equivalency of degrees, so +that the course by which a degree is obtained shall mark approximately +an equal amount of labour and of acquirements, in all cases. But this +equivalency can hardly be secured in any other way than by prescribing +a series of definite lines of study. This is a matter which will +require grave consideration. The important points to bear in mind, I +think, are that there should not be too many subjects in the +curriculum, and that the aim should be the attainment of thorough and +sound knowledge of each.</P> + +<P>One half of the Johns Hopkins bequest is devoted to the establishment +of a hospital, and it was the desire of the testator that the +university and the hospital should co-operate in the promotion of +medical education. The trustees will unquestionably take the best +advice that is to be had as to the construction and administration of +the hospital. In respect to the former point, they will doubtless +remember that a hospital may be so arranged as to kill more than it +cures; and, in regard to the latter, that a hospital may spread the +spirit of pauperism among the well-to-do, as well as relieve the +sufferings of the destitute. It is not for me to speak on these +topics--rather let me confine myself to the one matter on which my +experience as a student of medicine, and an examiner of long standing, +who has taken a great interest in the subject of medical education, may +entitle me to a hearing. I mean the nature of medical education itself, +and the co-operation of the university in its promotion.</P> + +<P>What is the object of medical education? It is to enable the +practitioner, on the one hand, to prevent disease by his knowledge of +hygiene; on the other hand, to divine its nature, and to alleviate or +cure it, by his knowledge of pathology, therapeutics, and practical +medicine. That is his business in life, and if he has not a thorough +and practical knowledge of the conditions of health, of the causes +which tend to the establishment of disease, of the meaning of symptoms, +and of the uses of medicines and operative appliances, he is +incompetent, even if he were the best anatomist, or physiologist, or +chemist, that ever took a gold medal or won a prize certificate. This +is one great truth respecting medical education. Another is, that all +practice in medicine is based upon theory of some sort or other; and +therefore, that it is desirable to have such theory in the closest +possible accordance with fact. The veriest empiric who gives a drug in +one case because he has seen it do good in another of apparently the +same sort, acts upon the theory that similarity of superficial symptoms +means similarity of lesions; which, by the way, is perhaps as wild an +hypothesis as could be invented. To understand the nature of disease we +must understand health, and the understanding of the healthy body means +the having a knowledge of its structure and of the way in which its +manifold actions are performed, which is what is technically termed +human anatomy and human physiology. The physiologist again must needs +possess an acquaintance with physics and chemistry, inasmuch as +physiology is, to a great extent, applied physics and chemistry. For +ordinary purposes a limited amount of such knowledge is all that is +needful; but for the pursuit of the higher branches of physiology no +knowledge of these branches of science can be too extensive, or too +profound. Again, what we call therapeutics, which has to do with the +action of drugs and medicines on the living organism, is, strictly +speaking, a branch of experimental physiology, and is daily receiving a +greater and greater experimental development.</P> + +<P>The third great fact which is to be taken into consideration in dealing +with medical education, is that the practical necessities of life do +not, as a rule, allow aspirants to medical practice to give more than +three, or it may be four years to their studies. Let us put it at four +years, and then reflect that, in the course of this time, a young man +fresh from school has to acquaint himself with medicine, surgery, +obstetrics, therapeutics, pathology, hygiene, as well as with the +anatomy and the physiology of the human body; and that his knowledge +should be of such a character that it can be relied upon in any +emergency, and always ready for practical application. Consider, in +addition, that the medical practitioner may be called upon, at any +moment, to give evidence in a court of justice in a criminal case; and +that it is therefore well that he should know something of the laws of +evidence, and of what we call medical jurisprudence. On a medical +certificate, a man may be taken from his home and from his business and +confined in a lunatic asylum; surely, therefore, it is desirable that +the medical practitioner should have some rational and clear +conceptions as to the nature and symptoms of mental disease. Bearing in +mind all these requirements of medical education, you will admit that +the burden on the young aspirant for the medical profession is somewhat +of the heaviest, and that it needs some care to prevent his +intellectual back from being broken.</P> + +<P>Those who are acquainted with the existing systems of medical education +will observe that, long as is the catalogue of studies which I have +enumerated, I have omitted to mention several that enter into the usual +medical curriculum of the present day. I have said not a word about +zoology, comparative anatomy, botany, or materia medica. Assuredly this +is from no light estimate of the value or importance of such studies in +themselves. It may be taken for granted that I should be the last +person in the world to object to the teaching of zoology, or +comparative anatomy, in themselves; but I have the strongest feeling +that, considering the number and the gravity of those studies through +which a medical man must pass, if he is to be competent to discharge +the serious duties which devolve upon him, subjects which lie so remote +as these do from his practical pursuits should be rigorously excluded. +The young man, who has enough to do in order to acquire such +familiarity with the structure of the human body as will enable him to +perform the operations of surgery, ought not, in my judgment, to be +occupied with investigations into the anatomy of crabs and starfishes. +Undoubtedly the doctor should know the common poisonous plants of his +own country when he sees them; but that knowledge may be obtained by a +few hours devoted to the examination of specimens of such plants, and +the desirableness of such knowledge is no justification, to my mind, +for spending three months over the study of systematic botany. Again, +materia medica, so far as it is a knowledge of drugs, is the business +of the druggist. In all other callings the necessity of the division of +labour is fully recognised, and it is absurd to require of the medical +man that he should not avail himself of the special knowledge of those +whose business it is to deal in the drugs which he uses. It is all very +well that the physician should know that castor oil comes from a plant, +and castoreum from an animal, and how they are to be prepared; but for +all the practical purposes of his profession that knowledge is not of +one whit more value, has no more relevancy, than the knowledge of how +the steel of his scalpel is made.</P> + +<P>All knowledge is good. It is impossible to say that any fragment of +knowledge, however insignificant or remote from one's ordinary +pursuits, may not some day be turned to account. But in medical +education, above all things, it is to be recollected that, in order to +know a little well, one must be content to be ignorant of a great deal.</P> + +<P>Let it not be supposed that I am proposing to narrow medical education, +or, as the cry is, to lower the standard of the profession. Depend upon +it there is only one way of really ennobling any calling, and that is +to make those who pursue it real masters of their craft, men who can +truly do that which they profess to be able to do, and which they are +credited with being able to do by the public. And there is no position +so ignoble as that of the so-called "liberally-educated practitioner," +who may be able to read Galen in the original; who knows all the +plants, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop upon the wall; but who +finds himself, with the issues of life and death in his hands, +ignorant, blundering, and bewildered, because of his ignorance of the +essential and fundamental truths upon which practice must be based. +Moreover, I venture to say, that any man who has seriously studied all +the essential branches of medical knowledge; who has the needful +acquaintance with the elements of physical science; who has been +brought by medical jurisprudence into contact with law; whose study of +insanity has taken him into the fields of psychology; has <i>ipso facto</i> +received a liberal education.</P> + +<P>Having lightened the medical curriculum by culling out of it everything +which is unessential, we may next consider whether something may not be +done to aid the medical student toward the acquirement of real +knowledge by modifying the system of examination. In England, within my +recollection, it was the practice to require of the medical student +attendance on lectures upon the most diverse topics during three years; +so that it often happened that he would have to listen, in the course +of a day, to four or five lectures upon totally different subjects, in +addition to the hours given to dissection and to hospital practice: and +he was required to keep all the knowledge he could pick up, in this +distracting fashion, at examination point, until, at the end of three +years, he was set down to a table and questioned pell-mell upon all the +different matters with which he had been striving to make acquaintance. +A worse system and one more calculated to obstruct the acquisition of +sound knowledge and to give full play to the "crammer" and the +"grinder" could hardly have been devised by human ingenuity. Of late +years great reforms have taken place. Examinations have been divided so +as to diminish the number of subjects among which the attention has to +be distributed. Practical examination has been largely introduced; but +there still remains, even under the present system, too much of the old +evil inseparable from the contemporaneous pursuit of a multiplicity of +diverse studies.</P> + +<P>Proposals have recently been made to get rid of general examinations +altogether, to permit the student to be examined in each subject at the +end of his attendance on the class; and then, in case of the result +being satisfactory, to allow him to have done with it; and I may say +that this method has been pursued for many years in the Royal School of +Mines in London, and has been found to work very well. It allows the +student to concentrate his mind upon what he is about for the time +being, and then to dismiss it. Those who are occupied in intellectual +work, will, I think, agree with me that it is important, not so much to +know a thing, as to have known it, and known it thoroughly. If you have +once known a thing in this way it is easy to renew your knowledge when +you have forgotten it; and when you begin to take the subject up again, +it slides back upon the familiar grooves with great facility.</P> + +<P>Lastly comes the question as to how the university may co-operate in +advancing medical education. A medical school is strictly a technical +school--a school in which a practical profession is taught--while a +university ought to be a place in which knowledge is obtained without +direct reference to professional purposes. It is clear, therefore, that +a university and its antecedent, the school, may best co-operate with +the medical school by making due provision for the study of those +branches of knowledge which lie at the foundation of medicine.</P> + +<P>At present, young men come to the medical schools without a conception +of even the elements of physical science; they learn, for the first +time, that there are such sciences as physics, chemistry, and +physiology, and are introduced to anatomy as a new thing. It may be +safely said that, with a large proportion of medical students, much of +the first session is wasted in learning how to learn--in familiarising +themselves with utterly strange conceptions, and in awakening their +dormant and wholly untrained powers of observation and of manipulation. +It is difficult to over-estimate the magnitude of the obstacles which +are thrown in the way of scientific training by the existing system of +school education. Not only are men trained in mere book-work, ignorant +of what observation means, but the habit of learning from books alone +begets a disgust of observation. The book-learned student will rather +trust to what he sees in a book than to the witness of his own eyes.</P> + +<P>There is not the least reason why this should be so, and, in fact, when +elementary education becomes that which I have assumed it ought to be, +this state of things will no longer exist. There is not the slightest +difficulty in giving sound elementary instruction in physics, in +chemistry, and in the elements of human physiology, in ordinary +schools. In other words, there is no reason why the student should not +come to the medical school, provided with as much knowledge of these +several sciences as he ordinarily picks up in the course of his first +year of attendance at the medical school.</P> + +<P>I am not saying this without full practical justification for the +statement. For the last eighteen years we have had in England a system +of elementary science teaching carried out under the auspices of the +Science and Art Department, by which elementary scientific instruction +is made readily accessible to the scholars of all the elementary +schools in the country. Commencing with small beginnings, carefully +developed and improved, that system now brings up for examination as +many as seven thousand scholars in the subject of human physiology +alone. I can say that, out of that number, a large proportion have +acquired a fair amount of substantial knowledge; and that no +inconsiderable percentage show as good an acquaintance with human +physiology as used to be exhibited by the average candidates for +medical degrees in the University of London, when I was first an +examiner there twenty years ago; and quite as much knowledge as is +possessed by the ordinary student of medicine at the present day. I am +justified, therefore, in looking forward to the time when the student +who proposes to devote himself to medicine will come, not absolutely +raw and inexperienced as he is at present, but in a certain state of +preparation for further study; and I look to the university to help him +still further forward in that stage of preparation, through the +organisation of its biological department. Here the student will find +means of acquainting himself with the phenomena of life in their +broadest acceptation. He will study not botany and zoology, which, as I +have said, would take him too far away from his ultimate goal; but, by +duly arranged instruction, combined with work in the laboratory upon +the leading types of animal and vegetable life, he will lay a broad, +and at the same time solid, foundation of biological knowledge; he will +come to his medical studies with a comprehension of the great truths of +morphology and of physiology, with his hands trained to dissect and his +eyes taught to see. I have no hesitation in saying that such +preparation is worth a full year added on to the medical curriculum. In +other words, it will set free that much time for attention to those +studies which bear directly upon the student's most grave and serious +duties as a medical practitioner.</P> + +<P>Up to this point I have considered only the teaching aspect of your +great foundation, that function of the university in virtue of which it +plays the part of a reservoir of ascertained truth, so far as our +symbols can ever interpret nature. All can learn; all can drink of this +lake. It is given to few to add to the store of knowledge, to strike +new springs of thought, or to shape new forms of beauty. But so sure as +it is that men live not by bread, but by ideas, so sure is it that the +future of the world lies in the hands of those who are able to carry +the interpretation of nature a step further than their predecessors; so +certain is it that the highest function of a university is to seek out +those men, cherish them, and give their ability to serve their kind +full play.</P> + +<P>I rejoice to observe that the encouragement of research occupies so +prominent a place in your official documents, and in the wise and +liberal inaugural address of your president. This subject of the +encouragement, or, as it is sometimes called, the endowment of +research, has of late years greatly exercised the minds of men in +England. It was one of the main topics of discussion by the members of +the Royal Commission of whom I was one, and who not long since issued +their report, after five years' labour. Many seem to think that this +question is mainly one of money; that you can go into the market and +buy research, and that supply will follow demand, as in the ordinary +course of commerce. This view does not commend itself to my mind. I +know of no more difficult practical problem than the discovery of a +method of encouraging and supporting the original investigator without +opening the door to nepotism and jobbery. My own conviction is +admirably summed up in the passage of your president's address, "that +the best investigators are usually those who have also the +responsibilities of instruction, gaining thus the incitement of +colleagues, the encouragement of pupils, and the observation of the +public."</P> + +<P>At the commencement of this address I ventured to assume that I might, +if I thought fit, criticise the arrangements which have been made by +the board of trustees, but I confess that I have little to do but to +applaud them. Most wise and sagacious seems to me the determination not +to build for the present. It has been my fate to see great educational +funds fossilise into mere bricks and mortar, in the petrifying springs +of architecture, with nothing left to work the institution they were +intended to support. A great warrior is said to have made a desert and +called it peace. Administrators of educational funds have sometimes +made a palace and called it a university. If I may venture to give +advice in a matter which lies out of my proper competency, I would say +that whenever you do build, get an honest bricklayer, and make him +build you just such rooms as you really want, leaving ample space for +expansion. And a century hence, when the Baltimore and Ohio shares are +at one thousand premium, and you have endowed all the professors you +need, and built all the laboratories that are wanted, and have the best +museum and the finest library that can be imagined; then, if you have a +few hundred thousand dollars you don't know what to do with, send for +an architect and tell him to put up a façade. If American is similar to +English experience, any other course will probably lead you into having +some stately structure, good for your architect's fame, but not in the +least what you want.</P> + +<P>It appears to me that what I have ventured to lay down as the +principles which should govern the relations of a university to +education in general, are entirely in accordance with the measures you +have adopted. You have set no restrictions upon access to the +instruction you propose to give; you have provided that such +instruction, either as given by the university or by associated +institutions, should cover the field of human intellectual activity. +You have recognised the importance of encouraging research. You propose +to provide means by which young men, who may be full of zeal for a +literary or for a scientific career, but who also may have mistaken +aspiration for inspiration, may bring their capacities to a test, and +give their powers a fair trial. If such a one fail, his endowment +terminates, and there is no harm done. If he succeed, you may give +power of flight to the genius of a Davy or a Faraday, a Carlyle or a +Locke, whose influence on the future of his fellow-men shall be +absolutely incalculable.</P> + +<P>You have enunciated the principle that "the glory of the university +should rest upon the character of the teachers and scholars, and not +upon their numbers or buildings constructed for their use." And I look +upon it as an essential and most important feature of your plan that +the income of the professors and teachers shall be independent of the +number of students whom they can attract. In this way you provide +against the danger, patent elsewhere, of finding attempts at +improvement obstructed by vested interests; and, in the department of +medical education especially, you are free of the temptation to set +loose upon the world men utterly incompetent to perform the serious and +responsible duties of their profession.</P> + +<P>It is a delicate matter for a stranger to the practical working of your +institutions, like myself, to pretend to give an opinion as to the +organisation of your governing power. I can conceive nothing better +than that it should remain as it is, if you can secure a succession of +wise, liberal, honest, and conscientious men to fill the vacancies that +occur among you. I do not greatly believe in the efficacy of any kind +of machinery for securing such a result; but I would venture to suggest +that the exclusive adoption of the method of co-optation for filling +the vacancies which must occur in your body, appears to me to be +somewhat like a tempting of Providence. Doubtless there are grave +practical objections to the appointment of persons outside of your body +and not directly interested in the welfare of the university; but might +it not be well if there were an understanding that your academic staff +should be officially represented on the board, perhaps even the heads +of one or two independent learned bodies, so that academic opinion and +the views of the outside world might have a certain influence in that +most important matter, the appointment of your professors? I throw out +these suggestions, as I have said, in ignorance of the practical +difficulties that may lie in the way of carrying them into effect, on +the general ground that personal and local influences are very subtle, +and often unconscious, while the future greatness and efficiency of the +noble institution which now commences its work must largely depend upon +its freedom from them.</P> + +<P> * * * * *</P> + +<P>I constantly hear Americans speak of the charm which our old mother +country has for them, of the delight with which they wander through the +streets of ancient towns, or climb the battlements of mediaeval +strongholds, the names of which are indissolubly associated with the +great epochs of that noble literature which is our common inheritance; +or with the blood-stained steps of that secular progress, by which the +descendants of the savage Britons and of the wild pirates of the North +Sea have become converted into warriors of order and champions of +peaceful freedom, exhausting what still remains of the old Berserk +spirit in subduing nature, and turning the wilderness into a garden. +But anticipation has no less charm than retrospect, and to an +Englishman landing upon your shores for the first time, travelling for +hundreds of miles through strings of great and well-ordered cities, +seeing your enormous actual, and almost infinite potential, wealth in +all commodities, and in the energy and ability which turn wealth to +account, there is something sublime in the vista of the future. Do not +suppose that I am pandering to what is commonly understood by national +pride. I cannot say that I am in the slightest degree impressed by your +bigness, or your material resources, as such. Size is not grandeur, and +territory does not make a nation. The great issue, about which hangs a +true sublimity, and the terror of overhanging fate, is what are you +going to do with all these things? What is to be the end to which these +are to be the means? You are making a novel experiment in politics on +the greatest scale which the world has yet seen. Forty millions at +your first centenary, it is reasonably to be expected that, at the +second, these states will be occupied by two hundred millions of +English-speaking people, spread over an area as large as that of +Europe, and with climates and interests as diverse as those of Spain +and Scandinavia, England and Russia. You and your descendants have to +ascertain whether this great mass will hold together under the forms of +a republic, and the despotic reality of universal suffrage; whether +state rights will hold out against centralisation, without separation; +whether centralisation will get the better, without actual or disguised +monarchy; whether shifting corruption is better than a permanent +bureaucracy; and as population thickens in your great cities, and the +pressure of want is felt, the gaunt spectre of pauperism will stalk +among you, and communism and socialism will claim to be heard. Truly +America has a great future before her; great in toil, in care, and in +responsibility; great in true glory if she be guided in wisdom and +righteousness; great in shame if she fail. I cannot understand why +other nations should envy you, or be blind to the fact that it is for +the highest interest of mankind that you should succeed; but the one +condition of success, your sole safeguard, is the moral worth and +intellectual clearness of the individual citizen. Education cannot give +these, but it may cherish them and bring them to the front in whatever +station of society they are to be found; and the universities ought to +be, and may be, the fortresses of the higher life of the nation.</P> + +<P>May the university which commences its practical activity to-morrow +abundantly fulfil its high purpose; may its renown as a seat of true +learning, a centre of free inquiry, a focus of intellectual light, +increase year by year, until men wander hither from all parts of the +earth, as of old they sought Bologna, or Paris, or Oxford.</P> + +<P>And it is pleasant to me to fancy that, among the English students who +are drawn to you at that time, there may linger a dim tradition that +a countryman of theirs was permitted to address you as he has done +to-day, and to feel as if your hopes were his hopes and your success +his joy.</P> + +<br><hr><br> + +<P><b>Footnotes</b></P> +<ol> +<li><a name="IX1">Delivered</a> at the formal opening of the Johns Hopkins University at +Baltimore, U.S., September 12. The total amount bequeathed by Johns +Hopkins is more than 7,000,000 dollars. The sum of 3,500,000 dollars is +appropriated to a university, a like sum to a hospital, and the rest to +local institutions of education and charity.</li> +</ol> +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="X">X</a></P> + +<h4>ON THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY</h4> + +<P>[1876]</P> + +<P>It is my duty to-night to speak about the study of Biology, and while +it may be that there are many of my audience who are quite familiar +with that study, yet as a lecturer of some standing, it would, I know +by experience, be very bad policy on my part to suppose such to be +extensively the case. On the contrary, I must imagine that there are +many of you who would like to know what Biology is; that there are +others who have that amount of information, but would nevertheless +gladly hear why it should be worth their while to study Biology; and +yet others, again, to whom these two points are clear, but who desire +to learn how they had best study it, and, finally, when they had best +study it.</P> + +<P>I shall, therefore, address myself to the endeavour to give you some +answer to these four questions--what Biology is; why it should be +studied; how it should be studied; and when it should be studied.</P> + +<P>In the first place, in respect to what Biology is, there are, I +believe, some persons who imagine that the term "Biology" is simply a +new-fangled denomination, a neologism in short, for what used to be +known under the title of "Natural History;" but I shall try to show +you, on the contrary, that the word is the expression of the growth of +science during the last 200 years, and came into existence half a +century ago.</P> + +<P>At the revival of learning, knowledge was divided into two kinds--the +knowledge of nature and the knowledge of man; for it was the current +idea then (and a great deal of that ancient conception still remains) +that there was a sort of essential antithesis, not to say antagonism, +between nature and man; and that the two had not very much to do with +one another, except that the one was oftentimes exceedingly troublesome +to the other. Though it is one of the salient merits of our great +philosophers of the seventeenth century, that they recognised but one +scientific method, applicable alike to man and to nature, we find this +notion of the existence of a broad distinction between nature and man +in the writings both of Bacon and of Hobbes of Malmesbury; and I have +brought with me that famous work which is now so little known, greatly +as it deserves to be studied, "The Leviathan," in order that I may put +to you in the wonderfully terse and clear language of Thomas Hobbes, +what was his view of the matter. He says:--</P> + +<P>"The register of knowledge of fact is called history. Whereof there be +two sorts, one called natural history; which is the history of such +facts or effects of nature as have no dependence on man's will; such as +are the histories of metals, plants, animals, regions, and the like. +The other is civil history; which is the history of the voluntary +actions of men in commonwealths."</P> + +<P>So that all history of fact was divided into these two great groups of +natural and of civil history. The Royal Society was in course of +foundation about the time that Hobbes was writing this book, which was +published in 1651; and that Society was termed a "Society for the +Improvement of Natural Knowledge," which was then nearly the same thing +as a "Society for the Improvement of Natural History." As time went on, +and the various branches of human knowledge became more distinctly +developed and separated from one another, it was found that some were +much more susceptible of precise mathematical treatment than others. +The publication of the "Principia" of Newton, which probably gave a +greater stimulus to physical science than any work ever published +before, or which is likely to be published hereafter, showed that +precise mathematical methods were applicable to those branches of +science such as astronomy, and what we now call physics, which occupy a +very large portion of the domain of what the older writers understood +by natural history. And inasmuch as the partly deductive and partly +experimental methods of treatment to which Newton and others subjected +these branches of human knowledge, showed that the phenomena of nature +which belonged to them were susceptible of explanation, and thereby +came within the reach of what was called "philosophy" in those days; so +much of this kind of knowledge as was not included under astronomy came +to be spoken of as "natural philosophy"--a term which Bacon had +employed in a much wider sense. Time went on, and yet other branches of +science developed themselves. Chemistry took a definite shape; and +since all these sciences, such as astronomy, natural philosophy, and +chemistry, were susceptible either of mathematical treatment or of +experimental treatment, or of both, a broad distinction was drawn +between the experimental branches of what had previously been called +natural history and the observational branches--those in which +experiment was (or appeared to be) of doubtful use, and where, at that +time, mathematical methods were inapplicable. Under these circumstances +the old name of "Natural History" stuck by the residuum, by those +phenomena which were not, at that time, susceptible of mathematical or +experimental treatment; that is to say, those phenomena of nature which +come now under the general heads of physical geography, geology, +mineralogy, the history of plants, and the history of animals. It was +in this sense that the term was understood by the great writers of the +middle of the last century--Buffon and Linnaeus--by Buffon in his great +work, the "Histoire Naturelle Générale," and by Linnaeus in his +splendid achievement, the "Systema Naturae." The subjects they deal +with are spoken of as "Natural History," and they called themselves and +were called "Naturalists." But you will observe that this was not the +original meaning of these terms; but that they had, by this time, +acquired a signification widely different from that which they +possessed primitively.</P> + +<P>The sense in which "Natural History" was used at the time I am now +speaking of has, to a certain extent, endured to the present day. There +are now in existence in some of our northern universities, chairs of +"Civil and Natural History," in which "Natural History" is used to +indicate exactly what Hobbes and Bacon meant by that term. The unhappy +incumbent of the chair of Natural History is, or was, supposed to cover +the whole ground of geology, mineralogy, and zoology, perhaps even +botany, in his lectures.</P> + +<P>But as science made the marvellous progress which it did make at the +latter end of the last and the beginning of the present century, +thinking men began to discern that under this title of "Natural +History" there were included very heterogeneous constituents--that, for +example, geology and mineralogy were, in many respects, widely +different from botany and zoology; that a man might obtain an extensive +knowledge of the structure and functions of plants and animals, without +having need to enter upon the study of geology or mineralogy, and +<i>vice versâ</i>; and, further as knowledge advanced, it became clear +that there was a great analogy, a very close alliance, between those +two sciences, of botany and zoology which deal with human beings, while +they are much more widely separated from all other studies. It is due +to Buffon to remark that he clearly recognised this great fact. He +says: "Ces deux genres d'êtres organisés [les animaux et les végétaux] +ont beaucoup plus de propriétés communes que de différences réelles." +Therefore, it is not wonderful that, at the beginning of the present +century, in two different countries, and so far as I know, without any +intercommunication, two famous men clearly conceived the notion of +uniting the sciences which deal with living matter into one whole, and +of dealing with them as one discipline. In fact, I may say there were +three men to whom this idea occurred contemporaneously, although there +were but two who carried it into effect, and only one who worked it out +completely. The persons to whom I refer were the eminent physiologist +Bichat, and the great naturalist Lamarck, in France; and a +distinguished German, Treviranus. Bichat [<a href="#X1">1</a>] assumed the existence of a +special group of "physiological" sciences. Lamarck, in a work published +in 1801, [<a href="#X2">2</a>] for the first time made use of the name "Biologie," from +the two Greek words which signify a discourse upon life and living +things. About the same time, it occurred to Treviranus, that all those +sciences which deal with living matter are essentially and +fundamentally one, and ought to be treated as a whole; and, in the year +1802, he published the first volume of what he also called "Biologie." +Treviranus's great merit lies in this, that he worked out his idea, and +wrote the very remarkable book to which I refer. It consists of six +volumes, and occupied its author for twenty years--from 1802 to 1822.</P> + +<P>That is the origin of the term "Biology"; and that is how it has come +about that all clear thinkers and lovers of consistent nomenclature +have substituted for the old confusing name of "Natural History," which +has conveyed so many meanings, the term "Biology" which denotes the +whole of the sciences which deal with living things, whether they be +animals or whether they be plants. Some little time ago--in the course +of this year, I think--I was favoured by a learned classic, Dr. Field +of Norwich, with a disquisition, in which he endeavourved to prove +that, from a philological point of view, neither Treviranus nor Lamarck +had any right to coin this new word "Biology" for their purpose; that, +in fact, the Greek word "Bios" had relation only to human life and +human affairs, and that a different word was employed by the Greeks +when they wished to speak of the life of animals and plants. So Dr. +Field tells us we are all wrong in using the term biology, and that we +ought to employ another; only he is not sure about the propriety of +that which he proposes as a substitute. It is a somewhat hard +one--"zootocology." I am sorry we are wrong, because we are likely to +continue so. In these matters we must have some sort of "Statute of +Limitations." When a name has been employed for half a century, persons +of authority [<a href="#X3">3</a>] have been using it, and its sense has become well +understood, I am afraid people will go on using it, whatever the weight +of philological objection.</P> + +<P>Now that we have arrived at the origin of this word "Biology," the next +point to consider is: What ground does it cover? I have said that in +its strict technical sense, it denotes all the phenomena which are +exhibited by living things, as distinguished from those which are not +living; but while that is all very well, so long as we confine +ourselves to the lower animals and to plants, it lands us in +considerable difficulties when we reach the higher forms of living +things. For whatever view we may entertain about the nature of man, one +thing is perfectly certain, that he is a living creature. Hence, if our +definition is to be interpreted strictly, we must include man and all +his ways and works under the head of Biology; in which case, we should +find that psychology, politics, and political economy would be absorbed +into the province of Biology. In fact, civil history would be merged in +natural history. In strict logic it may be hard to object to this +course, because no one can doubt that the rudiments and outlines of our +own mental phenomena are traceable among the lower animals. They have +their economy and their polity, and if, as is always admitted, the +polity of bees and the commonwealth of wolves fall within the purview +of the biologist proper, it becomes hard to say why we should not +include therein human affairs, which, in so many cases, resemble those +of the bees in zealous getting, and are not without a certain parity in +the proceedings of the wolves. The real fact is that we biologists are +a self-sacrificing people; and inasmuch as, on a moderate estimate, +there are about a quarter of a million different species of animals and +plants to know about already, we feel that we have more than sufficient +territory. There has been a sort of practical convention by which we +give up to a different branch of science what Bacon and Hobbes would +have called "Civil History." That branch of science has constituted +itself under the head of Sociology. I may use phraseology which, at +present, will be well understood and say that we have allowed that +province of Biology to become autonomous; but I should like you to +recollect that that is a sacrifice, and that you should not be +surprised if it occasionally happens that you see a biologist +apparently trespassing in the region of philosophy or politics; or +meddling with human education; because, after all, that is a part of +his kingdom which he has only voluntarily forsaken.</P> + +<P>Having now defined the meaning of the word Biology, and having +indicated the general scope of Biological Science, I turn to my second +question, which is--Why should we study Biology? Possibly the time may +come when that will seem a very odd question. That we, living +creatures, should not feel a certain amount of interest in what it is +that constitutes our life will eventually, under altered ideas of the +fittest objects of human inquiry, appear to be a singular phenomenon; +but at present, judging by the practice of teachers and educators, +Biology would seem to be a topic that does not concern us at all. I +propose to put before you a few considerations with which I dare say +many will be familiar already, but which will suffice to show--not +fully, because to demonstrate this point fully would take a great many +lectures--that there are some very good and substantial reasons why it +may be advisable that we should know something about this branch of +human learning.</P> + +<P>I myself entirely agree with another sentiment of the philosopher of +Malmesbury, "that the scope of all speculation is the performance of +some action or thing to be done," and I have not any very great respect +for, or interest in, mere knowing as such. I judge of the value of +human pursuits by their bearing upon human interests; in other words, +by their utility; but I should like that we should quite clearly +understand what it is that we mean by this word "utility." In an +Englishman's mouth it generally means that by which we get pudding or +praise, or both. I have no doubt that is one meaning of the word +utility, but it by no means includes all I mean by utility. I think +that knowledge of every kind is useful in proportion as it tends to +give people right ideas, which are essential to the foundation of right +practice, and to remove wrong ideas, which are the no less essential +foundations and fertile mothers of every description of error in +practice. And inasmuch as, whatever practical people may say, this +world is, after all, absolutely governed by ideas, and very often by +the wildest and most hypothetical ideas, it is a matter of the very +greatest importance that our theories of things, and even of things +that seem a long way apart from our daily lives, should be as far as +possible true, and as far as possible removed from error. It is not +only in the coarser, practical sense of the word "utility," but in this +higher and broader sense, that I measure the value of the study of +biology by its utility; and I shall try to point out to you that you +will feel the need of some knowledge of biology at a great many turns +of this present nineteenth century life of ours. For example, most of +us attach great importance to the conception which we entertain of the +position of man in this universe and his relation to the rest of +nature. We have almost all been told, and most of us hold by the +tradition, that man occupies an isolated and peculiar position in +nature; that though he is in the world he is not of the world; that his +relations to things about him are of a remote character; that his +origin is recent, his duration likely to be short, and that he is the +great central figure round which other things in this world revolve. +But this is not what the biologist tells us.</P> + +<P>At the present moment you will be kind enough to separate me from them, +because it is in no way essential to my present argument that I should +advocate their views. Don't suppose that I am saying this for the +purpose of escaping the responsibility of their beliefs; indeed, at +other times and in other places, I do not think that point has been +left doubtful; but I want clearly to point out to you that for my +present argument they may all be wrong; and, nevertheless, my argument +will hold good. The biologists tell us that all this is an entire +mistake. They turn to the physical organisation of man. They examine +his whole structure, his bony frame and all that clothes it. They +resolve him into the finest particles into which the microscope will +enable them to break him up. They consider the performance of his +various functions and activities, and they look at the manner in which +he occurs on the surface of the world. Then they turn to other animals, +and taking the first handy domestic animal--say a dog--they profess to +be able to demonstrate that the analysis of the dog leads them, in +gross, to precisely the same results as the analysis of the man; that +they find almost identically the same bones, having the same relations; +that they can name the muscles of the dog by the names of the muscles +of the man, and the nerves of the dog by those of the nerves of the +man, and that, such structures and organs of sense as we find in the +man such also we find in the dog; they analyse the brain and spinal +cord and they find that the nomenclature which fits, the one answers +for the other. They carry their microscopic inquiries in the case of +the dog as far as they can, and they find that his body is resolvable +into the same elements as those of the man. Moreover, they trace back +the dog's and the man's development, and they find that, at a certain +stage of their existence, the two creatures are not distinguishable the +one from the other; they find that the dog and his kind have a certain +distribution over the surface of the world, comparable in its way to +the distribution of the human species. What is true of the dog they +tell us is true of all the higher animals; and they assert that they +can lay down a common plan for the whole of these creatures, and regard +the man and the dog, the horse and the ox as minor modifications of one +great fundamental unity. Moreover, the investigations of the last +three-quarters of a century have proved, they tell us, that similar +inquiries, carried out through all the different kinds of animals which +are met with in nature, will lead us, not in one straight series, but +by many roads, step by step, gradation by gradation, from man, at the +summit, to specks of animated jelly at the bottom of the series. So +that the idea of Leibnitz, and of Bonnet, that animals form a great +scale of being, in which there are a series of gradations from the most +complicated form to the lowest and simplest; that idea, though not +exactly in the form in which it was propounded by those philosophers, +turns out to be substantially correct. More than this, when biologists +pursue their investigations into the vegetable world, they find that +they can, in the same way, follow out the structure of the plant, from +the most gigantic and complicated trees down through a similar series +of gradations, until they arrive at specks of animated jelly, which +they are puzzled to distinguish from those specks which they reached by +the animal road.</P> + +<P>Thus, biologists have arrived at the conclusion that a fundamental +uniformity of structure pervades the animal and vegetable worlds, and +that plants and animals differ from one another simply as diverse +modifications of the same great general plan.</P> + +<P>Again, they tell us the same story in regard to the study of function. +They admit the large and important interval which, at the present time, +separates the manifestations of the mental faculties observable in the +higher forms of mankind, and even in the lower forms, such as we know +them, from those exhibited by other animals; but, at the same time, +they tell us that the foundations, or rudiments, of almost all the +faculties of man are to be met with in the lower animals; that there is +a unity of mental faculty as well as of bodily structure, and that, +here also, the difference is a difference of degree and not of kind. I +said "almost all," for a reason. Among the many distinctions which have +been drawn between the lower creatures and ourselves, there is one +which is hardly ever insisted on, [<a href="#X4">4</a>] but which may be very fitly +spoken of in a place so largely devoted to Art as that in which we are +assembled. It is this, that while, among various kinds of animals, it +is possible to discover traces of all the other faculties of man, +especially the faculty of mimicry, yet that particular form of mimicry +which shows itself in the imitation of form, either by modelling or by +drawing, is not to be met with. As far as I know, there is no sculpture +or modelling, and decidedly no painting or drawing, of animal origin. I +mention the fact, in order that such comfort may be derived therefrom +as artists may feel inclined to take.</P> + +<P>If what the biologists tell us is true, it will be needful to get rid +of our erroneous conceptions of man, and of his place in nature, and to +substitute right ones for them. But it is impossible to form any +judgment as to whether the biologists are right or wrong, unless we are +able to appreciate the nature of the arguments which they have to +offer.</P> + +<P>One would almost think this to be a self-evident proposition. I wonder +what a scholar would say to the man who should undertake to criticise a +difficult passage in a Greek play, but who obviously had not acquainted +himself with the rudiments of Greek grammar. And yet, before giving +positive opinions about these high questions of Biology, people not +only do not seem to think it necessary to be acquainted with the +grammar of the subject, but they have not even mastered the alphabet. +You find criticism and denunciation showered about by persons who not +only have not attempted to go through the discipline necessary to +enable them to be judges, but who have not even reached that stage of +emergence from ignorance in which the knowledge that such a discipline +is necessary dawns upon the mind. I have had to watch with some +attention--in fact I have been favoured with a good deal of it +myself--the sort of criticism with which biologists and biological +teachings are visited. I am told every now and then that there is a +"brilliant article" [<a href="#X5">5</a>] in so-and-so, in which we are all demolished. I +used to read these things once, but I am getting old now, and I have +ceased to attend very much to this cry of "wolf." When one does read +any of these productions, what one finds generally, on the face of it +is, that the brilliant critic is devoid of even the elements of +biological knowledge, and that his brilliancy is like the light given +out by the crackling of thorns under a pot of which Solomon speaks. So +far as I recollect, Solomon makes use of the image for purposes of +comparison; but I will not proceed further into that matter.</P> + +<P>Two things must be obvious: in the first place, that every man who has +the interests of truth at heart must earnestly desire that every +well-founded and just criticism that can be made should be made; but +that, in the second place, it is essential to anybody's being able to +benefit by criticism, that the critic should know what he is talking +about, and be in a position to form a mental image of the facts +symbolised by the words he uses. If not, it is as obvious in the case +of a biological argument, as it is in that of a historical or +philological discussion, that such criticism is a mere waste of time on +the part of its author, and wholly undeserving of attention on the part +of those who are criticised. Take it then as an illustration of the +importance of biological study, that thereby alone are men able to form +something like a rational conception of what constitutes valuable +criticism of the teachings of biologists. [<a href="#X6">6</a>]</P> + +<P>Next, I may mention another bearing of biological knowledge--a more +practical one in the ordinary sense of the word. Consider the theory of +infectious disease. Surely that is of interest to all of us. Now the +theory of infectious disease is rapidly being elucidated by biological +study. It is possible to produce, from among the lower animals, +examples of devastating diseases which spread in the same manner as our +infectious disorders, and which are certainly and unmistakably caused +by living organisms. This fact renders it possible, at any rate, that +that doctrine of the causation of infectious disease which is known +under the name of "the germ theory" may be well-founded; and, if so, it +must needs lead to the most important practical measures in dealing +with those terrible visitations. It may be well that the general, as +well as the professional, public should have a sufficient knowledge of +biological truths to be able to take a rational interest in the +discussion of such problems, and to see, what I think they may hope to +see, that, to those who possess a sufficient elementary knowledge of +Biology, they are not all quite open questions.</P> + +<P>Let me mention another important practical illustration of the value of +biological study. Within the last forty years the theory of agriculture +has been revolutionised. The researches of Liebig, and those of our own +Lawes and Gilbert, have had a bearing upon that branch of industry the +importance of which cannot be over-estimated; but the whole of these +new views have grown out of the better explanation of certain processes +which go on in plants; and which, of course, form a part of the +subject-matter of Biology.</P> + +<P>I might go on multiplying these examples, but I see that the clock +won't wait for me, and I must therefore pass to the third question to +which I referred:--Granted that Biology is something worth studying, +what is the best way of studying it? Here I must point out that, since +Biology is a physical science, the method of studying it must needs be +analogous to that which is followed in the other physical sciences. It +has now long been recognised that, if a man wishes to be a chemist, it +is not only necessary that he should read chemical books and attend +chemical lectures, but that he should actually perform the fundamental +experiments in the laboratory for himself, and thus learn exactly what +the words which he finds in his books and hears from his teachers, +mean. If he does not do so, he may read till the crack of doom, but he +will never know much about chemistry. That is what every chemist will +tell you, and the physicist will do the same for his branch of science. +The great changes and improvements in physical and chemical scientific +education, which have taken place of late, have all resulted from the +combination of practical teaching with the reading of books and with +the hearing of lectures. The same thing is true in Biology. Nobody +will ever know anything about Biology except in a dilettante +"paper-philosopher" way, who contents himself with reading books on +botany, zoology, and the like; and the reason of this is simple and +easy to understand. It is that all language is merely symbolical of the +things of which it treats; the more complicated the things, the more +bare is the symbol, and the more its verbal definition requires to be +supplemented by the information derived directly from the handling, and +the seeing, and the touching of the thing symbolised:--that is really +what is at the bottom of the whole matter. It is plain common sense, as +all truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified. If you want +a man to be a tea merchant, you don't tell him to read books about +China or about tea, but you put him into a tea-merchant's office where +he has the handling, the smelling, and the tasting of tea. Without the +sort of knowledge which can be gained only in this practical way, his +exploits as a tea merchant will soon come to a bankrupt termination. +The "paper-philosophers" are under the delusion that physical science +can be mastered as literary accomplishments are acquired, but +unfortunately it is not so. You may read any quantity of books, and you +may be almost as ignorant as you were at starting, if you don't have, +at the back of your minds, the change for words in definite images +which can only be acquired through the operation of your observing +faculties on the phenomena of nature.</P> + +<P>It may be said:--"That is all very well, but you told us just now that +there are probably something like a quarter of a million different +kinds of living and extinct animals and plants, and a human life could +not suffice for the examination of one-fiftieth part of all these." +That is true, but then comes the great convenience of the way things +are arranged; which is, that although there are these immense numbers +of different kinds of living things in existence, yet they are built +up, after all, upon marvellously few plans.</P> + +<P>There are certainly more than 100,000 species of insects, and yet +anybody who knows one insect--if a properly chosen one--will be able +to have a very fair conception of the structure of the whole. I do not +mean to say he will know that structure thoroughly, or as well as it is +desirable he should know it; but he will have enough real knowledge to +enable him to understand what he reads, to have genuine images in his +mind of those structures which become so variously modified in all the +forms of insects he has not seen. In fact, there are such things as +types of form among animals and vegetables, and for the purpose of +getting a definite knowledge of what constitutes the leading +modifications of animal and plant life, it is not needful to examine +more than a comparatively small number of animals and plants.</P> + +<P>Let me tell you what we do in the biological laboratory which is lodged +in a building adjacent to this. There I lecture to a class of students +daily for about four-and-a-half months, and my class have, of course, +their text-books; but the essential part of the whole teaching, and +that which I regard as really the most important part of it, is a +laboratory for practical work, which is simply a room with all the +appliances needed for ordinary dissection. We have tables properly +arranged in regard to light, microscopes, and dissecting instruments, +and we work through the structure of a certain number of animals and +plants. As, for example, among the plants, we take a yeast plant, a +<i>Protococcus</i>, a common mould, a <i>Chara</i>, a fern, and some +flowering plant; among animals we examine such things as an <i>Amoeba</i>, +<i>a Vorticella</i>, and a fresh-water polype. We dissect a star-fish, +an earth-worm, a snail, a squid, and a fresh-water mussel. We +examine a lobster and a cray-fish, and a black beetle. We go on to a +common skate, a cod-fish, a frog, a tortoise, a pigeon, and a rabbit, +and that takes us about all the time we have to give. The purpose of +this course is not to make skilled dissectors, but to give every +student a clear and definite conception, by means of sense-images, of +the characteristic structure of each of the leading modifications of +the animal kingdom; and that is perfectly possible, by going no further +than the length of that list of forms which I have enumerated. If a man +knows the structure of the animals I have mentioned, he has a clear and +exact, however limited, apprehension of the essential features of the +organisation of all those great divisions of the animal and vegetable +kingdoms to which the forms I have mentioned severally belong. And it +then becomes possible for him to read with profit; because every time +he meets with the name of a structure, he has a definite image in his +mind of what the name means in the particular creature he is reading +about, and therefore the reading is not mere reading. It is not mere +repetition of words; but every term employed in the description, we +will say, of a horse, or of an elephant, will call up the image of the +things he had seen in the rabbit, and he is able to form a distinct +conception of that which he has not seen, as a modification of that +which he has seen.</P> + +<P>I find this system to yield excellent results; and I have no hesitation +whatever in saying, that any one who has gone through such a course, +attentively, is in a better position to form a conception of the great +truths of Biology, especially of morphology (which is what we chiefly +deal with), than if he had merely read all the books on that topic put +together.</P> + +<P>The connection of this discourse with the Loan Collection of Scientific +Apparatus arises out of the exhibition in that collection of certain +aids to our laboratory work. Such of you as have visited that very +interesting collection may have noticed a series of diagrams and of +preparations illustrating the structure of a frog. Those diagrams and +preparations have been made for the use of the students in the +biological laboratory. Similar diagrams and preparations illustrating +the structure of all the other forms of life we examine, are either +made or in course of preparation. Thus the student has before him, +first, a picture of the structure he ought to see; secondly, the +structure itself worked out; and if with these aids, and such needful +explanations and practical hints as a demonstrator can supply, he +cannot make out the facts for himself in the materials supplied to him, +he had better take to some other pursuit than that of biological +science.</P> + +<P>I should have been glad to have said a few words about the use of +museums in the study of Biology, but I see that my time is becoming +short, and I have yet another question to answer. Nevertheless, I must, +at the risk of wearying you, say a word or two upon the important +subject of museums. Without doubt there are no helps to the study of +Biology, or rather to some branches of it, which are, or may be, more +important than natural history museums; but, in order to take this +place in regard to Biology, they must be museums of the future. The +museums of the present do not, by any means, do so much for us as they +might do. I do not wish to particularise, but I dare say many of you, +seeking knowledge, or in the laudable desire to employ a holiday +usefully, have visited some great natural history museum. You have +walked through a quarter of a mile of animals, more or less well +stuffed, with their long names written out underneath them; and, unless +your experience is very different from that of most people, the upshot +of it all is that you leave that splendid pile with sore feet, a bad +headache, and a general idea that the animal kingdom is a "mighty maze +without a plan." I do not think that a museum which brings about this +result does all that may be reasonably expected from such an +institution. What is needed in a collection of natural history is that +it should be made as accessible and as useful as possible, on the one +hand to the general public, and on the other to scientific workers. +That need is not met by constructing a sort of happy hunting-ground of +miles of glass cases; and, under the pretence of exhibiting everything +putting the maximum amount of obstacle in the way of those who wish +properly to see anything.</P> + +<P>What the public want is easy and unhindered access to such a collection +as they can understand and appreciate; and what the men of science want +is similar access to the materials of science. To this end the +vast mass of objects of natural history should be divided into two +parts--one open to the public, the other to men of science, every day. +The former division should exemplify all the more important and +interesting forms of life. Explanatory tablets should be attached to +them, and catalogues containing clearly-written popular expositions of +the general significance of the objects exhibited should be provided. +The latter should contain, packed into a comparatively small space, in +rooms adapted for working purposes, the objects of purely scientific +interest. For example, we will say I am an ornithologist. I go to +examine a collection of birds. It is a positive nuisance to have them +stuffed. It is not only sheer waste, but I have to reckon with the +ideas of the bird-stuffer, while, if I have the skin and nobody has +interfered with it, I can form my own judgment as to what the bird was +like. For ornithological purposes, what is needed is not glass cases +full of stuffed birds on perches, but convenient drawers into each of +which a great quantity of skins will go. They occupy no great space and +do not require any expenditure beyond their original cost. But for the +edification of the public, who want to learn indeed, but do not seek +for minute and technical knowledge, the case is different. What one of +the general public walking into a collection of birds desires to see is +not all the birds that can be got together. He does not want to compare +a hundred species of the sparrow tribe side by side; but he wishes to +know what a bird is, and what are the great modifications of bird +structure, and to be able to get at that knowledge easily. What will +best serve his purpose is a comparatively small number of birds +carefully selected, and artistically, as well as accurately, set up; +with their different ages, their nests, their young, their eggs, and +their skeletons side by side; and in accordance with the admirable plan +which is pursued in this museum, a tablet, telling the spectator +in legible characters what they are and what they mean. For the +instruction and recreation of the public such a typical collection +would be of far greater value than any many-acred imitation of Noah's +ark.</P> + +<P>Lastly comes the question as to when biological study may best be +pursued. I do not see any valid reason why it should not be made, to +a certain extent, a part of ordinary school training. I have long +advocated this view, and I am perfectly certain that it can be carried +out with ease, and not only with ease, but with very considerable +profit to those who are taught; but then such instruction must be +adapted to the minds and needs of the scholars. They used to have a +very odd way of teaching the classical languages when I was a boy. The +first task set you was to learn the rules of the Latin grammar in the +Latin language--that being the language you were going to learn! I +thought then that this was an odd way of learning a language, but +did not venture to rebel against the judgment of my superiors. Now, +perhaps, I am not so modest as I was then, and I allow myself to think +that it was a very absurd fashion. But it would be no less absurd, if +we were to set about teaching Biology by putting into the hands of +boys a series of definitions of the classes and orders of the animal +kingdom, and making them repeat them by heart. That is so very +favourite a method of teaching, that I sometimes fancy the spirit of +the old classical system has entered into the new scientific system, in +which case I would much rather that any pretence at scientific teaching +were abolished altogether. What really has to be done is to get into +the young mind some notion of what animal and vegetable life is. In +this matter, you have to consider practical convenience as well as +other things. There are difficulties in the way of a lot of boys making +messes with slugs and snails; it might not work in practice. But there +is a very convenient and handy animal which everybody has at hand, and +that is himself; and it is a very easy and simple matter to obtain +common plants. Hence the general truths of anatomy and physiology can +be taught to young people in a very real fashion by dealing with the +broad facts of human structure. Such viscera as they cannot very well +examine in themselves, such as hearts, lungs, and livers, may be +obtained from the nearest butcher's shop. In respect to teaching +something about the biology of plants, there is no practical +difficulty, because almost any of the common plants will do, and plants +do not make a mess--at least they do not make an unpleasant mess; so +that, in my judgment, the best form of Biology for teaching to very +young people is elementary human physiology on the one hand, and the +elements of botany on the other; beyond that I do not think it will be +feasible to advance for some time to come. But then I see no reason, +why, in secondary schools, and in the Science Classes which are under +the control of the Science and Art Department--and which I may say, in +passing, have in my judgment, done so very much for the diffusion of a +knowledge of science over the country--we should not hope to see +instruction in the elements of Biology carried out, not perhaps to the +same extent, but still upon somewhat the same principle as here. There +is no difficulty, when you have to deal with students of the ages of +fifteen or sixteen, in practising a little dissection and in getting a +notion of, at any rate, the four or five great modifications of the +animal form; and the like is true in regard to the higher anatomy of +plants.</P> + +<P>While, lastly, to all those who are studying biological science with +a view to their own edification merely, or with the intention of +becoming zoologists or botanists; to all those who intend to pursue +physiology--and especially to those who propose to employ the working +years of their lives in the practice of medicine--I say that there is +no training so fitted, or which may be of such important service to +them, as the discipline in practical biological work which I have +sketched out as being pursued in the laboratory hard by.</P> + +<P> * * * * *</P> + +<P>I may add that, beyond all these different classes of persons who may +profit by the study of Biology, there is yet one other. I remember, a +number of years ago, that a gentleman who was a vehement opponent of +Mr. Darwin's views and had written some terrible articles against them, +applied to me to know what was the best way in which he could acquaint +himself with the strongest arguments in favour of evolution. I wrote +back, in all good faith and simplicity, recommending him to go through +a course of comparative anatomy and physiology, and then to study +development. I am sorry to say he was very much displeased, as people +often are with good advice. Notwithstanding this discouraging result, I +venture, as a parting word, to repeat the suggestion, and to say to all +the more or less acute lay and clerical "paper-philosophers" [<a href="#X7">7</a>] who +venture into the regions of biological controversy--Get a little sound, +thorough, practical, elementary instruction in biology.</P> + +<br><hr><br> + +<P><b>Footnotes</b></P> +<ol> +<li><a name="X1">See</a> the distinction between the "sciences physiques" and the +"sciences physiologiques" in the <i>Anatomie Générale</i>, 1801.</li> +<li><a name="X2"><i>Hydrogéologie</i></a>, an. x. (1801).</li> +<li><a name="X3">"The</a> term <i>Biology</i>, which means exactly what we wish to +express, <i>the Science of Life</i>, has often been used, and has of +late become not uncommon, among good writers."--Whewell, <i>Philosophy +of the Inductive Sciences</i>, vol. i. p. 544 (edition of 1847).</li> + +<li><a name="X4">I</a> think that my friend, Professor Allman, was the first to draw +attention to it.</li> +<li><a name="X5">Galileo</a> was troubled by a sort of people whom he called "paper +philosophers," because they fancied that the true reading of nature was +to be detected by the collation of texts. The race is not extinct, but, +as of old, brings forth its "winds of doctrine" by which the +weathercock heads among us are much exercised.</li> +<li><a name="X6">Some</a> critics do not even take the trouble to read. I have recently +been adjured with much solemnity; to state publicly why I have "changed +my opinion" as to the value of the palaeontological evidence of the +occurrence of evolution.<br> + +<br>To this my reply is, Why should I, when that statement was made seven +years ago? An address delivered from the Presidential Chair of the +Geological Society, in 1870, may be said to be a public document, +inasmuch as it not only appeared in the <i>Journal</i> of that learned +body, but was re-published, in 1873, in a volume of <i>Critiques and +Addresses</i>, to which my name is attached. Therein will be found a +pretty full statement of my reasons for enunciating two propositions: +(1) that "when we turn to the higher <i>Vertebrata</i>, the results of +recent investigations, however we may sift and criticise them, seem to +me to leave a clear balance in favour of the evolution of living forms +one from another;" and (2) that the case of the horse is one which +"will stand rigorous criticism." Thus I do not see clearly in what way +I can be said to have changed my opinion, except in the way of +intensifying it, when in consequence of the accumulation of similar +evidence since 1870, I recently spoke of the denial of evolution as not +worth serious consideration.</li> +<li><a name="X7">Writers</a> of this stamp are fond of talking about the Baconian +method. I beg them therefore to lay to heart these two weighty sayings +of the herald of Modern Science:--<br> + +<br>"Syllogismus ex propositionibus constat, propositiones ex verbis, verba +notionum tesserae sunt. Itaque si notiones ipsae (<i>id quod basis rei +est</i>) confusae sint et temere a rebus abstractae, nihil in iis quae +superstruuntur est firmitudinis."--<i>Novum Organon</i>, ii. 14.<br> + +<br>"Huic autem vanitati nonnulli ex modernis summa levitate ita +indulserunt, ut in primo capitulo Geneseos et in libro Job et aliis +scripturis sacris, philosophiam naturalem fundare conati sint; <i>inter +vivos quaerentes mortua</i>."--<i>Ibid</i>. 65.</li> +</ol> +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="XI">XI</a></P> + +<h4>ON ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN PHYSIOLOGY</h4> + +<P>[1877]</P> + +<P>The chief ground upon which I venture to recommend that the teaching of +elementary physiology should form an essential part of any organised +course of instruction in matters pertaining to domestic economy, is, +that a knowledge of even the elements of this subject supplies those +conceptions of the constitution and mode of action of the living body, +and of the nature of health and disease, which prepare the mind to +receive instruction from sanitary science.</P> + +<P>It is, I think, eminently desirable that the hygienist and the +physician should find something in the public mind to which they can +appeal; some little stock of universally acknowledged truths, which may +serve as a foundation for their warnings, and predispose towards an +intelligent obedience to their recommendations.</P> + +<P>Listening to ordinary talk about health, disease, and death, one is +often led to entertain a doubt whether the speakers believe that the +course of natural causation runs as smoothly in the human body as +elsewhere. Indications are too often obvious of a strong, though +perhaps an unavowed and half unconscious, under-current of opinion that +the phenomena of life are not only widely different, in their +superficial characters and in their practical importance, from other +natural events, but that they do not follow in that definite order +which characterises the succession of all other occurrences, and the +statement of which we call a law of nature.</P> + +<P>Hence, I think, arises the want of heartiness of belief in the value of +knowledge respecting the laws of health and disease, and of the +foresight and care to which knowledge is the essential preliminary, +which is so often noticeable; and a corresponding laxity and +carelessness in practice, the results of which are too frequently +lamentable.</P> + +<P>It is said that among the many religious sects of Russia, there is one +which holds that all disease is brought about by the direct and special +interference of the Deity, and which, therefore, looks with repugnance +upon both preventive and curative measures as alike blasphemous +interferences with the will of God. Among ourselves, the "Peculiar +People" are, I believe, the only persons who hold the like doctrine in +its integrity, and carry it out with logical rigour. But many of us are +old enough to recollect that the administration of chloroform in +assuagement of the pangs of child-birth was, at its introduction, +strenuously resisted upon similar grounds.</P> + +<P>I am not sure that the feeling, of which the doctrine to which I have +referred is the full expression, does not lie at the bottom of the +minds of a great many people who yet would vigorously object to give a +verbal assent to the doctrine itself. However this may be, the main +point is that sufficient knowledge has now been acquired of vital +phenomena, to justify the assertion, that the notion, that there is +anything exceptional about these phenomena, receives not a particle of +support from any known fact. On the contrary, there is a vast and an +increasing mass of evidence that birth and death, health and disease, +are as much parts of the ordinary stream of events as the rising and +setting of the sun, or the changes of the moon; and that the living +body is a mechanism, the proper working of which we term health; its +disturbance, disease; its stoppage, death. The activity of this +mechanism is dependent upon many and complicated conditions, some of +which are hopelessly beyond our control, while others are readily +accessible, and are capable of being indefinitely modified by our own +actions. The business of the hygienist and of the physician is to know +the range of these modifiable conditions, and how to influence them +towards the maintenance of health and the prolongation of life; the +business of the general public is to give an intelligent assent, and a +ready obedience based upon that assent, to the rules laid down for +their guidance by such experts. But an intelligent assent is an assent +based upon knowledge, and the knowledge which is here in question means +an acquaintance with the elements of physiology.</P> + +<P>It is not difficult to acquire such knowledge. What is true, to +a certain extent, of all the physical sciences, is eminently +characteristic of physiology--the difficulty of the subject begins +beyond the stage of elementary knowledge, and increases with every +stage of progress. While the most highly trained and the best furnished +intellect may find all its resources insufficient, when it strives to +reach the heights and penetrate into the depths of the problems of +physiology, the elementary and fundamental truths can be made clear to +a child.</P> + +<P>No one can have any difficulty in comprehending the mechanism of +circulation or respiration; or the general mode of operation of the +organ of vision; though the unravelling of all the minutiae of these +processes, may, for the present, baffle the conjoined attacks of the +most accomplished physicists, chemists, and mathematicians. To know the +anatomy of the human body, with even an approximation to thoroughness, +is the work of a life; but as much as is needed for a sound +comprehension of elementary physiological truths, may be learned in a +week.</P> + +<P>A knowledge of the elements of physiology is not only easy of +acquirement, but it may be made a real and practical acquaintance with +the facts, as far as it goes. The subject of study is always at hand, +in one's self. The principal constituents of the skeleton, and the +changes of form of contracting muscles, may be felt through one's own +skin. The beating of one's heart, and its connection with the pulse, +may be noted; the influence of the valves of one's own veins may be +shown; the movements of respiration may be observed; while the +wonderful phenomena of sensation afford an endless field for curious +and interesting self-study. The prick of a needle will yield, in a drop +of one's own blood, material for microscopic observation of phenomena +which lie at the foundation of all biological conceptions; and a cold, +with its concomitant coughing and sneezing, may prove the sweet uses of +adversity by helping one to a clear conception of what is meant by +"reflex action."</P> + +<P>Of course there is a limit to this physiological self-examination. But +there is so close a solidarity between ourselves and our poor relations +of the animal world, that our inaccessible inward parts may be +supplemented by theirs. A comparative anatomist knows that a sheep's +heart and lungs, or eye, must not be confounded with those of a man; +but, so far as the comprehension of the elementary facts of the +physiology of circulation, of respiration, and of vision goes, the one +furnishes the needful anatomical data as well as the other.</P> + +<P>Thus, it is quite possible to give instruction in elementary physiology +in such a manner as, not only to confer knowledge, which, for the +reason I have mentioned, is useful in itself; but to serve the purposes +of a training in accurate observation, and in the methods of reasoning +of physical science. But that is an advantage which I mention only +incidentally, as the present Conference does not deal with education in +the ordinary sense of the word.</P> + +<P>It will not be suspected that I wish to make physiologists of all the +world. It would be as reasonable to accuse an advocate of the "three +R's" of a desire to make an orator, an author, and a mathematician of +everybody. A stumbling reader, a pot-hook writer, and an arithmetician +who has not got beyond the rule of three, is not a person of brilliant +acquirements; but the difference between such a member of society and +one who can neither read, write, nor cipher is almost inexpressible; +and no one nowadays doubts the value of instruction, even if it goes no +farther.</P> + +<P>The saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is, to my mind, +a very dangerous adage. If knowledge is real and genuine, I do not +believe that it is other than a very valuable possession, however +infinitesimal its quantity may be. Indeed, if a little knowledge is +dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?</P> + +<P>If William Harvey's life-long labours had revealed to him a tenth part +of that which may be made sound and real knowledge to our boys and +girls, he would not only have been what he was, the greatest +physiologist of his age, but he would have loomed upon the seventeenth +century as a sort of intellectual portent. Our "little knowledge" would +have been to him a great, astounding, unlooked-for vision of scientific +truth.</P> + +<P>I really see no harm which can come of giving our children a little +knowledge of physiology. But then, as I have said, the instruction must +be real, based upon observation, eked out by good explanatory diagrams +and models, and conveyed by a teacher whose own knowledge has been +acquired by a study of the facts; and not the mere catechismal +parrot-work which too often usurps the place of elementary teaching.</P> + +<P>It is, I hope, unnecessary for me to give a formal contradiction to the +silly fiction, which is assiduously circulated by fanatics who not only +ought to know, but do know, that their assertions are untrue, that I +have advocated the introduction of that experimental discipline which +is absolutely indispensable to the professed physiologist, into +elementary teaching.</P> + +<P>But while I should object to any experimentation which can justly be +called painful, for the purpose of elementary instruction; and, while, +as a member of a late Royal Commission, I gladly did my best to prevent +the infliction of needless pain, for any purpose; I think it is my duty +to take this opportunity of expressing my regret at a condition of the +law which permits a boy to troll for pike, or set lines with live frog +bait, for idle amusement; and, at the same time, lays the teacher of +that boy open to the penalty of fine and imprisonment, if he uses the +same animal for the purpose of exhibiting one of the most beautiful and +instructive of physiological spectacles, the circulation in the web of +the foot. No one could undertake to affirm that a frog is not +inconvenienced by being wrapped up in a wet rag, and having his toes +tied out; and it cannot be denied that inconvenience is a sort of pain. +But you must not inflict the least pain on a vertebrated animal for +scientific purposes (though you may do a good deal in that way for gain +or for sport) without due licence of the Secretary of State for the +Home Department, granted under the authority of the Vivisection Act.</P> + +<P>So it comes about, that, in this present year of grace 1877, two +persons may be charged with cruelty to animals. One has impaled a frog, +and suffered the creature to writhe about in that condition for hours; +the other has pained the animal no more than one of us would be pained +by tying strings round his fingers, and keeping him in the position of +a hydropathic patient. The first offender says "I did it because I find +fishing very amusing," and the magistrate bids him depart in peace; +nay, probably wishes him good sport. The second pleads, "I wanted to +impress a scientific truth, with a distinctness attainable in no other +way, on the minds of my scholars," and the magistrate fines him five +pounds.</P> + +<P>I cannot but think that this is an anomalous and not wholly creditable +state of things.</P> + +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="XII">XII</a></P> + +<h4>ON MEDICAL EDUCATION</h4> + +<P>[1870]</P> + +<P>It has given me sincere pleasure to be here today, at the desire of +your highly respected President and the Council of the College. In +looking back upon my own past, I am sorry to say that I have found that +it is a quarter of a century since I took part in those hopes and in +those fears by which you have all recently been agitated, and which now +are at an end. But, although so long a time has elapsed since I was +moved by the same feelings, I beg leave to assure you that my sympathy +with both victors and vanquished remains fresh--so fresh, indeed, that +I could almost try to persuade myself that, after all, it cannot be so +very long ago. My business during the last hour, however, has been to +show that sympathy with one side only, and I assure you I have done my +best to play my part heartily, and to rejoice in the success of those +who have succeeded. Still, I should like to remind you at the end of it +all, that success on an occasion of this kind, valuable and important +as it is, is in reality only putting the foot upon one rung of the +ladder which leads upwards; and that the rung of a ladder was never +meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable +him to put the other somewhat higher. I trust that you will all regard +these successes as simply reminders that your next business is, having +enjoyed the success of the day, no longer to look at that success, but +to look forward to the next difficulty that is to be conquered. And +now, having had so much to say to the successful candidates, you must +forgive me if I add that a sort of under-current of sympathy has been +going on in my mind all the time for those who have not been +successful, for those valiant knights who have been overthrown in your +tourney, and have not made their appearance in public. I trust that, in +accordance with old custom, they, wounded and bleeding, have been +carried off to their tents, to be carefully tended by the fairest of +maidens; and in these days, when the chances are that every one of such +maidens will be a qualified practitioner, I have no doubt that all the +splinters will have been carefully extracted, and that they are now +physically healed. But there may remain some little fragment of moral +or intellectual discouragement, and therefore I will take the liberty +to remark that your chairman to-day, if he occupied his proper place, +would be among them. Your chairman, in virtue of his position, and for +the brief hour that he occupies that position, is a person of +importance; and it may be some consolation to those who have failed if +I say, that the quarter of a century which I have been speaking of, +takes me back to the time when I was up at the University of London, a +candidate for honours in anatomy and physiology, and when I was +exceedingly well beaten by my excellent friend, Dr. Ransom, of +Nottingham. There is a person here who recollects that circumstance +very well. I refer to your venerated teacher and mine, Dr. Sharpey. He +was at that time one of the examiners in anatomy and physiology, and +you may be quite sure that, as he was one of the examiners, there +remained not the smallest doubt in my mind of the propriety of his +judgment, and I accepted my defeat with the most comfortable assurance +that I had thoroughly well earned it. But, gentlemen, the competitor +having been a worthy one, and the examination a fair one, I cannot say +that I found in that circumstance anything very discouraging. I said to +myself, "Never mind; what's the next thing to be done?" And I found +that policy of "never minding" and going on to the next thing to be +done, to be the most important of all policies in the conduct of +practical life. It does not matter how many tumbles you have in this +life, so long as you do not get dirty when you tumble; it is only the +people who have to stop to be washed and made clean, who must +necessarily lose the race. And I can assure you that there is the +greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life. You +learn that which is of inestimable importance--that there are a great +many people in the world who are just as clever as you are. You learn +to put your trust, by and by, in an economy and frugality of the +exercise of your powers, both moral and intellectual; and you very soon +find out, if you have not found it out before, that patience and +tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of +cleverness. In fact, if I were to go on discoursing on this subject, I +should become almost eloquent in praise of non-success; but, lest so +doing should seem, in any way, to wither well-earned laurels, I +will turn from that topic, and ask you to accompany me in some +considerations touching another subject which has a very profound +interest for me, and which I think ought to have an equally profound +interest for you.</P> + +<P>I presume that the great majority of those whom I address propose to +devote themselves to the profession of medicine; and I do not doubt, +from the evidences of ability which have been given to-day, that I have +before me a number of men who will rise to eminence in that profession, +and who will exert a great and deserved influence upon its future. That +in which I am interested, and about which I wish to speak, is the +subject of medical education, and I venture to speak about it for the +purpose, if I can, of influencing you, who may have the power of +influencing the medical education of the future. You may ask, by what +authority do I venture, being a person not concerned in the practice of +medicine, to meddle with that subject? I can only tell you it is a +fact, of which a number of you I dare say are aware by experience (and +I trust the experience has no painful associations), that I have been +for a considerable number of years (twelve or thirteen years to the +best of my recollection) one of the examiners in the University of +London. You are further aware that the men who come up to the +University of London are the picked men of the medical schools of +London, and therefore such observations as I may have to make upon the +state of knowledge of these gentlemen, if they be justified, in regard +to any faults I may have to find, cannot be held to indicate defects in +the capacity, or in the power of application of those gentlemen, but +must be laid, more or less, to the account of the prevalent system of +medical education. I will tell you what has struck me--but in speaking +in this frank way, as one always does about the defects of one's +friends, I must beg you to disabuse your minds of the notion that I am +alluding to any particular school, or to any particular college, or to +any particular person; and to believe that if I am silent when I should +be glad to speak with high praise, it is because that praise would come +too close to this locality. What has struck me, then, in this long +experience of the men best instructed in physiology from the medical +schools of London is (with the many and brilliant exceptions to which I +have referred), taking it as a whole, and broadly, the singular +unreality of their knowledge of physiology. Now, I use that word +"unreality" advisedly. I do not say "scanty;" on the contrary, there is +plenty of it--a great deal too much of it--but it is the quality, the +nature of the knowledge, which I quarrel with. I know I used to have--I +don't know whether I have now, but I had once upon a time--a bad +reputation among students for setting up a very high standard of +acquirement, and I dare say you may think that the standard of this old +examiner, who happily is now very nearly an extinct examiner, has been +pitched too high. Nothing of the kind, I assure you. The defects I have +noticed, and the faults I have to find, arise entirely from the +circumstance that my standard is pitched too low. This is no paradox, +gentlemen, but quite simply the fact. The knowledge I have looked for +was a real, precise, thorough, and practical knowledge of fundamentals; +whereas that which the best of the candidates, in a large proportion of +cases, have had to give me was a large, extensive, and inaccurate +knowledge of superstructure; and that is what I mean by saying that my +demands went too low and not too high. What I have had to complain of +is, that a large proportion of the gentlemen who come up for physiology +to the University of London do not know it as they know their anatomy, +and have not been taught it as they have been taught their anatomy. +Now, I should not wonder at all if I heard a great many "No, noes" +here; but I am not talking about University College; as I have told you +before, I am talking about the average education of medical schools. +What I have found, and found so much reason to lament, is, that while +anatomy has been taught as a science ought to be taught, as a matter of +autopsy, and observation, and strict discipline; in a very large number +of cases, physiology has been taught as if it were a mere matter of +books and of hearsay. I declare to you, gentlemen, that I have often +expected to be told, when I have asked a question about the circulation +of the blood, that Professor Breitkopf is of opinion that it +circulates, but that the whole thing is an open question. I assure you +that I am hardly exaggerating the state of mind on matters of +fundamental importance which I have found over and over again to obtain +among gentlemen coming up to that picked examination of the University +of London. Now, I do not think that is a desirable state of things. I +cannot understand why physiology should not be taught--in fact, you +have here abundant evidence that it can be taught--with the same +definiteness and the same precision as anatomy is taught. And you may +depend upon this, that the only physiology which is to be of any good +whatever in medical practice, or in its application to the study of +medicine, is that physiology which a man knows of his own knowledge; +just as the only anatomy which would be of any good to the surgeon is +the anatomy which he knows of his own knowledge. Another peculiarity I +have found in the physiology which has been current, and that is, that +in the minds of a great many gentlemen it has been supplanted by +histology. They have learnt a great deal of histology, and they have +fancied that histology and physiology are the same things. I have asked +for some knowledge of the physics and the mechanics and the chemistry +of the human body, and I have been met by talk about cells. I declare +to you I believe it will take me two years, at least, of absolute rest +from the business of an examiner to hear the word "cell," "germinal +matter," or "carmine," without a sort of inward shudder.</P> + +<P>Well, now, gentlemen, I am sure my colleagues in this examination will +bear me out in saying that I have not been exaggerating the evils and +defects which are current--have been current--in a large quantity of +the physiological teaching the results of which come before examiners. +And it becomes a very interesting question to know how all this comes +about, and in what way it can be remedied. How it comes about will be +perfectly obvious to any one who has considered the growth of medicine. +I suppose that medicine and surgery first began by some savage more +intelligent than the rest, discovering that a certain herb was good for +a certain pain, and that a certain pull, somehow or other, set a +dislocated joint right. I suppose all things had their humble +beginnings, and medicine and surgery were in the same condition. People +who wear watches know nothing about watchmaking. A watch goes wrong and +it stops; you see the owner giving it a shake, or, if he is very bold, +he opens the case, and gives the balance-wheel a push. Gentlemen, that +is empirical practice, and you know what are the results upon the +watch. I should think you can divine what are the results of analogous +operations upon the human body. And because men of sense very soon +found that such were the effects of meddling with very complicated +machinery they did not understand, I suppose the first thing, as being +the easiest, was to study the nature of the works of the human watch, +and the next thing was to study the way the parts worked together, and +the way the watch worked. Thus, by degrees, we have had growing up our +body of anatomists, or knowers of the construction of the human watch, +and our physiologists, who know how the machine works. And just as any +sensible man, who has a valuable watch, does not meddle with it +himself, but goes to some one who has studied watchmaking, and +understands what the effect of doing this or that may be; so, I +suppose, the man who, having charge of that valuable machine, his own +body, wants to have it kept in good order, comes to a professor of the +medical art for the purpose of having it set right, believing that, by +deduction from the facts of structure and from the facts of function, +the physician will divine what may be the matter with his bodily watch +at that particular time, and what may be the best means of setting it +right. If that may be taken as a just representation of the relation of +the theoretical branches of medicine--what we may call the institutes +of medicine, to use an old term--to the practical branches, I think it +will be obvious to you that they are of prime and fundamental +importance. Whatever tends to affect the teaching of them injuriously +must tend to destroy and to disorganise the whole fabric of the medical +art. I think every sensible man has seen this long ago; but the +difficulties in the way of attaining good teaching in the different +branches of the theory, or institutes, of medicine are very serious. It +is a comparatively easy matter--pray mark that I use the word +"comparatively "--it is a comparatively easy matter to learn anatomy +and to teach it; it is a very difficult matter to learn physiology and +to teach it. It is a very difficult matter to know and to teach those +branches of physics and those branches of chemistry which bear directly +upon physiology; and hence it is that, as a matter of fact, the +teaching of physiology, and the teaching of the physics and the +chemistry which bear upon it, must necessarily be in a state of +relative imperfection; and there is nothing to be grumbled at in the +fact that this relative imperfection exists. But is the relative +imperfection which exists only such as is necessary, or is it made +worse by our practical arrangements? I believe--and if I did not so +believe I should not have troubled you with these observations--I +believe it is made infinitely worse by our practical arrangements, or +rather, I ought to say, our very unpractical arrangements. Some very +wise man long ago affirmed that every question, in the long run, was a +question of finance; and there is a good deal to be said for that view. +Most assuredly the question of medical teaching is, in a very large and +broad sense, a question of finance. What I mean is this: that in London +the arrangements of the medical schools, and the number of them, are +such as to render it almost impossible that men who confine themselves +to the teaching of the theoretical branches of the profession should be +able to make their bread by that operation; and, you know, if a man +cannot make his bread he cannot teach--at least his teaching comes to a +speedy end. That is a matter of physiology. Anatomy is fairly well +taught, because it lies in the direction of practice, and a man is all +the better surgeon for being a good anatomist. It does not absolutely +interfere with the pursuits of a practical surgeon if he should hold a +Chair of Anatomy--though I do not for one moment say that he would not +be a better teacher if he did not devote himself to practice. +(Applause.) Yes, I know exactly what that cheer means, but I am keeping +as carefully as possible from any sort of allusion to Professor Ellis. +But the fact is, that even human anatomy has now grown to be so large a +matter, that it takes the whole devotion of a man's life to put the +great mass of knowledge upon that subject into such a shape that it can +be teachable to the mind of the ordinary student. What the student +wants in a professor is a man who shall stand between him and the +infinite diversity and variety of human knowledge, and who shall gather +all that together, and extract from it that which is capable of being +assimilated by the mind. That function is a vast and an important one, +and unless, in such subjects as anatomy, a man is wholly free from +other cares, it is almost impossible that he can perform it thoroughly +and well. But if it be hardly possible for a man to pursue anatomy +without actually breaking with his profession, how is it possible for +him to pursue physiology?</P> + +<P>I get every year those very elaborate reports of Henle and +Meissner--volumes of, I suppose, 400 pages altogether--and they consist +merely of abstracts of the memoirs and works which have been written on +Anatomy and Physiology--only abstracts of them! How is a man to keep up +his acquaintance with all that is doing in the physiological world--in +a world advancing with enormous strides every day and every hour--if he +has to be distracted with the cares of practice? You know very well it +must be impracticable to do so. Our men of ability join our medical +schools with an eye to the future. They take the Chairs of Anatomy or +of Physiology; and by and by they leave those Chairs for the more +profitable pursuits into which they have drifted by professional +success, and so they become clothed, and physiology is bare. The result +is, that in those schools in which physiology is thus left to the +benevolence, so to speak, of those who have no time to look to it, the +effect of such teaching comes out obviously, and is made manifest in +what I spoke of just now--the unreality, the bookishness of the +knowledge of the taught. And if this is the case in physiology, still +more must it be the case in those branches of physics which are the +foundation of physiology; although it may be less the case in +chemistry, because for an able chemist a certain honourable and +independent career lies in the direction of his work, and he is able, +like the anatomist, to look upon what he may teach to the student as +not absolutely taking him away from his bread-winning pursuits.</P> + +<P>But it is of no use to grumble about this state of things unless one is +prepared to indicate some sort of practical remedy. And I believe--and +I venture to make the statement because I am wholly independent of all +sorts of medical schools, and may, therefore, say what I believe +without being supposed to be affected by any personal interest--but I +say I believe that the remedy for this state of things, for that +imperfection of our theoretical knowledge which keeps down the ability +of England at the present time in medical matters, is a mere affair of +mechanical arrangement; that so long as you have a dozen medical +schools scattered about in different parts of the metropolis, and +dividing the students among them, so long, in all the smaller schools +at any rate, it is impossible that any other state of things than that +which I have been depicting should obtain. Professors must live; to +live they must occupy themselves with practice, and if they occupy +themselves with practice, the pursuit of the abstract branches of +science must go to the wall. All this is a plain and obvious matter of +common-sense reasoning. I believe you will never alter this state of +things until, either by consent or by <i>force majeure</i>--and I +should be very sorry to see the latter applied--but until there is some +new arrangement, and until all the theoretical branches of the +profession, the institutes of medicine, are taught in London in not +more than one or two, or at the outside three, central institutions, no +good will be effected. If that large body of men, the medical students +of London, were obliged in the first place to get a knowledge of the +theoretical branches of their profession in two or three central +schools, there would be abundant means for maintaining able +professors--not, indeed, for enriching them, as they would be able to +enrich themselves by practice--but for enabling them to make that +choice which such men are so willing to make; namely, the choice +between wealth and a modest competency, when that modest competency is +to be combined with a scientific career, and the means of advancing +knowledge. I do not believe that all the talking about, and tinkering +of, medical education will do the slightest good until the fact is +clearly recognised, that men must be thoroughly grounded in the +theoretical branches of their profession, and that to this end the +teaching of those theoretical branches must be confined to two or three +centres.</P> + +<P>Now let me add one other word, and that is, that if I were a despot, I +would cut down these branches to a very considerable extent. The next +thing to be done beyond that which I mentioned just now, is to go back +to primary education. The great step towards a thorough medical +education is to insist upon the teaching of the elements of the +physical sciences in all schools, so that medical students shall not go +up to the medical colleges utterly ignorant of that with which they +have to deal; to insist on the elements of chemistry, the elements of +botany, and the elements of physics being taught in our ordinary and +common schools, so that there shall be some preparation for the +discipline of medical colleges. And, if this reform were once effected, +you might confine the "Institutes of Medicine" to physics as applied to +physiology--to chemistry as applied to physiology--to physiology +itself, and to anatomy. Afterwards, the student, thoroughly grounded in +these matters, might go to any hospital he pleased for the purpose of +studying the practical branches of his profession. The practical +teaching might be made as local as you like; and you might use to +advantage the opportunities afforded by all these local institutions +for acquiring a knowledge of the practice of the profession. But you +may say: "This is abolishing a great deal; you are getting rid of +botany and zoology to begin with." I have not a doubt that they ought +to be got rid of, as branches of special medical education; they ought +to be put back to an earlier stage, and made branches of general +education. Let me say, by way of self-denying ordinance, for which you +will, I am sure, give me credit, that I believe that comparative +anatomy ought to be absolutely abolished. I say so, not without a +certain fear of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of London who +sits upon my left. But I do not think the charter gives him very much +power over me; moreover, I shall soon come to an end of my +examinership, and therefore I am not afraid, but shall go on to say +what I was going to say, and that is, that in my belief it is a +downright cruelty--I have no other word for it--to require from +gentlemen who are engaged in medical studies, the pretence--for it is +nothing else, and can be nothing else, than a pretence--of a knowledge +of comparative anatomy as part of their medical curriculum. Make it +part of their Arts teaching if you like, make it part of their general +education if you like, make it part of their qualification for the +scientific degree by all means--that is its proper place; but to +require that gentlemen whose whole faculties should be bent upon the +acquirement of a real knowledge of human physiology should worry +themselves with getting up hearsay about the alternation of generations +in the Salpae is really monstrous. I cannot characterise it in any +other way. And having sacrificed my own pursuit, I am sure I may +sacrifice other people's; and I make this remark with all the more +willingness because I discovered, on reading the names of your +Professors just now, that the Professor of Materia Medica is not +present. I must confess, if I had my way I should abolish Materia +Medica [<a href="#XII1">1</a>] altogether. I recollect, when I was first under examination +at the University of London, Dr. Pereira was the examiner, and you know +that Pereira's "Materia Medica" was a book <i>de omnibus rebus</i>. I +recollect my struggles with that book late at night and early in the +morning (I worked very hard in those days), and I do believe that I got +that book into my head somehow or other, but then I will undertake to +say that I forgot it all a week afterwards. Not one trace of a +knowledge of drugs has remained in my memory from that time to this; +and really, as a matter of common sense, I cannot understand the +arguments for obliging a medical man to know all about drugs and where +they come from. Why not make him belong to the Iron and Steel +Institute, and learn something about cutlery, because he uses knives?</P> + +<P>But do not suppose that, after all these deductions, there would not be +ample room for your activity. Let us count up what we have left. I +suppose all the time for medical education that can be hoped for is, at +the outside, about four years. Well, what have you to master in those +four years upon my supposition? Physics applied to physiology; +chemistry applied to physiology; physiology; anatomy; surgery; medicine +(including therapeutics); obstetrics; hygiene; and medical +jurisprudence--nine subjects for four years! And when you consider what +those subjects are, and that the acquisition of anything beyond the +rudiments of any one of them may tax the energies of a lifetime, I +think that even those energies which you young gentlemen have been +displaying for the last hour or two might be taxed to keep you +thoroughly up to what is wanted for your medical career.</P> + +<P>I entertain a very strong conviction that any one who adds to medical +education one iota or tittle beyond what is absolutely necessary, is +guilty of a very grave offence. Gentlemen, it will depend upon the +knowledge that you happen to possess,--upon your means of applying it +within your own field of action,--whether the bills of mortality of +your district are increased or diminished; and that, gentlemen, is a +very serious consideration indeed. And, under those circumstances, the +subjects with which you have to deal being so difficult, their extent +so enormous, and the time at your disposal so limited, I could not feel +my conscience easy if I did not, on such an occasion as this, raise a +protest against employing your energies upon the acquisition of any +knowledge which may not be absolutely needed in your future career.</P> + +<br><hr><br> +<p><b>Footnotes</b></p> +<ol> +<li><a name="XII1">It</a> will, I hope, be understood that I do not include Therapeutics +under this head.</li> +</ol> +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="XIII">XIII</a></p> + +<h4>THE STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION</h4> + +<P>[1884]</P> + +<P>At intervals during the last quarter of a century committees of the +Houses of the Legislature and specially appointed commissions have +occupied themselves with the affairs of the medical profession. Much +evidence has been taken, much wrangling has gone on over the reports of +these bodies; and sometimes much trouble has been taken to get measures +based upon all this work through Parliament, but very little has been +achieved.</P> + +<P>The Bill introduced last session was not more fortunate than several +predecessors. I suppose that it is not right to rejoice in the +misfortunes of anything, even a Bill; but I confess that this event +afforded me lively satisfaction, for I was a member of the Royal +Commission on the report of which the Bill was founded, and I did my +best to oppose and nullify that report.</P> + +<P>That the question must be taken up again and finally dealt with by the +Legislature before long cannot be doubted; but in the meanwhile there +is time for reflection, and I think that the non-medical public would +be wise if they paid a little attention to a subject which is really of +considerable importance to them.</P> + +<P>The first question which a plain man is disposed to ask himself is, Why +should the State interfere with the profession of medicine any more +than it does, say, with the profession of engineering? Anybody who +pleases may call himself an engineer, and may practice as such. The +State confers no title upon engineers, and does not profess to tell the +public that one man is a qualified engineer and that another is not so.</P> + +<P>The answers which are given to the question are various, and most of +them, I think, are bad. A large number of persons seem to be of opinion +that the State is bound no less to take care of the general public, +than to see that it is protected against incompetent persons, against +quacks and medical impostors in general. I do not take that view of the +case. I think it is very much wholesomer for the public to take care of +itself in this as in all other matters; and although I am not such a +fanatic for the liberty of the subject as to plead that interfering +with the way in which a man may choose to be killed is a violation of +that liberty, yet I do think that it is far better to let everybody do +as he likes. Whether that be so or not, I am perfectly certain that, as +a matter of practice, it is absolutely impossible to prohibit the +practice of medicine by people who have no special qualification for +it. Consider the terrible consequences of attempting to prohibit +practice by a very large class of persons who are certainly not +technically qualified--I am far from saying a word as to whether +they are otherwise qualified or not. The number of Ladies +Bountiful--grandmothers, aunts, and mothers-in-law--whose chief delight +lies in the administration of their cherished provision of domestic +medicine, is past computation, and one shudders to think of what might +happen if their energies were turned from this innocuous, if not +beneficent channel, by the strong arm of the law. But the thing is +impracticable.</P> + +<P>Another reason for intervention is propounded, I am sorry to say, by +some, though not many, members of the medical profession, and is simply +an expression of that trades unionism which tends to infest professions +no less than trades.</P> + +<P>The general practitioner trying to make both ends meet on a poor +practice, whose medical training has cost him a good deal of time and +money, finds that many potential patients, whose small fees would be +welcome as the little that helps, prefer to go and get their shilling's +worth of "doctor's stuff" and advice from the chemist and druggist +round the corner, who has not paid sixpence for his medical training, +because he has never had any.</P> + +<P>The general practitioner thinks this is very hard upon him and ought to +be stopped. It is perhaps natural that he should think so, though it +would be very difficult for him to justify his opinion on any ground of +public policy. But the question is really not worth discussion, as it +is obvious that it would be utterly impracticable to stop the practice +"over the counter" even it it were desirable.</P> + +<P>Is a man who has a sudden attack of pain in tooth or stomach not to be +permitted to go to the nearest druggist's shop and ask for something +that will relieve him? The notion is preposterous. But if this is to be +legal, the whole principle of the permissibility of counter practice is +granted.</P> + +<P>In my judgment the intervention of the State in the affairs of the +medical profession can be justified not upon any pretence of protecting +the public, and still less upon that of protecting the medical +profession, but simply and solely upon the fact that the State employs +medical men for certain purposes, and, as employer, has a right to +define the conditions on which it will accept service. It is for the +interest of the community that no person shall die without there being +some official recognition of the cause of his death. It is a matter of +the highest importance to the community that, in civil and criminal +cases, the law shall be able to have recourse to persons whose evidence +may be taken as that of experts; and it will not be doubted that the +State has a right to dictate the conditions under which it will appoint +persons to the vast number of naval, military, and civil medical +offices held directly or indirectly under the Government. Here, and +here only, it appears to me, lies the justification for the +intervention of the State in medical affairs. It says, or, in my +judgment, should say, to the public, "Practice medicine if you like--go +to be practised upon by anybody;" and to the medical practitioner, +"Have a qualification, or do not have a qualification if people don't +mind it; but if the State is to receive your certificate of death, if +the State is to take your evidence as that of an expert, if the State +is to give you any kind of civil, or military, or naval appointment, +then we can call upon you to comply with our conditions, and to produce +evidence that you are, in our sense of the word, qualified. Without +that we will not place you in that position." As a matter of fact, that +is the relation of the State to the medical profession in this country. +For my part, I think it an extremely healthy relation; and it is one +that I should be very sorry to see altered, except in so far that it +would certainly be better if greater facilities were given for the +swift and sharp punishment of those who profess to have the State +qualification when, in point of fact, they do not possess it. They are +simply cheats and swindlers, like other people who profess to be what +they are not, and should be punished as such.</P> + +<P>But supposing we are agreed about the justification of State +intervention in medical affairs, new questions arise as to the manner +in which that intervention should take place and the extent to which it +should go, on which the divergence of opinion is even greater than it +is on the general question of intervention.</P> + +<P>It is now, I am sorry to say, something over forty years since I began +my medical studies; and, at that time, the state of affairs was +extremely singular. I should think it hardly possible that it could +have obtained anywhere but in such a country as England, which +cherishes a fine old crusted abuse as much as it does its port wine. At +that time there were twenty-one licensing bodies--that is to say, +bodies whose certificate was received by the State as evidence that the +persons who possessed that certificate were medical experts. How these +bodies came to possess these powers is a very curious chapter in +history, in which it would be out of place to enlarge. They were partly +universities, partly medical guilds and corporations, partly the +Archbishop of Canterbury. Those were the three sources from which the +licence to practice came in that day. There was no central authority, +there was nothing to prevent any one of those licensing authorities +from granting a licence to any one upon any conditions it thought fit. +The examination might be a sham, the curriculum might be a sham, the +certificate might be bought and sold like anything in a shop; or, on +the other hand, the examination might be fairly good and the diploma +correspondingly valuable; but there was not the smallest guarantee, +except the personal character of the people who composed the +administration of each of these licensing bodies, as to what might +happen. It was possible for a young man to come to London and to spend +two years and six months of the time of his compulsory three years +"walking the hospitals" in idleness or worse; he could then, by putting +himself in the hands of a judicious "grinder" for the remaining six +months, pass triumphantly through the ordeal of one hour's <i>vivâ voce</i> +examination, which was all that was absolutely necessary, to +enable him to be turned loose upon the public, like death on the pale +horse, "conquering and to conquer," with the full sanction of the law, +as a "qualified practitioner."</P> + +<P>It is difficult to imagine, at present, such a state of things, still +more difficult to depict the consequences of it, because they would +appear like a gross and malignant caricature; but it may be said that +there was never a system, or want of system, which was better +calculated to ruin the students who came under it, or to degrade the +profession as a whole. My memory goes back to a time when models from +whom the Bob Sawyer of the <i>Pickwick Papers</i> might have been drawn +were anything but rare.</P> + +<P>Shortly before my student days, however, the dawn of a better state of +things in England began to be visible, in consequence of the +establishment of the University of London, and the comparatively very +high standard which it placed before its medical graduates.</P> + +<P>I say comparatively high standard, for the requirements of the +University in those days, and even during the twelve years at a later +period, when I was one of the examiners of the medical faculty, were +such as would not now be thought more than respectable, and indeed were +in many respects very imperfect. But, relatively to the means of +learning, the standard was high, and none but the more able and +ambitious of the students dreamed of passing the University. +Nevertheless, the fact that many men of this stamp did succeed in +obtaining their degrees, led others to follow in their steps, and +slowly but surely reacted upon the standard of teaching in the better +medical schools. Then came the Medical Act of 1858. That Act introduced +two immense improvements: one of them was the institution of what is +called the Medical Register, upon which the names of all persons +recognised by the State as medical practitioners are entered: and the +other was the establishment of the Medical Council, which is a kind of +Medical Parliament, composed of representatives of the licensing bodies +and of leading men in the medical profession nominated by the Crown. +The powers given by the Legislature to the Medical Council were found +practically to be very limited, but I think that no fair observer of +the work will doubt that this much attacked body has excited no small +influence in bringing about the great change for the better, which has +been effected in the training of men for the medical profession within +my recollection.</P> + +<P>Another source of improvement must be recognised in the Scottish +Universities, and especially in the medical faculty of the University +of Edinburgh. The medical education and examinations of this body were +for many years the best of their kind in these islands, and I doubt if, +at the present moment, the three kingdoms can show a better school of +medicine than that of Edinburgh. The vast number of medical students at +that University is sufficient evidence of the opinion of those most +interested in this subject.</P> + +<P>Owing to all those influences, and to the revolution which has taken +place in the course of the last twenty years in our conceptions of the +proper method of teaching physical science, the training of the medical +student in a good school, and the examination test applied by the great +majority of the present licensing bodies, reduced now to nineteen, in +consequence of the retirement of the Archbishop and the fusion of two +of the other licensing bodies, are totally different from what they +were even twenty years ago.</P> + +<P>I was perfectly astonished, upon one of my sons commencing his medical +career the other day, when I contrasted the carefully-watched courses +of theoretical and practical instruction, which he is expected to +follow with regularity and industry, and the number and nature of the +examinations which he will have to pass before he can receive his +licence, not only with the monstrous laxity of my own student days, but +even with the state of things which obtained when my term of office as +examiner in the University of London expired some sixteen years ago.</P> + +<P>I have no hesitation in expressing the opinion, which is fully borne +out by the evidence taken before the late Royal Commission, that a +large proportion of the existing licensing bodies grant their licence +on conditions which ensure quite as high a standard as it is +practicable or advisable to exact under present circumstances, and that +they show every desire to keep pace with the improvements of the times. +And I think there can be no doubt that the great majority have so much +improved their ways, that their standard is far above that of the +ordinary qualification thirty years ago, and I cannot see what excuse +there would be for meddling with them if it were not for two other +defects which have to be remedied.</P> + +<P>Unfortunately there remain two or three black sheep--licensing bodies +which simply trade upon their privilege, and sell the cheapest wares +they can for shame's sake supply to the bidder. Another defect in the +existing system, even where the examination has been so greatly +improved as to be good of its kind, is that there are certain licensing +bodies which give a qualification for an acquaintance with either +medicine or surgery alone, and which more or less ignore obstetrics. +This is a revival of the archaic condition of the profession when +surgical operations were mostly left to the barbers and obstetrics to +the mid-wives, and when the physicians thought themselves, and were +considered by the world, the "superior persons" of the profession. I +remember a story was current in my young days of a great court +physician who was travelling with a friend, like himself, bound on a +visit to a country house. The friend fell down in an apoplectic fit, +and the physician refused to bleed him because it was contrary to +professional etiquette for a physician to perform that operation. +Whether the friend died or whether he got better because he was not +bled I do not remember, but the moral of the story is the same. On the +other hand, a famous surgeon was asked whether he meant to bring up his +son to his own calling, "No," he said, "he is such a fool, I mean to +make a physician of him."</P> + +<P>Nowadays, it is happily recognised that medicine is one and +indivisible, and that no one can properly practice one branch who is +not familiar with at any rate the principles of all. Thus the two great +things that are wanted now are, in the first place, some means of +enforcing such a degree of uniformity upon all the examining bodies +that none should present a disgracefully low minimum or pass +examination; and the second point is that some body or other shall have +the power of enforcing upon every candidate for the licence to practice +the study of the three branches, what is called the tripartite +qualification. All the members of the late commission were agreed that +these were the main points to be attended to in any proposals for the +further improvement of medical training and qualification.</P> + +<P>But such being the ends in view, our notions as to the best way of +attaining them were singularly divergent; so that it came about that +eleven commissioners made seven reports. There was one main majority +report and six minor reports, which differed more or less from it, +chiefly as to the best method of attaining these two objects.</P> + +<P>The majority report recommended the adoption of what is known as the +conjoint scheme. According to this plan the power of granting a licence +to practise is to be taken away from all the existing bodies, whether +they have done well or ill, and to be placed in the hands of a body of +delegates (divisional boards), one for each of the three kingdoms. The +licence to practise is to be conferred by passing the delegate +examination. The licensee may afterwards, if he pleases, go before any +of the existing bodies and indulge in the luxury of another examination +and the payment of another fee in order to obtain a title, which does +not legally place him in any better position than that which he would +occupy without it.</P> + +<P>Under these circumstances, of course, the only motive for obtaining the +degree of a University or the licence of a medical corporation would be +the prestige of these bodies. Hence the "black sheep" would certainly +be deserted, while those bodies which have acquired a reputation by +doing their duty would suffer less.</P> + +<P>But, as the majority report proposes that the existing bodies should be +compensated for any loss they might suffer out of the fees of the +examiners for the State licence, the curious result would be brought +about that the profession of the future would be taxed, for all time, +for the purpose of handing over to wholly irresponsible bodies a sum, +the amount of which would be large for those who had failed in their +duty and small for those who had done it.</P> + +<P>The scheme in fact involved a perpetual endowment of the "black +sheep," calculated on the maximum of their ill-gained profits. [<a href="#XIII1">1</a>] I +confess that I found myself unable to assent to a plan which, in +addition to the rewarding the evil doers, proposed to take away the +privileges of a number of examining bodies which confessedly were doing +their duty well, for the sake of getting rid of a few who had failed. +It was too much like the Chinaman's device of burning down his house to +obtain a poor dish of roast pig--uncertain whether in the end he might +not find a mere mass of cinders. What we do know is that the great +majority of the existing licensing bodies have marvellously improved in +the course of the last twenty years, and are improving. What we do not +know is that the complicated scheme of the divisional boards will ever +be got to work at all.</P> + +<P>My own belief is that every necessary reform may be effected, without +any interference with vested interests, without any unjust interference +with the prestige of institutions which have been, and still are, +extremely valuable, without any question of compensation arising, and +by an extremely simple operation. It is only necessary in fact to add a +couple of clauses to the Medical Act to this effect: (1) That from and +after such a date no person shall be placed upon the Medical Register +unless he possesses the threefold qualification. (2) That from and +after this date no examination shall be accepted as satisfactory +from any licensing body except such as has been carried on in part +by examiners appointed by the licensing body, and in part by +coadjutor-examiners of equal authority appointed by the Medical Council +or other central authority, and acting under their instructions.</P> + +<P>In laying down a rule of this kind the State confiscates nothing, and +meddles with nobody, but simply acts within its undoubted right of +laying down the conditions under which it will confer certain +privileges upon medical practitioners. No one can say that the State +has not the right to do this; no one can say that the State interferes +with any private enterprise or corporate interest unjustly, in laying +down its own conditions for its own service. The plan would have the +further advantage that all those corporate bodies which have obtained +(as many of them have) a great and just prestige by the admirable way +in which they have done their work, would reap their just reward in the +thronging of students, thenceforward as formerly, to obtain their +qualifications; while those who have neglected their duties, who have +in some one or two cases, I am sorry to say, absolutely disgraced +themselves, would sink into oblivion, and come to a happy and natural +euthanasia, in which their misdeeds and themselves would be entirely +forgotten.</P> + +<P>Two of my colleagues, Professor Turner and Mr. Bryce, M.P., whose +practical familiarity with examinations gave their opinions a high +value, expressed their substantial approval of this scheme, and I am +unable to see the weight of the objections urged against it. It is +urged that the difficulty and expense of adequately inspecting so many +examinations and of guaranteeing their efficiency would be great, and +the difficulty in the way of a fair adjustment of the representation of +existing interests and of the representation of new interests upon the +general Medical Council would be almost insuperable.</P> + +<P>The latter objection is unintelligible to me. I am not aware that any +attempt at such adjustment has been fairly discussed, and until that +has been done it may be well not to talk about insuperable +difficulties. As to the notion that there is any difficulty in getting +the coadjutor-examiners, or that the expense will be overwhelming, we +have the experience of Scotland, in which every University does, at the +present time, appoint its coadjutor-examiners, who do their work just +in the way proposed.</P> + +<P>Whether in the way I have proposed, or by the Conjoint Scheme, however, +this is perfectly certain: the two things I refer to have to be done: +you must have the threefold qualification; you must have the limitation +of the minimum qualification also; and any scheme for the improvement +of the relations of the State to medicine which does not profess to do +these two things thoroughly and well, has no chance of finality.</P> + +<P>But when these reforms are witnessed, when there is a Medical Council +armed with a more real authority than it at present possesses; when a +license to practice cannot be obtained without the threefold +qualification; and when an even minimum of qualification is exacted for +every licence, is there anything else that remains that any one +seriously interested in the welfare of the medical profession, as I may +most conscientiously declare myself to be, would like to see done? I +think there are three things.</P> + +<P>In the first place, even now, when a four years' curriculum is +required, the time allotted for medical education is too brief. A young +man of eighteen beginning to study medicine is probably absolutely +ignorant of the existence of such a thing as anatomy, or physiology, or +indeed of any branch of physical science. He comes into an entirely new +world; he addresses himself to a kind of work of which he has not the +smallest experience. Up to that time his work has been with books; he +rushes suddenly into work with things, which is as different from work +with books as anything can well be. I am quite sure that a very +considerable number of young men spend a very large portion of their +first session in simply learning how to learn subjects which are +entirely new to them. And yet recollect that in this period of four +years they have to acquire a knowledge of all the branches of a great +and responsible practical calling of medicine, surgery, obstetrics, +general pathology, medical jurisprudence, and so forth. Anybody who +knows what these things are, and who knows what is the kind of work +which is necessary to give a man the confidence which will enable him +to stand at the bedside and say to the satisfaction of his own +conscience what shall be done, and what shall not be done, must be +aware that if a man has only four years to do all that in he will not +have much time to spare. But that is not all. As I have said, the young +man comes up, probably ignorant of the existence of science; he has +never heard a word of chemistry, he has never heard a word of physics, +he has not the smallest conception of the outlines of biological +science; and all these things have to be learned as well and crammed +into the time which in itself is barely sufficient to acquire a fair +amount of that knowledge which is requisite for the satisfactory +discharge of his professional duties.</P> + +<P>Therefore it is quite clear to me that, somehow or other, the +curriculum must be lightened. It is not that any of the subjects which +I have mentioned need not to be studied, and may be eliminated. The +only alternative therefore is to lengthen the time given to study. +Everybody will agree with me that the practical necessities of life in +this country are such that, for the average medical practitioner at any +rate, it is hopeless to think of extending the period of professional +study beyond the age of twenty-two. So that as the period of study +cannot be extended forwards, the only thing to be done is to extend it +backwards.</P> + +<P>The question is how this can be done. My own belief is that if the +Medical Council, instead of insisting upon that examination in general +education which I am sorry to say I believe to be entirely futile, were +to insist upon a knowledge of elementary physics, and chemistry, and +biology, they would be taking one of the greatest steps which at +present can be made for the improvement of medical education. And the +improvement would be this. The great majority of the young men who are +going into the profession have practically completed their general +education--or they might very well have done so--by the age of sixteen +or seventeen. If the interval between this age and that at which they +commence their purely medical studies were employed in obtaining a +practical acquaintance with elementary physics, chemistry, and biology, +in my judgment it would be as good as two years added to the course of +medical study. And for two reasons: in the first place, because the +subject-matter of that which they would learn is germane to their +future studies, and is so much gained; in the second place, because you +might clear out of the course of their professional study a great deal +which at present occupies time and attention; and last, but not +least--probably most--they would then come to their medical studies +prepared for that learning from Nature which is what they have to do in +the course of becoming skilful medical men, and for which at present +they are not in the slightest degree prepared by their previous +education.</P> + +<P>The second wish I have to express concerns London especially, and I may +speak of it briefly as a more economical use of the teaching power in +the medical schools. At this present time every great hospital in +London--and there are ten or eleven of them--has its complete medical +school, in which not only are the branches of practical medicine +taught, but also those studies in general science, such as chemistry, +elementary physics, general anatomy, and a variety of other topics +which are what used to be called (and the term was an extremely useful +one) the institutes of medicine. That was all very well half a century +ago; it is all very ill now, simply because those general branches of +science, such as anatomy, physiology, chemistry, physiological +chemistry, physiological physics, and so forth, have now become so +large, and the mode of teaching them is so completely altered, that it +is absolutely impossible for any man to be a thoroughly competent +teacher of them, or for any student to be effectually taught without +the devotion of the whole time of the person who is engaged in +teaching. I undertake to say that it is hopelessly impossible for any +man at the present time to keep abreast with the progress of physiology +unless he gives his whole mind to it; and the bigger the mind is, the +more scope he will find for its employment. Again, teaching has become, +and must become still more, practical, and that also involves a large +expenditure of time. But if a man is to give his whole time to my +business he must live by it, and the resources of the schools do not +permit them to maintain ten or eleven physiological specialists.</P> + +<P>If the students in their first one or two years were taught the +institutes of medicine, in two or three central institutions, it would +be perfectly easy to have those subjects taught thoroughly and +effectually by persons who gave their whole mind and attention to the +subject; while at the same time the medical schools at the hospitals +would remain what they ought to be--great institutions in which the +largest possible opportunities are laid open for acquiring practical +acquaintance with the phenomena of disease. So that the preliminary or +earlier half of medical education would take place in the central +institutions, and the final half would be devoted altogether to +practical studies in the hospitals.</P> + +<P>I happen to know that this conception has been entertained, not only by +myself, but by a great many of those persons who are most interested in +the improvement of medical study for a considerable number of years. I +do not know whether anything will come of it this half-century or not; +but the thing has to be done. It is not a speculative notion; it lies +patent to everybody who is accustomed to teaching, and knows what the +necessities of teaching are; and I should very much like to see the +first step taken--people making up their minds that it has to be done +somehow or other.</P> + +<P>The last point to which I may advert is one which concerns the action +of the profession itself more than anything else. We have arrangements +for teaching, we have arrangements for the testing of qualifications, +we have marvellous aids and appliances for the treatment of disease in +all sorts of ways; but I do not find in London at the present time, in +this little place of four or five million inhabitants which supports so +many things, any organisation or any arrangement for advancing the +science of medicine, considered as a pure science. I am quite aware +that there are medical societies of various kinds; I am not ignorant of +the lectureships at the College of Physicians and the College of +Surgeons; there is the Brown Institute; and there is the Society for +the Advancement of Medicine by Research, but there is no means, so far +as I know, by which any person who has the inborn gifts of the +investigator and discoverer of new truth, and who desires to apply that +to the improvement of medical science, can carry out his intention. In +Paris there is the University of Paris, which gives degrees; but there +are also the Sorbonne and the Collége de France, places in which +professoriates are established for the express purpose of enabling men +who have the power of investigation, the power of advancing knowledge +and thereby reacting on practice, to do that which it is their special +mission to do. I do not know of anything of the kind in London; and if +it should so happen that a Claude Bernard or a Ludwig should turn up in +London, I really have not the slightest notion of what we could do with +him. We could not turn him to account, and I think we should have to +export him to Germany or France. I doubt whether that is a good or a +wise condition of things. I do not think it is a condition of things +which can exist for any great length of time, now that people are every +day becoming more and more awake to the importance of scientific +investigation and to the astounding and unexpected manner in which it +everywhere reacts upon practical pursuits. I should look upon the +establishment of some institution of that kind as a recognition on the +part of the medical profession in general, that if their great and +beneficent work is to be carried on, they must, like other people who +have great and beneficent work to do, contribute to the advancement of +knowledge in the only way in which experience shows that it can be +advanced.</P> + +<br><hr><br> + +<P><b>Footnotes</b></P> +<ol> +<li><a name="XIII1">The</a> fees to be paid by candidates for admission to the examinations +of the Divisional Board should be of such an amount as will be +sufficient to cover the cost of the examinations and the other expenses +of the Divisional Board, <i>and also to provide the sum required to +compensate the medical authorities, or such of them as may be entitled +to compensation, for any pecuniary losses they may hereafter sustain by +reason of the abolition of their privilege of conferring a licence to +practise. Report</i> 50, p. xii.</li> +</ol> +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="XIV">XIV</a></P> + +<h4>THE CONNECTION OF THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES WITH MEDICINE</h4> + +<P>[1881]</P> + +<P>The great body of theoretical and practical knowledge which has been +accumulated by the labours of some eighty generations, since the dawn +of scientific thought in Europe, has no collective English name to +which an objection may not be raised; and I use the term "medicine" as +that which is least likely to be misunderstood; though, as every one +knows, the name is commonly applied, in a narrower sense, to one of the +chief divisions of the totality of medical science.</P> + +<P>Taken in this broad sense, "medicine" not merely denotes a kind of +knowledge, but it comprehends the various applications of that +knowledge to the alleviation of the sufferings, the repair of the +injuries, and the conservation of the health, of living beings. In +fact, the practical aspect of medicine so far dominates over every +other, that the "Healing Art" is one of its most widely-received +synonyms. It is so difficult to think of medicine otherwise than as +something which is necessarily connected with curative treatment, that +we are apt to forget that there must be, and is, such a thing as a pure +science of medicine--a "pathology" which has no more necessary +subservience to practical ends than has zoology or botany.</P> + +<P>The logical connection between this purely scientific doctrine of +disease, or pathology, and ordinary biology, is easily traced. Living +matter is characterised by its innate tendency to exhibit a definite +series of the morphological and physiological phenomena which +constitute organisation and life. Given a certain range of conditions, +and these phenomena remain the same, within narrow limits, for each +kind of living thing. They furnish the normal and typical character of +the species, and, as such, they are the subject-matter of ordinary +biology.</P> + +<P>Outside the range of these conditions, the normal course of the cycle +of vital phenomena is disturbed; abnormal structure makes its +appearance, or the proper character and mutual adjustment of the +functions cease to be preserved. The extent and the importance of these +deviations from the typical life may vary indefinitely. They may have +no noticeable influence on the general well-being of the economy, or +they may favour it. On the other hand, they may be of such a nature as +to impede the activities of the organism, or even to involve its +destruction.</P> + +<P>In the first case, these perturbations are ranged under the wide and +somewhat vague category of "variations"; in the second, they are called +lesions, states of poisoning, or diseases; and, as morbid states, they +lie within the province of pathology. No sharp line of demarcation can +be drawn between the two classes of phenomena. No one can say where +anatomical variations end and tumours begin, nor where modification of +function, which may at first promote health, passes into disease. All +that can be said is, that whatever change of structure or function is +hurtful belongs to pathology. Hence it is obvious that pathology is a +branch of biology; it is the morphology, the physiology, the +distribution, the aetiology of abnormal life.</P> + +<P>However obvious this conclusion may be now, it was nowise apparent in +the infancy of medicine. For it is a peculiarity of the physical +sciences that they are independent in proportion as they are imperfect; +and it is only as they advance that the bonds which really unite them +all become apparent. Astronomy had no manifest connection with +terrestrial physics before the publication of the "Principia"; that of +chemistry with physics is of still more modern revelation; that of +physics and chemistry with physiology, has been stoutly denied within +the recollection of most of us, and perhaps still may be.</P> + +<P> +Or, to take a case which affords a closer parallel with that of +medicine. Agriculture has been cultivated from the earliest times, and, +from a remote antiquity, men have attained considerable practical skill +in the cultivation of the useful plants, and have empirically +established many scientific truths concerning the conditions under +which they flourish. But, it is within the memory of many of us, that +chemistry on the one hand, and vegetable physiology on the other, +attained a stage of development such that they were able to furnish a +sound basis for scientific agriculture. Similarly, medicine took its +rise in the practical needs of mankind. At first, studied without +reference to any other branch of knowledge, it long maintained, indeed +still to some extent maintains, that independence. Historically, its +connection with the biological sciences has been slowly established, +and the full extent and intimacy of that connection are only now +beginning to be apparent. I trust I have not been mistaken in supposing +that an attempt to give a brief sketch of the steps by which a +philosophical necessity has become an historical reality, may not be +devoid of interest, possibly of instruction, to the members of this +great Congress, profoundly interested as all are in the scientific +development of medicine.</P> + +<P>The history of medicine is more complete and fuller than that of any +other science, except, perhaps, astronomy; and, if we follow back the +long record as far as clear evidence lights us, we find ourselves taken +to the early stages of the civilisation of Greece. The oldest hospitals +were the temples of Aesculapius; to these Asclepeia, always erected on +healthy sites, hard by fresh springs and surrounded by shady groves, +the sick and the maimed resorted to seek the aid of the god of health. +Votive tablets or inscriptions recorded the symptoms, no less than the +gratitude, of those who were healed; and, from these primitive clinical +records, the half-priestly, half-philosophic caste of the Asclepiads +compiled the data upon which the earliest generalisations of medicine, +as an inductive science, were based.</P> + +<P>In this state, pathology, like all the inductive sciences at their +origin, was merely natural history; it registered the phenomena of +disease, classified them, and ventured upon a prognosis, wherever the +observation of constant co-existences and sequences suggested a +rational expectation of the like recurrence under similar +circumstances.</P> + +<P>Further than this it hardly went. In fact, in the then state of +knowledge, and in the condition of philosophical speculation at that +time, neither the causes of the morbid state, nor the <i>rationale</i> +of treatment, were likely to be sought for as we seek for them now. The +anger of a god was a sufficient reason for the existence of a malady, +and a dream ample warranty for therapeutic measures; that a physical +phenomenon must needs have a physical cause was not the implied or +expressed axiom that it is to us moderns.</P> + +<P>The great man whose name is inseparably connected with the foundation +of medicine, Hippocrates, certainly knew very little, indeed +practically nothing, of anatomy or physiology; and he would, probably, +have been perplexed even to imagine the possibility of a connection +between the zoological studies of his contemporary Democritus and +medicine. Nevertheless, in so far as he, and those who worked before +and after him, in the same spirit, ascertained, as matters of +experience, that a wound, or a luxation, or a fever, presented such and +such symptoms, and that the return of the patient to health was +facilitated by such and such measures, they established laws of nature, +and began the construction of the science of pathology. All true +science begins with empiricism--though all true science is such +exactly, in so far as it strives to pass out of the empirical stage +into that of the deduction of empirical from more general truths. Thus, +it is not wonderful, that the early physicians had little or nothing to +do with the development of biological science; and, on the other hand, +that the early biologists did not much concern themselves with +medicine. There is nothing to show that the Asclepiads took any +prominent share in the work of founding anatomy, physiology, zoology, +and botany. Rather do these seem to have sprung from the early +philosophers, who were essentially natural philosophers, animated by +the characteristically Greek thirst for knowledge as such. Pythagoras, +Alcmeon, Democritus, Diogenes of Apollonia, are all credited with +anatomical and physiological investigations; and, though Aristotle is +said to have belonged to an Asclepiad family, and not improbably owed +his taste for anatomical and zoological inquiries to the teachings of +his father, the physician Nicomachus, the "Historia Animalium," and the +treatise "De Partibus Animalium," are as free from any allusion to +medicine as if they had issued from a modern biological laboratory.</P> + +<P>It may be added, that it is not easy to see in what way it could have +benefited a physician of Alexander's time to know all that Aristotle +knew on these subjects. His human anatomy was too rough to avail much +in diagnosis; his physiology was too erroneous to supply data for +pathological reasoning. But when the Alexandrian school, with +Erasistratus and Herophilus at their head, turned to account the +opportunities of studying human structure, afforded to them by the +Ptolemies, the value of the large amount of accurate knowledge thus +obtained to the surgeon for his operations, and to the physician for +his diagnosis of internal disorders, became obvious, and a connection +was established between anatomy and medicine, which has ever become +closer and closer. Since the revival of learning, surgery, medical +diagnosis, and anatomy have gone hand in hand. Morgagni called his +great work, "De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis," and +not only showed the way to search out the localities and the causes of +disease by anatomy, but himself travelled wonderfully far upon the +road. Bichat, discriminating the grosser constituents of the organs and +parts of the body, one from another, pointed out the direction which +modern research must take; until, at length, histology, a science of +yesterday, as it seems to many of us, has carried the work of Morgagni +as far as the microscope can take us, and has extended the realm of +pathological anatomy to the limits of the invisible world.</P> + +<P>Thanks to the intimate alliance of morphology with medicine, the +natural history of disease has, at the present day, attained a high +degree of perfection. Accurate regional anatomy has rendered +practicable the exploration of the most hidden parts of the organism, +and the determination, during life, of morbid changes in them; +anatomical and histological post-mortem investigations have supplied +physicians with a clear basis upon which to rest the classification, of +diseases, and with unerring tests of the accuracy or inaccuracy of +their diagnoses.</P> + +<P>If men could be satisfied with pure knowledge, the extreme precision +with which, in these days, a sufferer may be told what is happening, +and what is likely to happen, even in the most recondite parts of his +bodily frame, should be as satisfactory to the patient as it is to +the scientific pathologist who gives him the information. But I am +afraid it is not; and even the practising physician, while nowise +under-estimating the regulative value of accurate diagnosis, must often +lament that so much of his knowledge rather prevents him from doing +wrong than helps him to do right.</P> + +<P>A scorner of physic once said that nature and disease may be compared +to two men fighting, the doctor to a blind man with a club, who strikes +into the <i>mêlée</i>, sometimes hitting the disease, and sometimes +hitting nature. The matter is not mended if you suppose the blind man's +hearing to be so acute that he can register every stage of the +struggle, and pretty clearly predict how it will end. He had better not +meddle at all, until his eyes are opened, until he can see the exact +position of the antagonists, and make sure of the effect of his blows. +But that which it behoves the physician to see, not, indeed, with his +bodily eye, but with clear, intellectual vision, is a process, and the +chain of causation involved in that process. Disease, as we have seen, +is a perturbation of the normal activities of a living body, and it is, +and must remain, unintelligible, so long as we are ignorant of the +nature of these normal activities. In other words, there could be no +real science of pathology until the science of physiology had reached a +degree of perfection unattained, and indeed unattainable, until quite +recent times.</P> + +<P>So far as medicine is concerned, I am not sure that physiology, such as +it was down to the time of Harvey, might as well not have existed. Nay, +it is perhaps no exaggeration to say that, within the memory of living +men, justly renowned practitioners of medicine and surgery knew +less physiology than is now to be learned from the most elementary +text-book; and, beyond a few broad facts, regarded what they did know +as of extremely little practical importance. Nor am I disposed to blame +them for this conclusion; physiology must be useless, or worse than +useless, to pathology, so long as its fundamental conceptions are +erroneous.</P> + +<P>Harvey is often said to be the founder of modern physiology; and there +can be no question that the elucidations of the function of the heart, +of the nature of the pulse, and of the course of the blood, put forth +in the ever-memorable little essay, "De motu cordis," directly worked a +revolution in men's views of the nature and of the concatenation of +some of the most important physiological processes among the higher +animals; while, indirectly, their influence was perhaps even more +remarkable.</P> + +<P>But, though Harvey made this signal and perennially important +contribution to the physiology of the moderns, his general conception +of vital processes was essentially identical with that of the ancients; +and, in the "Exercitationes de generatione," and notably in the +singular chapter "De calido innato," he shows himself a true son of +Galen and of Aristotle.</P> + +<P>For Harvey, the blood possesses powers superior to those of the +elements; it is the seat of a soul which is not only vegetative, but +also sensitive and motor. The blood maintains and fashions all parts of +the body, "idque summâ cum providentiâ et intellectu in finem certum +agens, quasi ratiocinio quodam uteretur."</P> + +<P>Here is the doctrine of the "pneuma," the product of the philosophical +mould into which the animism of primitive men ran in Greece, in full +force. Nor did its strength abate for long after Harvey's time. The +same ingrained tendency of the human mind to suppose that a process is +explained when it is ascribed to a power of which nothing is known +except that it is the hypothetical agent of the process, gave rise, in +the next century, to the animism of Stahl; and, later, to the doctrine +of a vital principle, that "asylum ignorantiae" of physiologists, which +has so easily accounted for everything and explained nothing, down to +our own times.</P> + +<P>Now the essence of modern, as contrasted with ancient, physiological +science appears to me to lie in its antagonism to animistic hypotheses +and animistic phraseology. It offers physical explanations of vital +phenomena, or frankly confesses that it has none to offer. And, so far +as I know, the first person who gave expression to this modern view of +physiology, who was bold enough to enunciate the proposition that vital +phenomena, like all the other phenomena of the physical world, are, in +ultimate analysis, resolvable into matter and motion, was René +Descartes.</P> + +<P>The fifty-four years of life of this most original and powerful thinker +are widely overlapped, on both sides, by the eighty of Harvey, who +survived his younger contemporary by seven years, and takes pleasure in +acknowledging the French philosopher's appreciation of his great +discovery.</P> + +<P>In fact, Descartes accepted the doctrine of the circulation as +propounded by "Harvaeus médecin d'Angleterre," and gave a full account +of it in his first work, the famous "Discours de la Méthode," which was +published in 1637, only nine years after the exercitation "De motu +cordis"; and, though differing from Harvey on some important points (in +which it may be noted, in passing, Descartes was wrong and Harvey +right), he always speaks of him with great respect. And so important +does the subject seem to Descartes, that he returns to it in the +"Traité des Passions," and in the "Traité de l'Homme."</P> + +<P>It is easy to see that Harvey's work must have had a peculiar +significance for the subtle thinker, to whom we owe both the +spiritualistic and the materialistic philosophies of modern times. It +was in the very year of its publication, 1628, that Descartes withdrew +into that life of solitary investigation and meditation of which his +philosophy was the fruit. And, as the course of his speculations led +him to establish an absolute distinction of nature between the material +and the mental worlds, he was logically compelled to seek for the +explanation of the phenomena of the material world within itself; and +having allotted the realm of thought to the soul, to see nothing but +extension and motion in the rest of nature. Descartes uses "thought" as +the equivalent of our modern term "consciousness." Thought is the +function of the soul, and its only function. Our natural heat and all +the movements of the body, says he, do not depend on the soul. Death +does not take place from any fault of the soul, but only because some +of the principal parts of the body become corrupted. The body of a +living man differs from that of a dead man in the same way as a watch +or other automaton (that is to say, a machine which moves of itself) +when it is wound up and has, in itself, the physical principle of the +movements which the mechanism is adapted to perform, differs from the +same watch, or other machine, when it is broken, and the physical +principle of its movement no longer exists. All the actions which are +common to us and the lower animals depend only on the conformation of +our organs, and the course which the animal spirits take in the brain, +the nerves, and the muscles; in the same way as the movement of a watch +is produced by nothing but the force of its spring and the figure of +its wheels and other parts.</P> + +<P>Descartes' "Treatise on Man" is a sketch of human physiology, in which +a bold attempt is made to explain all the phenomena of life, except +those of consciousness, by physical reasonings. To a mind turned in +this direction, Harvey's exposition of the heart and vessels as a +hydraulic mechanism must have been supremely welcome.</P> + +<P>Descartes was not a mere philosophical theorist, but a hardworking +dissector and experimenter, and he held the strongest opinion +respecting the practical value of the new conception which he was +introducing. He speaks of the importance of preserving health, and of +the dependence of the mind on the body being so close that, perhaps, +the only way of making men wiser and better than they are, is to be +sought in medical science. "It is true," says he, "that as medicine is +now practised it contains little that is very useful; but without any +desire to depreciate, I am sure that there is no one, even among +professional men, who will not declare that all we know is very little +as compared with that which remains to be known; and that we might +escape an infinity of diseases of the mind, no less than of the body, +and even perhaps from the weakness of old age, if we had sufficient +knowledge of their causes, and of all the remedies with which nature +has provided us." [<a href="#XIV1">1</a>] So strongly impressed was Descartes with this, +that he resolved to spend the rest of his life in trying to acquire +such a knowledge of nature as would lead to the construction of a +better medical doctrine. [<a href="#XIV2">2</a>] The anti-Cartesians found material for +cheap ridicule in these aspirations of the philosopher; and it is +almost needless to say that, in the thirteen years which elapsed +between the publication of the "Discours" and the death of Descartes, +he did not contribute much to their realisation. But, for the next +century, all progress in physiology took place along the lines which +Descartes laid down.</P> + +<P>The greatest physiological and pathological work of the seventeenth +century, Borelli's treatise "De Motu Animalium," is, to all intents and +purposes, a development of Descartes' fundamental conception; and the +same may be said of the physiology and pathology of Boerhaave, whose +authority dominated in the medical world of the first half of the +eighteenth century.</P> + +<P>With the origin of modern chemistry, and of electrical science, in the +latter half of the eighteenth century, aids in the analysis of the +phenomena of life, of which Descartes could not have dreamed, were +offered to the physiologist. And the greater part of the gigantic +progress which has been made in the present century is a justification +of the prevision of Descartes. For it consists, essentially, in a more +and more complete resolution of the grosser organs of the living body +into physicochemical mechanisms.</P> + +<P>"I shall try to explain our whole bodily machinery in such a way, that +it will be no more necessary for us to suppose that the soul produces +such movements as are not voluntary, than it is to think that there is +in a clock a soul which causes it to show the hours." [<a href="#XIV3">3</a>] These words +of Descartes might be appropriately taken as a motto by the author of +any modern treatise on physiology.</P> + +<P>But though, as I think, there is no doubt that Descartes was the first +to propound the fundamental conception of the living body as a physical +mechanism, which is the distinctive feature of modern, as contrasted +with ancient physiology, he was misled by the natural temptation to +carry out, in all its details, a parallel between the machines with +which he was familiar, such as clocks and pieces of hydraulic +apparatus, and the living machine. In all such machines there is a +central source of power, and the parts of the machine are merely +passive distributors of that power. The Cartesian school conceived of +the living body as a machine of this kind; and herein they might have +learned from Galen, who, whatever ill use he may have made of the +doctrine of "natural faculties," nevertheless had the great merit of +perceiving that local forces play a great part in physiology.</P> + +<P>The same truth was recognised by Glisson, but it was first prominently +brought forward in the Hallerian doctrine of the "vis insita" of +muscles. If muscle can contract without nerve, there is an end of the +Cartesian mechanical explanation of its contraction by the influx of +animal spirits.</P> + +<P>The discoveries of Trembley tended in the same direction. In the +freshwater <i>Hydra</i>, no trace was to be found of that complicated +machinery upon which the performance of the functions in the higher +animals was supposed to depend. And yet the hydra moved, fed, grew, +multiplied, and its fragments exhibited all the powers of the whole. +And, finally, the work of Caspar F. Wolff, [<a href="#XIV4">4</a>] by demonstrating the +fact that the growth and development of both plants and animals take +place antecedently to the existence of their grosser organs, and are, +in fact, the causes and not the consequences of organisation (as then +understood), sapped the foundations of the Cartesian physiology as a +complete expression of vital phenomena.</P> + +<P>For Wolff, the physical basis of life is a fluid, possessed of a "vis +essentialis" and a "solidescibilitas," in virtue of which it gives rise +to organisation; and, as he points out, this conclusion strikes at the +root of the whole iatro-mechanical system.</P> + +<P>In this country, the great authority of John Hunter exerted a similar +influence; though it must be admitted that the too sibylline utterances +which are the outcome of Hunter's struggles to define his conceptions +are often susceptible of more than one interpretation. Nevertheless, on +some points Hunter is clear enough. For example, he is of opinion that +"Spirit is only a property of matter" ("Introduction to Natural +History," p. 6), he is prepared to renounce animism, (<i>l.c.</i> p. +8), and his conception of life is so completely physical that he thinks +of it as something which can exist in a state of combination in the +food. "The aliment we take in has in it, in a fixed state, the real +life; and this does not become active until it has got into the lungs; +for there it is freed from its prison" ("Observations on Physiology," +p. 113). He also thinks that "It is more in accord with the general +principles of the animal machine to suppose that none of its effects +are produced from any mechanical principle whatever; and that every +effect is produced from an action in the part; which action is produced +by a stimulus upon the part which acts, or upon some other part with +which this part sympathises so as to take up the whole action" (<i>l.c.</i> +p. 152).</P> + +<P>And Hunter is as clear as Wolff, with whose work he was probably +unacquainted, that "whatever life is, it most certainly does not depend +upon structure or organisation" (<i>l.c.</i> p. 114).</P> + +<P>Of course it is impossible that Hunter could have intended to deny the +existence of purely mechanical operations in the animal body. But +while, with Borelli and Boerhaave, he looked upon absorption, +nutrition, and secretion as operations effected by means of the small +vessels, he differed from the mechanical physiologists, who regarded +these operations as the result of the mechanical properties of the +small vessels, such as the size, form, and disposition of their canals +and apertures. Hunter, on the contrary, considers them to be the effect +of properties of these vessels which are not mechanical but vital. "The +vessels," says he, "have more of the polypus in them than any other +part of the body," and he talks of the "living and sensitive principles +of the arteries," and even of the "dispositions or feelings of the +arteries." "When the blood is good and genuine the sensations of the +arteries, or the dispositions for sensation, are agreeable.... It is +then they dispose of the blood to the best advantage, increasing the +growth of the whole, supplying any losses, keeping up a due succession, +etc." (<i>l.c.</i> p. 133).</P> + +<P>If we follow Hunter's conceptions to their logical issue, the life of +one of the higher animals is essentially the sum of the lives of all +the vessels, each of which is a sort of physiological unit, answering +to a polype; and, as health is the result of the normal "action of the +vessels," so is disease an effect of their abnormal action. Hunter thus +stands in thought, as in time, midway between Borelli on the one hand, +and Bichat on the other.</P> + +<P>The acute founder of general anatomy, in fact, outdoes Hunter in his +desire to exclude physical reasonings from the realm of life. Except in +the interpretation of the action of the sense organs, he will not allow +physics to have anything to do with physiology.</P> + +<P>"To apply the physical sciences to physiology is to explain the +phenomena of living bodies by the laws of inert bodies. Now this is a +false principle, hence all its consequences are marked with the same +stamp. Let us leave to chemistry its affinity; to physics, its +elasticity and its gravity. Let us invoke for physiology only +sensibility and contractility." [<a href="#XIV5">5</a>]</P> + +<P>Of all the unfortunate dicta of men of eminent ability this seems one +of the most unhappy, when we think of what the application of the +methods and the data of physics and chemistry has done towards bringing +physiology into its present state. It is not too much to say that +one-half of a modern text-book of physiology consists of applied +physics and chemistry; and that it is exactly in the exploration of the +phenomena of sensibility and contractility that physics and chemistry +have exerted the most potent influence.</P> + +<P>Nevertheless, Bichat rendered a solid service to physiological progress +by insisting upon the fact that what we call life, in one of the higher +animals, is not an indivisible unitary archaeus dominating, from its +central seat, the parts of the organism, but a compound result of the +synthesis of the separate lives of those parts.</P> + +<P>"All animals," says he, "are assemblages of different organs, each of +which performs its function and concurs, after its fashion, in the +preservation of the whole. They are so many special machines in the +general machine which constitutes the individual. But each of these +special machines is itself compounded of many tissues of very different +natures, which in truth constitute the elements of those organs" +(<i>l.c.</i> lxxix.). "The conception of a proper vitality is applicable +only to these simple tissues, and not to the organs themselves" +(<i>l.c.</i> lxxxiv.).</P> + +<P>And Bichat proceeds to make the obvious application of this doctrine of +synthetic life, if I may so call it, to pathology. Since diseases are +only alterations of vital properties, and the properties of each tissue +are distinct from those of the rest, it is evident that the diseases of +each tissue must be different from those of the rest. Therefore, in any +organ composed of different tissues, one may be diseased and the other +remain healthy; and this is what happens in most cases (<i>l.c.</i> +lxxxv.).</P> + +<P>In a spirit of true prophecy, Bichat says, "We have arrived at an epoch +in which pathological anatomy should start afresh." For, as the +analysis of the organs had led him to the tissues as the physiological +units of the organism; so, in a succeeding generation, the analysis of +the tissues led to the cell as the physiological element of the +tissues. The contemporaneous study of development brought out the same +result; and the zoologists and botanists, exploring the simplest and +the lowest forms of animated beings, confirmed the great induction of +the cell theory. Thus the apparently opposed views, which have been +battling with one another ever since the middle of the last century, +have proved to be each half the truth.</P> + +<P>The proposition of Descartes that the body of a living man is a +machine, the actions of which are explicable by the known laws of +matter and motion, is unquestionably largely true. But it is also true, +that the living body is a synthesis of innumerable physiological +elements, each of which may nearly be described, in Wolff's words, as a +fluid possessed of a "vis essentialis" and a "solidescibilitas"; or, in +modern phrase, as protoplasm susceptible of structural metamorphosis +and functional metabolism: and that the only machinery, in the precise +sense in which the Cartesian school understood mechanism, is, that +which co-ordinates and regulates these physiological units into an +organic whole.</P> + +<P>In fact, the body is a machine of the nature of an army, not of that of +a watch or of a hydraulic apparatus. Of this army each cell is a +soldier, an organ a brigade, the central nervous system headquarters +and field telegraph, the alimentary and circulatory system the +commissariat. Losses are made good by recruits born in camp, and the +life of the individual is a campaign, conducted successfully for a +number of years, but with certain defeat in the long run.</P> + +<P>The efficacy of an army, at any given moment, depends on the health of +the individual soldier, and on the perfection of the machinery by which +he is led and brought into action at the proper time; and, therefore, +if the analogy holds good, there can be only two kinds of diseases, the +one dependent on abnormal states of the physiological units, the other +on perturbations of their co-ordinating and alimentative machinery.</P> + +<P>Hence, the establishment of the cell theory, in normal biology, was +swiftly followed by a "cellular pathology," as its logical counterpart. +I need not remind you how great an instrument of investigation this +doctrine has proved in the hands of the man of genius to whom its +development is due, and who would probably be the last to forget that +abnormal conditions of the co-ordinative and distributive machinery of +the body are no less important factors of disease.</P> + +<P>Henceforward, as it appears to me, the connection of medicine with the +biological sciences is clearly indicated. Pure pathology is that branch +of biology which defines the particular perturbation of cell-life, or +of the co-ordinating machinery, or of both, on which the phenomena of +disease depend.</P> + +<P>Those who are conversant with the present state of biology will hardly +hesitate to admit that the conception of the life of one of the higher +animals as the summation of the lives of a cell aggregate, brought into +harmonious action by a co-ordinative machinery formed by some of these +cells, constitutes a permanent acquisition of physiological science. +But the last form of the battle between the animistic and the physical +views of life is seen in the contention whether the physical analysis +of vital phenomena can be carried beyond this point or not.</P> + +<P>There are some to whom living protoplasm is a substance, even such as +Harvey conceived the blood to be, "summâ cum providentiâ et intellectu +in finem certum agens, quasi ratiocinio quodam;" and who look with as +little favour as Bichat did, upon any attempt to apply the principles +and the methods of physics and chemistry to the investigation of the +vital processes of growth, metabolism, and contractility. They stand +upon the ancient ways; only, in accordance with that progress towards +democracy, which a great political writer has declared to be the fatal +characteristic of modern times, they substitute a republic formed by a +few billion of "animulae" for the monarchy of the all-pervading +"anima."</P> + +<P>Others, on the contrary, supported by a robust faith in the universal +applicability of the principles laid down by Descartes, and seeing that +the actions called "vital" are, so far as we have any means of knowing, +nothing but changes of place of particles of matter, look to molecular +physics to achieve the analysis of the living protoplasm itself into a +molecular mechanism. If there is any truth in the received doctrines of +physics, that contrast between living and inert matter, on which Bichat +lays so much stress, does not exist. In nature, nothing is at rest, +nothing is amorphous; the simplest particle of that which men in their +blindness are pleased to call "brute matter" is a vast aggregate of +molecular mechanisms performing complicated movements of immense +rapidity, and sensitively adjusting themselves to every change in the +surrounding world. Living matter differs from other matter in degree +and not in kind; the microcosm repeats the macrocosm; and one chain of +causation connects the nebulous original of suns and planetary systems +with the protoplasmic foundation of life and organisation.</P> + +<P>From this point of view, pathology is the analogue of the theory of +perturbations in astronomy; and therapeutics resolves itself into the +discovery of the means by which a system of forces competent to +eliminate any given perturbation may be introduced into the economy. +And, as pathology bases itself upon normal physiology, so therapeutics +rests upon pharmacology; which is, strictly speaking, a part of the +great biological topic of the influence of conditions on the living +organism, and has no scientific foundation apart from physiology.</P> + +<P>It appears to me that there is no more hopeful indication of the +progress of medicine towards the ideal of Descartes than is to be +derived from a comparison of the state of pharmacology, at the present +day, with that which existed forty years ago. If we consider the +knowledge positively acquired, in this short time, of the <i>modus +operandi</i> of urari, of atropia, of physostigmin, of veratria, of +casca, of strychnia, of bromide of potassium, of phosphorus, there can +surely be no ground for doubting that, sooner or later, the +pharmacologist will supply the physician with the means of affecting, +in any desired sense, the functions of any physiological element of the +body. It will, in short, become possible to introduce into the economy +a molecular mechanism which, like a very cunningly-contrived torpedo, +shall find its way to some particular group of living elements, and +cause an explosion among them, leaving the rest untouched.</P> + +<P>The search for the explanation of diseased states in modified +cell-life; the discovery of the important part played by parasitic +organisms in the aetiology of disease; the elucidation of the action of +medicaments by the methods and the data of experimental physiology; +appear to me to be the greatest steps which have ever been made towards +the establishment of medicine on a scientific basis. I need hardly say +they could not have been made except for the advance of normal biology.</P> + +<P>There can be no question, then, as to the nature or the value of the +connection between medicine and the biological sciences. There can be +no doubt that the future of pathology and of therapeutics, and, +therefore, that of practical medicine, depends upon the extent to which +those who occupy themselves with these subjects are trained in the +methods and impregnated with the fundamental truths of biology.</P> + +<P>And, in conclusion, I venture to suggest that the collective sagacity +of this congress could occupy itself with no more important question +than with this: How is medical education to be arranged, so that, +without entangling the student in those details of the systematist +which are valueless to him, he may be enabled to obtain a firm grasp of +the great truths respecting animal and vegetable life, without which, +notwithstanding all the progress of scientific medicine, he will still +find himself an empiric?</P> + +<br><hr><br> + +<P><b>Footnotes</b></P> +<ol> +<li><a name="XIV1"><i>Discours de la Méthode</i></a>, 6e partie, Ed. Cousin, p. 193.</li> +<li><a name="XIV2"><i>Ibid</i></a>. pp. 193 and 211.</li> +<li><a name="XIV3"><i>De la Formation du Foetus</i></a>.</li> +<li><a name="XIV4"><i>Theoria Generationis</i></a>, 1759.</li> +<li><a name="XIV5"><i>Anatomie générale</i></a>, i. p. liv.</li> +</ol> +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="XV">XV</a></P> + +<h4>THE SCHOOL BOARDS: WHAT THEY CAN DO, AND WHAT THEY MAY DO.</h4> + +<P>[1870]</P> + +<P>An electioneering manifesto would be out of place in the pages of this +Review; but any suspicion that may arise in the mind of the reader that +the following pages partake of that nature, will be dispelled, if he +reflect that they cannot be published [<a href="#XV1">1</a>] until after the day on which +the ratepayers of the metropolis will have decided which candidates for +seats upon the Metropolitan School Board they will take, and which they +will leave.</P> + +<P>As one of those candidates, I may be permitted to say, that I feel much +in the frame of mind of the Irish bricklayer's labourer, who bet +another that he could not carry him to the top of the ladder in his +hod. The challenged hodman won his wager, but as the stakes were handed +over, the challenger wistfully remarked, "I'd great hopes of falling at +the third round from the top." And, in view of the work and the worry +which awaits the members of the School Boards, I must confess to an +occasional ungrateful hope that the friends who are toiling upwards +with me in their hod, may, when they reach "the third round from the +top," let me fall back into peace and quietness.</P> + +<P>But whether fortune befriend me in this rough method, or not, I should +like to submit to those of whom I am potential, but of whom I may not +be an actual, colleague, and to others who may be interested in this +most important problem--how to get the Education Act to work +efficiently--some considerations as to what are the duties of the +members of the School Boards, and what are the limits of their power.</P> + +<P>I suppose no one will be disposed to dispute the proposition, that the +prime duty of every member of such a Board is to endeavour to +administer the Act honestly; or in accordance, not only with its +letter, but with its spirit. And if so, it would seem that the first +step towards this very desirable end is, to obtain a clear notion of +what that letter signifies, and what that spirit implies; or, in other +words, what the clauses of the Act are intended to enjoin and to +forbid. So that it is really not admissible, except for factious and +abusive purposes, to assume that any one who endeavours to get at this +clear meaning is desirous only of raising quibbles and making +difficulties.</P> + +<P>Reading the Act with this desire to understand it, I find that its +provisions may be classified, as might naturally be expected, under two +heads: the one set relating to the subject-matter of education; the +other to the establishment, maintenance, and administration of the +schools in which that education is to be conducted.</P> + +<P>Now it is a most important circumstance, that all the sections of the +Act, except four, belong to the latter division; that is, they refer to +mere matters of administration. The four sections in question are the +seventh, the fourteenth, the sixteenth, and the ninety-seventh. Of +these, the seventh, the fourteenth, and the ninety-seventh deal with +the subject-matter of education, while the sixteenth defines the nature +of the relations which are to exist between the "Education Department" +(an euphemism for the future Minister of Education) and the School +Boards. It is the sixteenth clause which is the most important, and, in +some respects, the most remarkable of all. It runs thus:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"If the School Board do, or permit, any act in contravention of, or +fail to comply with, the regulations, according to which a school +provided by them is required by this Act to be conducted, the +Education Department may declare the School Board to be, and such +Board shall accordingly be deemed to be, a Board in default, and +the Education Department may proceed accordingly; and every act, or +omission, of any member of the School Board, or manager appointed +by them, or any person under the control of the Board, shall be +deemed to be permitted by the Board, unless the contrary be proved.</P> + +<P>"If any dispute arises as to whether the School Board have done, or +permitted, any act in contravention of, or have failed to comply +with, the said regulations, <i>the matter shall be referred to the +Education Department, whose decision thereon shall be final</i>."</P> +</blockquote> +<P>It will be observed that this clause gives the Minister of Education +absolute power over the doings of the School Boards. He is not only the +administrator of the Act, but he is its interpreter. I had imagined +that on the occurrence of a dispute, not as regards a question of pure +administration, but as to the meaning of a clause of the Act, a case +might be taken and referred to a court of justice. But I am led to +believe that the Legislature has, in the present instance, deliberately +taken this power out of the hands of the judges and lodged it in those +of the Minister of Education, who, in accordance with our method of +making Ministers, will necessarily be a political partisan, and who may +be a strong theological sectary into the bargain. And I am informed by +members of Parliament who watched the progress of the Act, that the +responsibility for this unusual state of things rests, not with the +Government, but with the Legislature, which exhibited a singular +disposition to accumulate power in the hands of the future Minister of +Education, and to evade the more troublesome difficulties of the +education question by leaving them to be settled between that Minister +and the School Boards.</P> + +<P>I express no opinion whether it is, or is not, desirable that such +powers of controlling all the School Boards in the country should be +possessed by a person who may be, like Mr. Forster, eminently likely to +use these powers justly and wisely, but who also may be quite the +reverse. I merely wish to draw attention to the fact that such powers +are given to the Minister, whether he be fit or unfit. The extent of +these powers becomes apparent when the other sections of the Act +referred to are considered. The fourth clause of the seventh section +says:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"The school shall be conducted in accordance with the conditions +required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in order to obtain +an annual Parliamentary grant."</P> +</blockquote> +<P>What these conditions are appears from the following clauses of the +ninety-seventh section:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"The conditions required to be fulfilled by an elementary school in +order to obtain an annual Parliamentary grant shall be those +contained in the minutes of the Education Department in force for +the time being.... Provided that no such minute of the Education +Department, not in force at the time of the passing of this Act, +shall be deemed to be in force until it has lain for not less than +one month on the table of both Houses of Parliament."</P> +</blockquote> +<P>Let us consider how this will work in practice. A school established by +a School Board may receive support from three sources--from the rates, +the school fees, and the Parliamentary grant. The latter may be as +great as the two former taken together; and as it may be assumed, +without much risk of error, that a constant pressure will be exerted by +the ratepayers on the members who represent them to get as much out of +the Government, and as little out of the rates, as possible, the School +Boards will have a very strong motive for shaping the education they +give, as nearly as may be, on the model which the Education Minister +offers for their imitation, and for the copying of which he is prepared +to pay.</P> + +<P>The Revised Code did not compel any schoolmaster to leave off teaching +anything; but, by the very simple process of refusing to pay for many +kinds of teaching, it has practically put an end to them. Mr. Forster +is said to be engaged in revising the Revised Code; a successor of his +may re-revise it--and there will be no sort of check upon these +revisions and counter revisions, except the possibility of a +Parliamentary debate, when the revised, or added, minutes are laid upon +the table. What chance is there that any such debate will take place on +a matter of detail relating to elementary education--a subject with +which members of the Legislature, having been, for the most part, sent +to our public schools thirty years ago, have not the least practical +acquaintance, and for which they care nothing, unless it derives a +political value from its connection with sectarian politics?</P> + +<P>I cannot but think, then, that the School Boards will have the +appearance, but not the reality, of freedom of action, in regard to the +subject-matter of what is commonly called "secular" education.</P> + +<P>As respects what is commonly called "religious" education, the power of +the Minister of Education is even more despotic. An interest, almost +amounting to pathos, attaches itself, in my mind, to the frantic +exertions which are at present going on in almost every school +division, to elect certain candidates whose names have never before +been heard of in connection with education, and who are either +sectarian partisans, or nothing. In my own particular division, a body +organised <i>ad hoc</i> is moving heaven and earth to get the seven +seats filled by seven gentlemen, four of whom are good Churchmen, and +three no less good Dissenters. But why should this seven times heated +fiery furnace of theological zeal be so desirous to shed its genial +warmth over the London School Board? Can it be that these zealous +sectaries mean to evade the solemn pledge given in the Act?</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"No religious catechism or religious formulary which is distinctive +of any particular denomination shall be taught in the school."</P> +</blockquote> +<P>I confess I should have thought it my duty to reject any such +suggestion, as dishonouring to a number of worthy persons, if it had +not been for a leading article and some correspondence which appeared +in the <i>Guardian</i> of November 9th, 1870.</P> + +<P>The <i>Guardian</i> is, as everybody knows, one of the best of the +"religious" newspapers; and, personally, I have every reason to speak +highly of the fairness, and indeed kindness, with which the editor is +good enough to deal with a writer who must, in many ways, be so +objectionable to him as myself. I quote the following passages from a +leading article on a letter of mine, therefore, with all respect, and +with a genuine conviction that the course of conduct advocated by the +writer must appear to him in a very different light from that under +which I see it:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"The first of these points is the interpretation which Professor +Huxley puts on the 'Cowper-Temple clause.' It is, in fact, that +which we foretold some time ago as likely to be forced upon it by +those who think with him. The clause itself was one of those +compromises which it is very difficult to define or to maintain +logically. On the one side was the simple freedom to School Boards +to establish what schools they pleased, which Mr. Forster +originally gave, but against which the Nonconformists lifted up +their voices, because they conceived it likely to give too much +power to the Church. On the other side there was the proposition to +make the schools secular--intelligible enough, but in the +consideration of public opinion simply impossible--and there was +the vague impracticable idea, which Mr. Gladstone thoroughly tore +to pieces, of enacting that the teaching of all school-masters in +the new schools should be strictly 'undenominational.' The +Cowper-Temple clause was, we repeat, proposed simply to tide over +the difficulty. It was to satisfy the Nonconformists and the +'unsectarian,' as distinct from the secular party of the League, by +forbidding all distinctive 'catechisms and formularies,' which +might have the effect of openly assigning the schools to this or +that religious body. It refused, at the same time, to attempt the +impossible task of defining what was undenominational; and its +author even contended, if we understood him correctly, that it +would in no way, even indirectly, interfere with the substantial +teaching of any master in any school. This assertion we always +believed to be untenable; we could not see how, in the face of this +clause, a distinctly denominational tone could be honestly given to +schools nominally general. But beyond this mere suggestion of +an attempt at a general tone of comprehensiveness in religious +teaching it was not intended to go, and only because such was its +limitation was it accepted by the Government and by the House.</P> + +<P>"But now we are told that it is to be construed as doing precisely +that which it refused to do. A 'formulary,' it seems, is a +collection of formulas, and formulas are simply propositions of +whatever kind touching religious faith. All such propositions, if +they cannot be accepted by all Christian denominations, are to be +proscribed; and it is added significantly that the Jews also are a +denomination, and so that any teaching distinctively Christian is +perhaps to be excluded, lest it should interfere with their freedom +and rights. Are we then to fall back on the simple reading of the +letter of the Bible? No! this, it is granted, would be an 'unworthy +pretence.' The teacher is to give 'grammatical, geographical, or +historical explanations;' but he is to keep clear of 'theology +proper,' because, as Professor Huxley takes great pains to prove, +there is no theological teaching which is not opposed by some sect +or other, from Roman Catholicism on the one hand to Unitarianism on +the other. It was not, perhaps, hard to see that this difficulty +would be started; and to those who, like Professor Huxley look at +it theoretically, without much practical experience of schools, it +may appear serious or unanswerable. But there is very little in it +practically; when it is faced determinately and handled firmly, it +will soon shrink into its true dimensions. The class who are least +frightened at it are the school teachers, simply because they know +most about it. It is quite clear that the school managers must be +cautioned against allowing their schools to be made places of +proselytism: but when this is done, the case is simple enough. +Leave the masters under this general understanding to teach freely; +if there in ground of complaint, let it be made, but leave the +<i>onus probandi</i> on the objectors. For extreme peculiarities of +belief or unbelief there is the Conscience Clause; as to the mass +of parents, they will be more anxious to have religion taught than +afraid of its assuming this or that particular shade. They will +trust the school managers and teachers till they have reason to +distrust them, and experience has shown that they may trust them +safely enough. Any attempt to throw the burden of making the +teaching undenominational upon the managers must be sternly +resisted: it is simply evading the intentions of the Act in an +elaborate attempt to carry them out. We thank Professor Huxley for +the warning. To be forewarned is to be forearmed."</P> +</blockquote> +<P>A good deal of light seems to me to be thrown on the practical +significance of the opinions expressed in the foregoing extract by the +following interesting letter, which appeared in the same paper:--</P> +<blockquote> +<P>"Sir,--I venture to send to you the substance of a correspondence +with the Education Department upon the question of the lawfulness +of religious teaching in rate schools under section 14 (2) of the +Act. I asked whether the words 'which is distinctive,' &c., taken +grammatically as limiting the prohibition of any religious +formulary, might be construed as allowing (subject, however, to the +other provisions of the Act) any religious formulary common to any +two denominations anywhere in England to be taught in such schools; +and if practically the limit could not be so extended, but would +have to be fixed according to the special circumstances of each +district, then what degree of general acceptance in a district +would exempt such a formulary from the prohibition? The answer to +this was as follows:--'It was understood, when clause 14 of the +Education Act was discussed in the House of Commons, that, +according to a well-known rule of interpreting Acts of Parliament, +"denomination" must be held to include "denominations." When any +dispute is referred to the Education Department under the last +paragraph of section 16, it will be dealt with according to the +circumstances of the case.'</P> + +<P>"Upon my asking further if I might hence infer that the lawfulness +of teaching any religious formulary in a rate school would thus +depend <i>exclusively</i> on local circumstances, and would +accordingly be so decided by the Education Department in case of +dispute, I was informed in explanation that 'their lordships'' +letter was intended to convey to me that no general rule, beyond +that stated in the first paragraph of their letter, could at +present be laid down by them; and that their decision in each +particular case must depend on the special circumstances +accompanying it.</P> + +<P>"I think it would appear from this that it may yet be in many cases +both lawful and expedient to teach religious formularies in rate +schools. H. I.</P> + +<P>"Steyning, <i>November</i> 5, 1870."</P> +</blockquote> +<P>Of course I do not mean to suggest that the editor of the <i>Guardian</i> +is bound by the opinions of his correspondent; but I cannot help +thinking that I do not misrepresent him, when I say that he also thinks +"that it may yet be, in many cases, both lawful and expedient to teach +religious formularies in rate schools under these circumstances."</P> + +<P>It is not uncharitable, therefore, to assume that, the express words of +the Act of Parliament notwithstanding, all the sectaries who are +toiling so hard for seats in the London School Board have the lively +hope of the gentleman from Steyning, that it may be "both lawful and +expedient to teach religious formularies in rate schools;" and that +they mean to do their utmost to bring this happy consummation about. [<a href="#XV2">2</a>]</P> + +<P>Now the pathetic emotion to which I have referred, as accompanying my +contemplations of the violent struggles of so many excellent persons, +is caused by the circumstance that, so far as I can judge, their labour +is in vain.</P> + +<P>Supposing that the London School Board contains, as it probably will +do, a majority of sectaries; and that they carry over the heads of a +minority, a resolution that certain theological formulas, about which +they all happen to agree,--say, for example, the doctrine of the +Trinity,--shall be taught in the schools. Do they fondly imagine that +the minority will not at once dispute their interpretation of the Act, +and appeal to the Education Department to settle that dispute? And if +so, do they suppose that any Minister of Education, who wants to keep +his place, will tighten boundaries which the Legislature has left +loose; and will give a "final decision" which shall be offensive to +every Unitarian and to every Jew in the House of Commons, besides +creating a precedent which will afterwards be used to the injury of +every Nonconformist? The editor of the <i>Guardian</i> tells his +friends sternly to resist every attempt to throw the burden of making +the teaching undenominational on the managers, and thanks me for the +warning I have given him. I return the thanks, with interest, for +<i>his</i> warning, as to the course the party he represents intends to +pursue, and for enabling me thus to draw public attention to a +perfectly constitutional and effectual mode of checkmating them.</P> + +<P>And, in truth, it is wonderful to note the surprising entanglement into +which our able editor gets himself in the struggle between his native +honesty and judgment and the necessities of his party. "We could not +see," says he, "in the face of this clause how a distinct +denominational tone could be honestly given to schools nominally +general." There speaks the honest and clear-headed man. "Any attempt to +throw the burden of making the teaching undenominational must be +sternly resisted." There speaks the advocate holding a brief for his +party. "Verily," as Trinculo says, "the monster hath two mouths:" the +one, the forward mouth, tells us very justly that the teaching cannot +"honestly" be "distinctly denominational;" but the other, the +backward mouth, asserts that it must by no manner of means be +"undenominational." Putting the two utterances together, I can only +interpret them to mean that the teaching is to be "indistinctly +denominational." If the editor of the <i>Guardian</i> had not shown +signs of anger at my use of the term "theological fog," I should have +been tempted to suppose it must have been what he had in his mind, +under the name of "indistinct denominationalism." But this reading +being plainly inadmissible, I can only imagine that he inculcates the +teaching of formulas common to a number of denominations.</P> + +<P>But the Education Department has already told the gentleman from +Steyning that any such proceeding will be illegal. "According to a +well-known rule of interpreting Acts of Parliament, 'denomination' +would be held to include 'denominations.'" In other words, we must read +the Act thus:--</P> + +<P>"No religious catechism or religious formulary which is distinctive of +any particular <i>denominations</i> shall be taught."</P> + +<P>Thus we are really very much indebted to the editor of the <i>Guardian</i> +and his correspondent. The one has shown us that the sectaries +mean to try to get as much denominational teaching as they can agree +upon among themselves, forced into the elementary schools; while the +other has obtained a formal declaration from the Educational Department +that any such attempt will contravene the Act of Parliament, and that, +therefore, the unsectarian, law-abiding members of the School Boards +may safely reckon upon bringing down upon their opponents the heavy +hand of the Minister of Education. [<a href="#XV3">3</a>]</P> + +<P>So much for the powers of the School Boards. Limited as they seem to +be, it by no means follows that such Boards, if they are composed of +intelligent and practical men, really more in earnest about education +than about sectarian squabbles, may not exert a very great amount of +influence. And, from many circumstances, this is especially likely to +be the case with the London School Board, which, if it conducts itself +wisely, may become a true educational parliaments as subordinate in +authority to the Minister of Education, theoretically, as the +Legislature is to the Crown, and yet, like the Legislature, possessed +of great practical authority. And I suppose that no Minister of +Education would be other than glad to have the aid of the deliberations +of such a body, or fail to pay careful attention to its +recommendations.</P> + +<P>What, then, ought to be the nature and scope of the education which a +School Board should endeavour to give to every child under its +influence, and for which it should try to obtain the aid of the +Parliamentary grants? In my judgment it should include at least the +following kinds of instruction and of discipline:--</P> + +<P>1. Physical training and drill, as part of the regular business of the +school.</P> + +<P>It is impossible to insist too much on the importance of this part +of education for the children of the poor of great towns. All the +conditions of their lives are unfavourable to their physical +well-being. They are badly lodged, badly housed, badly fed, and live +from one year's end to another in bad air, without chance of a change. +They have no play-grounds; they amuse themselves with marbles and +chuck-farthing, instead of cricket or hare-and-hounds; and if it were +not for the wonderful instinct which leads all poor children of tender +years to run under the feet of cab-horses whenever they can, I know not +how they would learn to use their limbs with agility.</P> + +<P>Now there is no real difficulty about teaching drill and the simpler +kinds of gymnastics. It is done admirably well, for example, in the +North Surrey Union schools; and a year or two ago when I had an +opportunity of inspecting these schools, I was greatly struck with the +effect of such training upon the poor little waifs and strays of +humanity, mostly picked out of the gutter, who are being made into +cleanly, healthy, and useful members of society in that excellent +institution.</P> + +<P>Whatever doubts people may entertain about the efficacy of natural +selection, there can be none about artificial selection; and the +breeder who should attempt to make, or keep up, a fine stock of pigs, +or sheep, under the conditions to which the children of the poor are +exposed, would be the laughing-stock even of the bucolic mind. +Parliament has already done something in this direction by declining to +be an accomplice in the asphyxiation of school children. It refuses +to make any grant to a school in which the cubical contents of the +school-room are inadequate to allow of proper respiration. I should +like to see it make another step in the same direction, and either +refuse to give a grant to a school in which physical training is not +a part of the programme, or, at any rate, offer to pay upon such +training. If something of the kind is not done, the English physique, +which has been, and is still, on the whole, a grand one, will become as +extinct as the dodo in the great towns.</P> + +<P>And then the moral and intellectual effect of drill, as an introduction +to, and aid of, all other sorts of training, must not be overlooked. If +you want to break in a colt, surely the first thing to do is to catch +him and get him quietly to face his trainer; to know his voice and bear +his hand; to learn that colts have something else to do with their +heels than to kick them up whenever they feel so inclined; and to +discover that the dreadful human figure has no desire to devour, or +even to beat him, but that, in case of attention and obedience, he may +hope for patting and even a sieve of oats.</P> + +<P>But, your "street Arabs," and other neglected poor children, are rather +worse and wilder than colts; for the reason that the horse-colt has +only his animal instincts in him, and his mother, the mare, has been +always tender over him, and never came home drunk and kicked him in her +life; while the man-colt is inspired by that very real devil, perverted +manhood, and <i>his</i> mother may have done all that and more. So, on +the whole, it may probably be even more expedient to begin your attempt +to get at the higher nature of the child, than at that of the colt, +from the physical side.</P> + +<P>2. Next in order to physical training I put the instruction of +children, and especially of girls, in the elements of household work +and of domestic economy; in the first place for their own sakes, and in +the second for that of their future employers.</P> + +<P>Every one who knows anything of the life of the English poor is aware +of the misery and waste caused by their want of knowledge of domestic +economy, and by their lack of habits of frugality and method. I suppose +it is no exaggeration to say that a poor Frenchwoman would make the +money which the wife of a poor Englishman spends in food go twice as +far, and at the same time turn out twice as palatable a dinner. Why +Englishmen, who are so notoriously fond of good living, should be so +helplessly incompetent in the art of cookery, is one of the great +mysteries of nature; but from the varied abominations of the railway +refreshment-rooms to the monotonous dinners of the poor, English +feeding is either wasteful or nasty, or both.</P> + +<P>And as to domestic service, the groans of the housewives of England +ascend to heaven! In five cases out of six the girl who takes a +"place" has to be trained by her mistress in the first rudiments of +decency and order; and it is a mercy if she does not turn up her nose +at anything like the mention of an honest and proper economy. Thousands +of young girls are said to starve, or worse, yearly in London; and at +the same time thousands of mistresses of households are ready to pay +high wages for a decent housemaid, or cook, or a fair workwoman; and +can by no means get what they want.</P> + +<P>Surely, if the elementary schools are worth anything, they may put an +end to a state of things which is demoralising the poor, while it is +wasting the lives of those better off in small worries and annoyances.</P> + +<P>3. But the boys and girls for whose education the School Boards have to +provide, have not merely to discharge domestic duties, but each of them +is a member of a social and political organisation of great complexity, +and has, in future life, to fit himself into that organisation, or be +crushed by it. To this end it is surely needful, not only that they +should be made acquainted with the elementary laws of conduct, but that +their affections should be trained, so as to love with all their hearts +that conduct which tends to the attainment of the highest good for +themselves and their fellow men, and to hate with all their hearts that +opposite course of action which is fraught with evil.</P> + +<P>So far as the laws of conduct are determined by the intellect, I +apprehend that they belong to science, and to that part of science +which is called morality. But the engagement of the affections in +favour of that particular kind of conduct which we call good, seems to +me to be something quite beyond mere science. And I cannot but think +that it, together with the awe and reverence, which have no kinship +with base fear, but arise whenever one tries to pierce below the +surface of things, whether they be material or spiritual, constitutes +all that has any unchangeable reality in religion.</P> + +<P>And just as I think it would be a mistake to confound the science, +morality, with the affection, religion; so do I conceive it to be a +most lamentable and mischievous error, that the science, theology, is +so confounded in the minds of many--indeed, I might say, of the +majority of men.</P> + +<P>I do not express any opinion as to whether theology is a true science, +or whether it does not come under the apostolic definition of "science +falsely so called;" though I may be permitted to express the belief +that if the Apostle to whom that much misapplied phrase is due could +make the acquaintance of much of modern theology, he would not hesitate +a moment in declaring that it is exactly what he meant the words to +denote.</P> + +<P>But it is at any rate conceivable, that the nature of the Deity, and +his relations to the universe, and more especially to mankind, are +capable of being ascertained, either inductively or deductively, or by +both processes. And, if they have been ascertained, then a body of +science has been formed which is very properly called theology.</P> + +<P>Further, there can be no doubt that affection for the Being thus +defined and described by theologic science would be properly termed +religion; but it would not be the whole of religion. The affection for +the ethical ideal defined by moral science would claim equal if not +superior rights. For suppose theology established the existence of an +evil deity--and some theologies, even Christian ones, have come very +near this,--is the religious affection to be transferred from the +ethical ideal to any such omnipotent demon? I trow not. Better a +thousand times that the human race should perish under his thunderbolts +than it should say, "Evil, be thou my good."</P> + +<P>There is nothing new, that I know of, in this statement of the +relations of religion with the science of morality on the one hand and +that of theology on the other. But I believe it to be altogether true, +and very needful, at this time, to be clearly and emphatically +recognised as such, by those who have to deal with the education +question.</P> + +<P>We are divided into two parties--the advocates of so-called +"religious" teaching on the one hand, and those of so-called "secular" +teaching on the other. And both parties seem to me to be not only +hopelessly wrong, but in such a position that if either succeeded +completely, it would discover, before many years were over, that it had +made a great mistake and done serious evil to the cause of education.</P> + +<P>For, leaving aside the more far-seeing minority on each side, what +the "religious" party is crying for is mere theology, under the name +of religion; while the "secularists" have unwisely and wrongfully +admitted the assumption of their opponents, and demand the abolition +of all "religious" teaching, when they only want to be free +of theology--Burning your ship to get rid of the cockroaches!</P> + +<P>But my belief is, that no human being, and no society composed of human +beings, ever did, or ever will, come to much, unless their conduct was +governed and guided by the love of some ethical ideal. Undoubtedly, +your gutter child may be converted by mere intellectual drill into "the +subtlest of all the beasts of the field;" but we know what has become +of the original of that description, and there is no need to increase +the number of those who imitate him successfully without being aided by +the rates. And if I were compelled to choose for one of my own +children, between a school in which real religious instruction is +given, and one without it, I should prefer the former, even though the +child might have to take a good deal of theology with it. Nine-tenths +of a dose of bark is mere half-rotten wood; but one swallows it for the +sake of the particles of quinine, the beneficial effect of which may be +weakened, but is not destroyed, by the wooden dilution, unless in a few +cases of exceptionally tender stomachs.</P> + +<P>Hence, when the great mass of the English people declare that they want +to have the children in the elementary schools taught the Bible, and +when it is plain from the terms of the Act, the debates in and out +of Parliament, and especially the emphatic declarations of the +Vice-President of the Council, that it was intended that such +Bible-reading should be permitted, unless good cause for prohibiting it +could be shown, I do not see what reason there is for opposing that +wish. Certainly, I, individually, could with no shadow of consistency +oppose the teaching of the children of other people to do that which my +own children are taught to do. And, even if the reading the Bible were +not, as I think it is, consonant with political reason and justice, and +with a desire to act in the spirit of the education measure, I am +disposed to think it might still be well to read that book in the +elementary schools.</P> + +<P>I have always been strongly in favour of secular education, in the +sense of education without theology; but I must confess I have been no +less seriously perplexed to know by what practical measures the +religious feeling, which is the essential basis of conduct, was to be +kept up, in the present utterly chaotic state of opinion on these +matters, without the use of the Bible. The Pagan moralists lack life +and colour, and even the noble Stoic, Marcus Antonius, is too high and +refined for an ordinary child. Take the Bible as a whole; make the +severest deductions which fair criticism can dictate for shortcomings +and positive errors; eliminate, as a sensible lay-teacher would do, if +left to himself, all that it is not desirable for children to occupy +themselves with; and there still remains in this old literature a vast +residuum of moral beauty and grandeur. And then consider the great +historical fact that, for three centuries, this book has been woven +into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history; that +it has become the national epic of Britain, and is as familiar to noble +and simple, from John-o'-Groat's House to Land's End, as Dante and +Tasso once were to the Italians; that it is written in the noblest and +purest English, and abounds in exquisite beauties of mere literary +form; and, finally, that it forbids the veriest hind who never left his +village to be ignorant of the existence of other countries and other +civilisations, and of a great past, stretching back to the furthest +limits of the oldest nations in the world. By the study of what other +book could children be so much humanised and made to feel that each +figure in that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, but a +momentary space in the interval between two eternities; and earns the +blessings or the curses of all time, according to its effort to do good +and hate evil, even as they also are earning their payment for their +work?</P> + +<P>On the whole, then, I am in favour of reading the Bible, with such +grammatical, geographical, and historical explanations by a lay-teacher +as may be needful, with rigid exclusion of any further theological +teaching than that contained in the Bible itself. And in stating what +this is, the teacher would do well not to go beyond the precise words +of the Bible; for if he does, he will, in the first place, undertake a +task beyond his strength, seeing that all the Jewish and Christian +sects have been at work upon that subject for more than two thousand +years, and have not yet arrived, and are not in the least likely to +arrive, at an agreement; and, in the second place, he will certainly +begin to teach something distinctively denominational, and thereby come +into violent collision with the Act of Parliament.</P> + +<P>4. The intellectual training to be given in the elementary schools must +of course, in the first place, consist in learning to use the means of +acquiring knowledge, or reading, writing, and arithmetic; and it will +be a great matter to teach reading so completely that the act shall +have become easy and pleasant. If reading remains "hard," that +accomplishment will not be much resorted to for instruction, and still +less for amusement--which last is one of its most valuable uses to +hard-worked people. But along with a due proficiency in the use of the +means of learning, a certain amount of knowledge, of intellectual +discipline, and of artistic training should be conveyed in the +elementary schools; and in this direction--for reasons which I am +afraid to repeat, having urged them so often--I can conceive no +subject-matter of education so appropriate and so important as the +rudiments of physical science, with drawing, modelling, and singing. +Not only would such teaching afford the best possible preparation for +the technical schools about which so much is now said, but the +organisation for carrying it into effect already exists. The Science +and Art Department, the operations of which have already attained +considerable magnitude, not only offers to examine and pay the results +of such examination in elementary science and art, but it provides what +is still more important, viz. a means of giving children of high +natural ability, who are just as abundant among the poor as among the +rich, a helping hand. A good old proverb tells us that "One should not +take a razor to cut a block:" the razor is soon spoiled, and the block +is not so well cut as it would be with a hatchet. But it is worse +economy to prevent a possible Watt from being anything but a stoker, or +to give a possible Faraday no chance of doing anything but to bind +books. Indeed, the loss in such cases of mistaken vocation has no +measure; it is absolutely infinite and irreparable. And among the +arguments in favour of the interference of the State in education, none +seems to be stronger than this--that it is the interest of every one +that ability should be neither wasted, nor misapplied, by any one: and, +therefore, that every one's representative, the State, is necessarily +fulfilling the wishes of its constituents when it is helping the +capacities to reach their proper places.</P> + +<P>It may be said that the scheme of education here sketched is too large +to be effected in the time during which the children will remain at +school; and, secondly, that even if this objection did not exist, it +would cost too much.</P> + +<P>I attach no importance whatever to the first objection until the +experiment has been fairly tried. Considering how much catechism, lists +of the kings of Israel, geography of Palestine, and the like, children +are made to swallow now, I cannot believe there will be any difficulty +in inducing them to go through the physical training, which is more +than half play; or the instruction in household work, or in those +duties to one another and to themselves, which have a daily and hourly +practical interest. That children take kindly to elementary science and +art no one can doubt who has tried the experiment properly. And if +Bible-reading is not accompanied by constraint and solemnity, as if it +were a sacramental operation, I do not believe there is anything in +which children take more pleasure. At least I know that some of the +pleasantest recollections of my childhood are connected with the +voluntary study of an ancient Bible which belonged to my grandmother. +There were splendid pictures in it, to be sure; but I recollect little +or nothing about them save a portrait of the high priest in his +vestments. What come vividly back on my mind are remembrances of my +delight in the histories of Joseph and of David; and of my keen +appreciation of the chivalrous kindness of Abraham in his dealing with +Lot. Like a sudden flash there returns back upon me, my utter scorn of +the pettifogging meanness of Jacob, and my sympathetic grief over the +heartbreaking lamentation of the cheated Esau, "Hast thou not a +blessing for me also, O my father?" And I see, as in a cloud, pictures +of the grand phantasmagoria of the Book of Revelation.</P> + +<P>I enumerate, as they issue, the childish impressions which come +crowding out of the pigeon-holes in my brain, in which they have lain +almost undisturbed for forty years. I prize them as an evidence that a +child of five or six years old, left to his own devices, may be deeply +interested in the Bible, and draw sound moral sustenance from it. And I +rejoice that I was left to deal with the Bible alone; for if I had had +some theological "explainer" at my side, he might have tried, as such +do, to lessen my indignation against Jacob, and thereby have warped my +moral sense for ever; while the great apocalyptic spectacle of the +ultimate triumph of right and justice might have been turned to the +base purposes of a pious lampooner of the Papacy.</P> + +<P>And as to the second objection--costliness--the reply is, first, that +the rate and the Parliamentary grant together ought to be enough, +considering that science and art teaching is already provided for; and, +secondly, that if they are not, it may be well for the educational +parliament to consider what has become of those endowments which were +originally intended to be devoted, more or less largely, to the +education of the poor.</P> + +<P>When the monasteries were spoiled, some of their endowments were +applied to the foundation of cathedrals; and in all such cases it was +ordered that a certain portion of the endowment should be applied to +the purposes of education. How much is so applied? Is that which may be +so applied given to help the poor, who cannot pay for education, or +does it virtually subsidise the comparatively rich, who can? How are +Christ's Hospital and Alleyn's foundation securing their right +purposes, or how far are they perverted into contrivances for affording +relief to the classes who can afford to pay for education? How-- But +this paper is already too long, and, if I begin, I may find it hard to +stop asking questions of this kind, which after all are worthy only of +the lowest of Radicals.</P> + +<br><hr><br> + +<P><b>Footnotes</b></P> +<ol> +<li><a name="XV1">Notwithstanding</a> Mr. Huxley's intentions, the Editor took upon +himself, in what seemed to him to be the public interest, to send an +extract from this article to the newspapers--before the day of the +election of the School Board.--EDITOR of the <i>Contemporary Review</i>.</li> +<li><a name="XV2">A</a> passage in an article on the "Working of the Education Act," in +the <i>Saturday Review</i> for Nov. 19, 1870, completely justifies this +anticipation of the line of action which the sectaries mean to take. +After commending the Liverpool compromise, the writer goes on to say:--<br> + +<br>"If this plan is fairly adopted in Liverpool, the fourteenth clause of +the Act will in effect be restored to its original form, and the +majority of the ratepayers in each district be permitted to decide to +what denomination the school shall belong."<br> + +<br>In a previous paragraph the writer speaks of a possible "mistrust" of +one another by the members of the Board, and seems to anticipate +"accusations of dishonesty." If any of the members of the Board adopt +his views, I think it highly probable that he may turn out to be a true +prophet.</li> +<li><a name="XV3">Since</a> this paragraph was written, Mr. Forster, in speaking at the +Birkbeck Institution, has removed all doubt as to what his "final +decision" will be in the case of such disputes being referred to +him:--"I have the fullest confidence that in the reading and explaining +of the Bible, what the children will be taught will be the great truths +of Christian life and conduct, which all of us desire they should know, +and that no effort will be made to cram into their poor little minds, +theological dogmas which their tender age prevents them from +understanding."</li> +</ol> + +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="XVI">XVI</a></P> + +<h4>TECHNICAL EDUCATION</h4> + +<P>[1877]</P> + +<P>Any candid observer of the phenomena of modern society will readily +admit that bores must be classed among the enemies of the human race; +and a little consideration will probably lead him to the further +admission, that no species of that extensive genus of noxious creatures +is more objectionable than the educational bore. Convinced as I am of +the truth of this great social generalisation, it is not without a +certain trepidation that I venture to address you on an educational +topic. For, in the course of the last ten years, to go back no farther, +I am afraid to say how often I have ventured to speak of education, +from that given in the primary schools to that which is to be had in +the universities and medical colleges; indeed, the only part of this +wide region into which, as yet, I have not adventured is that into +which I propose to intrude to-day.</P> + +<P>Thus, I cannot but be aware that I am dangerously near becoming the +thing which all men fear and fly. But I have deliberately elected to +run the risk. For when you did me the honour to ask me to address you, +an unexpected circumstance had led me to occupy myself seriously with +the question of technical education; and I had acquired the conviction +that there are few subjects respecting which it is more important for +all classes of the community to have clear and just ideas than this; +while, certainly, there is none which is more deserving of attention by +the Working Men's Club and Institute Union.</P> + +<P>It is not for me to express an opinion whether the considerations, +which I am about to submit to you, will be proved by experience to be +just or not, but I will do my best to make them clear. Among the many +good things to be found in Lord Bacon's works, none is more full of +wisdom than the saying that "truth more easily comes out of error than +out of confusion." Clear and consecutive wrong-thinking is the next +best thing to right-thinking; so that, if I succeed in clearing your +ideas on this topic, I shall have wasted neither your time nor my own.</P> + +<P>"Technical education," in the sense in which the term is ordinarily +used, and in which I am now employing it, means that sort of education +which is specially adapted to the needs of men whose business in life +it is to pursue some kind of handicraft; it is, in fact, a fine +Greco-Latin equivalent for what in good vernacular English would be +called "the teaching of handicrafts." And probably, at this stage of +our progress, it may occur to many of you to think of the story of the +cobbler and his last, and to say to yourselves, though you will be too +polite to put the question openly to me, What does the speaker know +practically about this matter? What is his handicraft? I think the +question is a very proper one, and unless I were prepared to answer it, +I hope satisfactorily, I should have chosen some other theme.</P> + +<P>The fact is, I am, and have been, any time these thirty years, a man +who works with his hands--a handicraftsman. I do not say this in the +broadly metaphorical sense in which fine gentlemen, with all the +delicacy of Agag about them, trip to the hustings about election time, +and protest that they too are working men. I really mean my words to be +taken in their direct, literal, and straightforward sense. In fact, if +the most nimble-fingered watchmaker among you will come to my workshop, +he may set me to put a watch together, and I will set him to dissect, +say, a blackbeetle's nerves. I do not wish to vaunt, but I am inclined +to think that I shall manage my job to his satisfaction sooner than he +will do his piece of work to mine.</P> + +<P>In truth, anatomy, which is my handicraft, is one of the most difficult +kinds of mechanical labour, involving, as it does, not only lightness +and dexterity of hand, but sharp eyes and endless patience. And you +must not suppose that my particular branch of science is especially +distinguished for the demand it makes upon skill in manipulation. A +similar requirement is made upon all students of physical science. The +astronomer, the electrician, the chemist, the mineralogist, the +botanist, are constantly called upon to perform manual operations of +exceeding delicacy. The progress of all branches of physical science +depends upon observation, or on that artificial observation which is +termed experiment, of one kind or another; and, the farther we advance, +the more practical difficulties surround the investigation of the +conditions of the problems offered to us; so that mobile and yet steady +hands, guided by clear vision, are more and more in request in the +workshops of science.</P> + +<P>Indeed, it has struck me that one of the grounds of that sympathy +between the handicraftsmen of this country and the men of science, by +which it has so often been my good fortune to profit, may, perhaps, lie +here. You feel and we feel that, among the so-called learned folks, we +alone are brought into contact with tangible facts in the way that you +are. You know well enough that it is one thing to write a history of +chairs in general, or to address a poem to a throne, or to speculate +about the occult powers of the chair of St. Peter; and quite another +thing to make with your own hands a veritable chair, that will stand +fair and square, and afford a safe and satisfactory resting-place to a +frame of sensitiveness and solidity.</P> + +<P>So it is with us, when we look out from our scientific handicrafts upon +the doings of our learned brethren, whose work is untrammelled by +anything "base and mechanical," as handicrafts used to be called when +the world was younger, and, in some respects, less wise than now. We +take the greatest interest in their pursuits; we are edified by their +histories and are charmed with their poems, which sometimes illustrate +so remarkably the powers of man's imagination; some of us admire and +even humbly try to follow them in their high philosophical excursions, +though we know the risk of being snubbed by the inquiry whether +grovelling dissectors of monkeys and blackbeetles can hope to enter +into the empyreal kingdom of speculation. But still we feel that our +business is different; humbler if you will, though the diminution of +dignity is, perhaps, compensated by the increase of reality; and that +we, like you, have to get our work done in a region where little +avails, if the power of dealing with practical tangible facts is +wanting. You know that clever talk touching joinery will not make a +chair; and I know that it is of about as much value in the physical +sciences. Mother Nature is serenely obdurate to honeyed words; only +those who understand the ways of things, and can silently and +effectually handle them, get any good out of her.</P> + +<P>And now, having, as I hope, justified my assumption of a place among +handicraftsmen, and put myself right with you as to my qualification, +from practical knowledge, to speak about technical education, I will +proceed to lay before you the results of my experience as a teacher of +a handicraft, and tell you what sort of education I should think best +adapted for a boy whom one wanted to make a professional anatomist.</P> + +<P>I should say, in the first place, let him have a good English +elementary education. I do not mean that he shall be able to pass in +such and such a standard--that may or may not be an equivalent +expression--but that his teaching shall have been such as to have given +him command of the common implements of learning and to have created a +desire for the things of the understanding.</P> + +<P>Further, I should like him to know the elements of physical science, +and especially of physics and chemistry, and I should take care that +this elementary knowledge was real. I should like my aspirant to be +able to read a scientific treatise in Latin, French, or German, because +an enormous amount of anatomical knowledge is locked up in those +languages. And especially, I should require some ability to draw--I do +not mean artistically, for that is a gift which may be cultivated but +cannot be learned, but with fair accuracy. I will not say that +everybody can learn, even this; for the negative development of the +faculty of drawing in some people is almost miraculous. Still +everybody, or almost everybody, can learn to write; and, as writing is +a kind of drawing, I suppose that the majority of the people who say +they cannot draw, and give copious evidence of the accuracy of their +assertion, could draw, after a fashion, if they tried. And that "after +a fashion" would be better than nothing for my purposes.</P> + +<P>Above all things, let my imaginary pupil have preserved the freshness +and vigour of youth in his mind as well as his body. The educational +abomination of desolation of the present day is the stimulation of +young people to work at high pressure by incessant competitive +examinations. Some wise man (who probably was not an early riser) has +said of early risers in general, that they are conceited all the +forenoon and stupid all the afternoon. Now whether this is true of +early risers in the common acceptation of the word or not, I will not +pretend to say; but it is too often true of the unhappy children who +are forced to rise too early in their classes. They are conceited all +the forenoon of life, and stupid all its afternoon. The vigour and +freshness, which should have been stored up for the purposes of the +hard struggle for existence in practical life, have been washed out of +them by precocious mental debauchery--by book gluttony and lesson +bibbing. Their faculties are worn out by the strain put upon their +callow brains, and they are demoralised by worthless childish triumphs +before the real work of life begins. I have no compassion for sloth, +but youth has more need for intellectual rest than age; and the +cheerfulness, the tenacity of purpose, the power of work which make +many a successful man what he is, must often be placed to the credit, +not of his hours of industry, but to that of his hours of idleness, in +boyhood. Even the hardest worker of us all, if he has to deal with +anything above mere details, will do well, now and again, to let his +brain lie fallow for a space. The next crop of thought will certainly +be all the fuller in the ear and the weeds fewer.</P> + +<P>This is the sort of education which I should like any one who was going +to devote himself to my handicraft to undergo. As to knowing anything +about anatomy itself, on the whole I would rather he left that alone +until he took it up seriously in my laboratory. It is hard work enough +to teach, and I should not like to have superadded to that the possible +need of un-teaching.</P> + +<P>Well, but, you will say, this is Hamlet with the Prince of Denmark left +out; your "technical education" is simply a good education, with more +attention to physical science, to drawing, and to modern languages than +is common, and there is nothing specially technical about it.</P> + +<P>Exactly so; that remark takes us straight to the heart of what I have +to say; which is, that, in my judgment, the preparatory education of +the handicraftsman ought to have nothing of what is ordinarily +understood by "technical" about it.</P> + +<P>The workshop is the only real school for a handicraft. The education +which precedes that of the workshop should be entirely devoted to the +strengthening of the body, the elevation of the moral faculties, and +the cultivation of the intelligence; and, especially, to the imbuing +the mind with a broad and clear view of the laws of that natural world +with the components of which the handicraftsman will have to deal. And, +the earlier the period of life at which the handicraftsman has to enter +into actual practice of his craft, the more important is it that he +should devote the precious hours of preliminary education to things of +the mind, which have no direct and immediate bearing on his branch of +industry, though they lie at the foundation of all realities.</P> + +<P> * * * * *</P> + +<P>Now let me apply the lessons I have learned from my handicraft to +yours. If any of you were obliged to take an apprentice, I suppose you +would like to get a good healthy lad, ready and willing to learn, +handy, and with his fingers not all thumbs, as the saying goes. You +would like that he should read, write, and cipher well; and, if you +were an intelligent master, and your trade involved the application of +scientific principles, as so many trades do, you would like him to know +enough of the elementary principles of science to understand what was +going on. I suppose that, in nine trades out of ten, it would be useful +if he could draw; and many of you must have lamented your inability to +find out for yourselves what foreigners are doing or have done. So that +some knowledge of French and German might, in many cases, be very +desirable.</P> + +<P>So it appears to me that what you want is pretty much what I want; and +the practical question is, How you are to get what you need, under the +actual limitations and conditions of life of handicraftsmen in this +country?</P> + +<P>I think I shall have the assent both of the employers of labour and of +the employed as to one of these limitations; which is, that no scheme +of technical education is likely to be seriously entertained which will +delay the entrance of boys into working life, or prevent them from +contributing towards their own support, as early as they do at present. +Not only do I believe that any such scheme could not be carried out, +but I doubt its desirableness, even if it were practicable.</P> + +<P>The period between childhood and manhood is full of difficulties and +dangers, under the most favourable circumstances; and, even among the +well-to-do, who can afford to surround their children with the most +favourable conditions, examples of a career ruined, before it has well +begun, are but too frequent. Moreover, those who have to live by labour +must be shaped to labour early. The colt that is left at grass too long +makes but a sorry draught-horse, though his way of life does not bring +him within the reach of artificial temptations. Perhaps the most +valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the +thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or +not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and, however +early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he +learns thoroughly.</P> + +<P>There is another reason, to which I have already adverted, and which I +would reiterate, why any extension of the time devoted to ordinary +schoolwork is undesirable. In the newly-awakened zeal for education, we +run some risk of forgetting the truth that while under-instruction is a +bad thing, over-instruction may possibly be a worse.</P> + +<P>Success in any kind of practical life is not dependent solely, or +indeed chiefly, upon knowledge. Even in the learned professions, +knowledge alone, is of less consequence than people are apt to suppose. +And, if much expenditure of bodily energy is involved in the day's +work, mere knowledge is of still less importance when weighed against +the probable cost of its acquirement. To do a fair day's work with his +hands, a man needs, above all things, health, strength, and the +patience and cheerfulness which, if they do not always accompany these +blessings, can hardly in the nature of things exist without them; to +which we must add honesty of purpose and a pride in doing what is done +well.</P> + +<P>A good handicraftsman can get on very well without genius, but he will +fare badly without a reasonable share of that which is a more useful +possession for workaday life, namely, mother-wit; and he will be all +the better for a real knowledge, however limited, of the ordinary laws +of nature, and especially of those which apply to his own business.</P> + +<P>Instruction carried so far as to help the scholar to turn his store of +mother-wit to account, to acquire a fair amount of sound elementary +knowledge, and to use his hands and eyes; while leaving him fresh, +vigorous, and with a sense of the dignity of his own calling, whatever +it may be, if fairly and honestly pursued, cannot fail to be of +invaluable service to all those who come under its influence.</P> + +<P>But, on the other hand, if school instruction is carried so far as to +encourage bookishness; if the ambition of the scholar is directed, not +to the gaining of knowledge, but to the being able to pass examinations +successfully; especially if encouragement is given to the mischievous +delusion that brainwork is, in itself, and apart from its quality, a +nobler or more respectable thing than handiwork--such education may be +a deadly mischief to the workman, and lead to the rapid ruin of the +industries it is intended to serve.</P> + +<P>I know that I am expressing the opinion of some of the largest as well +as the most enlightened employers of labour, when I say that there is a +real danger that, from the extreme of no education, we may run to the +other extreme of over-education of handicraftsmen. And I apprehend that +what is true for the ordinary hand-worker is true for the foreman. +Activity, probity, knowledge of men, ready mother-wit, supplemented by +a good knowledge of the general principles involved in his business, +are the making of a good foreman. If he possess these qualities, no +amount of learning will fit him better for his position; while the +course of life and the habit of mind required for the attainment of +such learning may, in various direct and indirect ways, act as direct +disqualifications for it.</P> + +<P>Keeping in mind, then, that the two things to be avoided are, the delay +of the entrance of boys into practical life, and the substitution of +exhausted bookworms for shrewd, handy men, in our works and factories, +let us consider what may be wisely and safely attempted in the way of +improving the education of the handicraftsman.</P> + +<P>First, I look to the elementary schools now happily established all +over the country. I am not going to criticise or find fault with them; +on the contrary, their establishment seems to me to be the most +important and the most beneficial result of the corporate action of the +people in our day. A great deal is said of British interests just now, +but, depend upon it, that no Eastern difficulty needs our intervention +as a nation so seriously, as the putting down both the Bashi-Bazouks of +ignorance and the Cossacks of sectarianism at home. What has already +been achieved in these directions is a great thing; you must have lived +some time to know how great. An education, better in its processes, +better in its substance, than that which was accessible to the great +majority of well-to-do Britons a quarter of a century ago, is now +obtainable by every child in the land. Let any man of my age go into an +ordinary elementary school, and unless he was unusually fortunate in +his youth, he will tell you that the educational method, the +intelligence, patience, and good temper on the teacher's part, which +are now at the disposal of the veriest waifs and wastrels of society, +are things of which he had no experience in those costly, middle-class +schools, which were so ingeniously contrived as to combine all the +evils and shortcomings of the great public schools with none of their +advantages. Many a man, whose so-called education cost a good deal of +valuable money and occupied many a year of invaluable time, leaves the +inspection of a well-ordered elementary school devoutly wishing that, +in his young days, he had had the chance of being as well taught as +these boys and girls are.</P> + +<P>But while in view of such an advance in general education, I willingly +obey the natural impulse to be thankful, I am not willing altogether to +rest. I want to see instruction in elementary science and in art more +thoroughly incorporated in the educational system. At present, it is +being administered by driblets, as if it were a potent medicine, "a few +drops to be taken occasionally in a teaspoon." Every year I notice that +that earnest and untiring friend of yours and of mine, Sir John +Lubbock, stirs up the Government of the day in the House of Commons on +this subject; and also that, every year, he, and the few members of the +House of Commons, such as Dr. Playfair, who sympathise with him, are +met with expressions of warm admiration for science in general, and +reasons at large for doing nothing in particular. But now that Mr. +Forster, to whom the education of the country owes so much, has +announced his conversion to the right faith, I begin to hope that, +sooner or later, things will mend.</P> + +<P>I have given what I believe to be a good reason for the assumption, +that the keeping at school of boys, who are to be handicraftsmen, +beyond the age of thirteen or fourteen is neither practicable nor +desirable; and, as it is quite certain, that, with justice to other and +no less important branches of education, nothing more than the +rudiments of science and art teaching can be introduced into elementary +schools, we must seek elsewhere for a supplementary training in these +subjects, and, if need be, in foreign languages, which may go on after +the workman's life has begun.</P> + +<P>The means of acquiring the scientific and artistic part of this +training already exists in full working order, in the first place, in +the classes of the Science and Art Department, which are, for the most +part, held in the evening, so as to be accessible to all who choose to +avail themselves of them after working hours. The great advantage of +these classes is that they bring the means of instruction to the doors +of the factories and workshops; that they are no artificial creations, +but by their very existence prove the desire of the people for them; +and finally, that they admit of indefinite development in proportion as +they are wanted. I have often expressed the opinion, and I repeat it +here, that, during the eighteen years they have been in existence these +classes have done incalculable good; and I can say, of my own +knowledge, that the Department spares no pains and trouble in trying to +increase their usefulness and ensure the soundness of their work.</P> + +<P>No one knows better than my friend Colonel Donnelly, to whose clear +views and great administrative abilities so much of the successful +working of the science classes is due, that there is much to be done +before the system can be said to be thoroughly satisfactory. The +instruction given needs to be made more systematic and especially more +practical; the teachers are of very unequal excellence, and not a few +stand much in need of instruction themselves, not only in the subject +which they teach, but in the objects for which they teach. I dare say +you have heard of that proceeding, reprobated by all true sportsmen, +which is called "shooting for the pot." Well, there is such a thing as +"teaching for the pot"--teaching, that is, not that your scholar may +know, but that he may count for payment among those who pass the +examination; and there are some teachers, happily not many, who have +yet to learn that the examiners of the Department regard them as +poachers of the worst description.</P> + +<P>Without presuming in any way to speak in the name of the Department, I +think I may say, as a matter which has come under my own observation, +that it is doing its best to meet all these difficulties. It +systematically promotes practical instruction in the classes; it +affords facilities to teachers who desire to learn their business +thoroughly; and it is always ready to aid in the suppression of +pot-teaching.</P> + +<P>All this is, as you may imagine, highly satisfactory to me. I see that +spread of scientific education, about which I have so often permitted +myself to worry the public, become, for all practical purposes, an +accomplished fact. Grateful as I am for all that is now being done, in +the same direction, in our higher schools and universities, I have +ceased to have any anxiety about the wealthier classes. Scientific +knowledge is spreading by what the alchemists called a "distillatio per +ascensum;" and nothing now can prevent it from continuing to distil +upwards and permeate English society, until, in the remote future, +there shall be no member of the legislature who does not know as much +of science as an elementary school-boy; and even the heads of houses in +our venerable seats of learning shall acknowledge that natural science +is not merely a sort of University back-door through which inferior men +may get at their degrees. Perhaps this apocalyptic vision is a little +wild; and I feel I ought to ask pardon for an outbreak of enthusiasm, +which, I assure you, is not my commonest failing.</P> + +<P>I have said that the Government is already doing a great deal in aid of +that kind of technical education for handicraftsmen which, to my mind, +is alone worth seeking. Perhaps it is doing as much as it ought to do, +even in this direction. Certainly there is another kind of help of the +most important character, for which we may look elsewhere than to the +Government. The great mass of mankind have neither the liking, nor the +aptitude, for either literary, or scientific, or artistic pursuits; +nor, indeed, for excellence of any sort. Their ambition is to go +through life with moderate exertion and a fair share of ease, doing +common things in a common way. And a great blessing and comfort it is +that the majority of men are of this mind; for the majority of things +to be done are common things, and are quite well enough done when +commonly done. The great end of life is not knowledge but action. What +men need is, as much knowledge as they can assimilate and organise into +a basis for action; give them more and it may become injurious. One +knows people who are as heavy and stupid from undigested learning as +others are from over-fulness of meat and drink. But a small percentage +of the population is born with that most excellent quality, a desire +for excellence, or with special aptitudes of some sort or another; Mr. +Galton tells us that not more than one in four thousand may be expected +to attain distinction, and not more than one in a million some share of +that intensity of instinctive aptitude, that burning thirst for +excellence, which is called genius.</P> + +<P>Now, the most important object of all educational schemes is to catch +these exceptional people, and turn them to account for the good of +society. No man can say where they will crop up; like their opposites, +the fools and knaves, they appear sometimes in the palace, and +sometimes in the hovel; but the great thing to be aimed at, I was +almost going to say the most important end of all social arrangements, +is to keep these glorious sports of Nature from being either corrupted +by luxury or starved by poverty, and to put them into the position in +which they can do the work for which they are especially fitted.</P> + +<P>Thus, if a lad in an elementary school showed signs of special +capacity, I would try to provide him with the means of continuing his +education after his daily working life had begun; if in the evening +classes he developed special capabilities in the direction of science +or of drawing, I would try to secure him an apprenticeship to some +trade in which those powers would have applicability. Or, if he chose +to become a teacher, he should have the chance of so doing. Finally, to +the lad of genius, the one in a million, I would make accessible the +highest and most complete training the country could afford. Whatever +that might cost, depend upon it the investment would be a good one. I +weigh my words when I say that if the nation could purchase a potential +Watt, or Davy, or Faraday, at the cost of a hundred thousand pounds +down, he would be dirt-cheap at the money. It is a mere commonplace and +everyday piece of knowledge, that what these three men did has produced +untold millions of wealth, in the narrowest economical sense of the +word.</P> + +<P>Therefore, as the sum and crown of what is to be done for technical +education, I look to the provision of a machinery for winnowing out the +capacities and giving them scope. When I was a member of the London +School Board, I said, in the course of a speech, that our business was +to provide a ladder, reaching from the gutter to the university, along +which every child in the three kingdoms should have the chance of +climbing as far as he was fit to go. This phrase was so much bandied +about at the time, that, to say truth, I am rather tired of it; but I +know of no other which so fully expresses my belief, not only about +education in general, but about technical education in particular.</P> + +<P>The essential foundation of all the organisation needed for the +promotion of education among handicraftsmen will, I believe, exist in +this country, when every working lad can feel that society has done as +much as lies in its power to remove all needless and artificial +obstacles from his path; that there is no barrier, except such as +exists in the nature of things, between himself and whatever place in +the social organisation he is fitted to fill; and, more than this, +that, if he has capacity and industry, a hand is held out to help him +along any path which is wisely and honestly chosen.</P> + +<P>I have endeavoured to point out to you that a great deal of such an +organisation already exists; and I am glad to be able to add that there +is a good prospect that what is wanting will, before long, be +supplemented.</P> + +<P>Those powerful and wealthy societies, the livery companies of the City +of London, remembering that they are the heirs and representatives of +the trade guilds of the Middle Ages, are interesting themselves in the +question. So far back as 1872 the Society of Arts organised a system of +instruction in the technology of arts and manufactures, for persons +actually employed in factories and workshops, who desired to extend and +improve their knowledge of the theory and practice of their particular +avocations; [<a href="#XVI1">1</a>] and a considerable subsidy, in aid of the efforts of +the Society, was liberally granted by the Clothworkers' Company. We +have here the hopeful commencement of a rational organisation for the +promotion of excellence among handicraftsmen. Quite recently, other of +the livery companies have determined upon giving their powerful, and, +indeed, almost boundless, aid to the improvement of the teaching of +handicrafts. They have already gone so far as to appoint a committee to +act for them; and I betray no confidence in adding that, some time +since, the committee sought the advice and assistance of several +persons, myself among the number.</P> + +<P>Of course I cannot tell you what may be the result of the deliberations +of the committee; but we may all fairly hope that, before long, steps +which will have a weighty and a lasting influence on the growth and +spread of sound and thorough teaching among the handicraftsmen [<a href="#XVI2">2</a>] of +this country will be taken by the livery companies of London.</P> + +<P>[This hope has been fully justified by the establishment of the Cowper +Street Schools, and that of the Central Institution of the City and +Guilds of London Institute, September, 1881.]</P> + +<br><hr><br> + +<P><b>Footnotes</b></P> +<ol> +<li><a name="XVI1">See</a> the <i>Programme</i> for 1878, issued by the Society of Arts, +p. 14.</li> +<li><a name="XVI2">It</a> is perhaps advisable to remark that the important question of +the professional education of managers of industrial works is not +touched in the foregoing remarks.</li> +</ol> +<br><hr> +<br> + +<P><a name="XVII">XVII</a></P> + +<h4>ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROMOTION OF +TECHNICAL EDUCATION</h4> + +<P>[1887.]</P> + +<P>Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen,--It must be a matter of sincere satisfaction +to those who, like myself, have for many years past been convinced of +the vital importance of technical education to this country to see that +that subject is now being taken up by some of the most important of our +manufacturing towns. The evidence which is afforded of the public +interest in the matter by such meetings as those at Liverpool and +Newcastle, and, last but not least, by that at which I have the honour +to be present to-day, may convince us all, I think, that the question +has passed out of the region of speculation into that of action. I need +hardly say to any one here that the task which our Association +contemplates is not only one of primary importance--I may say of vital +importance--to the welfare of the country; but that it is one of great +extent and of vast difficulty. There is a well-worn adage that those +who set out upon a great enterprise would do well to count the cost. I +am not sure that this is always true. I think that some of the very +greatest enterprises in this world have been carried out successfully +simply because the people who undertook them did not count the cost; +and I am much of opinion that, in this very case, the most instructive +consideration for us is the cost of doing nothing. But there is one +thing that is perfectly certain, and it is that, in undertaking all +enterprises, one of the most important conditions of success is to have +a perfectly clear comprehension of what you want to do--to have that +before your minds before you set out, and from that point of view to +consider carefully the measures which are best adapted to the end.</P> + +<P>Mr. Acland has just given you an excellent account of what is properly +and strictly understood by technical education; but I venture to think +that the purpose of this Association may be stated in somewhat broader +terms, and that the object we have in view is the development of the +industrial productivity of the country to the uttermost limits +consistent with social welfare. And you will observe that, in thus +widening the definition of our object, I have gone no further than the +Mayor in his speech, when he not obscurely hinted--and most justly +hinted--that in dealing with this question there are other matters than +technical education, in the strict sense, to be considered.</P> + +<P>It would be extreme presumption on my part if I were to attempt to tell +an audience of gentlemen intimately acquainted with all branches of +industry and commerce, such as I see before me, in what manner the +practical details of the operations that we propose are to be carried +out. I am absolutely ignorant both of trade and of commerce, and upon +such matters I cannot venture to say a solitary word. But there is one +direction in which I think it possible I may be of service--not much +perhaps, but still of some,--because this matter, in the first place, +involves the consideration of methods of education with which it has +been my business to occupy myself during the greater part of my life; +and, in the second place, it involves attention to some of those broad +facts and laws of nature with which it has been my business to acquaint +myself to the best of my ability. And what I think may be possible is +this, that if I succeed in putting before you--as briefly as I can, but +in clear and connected shape--what strikes me as the programme that we +have eventually to carry out, and what are the indispensable conditions +of success, that that proceeding, whether the conclusions at which I +arrive be such as you approve or as you disapprove, will nevertheless +help to clear the course. In this and in all complicated matters we +must remember a saying of Bacon, which may be freely translated thus: +"Consistent error is very often vastly more useful than muddle-headed +truth." At any rate, if there be any error in the conclusions I shall +put before you, I will do my best to make the error perfectly clear and +plain.</P> + +<P>Now, looking at the question of what we want to do in this broad and +general way, it appears to me that it is necessary for us, in the first +place, to amend and improve our system of primary education in such a +fashion as will make it a proper preparation for the business of life. +In the second place, I think we have to consider what measures may best +be adopted for the development to its uttermost of that which may be +called technical skill; and, in the third place, I think we have to +consider what other matters there are for us to attend to, what other +arrangements have to be kept carefully in sight in order that, while +pursuing these ends, we do not forget that which is the end of civil +existence, I mean a stable social state without which all other +measures are merely futile, and, in effect, modes of going faster to +ruin.</P> + +<P>You are aware--no people should know the fact better than Manchester +people--that, within the last seventeen years, a vast system of primary +education has been created and extended over the whole country. I had +some part in the original organisation of this system in London, and I +am glad to think that, after all these years, I can look back upon that +period of my life as perhaps the part of it least wasted.</P> + +<P>No one can doubt that this system of primary education has done wonders +for our population; but, from our point of view, I do not think anybody +can doubt that it still has very considerable defects. It has the +defect which is common to all the educational systems which we have +inherited--it is too bookish, too little practical. The child is +brought too little into contact with actual facts and things, and as +the system stands at present it constitutes next to no education of +those particular faculties which are of the utmost importance to +industrial life--I mean the faculty of observation, the faculty of +working accurately, of dealing with things instead of with words. I do +not propose to enlarge upon this topic, but I would venture to suggest +that there are one or two remedial measures which are imperatively +needed; indeed, they have already been alluded to by Mr. Acland. Those +which strike me as of the greatest importance are two, and the first of +them is the teaching of drawing. In my judgment, there is no mode of +exercising the faculty of observation and the faculty of accurate +reproduction of that which is observed, no discipline which so readily +tests error in these matters, as drawing properly taught. And by that I +do not mean artistic drawing; I mean figuring natural objects: making +plans and sections, approaching geometrical rather than artistic +drawing. I do not wish to exaggerate, but I declare to you that, in my +judgment, the child who has been taught to make an accurate elevation, +plan and section of a pint pot has had an admirable training in +accuracy of eye and hand. I am not talking about artistic education. +That is not the question. Accuracy is the foundation of everything +else, and instruction in artistic drawing is something which may be put +off till a later stage. Nothing has struck me more in the course of my +life than the loss which persons, who are pursuing scientific knowledge +of any kind, sustain from the difficulties which arise because they +never have been taught elementary drawing; and I am glad to say that in +Eton, a school of whose governing body I have the honour of being a +member, we some years ago made drawing imperative on the whole school.</P> + +<P>The other matter in which we want some systematic and good teaching is +what I have hardly a name for, but which may best be explained as a +sort of developed object lessons such as Mr. Acland adverted to. +Anybody who knows his business in science can make anything subservient +to that purpose. You know it was said of Dean Swift that he could write +an admirable poem upon a broomstick, and the man who has a real +knowledge of science can make the commonest object in the world +subservient to an introduction to the principles and greater truths of +natural knowledge. It is in that way that your science must be taught +if it is to be of real service. Do not suppose any amount of book work, +any repetition by rote of catechisms and other abominations of that +kind are of value for our object. That is mere wasting of time. But +take the commonest object and lead the child from that foundation to +such truths of a higher order as may be within his grasp. With regard +to drawing, I do not think there is any practical difficulty; but in +respect to the scientific object lessons you want teachers trained in a +manner different from that which now prevails.</P> + +<P>If it is found practicable to add further training of the hand and eye +by instruction in modelling or in simple carpentry, well and good. But +I should stop at this point. The elementary schools are already charged +with quite as much as they can do properly; and I do not believe that +any good can come of burdening them with special technical instruction. +Out of that, I think, harm would come.</P> + +<P>Now let me pass to my second point, which is the development of +technical skill. Everybody here is aware that at this present moment +there is hardly a branch of trade or of commerce which does not depend, +more or less directly, upon some department or other of physical +science, which does not involve, for its successful pursuit, reasoning +from scientific data. Our machinery, our chemical processes or +dyeworks, and a thousand operations which it is not necessary to +mention, are all directly and immediately connected with science. You +have to look among your workmen and foremen for persons who shall +intelligently grasp the modifications, based upon science, which are +constantly being introduced into these industrial processes. I do not +mean that you want professional chemists, or physicists, or +mathematicians, or the like, but you want people sufficiently familiar +with the broad principles which underlie industrial operations to be +able to adapt themselves to new conditions. Such qualifications can +only be secured by a sort of scientific instruction which occupies a +midway place between those primary notions given in the elementary +schools and those more advanced studies which would be carried out in +the technical schools.</P> + +<P>You are aware that, at present, a very large machinery is in operation +for the purpose of giving this instruction. I don't refer merely to +such work as is being done at Owens College here, for example, or at +other local colleges. I allude to the larger operations of the Science +and Art Department, with which I have been connected for a great many +years. I constantly hear a great many objections raised to the work of +the Science and Art Department. If you will allow me to say so, my +connection with that department--which, I am happy to say, remains, and +which I am very proud of--is purely honorary; and, if it appeared to me +to be right to criticise that department with merciless severity, the +Lord President, if he were inclined to resent my proceedings, could do +nothing more than dismiss me. Therefore you may believe that I speak +with absolute impartiality. My impression is this, not that it is +faultless, nor that it has not various defects, nor that there are not +sundry <i>lacunae</i> which want filling up; but that, if we consider +the conditions under which the department works, we shall see that +certain defects are inseparable from those conditions. People talk of +the want of flexibility of the Department, of its being bound by strict +rules. Now, will any man of common sense who has had anything to do +with the administration of public funds or knows the humour of the +House of Commons on these matters--will any man who is in the smallest +degree acquainted with the practical working of State departments of +any kind, imagine that such a department could be other than bound by +minutely defined regulations? Can he imagine that the work of the +department should go on fairly and in such a manner as to be free from +just criticism, unless it were bound by certain definite and fixed +rules? I cannot imagine it.</P> + +<P>The next objection of importance that I have heard commonly repeated is +that the teaching is too theoretical, that there is insufficient +practical teaching. I venture to say that there is no one who has taken +more pains to insist upon the comparative uselessness of scientific +teaching without practical work than I have; I venture to say that +there are no persons who are more cognisant of these defects in the +work of the Science and Art Department than those who administer it. +But those who talk in this way should acquaint themselves with the fact +that proper practical instruction is a matter of no small difficulty in +the present scarcity of properly taught teachers, that it is very +costly, and that, in some branches of science, there are other +difficulties which I won't allude to. But it is a matter of fact that, +wherever it has been possible, practical teaching has been introduced, +and has been made an essential element in examination; and no doubt if +the House of Commons would grant unlimited means, and if proper +teachers were to hand, as thick as blackberries, there would not be +much difficulty in organising a complete system of practical +instruction and examination ancillary to the present science classes. +Those who quarrel with the present state of affairs would be better +advised if, instead of groaning over the shortcomings of the present +system, they would put before themselves these two questions--Is it +possible under the conditions to invent any better system? Is it +possible under the conditions to enlarge the work of practical teaching +and practical examination which is the one desire of those who +administer the department? That is all I have to say upon that subject.</P> + +<P>Supposing we have this teaching of what I may call intermediate +science, what we want next is technical instruction, in the strict +sense of the word technical; I mean instruction in that kind of +knowledge which is essential to the successful prosecution of the +several branches of trade and industry. Now, the best way of obtaining +this end is a matter about which the most experienced persons entertain +very diverse opinions. I do not for one moment pretend to dogmatise +about it; I can only tell you what the opinion is that I have formed +from hearing the views of those who are certainly best qualified to +judge, from those who have tested the various methods of conveying this +instruction. I think we have before us three possibilities. We have, in +the first place, trade schools--I mean schools in which branches of +trade are taught. We have, in the next place, schools attached to +factories for the purpose of instructing young apprentices and others +who go there, and who aim at becoming intelligent workmen and capable +foremen. We have, lastly, the system of day classes and evening +classes. With regard to the first there is this objection, that they +can be attended only by those who are not obliged to earn their bread, +and consequently that they will reach only a very small fraction of the +population. Moreover, the expense of trade schools is enormous, and +those who are best able to judge assure me that, inasmuch as the work +which they do is not done under conditions of pecuniary success or +failure, it is apt to be too amateurish and speculative, and that it +does not prepare the worker for the real conditions under which he will +have to carry out his work. In any case, the fact that the schools are +very expensive, and the fact that they are accessible only to a small +portion of the population, seem to me to constitute a very serious +objection to them. I suppose the best of all possible organisations is +that of a school attached to a factory, where the employer has an +interest in seeing that the instruction given is of a thoroughly +practical kind, and where the pupils pass gradually by successive +stages to the position of actual workmen. Schools of this kind exist in +various parts of the country, but it is obvious that they are not +likely to be reached by any large part of the population; so that it +appears to me we are shut up practically to schools accessible to those +who are earning their bread, and in such cases they must be essentially +evening classes. I am strongly of opinion that classes of this kind do +an immense amount of good; that they have this admirable quality, that +they involve voluntary attendance, take no man out of his position, but +enable any who chooses, to make the best of the position he happens to +occupy.</P> + +<P>Suppose that all these things are desirable, what is the best way of +obtaining them? I must confess that I have a strong prejudice in favour +of carrying out undertakings of this kind, which at first, at any rate, +must be to a great extent tentative and experimental, by private +effort. I don't believe that the man lives at this present time who is +competent to organise a final system of technical education. I believe +that all attempts made in that direction must for many years to come be +experimental, and that we must get to success through a series of +blunders. Now that work is far better performed by private enterprise +than in any other way. But there is another method which I think is +permissible, and not only permissible but highly recommendable in this +case, and that is the method of allowing the locality itself in which +any branch of industry is pursued to be its own judge of its own wants, +and to tax itself under certain conditions for the purpose of carrying +out any scheme of technical education adapted to its needs. I am aware +that there are many extreme theorists of the individualist school who +hold that all this is very wicked and very wrong, and that by leaving +things to themselves they will get right. Well, my experience of the +world is that things left to themselves don't get right. I believe it +to be sound doctrine that a municipality--and the State itself for that +matter--is a corporation existing for the benefit of its members, and +that here, as in all other cases, it is for the majority to determine +that which is for the good of the whole, and to act upon that. That is +the principle which underlies the whole theory of government in this +country, and if it is wrong we shall have to go back a long way. But +you may ask me, "This process of local taxation can only be carried out +under the authority of an Act of Parliament, and do you propose to let +any municipality or any local authority have <i>carte blanche</i> in +these matters; is the Legislature to allow it to tax the whole body of +its members to any extent it pleases and for any purposes it pleases?" +I should reply, certainly not.</P> + +<P>Let me point out to you that at this present moment it passes the wit +of man, so far as I know, to give a legal definition of technical +education. If you expect to have an Act of Parliament with a definition +which shall include all that ought to be included, and exclude all that +ought to be excluded, I think you will have to wait a very long time. I +imagine the whole matter is in a tentative state. You don't know what +you will be called upon to do, and so you must try and you must +blunder. Under these circumstances it is obvious that there are two +alternatives. One of these is to give a free hand to each locality. +Well, it is within my knowledge that there are a good many people with +wonderful, strange, and wild notions as to what ought to be done in +technical education, and it is quite possible that in some places, and +especially in small places, where there are few persons who take an +interest in these things, you will have very remarkable projects put +forth, and in that case the sole court of appeal for those taxpayers, +who did not approve of such projects, would be a court of law. I +suppose the judges would have to settle what is technical education. +That would not be an edifying process, I think, and certainly it would +be a very costly one. The other alternative is the principle adopted in +the bill of last year now abandoned. I don't say whether the bill was +right or wrong in detail. I am dealing now only with the principle of +the bill, which appears to me to have been very often misunderstood. It +has been said that it gave the whole of technical education into the +hands of the Science and Art Department. It appears to me nothing could +be more unfounded than that assertion. All I understand the Government +proposed to do was to provide some authority who should have power to +say in case any scheme was proposed, "Well, this comes within the four +corners of the Act of Parliament, work it as you like;" or if it was an +obviously questionable project, should take upon itself the +responsibility of saying, "No, that is not what the Legislature +intended; amend your scheme." There was no initiative, no control; +there was simply this power of giving authority to decide upon the +meaning of the Act of Parliament to a particular department of the +State, whichever it might be; and it seems to me that that is a very +much simpler and better process than relegating the whole question to +the law courts. I think that here, or anywhere else, people must be +extremely sanguine if they suppose that the House of Commons and the +House of Lords will ever dream of giving any local authority unlimited +power to tax the inhabitants of a district for any object it pleases. I +should say that was not in the range of practical politics. Well, I put +that before you as a matter for your consideration.</P> + +<P>Another very important point in this connection is the question of the +supply of teachers. I should say that is one of the greatest +difficulties which beset the whole problem before us. I do not wish in +the slightest degree to criticise the existing system of preparing +teachers for ordinary school work. I have nothing to say about it. But +what I do wish to say, and what I trust I may impress on your minds +firmly is this, that for the purpose of obtaining persons competent to +teach science or to act as technical teachers, a different system must +be adopted. For this purpose a man must know what he is about +thoroughly, and be able to deal with his subject as if it were the +business of his ordinary life. For this purpose, for the obtaining of +teachers of science and of technical classes, the system of catching a +boy or girl young, making a pupil teacher of him, compelling the poor +little mortal to pour from his little bucket, into a still smaller +bucket, that which has just been poured into it out of a big bucket; +and passing him afterwards through the training college, where his life +is devoted to filling the bucket from the pump from morning till night, +without time for thought or reflection, is a system which should not +continue. Let me assure you that it will not do for us, that you had +better give the attempt up than try that system. I remember somewhere +reading of an interview between the poet Southey and a good Quaker. +Southey was a man of marvellous powers of work. He had a habit of +dividing his time into little parts each of which was filled up, and he +told the Quaker what he did in this hour and that, and so on through +the day until far into the night. The Quaker listened, and at the close +said, "Well, but, friend Southey, when dost thee think?" The system +which I am now adverting to is arraigned and condemned by putting that +question to it. When does the unhappy pupil teacher, or over-drilled +student of a training college, find any time to think? I am sure if I +were in their place I could not. I repeat, that kind of thing will not +do for science teachers. For science teachers must have knowledge, and +knowledge is not to be acquired on these terms. The power of repetition +is, but that is not knowledge. The knowledge which is absolutely +requisite in dealing with young children is the knowledge you possess, +as you would know your own business, and which you can just turn about +as if you were explaining to a boy a matter of everyday life.</P> + +<P>So far as science teaching and technical education are concerned, the +most important of all things is to provide the machinery for training +proper teachers. The Department of Science and Art has been at that +work for years and years, and though unable under present conditions to +do so much as could be wished, it has, I believe, already begun to +leaven the lump to a very considerable extent. If technical education +is to be carried out on the scale at present contemplated, this +particular necessity must be specially and most seriously provided for. +And there is another difficulty, namely, that when you have got your +science or technical teacher it may not be easy to keep him. You have +educated a man--a clever fellow very likely--on the understanding that +he is to be a teacher. But the business of teaching is not a very +lucrative and not a very attractive one, and an able man who has had a +good training is under extreme temptations to carry his knowledge and +his skill to a better market, in which case you have had all your +trouble for nothing. It has often occurred to me that probably nothing +would be of more service in this matter than the creation of a number +of not very large bursaries or exhibitions, to be gained by persons +nominated by the authorities of the various science colleges and +schools of the country--persons such as they thought to be well +qualified for the teaching business--and to be held for a certain term +of years, during which the holders should be bound to teach. I believe +that some measure of this kind would do more to secure a good supply of +teachers than anything else. Pray note that I do not suggest that you +should try to get hold of good teachers by competitive examination. +That is not the best way of getting men of that special qualification. +An effectual method would be to ask professors and teachers of any +institution to recommend men who, to their own knowledge, are worthy of +such support, and are likely to turn it to good account.</P> + +<P>I trust I am not detaining you too long; but there remains yet one +other matter which I think is of profound importance, perhaps of more +importance than all the rest, on which I earnestly beg to be permitted +to say some few words. It is the need, while doing all these things, of +keeping an eye, and an anxious eye, upon those measures which are +necessary for the preservation of that stable and sound condition of +the whole social organism which is the essential condition of real +progress, and a chief end of all education. You will all recollect that +some time ago there was a scandal and a great outcry about certain +cutlasses and bayonets which had been supplied to our troops and +sailors. These warlike implements were polished as bright as rubbing +could make them; they were very well sharpened; they looked lovely. But +when they were applied to the test of the work of war they broke and +they bent, and proved more likely to hurt the hand of him that used +them than to do any harm to the enemy. Let me apply that analogy to the +effect of education, which is a sharpening and polishing of the mind. +You may develop the intellectual side of people as far as you like, and +you may confer upon them all the skill that training and instruction +can give; but, if there is not, underneath all that outside form and +superficial polish, the firm fibre of healthy manhood and earnest +desire to do well, your labour is absolutely in vain.</P> + +<P>Let me further call your attention to the fact that the terrible battle +of competition between the different nations of the world is no +transitory phenomenon, and does not depend upon this or that +fluctuation of the market, or upon any condition that is likely to pass +away. It is the inevitable result of that which takes place throughout +nature and affects man's part of nature as much as any other--namely, +the struggle for existence, arising out of the constant tendency of all +creatures in the animated world to multiply indefinitely. It is that, +if you look at it, which is at the bottom of all the great movements of +history. It is that inherent tendency of the social organism to +generate the causes of its own destruction, never yet counteracted, +which has been at the bottom of half the catastrophes which have ruined +States. We are at present in the swim of one of those vast movements in +which, with a population far in excess of that which we can feed, we +are saved from a catastrophe, through the impossibility of feeding +them, solely by our possession of a fair share of the markets of the +world. And in order that that fair share may be retained, it is +absolutely necessary that we should be able to produce commodities +which we can exchange with food-growing people, and which they will +take, rather than those of our rivals, on the ground of their greater +cheapness or of their greater excellence. That is the whole story. And +our course, let me say, is not actuated by mere motives of ambition or +by mere motives of greed. Those doubtless are visible enough on the +surface of these great movements, but the movements themselves have far +deeper sources. If there were no such things as ambition and greed in +this world, the struggle for existence would arise from the same +causes.</P> + +<P>Our sole chance of succeeding in a competition, which must constantly +become more and more severe, is that our people shall not only have the +knowledge and the skill which are required, but that they shall have +the will and the energy and the honesty, without which neither +knowledge nor skill can be of any permanent avail. This is what I mean +by a stable social condition, because any other condition than this, +any social condition in which the development of wealth involves the +misery, the physical weakness, and the degradation of the worker, is +absolutely and infallibly doomed to collapse. Your bayonets and +cutlasses will break under your hand, and there will go on accumulating +in society a mass of hopeless, physically incompetent, and morally +degraded people, who are, as it were, a sort of dynamite which, sooner +or later, when its accumulation becomes sufficient and its tension +intolerable, will burst the whole fabric.</P> + +<P>I am quite aware that the problem which I have put before you and which +you know as much about as I do, and a great deal more probably, is one +extremely difficult to solve. I am fully aware that one great factor in +industrial success is reasonable cheapness of labour. That has been +pointed out over and over again, and is in itself an axiomatic +proposition. And it seems to me that of all the social questions which +face us at this present time, the most serious is how to steer a clear +course between the two horns of an obvious dilemma. One of these is the +constant tendency of competition to lower wages beyond a point at which +man can remain man--below a point at which decency and cleanliness and +order and habits of morality and justice can reasonably be expected to +exist. And the other horn of the dilemma is the difficulty of +maintaining wages above this point consistently with success in +industrial competition. I have not the remotest conception how this +problem will eventually work itself out; but of this I am perfectly +convinced, that the sole course compatible with safety lies between the +two extremes; between the Scylla of successful industrial production +with a degraded population, on the one side, and the Charybdis of a +population, maintained in a reasonable and decent state, with failure +in industrial competition, on the other side. Having this strong +conviction, which, indeed, I imagine must be that of every person who +has ever thought seriously about these great problems, I have ventured +to put it before you in this bare and almost cynical fashion because it +will justify the strong appeal, which I make to all concerned in this +work of promoting industrial education, to have a care, at the same +time, that the conditions of industrial life remain those in which the +physical energies of the population may be maintained at a proper +level; in which their moral state may be cared for; in which there may +be some rays of hope and pleasure in their lives; and in which the sole +prospect of a life of labour may not be an old age of penury.</P> + +<P>These are the chief suggestions I have to offer to you, though I have +omitted much that I should like to have said, had time permitted. It +may be that some of you feel inclined to look upon them as the Utopian +dreams of a student. If there be such, let me tell you that there are, +to my knowledge, manufacturing towns in this country, not one-tenth the +size, or boasting one-hundredth part of the wealth, of Manchester, in +which I do not say that the programme that I have put before you is +completely carried out, but in which, at any rate, a wise and +intelligent effort had been made to realise it, and in which the main +parts of the programme are in course of being worked out. This is not +the first time that I have had the privilege and pleasure of addressing +a Manchester audience. I have often enough, before now, thrown myself +with entire confidence upon the hard-headed intelligence and the very +soft-hearted kindness of Manchester people, when I have had a difficult +and complicated scientific argument to put before them. If, after the +considerations which I have put before you--and which, pray be it +understood, I by no means claim particularly for myself, for I presume +they must be in the minds of a large number of people who have thought +about this matter--if it be that these ideas commend themselves to your +mature reflection, then I am perfectly certain that my appeal to you to +carry them into practice, with that abundant energy and will which have +led you to take a foremost part in the great social movements of our +country many a time beforehand, will not be made in vain. I therefore +confidently appeal to you to let those impulses once more have full +sway, and not to rest until you have done something better and greater +than has yet been done in this country in the direction in which we are +now going. I heartily thank you for the attention which you have been +kind enough to bestow upon me. The practice of public speaking is one I +must soon think of leaving off, and I count it a special and peculiar +honour to have had the opportunity of speaking to you on this subject +to-day.</P> + +<br><hr><br> +<div align="center"> +<P>THE END OF VOL. III</P> +</div> +<br><hr><br> + +<BR> +<BR> +<BR> +<PRE> +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, SCIENCE & EDUCATION *** + +This file should be named 8sced10h.htm or 8sced10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8sced11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8sced10ah.htm + + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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