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EDUCATION AND NATIONAL 
 PROGRESS 
 
LIST OF WORKS BY SIR NORMAN 
 LOCKYER. 
 
 PRIMER OF ASTRONOINIY. 
 ELEMENTARY LESSONS IN ASTRONOMY. 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOLAR PHYSICS. 
 CHEMISTRY OF THE SUN. 
 THE METEORITIC HYI^OTHESIS. 
 THE SUN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 
 INORGANIC EVOLUTION, 
 RECENT AND COMING ECLIPSES. 
 STARGAZING, PAST AND PRESENT. 
 
 {In conjunction with G. M. Seabroke.) 
 THE DAWN OF ASTRONOMY. 
 STONEHENGE AND OTHER BRITISH STONE 
 
 MONUMENTS. 
 MOVEMENTS OF THE EARTH. 
 
 STUDIES IN SPECTRUM ANALYSIS. 
 
 THE SPECTROSCOPE AND ITS APPLICATIONS. 
 
 THE RULES OF GOLF. 
 
 (In conjunction with W. Rutherford.) 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
EDUCATION 
 
 AND 
 
 NATIONAL PROGRESS 
 
 ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES 
 1870-1905 
 
 BY 
 
 IR NORMAN LOCKYER, K.C.B. 
 
 [TH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 R. B. HALDANE, K.C, M.P. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 MACMILLAN ^ Co., Limited 
 
 1906 
 
%. 
 
 G5-1 
 
 v1 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 IjttlE RIGHT HONOURABLE R. B. HALDANE, M.P. 
 ■With the thesis wliich forms the text of tliis collection 
 OT Essays and Addresses I am wholly in agreement. 
 Wliat we most lack in this country is the penetration 
 of the mass of our people by the spirit of the Higher 
 Education. Alike in our peace and in our war 
 organisations there is wanting the survey based on 
 science. Without this survey, and the grasp which it 
 yields of the relative proportion of things, a vast waste 
 of matter and energy alike is inevitable. As a nation 
 we possess great qualities. Individuality, initiative, 
 courage, are distinctive of our people. We are well 
 fitted to hold our own in the race for supremacy. But 
 we handicap ourselves by want of the higher training. 
 Such training requires self-submission to hard intel- 
 lectual discipline, and it is in this self-submission that 
 the majority of our young men are lacking. 
 
 jNone the less progress is being made, and being made 
 rapidly. The standard of knowledge is rising, and T 
 
 167001 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 think that with it the moral standard is rising. Our 
 people are becoming more temperate, and they are 
 insisting on a higher standard of living. They will go 
 further, so the evidence seems to indicate, if they are 
 well led. 
 
 For the training of the necessary leaders the Higher 
 Education is essential, and the Universities are its only 
 reliable source. One of the satisfactory features of our 
 time is the large increase in the number of our Uni- 
 versities within the last ten years, and the generous en- 
 dowment of them from private sources. That the State 
 ought to do more than it does in the way of endowment 
 I agree with the writer of this book. But I am not sure 
 that I wish to see the burden transferred to the State in 
 the wholesale fashion that is sometimes suggested. In 
 expenditure out of taxes science is as essential as in the 
 arts and crafts to which these Essays and Addresses 
 refer. Probably nothing conduces more to national 
 efficiency than frugality in the use of national resources. 
 The private donor should be encouraged and not left 
 to expend his generosity in regions which do not 
 concern the State directly. In writing this I do not 
 mean that the Government ought not to spend public 
 money generously upon the Universities. I mean that 
 it should not be spent unless and until a case for the 
 necessity of such expenditure has been clearly made out. 
 
INTRODUCTION. • vii 
 
 There has been too much waste in the past over some 
 mattei^ connected with education, and, as the result, too 
 much starvation over others, to make this warning- 
 superfluous. No one who has had to do with the 
 business of Government can fail to have felt the pang 
 of regret at the discovery that precipitate expenditure 
 in the past, which events have shown to be misplaced, 
 has deprived him of the money necessary to effect 
 necessary reforms. Festina lente is a good maxim for 
 IJPCliancellor of the Exchequer. He must remember 
 both the words of the maxim. 
 
 With this preliminary word of caution I associate 
 myself enthusiastically with the endeavour of my col- 
 league in the British Science Guild. There is a saying 
 of a recent writer which I will quote as expressing the 
 pith and marrow of what Sir Norman Lockyer and 
 others of us desire to preach as our gospel: — " Vom 
 Wissen Zu Konnen ist immer ein Sprung ; der Sprung 
 aber ist vom Wissen und nicht vom Nicht-Wissen." 
 
 R. B. HALDANE. 
 
% 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I have brought together in the present volume several 
 among my Essays and Addresses on educational subjects 
 which have appeared during the last thirty-live years. 
 
 ^In these I endeavoured to show how vital it is, 
 )m a national point of view, that the education of 
 everybody, from prince to peasant, should be based 
 upon a study of things and causes and effects as well 
 as of words, and that no training of the mind is com- 
 plete which does not make it capable of following and 
 taking advantage of the workings of natural law which 
 dominate all human activities. 
 
 My point has in all cases been that the nation most 
 highly educated in this manner can, if the number of 
 combatants be equal, best liold its own in the struggle 
 for existence both in peace and war, seeing that success 
 in either now depends not upon muscle but upon the 
 utilisation of the best and most numerous applications 
 of science. If the number of combatants is unequal, 
 then the smaller number can only hold its own if it be 
 much more highly educated than its opponent. 
 
 The present position of Britain from this point of 
 view shows that those of us who have endeavoured for 
 the last thirty-five years to point out the way in which 
 our people can survive in the struggle, have, to a large 
 extent, been crying in the wilderness. In spite of what 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 has been done during the last ten years, instead o a 
 relative advance there is still a relative decline in 
 relation to other countries. The United States and 
 Germany now have greater populations than ourselves 
 and at the same time the best and most complete 
 education, science and research, are there fully fostered, 
 while they are practically left uncared for by the 
 British Government. 
 
 If this goes on there can only be one result, which 
 cannot be evaded even by the close welding together, 
 be it sympathetic, fiscal or political, of all the British 
 people beyond the seas, unless the greater population 
 is at the same time furnished with greater brain-power 
 than that of the competing nations. 
 
 This will not be until the British and Colonial Govern- 
 ments change their attitude towards science and the 
 higher instruction. Largely increased endowments of 
 the higher education and research, and the utilisation of 
 scientific methods in all branches of the administration, 
 equal to those at the disposal of competing nations, can 
 alone save us. J|j 
 
 Strenuous efforts should be made to apply these 
 remedies at once ; if delayed they may be too late. M\ 
 
 I have to thank Mr. Haldane, who among other things 
 is the President of the Science Guild, for the honour he 
 has done the book by writing an introduction. 
 
 Norman Lockybr. 
 
 November, 1906. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction by the Right Honourable R. B. Haldane - v 
 
 Preface ix 
 
 1870.— Education and War 1 
 
 1873. — The Endowment of Research • « . • 6 
 
 1877.— Technical Education 11 
 
 1883.— The Education of our Industrial Classes - iS 
 
 The Education Question in 1883 - - - - 43 
 
 1885. — Lord Playfair and others on our Educational Needs 50 
 
 1887. — Science and Education during Victoria's Reign - 57 
 
 1895. — Education and Industry 62 
 
 1896. — Scientific Education in Germany and England - 65 
 
 1898. — A Short History of Scientific Instruction - - 75 
 
 1899. — Scientific Education and the Progress of Nations - 105 
 
 1901.— Education in the New Century - - - - 118 
 
 1902.— The Organisation of Knowledge - - ■ - 130 
 
 1903.— The Education of Naval Officers - - 150 
 
 The Influence of Brain-power on History - - 172 
 
 1904.— The National Need of the State Endowment of 
 
 Universities 216 
 
 1905. — Opening Address at the Inauguration of the British 
 
 Science Guild 222 
 
 The New Renaissance 226 
 
 Appendices — 
 
 The Grerman Universities 243 
 
 The Universities of the United States - 248 
 
 The Requirements of the University of Birmingham 258 
 
 The Requirements of the Welsh Universities and 
 
 Colleges 262 
 
 ^635 -..-.,.... 265 
 
EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 EDUCATION AND WAR. 
 
 (1870.) 
 
 The dogs of war are again let loose, and in the two 
 raost highly civilised countries of Europe, where, a little 
 time ago, science, education and commerce were in full 
 sway, all the arts of peace are already neglected, and in 
 j)rospect have gone back a quarter of a century. We 
 can hardly yet realise that at the present moment railways 
 are being torn up, lighthouses dismantled, lightships 
 towed into harbour, and monuments of engineering skill, 
 such as the bridge over the Rhine at Kiel, undermined, 
 so that they may be destroyed at a moment's notice. 
 I)Ut these, after all, are calamities of the second order ; 
 education is stopped ; science schools are broken up ; 
 both professors and pupils are forsaking the laboratory 
 and the class-room, and the whole machinery of progress 
 has come to a standstill. 
 
 Science has little to do with politics : the function of 
 science is to unite the whole human family, whereas the 
 function of politics seems to be, both in the case of men 
 and nations, to create parties and to emphasise them 
 as much as possible, the object in each case being place 
 for the partisans — whether that place be an income of 
 
 A 
 
2 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 a few thousands a year in one case or increased terri- 
 tory in the other. 
 
 As science advances such policies will be overridden — 
 when science and education have taken their proper posi- 
 tion — when the sword has given place to brain— when 
 more of the best men of each nation take part in each 
 nation's counsels, the dreadful thirst after blood will 
 give way to something better ; monarchs will see the 
 folly of being surrounded merely with empty helmets, 
 or at all events if they do not, others will ; and much 
 will have been done when the pampering of armed men 
 shall cease. 
 
 There is one point, however, in connection with the 
 coming war which cannot be pointed out too strongly — 
 one duty which England owes to herself, and which, if 
 it be well done, may make her after all a gainer from 
 the dreadful strife. It has been already stated, and 
 the statement is not an exaggeration, that the war will 
 throw the countries engaged in it back a quarter of a 
 century. Now, England at the present moment, be 
 the cause what it may, is in many things a quarter of a 
 century behind France and Prussia, notably in educa- 
 tion of all kinds and especially in scientific education. 
 
 The following extract from the Eeport of Mr. Samuel- 
 son's Committee on Scientific Education — a report 
 which, we believe, has not even yet been taken into con- 
 sideration by our Legislature — is so much to the point 
 that we give it here : — 
 
 " Nearly every witness speaks of the extraordinarily rapid progress 
 of Continental nations in manufactures, and attributes that rapidity, 
 not to the model workshops which are met with in some foreign 
 countries, and are but an indifferent substitute for our own great 
 factories, and for those which are rising up in every part of the 
 

 EDUCATION AND WAR, 
 
 Continent ; but, besides other causes, to the scientific training of the 
 proprietors and managers in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Ger- 
 many, and to the elementary instruction which is universal amongst 
 the working population of Germany and Switzerland. There can be 
 no doubt, from the evidence of Mr. Mundella, of Professor Fleeming 
 Jenkin, of Mr. Kitson and others, and from the numerous reports 
 of competent observers, that the facilities for acquiring a knowledge 
 of theoretical and applied science are incomparably greater on the 
 Continent than in this country, and that such knowledge is based 
 on an advanced state of secondary education. 
 
 " All the witnesses concur in desiring similar advantages of education 
 
 for this country, and are satisfied that nothing more is required, and 
 
 that nothing less will suffice, in order that we may retain the position 
 
 which we now hold in the van of all industrial nations. All are of 
 
 opinion that it is of incalculable importance economically that our 
 
 manufacturers and managers should be thoroughly instructed in 
 
 the principles of their arts. 
 
 [ " They are convinced that a knowledge of the principles of science 
 
 I on the part of those who occupy the higher industrial ranks, and the 
 
 ' possession of elementary instruction by those who hold subordinate 
 
 positions, would tend to promote industrial progress by stimulating 
 
 improvement, preventing costly and unphilosophical attempts at 
 
 impossible inventions, diminishing waste and obviating in a great 
 
 measure ignorant opposition to salutary changes. 
 
 " Whilst all the witnesses concurred in believing that the economical 
 necessity for general and scientific education is not yet fully reaUsed 
 by the country, some of them consider it essential that the Govern- 
 ment shouki interfere much more actively than it has done hitherto, 
 to promote the establishment of scientific schools and colleges in our 
 great industrial centres." 
 
 It is impossible that we can say anything stronger than 
 this in favour of taking the fullest advantage of the 
 opportunity of regaining our intellectual and therefore 
 our commercial prestige. 
 
 If England is to prepare for war, the abnormal con- 
 dition, so let it be ; but surely, a fortiori she should 
 prepare for feace, the normal one, as well. This has never 
 struck her ministers, and the reason is not far to seek. 
 
 But this is not all ; the same disregard for science, 
 
 A 2 
 
EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 arising from the ignorance of science among our rulers, 
 has probably placed us in another position of disadvan- 
 tage. While France and Prussia have been organising 
 elaborate systems of scientific training for their armies, 
 a recent Commission has destroyed what little chance 
 there was of our officers being scientifically educated 
 at all. As there is little doubt that a scientific training 
 for the young officer means large capabilities for combina- 
 tion and administration when that officer comes to com- 
 mand, we must not be surprised if the organisation of our 
 army, if it is to do its work with the minimum of science, 
 will, at some future time, again break down as effec- 
 tually as it did in the Crimea, or that our troops will 
 find themselves over-matched should the time ever come 
 when they will be matched with a foe who knows how to 
 profit to the utmost from scientific aids. 
 
 Wh'le, therefore, the Continent is being deluged with 
 blood, let us jorepare for 'peace as well as for war ; let us 
 prepare ourselves for victories in the arts, conquests 
 over nature ; let us, by means of a greater educational 
 effort, more science schools, a truer idea of the mode in 
 which a nation can really progress, fit ourselves to take 
 our place among the nations when peace returns. Surely 
 if there be statesmen among us, such a clear line of policy 
 will not be overlooked. 
 
 Education and Science at the present moment a 
 England's greatest needs. 
 
THE ENDOWMENT OF KESEARCH. 
 
 (1873.) 
 
 There are not wanting signs that ere long the whole 
 question of the present condition of research in this 
 country, and of its amelioration, will undergo a com- 
 plete discussion. Those who are best acquainted with 
 this condition, and the position occupied by England 
 at the present moment in the science of the world, will 
 be the first to acknowledge the importance of general 
 attention being directed to the subject. 
 
 When the matter comes to be considered by minds 
 free from the trammels alike of tradition and of pre- 
 judice, it will doubtless be found strange that such a 
 fundamental question should have waited so long before 
 it should have asserted itself ; on the other hand, it is 
 perfectly clear that many who are even now consider- 
 ing it have utterly failed to grasp it as it will have to be 
 grasped. 
 
 This lack of clearness in the appreciation of the vast 
 bearings of the question is quite pardonable, and is, 
 doubtless, to a large extent, the natural consequence 
 of the manner in which physical science has been added 
 to the older knowledge. It would seem, however, 
 that a mere statement of a few fundamental positions 
 should clear the view. These positions, most fortunately, 
 are rapidly asserting themselves. 
 
6 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 First, we have the generally acknowledged fact that a 
 nation's progress depends upon its science. Science, 
 in fact, is the engine which must be as ever active in 
 peace as the cannpn's mouth is in war, and a nation may- 
 just as safely neglect one as the other. 
 
 This brings us to the second position. Does England 
 as a nation pay as much heed to the one as the other ? 
 or as much as other nations ? To ask this question is 
 to answer it. England as a nation does next to nothing 
 for this peace armament, and on all hands it is acknow- 
 ledged that the nation's progress from this point of 
 view is in great danger, because the decline of research 
 in England, not only relatively, but absolutely, is so 
 decided, that it is already a matter of history. 
 
 To what then is this decline to be attributed ? The 
 reply to this question brings us to the third point. There 
 is absolutely no career for the student of science, as such, 
 in this country. True scientific research is absolutely 
 unencouraged and unpaid. The original investigator 
 is of course the man here intended, not the man who 
 turns science into a means of livelihood, however hon- 
 ourable, either as a teacher or a manufacturer. 
 
 There can be no doubt that to this state of things our 
 present condition is to be ascribed, and this point is, 
 according to us, the key of the whole position. A glance 
 at the condition of things in France and Germany will 
 strengthen our view. Why was Germany till lately the 
 acknowledged leader in all matters connected with the 
 advancement of knowledge ? Because there were no 
 such brilliant and highly paid careers open there as here 
 to those who choose politics, the bench, the bar or com- 
 merce, in preference to science. And what is happening 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH: 7 
 
 there at present ? A decline visible not alone to 
 the far-sighted, because Germany is getting rich just 
 as England has long been rich. Why is France now 
 endowing research on a large scale, and even propos- 
 ing that the most successful students in her magnificent 
 Polytechnic School should be allowed to advance Science 
 as State servants ? Because in France there is a 
 Government instructed enough to acknowledge that a 
 decline of investigation may bring evil to the State, and 
 that it is the duty of the State to guard against this 
 condition of things at all cost, this condition till lately, 
 there as here, being that outside of the State service 
 and outside of the professoriate, no means of existence 
 are provided for a student of science ; hence men of 
 the most excellent promise are yearly lost to research, 
 which undoubtedly also is the case with us. 
 
 What course does it then behove us to pursue in this 
 country, in order that science may take up its true posi- 
 tion in our midst ? 
 
 Here again opinion is rapidly forming itself. It is 
 obvious to all who have thought about the matter, that 
 it is absolutely indispensable that an employment, neces- 
 sary for the public good, which is neglected to the State's 
 detriment because in itself it does not bring in a live- 
 lihood, should be artificially supported at the public 
 expense. It would be quite justifiable, both from an 
 economical and also a political point of view, to provide 
 for the needs of knowledge out of the taxation of the 
 country ; because the taxpayer gets back his quid pro 
 quo for the taxes he pays in the form of the amelioration 
 of the conditions of living, as he gets it back in the 
 form of security and good government. 
 
EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 It will probably be a considerable time before this 
 truth is brought home to the public mind so completely 
 as to render possible any large grant of national income 
 for this purpose ; but there are not wanting indications 
 that statesmen of all parties are awakening to its reality, 
 which in point of fact has long been conceded in principle. 
 Still, such a source of support for science to any very 
 large extent must appear, even to the most sanguine, a 
 thing of the future. 
 
 The area of knowledge will probably, in the future, 
 increase beyond the means of any artificial support less 
 than the national one ; but perhaps it cannot be said that 
 this state of things exists at present. 
 
 What, then, are we to do in the meantime ? Have we 
 no means which are at hand and immediately available, 
 which may suffice to support the present claims of know- 
 ledge, without drawing too extensively upon the long- 
 suffering or the intelligence of the taxpayer ? 
 
 We have the means, if we will only employ them — nay 
 more, some of them are now, for the most part, lying idle — 
 of not only supplying all the needs of the physical and 
 other sciences, but of supplying them magnificently. 
 To mention no other sources of supply, there is the Patent 
 Fund, and the endowments of the colleges of the old 
 Universities. 
 
 As to the Patent Fund, it is not too much to say 
 that a large part has been derived from the application 
 of the abstract truths of physical science to the 
 requirements of ordinary life, and that therefore the 
 needs of physical science would be properly provided 
 for out of it. 
 
 As to the College Endowments, whichever way we look 
 
 ii 
 
ENDOWMENT OF RESEARCH. 
 
 » 
 
 It them, either as private bequests, as they are at length 
 jasing to be regarded, or as public funds, the conclusion 
 Is the same : their proper destination is the support of 
 learning and science. 
 ■ If we look upon them as private bequests, and interpret 
 ^^Bhe wills of founders and benefactors on the usual p-pres 
 R)rinciple, we should be right in devoting to investigation 
 of facts at first hand the funds which were left by the 
 far-seeing men of the time of the revival of letters for 
 the support of book-learning, which at that time occupied 
 Khe place of modern science. That they so regarded 
 Bhe aim of these bequests is shown, amongst other 
 things, very remarkably by the universal annexation 
 to the enjoyment of them of the condition of residence 
 within the Universities. When the whole, or the major 
 part, of the materials of investigation was enshrined 
 in libraries, to insist that a man should remain where 
 B^braries were, was to insist that he should remain in his 
 H^orkshop. 
 
 H If, on the other hand, we are to regard these endow- 
 f^nents as public funds, as is now generally agreed, is it 
 right that such public funds should be consumed either 
 in educating those who are practically as well able to 
 p^ay for their own education as those who now receive a 
 similar one at, say, the London University, an institution 
 Itarhich is not aided by the State ; or in supplying a life- 
 ^naintenance to a considerable body of able young men, 
 in return for passing a good examination at the outset 
 of life ? 
 
 It is well known that the ordinary Fellow of a college 
 
 loes not dream for a moment that he has any duties 
 
 rwards knowledge or science. He regards the public 
 
10 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 money which he enjoys as a portion in a freehold estate, 
 to enable him to tide over the uncertain years which 
 come at the commencement of the ordinary professional 
 career, the brilliant rewards of which we have shown 
 to be the cause of the decline of science in this country, 
 because they enable the practical life to outbid in attrac- 
 tiveness the laborious, but most necessary, pursuit of 
 truth. 
 
TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 (1877.) 
 
 I 
 
 Professor Huxley has seized the occasion offered him by 
 his promise to aid the Working Men's Club and Institute 
 Union by contributing to their present series of fort- 
 nightly lectures, to state his opinion on a question which 
 has lately been exercising the minds of some of the most 
 influential members of various city companies. 
 
 For some time past a joint committee, representing 
 the most important among these bodies, has been en- 
 eavouring to obtain information as to the best means 
 of applying certain of their surplus funds to the assistance 
 of what is called technical education, and there is little 
 doubt that a proposal for a huge technical university, 
 made some time ago, and the discussion which took 
 place in connection with that proposal, has had some- 
 what to do in leading to the present condition of affairs. 
 Professor Huxley and some four or five other gentlemen 
 have been appealed to by this joint committee to send 
 in reports on what they consider the best way to set 
 about the work, and it is from this point of view that 
 Professor Huxley's lecture is so important. It was not 
 , merely fresh and brilliant and full of good things, as 
 ^■all his lectures are, but is doubtless an embodiment of 
 ^Biis report to the joint committee. 
 
 I. 
 
12 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 We are rejoiced, therefore, to see that Professor Huxley 
 is at one with the view that, after all, the mind is the 
 most important instrument which the handicraftsman, 
 whether he be a tinker or a physicist, will ever be called 
 upon to use, and that a technical education which teaches 
 him to use a lathe, a tool or a loom, before he has 
 learned how to use his mind, is no education at all. 
 
 Professor Huxley not only defined technical education 
 as the best training to qualify the pupil for learning 
 technicalities for himself, but he stated what he con- 
 sidered such an education might be, and how the city 
 funds can be best spent in helping it on. 
 
 Besides being able to read, write and cipher, the 
 student should have had such training as should nave 
 awakened his understanding and given him a real interest 
 in his pursuit. The next requirement referred to was 
 some acquaintance with the elements of physical science 
 — a knowledge (rudimentary, it might be, but good and 
 sound, so far as it went), of the properties and character 
 of natural objects. The professor is also of opinion 
 that it is eminently desirable that he should be able, 
 more or less, to draw. The faculty of drawing, in the 
 highest artistic sense, was, it was conceded, like the 
 gift of poetry, inborn and not acquired ; but, as every- 
 body almost could write in some fashion or other, so, 
 for the present purpose, as writing was but a kind of 
 drawing, everybody could more or less be supposed to 
 draw. A further desideratum was some ability to read 
 one or two languages besides the student's own, that 
 he might know what neighbouring nations, and those 
 with which we were most mixed up, were doing, and 
 have access to valuable sources of information which 
 
TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 13 
 
 
 ould otherwise be sealed to him. But above all — and 
 this the speaker thouj^ht was the most essential condition — 
 the pupil should have kept in all its bloom the freshness 
 and youthfulness of his mind, all the vigour and elasticity 
 proper to that age. Professor Huxley then went on to 
 explain that this freshness and vigour should not have 
 been washed out of the student by the incessant labour 
 and intellectual debauchery often involved in grinding 
 for examinations. 
 
 We gather from this part of the address — we shall refer 
 
 the others by and by — that so far as Professor Huxley's 
 dvice goes we are not likely to see any great expenditure 
 of the money of the ancient city corporations either in 
 the erection of a huge " practical " university or in the 
 creation of still another '' Examining Board." How 
 then does he propose to spend it ? 
 
 Here we come to a substantial proposal which Professor 
 Huxley may consider to be the most important part of 
 his address. What is wanted, he considers, is some 
 machinery for utilising in the public interest special talent 
 and genius brought to light in our schools. " If any 
 Government could find a Watt, a Davy or a Faraday 
 in the market, the bargain would be dirt cheap at 100,000/." 
 Referring to his saying when he was a member of the 
 London School Board that he should like to see a ladder 
 by which a child could climb from the gutter to the highest 
 position in the State, he dwelt upon the importance 
 of some system by which any boy of special aptitude 
 should be encouraged to prolong his studies, to join art 
 and science classes, and be apprenticed, with a premium 
 if necessary. In the case of those who showed great 
 fitness for intellectual pursuits they might be trained 
 
EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 as pupil teachers, brought to London, and placed in 
 some collegiate institution or training school. In this 
 way the money of the guilds would be spent in aiding 
 existing teaching systems, in which, on the whole, an 
 enormous progress was acknowledged. 
 
 It is true the architects of London would not have the 
 opportunity of immortalising themselves by erecting an 
 imposing edifice, but, on the other hand, the influence 
 of the Guilds might be felt whenever there was a handi- 
 craft to foster, or a potential Watt to be sought out. 
 
 We do not imagine that it is Professor Huxley's idea 
 that there shall be no local representation of the city's 
 new activity and influence ; the reference to the training 
 of teachers, we fancy, and other remarks here and there, 
 seem to point to some such institution as the Ecole Nor- 
 male of Paris, where the best and most practical scientific 
 teaching could be carried on. Everyone knows how 
 much room there is for such an institution as this, but 
 on this little money need be spent, so far as bricks and 
 mortar are concerned, as little money is needed to equip 
 such laboratories as are really meant for work. 
 
 There is an advantage in such lectures as these by no 
 means limited to the expression of opinion on the part 
 of the speaker. The slow and sure way in which science 
 is taking a hold upon our national progress is well evi- 
 denced by the fact that the daily press can now no longer 
 ignore such outcomes as these, and hence it is that they 
 do good beyond the mere boundary of the question under 
 discussion. They show the importance of, and foster 
 interest in, the general question of intellectual and scien- 
 tific progress. 
 
 The Times agrees in the main with the kind of 
 
 W 
 
 I 
 
 A 
 
TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 15 
 
 iducation to be given, and holds that " What is needed is 
 give a man the intelligence, the knowledge of general 
 principles, combined with the habits of correct obser- 
 vation and quick perception, which will enable h^.m after- 
 wards to master the technicalities of his art, instead 
 of becoming a slave to them. No objection can be taken 
 to the advice that, for this purpose, a lad, after learning 
 to read, write and cipher, should acquire some facility 
 in drawing and should be familiarised with the elements 
 of physical science. The importance of the latter study 
 for this particular purpose is, indeed, unquestionable, 
 and even paramount, for a handicraftsman is dealing 
 exclusively with physical objects in his work, and his 
 skill in applying the processes of his craft will vary in 
 great measure with his knowledge of the scientific prin- 
 ciples on which they depend." 
 
 But we fancy that The Times writer does not look upon 
 this scientific part of education quite as the lecturer 
 does, for he proceeds to add : " There can be little doubt, 
 for instance, that many of the perils of mining might 
 be averted if the miners were alive to the scientific reasons 
 of the precautions they are urged to adopt. Many an 
 improvement, probably, which now escapes the eye of 
 a man who adheres slavishly to the rules of his craft would 
 occur to him if he were applying them with conscious 
 intelligence." 
 
 The Times, however, considers that the school-time 
 is too short for the languages and, curiously enough, 
 drives its point home by saying a harder thing about the 
 Greek and Latin of our public schools than Professor 
 Huxley has ever done ; while, on the other hand, the 
 Daily News points out that Professor Huxley this time 
 
16 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 4 
 
 may have raised a hornet's nest about his ears by the 
 unduly reasonable tone of his demands. 
 
 The Daily News then adds : "A man of science who 
 does not demand that from the earliest age an hour a 
 day shall be devoted to each of the ologies may be re- 
 garded as a traitor to his cause." For our part we know 
 of no man of science who has ever made such a demand ; 
 and a careful examination of what men of science have 
 said on this point for the last ten years will show that 
 these extreme views to which refe^' "^e is here made are 
 not those of men of science at all. 
 
 It will be well also if the strong L -guage used in con- 
 nection with the multiple examinations of the present 
 day brings that question well before the bar of public 
 opinion. The Times is " sorry to see another flout thus 
 inflicted, in passing, on that system of examinations 
 which, like most good institutions, may do harm to the 
 few, but is indispensable as a motive for work to the 
 great majority." Professor Huxley has expressed the 
 views of most of the leading teachers in this country with 
 regard to the effect of these examinations upon the 
 students, and he might have referred to their reflex 
 action on the examiner. Go into a company of scientific 
 men, and observe the most dogmatic, the most unfruit- 
 ful and the least modest among them, you will find 
 that this man is, as we may say, an examiner by pro- 
 fession. Speak to him of research or other kindred 
 topics, he will smile at you — his time is far too precious 
 to be wasted in discussing such trivialities ; like his 
 examinees, he finds they do not pay. The example set by 
 Germany in this respect, both as regards students and 
 professors, cannot be too often referred to, and there is 
 
 4 
 
TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 17 
 
 little doubt that the love of science for its own sake which 
 has made Germany what she now is intellectually, has 
 sprung to a large extent from the fact that each young 
 student sees those around him spurred from within and 
 i not from without. Noblesse oblige. 
 
 I In point of fact, as far as our future scientific progress 
 I is concerned the examination question is as important 
 i as that connected with the kind of education to be sub- 
 sidised by the city guilds, and it is important, seeing 
 that our legislators will, in the coming time, have to 
 give their opinion on these subjects as well as on beer, 
 vivisection and contagious diseases, that in Professor 
 Huxley's language, 
 
 " By the process called distiUatio per ascensum — distillation upwards 
 — there should in time be no Member of Parliament who does not 
 know as much of science as a scholar in one of our elementary schools." 
 
THE EDUCATION OF OUR INDUSTRIAL 
 
 CLASSES.* 
 
 * (1883.) 
 
 It is, I believe, according to precedent, now that an- 
 other year's work of the Science Classes here has been 
 crowned by the award of prizes, that I should address you 
 on some topic allied to the matters which have brought 
 us together to-night. 
 
 I need not search long for a subject, for the scientific 
 education of those engaged in our national industries — 
 upon the success or failure of which, in the struggle for 
 existence, the welfare of our country so largely depends 
 — is now one of the questions of the day. 
 
 I propose, therefore, to lay before you some facts 
 and figures bearing upon the education of our industrial 
 classes, and I shall attempt to make what I have to say 
 on that special point clearer, by touching upon some 
 preliminary matters, which will show how it is that such 
 a question as this has not been settled long ago ; and 
 
 * An Address delivered at Coventry. The late Sir Bernard Samuelson, Bart. , 
 F.R.S., then one of the leaders in the educational movement, wrote to me as 
 follows with regard to it : — " I have read your Coventry address with great 
 pleasure. It has for the first time condensed into few words, easily understood 
 by all, the whole problem of the Education of the Industrial Classes in this 
 country. It avoids the exaggeration so common when technical instruction and 
 its influence on industry is spoken of, and it does justice to the efforts of th§ 
 government, " 
 

 THE EDUCATION OF ARTIZANS. 19 
 
 further, that we can, if we wish, settle it now in the 
 full light of the experience gained elsewhere, instead of 
 wasting, let us say, a quarter of a century in costly 
 experiments which may perhaps leave us in confusion 
 worse confounded. 
 
 To begin, then, why is this question being discussed 
 now ? 
 
 There is a great fact embodied in the most concrete 
 fashion in the way in which our Government is now com- 
 pelled to deal with our national education. Side by side 
 with the Education Department by which our Minister 
 controls in the main that book learning which has been 
 given time out of mind, there has sprung up during the 
 I last thirty years another department — the Science and 
 ^Art Department — by which he controls a new kind of 
 national learning altogether. We have added to the old 
 study of books a new study of things. 
 
 This new learning was, we may say, only introduced 
 in 1852, in which year the Queen in her speech on opening 
 Parliament said, " The advancement of the fine arts 
 and of practical science will be readily recognised by you 
 as worthy the attention of a great and enlightened nation." 
 We have since found out that they are indeed worthy 
 the attention of a great nation, and more than this, that 
 no nation can be called enlightened whose citizens are not 
 skilled in both ; in fact, that they are to peace what cannon 
 and swords are to war. But for a nation to foster them 
 is one thing, to include them in a national scheme of 
 education is another. 
 
 Ought they to be so included ? Let us see. What 
 do we mean by education ? 
 
 Roughly speaking, we may say that there are two 
 
 B2 
 
 II 
 
20 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 distinct schools of thought on this subject, although 
 the existence of these two schools is not so generally re- 
 cognised as it should be. According to one view, the 
 human mind is an elastic bag into which facts are to be 
 crammed for future use. A variation of the view is that 
 the mind is inelastic, and then the stuffing process becomes 
 more serious, and instead of depending upon a natural 
 expansion, a process like that in use by the manufacturers 
 of soda-water is employed. It is not to be wondered at 
 that the youthful mind likes neither of these methods ; 
 what ought to be a true delight becomes a real agony, 
 and hence it is, as a Warwickshire man wrote many 
 years ago — 
 
 " Love goes toward love 
 
 As schoolboys from their books ; 
 But love from love 
 
 Toward school with heavy looks." 
 
 — The mind on this view resembles a store where, as 
 our American cousins say, everything, from a frying-pan 
 to a frigate, which shall be useful to the owner in after- 
 life is to be found. Hence such terms as Grammar 
 School, Trade School, Science School, Commercial Aca- 
 demy, and hence, I am sorry to say, systems of examination 
 which too often only serve to show what a boy can 
 remember, and care little about either what a boy can 
 do, or whether he can think. 
 
 So much for one view. Now for the other. 
 
 It is more difficult to image it, but, in the absence of a 
 better illustration, the mind may be likened to the body — 
 a thing to be trained so that its grace, its freedom, its 
 strength, its grasp, indeed all its powers in all directions 
 and in all ways may be brought out by proper training. 
 
THE EDUCATION OF ARTIZANS. 
 
 21 
 
 tf the training is one-sided its power cannot be many- 
 ided, but it is most useful when many-sided. Therefore, 
 
 as each muscle of the body has to be properly trained 
 |B|to make a perfect man, so must the educational system 
 fnbrought into play be such as to train to its uttermost 
 
 I and bring out each quality of the mind. Each faculty 
 pf it when called into play becomes as a two-edged sword 
 m the arms of a strong man. In this, or some such way, 
 then, may we picture to ourselves the difference between 
 Lstruction in its real sense and education in its real 
 sense. 
 
 Now, which of these systems is the better one ? 
 We shall see at once that the first may give us a mind 
 stored with facts covering a large or a small area ; it may 
 |Bi)e bookkeeping, or it may be Latin, or anything else. But 
 will the mind be able to use this store in all cases ? We 
 grant knowledge, but may not wisdom linger ? Those 
 of us who have got to Voltaire's second stage, and who 
 have studied men, know that this too often happens, and 
 that much knowledge does not prevent the owner from 
 being absolutely unfitted to grapple with the problems 
 which each rising sun brings to him for solution. The 
 other system, on the other hand, if the training is not 
 thoroughly all-round, may give us a man who finds that 
 the questions presented to him on his entrance to active 
 life are precisely those which require the application of 
 that quality of mind, whichever it may be, which was least 
 trained at school. He may find himself face to face 
 with problems of the existence of which he never dreamed, 
 and so far removed from his experience that his mind, 
 however powerful in some directions, fails to grapple 
 with them. 
 
22 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 We seem, then, on the horns of a dilemma. Instruction 
 may provide us with a store of facts, which the mind 
 does not know how to use. Education may provide 
 us with a mind which has been trained in a world utterly 
 different from the real one. 
 
 How can we escape from this dilemma ? We must use 
 the materials of that instruction which is most useful to us 
 in our progress through life as a basis for the complete 
 education of the mind. Which instruction is the most 
 useful to us ? The poet tells us that " the proper study of 
 mankind is man ; " but when we come to prose and 
 read the views of those who best know the needs of modern 
 society, and especially industrial society, we read some- 
 thing like this, which I quote from the report on elementary 
 and middle class instruction, published by the Koyal 
 Commission of the Netherlands : " The idea of Industrial 
 Society not limited to agriculture, manufactures, and 
 trade or commerce, but understood in its widest significa- 
 tion, points plainly to the acquiring of the knowledge 
 of the present world, and to its application to economical 
 and technical pursuits." 
 
 Now, here is a subject on which a volume might be 
 written, but I shall only point out to you the obviousness 
 of the importance of the study, not merely of ourselves, or 
 of the world around us, but of ourselves and of the world 
 around us. 
 
 This lands us in the necessity of training our minds in 
 literature or humanities, and science and art. The study 
 of the humanities enables us to know the best thoughts, 
 and the most stable conclusions on vital questions, arrived 
 at by our forerunners and those who are fighting the 
 same battles in other lands. The study of science enables 
 
THE EDUCATION OF ARTIZANS. 23 
 
 us, on the other hand, to get a true idea of the beautiful 
 universe around us, of our real work in the world and 
 of the best manner in which we can do that work in 
 closest harmony with the laws of Nature. Did we study 
 the external world alone we should not profit by the 
 experience of those that preceded us. Did we study 
 humanities alone we should be shorn of half our natural 
 strength in face of many of the problems placed before 
 I us by the conditions of modern life ; and, more than 
 this, all the glories of the beautiful world on which our 
 lot is cast, and the majesty of the universe of which that 
 world forms part would hardly exist for us, or give rise 
 i only to dumb wonder. 
 
 ^k Here let me tell you a little story. Three years ago when 
 ^fcavelling in America, one morning, at a little station 
 ^B— we were approaching the Rocky Mountains — I was 
 ^istonished to see a very old and venerable French cure 
 in his usual garb enter the car, and as he was evidently 
 in some distress of mind, and as evidently had little 
 command of English, I asked him in his native language 
 if I could be of any service to him. There was a difficulty 
 about a box which I soon settled, and then we sat down 
 and entered into conversation. He soon found out that 
 I was very astonished to see him there and told me so. I 
 acknowledged it. "It is very simple," he said. " I am 
 very old, and six months ago I was like to die, and I 
 was doing my best to prepare myself for the long journey. 
 In my fancies I imagined myself already in the presence 
 of le hon Dieu, and I fancied this question addressed 
 to me, ' M. le cure, how did you like the beautiful world 
 you have left ? ' I rose in my bed as this thought came 
 into my head for I — I who — figure to yourself — had dared 
 
24 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 to preach of a better world for fifty years, was, oh ! so 
 ignorant of this. And I registered a vow that if le hon 
 Dieu allowed me to rise from that bed of sickness I would 
 spend the rest of my life in admiring his works — et me 
 void I I am on my journey round the world ; I am 
 going now to stop at the Yosemite Valley a few days 
 en route for San Francisco and Japan ; and the box, 
 Monsieur, which your kindness has rescued for me, con- 
 tains a little scientific library, now my constant com- 
 panion in my delicious wanderings." 
 
 Our general scheme of education, therefore, unless 
 it is to be one-sided, must combine science with the 
 humanities. 
 
 But, so far, I have said nothing about art. Now, from 
 fche educational point of view, science and art are very 
 closely connected, inasmuch as in the early stages of both 
 studies the student's powers of observation are brought out 
 and trained in the most perfect way, while in the later 
 stages, to succeed in either, he must have learned that 
 very important thing — how to use his hands ; and at 
 whatever age you put it that a boy or a girl should use 
 the hand neatly and skilfully, before that age you should 
 take care that some elementary grounding, at all events, 
 in the only training which can do this, shall have been 
 given. No amount of Greek, or of useful or useless 
 geography, or even of rule of three, can prevent the fingers 
 being all thumbs, unless some such training has been 
 given, and for the very earliest training drawing is un- 
 doubtedly the best. But this is by no means the only 
 advantage of the combination. Any one who has to go 
 over thousands of examination papers finds in nineteen 
 cases out of twenty that an orderly drawing or diagram is 
 
V 
 
 UNlVtKoi I • 
 
 OF 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF ARTIZANS. 25 
 
 generally associated with an orderly mind. In fact, a 
 diagram may be regarded as an index of the amount and 
 accuracy of the knowledge possessed by the student. The 
 text of the student who fails in the diagram is generally a 
 more awkward jumble than the diagram itself. Hence 
 the facts show that this training of the hand is accompanied 
 by much good mental result. This is now so generally 
 recognised, that in a not distant period no professor of 
 biology, for instance, will attempt to demonstrate practi- 
 cally microscopic structure to students who have had no 
 preliminary training in drawing. - This is one example out 
 of many which might be given, for as natural science is the 
 study of nature, and as we can only study her by pheno- 
 mena, the eye and the hand and the mind must work 
 together to achieve success ; and he who attempts to 
 describe the geology of a district, the minute structure 
 of a frog's foot, an eclipse of the sun, or the rings of Saturn, 
 in words and words only, has only done half his work ; 
 to complete it he must appeal to art for aid. 
 
 Now, many of you may be prepared to concede, without 
 any further insistence on my part, that an elementary 
 acquaintance with art is of great, nay, of even essential 
 importance, not only for its own sake, but because of its 
 aid in natural studies. We must then add art to science 
 and literature in order to form a complete curriculum. 
 Here pardon me one moment's digression from the direct 
 line of my argument. Many will agree that science is 
 aided by art who deny that art is aided by science to the 
 same extent. Indeed, some are prepared to urge that one 
 who proposes to devote himself to art can derive no possible 
 benefit from the study of science. Let us inquire into this 
 
26 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 we must know anatomy, a most important branch of 
 science ; and as a matter of fact, many artists study 
 anatomy as minutely as many surgeons do ; and in the 
 old days, when the artist and the poet were more saturated 
 with the knowledge of the time than they are now, we 
 find the great Leonardo at once professor of anatomy and 
 founder of a school of painting as yet unsurpassed. If we 
 pass from the figure to ornamental design, or if we wish to 
 show objects in perspective, is not every line, whether 
 straight or curved, dominated by an appeal to geometry ? 
 Again, suppose we take landscape. Here we meet with 
 phenomena of colour as much regulated by law as are the 
 phenomena of form, and an anatomy of colour is fast being 
 formulated, which to the artist of the future will be as 
 precious as the anatomy of form has been in the past, and 
 will ever continue to be. Let us take, for instance, an 
 artist who wishes to paint a sunset, one of the most 
 magnificent sights which it is given to man to witness. 
 The sky is covered with clouds here and there, and not 
 only do the colours of the clouds vary, almost from moment 
 to moment, but in all cases they present the strongest 
 contrast to the colour of the sky itself. The artist is 
 bewildered, and finds each effect that he would seize to be 
 so transient that at last he gives up in despair the attempt 
 to note down the various tints. But the possession of a 
 knowledge of the part played by the lower strata of our 
 atmosphere in absorbing now one and now another of the 
 components of the light of the setting sun, would change 
 this despair into a joy almost beyond expression. For 
 the bewildering changes of colour are then discovered to 
 be bound together by a law as beautiful as the effects 
 themselves. 
 
 «i 
 
THE EDUCATION OF ARTIZAKS. 
 
 There is another point of view. One is frequently- 
 pained in seeing in an otherwise noble work of art, 
 evidences that the artist was crassly ignorant of the 
 phenomena he attempted to represent, and in his attempts 
 to transcend nature had only succeeded in caricaturing 
 her, painting, for example, a rainbow in perspective, or a 
 moon with its dark side turned towards the setting sun. 
 Yet these are almost trifles, and, in fact, here we have the 
 excuse of the ignorant artist — now, I am thankful to say, 
 the representative of a class that is fast disappearing — 
 for his defence is, that he has nothing to do with such 
 small matters, and that accuracy of this kind may quite 
 properly be sacrificed to secure the balance of his picture. 
 
 Now, to return to the main drift of my address, we 
 have seen that in any complete system of education 
 neither science nor art must be neglected by the side of the 
 old humanities — the old literary studies ; and it is indeed 
 fortunate for us that we live in an age in which the laws 
 and the phenomena of the external world have been 
 studied and formulated with such diligence and success 
 that it is as easy to teach science in the best possible 
 way, as it is to teach classics in the best possible way. 
 
 It is half a century since the Germans found out the 
 importance of the new studies from a national point of 
 view. We are now finding it out for ourselves, and 
 finding it out not a moment too soon ; and I need hardly 
 tell you that the transformation which is going on is 
 acknowledged to be one of the highest national im- 
 portance. It is no longer an abstract question of a 
 method of education ; it is a question of the life or death of 
 many of our national industries, for, in a struggle for 
 existence, how can a man who wins his bread by the 
 
28 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 application of national laws to some branch, of industry, 
 if he be ignorant of those laws, compete with the man 
 who is acquainted with them ? If for man we read 
 nation, you see our present position. 
 
 How far then have we got with our transformation, 
 limiting our inquiry to primary and secondary instruction ? 
 
 First, as to elementary education. The idea of the 
 education — ^the compulsory education, if necessary, of all 
 the citizens in a state — dates from the time of Luther. It 
 is a horrible thing that we should have had to wait three 
 and a half centuries since his time for such a measure, 
 which is an act of simple justice to each child that is 
 brought into the world. In 1524 Luther addressed a 
 letter to the Councils of all the towns in Germany begging 
 them to vote money, not merely for roads, dykes, guns 
 and the like, but for schoolmasters, so that the poor 
 children might be taught ; on the ground that if it be the 
 duty of a State to compel its able-bodied citizens to take 
 up arms to defend the fatherland, it is a fortiori its duty 
 to compel them to send their children to school, and to 
 provide schools for those who, without such aid, would 
 remain uninstructed. 
 
 Thanks to our present system, now about ten years old, 
 out of an estimated population of 8,000,000 children 
 between the ages of two and fifteen, we had last year 
 nearly four millions at school, and out of an estimated 
 population of 4,700,000 between five and thirteen, we had 
 3,300,000 at school. 
 
 Among this school population elementary science is at 
 last to be made a class subject, and we find mechanics, 
 mathematics, animal physiology and botany among the 
 specific subjects in addition to the three R's. 120,000 
 
THE EDICATION OF ARTIZANS. 
 
 children received education in these subjects last year, and 
 if we are justified in assuming that as many will learn 
 science when it becomes a class subject as now already 
 learn drawing, we may expect in a year or two to have 
 this 120,000 swelled into three-quarters of a million. 
 
 I must again insist upon the fact that practical teaching 
 in science is the only thing that can be tolerated. Of 
 course, with a new subject, the great difficulty is the 
 difficulty of the teacher. Any system, therefore, of econo- 
 mising teaching power is of the highest importance. I 
 am glad to know that a system suggested by Col. Donnelly, 
 which uses the utmost economy of teaching power, has 
 been carried into admirable practical effect at Birmingham, 
 and I believe also at Liverpool, and other large towns. 
 So that in the most important centres we may be certain 
 that science will be taught in the best manner. It is 
 worth while to dwell on this system for a moment. Under 
 it practical teaching is given to boys and girls of the fifth 
 and higher standards, and also to the pupil teachers. The 
 subject chosen for the boys is mechanics, that for the girls 
 domestic economy, giving each of these subjects a wide 
 range of meaning. There is a central laboratory in which 
 the experiments are prepared, and from which the appa- 
 ratus ready for use is conveyed in a light hand-cart to the 
 ■■urious schools — twenty-six in number in Birmingham — 
 belonging to the Board. In this way it is possible to give 
 twenty lessons a week, and the circuit of the schools can 
 be made in a fortnight. In the intervals between the 
 visits of the demonstrator the class teachers recapitulate 
 his lessons and give the children written examinations. 
 About 1,200 children are now being instructed in this way. 
 ^Hflfe make the instruction as real as possible, children are 
 
 lis 
 
30 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. ^1 
 
 brought in to aid in performing the experiments, objects 
 are passed round and questioning at the end of the lecture 
 is encouraged. In the education, then, of our children 
 from the ages of five to thirteen, we may reasonably expect 
 to find that science teaching will in the future be carefully 
 looked after. 
 
 We now come to secondary education. Here, again, 
 great progress has been made during the last few years. 
 
 The real difficulties against its introduction have been 
 the overcrowded state of the old curriculum, the scarcity 
 of teachers, the want of sympathy with it, and the igno- 
 rance of its importance on the part of some headmasters. 
 But to those headmasters who held the view that no 
 real training could be got out of a subject which boys 
 studied with positive pleasure, parents began to reply that 
 whether the boy liked it or not he must get that know- 
 ledge somewhere. But where the experiment was really 
 tried under good conditions it was soon found not only 
 that the boys were willing to give three or four hours a 
 week of their playtime to scientific subjects, but that the 
 one or two hours filched from the curriculum were more 
 than made up for by the greater ease with which the 
 other subjects could be learnt, in consequence of the ad- 
 ditional training of the mind which the new subjects gave. 
 
 We may hope, then, that in the course of time our 
 secondary education may be much improved in the 
 direction indicated. What we may expect, taking the 
 principle of natural selection as our guide, will be this. 
 First, the headmasters will themselves be men chosen, 
 among other grounds, for their knowledge of science ; 
 they will become more and more all-round men. Next, 
 the curriculum will be arranged not for the few who go to 
 
THE EDUCATION OF ARTIZANS. 
 
 the University, but for the many who do not. We shall 
 have more science and less Greek in the early years of 
 the school course. We shall have laboratories, and 
 drawing rooms, and workshops. In some schools we 
 may find modern living languages taught in a living way, 
 replacing the dead languages altogether. Now, here 
 our difficulties begin. We are face to face indeed with the 
 same difficulties which the Continental nations, our pre- 
 cursors in educational matters, have experienced. Our 
 secondary education is at the present moment all but 
 absolutely separated from the primary one. Of the 
 4,000,000 scholars on the books of elementary schools 
 last year there were only 44,000 over the age of fourteen, 
 and it is to be feared that the remainder left school at 
 that age, most of them, the best as well as the worst, to 
 fight the battle of life with such an education as they 
 had got up to that time. Germany, again, was the 
 first to find out that this would never do, even though in 
 i:hat country science and art were taught in the Primary 
 School ; and for the reason that though such a meagre 
 education might possibly do for ordinary workers in 
 i:heir hives of industry, it was totally insufficient for the 
 future foremen, overseers and the like ; and special 
 schools were established to carry their education further. 
 Quite of late years this question has been studied in 
 the most interesting way in the Netherlands, under 
 the advice of a wise minister, whose example will be 
 iollowed some day in our own country. 
 
 Let me briefly refer to it. 
 
 This work began in 1863. In that year in Holland 
 there were no middle class or secondary schools for 
 artizans, but there were evening schools for drawing 
 
32 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 which dated from 1872. " Burgher Schools " were estab- 
 lished to provide the secondary instruction still felt 
 to be needed by those who otherwise would have to 
 content themselves with the primary instruction (although 
 in its more extended form it contained natural philosophy, 
 mathematics, and modern languages). In these schools — 
 some day, some night schools (in these the lessons went 
 on from September to May), with a course of two or 
 three years — we find mathematics, theoretical and applied 
 mechanics, mechanism, physics, chemistry, natural 
 history, either technology or agriculture, drawing, gym- 
 nastics and other subjects among the fixed subjects, 
 modelling and foreign languages being permissive. These 
 burgher schools were compulsory in all parishes of 10,000 
 inhabitants. The evening burgher schools especially were 
 at once seized on with avidity, chiefly by apprentices and 
 the like. 
 
 Here let me give you some statistics which will show 
 you how these schools were working even ten years ago. 
 They are much more flourishing now, but I have not the 
 figures. The statistics will show how the Dutch (of 
 whom it cannot be said, to vary an old rhyme. 
 
 In matters of learning the fault of the Dutch 
 Is giving too httle and asking too much, 
 
 for the instruction is practically free), who are already 
 learning a trade or working at one, use the evening hours 
 for the further cultivation of their minds. 
 
 
 
 Number of students in 
 
 
 Population. 
 
 burgher schools. 
 
 Delft 
 
 - 23,000 - 
 
 - 171 
 
 Utrecht - 
 
 - 64,000 - 
 
 - 283 
 
 Deventer - 
 
 - 81,000 - 
 
 - 285 , 
 
 Dordrecht • 
 
 - 26,000 - 
 
 u^ M 
 
THE EDUCATION OF ARTIZANS. 
 
 33 
 
 .mong the students at these schools in 1874 were 1,582 
 carpenters and joiners, 472 smiths, &c., 236 plumbers and 
 masons, 170 goldsmiths, engravers, &c., 320 painters, to 
 give examples. Higher burgher schools were also estab- 
 lished in the chief towns. In these schools still more 
 advanced instruction was given : and here the course 
 was for five years. In all these schools there was a 
 considerable State endowment and an endowment on 
 the part of the town, so that the fees were almost 
 nominal, and in some cases even the instruction was 
 gratuitous. 
 
 When I was inspecting these schools in Holland with an 
 eminent man of science, whose advice had helped largely 
 to make them such a success, and when I expressed to 
 him my astonishment at the smallness of the fees — only 
 a very few shillings a year — he put before me the question 
 of State aid to schools in a way which had never struck 
 me before. He said : " We regard it as a sort of educa- 
 tion insurance. A small tax is paid by everybody during 
 the whole of his life, and in this way a man who brings up 
 children for the service of the State is helped by him 
 who skirks that responsibility ; and the payment which 
 each citizen is called upon to make towards this instruc- 
 tion is spread over his whole life, and does not come 
 upon him when he is probably most pinched in other 
 ways." 
 
 Now for one practical result of the establishment of 
 these schools. The year 1863 found Holland full of the 
 notion that every hour a child spent away from the 
 desk or the bench after thirteen was time wasted ; but 
 after these burgher schools were instituted a change came 
 
 rer the spirit of that dream, and now no employer of 
 
 c 
 
34 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PEOGRESS. 
 
 labour in Holland, except of the lowest and most manual 
 kind, will look at a boy who cannot produce a certificate 
 from his burgher school. 
 
 Another very remarkable thing was soon observed, 
 with a most important moral for us. The great difference 
 between their burgher schools and the old gymnasia, the 
 equivalents of our grammar schools, was a gyeat infusion 
 of science into the teaching, and the introduction of 
 three modern languages in addition to Dutch ; Latin and 
 Greek being omitted altogether from the curriculum. 
 After four years of this training, many of the boys showed 
 such high promise that all connected with them thought it 
 a pity that they should not enter a university. They 
 were therefore, as an experiment, allowed six months to 
 take up Latin and Greek, and the result was that in a 
 great number of cases they beat the gymnasia boys in 
 their own subjects, and passed into the university with 
 flying colours. The Eeal Schule in Germany and the 
 modern sides of our own secondary schools are almost the 
 exact equivalents of the higher burgher schools to which 
 I have especially called your attention. 
 
 What, then, is the experience which has been gained in! 
 these gigantic educational experiments ; experiments by! 
 which we may profit, as we are so late in the race, if we^ 
 care to do so ? One point is that if a chance is put before 
 those who have passed through the elementary schools of 
 further culturing their minds, they seize upon it with 
 avidity. Another is that the employers of labour appre- 
 ciate the value of the greater intelligence thus brought 
 about. It is better to have to instruct in a trade men who 
 have shown themselves anxious to learn, than to have to 
 do with blockheads. Another, I think, is this : Your best 
 
THE EDUCATION OF ARTIZANS. 
 
 secondary school is best for everybody ; a secondary 
 school with a properly mixed curriculum of literature, 
 science and art, is best for him who proceeds either to the 
 university or to the workshop. A second-rate education 
 in a second-rate school gives us a second-rate man, and 
 we do not want our national industries to be worked 
 entirely by second-rate men. On this point I am glad to 
 fortify what I have said by a reference to Dr. Siemens's 
 important address at the Midland Institute some time 
 ago. He says : — 
 
 " It is a significant fact that while the thirty universities of Ger- 
 many [you see they do not educate by halves in Germany, they have 
 seven times as many universities as we have in England] continued 
 to increase, both as regards number of students and high state of 
 efficiency, the purely technical colleges, almost without exception, 
 have during the last ten years been steadily receding, whereas the 
 provincial Gewerbe Schulen have, under the progressive minister, von 
 Falke, been modified so as to approximate their curriculum to that 
 of the gymnasium or grammar school. As regards middle -class educa- 
 tion, it must be borne in mind that at the age of sixteen, the lad is 
 expected to enter upon practical life, and it has been held that under 
 these circumstances at any rate it is best to confine the teaching to 
 as many subjects only as can be followed up to a point of efficiency 
 and have reference to future application. It is thus that the dis- 
 tinction between the German gymnasium or grammar school and 
 the Real Schule or technical school has arisen, a distinction which^ 
 though sanctioned to some extent in this country, also by the in- 
 stitution of the modern side, I should much like to see abohshed." 
 
 We see then the gradually increasing weight of opinion, 
 and the result of the experiments both in Germany 
 and Holland, and I may add France, point to these 
 conclusions. 
 
 Some kind of secondary education must be provided 
 for the best students when they leave the elementary 
 school, either before they begin work or while they are 
 
 C2 
 
EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 at work. Our secondary education should advance prac- 
 tically along one line, how far soever the student goes 
 along that line, some, of course, will go further than 
 others, provided always that it is the best possible, that is, 
 one having the broadest base. 
 
 Now, if this be generally conceded, our problem in 
 England, at the present moment, is simpler than we 
 thought it. We are face to face with the fact that it is 
 for the good of the nation that those who have passed most 
 successfully through the elementary education must con- 
 tinue that education in a secondary school ; whether for 
 two, or for three, or for six years, matters little for the 
 argument. Are we then to build technical schools for such 
 students ? Thirty years ago the answer would have been 
 yes. To-day we may say firmly, no. If a town has a 
 grammar-school, let the town see that the curriculum of 
 that school is based upon our best secondary models. If 
 the town has no such school, then let it build one. If one 
 school is not sufiicient, then build two. That school will be 
 the best off in the long run which gives the greatest 
 number of free exhibitions from the elementary school 
 into such a school as this, and that town will be the wisest 
 which holds out such inducements at the earliest possible 
 moment. 
 
 I have lately read with much interest a copy of resolu- 
 tions and suggestions passed at a meeting of an Association 
 of Elementary Teachers in the north of England. From 
 these we may gather that this question is already one of 
 practical politics. It is agreed that the secondary educa- 
 tion of the best boys leaving the elementary schools must 
 not end there. It is also taken for granted that the 
 question lies between building a technical school or 
 
THE EDUCATION OF ARTIZANS. 37 
 
 Itilising the grammar school. One argument used in 
 favour of the latter course is, that the grammar school will 
 be strengthened by drawing to itself the best boys from 
 the elementary schools. The present proposals are that 
 a number of free scholarships should be competed for 
 annually, that these free scholarships shall, if need be, be 
 supplemented by exhibitions from the fund at the disposal 
 of the Governors (I should not accept this at once. Why 
 should not the town pay them ?), and the length of time 
 for which these scholarships shall be tenable is not to be less 
 than three years. 
 
 You see, then, that in the north of England, at all 
 events, it is conceded that the best children in our elemen- 
 tary schools should have a three years' course in a school 
 of higher grade in which all the class subjects in the 
 Elementary Code will be expanded, and all the linguistic 
 studies of the grammar school taken in hand. When this 
 system is at work, as it is bound to be in a few yearo, two 
 things will happen, and it is as well we should be prepared 
 for them. In the first place, our secondary schools — all of 
 one model, the best model, let it be understood — must so 
 arrange the curriculum, that the students can leave after a 
 three years' course, if need be, for the workshop or the 
 office, or after a longer course for the University. That is 
 the first point. The second one is this. The present 
 system of apprenticeship must be reconsidered. A 
 boy who has been educated to the age of sixteen will 
 learn very much more in three or four years, and will be 
 very much more valuable to his master during that time 
 than he who was formerly bound apprentice at the age of 
 thirteen or fourteen, with his fingers all thumbs and no 
 mind to speak of. ^^',„ ^^^ 
 
 or THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
38 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 It seems to me, as it does to a daily increasing number, 
 that the present mode of dealing with those matters which 
 were formerly regarded as arts and mysteries known only 
 to a few, and carried on on a small scale under the eye of 
 the master, is dead against the system of apprenticeship 
 as it has come down to us. Now the master does not 
 teach and the boy in nine cases out of ten has no oppor- 
 tunity of grasping the iwhole of the art or mystery at all. 
 
 Many of you will begin to think that you are listening to 
 the play of Hamlet with the part of the Prince of Denmark 
 omitted, for so far I have said nothing whatever about 
 technical education. I have said nothing about it for the 
 reason that I believe the less said to a boy about technical 
 education before he is sixteen years old the better. I now 
 proceed to discuss this question, which is far more im- 
 portant, far more a national question, than you would 
 gather from the debates in Parliament. 
 
 What is technical education ? 
 
 It is the application of the principles of science to the 
 industrial arts. And the rock ahead against which I am 
 anxious to join Dr. Siemens in warning you is this : Under 
 the influence of the present scare — for it is a scare, and a 
 real one — there is a chance that attempts may be made 
 to teach the applications to those who are ignorant of 
 principles, whereas we have to fight those who study 
 applications with a full knowledge of the principles which 
 underlie them. 
 
 We may congratulate ourselves on the fact that when 
 we have once made up our minds as to the right place of 
 technical instruction in our scheme of education, we have 
 much of the necessary machinery already at our disposal ; 
 and the recent action of the City Guilds and of the 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF ARTIZANS. 39 
 
 Government is enormously increasing the quantity and 
 
 l^nproving the quality of this_machinery. 
 
 Let us first consider the classes now formed all over the 
 country under the auspices of the Science and Art Depart- 
 ment. Their development in the last thirty years has 
 been something truly marvellous. 
 
 When the Queen, in 1852, opened Parliament, there 
 
 Ig^ere already 35,000 students of art, but practically no 
 students of science, in this country, amongst the industrial 
 classes. That 35,000 will, if the present progress goes on, 
 give us nearly 1,000,000 students of art at the end of this 
 year ; while the science schools have increased from 82 in 
 1860 to 1,400 in 1880, with 69,000 students. The system 
 which has thus developed so enormously has dealt chiefly 
 with pure science, but for the future we shall have side by 
 side with it, and built upon the same lines, a system of 
 teaching the applications of this pure science to each of our 
 national industries. He who wishes in the future to have 
 to do in any way with the manufacture of alkali, gas, iron, 
 paper or glass, to take some instances, or in the dyeing of a 
 piece of silk or the making of a watch, to take others, will 
 find the teaching brought to his door and obtainable 
 almost for the asking. 
 
 Here, again, we may congratulate ourselves, for while 
 those who know most about the subject tell us that the 
 more ambitious attempts at technical instruction in Ger- 
 many and elsewhere have failed, because the teaching 
 is not in sufficiently close contact with the works in which 
 the processes are actually carried on, the system to which 
 I have drawn your attention will enable the instruction 
 to be given at night to those who have already begun 
 [)ractical work during the day. 
 
40 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 We have, then, come to this : that putting together 
 what is most desirable in the abstract, and what has been 
 practically proved to be the best, the education of our 
 industrial classes should be, and can easily be, something 
 like this. The boy will go to an elementary school till he 
 is thirteen. He will then pass with an exhibition, if neces- 
 sary, to a secondary school till he is sixteen. He will 
 there go on with his science — now a class subject in the 
 elementary school — and begin the study of languages. 
 At sixteen he will leave school and begin the battle of life, 
 and can still in the evening proceed further with his studies 
 in pure science, if the secondary education has left him too 
 ill-equipped in that direction. Having thus got the prin- 
 ciples of pure science into his mind he will be able to take 
 up the technical instruction in the particular industrial 
 arfc to which he is devoting himself. 
 
 But be the number of our future foremen and managers 
 who have had this extra three years of secondary instruc- 
 tion, large or small, if there be in Coventry let us say out 
 of your population of 45,000, 1,000 boys, or girls, or men, 
 who are anxious not only to learn science, but its appli- 
 cation to their particular industries, then the Government 
 is ready to endow Coventry with a sum varying from 
 2,000/. to 6,000/. a year, according to the results of the 
 examinations, if two subjects of pure science are taken 
 up, and the students pass. The City Guilds are pre- 
 pared to endow the town with from 1,000/. to 2,000/. a 
 year additional, provided some application of the principles 
 of science to the industrial arts is taken up, and evidence 
 forthcoming that the principles themselves have been 
 studied. Now if among your 45,000 there is not 1,000 
 who care for these things which are vital to your trades, 
 
 I 
 
THE EDUCATION OF ARTIZANS. 
 
 41 
 
 iflbeeing that abroad these things are cared for, how can 
 your trades stand against foreign competition ? Let such 
 
 \^ system as this go on for twenty years, and we shall hear 
 nothing more of the decay of our national industries. 
 
 Now here I am bound to point out a distinct gap in the 
 present system. We have classes for art, classes for pure 
 science, classes for applied science, but where are the classes 
 
 Er languages ? 
 The modern languages are taught so badly in our 
 condary schools, that it is hopeless to expect that suffi- 
 uient knowledge, either of French or German, can be ac- 
 tuired in the three years' course to enable the student 
 ) find out what his French and German rivals are doing 
 I the branch of industry which he takes up ; and we 
 must, moreover, consider those who may wake up to the 
 importance of studying science and its technical applica- 
 tions after the chance of a secondary education is lost. 
 Such classes then are a real want. 
 
 But I will not end my address by a reference to what I 
 regard as an unfortunate gap, but would rather conclude 
 what I have to say by pointing out that the scheme I have 
 sketched out need be no Utopia, so far, at all events, as a 
 supply of well-trained teachers is concerned. This, up to 
 the present time, has been the real difficulty. But now 
 that the authorities at South Kensington have started 
 summer courses of lectures to teachers, and that they 
 actually pay the teachers for going to learn, the method 
 of teaching, both in the elementary and secondary schools, 
 and evening classes, cannot fail to improve. 
 
 Quite recently, too, we have seen the inauguration of a 
 Normal School, where Royal Exhibitioners and other free 
 students are admitted without payment ; where the 
 
42 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 teacher has the first claim, and where he can attend any 
 single course for a nominal fee. 
 
 Now every town of importance in the country should 
 associate itself with the Government in this attempt, and 
 should have one, at least, of its citizens always in training 
 there, so that the scientific instruction in that town, whether 
 primary, secondary or tertiary, should always be at its 
 highest level. On the other side of the road, too, at South 
 Kensington, is rapidly rising another institution where we 
 may hope the teachers of our technical instruction will 
 receive an equally careful training. 
 
 So that you see, to bring what I have to say to a con- 
 clusion, though we are late in the day, though many people 
 have not yet made up their minds as to what is best to be 
 done — and I acknowledge that the question is hedged in 
 with diflB.culties on all sides — there is an easy solution of 
 the difficulty based on the experience of other countries, 
 which is at the same time an act of simple justice ; that 
 this solution requires, if we adopt it, no dislocation, but 
 simply a natural growth of our existing means, and finally 
 that all the newest developments of our educational 
 machinery will fall naturally into place. 
 
THE EDUCATION QUESTION IN 1883. 
 
 (1883.) 
 
 We are a long-suffering patient people. The call of 
 
 Luther to those around him to educate their children and 
 
 make men of them, as well as provide them with arms — 
 
 H call at once answered in Germany — is only just now 
 
 being answered among ourselves. 
 
 One of the most interesting and one of the most touching 
 sights in London now, and one which in our view is a 
 standing disgrace to the politicians who have held sway 
 during the last hundred years, is the gradual rising above 
 dingy roofs and millions of chimneys of the red brick 
 board schools. The children in London at all events are 
 now being educated, and our future masters are receiving 
 the first rudiments of their instruction, and this much 
 more on account of the intention of their fathers to have 
 it for them than on account of any far-seeing policy 
 of those who are popularly supposed to look in any and 
 every direction for anything that may conduce to the 
 well-being of our country. 
 
 We have at last got a public instruction, and it is 
 already in the air that that instruction will in time be 
 as free as it is now compulsory. It is a heartbreaking thing 
 to look back and think what might have been had these 
 all too recently built schools overtopped the squalid 
 
44 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 dwellings of the poor a century ago. How much less 
 squalid those dwellings would be now ! The monumental 
 and extensive prisons would probably be less occupied in 
 their every cell than they are now, but the well-being 
 of the country, the output of the country, would have 
 been greater, and the struggle with penury, and dirt and 
 crime would have been less. 
 
 This is only one aspect of education, but yet it seems 
 that in this country, at all events, it is the mainspring of 
 public opinion with regard to the general question. The 
 cry — on many grounds the mistaken cry — for technical 
 instruction has grown from the work of the board schools ; 
 it has gone along the same line at a higher level, and it will 
 go on still further. The enormous development of the 
 Government Science and Art Classes will also go on, and 
 to the credit of the late Sir Henry Cole be it said here, 
 that he was wiser than the politicians, and his clear sight 
 and single-mindedness influenced the head of the depart- 
 ment with which he was connected, so that the work in 
 science and art begun by the Prince Consort in 1851, 
 long before the present notions of the importance of 
 education really began to take root in our land, has been 
 making quiet progress. 
 
 Now that compulsory education is in our midst, now 
 that the importance of science and of art to the national 
 industries is being gradually acknowledged, now that it 
 is recognised that the education of our workmen must no 
 longer be so disgracefully neglected as it has been, it is 
 again suggested that there should be a Minister to look 
 after these matters. 
 
 Ten years ago, as it was well put, the Rinderpest was the 
 care of the Government side by side with the Kinderpest. 
 
THE EDUCATION QUESTION IN 1883. 45 
 
 were practically on the same level, both were 
 acknowledged to be nuisances, both might require a public 
 department to look after them, and then money would 
 have to be spent. This was quite a sufficient argument 
 ■rith *' statesmen " to let things go on in the old harum- 
 scarum way ; for the policy of a Government is to keep 
 money in its purse, honestly if it can, but in any case to 
 do so, as if England were a miser, acknowledging no 
 responsibilities, spurning all delights, and wishing to live a 
 sordid life like the burghers of old, caring only for their 
 dykes and pikes, who were shamed out of their 
 indifference centuries ago. 
 
 There has again been a suggestion made that there 
 should be a Minister of Public Instruction, who should 
 be responsible for the preparedness of the country in this 
 respect, just as the Minister of War is responsible for the 
 preparedness of it in another direction. As long ago as 
 1856 the late Lord Derby said : — 
 
 " It appeared to him well worthy of consideration whether it would 
 not be well to have a Minister, or the head of a department, who should 
 have no other duties to perform, and who should be, in fact, respon- 
 sible for the education of the people ... He had a strong feeling 
 that the institution of a Minister of Instruction was desirable, that 
 the subject should be altogether separated from the Privy Council.*' 
 
 But that did no good. In 1862 there was another reso- 
 lution put to the House, calling on it to affirm that for the 
 education estimates and for the expenditure of all moneys 
 for the promotion of education, science and art a Minister 
 of the Crown should be responsible to the House. That 
 also did no good. In 1865 a Select Committee was moved 
 for to inquire into the constitution of the Committee of the 
 Council on Education. It was then urged that education 
 
46 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. ^1 
 
 and science and art were beginning to be considered of 
 such importance that — 
 
 '' The great duty of superintending the various branches connected 
 with the Department of Education should be intrusted to some one 
 responsible Minister, some Minister who should be regarded as a 
 State officer of high authority, who should have the sole conduct of 
 that department, and be solely responsible." 
 
 And that was shelved. 
 
 Nine years later, in ^874, the same view was urged, and 
 Mr. Gladstone as Prime Minister admitted — 
 
 " That there was much to be said in favour of the general principle 
 that the expenditure of money for the promotion of education in science 
 and in art should be placed under the control of a single responsible 
 Minister." 
 
 It is true he said this, but he supported the previous 
 question, so that again came to nothing. 
 
 Now that education and science are the great things of 
 the day, not only in this but in all countries, England 
 enjoys the proud pre-eminence of being'the only country 
 — civilised country, we know nothing of Timbuctoo — in 
 which there is not a Minister of Public Instruction. It is 
 lamentable, terrible, to read the debates, and to see the 
 way in which the question was discussed. The importance 
 of education, the importance of science, the importance of 
 art — the daily, almost hourly, increasing importance of 
 these things — do not seem to have entered into the question. 
 To a large extent it was merely a question of Cabinet 
 convenience and Parliamentary tweedledum and tweedledee. 
 How can there be made room in the Cabinet for a Minister 
 of Public Instruction ? Are not the affairs of the Duchy of 
 Lancaster of much greater importance, and would not 
 the recognition of the'^importance^of education Tmake 
 the Cabinet unwieldy and give rise to difficulties in 
 
 I 
 
I 
 
 THE EDUCATION QUESTION IN 1883. 47 
 
 Parliamentary procedure ? And then there is the Scotch 
 business that must be looked after first, and so on, and 
 so on. Education is evidently not in the regions of 
 
 tractical politics. 
 Heaven knows changes sufficiently great have been made 
 of late years, and it is not absolutely certain that the funda- 
 mental bearings of the nature of the changes to be made 
 have in all cases been fully considered ; but it seems as if 
 they are to be most carefully considered before any change 
 is made touching the matter of education. 
 
 Still it is acknowledged that the question is, after all, 
 one that deserves the attention of Parliament. Mr. Glad- 
 stone, however, had, as usual, three objections to make. 
 In the first place he expressed very great doubt whether, 
 if he had a plan ready to alter the present arrangement, 
 it would be wise to make any declaration on the subject by 
 way of motion. Secondly, he admitted that there was no 
 plan, and he did not think the time had arrived for one ; and 
 lastly, he considered that the subject ought to be a great 
 deal more examined before the House committed itself 
 to a final opinion whether there should be a plan or 
 not. 
 
 With reference to his first objection he stated that the 
 House knew perfectly well that administrative changes 
 are made piecemeal, and must continue to be so ; and he 
 remarked that there was a good deal to be said in favour of 
 what was called a patched house, because most of us found 
 it the most comfortable sort of house to live in. A Minis- 
 ter of Public Instruction would be a new patch, and as 
 there is patching going on elsewhere he objects to this ; and 
 so on, and so on. 
 ^■f The argument which he used in favour of the second 
 
48 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 objection was, we imagine, the strongest he could have 
 used against it, namely, that the business of the Council 
 Office in respect to education has been in an almost 
 incessant state of flux and change ; there can be no doubt 
 that the flux and change will get more pronounced as time 
 goes on. That is the very reason why everything should 
 be brought to a focus. 
 
 We may gather from Mr. Gladstone's speech that the 
 Universities should ever, in his opinion, remain divorced 
 from the general question of education ; but if so, what 
 is to become of Professor Huxley's ladder from the gutter 
 to the university ? 
 
 It is worth while to cull the following from the speech 
 of Mr. Foster, an old Vice-President of the Committee 
 of the Council on Education : 
 
 *' The Committee of the Council for Trade, or Agriculture, or Educa- 
 tion meant nothing whatever. Persons might imagine that the Privy 
 Council occasionally met for the transaction of business, but they 
 never did so either in England or Ireland. The Minister for Agri- 
 culture was the President of the Committee of the Council on Agri- 
 culture, but he greatly doubted whether that Committee ever met, or 
 ever would meet. . . The real objection (to Sir John Lubbock's proposal) 
 probably was that it was undesirable to make too much of education, 
 that if we were to have a Minister of Education he might be pushing 
 things on too quickly. . . There might be a fea: that under one Minister 
 too much money would be spent. . . What was complained of now was 
 that there was no really defined responsibility. The man who moved 
 the Estimates and did the work was not the head of a Department, 
 and he ought to be. The work was done by a Minister who was con- 
 trolled by another, and the latter was scarcely seen by the pubHc. 
 He did not see why we should continue that Japanese mode of managing 
 affairs." 
 
 It is satisfactory to see that the House of Commons is 
 gradually getting into a better position to discuss such 
 questions as these, but we have felt that the main point is 
 
 1 
 
THE EDUCATION QUESTION IN 1883. 
 
 49 
 
 tnat the head of the Government does not yet consider 
 that the question of education is one of importance suffi- 
 cient to be discussed side by side with what in his opinion 
 is the much larger question of Parliamentary procedure 
 It is true a Select Committee has been agreed to, but it is 
 to be feared that after Mr. Gladstone's speech very little 
 will come of it, as has happened before. 
 
 The result remains that we are not to have a Minister 
 of Education. There is agricultural business, including 
 the rinderpest and other matters, and these are larger 
 questions than that of national education ! Therefore 
 national education must wait. As was said before, we 
 are a long-suffering and patient people. There is, how- 
 ever, little doubt that in some political programme of 
 the future this question will find a place ; equal electoral 
 districts and the payment of members are not the only 
 things to be cared for. 
 
LORD PLAYFAIR AND OTHERS ON OUR 
 EDUCATIONAL NEEDS. 
 
 ' (1885.) 
 
 If it be fair to forecast the success of a meeting of the 
 British Association by the quality of the addresses delivered 
 by the various presidents, then it may be predicted that 
 the meeting in 1885 at Aberdeen, with Lyon Playfairas 
 President, will long stand out among its fellows. 
 
 The growing use, as well as the growing feeling for the 
 need, of scientific methods comes out in a most unmistak- 
 able way, while there is no fear that either hearers or 
 readers will be lulled into a sleepy hollow of satisfaction 
 or a rest-and-be-thankful feeling. For that much remains 
 to be done even in the way of initial organisation both of 
 teaching and working is frankly and fearlessly acknow- 
 ledged by several of the speakers. 
 
 These present needs, pointed out by the President of the 
 Association himself, who speaks both as a man of science 
 and a politician, may well occupy our attention. No one 
 knows better than Sir Lyon Playfair how science can aid 
 the body politic, or knows better how each party when in 
 office neglects or uses this powerful engine for the nation's 
 good. He begins by quoting these noble words from the 
 address of the President at the Aberdeen meeting in 1859 
 — the lamented Prince Consort ; 
 
 I 
 
OF 
 
 OUR EDUCATIONAL NEEDS. 51 
 
 " We may be justified in hoping . . . that the Legislature and the State 
 will more and more rejognisc the t-laims of science to their attention^ 
 80 that it may no longer require the begging box, but speak to the 
 State like a favoured child to its parent, sure of his paternal solicitude 
 for its welfare ; that the State will recognise in science one of its 
 elements of strength and prosperity, to foster which the clearest dictates 
 of Self-interest demand." 
 
 One can get no better idea of the Philistine condition 
 of the Government and of the House of Commons in 
 matters of science than from the fact that much of what 
 follows in the President's Address has not been said in the 
 House itself instead of at Aberdeen. The real reason, 
 perhaps, is to be gathered from a remark made by Pro- 
 fessor Chrystal in his address in Section A : 
 
 *' We all have a great respect for the integrity of our British legis- 
 lators, whatever doubts may haunt us occasionally as to their capacity 
 in practical affairs. The ignorance of many of them regarding some 
 of the most elementary facts that bear on every-day life is very sur- 
 prising. Scientifically speaking, uneducated themselves, they seem 
 to think that they will catch the echo of a fact or the solution of an 
 arithmetical problem by putting their ears to the sounding-shell of 
 uneducated public opinion. When I observe the process which many 
 such people employ for arriving at what they consider truth, I often 
 think of a story I once heard of an eccentric Grerman student of 
 chemistry. This gentleman was idle, but, like all his nation, systematic, 
 When he had a precipitate to weigh, instead of resorting to his balance, 
 he would go the round of the laboratory, hold up the test-tube before 
 each of his fellow-students in turn, and ask him to guess the weight. 
 He set down all the replies, took the average, and entered the result 
 in his analysis." 
 
 Now if this view of our legislators is shared by men of 
 such acumen as Sir Lyon Playfair and others in the House 
 of Commons more or less connected with science, we can 
 well understand their silence in the modern council of the 
 nation which so little resembles the Witanagemote of 
 former times. 
 
 D3 
 
52 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 In his pleading for more State recognition of science 
 the President points out the present activity of Ger- 
 many and France, and especially of the United States : 
 
 "... Both France and Germany make energetic efforts to advance 
 science with the aid of their national resources. More remarkable 
 is it to see a young nation like the United States reserving 150,000,000 
 acres of national lands for the promotion of scientific education. In 
 some respects this young country is in advance of all European nations 
 in joining science to its administrative offices. Its scientific pub- 
 lications, like the great palaeontological work embodying the re- 
 searches of Professor Marsh and his associates in the Geological Survey, 
 are an example to other Governments. The Minister of Agriculture 
 is surrounded with a staff of botanists and chemists. The Home 
 Secretary is aided by a special scientific Commission to investigate 
 the habits, migrations and food of fishes, and the latter has at its 
 disposal two specially constructed steamers of large tonnage. The 
 United States and Great Britain promote fisheries on distinct systems. 
 In this country we are perpetually issuing expensive Commissions 
 to visit the coasts in order to ascertain the experiences of fishermen. 
 I have acted as Chairman of one of these Royal Commissions, and 
 found that the fishermen, having only a knowledge of a small area, 
 gave the most contradictory and unsatisfactory evidence. In America 
 the questions are put to Nature, and not to fishermen. Exact and 
 searching investigations are made into the life-history of the fishes, 
 into the temperature of the sea in which they live and spawn, into the 
 nature of their food and into the habits of their natural enemies. 
 For this purpose the Government give the co-operation of the Navy 
 and provide the Commission with a special corps of skilled naturalists, 
 some of whom go out with the steamships, and others work in the 
 biological laboratories at Wood's Hall, Massachusetts, or at Washing- 
 ton. . . The practical results flowing from those scientific investiga- 
 tions have been important. The inland waters and rivers have been^ 
 stocked with fish of the best and most suitable kinds. Even the^ 
 great ocean which washes the coasts of the United States is begin- 
 ning to be affected by the knowledge thus acquired, and a sen- 
 sible result is already produced upon the most important of its 
 fisheries. The United Kingdom largely depends upon its fisheries, 
 but as yet our own Government have scarcely realised the value of 
 such scientific investigations as those pursued with success by the] 
 United States." 
 
)UR EDUCATIONAL KEEDS. 
 
 53 
 
 m 
 
 He quotes with approval a passage from Washington's 
 farewell to his countrymen : " Promote as an object of 
 primary importance institutions for the general diffusion 
 of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a Govern- 
 ment gives force to public opinion it is essential that 
 public opinion should be enlightened." He next points 
 out that it was not till 1870 that England established a 
 system of education at al), and that now, while all great 
 countries except our own have Ministers of Education, we 
 have only Ministers who are managers of primary schools. 
 
 Passing on to the State need of abstract knowledge 
 we read as follows : 
 
 Ali, the son-in-law of Mahomet, the fourth successor to the Cali- 
 phate, urged upon his followers that men of science and their disciples 
 give security to human progress. AU loved to say, ' Eminence in science 
 is the highest of honours ' ; and ' He dies not who gives life to learn- 
 ing.' In addressing you upon texts such as these my purpose was 
 to show how unwise it is for England to lag in the onward march of 
 science when most other European Powers are using the resources 
 of their States to promote higher education and to advance the boun- 
 daries of knowledge. English Governments alone fail to grasp 
 the fact that the competition of the world has become a competition 
 in intellect." 
 
 We have seen how Sir Lyon Playfair twits the heads of 
 the Education Department with being merely managers 
 of primary schools. The President of the Chemical 
 iBPection, Professor Armstrong, also shows reason why 
 their functions must be expanded if science is ever to get 
 on here. He holds that without State action the diffi- 
 culties which at present prevent the existing teaching 
 institutions from exercising their full share of influence 
 upon the advancement of our national prosperity are all 
 but insuperable. He foresees the objection that such an 
 interference would deprive teaching centres of their 
 
EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 individuality, but lie denies that this must necessarily 
 follow, and we know no one who has a better right to 
 express an opinion on such a subject. 
 
 Some part, indeed, of Professor Armstrong's address is 
 terrible reading. The present chemical education and 
 chemical examinations in this country are, according to him, 
 to a large extent shams and worse. The students who 
 come to the centres of higher instruction are scarcely 
 reasoning beings — they have never been brought to 
 reason ; and at those centres the instruction has been 
 of too technical a character, while hardly anywhere 
 is there an atmosphere of research. He points out, 
 among many other matters, the vital importance of the 
 research atmosphere, and he frankly states the difficulties 
 felt by earnest men. Many of the remarks so often made 
 now touching the absence of research in our chemical 
 laboratories apply not to such men as him, but to those 
 whose trading spirit and proclivities are well known — men 
 who discredit the profession to which they belong. Still, 
 it is well that the difficulties should be fairly recorded, 
 especially in juxtaposition with a statement that absence 
 of research must always indicate the absence of teaching 
 worthy of the name. 
 
 A complete revision of the present system, both of 
 teaching and examining in chemistry, is, therefore, accord- 
 ing to Professor Armstrong, one of the most pressing of 
 our present needs. 
 
 Are the other sciences better off ? Certainly not mathe- 
 matics if Professor Chrystal has a right to speak for that 
 branch : 
 
 " All men practically engaged in teaching who have learned enough, 
 in spite of the defects of their own early training, to enable them to 
 
OUR EDUCATIONAL NEEDS. 
 
 ke a broad view of the matter, are agreed as to the canker which 
 'turns everything that is good in our educational practice to evil. It 
 is the absurd prominence of written competitive examinations that 
 
 rrks all this mischief." 
 But some may think that in the setting of problems 
 mathematics teachers have an advantage over others in 
 preventing unintelligent cramming. This is not Professor 
 hrystal's opinion : 
 
 [ in 
 
 *' The history of this matter of problems, as they are called, illustrates 
 
 in a singularly instructive way the weak point of our English system 
 
 education. They originated, I fancy, in the Cambridge Mathe- 
 
 atical Tripos Examination, as a reaction against the abuses of cram- 
 ming bookwork, and they have spread into almost every branch of 
 science teaching — witness test-tubing in chemistry. At first they 
 may have been a good thing ; at all events the tradition at Cambridge 
 was strong in my day, that he that could work the most problems 
 in three or two and a half hours was the ablest man, and, be he ever 
 so ignorant of his subject in its width and breadth, could afford to 
 despise those less gifted with this particular kind of superficial sharp- 
 ness. But, in the end, it all came to the same ; we were prepared for 
 problem working in exactly the same way as for bookwork. We 
 were directed to work through old problem papers, and study the 
 style and peculiarities of the day and of the examiner. The day and 
 the examiner had, in truth, much to do with it, and fashion reigned in 
 problems as in everything else. The only difference I could ever see 
 between problems and bookwork was the greater predominance of the 
 inspiriting element of luck in the former. This advantage was more 
 than compensated for by the peculiarly disjointed and, from a truly 
 scientific point of view, worthless nature of the training which was 
 employed to cultivate this species of mental athletics. The result, 
 80 far as problems worked in examinations go, is, after ul], very miser- 
 able, as the reiterated complaints of examiners show ; the effect on 
 the examinee is a well-known enervation of mind, an almost incurable 
 superficiality, which might be called Problematic Paralysis — a disease 
 which unfits a man to follow an argument extending beyond the 
 length of a printed octavo page." 
 
 As to the crying present need, Professors Ohrystal 
 d Armstrong are at one. We want a higher ideal 
 
56 EDUCATIOl^ AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 m 
 
 of education in general, and of scientific education in 
 particular : 
 
 " Science cannot live among the people and scientific education 
 cannot be more than a wordy rehearsal of dead text-books, unless we 
 have living contact with the working minds of living men. It takes 
 the hand of God to make a great mind, but contact with a great mind 
 will make a little mind greater. The most valuable instruction in any 
 art or science is to sit at the feet of a master, and the next best to have 
 contact with another who has himself been so instructed. No agency 
 that I have ever seen at work can compare for efficiency with an intelli- 
 gent teacher who has thoroughly made his subject his own. It is by 
 providing such, and not by sowing the dragon's teeth of examinations, 
 that we can hope to raise up an intelligent generation of scientifically 
 educated men who shall help our race to keep its place in the struggle 
 of nations. In the future we must look more to man and to ideas, 
 and trust less to mere systems. Systems have had their trial. In 
 particular, systems of examinations have been tested and found wanting 
 in nearly every civilised country on the face of the earth." 
 
 What we have written will show what food for thought 
 in the matter of our present needs has been provided at 
 Aberdeen for those gathered together for the advancement 
 of science. Surely the three addresses specially referred to 
 suggest a gap in the organisation of the Association. Why 
 should there not be a section to deal specially with the 
 question of education and research ? 
 
 ■i 
 
SCIENCE AND EDUCATION DURING VICTORIA'S 
 
 REIGN. 
 
 (1887.) 
 
 Most of the celebrations connected with the fiftieth 
 anniversary of the Queen's accession will soon have taken 
 iplace ; and in London, at all events, the gorgeous cere- 
 Hbonials now being prepared will have been the admiration 
 of hundreds and thousands of Her Majesty's loyal subjects. 
 I^t is therefore quite right and fitting that we should 
 ■^^well for one moment on the subject now uppermost in all 
 minds, and dear to most British hearts. In loyalty the 
 students of Nature in these islands are second to none, 
 
 I^nd their gladness at the happy completion of the fifty 
 ^Bears' reign, and their respect for the fifty years' pure and 
 ^Beautiful life, are also, we believe, second to none. But 
 ^he satisfaction which they feel on these grounds is tem- 
 pered when they consider, as men of science must, all the 
 conditions of the problem. 
 
 The fancy of poets and the necessity of historians have 
 from time to time marked certain ages of the world's history 
 and distinguished them from their fellows. The golden 
 age of the past is now represented by the scientific age of 
 the present. Long after the names of all men who have 
 lived on this planet during the Queen's reign, with the ex- 
 ception of such a name as that of Darwin, are forgotten, 
 
58 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 when the name of Queen Victoria even has paled, it will 
 be recognised that in the latter half of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury a new era of the world's history commenced. What- 
 ever progress there has been in the history of any nation 
 during the last fifty years — and this is truer of England 
 than of any other country — the progress has been mainly 
 due to labourers in the field of pure science, and to the 
 applications of the results obtained by them to the purposes 
 of our daily and national life. 
 
 It is quite true that some men of Science take a pride in 
 the fact that all this scientific work has been accomplished 
 not only with the minimum of aid from the State, but 
 without any sign of sympathy with it on the part of the 
 powers that be. 
 
 We venture to doubt whether this pride is well founded. 
 It is a matter of fact, whatever the origin of the fact may 
 be, that during the Queen's reign, since the death of the 
 lamented Prince Consort, there has been an impassable 
 gulf between the highest culture of the nation and royalty 
 itself. The brain of the nation has been divorced from 
 the head. 
 
 Literature and science, and we might almost add art, 
 have no access to the throne. Our leaders in science, our 
 leaders in letters, are personally unknown to Her Most 
 Gracious Majesty. We do not venture to think for one 
 moment that either Her Majesty or the leaders in question 
 suffer from this condition of things ; but we believe it to 
 be detrimental to the State, inasmuch as it must end by 
 giving a perfectly false perspective ; and to the thoughtless 
 the idea may rise that a great nation has nothing whatever 
 to do either with literature, science or art — that, in short, 
 culture in its widest sense is a useless excrescence, and 
 
SCIENCE AND THE QUEEN'S REIGN. 
 
 properly unrecognised by royalty on that account, while 
 the true men of the nation are only those who wield 
 the sword, or struggle for bishoprics or for place in some 
 political party for pay and power. 
 
 The worst of such a state of things is that a view which is 
 adopted in high quarters readily meets with general accep- 
 tance, and that even some of those who have done good 
 service to the cause of learning are tempted to decry 
 the studies by which their spurs have been won. 
 
 If literature is a "good thing to be left," as Sir George 
 Trevelyan has told us, if Mr. Morley, the politician, looks 
 back with a half- contemptuous regret to the days when he 
 occupied a " more humble sphere " as a leader of literature, 
 if students are recommended to cultivate research only " in 
 the seed-sowing time of life ; " are not these things a proof 
 that something is " rotten in the State," even in this Jubilee 
 year ? It surely is well that literature, science and art 
 should be cultivated by men who are willing to lay aside 
 
 Igar ambition of wealth and rank, if only they may add 
 the stock of knowledge and beauty which the world 
 possesses. It surely is not well that no intellectual pre- 
 eminence should condone for the lack of wealth or political 
 place, and that as far as neglect can do it each scientific and 
 literary man should be urged to leave work, the collective 
 performance of which is nevertheless essential to the vitality 
 of the nation. 
 
 It would seem that this view has some claims for con- 
 sideration when we note what happens in other civilised 
 countries. If we take Germany, or France, or Italy, or 
 Austria, we find there that the men of science and literature 
 are recognised as subjects who can do the State some ser- 
 vice, and as such are freely welcomed into the councils of 
 
60 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGHESS. 
 
 the Sovereign. With us it is a matter of course that every 
 Lord Mayor shall, and every President of the Royal Society 
 shall not, be a member of the Privy Council ; and a British 
 Barnum may pass over a threshold which is denied to a 
 Darwin, a Stokes or a Huxley. Our own impression is 
 that this treatment of men of culture does not depend upon 
 the personal feelings of the noble woman who is now our 
 Queen. We believe that it simply results from the ignor- 
 ance of those by whom Her Majesty is, by an unfortunate 
 necessity, for the most part surrounded. The courtier 
 class in England is — and it is more its misfortune than its 
 fault — interested in few of those things upon which the 
 greatness of a nation really depends. Literary culture 
 some of them may have obtained at the universities, but 
 of science or of art, to say nothing of applied science and 
 applied art, they for the most part know nothing ; and to 
 bring the real leaders of England between themselves and 
 the Queen's Majesty would be to commit a hetise for which 
 they would never be forgiven in their favourite coteries. 
 No subject — still less a courtier — should be compelled to 
 demonstrate his own insignificance. That this is the real 
 cause of the present condition of things which is giving rise 
 to so many comments that we can no longer neglect them, 
 is, we think, further evidenced by the arrangements that 
 have been made for the Jubilee ceremonial in Westminster 
 Abbey. The Lord Chamberlain and his staff, who are 
 responsible for these arrangements, have, it is stated, in- 
 vited only one Fellow of the Royal Society, as such, to be 
 present in the Abbey ; while with regard to literature we 
 believe not even this single exception has been made. It 
 may be an excellent thing for men of science like Professor 
 Huxley, Professor Adams and Dr. Joule, and such a man of 
 
SCIENCE AND THE QUEEN'S REIGN. 
 
 61 
 
 iterature as Mr. Robert Browning, that they should not be 
 required to attend at such a ceremonial, but it is bad for the 
 ceremonial. The same system has been applied to the 
 
 P (Government officials themselves. Thus, the department 
 ponsible for science and art has, we believe, received four 
 kets, while thirty-five have, according to Mr. Plunket's 
 tement in the House, been distributed among the lower 
 clerks in the House of Commons. Her Gracious Majesty 
 suffers when a ceremonial is rendered not only ridiculous 
 but contemptible by such maladministration. England 
 is not represented, but only England's paid officials and 
 nobodies. 
 
 While we regret that there should be these notes of dis- 
 |B|i|ord in the present condition of affairs, there can be no 
 question that Her Majesty may be perfectly assured that 
 the most cultured of her subjects are among the most loyal 
 to her personally, and that they join with their fellow- 
 subjects in many lands in hoping that Her Majesty may be 
 IHiong spared to reign over the magnificent Empire on which 
 Bhe sun never sets, and the members of which science in the 
 future will link closer together than she has been able to do 
 in the past. 
 
EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY. 
 
 (1895.) 
 
 At last the daily press is beginning to see the necessity 
 of State action to prevent as far as possible the ruining 
 of many of our industries threatened by the development 
 of scientific research and processes in other countries. 
 
 The Times'^ has spoken out with no uncertain sound 
 in connection with the often repeated cases in which, 
 in various foreign markets, English are being replaced by 
 German goods. The paragraph to which we refer runs as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Our Berlin correspondent called attention two days ago to the 
 immense strides made by German industry during the last quarter 
 of a century, and to the failure of our Government to pay any adequate 
 attention to a development so closely concerning British interests. In 
 this commercial age this industrial nation has one commercial Attache 
 in Paris who is supposed to keep an eye upon all Europe, and one at St. 
 Petersburg, who has all Asia for his province. A commercial Attache 
 at Berlin for Germany alone would find ample occupation and would 
 furnish knowledge of things that deeply concern us, which it may be 
 feared neither the Government nor the mercantile classes of this country 
 possess at present. We also require urgently a commercial Attache 
 with especial qualifications for the Far East. Yesterday our Paris 
 correspondent informed us that on his first appearance as Minister 
 for Foreign Affairs M. Berthelot asked money for the estabhshment 
 of six new consulates in China. The contrast is sufficiently striking 
 
 November 27, 1895, 
 
 II 
 
EDUCATION AND INDUSTRY. 
 
 between the policy of the two countries and the difference runs through 
 the entire treatment of the material interests of the two peoples. Both 
 in Germany and in France it is held an essential part of the duty of the 
 State to second, and not only to second, but to stimulate and direct 
 the efforts of private enterprise. In this country, though State inter- 
 ference with commerce is being carried to a dangerous length, State 
 assistance, even in the way of collecting information, is regarded with 
 stupid distrust and disfavour. Our home industries themselves in many 
 cases languish for want of intelligent direction. Our agricultural 
 distress might be alleviated were the State not far above the education 
 of the population in the minor agricultural arts, and the organisation 
 of agricultural industries after the manner in vogue on the Continent. 
 In the same way, although nothing can excuse the short-sighted folly 
 of our manufacturing classes in not providing for scientific research in 
 the various branches of industry, yet it is the duty of a wise Govern- 
 ment to take measures to counteract the folly of classes when it threatens 
 the general interest. In one word. Great Britain stands at this moment 
 in imminent danger of being beaten out of the most lucrative fields of 
 commerce, simply because it does not recognise, while other nations 
 do, the value of scientific organisation in the field, in the workshop, in 
 the laboratory and in the conduct of national policy." 
 
 The public meeting to promote a memorial to Huxley 
 reminds us how much we have lost — how much weaker 
 we are for his absence. Never was Huxley more emphatic 
 than when he pleaded, years ago, for the organisation of 
 our scientific forces, so as to secure the victories of peace. 
 It is now certain that we have lost many of these peaceful 
 battles, and that we shall lose more, because our legislators 
 have either not read the signs of the times, or have been 
 led by those who, if they were consistent, would bring 
 back our Navy to its state in Queen Elizabeth's time, 
 when it was the outcome of individual and local effort. 
 
 It is encouraging to think that when the attention of 
 the commercial classes has been drawn to what is happen- 
 ing, as it must be before long, and when the public will 
 possess full knowledge of the utter chaos of our public 
 
64 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 departments in all things appealing to the national life 
 so far as it depends upon commercial enterprise under 
 the existing conditions, some action must be taken. 
 We have Committees of the Privy Council for this and 
 that and the other departments, but where are the 
 Scientific Privy Councillors ? Where are the meetings 
 held at which they give the State the benefit of their 
 knowledge ? In what record do we find the minutes of 
 such " My Lords " as these ? 
 
 It is not fair even to the administrators of the several 
 departments that the present state of things should be 
 allowed to exist. Too few of these have been chosen on 
 account of their scientific knowledge, and as each question 
 arises they have to pick up their information as best 
 they can. There are several ways of doing this, one 
 of them indicated by the Board of Trade inquiry into 
 the revised regulations referring to the Electric Lighting 
 Acts. The Conference showed conclusively how much 
 the Department gained by the free imparting of know- 
 ledge by outsiders, 
 
 But this is only one direction in which reforms are 
 needed. The Chambers of Commerce throughout the 
 country must sooner or later take the matter up ; and 
 when this is done, many other ways of abolishing the 
 existing chaos will suggest themselves. 
 
(1896.) 
 
 ^SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION IN GERMANY AND 
 B ENGLAND. 
 
 I^" Professor Ramsay has done good service by communi- 
 cating to The Times a letter he has received from Professor 
 ■Ntwald of the highest importance at the present time, 
 when, fortunately for us, German supremacy along many 
 lines of applied science and the causes of it are being 
 at last recognised. 
 
 No one has a better right to speak on this subject than 
 Professor Ostwald, and the fact that we may take his com- 
 munication as one made in the interests of British science 
 Ij^akes it all the more valuable. 
 
 What he says will be no news to those who for years 
 past have been pointing out the rocks ahead and the steps 
 necessary to avoid them ; but their voice has been as that 
 of one crying in the wilderness. Fortunately for us this 
 is so no longer. The Times devotes a leader to Dr. Ost- 
 wald' s letter, but it does not appear that even The Times 
 is in real touch with the actual position. 
 
 " The Germans have found that nothing pays so well as knowledge, 
 and that new knowledge always pays in the long run. They act on this 
 - principle by maintaining a steady demand for men competent to extend 
 the domain of theoretical knowledge, paying them well for doing it, and 
 taking their chance of one valuable practical discovery turning up 
 among a score that for the present lead to nothing. How good that 
 
66 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 chance is may be judged from the enormous success attending German 
 chemical industries of all kinds. Germany controls the fine chemical 
 markets of the world, and that means that she takes tax and toll of 
 almost every industry in every country. How easily we might have 
 forestalled her can be fully understood only by those who know what 
 a splendid start we had in capital, in machinery, in control of markets, 
 and in root ideas. Some of her most lucrative industries have been 
 developed out of English discoveries, due to the genius of individual 
 Englishmen, but never properly grasped and worked out by English 
 manufacturers. Her commercial domain will go on extending, and ours 
 proportionately shrinking, unless Englishmen become practical enough 
 to look beyond their noses, and wise enough to believe in knowledge." 
 
 This is excellent ; but then we are also told — 
 
 " For any healthy reform we want driving power, and the driving 
 power must come from manufacturers enlightened enough to understand 
 the secret of German success and English failure. It is industry that 
 must endow research, not from any unpractical desire to add to the 
 number of useless persons who know all that has been done, yet do not 
 know how to do anything new, but from the very practical desire of 
 manufacturers to extend their business and add to their profits." 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " There is a clamour now and again for State aid, and Dr. Ostwald's 
 letter will, perhaps, stimulate it, because he refers to the action of the 
 State in Germany. But the root of the matter in Germany lies in private 
 enterprise, and it must do so here. Heaven helps those who help 
 themselves, and the State cannot do better than observe the same 
 limitation. When industry endows research it will be time to ask for 
 assistance from the taxpayer. Until then State endowment of research 
 can mean little more than throwing money away upon abstract acquire- 
 ments having no real relation to the facts of national prosperity." 
 
 Let us accept for a moment that " industry," " manu- 
 facturers," and " private enterprise " in Britain at once 
 proceed to do all that The Times lays at their doors. 
 What then ? Professor Ostwald answers this question by 
 telling us what the Prussian Government and the various 
 German States have done and are doing for research 
 e^nd scientific education, above and bej^ond all the efforts 
 
GERMAN' EDUCATIONAL METHODS. 07 
 
 made by German " industry," *' manufacturers " and 
 *' private enterprise." 
 
 In such a competition Britain, without the State aid ao 
 amply and wisely given in Germany, is certain to lose. 
 
 It has already been pointed out, and it is worth while to 
 re-state it, that the connection between out national 
 greatness, our national defences and our commerce, is 
 universally recognised, and that the State spends, and 
 properly spends, tens of millions a year, the protection 
 of our commerce being assigned as one of the ostensible 
 reasons. 
 
 But another thing which as yet is not generally re- 
 cognised is that so surely as our national greatness is 
 based upon our industries, as surely in the future must 
 our industries be based upon science. 
 
 It is clear, therefore, that if in other countries the 
 advancement of science is the duty not only of individuals, 
 but of States, mere individual effort in any one country 
 must be crushed out in the international competition 
 which is growing keener and keener every day. 
 
 Taking things as we find them, we spend tens of millions 
 a year to protect our commerce which is a measure of our 
 industries ; while the basis of these, science, is to remain 
 unprotected, unorganised and unaided, except by local 
 efforts and the action of individuals. 
 
 Surely such a contention cannot be seriously main- 
 tained — such inconsistent action can have no logical 
 basis. The real remedy lies in consistently organising 
 both our peace and our war forces, as Huxley pointed 
 out many years ago. We have now a War or Industries- 
 protecting Council : by the side of it we want a Peace 
 or Industries-producing Council ; in other words, a strong 
 
68 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 Minister of Science, who shall have as complete a staff of 
 men of science to advise him as the President of the 
 War Council finds himself provided with in the heads of 
 the Army and Navy Departments. 
 
 Only in this way can Germany's flank be turned. If 
 it were only a question of ironclads how readily every- 
 body would agree. 
 
 Another part of Professor Ostwald's letter, ior which 
 thanks are due, is that in which he points out that in 
 Germany research is as important an engine in Education 
 as it is in a Chemical Works ; so that again the call upon 
 " private enterprise " is not sufficient. 
 
 Here, of course, the whole question of our University 
 
 organisation is raised. We cannot pursue it now, but we 
 
 may quote a pregnant passage from Professor Fitzgerald — 
 
 " The most serious cause of complaint of modern society against the 
 old universities is that they have so controlled the education of the 
 wealthy classes of the community, that the landed and professional 
 classes have been educated apart from the commercial and industrial 
 classes, to the very great injury of both." 
 
 This is the reason that the true condition of things has 
 not been appreciated long ago. It is not understood, 
 and therefore it is not believed. Our political leaders, 
 the permanent chiefs of the various public departments, 
 have not the slightest idea what all this fuss is about, 
 because their education has been entirely apart from 
 those regions of thought and work in which in the future 
 the peaceful battles of the world will be fought and won ; 
 if not by us, then by others, for fighting there must be. 
 
 No better argument could be found for the establish- 
 ment of a ministry and council of science than was afforded 
 by two speeches delivered some little time ago by the 
 Duke of Devonshire on matters connected with scientific 
 
GERMAN EDUCATIONAL METHODS. 
 
 69 
 
 [ucation. The Duke candidly confessed at Birmingham 
 Lat he was not placed at the head of the educational and 
 scientific affairs of the country on account of any special 
 knowledge of the subjects, for " his knowledge of science 
 and art could be compressed into two nutshells." It is 
 not our desire to utter one word against the Duke of 
 Devonshire for his candour ; he has shown that he is 
 interested in technical education, and has on more than 
 one occasion assisted the work of science. But what 
 we do criticise is the political system which does not 
 consider it necessary that the educational and scientific 
 welfare of the country should be the business of those 
 
 Hbio are able to appreciate the work done, to see the 
 necessity of reforms, and to know the directions in which 
 developments should take place. In almost every other 
 country the State or Government has official men of 
 science among its servants, and also constantly asks the 
 advice and assistance of their academies and learned 
 societies, when questions of technical and scientific public 
 
 IHtaLterest are under discussion ; but here no such use is 
 
 Hade, either of the societies as a whole, or of the men 
 
 ^^Rio constitute them. 
 
 [Professor Ostwald's letter ran as follows ; it is so im- 
 
 Hortant that I reprint it here : — 
 
 Hm^Iii our frequent disoussions on scientific education, we have both 
 ^ten been struck with some points of very great difference between 
 the English and the German way of dealing with it. As it may be 
 asserted without national arrogance that University education is in 
 Germany in a more satisfactory condition than in your country, you 
 are, of course, anxious to know which of the German customs I consider 
 most effectrve in bringing about this better state of things ; and I 
 will, therefore, try to point them out. Of course, I shall confine 
 myself to the subject of natural science, and especially chemistry 
 
?0 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 and physics, feeling myself unable to deal with sciences beyond niy" 
 knowledge. The main point of our system may be expressed in on 
 word — freedom — freedom of teaching and freedom of learning. The 
 first involves for the teacher the necessity of forming in his mind a 
 clear conception of the scope of his science, for, as he is free to choose 
 any possible method of view, he feels himself answerable for the particu- 
 lar one he has chosen. And in the same way the student feels himself 
 responsible for the method and the subject of his studies, inasmuch 
 as he is free to choose any teacher and any subject. One who has not 
 seen this system in action may be incHned to think that such a system 
 must lead to arbitrary and irresponsible methods on the side of the 
 teacher, and to confusion on the part of the student. But the former is 
 avoided, because at the beginning of his career the teacher is dependent 
 for his advancement on the results of his scientific views, and is naturally 
 anxious to improve his position in the educational world. And as 
 for the students, they themselves impose certain restrictions on their 
 own freedom. Most of them feel that they require some advice and 
 guidance, and they therefore follow the usual and approved order in 
 conducting their studies. As to the inventive man of original ideas, 
 it has often been proved that for him any way is almost as good as 
 any other, for he is sure to do his best anywhere. Moreover, such 
 a man very soon excites the interest of one of his teachers, and is 
 personally led by him, generally to the great advantage of both. 
 
 *'Let me illustrate these general remarks by considering the course 
 followed by an average chemist. In his first half-year he hears lectures 
 on inorganic chemistry, physics, mineralogy, sometimes botany, and 
 of late often differential calculus. Moreover, the German student is 
 accustomed to take a more or less strong interest in general philosophy 
 or history, and to add in his Bdeghuch (list of lectures) to the above- 
 named Fachcollegien (specialised studies) one or two lectures on phil- 
 osophy, general or German history, or the like. Very often there 
 are in the University one or more popular professors whose lectures 
 are heard by students of all faculties without reference to their special 
 studies. The student who has heard during his stay at the University 
 only lectures belonging strictly to his Fach is not well thought of 
 and is to some extent looked down on as a narrow speciaHst. But 
 I must add that such views are not prevalent in all faculties, and there 
 are some — e.g., the faculty of law — whose students confine themselves, 
 with few exceptions, to attending exclusively lectures in that faculty. 
 
 ** In the second half-year the chemical student begins with practical 
 laboratory work. Notwithstanding the perfect freedom of the teachers. 
 
GfiRMAN EDUCATIONAL METHODS. 
 
 the system first introduced by Liebig into his laboratory at Giessen is 
 still universally adopted in German universities and technical high 
 schools — viz., qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis, the 
 former conjoined with simple spectroscopic work, the latter amplified 
 by volumetric analysis. This is followed by a course of chemical 
 
 iPl^reparations, formerly chiefly inorganic, now chiefly organic. Even 
 here, a regular system is being widely developed owing to the use of 
 some well-known text-books. Of late years this course is followed 
 
 IHl^ some laboratories by a series of exercises in physical chemistry 
 
 '^nd electro-chemistry. 
 
 ** While these practical exercises, which last for three or four half" 
 years, are being carried out, the student completes his knowledge 
 of physics, mathematics, and the other alUed sciences by hearing 
 lectures and working practically in the physical and often also in some 
 other laboratory. The exercises done, he goes to the professor and 
 asks him for a ' theme ' to begin his * work ' — viz., his dissertation 
 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. This is the most important 
 moment in his life as a student, for it generally determines the special 
 line of his future career. The * theme ' is usually taken from the 
 particular branch of the subject at which the professor himself is 
 working ; but, as the scientific name and position of the professor 
 depends, not only on his own work, but to a large extent on the work 
 issuing from his laboratory, he is careful not to limit himself to too 
 narrow a range of his science. 
 
 *' Of course it is best of all if the student selects for himself a suitable 
 * theme,' suggested to him by his lectures or practical work, or from 
 private study of the literature of the science. But this seldom happens, 
 for the young student is not yet able to discern the bearing of special 
 questions and lacks knowledge how to work them out. Sometimes 
 (but not very often, indeed) he points out to his professor in a general 
 way the kind of problems he would Uke to work at, and the professor 
 suggests to him a special problem out of this range of subjects. During 
 the working out of his chosen subject the student learns generally 
 much more than he has heard at lectures. Every part of the investiga- 
 tion forces him to revise the scientific foundations of the operations 
 he performs. During this time the incidental short lectures given 
 by the professor on his daily round from one to another of the advanced 
 students are most effective in deepening and strengthening the student's 
 knowledge. As these explanatory remarks are generally heard, not 
 only by the student whose work has caused them, but also by a number 
 of fellow-students working near, a fairly wide range of scientific 
 
n EDUCATTON" AM) NATTON-AL PROaRESS. 
 
 questions are dealt with in tlieir hearing. Often these small lectures 
 develop themselves into discussions, and, as for myself, I judge from 
 the frequency of such discussions between the students whether the 
 session will turn out a good one or not. If the professor thinks the 
 work sufficiently complete to be used as a dissertation, the student 
 proceeds to the close of his studies. He prepares himself for the 
 examination, which is conducted by the very professors whose lectures 
 he has heard and in whose laboratories he has worked. This examina- 
 tion varies somewhat in different universities, but in no case is it either 
 very long or extensive ; indeed, it is not considered as very important. 
 For we are all aware what an uncertain means of determining a man's 
 knowledge and capabiUties an examination is, and how much its issue 
 depends upon accidental circumstances. Part of this uncertainty is 
 removed by the fact that the professor and the pupil know each other, 
 are acquainted with one another's modes of expression and scientific 
 views. The main purpose of the examination is to induce the student 
 to widen his knowledge to a greater extent than is covered by the 
 subject of his dissertation ; but, indeed, it happens very seldom 
 that a student whose work is considered sufficient does not pass the 
 examination. 
 
 " We have no great fear that this system may induce a professor to 
 treat his own pupils in too lenient a way, and so lower the standard 
 of the Doctor's degree. There was a time when such abuses used 
 to occur, but there very soon arose such public indignation that the 
 abuses ceased to occur. Even at the present day similar instances 
 occasionally occur, but, as before remarked, the position of a professor 
 depends in such a degree upon the value of the dissertations worked 
 out under his supervision, that such deviations from the right way 
 correct themselves in the course of time. The most effective instru- 
 ment for that purpose is the publication of all dissertations and the 
 consequent public control over them ; for this reason publication is, 
 I believe, compulsorily prescribed in all German universities. 
 
 " When the student has finished his course he is still entirely free to 
 choose between a scientific and a technical career. This is a very 
 important point in our educational system ; it is made possible by 
 the circumstance that the occupation of a technical chemist in works 
 is very often almost as scientific in its character as in a university 
 laboratory. This is connected with a remarkable feature in the develop- 
 ment of technical chemistry in Germany — the very point upon which 
 the important position of chemical manufacture in this country depends. 
 The organisation of the power of invention in manufactures and on 
 
GERMAN EDIK^VTTONAL METHOm. 
 
 large scale is, as far as I know, unique in the world's history, and it 
 is the very marrow of our splendid development. Each large works 
 has the greater part of its scientific staff — and there are often more 
 
 H^han 100 doctores phil. in a single manufactory — occupied, not in the 
 management of the manufacture, but in making inventions. The 
 research laboratory in such a work is only different from one in a 
 university by its being more splendidly and sumptuously fitted than 
 the latter. I have heard from the business managers of such works 
 that they have not unfrequentl^ men who have worked for four years 
 without practical success ; but if they know them to possess ability 
 
 jjj they keep them notwithstanding, and in most cases with ultimate 
 
 ^^fcuccess sufficient to pay the expenses of the former resultiess years. 
 
 " It seems to me a point of the greatest importance that the conviction 
 of the practical usefulness of a theoretical or purely scientific training 
 is fully understood in Germany by the leaders of great manufactories. 
 When, some years ago, I had occasion to preside at a meeting, consisting 
 of about two-thirds practical men and one-third teachers, I was much 
 surprised to observe the unhesitating belief of the former in the useful- 
 ness of entirely theoretical investigations. And I know a case where, 
 quite recently, an " extraordinary " professor of a university has been 
 
 ■■offered a very large salary to induce him to enter a works, only for 
 ' the purpose of undertaking researches regarding the practical use 
 of some scientific methods which he had been working at with con- 
 
 i^liderable success. No special instructions are given to him, for it is 
 ' taken for granted that he himself will find the most promising methods ; 
 only, in order to increase his interest in the business, part of his remunera- 
 tion has been made proportional to the commercial success of his 
 future inventions. From this clear understanding of the commercial 
 importance of science by the directors of industrial establishments 
 there science itself gains another advantage. A scientific man can 
 be almost sure, if he wants in his investigations the help of such technical 
 means as only great works can afford, that he will get such assistance 
 at once on apphcation to any works, and the scientific papers of German 
 chemists very often contain acknowledgments, with due thanks, of 
 considerable help they have thus obtained. 
 
 " Besides these advantiiges for the development of scientific and 
 , technical chemistry in Germany there exists another very important 
 
 {■factor — ^practical assistnnce from the Government. Universities are 
 in Germany affairs of the State, not of the Empire, and in no other 
 point has the division of the Fatherland into many smaller countries 
 proved itself to such a degree a boon and a blessing. The essential 
 
74 EDUdATiON AND l^AtlONAL PROGRfiSS. 
 
 character of the German universities, the freedom conferred by the 
 independence of the numerous universities, is never lost. There have 
 been hard times occasionally for the universities of one country or 
 another ; but some universities were always to be found where even 
 in times of hard oppression liberty of teaching and learning remained 
 complete and unaffected, and the spirit of pure unalloyed scientific 
 research was preserved and encouraged. So this palladium of intel- 
 lectual freedom has never been lost ; and it regained the former 
 influence as soon as the casual oppression ceased. In our days, there 
 is among all the separate State Governments in Germany a clear 
 conviction of the importance of practical support being given to pure 
 scientific research. To take one instance, in order to facilitate teaching 
 and research in electro-chemistry (a recently developed branch of 
 science) a suggestion by some leading practical scientific men to the 
 members of the Government was sufficient. Upon such a suggestion 
 a considerable sum of money was spent first by the Prussian Govern- 
 ment for the endowment of electro-chemical chairs and laboratories 
 in the three " polytechnic " colleges of that country. A short time 
 afterwards it was resolved to erect at one of the universities (Gottingen) 
 an institute for physical chemistry, and especially electro-chemistry, 
 in the shape of a building which has just been completed. At the same 
 time, other German countries have begun to grant to their universities 
 and technical colleges considerable sums of money for similar purposes ; 
 e.g., the Saxon Landtag alone has unanimously voted half a million 
 marks (==£25,000) for the erection of a splendid laboratory for physical 
 chemistry at Leipzig. 
 
 "You will excuse my boasting about our German management of 
 this most important question of scientific education. It is no blind 
 admiration without criticism, for I know by practical experience the 
 management in other countries, and I can compare them. And it is 
 only for the sake of science itself that I write these fines. If they should 
 help the spread of the conviction of the incomparable practical usefulness 
 of every support given to pure science, together with the recognition 
 of the fact that the latter can only grow in an atmosphere of liberty 
 and confidence, I should regard it as tending towards the progress 
 of science itself, and destined to exercise such an influence upon scientific 
 progress as may be compared with the discovery of the most remarkable 
 scientific fact."] 
 
A SHORT HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC 
 INSTRUCTION.- 
 
 (1898.) 
 
 The two addresses by my colleagues Profs. Judd and 
 Roberts-Austen have drawn attention to the general 
 history of our College and the details of one part of our 
 organisation. I propose to deal with another part, the 
 consideration of which is of very great importance at the 
 present time, for we are in one of those educational move- 
 ments which spring up from time to time and mould the 
 progress of civilisation. The question of a teaching 
 University in the largest city in the world. Secondary 
 Education and so-called Technical Education are now 
 occupying men's minds. 
 I^K At the beginning it is imperative that I should call 
 l^your attention to the fact that the stern necessities of the 
 human race have been the origin of all branches of science 
 and learning ; that all so-called educational movements 
 have been based upon the actual requirements of the 
 time. There has never been an educational movement 
 for learning's sake ; but of course there have always been 
 studies and students apart from any of those general 
 Lovements to which I am calling attention ; still we have 
 
 An address delivered at the Royal College of Science on Oelober 6, 1898. 
 
tT education and national progress. ^^M 
 
 to come down to the times of Louis Quatorze before the 
 study of the useless, the meme inutile, was recognised 
 as a matter of national concern. 
 
 It is perhaps the more necessary to insist upon stern 
 necessity as being the origin of learning, because it is so 
 difficult for us now to put ourselves in the place of those 
 early representatives of our race that had to face the pro- 
 blems of life among conditionings of which they were pro- 
 foundly ignorant ; when night meant death ; when there 
 was no certainty that the sun would rise on the morrow ; 
 when the growth of a plant from seed was unrecognised ; 
 when a yearly return of seasons might as well be a miracle 
 as a proof of a settled order of phenomena ; when, finally, 
 neither cause nor effect had been traced in the operations 
 of nature. 
 
 It is doubtless in consequence of this difficulty that 
 some of the early races have been credited by some authors 
 with a special love of abstract science, of science for its 
 own sake ; so that this, and not stern necessity, was the 
 motive of their inquiries. Thus we have been told that 
 the Chaldseans differed from the other early races in having 
 a predilection for astronomy, another determining factor 
 being that the vast plains in that country provided them 
 with a perfect horizon. 
 
 The first historic glimpses of the study of astronomy 
 we find among the peoples occupying the Nile Valley and 
 Chaldsea, say 6000 B.C. 
 
 But this study had to do with the fixing of the length of 
 the year, and the determination of those times in it in which 
 the various agricultural operations had to be performed. 
 These were related strictly to the rise of the Nile in one 
 country and of the Euphrates in the other. All human 
 
HISTORY "OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION. 
 
 77 
 
 ctivity was in fact tied up with the movements of the 
 
 n, moon and stars. These, then, became the gods of 
 
 those early peoples, and the astronomers, the seers, were 
 
 Hfche first priests ; revered by the people because, as inter- 
 
 ^^reters of the celestial powers, they were the custodians of 
 
 the knowledge which was the most necessary for the 
 
 purposes of life. 
 
 Eudemus of Rhodes, one of the principal pupils of 
 Aristotle, in his History of Geometry, attributes the origin 
 of geometry to the Egyptians, " who were obliged to in- 
 vent it in order to restore the landmarks which had been 
 destroyed by the inundation of the Nile," and observes 
 " that it is by no means strange that the invention of the 
 sciences should have originated in practical needs. "•••' The 
 new geometry was brought from Egypt to Greece by 
 Thales three hundred jears before Aristotle was born. 
 
 When to astronomy and geometry we add the elements 
 of medicine and surgery, which it is known were familiar 
 to the ancient Egyptians, it will be conceded that we are, 
 in those early times, fiice to face with the cultivation of 
 the most useful branches of science. 
 
 Now, although the evidence is increasing day by day 
 that Greek science was Egyptian in its origin, there is 
 no doubt that its cultivation in Greece was more extended, 
 and that it was largely developed there. One of the most 
 useful and prolific writers on philosophy and science who 
 has ever lived, Aristotle, was born in the fourth century 
 B.C. From him, it may be said, dates a general conception 
 of science based on observation as differing from experiment. 
 If you wish to get an idea of the science of those times, read 
 his writings on Physics and on the Classification of Animals. 
 
 * " Greek Geometry^ from Thales to Euclid," p. 2. (AUman.) 
 
78 
 
 EDUGATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 All sought in Aristotle the basis of knowledge, but they 
 only read his philosophy ; Dante calls him " the Master 
 of those who know. "'■'■* 
 
 Why was Aristotle so careful to treat science as well as 
 philosophy, with which his master, Plato, had dealt almost 
 exclusively ? 
 
 The answer to this question is of great interest to our 
 present subject. The late Lord Playfairf in a pregnant 
 passage, suggests the reason, and the later history of 
 Europe shows, I think, that he is right. 
 
 " We find that just as early nations became rich and prosperous, 
 so did philosophy arise among them, and it declined with the decadence 
 of material prosperity. In those splendid days of Greece, when Plato, 
 Aristotle and Zeno were the representatives of great schools of thought 
 which still exercise their influence on mankind, Greece was a great 
 manufacturing and mercantile community ; Corinth was the seat of the 
 manufacture of hardware ; Athens that of jewellery, shipbuilding and 
 pottery. The rich men of Greece and all its free citizens were actively 
 engaged in trade and commerce. The learned class were the sons of 
 those citizens, and were in possession of their accumulated experience 
 derived through industry and foreign relations. Thales was an oil 
 merchant ; Aristotle inherited wealth from his father, who was a 
 physician, but, spending it, is believed to have supported himself as a 
 druggist till PhiUp appointed him tutor to Alexander. Plato's wealth 
 was largely derived from commerce, and his master, Socrates, is said 
 to have been a sculptor. 2eno, too, was a travelling merchant. Archi 
 medes is perhaps an exception, for he is said to have been closely related 
 to a prince ; but if so, he is the only princely discoverer of science on 
 record." 
 
 In ancient Greece we see the flood of the first great in- 
 tellectual tide. Alas ! it never touched the shores of 
 Western Europe, but it undoubtedly reached to Rome, 
 and there must have been very much more observational 
 science taught in the Roman studia than we generally 
 
 * " Inferno," c. iv. 130 et seq. 
 
 t " Subjects of Social Welfare," p. 206, 
 
HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION. 
 
 79 
 
 
 imagine, otherwise how explain the vast public works, 
 ■Bnd their civilising influence carried over sea and 
 Band from Africa to Scotland ? In some directions 
 ^ftheir applications of science are as yet unsur- 
 ^^assed. 
 
 With the fall of the Roman Empire both science and 
 philosophy disappeared for a while. The first wave had 
 come and gone ; its last feebler ripples seem to have been 
 represented at this time by the gradual change of the 
 Roman secular studia wherever they existed into clerical 
 schools, the more important of which were in time attached 
 to the chief cathedrals and monasteries ; and it is not 
 difficult to understand why the secular (or scientific) in- 
 struction was gradually replaced by one more fitted for the 
 training of priests. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that the ceaseless strife in 
 the centre of Europe had driven what little learning there 
 was to the western and southern extremities where the 
 turmoil was less — I refer to Britain and South Italy — 
 while the exiled Nestorians carried Hellenic science and 
 philosophy out of Europe altogether to Mesopotamia 
 and Arabia. 
 
 The next wave, it was but a small one, had its origin in 
 our own country. In the eighth century England was at 
 its greatest height, relatively, in educational matters ; 
 chiefly owing to the labours of two men. Beda, generally 
 called the Venerable Bede, the most eminent writer of his 
 age, was born near Monkwearmouth in 673, and passed 
 his life in the monastery there. He not only wrote the 
 history of our island and nation, but treatises on the 
 nature of things, astronomy, chronology, arithmetic, 
 medicine, philosophy, grammar, rhetoric, poetry, music j 
 
80 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. H 
 
 basing his work on that of Pliny. He died in 735, in 
 which year his great follower was born in Yorkshire. I 
 refer to Alcuin. He was educated at the Cathedral 
 School at York under Archbishop Egbert, and having 
 imbibed everything he could learn from the writings of 
 Bede and others, was soon recognised as one of the 
 greatest scholars of the time. On returning from Rome, 
 whither he had been sent by Eaubald to receive the 
 pallium, he met Karl the Great, King of the Franks and 
 Lombards, who eventually induced him to take up his 
 residence at his Court, to become his instructor in the 
 sciences. Karl (or Charlemagne) then was the greatest 
 figure in the world, and although as King of the Franks 
 and Lombards, and subsequently Emperor of the Holy 
 Roman Empire, his Court was generally at Aachen, he was 
 constantly travelling throughout his dominions. He was 
 induced, in consequence of Alcuin's influence, not only 
 to have a school always about him on his journeys, but 
 to establish, or foster, such schools wherever he went. 
 Hence it has been affirmed that " France is indebted to 
 Alcuin for all the polite learning it boasted of in that 
 and the following ages." The Universities of Paris, 
 Tours, Fulden, Soissons and others were not actually 
 founded in his day, but the monastic and cathedral schools 
 out of which they eventually sprung were strengthened, 
 and indeed a considerable scheme of education for priests 
 was established ; that is, an education free from all 
 sciences and in which philosophy alone was considered. 
 
 Karl the Great died in 814, and after his death the 
 eastward travelling wave, thus started by Bede and 
 Alcuin, slightly but very gradually increased in height. 
 Two centuries later, however, the conditions were changed. 
 
mSTORY OF SCTENTTFTO INSTRUCTION. 
 
 We find ourselves in presence of interference phenomena, 
 for then there was a meeting with another wave travel- 
 ling westwards, and this meeting was the origin of 
 the European Universities. The wave now manifested 
 travelling westerly, spread outward from Arab centres 
 first and finally from Constantinople, when its vast stores 
 of Greek lore were opened by the conquest of the city. 
 
 The first wavelet justified Eudemus' generalisation that 
 " the invention of the Sciences originated in practical 
 needs," and that knowledge for its own sake was not 
 the determining factor. The year had been determined, 
 stone circles erected almost everywhere, and fires 
 signalled from them, giving notice of the longest and 
 shortest days, so that agriculture was provided for, 
 even away from churches and the Festivals of the Church. 
 The original user of geometry was not required away from 
 the valleys of the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, and, there- 
 fore, it is now Medicine and Surgery that come to the 
 front for the alleviation of human ills. In the eleventh 
 century we find Salerno, soon to be famed throughout 
 Europe as the great Medical School, forming itself into 
 the first University. And Medicine did not exhaust all 
 the science taught, for Adelard listened there to a lecture 
 on " the nature of things," the cause of magnetic 
 attraction being one of the " things " in question. 
 
 This teaching at Salerno preceded by many years the 
 study of the law at Bologna and of theology at Paris. 
 
 The full flood came from the disturbance of the Arab 
 wave centre by the Crusades, about the beginning of the 
 eleventh century. After the Pope had declared the " Holy 
 War," William of Malmesbury tells us : 
 
 " The most distant islands and savage countries were inspired with 
 
IDUGATION 
 
 this ardent passion. The Welshman left his hunting, the Scotchman his 
 fellowship with vermin, the Bane his drinking party, the Norwegian his 
 raw fish." 
 
 Report has it that in 1096 no less than 6,000,000 were in 
 
 motion along many roads to Palestine. This, no doubt, is 
 
 an exaggeration, but it reflects the excitement of the time, 
 
 and prepare us for what happened when the Crusaders 
 
 returned ; as Green puts it"' : — 
 
 " The western nations, including our own, ' were quickened with a 
 new life and throbbing with a new energy.' .... A new fervour of 
 study sprang up in the West from its contact with the more cultured 
 East. Travellers like Adelard, of Bath, brought back the first rudi- 
 ments of physical and mathematical science from the schools of Cordova 
 or Bagdad. . . . The long mental inactivity of feudal Europe broke 
 up like ice before a summer's sun. Wandering teachers, such as 
 Lanfranc or Anselm, crossed sea and land to spread the new power 
 of knowledge. The same spirit of restlessness, of inquiry, of impatience 
 with the older traditions of mankind, either local or intellectual, that 
 drove half Christendom to the tomb of its Lord, crowded the roads with 
 thousands of young scholars hurrying to the chosen seats where teachers 
 were gathered together." 
 
 Studium generate was the term first applied to a large 
 educational centre where there was a guild of masters, 
 and whither students flocked from all parts. At the 
 beginning of the thirteenth century the three principal 
 studia were Paris, Bologna and Salerno, where theology 
 and artsj law and medicine, and medicine almost by it- 
 self, were taught respectively ; these eventually developed 
 into the first universities.! 
 
 English scholars gathered in thousands at Paris round 
 the chairs of William of Champeaux and Abelard, where 
 they took their place as one of the " nations " of which 
 the great Middle Age University of Paris was composed. 
 
 * " History of the Englisli People," I. 198. 
 
 t See " Histoire de I'Universitf^ He Paris." Cr^vier, 11^1, passim. 
 
mSTORY OF SCIENTTFTC ^^r8TRTTCTT0^^. 83 
 
 We have only to do with the Arts faculty of this Uni- 
 versity. We find that the subject-matter of the liberal 
 education of the Middle Ages, there dealt with, varied 
 very little from that taught in the schools of ancient 
 Rome. 
 
 The so-called " artiens," students of the Arts faculty 
 which was the glory of the University and the one most 
 numerously attended, studied the seven arts of the tri- 
 vium and quadrivium — that is, grammar, rhetoric, dia- 
 lectic; and arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy. '••■ 
 
 This at first looks well for scientific study, but the 
 mathematics taught had much to do with magic ; arith- 
 metic dealt with epacts, golden numbers and the like. 
 There was no algebra and no mechanics. Astronomy 
 dealt with the system of the seven heavens. 
 
 Science, indeed, was the last thing to be considered in 
 the theological and legal studia, and it would appear 
 that it was kept alive more in the medical schools than 
 in the Arts faculties. Aristotle's writings on physics, 
 biology and astronomy were not known till about 1230, 
 and then in the shape of Arab-Latin translations. Still 
 it must not be forgotten that Dante learned some of 
 his astronomy, at all events, at Paris. 
 
 Oxford was an offshoot of Paris, and therefore a theo- 
 logical studium, in all probability founded about 1167,t 
 and Cambridge came later. 
 
 Not till the Reformation (sixteenth century) do we see 
 any sign of a new educational wave, and then we find 
 the two which have had the greatest influence upon the 
 
 * Enumerated in the following Middle Age Latin verse : 
 
 " Lingua, tropus, ratio, numenif*, tonus, an<julus, astra." 
 t " Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages," Kashdall, vol. ii. p. 344. 
 
 F2 
 
Ik 
 
 84 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 history of the world — one of them depending upon the 
 Eeformation itself, the other depending upon the birth 
 of experimental inquiry. 
 
 Before the Kef ormation the Universities were priestly 
 institutions and derived their authority from the Popes. 
 
 The Universities were for the few ; the education of the 
 people, except in the various crafts, was unprovided for. 
 
 The idea of a general education in secular subjects at 
 the expense of the State or of communities is coeval with 
 the Eeformation. In Germany, even before the time of 
 Luther, it was undreamt of, or rather, perhaps, one should 
 say, the question was decided in the negative. In his 
 day, however, his zeal first made itself heard in favour 
 of education, as many are now making themselves heard 
 in favour of a better education ; and in 1524 he addressed a 
 letter to the Councils of all the towns in Germany, begging 
 them " to vote money not merely for roads, dikes, guns 
 and the like, but for schoolmasters, so that the poor 
 children might be taught ; on the ground that if it be 
 the duty of a State to compel the able-bodied to carry 
 arms, it is a fortiori its duty to compel its subjects to send 
 their children to school."* 
 
 Here we have the germ of Germany's position at the 
 present day, not only in scientific instruction but in every- 
 thing which that instruction brings with it. 
 
 With the Eeformation this idea spread to France. In 
 
 1560 we find the States General of Orleans suggesting to 
 
 Francis II. a — 
 
 " Levee d'une contribution sur les benefices eccles.astiques pour 
 raisonablement stipendier des pedagogues et gens lettres, en toutes 
 villes et villages, pour I'instruction de la pauvre jeunesse du plat pay.s. 
 
 * This is a f|Uotation from my Coventry address, see p. 28, 
 
HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION. S6 
 
 soient teiius les peres et meres, a peine d'aniende, a envoyer les dits 
 enfants a Vecole, et a ce faire soieut coiitraints par les segnieurs et les 
 juges ordinaires." 
 
 Two years after this suggestion, however, the religious 
 wars broke out ; the material interests of the clerical party- 
 had predominated, the new spirit was crushed under the 
 iron heel of priestcraft, and the French, in consequence, 
 had to wait for three centuries and a revolution before 
 they could get comparatively free. 
 
 In the Universities, or at all events alongside them, we 
 find next the introduction, not so much of science 
 with its experimental side as we now know it, as of the 
 scientific spirit. 
 
 The history of the College de France, founded in 1531 
 by Francis the First, is of extreme interest. In the fifteenth 
 century the studies were chiefly literary, and except in 
 the case of a few minds they were confined merely to 
 scholastic subtleties, taught (I have it on the authority of 
 the Statistique de I'Enseignement Superieur) in barbarous 
 Latin. This was the result of the teaching of the faculties ; 
 but even then, outside the faculties, which were immutable, 
 a small number of distinguished men still occupied them- 
 selves in a less rigid way in investigation ; the studies, how- 
 ever, were chiefly literary. Among those men may be 
 mentioned Danes, Postel, Dole, Guillaume Bude, Lefcvre 
 d' I^^taples and others, who edited with notes and commen- 
 taries Greek and Latin authors whom the University scarcely 
 Imew by name. Hence the renaissance of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, which gave birth to the College de France, the function 
 of which, at the commencement, was to teach those things 
 which were not in the ordinary curriculum of the faculties of 
 the university. It was called the Collrge des Deux Langues, 
 
86 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. M 
 
 the languages being Hebrew and Greek. It then became 
 the College des Trois Langues, when the king, notwithstand- 
 ing the opposition of the University, created in 1534 a chair 
 of Latin. There was another objection made by the 
 University to the new creation ; from the commence- 
 ment the courses were free ; and this feeling was not de- 
 creased by the fact that around the celebrated masters 
 of the Trois Langues a crowd of students was soon 
 congregated. 
 
 The idea in the mind of Francis the First in creating 
 this Royal College may be gathered from the following 
 Edict, dated in 1545 : — 
 
 " Frangois, etc., savoir faisons a tous presents et a veiiir que Nous, 
 considerant que le sgavoir des langues, qui est un des dons du Saint- 
 Esprit, fait ouverture et donne le moyen de plus entiere connaissance 
 et plus parfaite intelligence de toutes bonnes, honn^tes, saintes et 
 salutaires sciences. . . . Avons fait faire pleinement entendre a ceux 
 qui, y voudraient vacquer, les trois langues principales, Hebraique, 
 Grecque, et Latine, et les Livres esquds les bonnes sciences sont le 
 mieux et le plus profondement traitees. A l,^quelle fin, et en suivant le 
 decret du concile de Vienne, nous avons pie9a or donne et establi en 
 ndtre bonne ville de Paris, un bonne nombre de personnages de sgavoir 
 excellent, qui lisent et enseignent publiquement et ordinairement 
 les dites langues et sciences, maintenant florissant autaiit ou plus 
 qu'elles ne firent de bien longtemps. . . . auxquels nos lecteurs avons 
 donne honn^tes gages et salaires, et iceux fait pourvoir de plusieurs 
 beaux benefices pour les entretenir et donner occasion de mieux et plus 
 continuellement entendre au fait de leur charge. . . . etc." 
 
 The Statistique, which I am following in this account, 
 thus sums up the founder's intention : — 
 
 " Le College Royal avait pour mission dc propager les nouvelles con- 
 naissances, les nouvelles decouvertes. II n'enseignait pas la science 
 faite, il la faisait." 
 
 It was on account of this, more than on account of 
 anything else, that it found its greatest enemy in the 
 
HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION. 
 
 University. The founding of this new College, and the 
 great excitement its success occasioned in Paris, were, 
 there can be little doubt, among the factors which 
 induced Gresham to found his College in London in 
 1574. These two institutions and the street trading which 
 preceded the buildings played a great part in their 
 time. Gresham College, it is true, was subsequently 
 strangled, but not before its influence had been such 
 as to permit the Royal Society to rise phoenix-like from 
 its ashes, for it is on record that the first step in the 
 forming of this Society was taken after a lecture on 
 astronomy by Sir Christopher Wren at the College. All 
 connected with the two institutions felt the change 
 of thought in the century which saw the birth of Bacon, 
 Galileo, Gilbert, Hervey, Tycho Brahe, Descartes and 
 many others that might be named ; and of these, it is well 
 to remark, Gilbert,* Hervey and Galileo were educated in 
 medical schools abroad. 
 
 Bacon was not only the first to lay down regidce 
 pJiilosophandi, but he insisted upon the far-reaching 
 results of research, not forgetting to point out that 
 " lucifera experimenta, non fructifera qucBrenda,'^'f as a 
 caution to the investigator, though he had no doubt as 
 to the revolution about to be brought about by the ultimate 
 application of the results of physical inquiry. 
 
 As early as 1560 the Academia Secretorum Naturae 
 was founded at Naples, to be followed by the Lincei in 
 1609, the Royal Society in 1645, the Cimento in 1657 
 and the Paris Academy in 1666. 
 
 From that time the world may be said to have belonged 
 
 * " William Gilbert, of Colchester, on the Magnet." Mittelag, p. x. 
 t " Nov. Org.," 1. 70. Fowler's Edition, p. '2od. 
 
88 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 to science, now no longer based merely on observation 
 but on experiment. But, alas ! how slowiy lias it per- 
 colated into our Universities. 
 
 The first organised endeavour to teach science in 
 schools was naturally made in Germany (Prussia), where, 
 in 1747 (nearly a century and a half ago), Realschulen 
 were first started ; they were taken over by the Govern- 
 ment in 1832 and completely reorganised in 1859, this 
 step being demanded by the growth of industry and the 
 spread of the modern spirit. Eleven hours a week were 
 given to natural science in these schools forty years ago. 
 
 Teaching the Teachers. 
 
 Until the year 1762 the Jesuits had the education of 
 France almost entirely in their hands, and when, there- 
 fore, their expulsion was decreed in that year, it was 
 quite a necessary step to create an institution to teach 
 the future teachers of France. Here, then, we had the 
 Ecole Normale in theory ; but it was a long time before 
 this theory was carried into practice, and very probably 
 It would never have been, had not Eolland d'Erceville 
 made it his duty, for more than twenty years, by nume- 
 rous publications, amongst which is especially to be 
 mentioned his " Plan d' Education," printed in 1783, 
 to point out, not merely the utility, but the absolute 
 necessity for some institution of the kind. As generally 
 happens in such cases, this exertion was not lost, for, in 
 1794, it was decreed that an Kcole Normale should be 
 opened at Paris : — 
 
 " Ou seront appeles de toutes les parties de la Republiquc, des oitoyens 
 deja instruits dans les sciences utiles, pour apprendre, sous les professeurs 
 les plus habiles dans tons les genres, I'art d'enseigner." 
 
HTJ^TORY OF S(tENfTFt(^ mSTRUCTTO]^. 8!) 
 
 To follow these courses in the art of teaching, one poten- 
 tial schoolmaster was to be sent to Paris by every dis- 
 trict containing 20,000 inhabitants. 1,400 or 1,500 young 
 men, therefore, arrived in Paris, and in 1795 the courses 
 of the school were opened first of all in the amphitheatre 
 of the Museum of Natural History. The professors were 
 chosen from among the most celebrated men of France, 
 the sciences being represented by Lagrange, Laplace, 
 Haiiry, Monge, Daubenton and Berthollet. 
 
 While there was this enormous progress abroad, 
 represented especially by the teaching of science in 
 Germany and the teaching of the teachers in France, things 
 slumbered and slept in Britain. We had our coal and 
 our iron, and no one troubled about an improved educa- 
 tion — least of all the universities, which had become, 
 according to Matthew Arnold (who was not likely 
 to overstate matters), mere hauls lycees, and " had 
 lost the very idea of a real university, "••^•" and 
 since our political leaders generally came from the uni- 
 versities little more was to be expected from them. 
 
 Many who have attempted to deal with the history 
 of education have failed to give sufficient prominence to 
 the tremendous difference there must necessarily have 
 been in scientific requirements before and after the intro- 
 duction of steam power. 
 
 It is to the discredit of our country that we, who gave 
 the perfected steam engine, the iron ship and the loco- 
 motive to the world, should have been the last to feel the 
 next wave of intellectual progress. 
 
 All we did at the beginning of the century was to found 
 mechanics' institute. They knew better in Prussia, 
 
 * "Schools and Universities on the Continent," p. 291. 
 
EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 "a bleeding and lacerated mass,"* after Jena (1806), King 
 Frederic William III. and his councillors, disciples of i| 
 Kant, founded the University of Berlin, " to supply the 
 loss of territory by intellectual effort." In spite of the 
 universal poverty, money was given for the improve- 
 ment or extension of the Universities of Koenigsberg 
 and Breslau, and that of Bonn was founded in 
 1818. As a result of this policy, carried on persistently 
 and continuously by successive ministers, aided by wise 
 councillors, many of them the products of this policy, 
 such a state of things was brought about that not many 
 years ago M. Ferdinand Lot, one of the most distinguished 
 educationists of France, accorded to Germany " a supre- 
 macy in Science comparable to the supremacy of Eng- 
 land at sea." 
 
 But this position has not been obtained merely by 
 founding new universities. To Germany we owe the 
 perfecting of the methods of teaching Science. 
 
 I have shown that it was in Germany that we find 
 the first organised science teaching in schools. About 
 the year 1825 that country made another tremendous 
 stride. Liebig demonstrated that science teaching, to 
 be of value, whether in the school or the university, must 
 consist to a greater or less extent in practical work, and 
 the more the better ; that book work was next to useless. 
 
 Liebig, when appointed to Giessen, smarting still 
 under the difficulties he had had in learning chemistry 
 without proper appliances, induced the Darmstadt 
 Government to build a chemical laboratory in which 
 the students could receive a thorough practical training. 
 
 ■* " University Education in England, France and Germany," Sir Rowland 
 Blenucrliaasett, p. 25. 
 
[IRTORY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTOtJCTION. 
 
 91 
 
 It will have been gathered from this reference to Liebig's 
 system of teaching chemistry, that still another branch of 
 applied science had been created, which has since had a 
 stuj)endous effect upon industry ; and while Liebig was 
 working at Giessen, another important industry was 
 being created in England. I refer to the electric tele- 
 graph and all its developments, foreshadowed by Galileo 
 in his reference to the " sympathy of magnetic needles." 
 
 Not only then in chemistry but in all branches of 
 science which can be applied to the wants of man, the 
 teaching must be practical — that is, the student must 
 experiment and observe for himself and he must himself 
 seek new truths. 
 
 It was at last recognised that a student could no more 
 learn Science effectively by seeing some one else perform 
 an experiment than he could learn to draw effectively by 
 seeing some one else make a sketch. Hence in the 
 German Universities the Doctor's degree is based upon 
 a research. 
 
 Liebig's was the fons el oriqo of all our laboratories — 
 mechanical, metallurgical, chemical, physical, geological, 
 astronomical and biological. 
 
 I must come back from this excursion to call your 
 attention to the year 1845, in which one of the germs 
 of our College first made its appearance. 
 
 What was the condition of England in 1845 ? Her 
 universities had degenerated into hauls lycees. With 
 regard to the University teaching, 1 may state that even 
 as late as the late fifties a senior wrangler — I had the 
 story from himself — came to London from Cambridge 
 expressly to walk about the streets to study crystals, 
 prisms, and the like in the opticians' windows. Of 
 
92 iilDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 laboratories in the universities there were none ; of 
 science teaching in the schools there was none ; there 
 was no organisation for training science teachers. 
 
 If an artisan wished to improve his knowledge he had 
 only the moribund Mechanics' Institutes to fall back 
 upon. 
 
 The nation which then was renowned for its utilisation 
 of waste material products allowed its mental products to 
 remain undeveloped. 
 
 There was no minister of instruction, no councillors 
 with a knowledge of the national scientific needs, no 
 organised secondary or primary instruction. We lacked 
 then everything that Germany had equipped herself with 
 in the matter of scientific industries. 
 
 Did this matter ? Was it more than a mere abstract 
 question of a want of perfection ? 
 
 It mattered very much ! From all quarters came the 
 cry that the national industries were being undermined 
 in consequence of the more complete application of 
 scientific methods to those of other countries. 
 
 The chemical industries were the first to feel this, 
 because England was then the seat of most of the 
 large chemical works.* 
 
 Very few chemists were employed in these chemical 
 works. There were in some cases so-called chemists at 
 about bricklayers' wages, not much of an inducement to 
 study chemistry, even if there had been practical labora- 
 tories where it could have been properly learnt. Hence 
 when efficient men were wanted they were got from 
 abroad, i.e., from Germany, or the richer English had to 
 go abroad themselves. 
 
 * Ferkin, Nature, xxxii. 334. 
 
 I 
 
HISTORY OFSTTENTTFTr TNSTTlTTeTION. 
 
 03 
 
 Fortunately for us, at this time, we had in England, in 
 very high place, a German fully educated by all that 
 could be learned at one of the best equipped modern 
 German Universities, where he had studied both science and 
 the fine arts. I refer to the Prince Consort. From that 
 year to his death he was the foimtain of our English 
 educational renaissance, drawing to himself men like 
 Playfair, Clark and De la Beche ; knowing what we 
 lacked, he threw himself into the breach. This College is 
 one of the many things the nation owes to him. His 
 service to his adopted country, and the value of the 
 institutions he helped to inaugurate, are by no means 
 even yet fully recognised, because those from whom 
 national recognition, full and ample, should have come, 
 were, and to a great extent still are, the products of the 
 old system of middle age scholasticism which his clear 
 vision recognised was incapable by itself of coping with the 
 conditions of modern civilised communities. 
 
 It was in the year 1845 that the influence of the Prince 
 Consort began to be felt. Those who know most of the 
 conditions of Science and Art then and now, know best 
 how beneficial that influence was in both directions ; my 
 present purpose, however, has only reference to Science. 
 
 The College of Chemistry was founded in 1845, first 
 as a private institution ; the School of Mines was estab- 
 lished by the Government in 1851. 
 
 In the next year, in the speech from the Throne at the 
 
 opening of Parliament, Her Majesty spoke as follows : — 
 
 " The advancftment of the Fine Arts and of practical Science will be 
 readily recognised by you as worthy the attention of a great and 
 enlightened nation. I have directed that a comprehensive scheme 
 shall be laid before you having in view the promotion of these objects, 
 towards which I invite your aid and co-operation." 
 
EDUCATION ANT) NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 Strange words these from the lips of an English 
 sovereign ! 
 
 The Government of this country was made at last to 
 recognise the great factors of a peaceful nation's prosperity, 
 and to reverse a policy which has been as disastrous to 
 us as if they had insisted upon our naval needs being 
 supplied by local effort as they were in Queen Elizabeth's 
 time. , 
 
 England has practically lost a century ; one need not 
 be a prophet to foresee that in another century's time our 
 education and our scientific establishments will be as 
 strongly organised by the British Government as the 
 navy itself. 
 
 As a part of the comprehensive scheme referred to by 
 Her Majesty, the Department of Science and Art was 
 organised in 1853, and in the amalgamation of the College 
 of Chemistry and the School of Mines we have the germ 
 of our present institution. 
 
 But this was not the only science school founded by 
 the Government. The Royal School of Naval Archi- 
 tecture and Marine Engineering was established by the 
 Department at the request of the Lords Commissioners 
 of the Admiralty, " with a view of providing especially 
 for the education of shipbuilding officers for Her Majesty's 
 Service, and promoting the general study of the Science 
 of Ship Building and Naval Engineering." It was not 
 limited to persons in the Queen's Service, and was 
 opened on November 1, 1864. The present Royal 
 College of Science was built for it and the College of 
 Chemistry. In 1873 the School was transferred to the 
 Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and this accident 
 enabled the teaching from Jermyn Street to be transferred 
 
HISTORY OF SOTENTIFTO TNiSTRUOTION. 95 
 
 and proper practical instruction to be given at South 
 Kensington. The Lords of the Admiralty expressed 
 their entire satisfaction with the manner in which the 
 instruction had been carried on at South Kensington ; and 
 well they might, for in a memorandum submitted to the 
 Lord President in 1887, the President and Council of the 
 Institute of Naval Architects state : — 
 
 "When the department dealt with the highest class of education in 
 Naval Architecture by assisting in founding and by carrying on the 
 School of Naval Architecture at South Kensington, the success which 
 attended their efiorts was phenomenal, the great majority of the 
 rising men in the profession having been educated at that Institution." 
 
 Here I again point out, both with regard to the School 
 of Mines, the School of Naval Architecture and the 
 later Normal School, that it was stern need that was in 
 question, as in Egypt in old times. 
 
 Of the early history of the College I need say nothing 
 after the addresses of my colleagues. Profs. Judd and 
 Roberts- Austen, but I am anxious to refer to some parts 
 of its present organisation and their effect on our national 
 educational growth in some directions. 
 
 It was after 1870 that our institution gradually began 
 to take its place as a Normal School — that is, that the 
 teaching of teachers formed an important part of its 
 organisation, because in that year the newly-established 
 Department, having found that the great national want 
 then was teachers of Science, began to take steps to 
 secure them. Examinations had been inaugurated in 1859, 
 but they were for outsiders, conferring certificates and 
 a money reward on the most competent teachers tested 
 in this way. These examinations were really controlled 
 by our School, for Tyndall, Hofmann, Ramsay, Huxley, 
 
96 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL ?ROC!RERS. 
 
 and Warington Smyth, the first professors, were also the 
 first examiners. 
 
 Very interesting is it to look back at that first year's 
 work, the first cast of the new educational net. After 
 what I have, said about the condition of Chemistry and 
 the establishment of the College of Chemistry in 1845, 
 you will not be surprised to hear that Dr. Hofmann was 
 the most favoured — ^he had forty-four students. 
 
 Prof. Huxley found one student to tackle his ques- 
 tions, and he failed. 
 
 Profs. Ramsay and Warington Smyth had three each, 
 but the two threes only made five ; for both lists were 
 headed by the name of 
 
 Judd, John W., 
 
 Wesleyan Training College, 
 
 Westminster. 
 
 Our present Dean was caught in the first haul. 
 
 These examinations were continued till 1866, and 
 upwards of 600 teachers obtained certificates, some of 
 them in several subjects. I 
 
 Having secured the teachers, the next thing the Depart- 
 ment did was to utilise them. This was done in 1859 by 
 the establishment of the Science Classes throughout the 
 country which are, I think, the only part of our educa- 
 tional system which even the Germans envy us. The 
 teaching might go on in schools, attics or cellars ; there 
 was neither age-limit nor distinction of sex or creed. 
 
 Let me insist upon the fact that from the outset practi- 
 cal work was encouraged by payments for apparatus, 
 and that latterly the examinations themselves, in some 
 of the subjects, have been practical. 
 
 The number of students under instruction in Science 
 
Ulass( 
 
 HISTORY OF SeiENTIFIf' INSTRUCTION. 
 
 lasses organized by the Department in the first year 
 these classes were held was 442 ; the number in 1897 
 was 202,496. The number of candidates examined in 
 the first year in which local examinations were held was 
 650, who worked 1,000 papers ; in 1897 the number was 
 106,185, who worked 159,724 papers, chemistry alone 
 sending in 28,891 papers, mathematics 24,764 and 
 physiography 16,879. 
 
 The total number of individual students under instruc- 
 tion in Science Classes under the Department from 1859 
 to 1897 inclusive has been, approximately, 2,000,000. 
 Of these about 900,000 came forward for examination, the 
 total number of papers worked by them being 3,195,170. 
 
 Now why have I brought these statistics before you ? 
 
 Because from 1861 onwards the chief rewards of the 
 successful students have been scholarships and exhibi- 
 tions held in this College ; a system adopted in the hope 
 that in this way the numbers of perfectly trained Science 
 Teachers might be increased, so that the Science Classes 
 throughout the country might go on from strength 
 to strength. 
 
 The Royal Exhibitions date from 1863, the National 
 Scholars from 1884. The Free Studentships were added 
 later. 
 
 The strict connection between the Science Classes 
 throughout the country and our College will be gathered 
 from the following statement, which refers to the present 
 time : — 
 
 Twenty-one Royal Exhibitions — seven open each year 
 — four to the Royal College of Science, London, and 
 three to the Royal College of Science, Dublin. 
 
 Sixty-six National Scholarships — twenty-two open each 
 
98 EDUOATION AND NATIONAL PROaRESS. 
 
 year — tenable, at the option of the holder, at either the 
 Royal College of Science, London, or the Royal College 
 of Science, Dublin. 
 
 Eighteen Free Studentships — six open each year — to 
 the Royal College of Science, London. 
 
 A Royal Exhibition entitles the holder to free 
 admission to lectures and laboratories, and to instruction 
 during the course for the Associateship — about three 
 years — in the Royal College of Science, London, or the 
 Royal College of Science, Dublin, with maintenance and 
 travelling allowances. 
 
 A National Scholarship entitles the holder to free 
 admission to lectures and laboratories and to instruction 
 during the course of the Associateship — about three years 
 — at either the Royal College of Science, London, or 
 the Royal College of Science, Dublin, at the option of the 
 holder — with maintenance and travelling allowances. 
 
 A Free Studentship entitles the holder to free 
 admission to the lectures and laboratories and to 
 instruction during the course for the Associateship — about 
 three years — in the Royal College of Science, London, 
 but not to any maintenance or travelling allowance. 
 
 Besides the above students who have been successful 
 in the examinations of the Science Classes, a limited 
 number (usually about sixty) of teachers and of students in 
 science classes who intend to become science teachers, 
 are admitted free for a term or session to the courses of 
 instruction. They may be called upon to pass an entrance 
 examination. Of these, there are two categories — those 
 who come to learn for a short time and those who remain 
 longer to teach ; some of the latter may be associates. 
 
 Besides all these, those holding Whitworth Scholarships 
 
i 
 
 HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION. 
 
 and Exhibitions — the award of which is decided by the 
 Science examinations — can, and some do, spend the 
 years covered by them at the College. 
 
 In this way, then, is the Ecole Normale side of our 
 institution built up. 
 
 The number of Government students in the College 
 in 1872 was twenty-five, in 1886 it was 113 and in 1897 
 it was 186. 
 
 The total number of students who passed through the 
 College from 1882-83 to 1896 inclusive was 4,145. Of 
 these 1,966 were Government students. The number who 
 obtained the Associateship of the Royal School of 
 Mines from 1851 to 1881 was 198, of whom thirty-nine 
 were Government students, and of the Royal College of 
 Science and Royal School of Mines from 1882 to 1897 the 
 number was 525, of whom 323 were Government students. 
 Of this total of 362 Government students ninty-four were 
 Science teachers in training. 
 
 With regard to the Whitworth Scholarships, which, 
 
 like the Exhibitions, depend upon success at the yearly 
 
 examinations throughout the country, I may state that 
 
 six have held their scholarships at the College for at 
 
 least a part of the scholarship period, and three others 
 
 were already associates. 
 
 / So much for the prizemen we have with us. I next 
 
 come to the teachers in training who come to us. The 
 
 number of teachers in training who have passed through 
 
 j the College from 1872 to 1897 inclusive is about 600 ; on 
 
 J an average they attended about two years each. The 
 
 number in the session 1872-73, when they were first 
 
 admitted, was sixteen, the number in 1885-86 was fifty 
 
 and in 1896-97 sixty. These have not as a rule taught 
 
 G2 
 
100 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 Science Classes previously, but before admission they give 
 an undertaking that they intend to teach. In the earlier 
 years some did not carry out this undertaking, doubtless 
 because of the small demand for teachers of Science at that 
 time. But we have changed all that. With but very few 
 exceptions, all the teachers so trained now at once begin 
 teaching, and not necessarily in classes under the 
 Department. It is wQrthy of note, too, that many Eoyal 
 Exhibitioners and National Scholars, although under no 
 obligation to do so, also take up Science teaching. It is 
 probable that of all the Government students now who 
 pass out of the College each year not less than three - 
 fourths become teachers. The total number of teachers 
 of Science engaged in classes under the Department alone 
 at the present time is about 6,000. 
 
 I have not yet exhausted what our College does for 
 the national efforts in aiding the teaching of Science. 
 
 When you, gentlemen, leave us about the end of June 
 for your well-earned holidays, a new task falls upon your 
 professors in the shape of summer courses to teachers 
 of Science Classes brought up by the Department from 
 all parts of the four kingdoms to profit by the wealth of 
 apparatus in the College and Museum, and the practical 
 work which it alone renders possible. 
 
 The number of Science teachers who have thus attended 
 the summer courses reaches 6,200, but as many of these 
 have attended more than one course the number of 
 separate persons is not so large. 
 
 Research, 
 
 From time to time balances arise in the Scholarship 
 fund owing to some of the National Scholarships or Royal 
 
H^TORYOF 
 
 INTIFIC INSTRUCTION. 
 
 101 
 
 Exhibitions being vacated before the full time for which 
 tajhey are tenable has expired. Scholarships are formed 
 from these balances and awarded among those students 
 who, having completed the full course of training for 
 the Associateship, desire to study for another year at 
 the College. It is understood that the fourth year is to he 
 employed in research in the subject of the Associateship. 
 
 b The gaining of one of the Remanet Scholarships, there 
 are not more than two on the average annually, 
 furnishes really the only means by which deserving 
 students are enabled to pursue research in the College ; 
 as, although a professor has the power to nominate a 
 student to a free place in his laboratory, very few of the 
 most deserving students are able to avail themselves of 
 the privilege owing to want of means. 
 
 I^L The Department very rarely sends students up as 
 
 [^■teachers in training for research work, but only those who 
 intend making teaching their profession are eligible for 
 
 II these studentships. 
 
 Hi I trust that at some future day, when we get our new 
 buildings — it is impossible to do more than we do till we 
 get them — more facilities for research may be provided, 
 and even an extension of time allowed for it, if necessary. 
 I see no reason why some of the 1851 Exhibition Scholar- 
 ships should not be awarded to students of this College, 
 but to be eligible they must have published a research. 
 Research should naturally form part of the work of 
 the teachers in training who are not brought up here 
 merely to effect an economy in the teaching staff. 
 
 Such, then, in brief, are some of our Normal School 
 attributes. I think any one who knows the facts must 
 acknowledge that the organisation has justified itself not 
 
102 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. jH 
 
 only by what it has done, but also by the outside activities 
 it has set in motion. It is true that with regard to the 
 system of examining school candidates by means of 
 papers sent down from London, the Department was 
 anticipated by the College of Preceptors in 1853, and by 
 Oxford and Cambridge in 1858 ; but the action of 1861, 
 when Science Classes were opened to everybody, was copied 
 by Oxford and Cambridge in 1869. The Department's 
 teachers got to work in 1860, but the so-called " Univer- 
 sity Extension Movement " dates only from 1873, and 
 only quite recently have summer courses been started 
 at Oxford and Cambridge. 
 
 The chemical and physical laboratories, small though 
 they were in the Department's schools, were in operation 
 long before any practical work in these subjects was 
 done either at Oxford or Cambridge. When the College 
 laboratories began about 1853, they existed practically 
 alone. From one point of view we should rejoice that 
 they are now third rate. I think it would be wrong of 
 me not to call your attention to the tenacity, the fore- 
 sight, the skill, the unswerving patience, exhibited 
 by those upon whom has fallen the duty of sailing the 
 good ship " Scientific Instruction," launched, as I have 
 stated, out upon a sea which was certain from the 
 history I have brought before you to be full of opposing 
 currents. 
 
 I have had a statement prepared showing what the 
 most distinguished of our old students and of those who 
 have succeeded in the Department's examinations are 
 now doing. The statement shows that those who have 
 been responsible for our share in the progress of scientific 
 instruction have no cause to be ashamed. 
 
HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUCTION. 
 
 103 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 I have referred previously to the questions of Secondary 
 Education and of a true London University, soon, let us 
 hope, to be realised. 
 
 Our College will be the first institution to gain from 
 a proper system of Secondary Education, for the reason 
 that scientific studies gain enormously by the results of 
 literary culture, without which we can neither learn so 
 thoroughly nor teach so effectively as one could wish. 
 
 To keep a proper mind-balance, engaged as we are 
 here continuously in scientific thought, literature is 
 essential, as essential as bodily exercise, and if I may be 
 permitted to give you a little advice, I should say organise 
 your athletics as students of the College, and organise 
 your literature as individuals. I do not think you will 
 gain so much by studying scientific books when away 
 from here as you will by reading English and foreign 
 classics, including a large number of works of imagination ; 
 and study French and German also in your holidays by 
 taking short trips abroad. 
 
 With regard to the University. If it be properly organ- 
 ised, in the light of the latest German experience, with 
 complete Science and Technical Faculties of the highest 
 order, it should certainly insist upon annexing the School 
 of Mines portion of our institution ; the past history of 
 the school is so creditable that the new University for its 
 own sake should insist upon such a course. It would be 
 absurd, in the case of a nation which depends so much 
 on mining and metallurgy, if these subjects were not 
 taught in the chief national University, as the University 
 of London must become. 
 
 But the London University, like the Paris University, 
 
104 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 if the little history of Science teaching I have given 
 you is of any value, must leave our Normal College alone, 
 at all events till we have more than trebled our present 
 supply of science teachers. 
 
 But while it would be madness to abolish such an 
 institution as our Normal School, and undesirable if not 
 impossible to graft if on the new University, our school, 
 like its elder sister in Paris, should be enabled to gain 
 by each increase in the teaching power of the University. 
 The students on the scientific side of the Paris School, 
 in spite of the fact that their studies and researches are 
 looked after by fourteen professors entitled Maitres de 
 Conferences, attend certain of the courses at the Sorbonne 
 and the College de France, and this is one of the reasons 
 why many of the men and researches which have 
 enriched French science, hail from the Ecole Normale. 
 
 One word more. As I have pointed out, the French 
 Ecole Normale was the result of a revolution ; I may 
 now add that France since Sedan has been doing, and 
 in a tremendous fashion, what, as I have told you, Prussia 
 did after Jena. Let us not wait for disastrous defeats, 
 either on the field of battle or of industry, to develop to 
 the utmost our scientific establishments and so take our 
 proper and complete place among the nations. 
 
SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION AND THE PROGRESS 
 OF NATIONS. 
 
 (1899.) 
 
 There can be no doubt that in the future history of 
 the world, for thousands of years, the century that is 
 so rapidly passing away will be recorded as one of the 
 most memorable, if not the most memorable, to which 
 attention can be drawn. This high position will be 
 awarded to it on the ground that it is the one which has 
 most profoundly affected the life-conditions of the human 
 race. 
 
 The salient point about the 19th century is that it is 
 the scientific century. Theology, art, learning in the 
 ordinary sense, are at the end of it pretty much as they 
 were at the beginning ; they have undergone no great 
 development ; but the applications of science have 
 entirely changed, and for the better, the conditions of 
 human life. 
 
 How comes it then that after living so many thousands 
 of years upon the planet, for thanks to scientific explora- 
 tions in Egypt and Babylonia we can now claim at least 
 10,000 years of more or less civilised communities, man 
 has thus so suddenly come into so great a heritage ? 
 
 It must be conceded, when we come to look back upon 
 oui past history, that it is really very remarkable that 
 
106 
 
 EDUCATION" AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 this question should arise. A volume would be required ^1 
 "to answer it fully ; let me content myself, as my space 
 is limited, by referring to two or three instances in which 
 Science, that is, the study of Nature and Nature's ways 
 by either experiment or observation, was checked in a 
 way which to us now seems almost inconceivable. 
 
 The evidence is now complete that both in Babylonia 
 and Egypt in remote ages, the observation of the heavenly 
 bodies was carried on with great assiduity, not from a 
 love of pure science, but because a knowledge of the 
 movements of the Sun, Moon and Stars was essential 
 for the affairs of daily life and especially of agriculture. 
 The young science soon found itself smothered and all 
 but killed in a rank overgrowth of priestcraft and super- 
 stition, astrology being one of the forms of the latter ; 
 the difficulties with which the earliest students of nature 
 found themselves surrounded can therefore be well 
 imagined. Still the cult grew slowly and in the 4th 
 century B.C. we find in Greece, into which land Egyptian 
 science had penetrated in spite of all obstacles, one of 
 the greatest masters of science who has ever lived, when 
 his time is taken into account ; from whom the world 
 first gathered a general conception of science, as based 
 on observation, the time of experiments was scarcely 
 yet. I refer to Aristotle. It would have been better 
 for the world if he had only been a student of science, 
 but, splendidly universal in his thirst for and acquisition 
 of knowledge, he wrote on philosophy as well. Science 
 was a newer departure, and Greek Science enshrined in 
 Aristotle's many treatises undoubtedly reached Rome. 
 There must have been much more science taught in 
 the Roman schools than we generally imagine, otherwise 
 
THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 107 
 
 writings 
 
 of 
 
 how is it possible to account for the 
 
 Pliny, and vast public works, carried over sea 
 
 and land from beyond Bab-el-Mandeb to our own 
 
 shores. 
 
 However this may have been, the time of science was 
 not yet, for schools and everything else went under in 
 the fall of the Empire. 
 
 Was her chance taken at the Revival of Learning ? 
 When, about the 12th century, one after the other, the 
 Universities of Salerno, Bologna, Paris, Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge were founded ? Alas no ! At all these teach- 
 ing centres, which were controlled by the Church, the 
 masters and students alike sought in the writings of 
 Aristotle the basis of knowledge, but his scientific 
 treatises were unread, only his philosophy was studied; 
 the whole world of natural phenomena was passed over by 
 the many, although it was the secret study of the few. 
 
 It was never dreamed by the educational authorities 
 that the study of such phenomena could by any possi- 
 bility either expand the mind or materially aid the pro- 
 gress of mankind, while it was possible it might under- 
 mine faith. Hence it was practically left on one side. 
 
 We have to wait till the times of Galileo, Bacon, Gil- 
 bert, Hervey and others for a real beginning to be made, 
 and in the direction which chiefly concerns us ; and we 
 all know that what happened to Galileo at the hands 
 of the priestly authorities of his time was not calculated 
 to foster the study of science. Bacon insisted upon 
 the far-reaching results of research, having no doubt 
 as to the revolution to be ultimately brought about 
 by the application of the results of physical inquiry. 
 
108 
 
 EDUCATIOTT AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 that we owe the final emancipation and development of 
 scientific study ; the development, however, was very slow. 
 
 Science was not taught on an organised plan in schools 
 till 1747 when a beginning was made in Germany. The 
 perfecting of our modern methods of teaching science 
 both in schools and colleges we also owe to Germany. 
 The work began here in earnest in 1845, and for this 
 we have to thank chiefly the influence of the Prince 
 Consort. 
 
 Here then may end our short history of the slow growth 
 of the scientific spirit, and of some of the causes of it. 
 There have always been students of science and their 
 number has constantly increased, but their influence on 
 the mass of mankind has been inappreciable chiefly in 
 consequence of the opposition of the clerical authorities 
 and of the educational systems in vogue. 
 
 Of one thing we may be now assured, the history of 
 Egypt, Greece and Kome will not be repeated. Science 
 has come to stay. 
 
 What has the study of science already done ? It has 
 enlarged the domain of human thought and helped us 
 to understand the wonderful universe in which our lot 
 is cast. It has shown us at the same time how all the 
 multitudinous forces of Nature may be harnessed for 
 our use and how some of her most hidden ways may be 
 utilised for the greater happiness and convenience of 
 mankind. Some of the results she accomplished long 
 before the present century dawned, but the century is as 
 remarkable for the development of the old as it is for 
 the creation of the new, and this chiefly by the reflex 
 action of the new on the old in providing mechanical and 
 instrumental aids of imdreamt-of power. 
 
THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Let us first deal with our splendid century in the light 
 of the new knowledge and new helps more especially 
 associated with it. 
 
 The gift of science to the opening years of the century 
 was the steam engine then coming into common use. 
 Watt's patent expired in 1800. When one reads how 
 it was that Watt achieved one of the most tremendous 
 revolutions recorded in history, one cannot help feeling 
 that his position as " mathematical instrument maker 
 to the University " (at Glasgow) had everything to do 
 with it ; he lived with his friend Black in an atmosphere 
 of research. The steam-engine, so closely are all scientific 
 applications boimd together, underlies all our modern 
 progress, for the reason that hand labour, thanks to it, has 
 been replaced by greater powers. Tubal-Cain and the 
 " blacksmiths " who descended the Nile Valley before 
 the pyramids were built, could mould iron, but they could 
 never have made machinery, as we now understand it ; 
 and telescopes and telephone wires, and even the instru- 
 ments used nowadays in wireless telegraphy are made 
 by machinery. 
 
 One of the first applications during this century of 
 the new source of power was to apply it to locomotion. 
 This was done by Watt himself and Symmington on 
 the Forth and Clyde Canal, in 1802. 
 
 Our present enormous battleships and mail steamers, 
 and also our destroyers going at thirty-five miles an hour, 
 are doubly the result of Watt's work. It is the steam 
 engine which builds them and drives them when built* 
 It may even be that Mr. Parsons, at the end of the century, 
 will prove to us that Watt's method of applying steam to 
 marine locomotion can be improved upon for some uses. 
 
EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 Land locomotion by means of steam followed in 1829, 
 the Rocket and the Stockton and Darlington Railway 
 inaugurating the long series of engines and railways 
 which now make rapid and safe transit possible almost 
 over the whole surface of the civilised world, both speed 
 and economy being secured by James' invention of the 
 tubular boiler. 
 
 Certainly in the steam engine and in its application 
 to locomotion by sea and land we have the causes of 
 two most momentous changes in our civilisation ; they 
 have been brought about by the application of the 
 study of the phenomena of heat, first in softening 
 metals, next in vapourising liquids. 
 
 Electricity comes next with its wonderful record of 
 electric telegraph, electric light, electric traction, tele- 
 phones and wireless telegraphy, and all since 1836 ! Of 
 the applications of electricity, after what has happened, 
 he would be a bold man who would venture to predict 
 where they will stop, or that no equally striking develop- 
 ments are yet in store for us. If they come it will be 
 because the future will produce its Faradays or its Kelvins. 
 
 The world in general has been less struck with the 
 results of the study of magnetism "per se than with that 
 of electricity. Still its victories include the study of the 
 magnetic forces at work over all the water surface of the 
 globe, and the power of using a compass in an iron ship, 
 without which navigation would be a very different thing 
 from what it is. Nor must we forget the demonstration 
 of some still mysterious bond between the earth and the 
 centre of our system with which the periodicity of sun 
 spots, magnetic storms and auroral and some meteoro- 
 logical conditions of our earth are bound up. Here 
 
THE .PROGRESS OF SCIEXCE. 
 
 certainly we are face to face with one of the sciences of 
 the future. 
 
 The saving of the lives of our sailors by storm warnings 
 and the study of the laws of storms is one of the applica- 
 tions of the science of meteorology which the century 
 has brought us, a result undreamt of by him who first 
 " weighed the air." Nor do the benefits of science to our 
 seafaring and sea-going populations end here. Ocean 
 currents as well as air currents have been investigated 
 and charted by hydrographers, who have added to these 
 benefits maps showing depths, so that now the contours 
 of the bottoms of seas and oceans are nearly as well 
 laiown as those of the land surfaces. 
 
 " The anatomy of the earth," as geology has been 
 termed, is also practically a product of the present century, 
 though it may be said that for its beginning we have to 
 look to Arabian writers of the tenth century. The later 
 work has not only enabled us to become familiar with the 
 surface conditions of the earth in past ages, but to con- 
 struct tables showing the various forms of animal and 
 vegetable life which one after the other have peopled our 
 planet. 
 
 More than this, man himself has been proved to have 
 been present on the scene contemporaneously with many 
 now extinct animals, at a time long antecedent to that 
 favoured by Archbishop Usher. This work has been 
 extended by the modern science of Archaeology which 
 has demonstrated the existence of settled communities 
 and by no means rude civilisations thousands of years 
 ago, and it is now evident that in " the noblest study of 
 mankind " the geologist and archaeologist must work 
 together to dive still further into man's early history. 
 
112 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. S 
 
 But there has also been another very practical appli- 
 cation of geological study. Geography long ago gave 
 us maps of land surfaces, geology has now based upon 
 them geological maps of priceless value to all interested 
 in the products of the mine. In no direction, perhaps, 
 is the influence of the modern scientific wave better demon- 
 strated than in the fact that in the newest countries such 
 maps are the first care of those in authority, while some 
 of the oldest are still without them : this is little to be 
 wondered at, for, read in the light of science, they give 
 us certain knowledge • of the riches lying beneath, and 
 the modern steam-engine does the rest. Hence the 
 enormous development of the Mining Industry in all 
 lands in recent years. 
 
 For another enormous industrial advance brought about 
 by quiet research we have to look to Chemistry. The 
 rise, and I am sorry to say the fall in this country, of this 
 industry has been one of the most remarkable things 
 of the century. On this I shall have to say a word 
 presently. 
 
 I must not dwell longer on the more modern sciences. 
 Let me turn next to those which have been long culti- 
 vated. 
 
 It was formerly thought that the study of organic 
 nature could have no possible application ; that the 
 study of animals and plants led to classification chiefly, 
 if not exclusively. 
 
 In this region of thought we find another revolution 
 as striking, if not more striking, than those already re- 
 ferred to. The genius of Darwin has evolved from this 
 study " the origin of species ; " that is the real cause of 
 the introduction of new forms, and has brought us in 
 
 I 
 
THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 presence of the work of evolution in moulding the animal 
 |||ftnd vegetable kingdoms through the vast geological 
 periods, and, what is more important from the practical 
 point of view, in our own times. 
 
 Medicine and astronomy are certainly the most ancient 
 
 If the sciences, and yet, strange to tell, the ad- 
 ances here have equalled any other to which I have 
 eferred. 
 I am an old man now, but still I distinctly remember 
 ow large was the number of faces marked with the small- 
 pox, encountered in an hour's walk in my youth. Such 
 sights, and the deaths and ravages caused by this fell 
 disease, have practically been abolished by vaccination 
 introduced by Jenner in the first half of the century. 
 Pasteur and Lister have made for themselves immortal 
 names since then, and at the end of the century we find 
 ourselves on the track of the causes of most diseases. 
 The germs from which they spring are known, and ^e- 
 ventive medicine is now a well-understood science. Hydro- 
 phobia, diphtheria, consumption and other dire human 
 maladies shew signs of capitulation, while Listerism 
 enables the surgeon to succeed in operations which were 
 formerly never attempted. 
 
 Much of this tremendous alleviation of human pain, 
 and the attendant increase in the span of life have 
 depended upon the improvement in the microscope 
 brought about by the study of optics. Strangely enough, 
 the last important progress to which I shall refer comes 
 to a large extent from the same source. 
 
 The earliest victories of astronomy were achieved 
 without any instrument. The horizon formed the only 
 point of available reference ; then came instruments with- 
 in 
 
114 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 oub the telescope and clock ; next these were added. The 
 steam-engine and improvements in the manufacture of glass 
 followed, and permitted the construction of enormous 
 telescopes ; finally we have the optical studies, to which 
 I have referred, carried on in strict alliance with chemistry. 
 Celestial objects which the human eye will never see are 
 now studied in a hundred ways by means of photography, 
 and the heavens have been expanded for us a thousand- 
 fold ; and chemistry has not stopped here ; the substances 
 of which the most distant worlds are composed are now 
 well within our ken. 
 
 With hundreds of thousands of firm facts at our dis- 
 posal, we can now watch the gradual formations of worlds, 
 and study both cause and effect. Hence a new idea of 
 cosmical evolution, and hence also an idea of another 
 evolution which deals with the gradual formation of 
 the chemical substances of which our own earth as well 
 as the distant worlds are built up. 
 
 All the world knows of the many applications of the 
 old Astronomy, some of which have been so improved 
 in recent years that a ship at 16 knots speed can determine 
 her position to a mile in any part of the trackless ocean. 
 The applications of the new astronomy are yet to seek, 
 but they will come. 
 
 The preceding hasty sketch of the progress of science 
 and the attendant progress in industry during the century 
 will conclusively show that Bacon has been proved to 
 be more than right in his estimate of the material benefits 
 which must follow from a study of pure science ; and 
 it is not too much to say that to-day there is no branch 
 of pure science which has not its application, and no appli- 
 cation of science which has not helped to enlarge the 
 
THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 115 
 
 boundaries of the branch^ of pure science on which it is 
 based. 
 
 ^ I cannot refrain from quoting what Huxley wrote 
 In this particular connection some years ago : — 
 
 " If science has rendered the colossal development of modern industry 
 possible, beyond a doubt industry has done no less for modern physics 
 and chemistry and for a great deal of modern biology. And as captains 
 of industry have, at last, begun to be aware that the condition of success 
 in that warfare, under the forms of peace, which is known as industrial 
 competition, lies in the discipUne of the troops and the use of arms 
 of precision, just as much as it does in the warfare which is called 
 war, their demand for that discipline, which is technical education, is 
 reacting upon science in a manner which will, assuredly, stimulate 
 its future growth to an incalculable extent. It has become obvious 
 that the interests of science and of industry are identical ; that science 
 cannot make a step forward without, sooner or later, opening up new 
 channels for industry ; and, on the other hand, that every advance 
 of industry facilitates those experimental investigations, upon which 
 the growth of science depends."* 
 
 • Years ago a distinguished man of science said that 
 applications " were the " froth and scum " of science. 
 Were he alive he would not say so now, for the reason that 
 experience has shown that the most useful applications 
 are often suggested by those whose life is chiefly spent in 
 studying scientific principles ; indeed, one of the morals 
 of our recent progress is that the study of the purest science 
 is the best way of increasing those so-called " applica- 
 tions " which have proved to be so useful to mankind, 
 sooner or later. There are many instances of researches 
 ideally useless at the time they were made which have 
 ultimately resulted in the most important applications. 
 Faraday's " trifling " with wires and magnets and Newton's 
 examination of sunlight through a prism are cases in 
 joint. 
 
 * '• Method and Results." Essays, T. H. Huxley, page 55. 
 
 H3 
 
116 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 It is from such considerations as these that the im- 
 portance of study in all branches of science without 
 regard to immediate applications may be gathered. It 
 is often forgotten that the unstudied is the mine from 
 which, one by one, with study, all applications have been 
 won ; the purest science, then, is the one so far least 
 drawn upon. It is, therefore, as history shows us, the one 
 which will prove most fruitful in the future. 
 
 What is to be learnt from all this ? 
 
 An industrial battle between the foremost nations 
 is always going on, and in the struggle for existence in 
 each market the fittest nation will survive. Each nation 
 depends for its life upon its industry. Industry depends 
 upon science. The progress of science depends upon the 
 number of men of science at work in each country. This 
 number chiefly depends upon the education afforded in each 
 country. The basis of all scientific work is the power of 
 thinking, observing and experimenting correctly — the 
 best use of mind and eyes and hands. This, then, is the 
 natural basis of the earliest education. 
 
 The next moral is this. If a nation wishes to go under 
 in the struggle, the very best plan is to waste the time 
 of the young at the primary school by educating on 
 some other system than that indicated — let us say teach- 
 ing a trade. Next waste the time of the older students, 
 supposing science is taught to them at all, by a so-called, 
 " technical instruction " concerning applications without 
 any practical work at, or research connected with, any 
 one branch of pure science. Next turn men thus pre- 
 pared into works and factories where they will be able 
 only to slavishly follow their predecessors by using rule 
 of thumb processes. Such a course as this will effectively 
 
TttE FROGHESS OP SCIENCE. 
 
 il7 
 
 prevent any development of the industry concerned ; no 
 new processes will be forthcoming, no new methods based 
 on new discovery, and no new products. 
 
 If a nation wishes to succeed in the struggle she must 
 see to it that the earliest of the school years shall be spent 
 in providing such a fully co-ordinated education as I 
 have indicated ; and the after years, and many of them, 
 utilised in building a knowledge of pure science on this 
 foundation by means of research. Men thus educated, 
 when they find their way into industry, are not forced 
 to be content with the old methods of work if they can see 
 their way to improve them. They do improve them and 
 discover new ones. Next they discover new applications 
 altogether and eventually in this way open up new 
 markets with new commodities. 
 
 These are no fancy pictures. We had these two methods 
 in operation fifty years ago. The first in England, the 
 second in Germany, and the result of their working has 
 been that England has lost her chemical industries, as I 
 hinted before. But not in relation to these industries 
 alone has the value of the second method been established 
 by the logic of facts. The final moral I wish to 
 impress upon is that if England suffers Germany or any 
 other nation to surpass her in the arts of peace — that 
 is in the application, of science to the needs of mankind 
 — the fall of the Empire must come sooner or later. 
 
 Now that science is the great factor in the history of 
 the world, what is done during peace and not during 
 will decide the fate of nations. 
 
EDUCATION IN THE NEW CENTURY. 
 
 (1901.) 
 
 Science is cosmopolitan. Electricity abolishes time and 
 envelops both hemispheres with a new idea as soon as it 
 has emerged from the brain of the Thinker. Mechanics, 
 by its space- annihilating power, has reduced the 
 surface of the planet to such an extent that the human 
 race now possesses the advantage of dwelling, as it were, 
 on a tiny satellite. Both these agencies, then, combine 
 to facilitate a rapid exchange of new ideas and com- 
 modities, as well as of those who are interested in them 
 in whatever capacity. 
 
 These considerations indicate some of the most momen- 
 tous changes which have occurred in the world's history 
 since the last century dawned. 
 
 How have they been brought about ? M. Maurice 
 
 Levy, in one of those allocutions — always so admirable 
 
 in thought and style — pronounced by the President of 
 
 the French Academy of Sciences at the annual public 
 
 meeting held each December, has answered this question 
 
 for us : — 
 
 " Let us never forget that if applied mechanics has arrived to-day 
 at such marvellous results, if we can now calculate beforehand the parts 
 of the most complex machines, it is because long ago the shepherds 
 of Chaldea and Judea observed the stars ; because Hipparchus combined 
 their observations with his own and handed them down to us : because 
 
EDUCATlok m THE ISTEW cENTUftY. 11^ 
 
 Tyeho Brahe made better ones ; because two thousand years ago 
 a great geometer, Appolonius of Perga, wrote a treatise on conic sections, 
 regarded for many centuries as useless ; because the genius of Kepler, 
 utilising this admirable work and the observations of Tycho Brahe, 
 gave us those sublime laws which themselves have been considered 
 useless by the utilitarians ; and, finally, because Newton discovered 
 the law of universal gravitation." 
 
 From this discovery of Newton, M. Levy points out, 
 first came the study of celestial mechanics, from which 
 was derived later general mechanics, from which again, 
 later still, industrial mechanics has taken its origin, and 
 is now applied every day. He adds : — 
 
 " It is well to impress the fact that Industrial Mechanics has come 
 down from heaven, upon the utilitarians ; upon those who appreciate 
 science only so far as it can be immediately profitable to them ; who 
 are always complaining that too much is taught at school ; and who 
 regard as superfluous everything they cannot find in a formulary, 
 manual or aid to memory." 
 
 All our progress, then, if we accept the view to which 
 M. Maurice Levy has given expression, has come from 
 the study of what was useless at the time it was studied. 
 There is no doubt that this view is correct, and that 
 further developments, probably as momentous as those 
 to which we have already referred, will in the future 
 come to us from the same source. 
 
 To study the useless, therefore, is as important as to 
 apply the useful, from a cosmopolitan point of view ; and 
 all wise governments and institutions should use their 
 most strenuous efforts to aid the first endeavour ; the 
 second can very well take care of itself. 
 
 There can be no question that the progress of science 
 and of the applications of science to industry will go on 
 in a geometrical ratio, and that eventually every country 
 will benefit by this advance ; but if we quit the cosmo- 
 
120 EDUCATION AND KATlOMAL PROGRElSS. 
 
 politan point of view and endeavour to form an idea of 
 the results of this advance on any country in particular, 
 another set of considerations comes in. 
 
 Our Empire, as it exists at present, and our great 
 national wealth, are the results of the sea -training and 
 prowess of her sons and of the stores of natural wealth 
 in the shape of coal and iron which the first appliers of 
 mechanics found to their hand. The output and first 
 user of coal and iron depended upon the applications of 
 mechanics, and the first user of all these combined enabled 
 us to flood the markets of the world, and for years Britain 
 was the Tubal Cain among the nations. Not only had 
 we a monopoly of export, but so high an authority as Sir 
 Andrew Noble acknowledges that fifty years ago British 
 machinery was immeasurably superior to any other. But 
 even this statement does not exhaust all our then advan- 
 tages. Because we were the great producers we became 
 the great carriers of the world, when Germany did not 
 exist as a united nation, France was mainly agricultural, 
 and the United States were engaged in developing their 
 enormous and almost unpopulated territories. 
 
 But what has happened since ? As we have said, 
 science is cosmopolitan, and the levelling effect of 
 this has been that the material advantages we pos- 
 sessed in the first instance have disappeared. Other 
 countries, chiefly those we have named, have now their 
 coal and iron and applications of science as well as 
 ourselves. 
 
 First among these applications at the beginning of the 
 last century came steam locomotion, and from the work 
 done on the Forth and Clyde Canal have sprung all the 
 navies and railways of the world. 
 
b 
 
 EDUCATION m THE NEW CENTURY. 
 
 121 
 
 For traction purposes steam is now giving way to 
 electricity ; but how different is the role that Britain is 
 playing at the beginning of the new century compared 
 with that she filled at the beginning of the old one. We 
 import instead of exporting. The chief London electric 
 railway is American, American coal is producing gas to 
 light the streets of the Metropolis, American cars are 
 now found on our English trains which on some lines 
 are drawn by American locomotives. British applica- 
 tions to facilitate locomotion, therefore, have ceased to be 
 paramount, and at the same time we no longer occupy 
 the proud position of being the only nation of shop- 
 keepers. 
 
 Were this all, it would be abundantly clear that our 
 old supremacy must cease, and from no fault of our own, 
 as it is but a direct consequence of the general progress 
 of science, which includes the facilitating of inter-com- 
 munications. But, unfortunately, it is not all. 
 
 At a time when our ancient universities occupied no 
 higher level than that, according to Matthew Arnold, of 
 Secondary Schools, and when there was little attempt 
 at educating the large majority of the population, Prussia, 
 which, with the rest of the German States, had been the first 
 to insist upon the importance of the education of the people, 
 had occupied herself, crushed though she was after Jena, 
 with the founding of universities and with the highest 
 education ; while live seats of learning in great numbers 
 were being founded in the United States. The beginning 
 of the new century, then, finds us in a position which 
 every day differs more and more from that occupied by 
 us in the old one, for not only are our natural resources 
 
122 EDliCAtlO]^ AOT) KATtONAL PROaRMS. 1 
 
 relatively reduced in value, but our intellectual resources | 
 are not sufficiently superior to those of other nations to j 
 enable us to retain our old position by force of brains. | 
 
 As an early instance of the result of this state of things 
 we may refer to Mr. Perkin's account, in 1885,* of the 
 migration of the coal-tar industry to Germany. In 
 later years ample proof has been adduced that in many 
 directions the present British intellectual equipment is 
 not only not superior, but actually inferior to that of other 
 countries, and none too soon the matter is engaging 
 attention in the daily press. Recently The Times, Daily 
 Mail and Pall Mall Gazette have called special attention 
 to the reasons which may be assigned for this new and 
 alarming state of things ; a writer in the Fortnightly 
 has gone so far as to ask, " Will England last the Cen- 
 tury ? " while Sir Henry Roscoe has expressed his 
 opinions in a letter to The Times as follows : — 
 
 " There can be no manner of doubt that a crisis in our national well- 
 being has already been reached. The news brought to us from all 
 quarters proves that our industrial and commercial prosperity is 
 being rapidly undermined. The cry that we are being outbid on all 
 sides by Germany and America is no new one, but it becomes louder 
 and louder every day, and now it is admitted by all those best qualified 
 to judge that, unless some drastic steps are taken to strengthen our 
 educational position in the direction long ago taken up by our competi- 
 tors, we stand to lose, not merely our industrial supremacy, but the 
 bulk of our foreign trade. . . . The only policy at this time is to 
 strain every nerve to place the country educationally on a level with its 
 neighbours. No effort, no expenditure, is too great to secure this 
 result, and unless our leaders, both in statecraft and in industry, are 
 quickly aroused to the critical condition of our national affairs in this 
 respect, and determine at once to set our house in order, our children 
 and grandchildren may see England sink to the level of a third-rate 
 Power ; for upon education, the basis of industry and commerce, 
 the greatness of our country depends." 
 
 * iV^a^Mre, volxxxii.. p. 343. 
 
EDUCATTOl^ m THE T^EW CENTURY. 123 
 
 We must confess that when we come to consider the 
 panaceas suggested by these writers we find much more 
 vagueness than might be expected, and some sugges- 
 tions which are entirely beside the mark. 
 
 Thus we are told that now our Colonies are being more 
 closely united to us, we may rest and be thankful ; that 
 American industry depends for its success upon the 
 extreme youth of those who are at the head of affairs. 
 Education is referred to as if there were no differences 
 in the methods employed, and finally a newly- developed 
 sloth is suggested as the origin of the apparent decadence 
 of the most athletic nation in the world. 
 
 The question arises, Is there no scientific method open 
 to us to get at the real origin of the causes which have 
 produced the present anxiety ? 
 
 M. Maurice Levy, in his allocation, did England the 
 honour to point out how large a share Newton had in 
 founding the industries on which our commercial great- 
 ness in the last century was based. It seems to us to 
 be our duty, at the beginning of the new century, to 
 suggest that at this critical time it would be criminal 
 to neglect the labours of another great Englishman — 
 Darwin — which may be appealed to to help us to see 
 what has gone wrong and to forecast what the future has 
 in store for us if we apply the suggested remedies or if 
 we neglect them. In this we possess an advantage over 
 our forerunners; Darwin has shown the working of 
 an inexorable law which applies exactly to the condi- 
 tions imder which we find ourselves. 
 
 The enormous and unprecedented progress in science 
 during the last century has brought about a perfectly 
 new state of things, in which the " struggle for existence " 
 
124 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROaRESS. 
 
 which Darwin studied in relation to organic forms is now 
 seen, for the first time, to apply to organised communities, 
 not when at war with each other, but when engaged in 
 peaceful commercial strife. It is a struggle in which the 
 fittest to survive is no longer indicated by his valour and 
 muscle and powers of endurance, but by those qualities 
 in which the most successful differs most from the rest. 
 We must accept the conclusion that, with material out- 
 fits now much more equally distributed for this struggle 
 for existence, if Britain be at a disadvantage in relation 
 to any other nation with regard to these qualities, she 
 must go under if such a condition of things be allowed 
 to go on. If this appeal to a natural law leads to such 
 a dire conclusion, it is the duty of every Briton, from 
 the highest to the lowest, to see to it that some efficient 
 remedy be applied without delay. 
 
 It follows from what has already been stated that we 
 need not look for these national differences among natural 
 products for the reason that, day by day, such differences 
 are being levelled by the present ease and rapidity of 
 intercommunication. 
 
 We do not think that the differences will be found in 
 any very great degree in our primary and technical in- 
 struction as it is going on to-day. 
 
 If we regard our primary, secondary and higher edu- 
 cation, it must be acknowledged that great improve- 
 ments have been carried out during the last quarter of 
 a century. The establishment of new universities, 
 adapted to the present conditions of civilisation, in 
 several great centres, and the promise of more, has clearly 
 shown that, in the opinion of our most important mer- 
 cantile communities, strong measures are necessary, and 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 J 
 
EDUCATION IN THE NEW CENTURY. 
 
 that they are prepared to make great pecuniary sacri- 
 fices to carry them out. Still, the facts show that what 
 has already been done is not sufficient, and that we must 
 do more in these directions ; but the present difference 
 in these respects is not entirely sufficient to account for 
 the present condition of things. 
 
 Continuing our process of exclusion, we finally arrive 
 at the possibility that the present superiority of our com- 
 petitors depends as much upon Liebig's introduction of 
 practical scientific work and research into the general 
 higher education as did our former supremacy upon 
 Watt's introduction of the steam engine. Voltaire said, 
 " On etudie les livres en attendant qu'on etudie les 
 hommes." The proper study of science gives us a third 
 term, the study of things and laws in action ; a study in 
 which the eye and hand and brain must work together to 
 produce the scientific spirit, or properly organised common 
 sense. 
 
 The scientific spirit existed among our European 
 competitors much more generally than it did with us 
 long before Liebig, and it was utilised over a far wider 
 field of knowledge ; but from Liebig's time it has existed 
 among them as the dominant factor in Industry and 
 Commerce, and the closer union between Science and 
 Industry in other countries is, we believe, the true origin 
 of the present difference between them and our own. 
 
 Here, we tried to start chemical industries practically 
 without chemists, as Mr. Perkin has told us. In 
 Germany they are now carried on by scores, in one case 
 more than a hundred, of the best trained chemists the 
 country can produce, in research laboratories attached to 
 all the great works. At this moment German artificial 
 
125 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 indigo threatens to replace the natural product in all the 
 markets of the world as a result of these scientific in- 
 dustrial methods. So soon as science was acknow- 
 ledged to be the most important commercial factor, the 
 Eeichsanstalt was established by the Government at a 
 cost of 200,000/., and a yearly expenditure of 15,000Z. to 
 weld science and industry more closely together. An 
 American professor thus, summarises the results : — 
 
 " The results have already justified, in a remarkable manner, all 
 the expenditure of labour and money. The renown in exact scientific 
 measurements formerly possessed by France and England has now 
 largely been transferred to Germany. Formerly scientific workers 
 in the United States looked to England for exact standards, especially 
 in the department of electricity ; now they go to Germany." 
 
 And again : — 
 
 " Germany is rapidly moving toward industrial supremacy in Europe. 
 One of the most potent factors in this notable advance is the perfected 
 alliance between science and commerce existing in Germany. Science 
 has come to be regarded there as a commercial factor. If England is 
 losing her supremacy in manufactures and in commerce, as many 
 claim, it is because of English conservatism, and the failure to utilise 
 to the fullest extent the lessons taught by science." 
 
 Britain, of course, is the country in which such an 
 institution ought to have been established more than 
 half a century ago. We are now compelled to imitate it ; 
 but the new institution which, before long, may be insti- 
 tuted is on such a microscopic scale that its utility in the 
 present struggle is more than doubtful. 
 
 The next conclusion the appeal to the law provides 
 us with is that the improved scientific instruction of 
 those engaged in industry is not the only line along which 
 our defences must be strengthened. The scientific spirit 
 must be applied as generally in England as elsewhere. 
 
 The increasing complexity of industrial and national 
 
 I 
 
EDUCATION IN THE NEW CENTURY. 127 
 
 life requires a closer adjustment of means to ends, and this 
 can only be attained by those who have had education 
 on a scientific basis, and have therefore acquired the 
 scientific habit. In this way only can we lift the whole 
 standard of our national life to a higher plane, and weld 
 the various national activities together. 
 
 We must have a profound change of front on the part 
 of the Ministry and the personnel of the Government 
 departments, only very few of whom have had any 
 scientific education, and who at present regard all scientific 
 questions with apathy, on the ground, perhaps, that in 
 their opinion the Nation has no direct concern with them. 
 This feeling may be strengthened by the fact that at 
 present, while the laws of the realm are well looked after 
 by the most highly paid servants of the State, the laws of 
 Nature are left without anybody to form a court of appeal 
 in difficult questions. It is true that to fill this gap our 
 men of science are always ready, when called upon, to 
 spend time and energy in affording, gratis, to the Govern- 
 ment advice on any questions which may be submitted 
 to them ; but because this advice costs nothing its value 
 is, perhaps, estimated by what it costs. 
 
 Our rulers must recognise that, in virtue of the law 
 to which reference has been made, it will not do to con- 
 fine their energies and the national expenditure, so largely 
 as they do now, to matters relating only to the Navy and 
 Army, the functions of which are to protect our world- 
 wide Empire at present well worth conquering, our in- 
 dustries and our argosies on every sea — products, all of 
 them, of our old scientific and therefore commercial 
 supremacy. 
 
 Several obvious corollaries froni the law in question 
 
128 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. ^^M 
 
 indicate very clearly the proper course to pursue — in our 
 own case to retain our position, in the case of our com- 
 petitors to improve their own in relation to us, and there- 
 fore at our expense. There are many signs that our com- 
 petitors, at all events, have faced this problem and are 
 working on true scientific lines ; of this the heavy sub- 
 sidy of the German mercantile marine may be given 
 as one instance out qf many, and here, indeed, we are 
 brought face to face with the consideration that the 
 scientific outlook should really be as important to those 
 in charge of the nation's future well-being as that con- 
 cerned with international politics. 
 
 If the other nations, by their scientific activity, increase 
 their commerce and therefore their commercial fleets, 
 their national fleets must be increased also. Our present 
 policy with regard to our fleet is well established, so that 
 we are committed to its continuous and well-defined 
 increase, while it seems to be the duty of no Govern- 
 ment Department to look after the scientific advances 
 which are the only bases of the commerce which is to pro- 
 vide for our constantly increasing expenditure. 
 
 These considerations are only typical of others which 
 are well worth considering at the present juncture by 
 men possessing the scientific spirit. What is the best 
 way of utilising the combined forces of the Empire, in 
 times of peace, under the present conditions ? It is clear 
 that no merely sentimental bonds will be sufficient. We 
 may add that peaceful conflicts between industrial peoples 
 are not alone in question. 
 
 With regard to preparation for war, history has already 
 taught us much. Of two competitors, if one be fully 
 armed both for offence and defence, and the other is 
 
EDUCATION IN THE NEW CENTURY. 
 
 129 
 
 not, there is no doubt as to what will happen. That 
 nation will be the best off which utilises the greatest 
 number of its citizens both for war and peace. A large 
 standing army in times of peace is a clear indication 
 that the scientific spirit has not been sufficiently applied 
 to the problem, and it is to be hoped that now the future 
 of the nation is being discussed, the attempts to put our 
 house in order will be made on scientific lines. 
 
THE OKGANISATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 (1902.) 
 
 4 
 
 The London Gazette announces that a petition for incor- 
 poration has been presented to His Majesty on behalf 
 of a new body, " The British Academy for the Promo- 
 tion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies.'' 
 An explanation has been given that the object of this 
 institution is to do for the various departments of " lite- 
 rary science " what the Royal Society has achieved for 
 " natural science." The causes which have led up to 
 this proposal may be stated as follows. At a meeting 
 of the representatives of the chief European and Ameri- 
 can Academies held at Wiesbaden in October 1899, an 
 International Association of the principal Scientific and 
 Literary Academies of the world was decided upon. 
 Most of the Academies represented are divided into two 
 sections, a section of natural science and a section of his- 
 torico-philosophical science. And on this ground the 
 scheme provided for the division of the new association 
 into two sections, " scientific " and " literary," the word 
 " literary " being used only as a short title to embrace 
 the sciences of language, history, philosophy, archaeo- 
 logy and other allied subjects the study of which is 
 based on scientific methods. At the conference the 
 representatives of the Royal Society, not feeling them- 
 selves competent to represent the United Kingdom in 
 
THE OKGAXTSATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 131 
 
 le philosophico-historical section, were unofficially 
 requested to take such steps as might be possible to fill 
 this gap in the future. 
 
 The next steps taken may be gathered from the Report 
 of the Royal Society Council presented to the Society 
 on November 30, 1901. 
 
 The secretaries, apparently in fulfilment of their under- 
 taking at Wiesbaden, wrote on the subject to the presi- 
 dent of the Society of Antiquaries, Viscount Dillon, on 
 November 21, 1899. A meeting was called at which, 
 among others, several fellows of the Royal Society and 
 of the Society of Antiquaries were present. The con- 
 clusion arrived at was that the idea of an academy to 
 represent the philosophico-historical subjects formed by 
 the simple federation of existing societies was not one 
 which appeared to meet the views of those present. 
 
 tAt the same time the late Professor Sidgwick drew up 
 plan which was approved by several of those attending 
 the meeting and " of which the resolution passed at 
 Hpiat meeting might be considered a part." This 
 plan was that the Royal Society might enlarge its 
 scope and include a section corresponding to the " philo- 
 sophico-historical " and " philological " division of the 
 German Royal Academies and Societies. 
 
 The next step taken was the reference of the matter 
 llpb a special committee of the Royal Society. 
 
 This Committee point out that four possible ways of 
 dealing with the matter were submitted to them : — 
 
 " (1) The creation of an organisation independent of the Royal 
 Society, though possibly in some way connected with it, in which 
 case they might both form parts of some larger body, as, for instance, 
 the French Academies, form parts .of the Institute of France. 
 
 *' (2) The creation of two ' Academies ' within the Royal Society, 
 
 12 
 
132 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 one of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, the other of Philosophy- 
 History, each Academy having its own Council, Secretaries and Presi- 
 dent, and the President of each being in turn President of the whole 
 Society. 
 
 " (3) The creation of two or of three ' Sections ' of the Royal Society, 
 either A and B, corresponding to the Academies just named ; or, A, 
 Mathematical and Physical Sciences, B, Biological Sciences and C, 
 Philosophico- Historical Sciences. 
 
 " (4) The election of some twenty-five to fifty Fellows representing 
 the Philosophico-Historical^ subjects, to serve as a nucleus, and the 
 creation of three or four committees, similar to those already existing, 
 viz., one for Ethnography and Archaeology, one for Philology, one 
 for Statistics and Political Economy and one for Psychology, the 
 Officers and Council remaining, so far as statute and enactment are 
 concerned, precisely as they are at present." 
 
 After these schemes had been formulated they were 
 discussed at an interview with a number of representa- 
 tives of the philosophico -historical sciences. Concerning 
 this interview we read : — 
 
 " They all expressed themselves in favour of any effort for the 
 corporate representation of those sciences being associated in some 
 way or other with the Royal Society. They seemed unanimous in 
 feeling the great desirability of the organisation and official representa- 
 tion of the Philosophico-Historical subjects, both on the ground of the 
 general encouragement of their pursuit, and also, and more especially, 
 as a means of developing the more scientific methods of treating those 
 subjects. 
 
 " The general opinion of these gentlemen upon the practical courses 
 discussed in the Report seemed to be in favour of the plan numbered 
 (3) in the Report, but, recognising the practical difficulties in the 
 way of carrying out any such scheme immediately, they were 
 generally in favour of an effort being made on the fines laid down 
 in plan numbered (4) as a beginning, in the belief that should its 
 adoption lead, as they believe it would, to greater activity in this 
 country in the studies in question, there might ultimately develop 
 out of it some more formal organisation, such as is contemplated in 
 the other plans submitted." 
 
 It is frankly stated that the Committee were much 
 impressed by the concurrence of opinion among the 
 
THE ORGANISATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 133 
 
 ^gentlemen whom they consulted and by the high value 
 Uphey set on the inclusion within the scope of the Royal 
 ■Bociety's action of the subjects they represented. 
 H After the Report of this Committee was sent in to the 
 Council, a special meeting of the Society was called for 
 May 9, 1901. Unfortunately there is no record of what 
 took place at it, but at the Council meeting in June the 
 following resolution was passed : — " That the Council, 
 while sympathising with the desire to secure corporate 
 organisation for the exact literary studies considered 
 in the Report, is of opinion that it is undesirable that the 
 Royal Society should itself initiate the establishment 
 of a British Academy." 
 
 The Times now tells us that on June 28, 1901, a month 
 after this resolution was arrived at, those interested in 
 the proper representation of the " literary " subjects 
 met at the British Museum and 
 
 " after loii^ and careful deliberation resolved to promote the establish- 
 ment of a British Academy of Historical, Philosophical and Philological 
 Stutlies oil conditions which would satisfy the requirements of the 
 International Association of Academies. It was further decided that 
 the Academy should petition for incorporation by Royal Charter, 
 and that the nomination of the first Fellows under the proposed 
 charter should be forthwith taken in hand. Before the close of last 
 year, on December 17, the British Academy held its first meeting at 
 the British Museum and petitioned His Majesty for incorporation by 
 Charter." 
 
 According to the draft Charter the petitioners will 
 be the first Fellows of the Academy and the President 
 and Council will be elected by the Fellows from amongst 
 their own number. New Fellows will be elected at a 
 general meeting of the Fellows. 
 
 The announcement in the London Gazette states that 
 His Majesty has referred the petition to a committee of 
 
134 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 the Lords of the CounciL Notice is further given that 
 all petitions for or against such grant should be sent to 
 the Privy Council Office on or before February 14 next. 
 
 A Letter to '' The Times:' * 
 To the Editor of The Times. 
 
 Sir, — All students of natural knowledge in this country 
 should agree as to th,e importance of the step recently 
 taken to organise certain branches of it, concerning 
 which you have given your readers much information. 
 There are, however, some points connected with the 
 movement on which you have not yet touched. Will 
 you permit me to refer to them and the conclusion to 
 which they lead ? 
 
 The petition to His Majesty for a Charter to embrace 
 the organisation of historical, philosophical and philo- 
 logical sciences was rendered necessary by the action of the 
 council of the Royal Society, who declined to " initiate 
 the establishment of a British Academy " dealing with 
 these subjects. But, in the first instance, the desire of 
 those interested in the movement was that the Royal 
 Society might include in itself a section corresponding 
 to the philosophico-historical and philological sections 
 of the Continental academies ; it was not a question of 
 establishing a British Academy. 
 
 To consider the matter in this form a committee of 
 the Royal Society was appointed and its Report has 
 recently been published. In this Report we have the 
 following reference to the subjects dealt with by the his- 
 torical and philological sections of foreign academies : — 
 
 These subjects have, in England, hitherto remained unorganised — 
 that is to say, the workers in each one of them have been brought 
 ""^ * January 29, 1902. 
 

 THE ORGANISATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 into little or no relation with the workers in each of the others. Societies 
 have been founded for the promotion of some of them, but these societies 
 are not linked together by the membership of their leading members 
 in one body of recognised authority and influence, such as the Royal 
 Society provides for the investigators of various branches of mathe- 
 matical, observational and experimental science. 
 
 The advantages which the gathering into one body of the men most 
 eminent in the subjects above specified has secured in Germany, 
 France, Italy, and Belgium do not exist here, and the absence of any 
 effort to secure them has often excited the surprise of learned men 
 in those countries. Neither is there in England any series of Transac- 
 tions similar to those of the leading academies of Contiiental Europe, 
 in which records of the most fruitful inquiries in those subjects, or 
 even systematised references to such inquiries, may be found. 
 
 We are next told that the following reasons, among 
 others, have been suggested by eminent men as making 
 it desirable that the Royal Society should take action in 
 the matter : — 
 
 Assuming the organisation of the above subjects to be called for 
 in the general interest of the intellectual progress of the country, the 
 Royal Society can promote their organisation more effectively than 
 could be done by the persons who are occupied in the study of them, 
 because these persons have no sort of combined corporate existence, 
 and no voluntary group of them would appear to have a proper locus 
 standi for appeaUng to the public or approaching the Government 
 in order to attain the object sought. 
 
 It has been urged on general grounds that the inclusion by the Royal 
 Society of a section corresponding to the philosophico-historical and 
 philological divisions of the German academies would strengthen the 
 society by broadening the range of its scientific activity and increasing 
 its influence ; and would be to its advantage inasmuch as such a course 
 would anticipate and thereby make needless the formation of an 
 association which, by gathering the subjects within its scope, might 
 to that extent be in rivalry with the Royal Society and tend to narrow 
 the legitimate r nge of its activity. 
 
 And next comes the most important part of the Report, 
 indicating that in the past, and by the three Charters 
 granted by His Majesty Charles II., the subjects under 
 
136 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 discussion were, and should be, held to refer to " natural 
 knowledge," and, therefore, should be dealt with by the 
 Royal Society :— 
 
 The society exists for the promotion of natural knowledge. The 
 interpretation of the term " natural knowledge," according to the 
 present practice of the Royal Society, assigns to it a range from mathe- 
 matics to the various biological sciences, and thus secures the inclusion 
 of the scientific study of man in his biological relations. . . . 
 
 It is evident that the chapters have never been interpreted as confin- 
 ing the " studies " of the society to " further promoting by the authority 
 of experiments the science of natural things and of useful arts " in 
 the strict modern meaning of those words. Indeed, the second charti^r 
 in terms empowers the society to hold meetings " for the examination 
 and investigation of experiments and of natural things," and both 
 charters authorise it to enjoy " mutual intelligence and affairs with 
 all and all manner of foreigners " . . . "in matters or things philo- 
 sophical, mathematical or mechanical." The provisions of the first 
 statutes that the business of the society at its meetings shall be " to 
 order, take account, consider and discourse of philosophical experi- 
 ments and observations ; to read, hear and discourse upon letters, 
 reports, and other papers containing philosophical matters, and 
 also to view and discourse upon rarities of nature and art ;" and the 
 long and uninterrupted usage to receive papers on observational 
 sciences, such as geology, or on pure mathematics, certainly docs establish 
 a corUemporanea expositio which must be taken into account as optimus 
 interpres and fortissima in lege. 
 
 Even had papers upon philological, psychological or other subjects 
 been entirely absent, no stress could be laid upon that fact, if in the 
 opinion of the society those subjects have, under modern methods 
 of treatment, become observational sciences, and as fully parts of 
 *' natural knowledge " as those subjects which were recognised as 
 such at the epoch of the foundation of the society. 
 
 It would clearly be ultra vires for the society to resolve to receive 
 a new class of papers, incapable of being regarded either in subject- 
 matter or in scientific treatment as in the same category as those which flj 
 have hitherto been received. But it would not be unlawful for the 
 society to determine to receive papers on subjects not hitherto regarded 
 as properly within its scope if it came dehberately to the conclusion 
 that, in view of the scientific method in which they were now being 
 treated, those subjects ought not to be excluded from its study. 
 
THE ORGANISATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 137 
 
 The committee was not content with expressing its 
 ►wn view on this important matter ; it privately con- 
 sulted two high legal authorities, whose opinion led the 
 I committee to believe, in confirmation of the views above 
 stated, that the inclusion within the scope of the society 
 of such subjects as have been referred to, if treated by 
 scientific methods, is " within the powers of the society." 
 ■ Two extracts from the first Charter granted by Charles 
 HI. alone seem to establish this conclusion. The Charter 
 ■begins as follows (I give the English translation as it 
 wuns in the " Eecord of the Koyal Society, 1879 ") : — 
 
 Charles IL, by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, France 
 and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc., to all to whom these present 
 Letters shall come, greeting. 
 
 We have long and fully resolved with Ourself to extend not only 
 the boundaries of the Empire, but also the very arts and sciences. 
 ■Therefore we look with favour upon all forms of learning, but with 
 particular grace we encourage philosophical studies, especially those 
 which by actual experiment attempt either to shape out a new philo- 
 sophy or to perfect the old. lu order, therefore, that such studies, 
 which have not hitherto been sufficiently brilliant in any part of the 
 world, may shine conspicuously amongst our people, and that at length 
 the whole world of letters may always recognise us not only as the 
 Defender of the Faith, but also as the universal lover and patron of 
 every kind of truth : Know ye, etc. 
 
 I 
 
 Of the " Fellows " we read later on : — 
 
 The more eminently they are distinguished for the study of every 
 kind of learning and good letters, the more ardently they desire to 
 promote the honour, studies, and advantage of this Society . . . the 
 lucre we wish them to be especially deemed fitting and worthy of being 
 admitted into the number of the Fellows of the same Society. 
 
 . " Every kind of learning and good letters " seems to 
 
 me pretty general, and it does not seem improper to take 
 
 the words " philosophical studies," in connection with 
 
 RBacon's definition of philosophy, as dealing with a three- 
 
TSB EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 fold division, of matters divine (supernatural), natural 
 and human, which also, perhaps, explains the subsequent 
 insistence upon natural, as opposed to supernatural 
 knowledge. 
 
 But, without labouring this point further, I suggest 
 that subjects the study of which by scientific methods 
 increase the sum of natural knowledge must all stand 
 on the same footing. I use the word " scientific " in its 
 widest, which I believe to be the truest, sense, as in- 
 cluding all additions to natural knowledge got by investi- 
 gation. Human history and development are as im- 
 portant to mankind as the history and development of 
 fishes. The Koyal Society now practically neglects the 
 one and encourages the other. 
 
 It is possible, then, to say the least, that the present 
 general action of the society, and I say general, because 
 the action changes from time to time, is really not in 
 accordance with its charters ; it certainly is not with its 
 first practice. The charters make the society the head 
 centre of the intellect of the kingdom engaged in making 
 new natural knowledge, and therefore until these charters 
 of King Charles II. are abrogated or revised there is no 
 place logically for a new charter by King Edward VII. 
 giving power to a new body to deal with the subjects the 
 duty of the organisation and encouragement of which was 
 previously committed to the Royal Society. 
 
 There can be no question that the gradual departure of 
 the action of the Royal Society from the course laid down 
 in the charters, and actually followed for a time, has been 
 the gradual expansion and increased importance of ex- 
 perimental and observational methods of work, which of 
 themselves are sufficient to employ the existing administra- 
 
 I 
 
THE ORGA'NISATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 130 
 
 Lve machinery. But if the whole work cannot be done 
 jide the society as it exists at present, the question 
 ises, " Cannot some be organised side by side with it ?" 
 [ere, again, there may be difficulties ; but, as the com- 
 mittee wisely say with regard to the first proposal : — 
 
 We are far from intending to express an opinion that any difficulties 
 of detail ought to prevent the important issues involved from being 
 fully considered in their largest bearings, having regard to the great 
 benefits which might be expected to result to the progress of the philo- 
 sophico-historical studies, and possibly to the Royal Society itself, from 
 the inclusion of those studies within the scope of the Society's action. 
 
 1^. It is right that I should say that the Royal Society 
 '^Tjouncil, in the resolution from which I have already 
 quoted, expresses sympathy with the desire to secure a 
 proper representation of the subjects now in question, 
 Hnd did not refuse to include them within itself, although 
 \Wk& action may give colour to the belief in such an effect. 
 H At present the Eoyal Society is the unique recognised 
 ™entre of the general scientific activity in this country. 
 
 twill it be conducive to the interests of science, or 
 en of the Royal Society itself, that in future there should 
 two entirely separate centres ? 
 
 But will not this state of things be brought about if, 
 [■|nthout any general consideration, a charter is at once 
 "Ranted to the new body ? 
 
 The important thing to secure is that the two bodies 
 dealing with the two great groups of scientific subjects 
 shall form part of one organisation — some enlarged Royal 
 
 Efciety. What the nexus shall be is a matter of such 
 bordinate importance that I do not propose now to 
 icfer to it further. 
 
 May not this present difficulty. Sir, be really a bless'ng 
 disguise ? Does it not merely emphasise the activity 
 
140 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 of the scientific spirit and the employment of the scientific 
 method in new regions, and suggest that the time has 
 arrived, at the beginning of a new century and a new 
 reign, for doing for the science of to-day what Charles II. 
 did for the science of the seventeenth century — that is, 
 organising and co-ordinating it on a broad basis ? 
 
 It is clear that the question so wisely referred by His 
 Majesty Edward VII., to the Privy Council is no light 
 one, for the acts of a previous Kmg of England and the 
 future development of British science are involved. The 
 present confusion is great and will become greater if a 
 new charter is granted without a comparison and possible 
 revision of the existing ones ; and, short of an inquiry, 
 by a Eoyal Commission or by some other means, to con- 
 sider the question, it is difficult to see how the proper 
 organisation of natural knowledge in the future can be 
 secured. 
 
 It is fortunate that there is ample time for this important 
 matter to be considered carefully in all its bearings, for not 
 till 1904 can any British representation of the philo- 
 sophico-historical subjects be considered by the Inter- 
 national Association of Academies. 
 
 May I finally be permitted to say, Sir, how entirely I 
 agree with the remarks in the leading article in The Times 
 of the 16th inst. concerning the importance of organising 
 literature as well as science ? Science has undoubtedly 
 gained by the charters of Charles II., and on this ground 
 alone it may be urged that literature will be a gainer if 
 it also be similarly organised. Certainly the most im- 
 pressive sight I saw in Paris last year, when attending 
 the first meeting of the International Association of 
 Academies as a Royal Society delegate, was the reception 
 
THE ORGAOTSATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 141 
 
 d a new literary member of the Academic Fran9aise. 
 le combination of troops representing the Government 
 tnd members of other academies representing the In- 
 kitute of France formed a picture which is not easily for- 
 gotten ; it was one also to set one thinking. 
 
 I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 Norman Lockyer. 
 
 A Second Letter to ''The Times :^ ^ 
 To the Editor of The Times. 
 
 Sir, — In the references which have been recently made 
 the early history of the Royal Society, the charters 
 rf King Charles II. have frequently been remarked upon, 
 and also the subject-matter of the communications pub- 
 lished by the Philosophical Transactions from time to 
 tima. It has been conceded by many who have given 
 attention to the matter that the charters of King Charles 
 \^Bl. intended that the then newly -founded Society should 
 H^ake cognisance, not only of observational and experi- 
 mental science, but also of those philosophical, historical 
 and philological subjects for which, on the ground that 
 ■^^they lack representation to-day. King Edward VII. has 
 IWbeen petitioned to grant a charter enabling some new 
 body to look after their interests. It has also been con- 
 IMbeded that the early practice of the Royal Society was 
 Bn accordance with the suggested intention referred to 
 Ribove, so far as the communications made to it enable 
 '^is to form a judgment. 
 
 In a previous letter on this subject, which you were 
 good enough to insert in The Times of January 29, I 
 
 * March 20, 1902. 
 
142 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 pointed out that a committee specially appointed by 
 the Council of the Royal Society to consider the matter 
 had reported, after consultation with high legal authorities, 
 that the inclusion of the subjects within the scope of 
 the Royal Society, for the general organisation of which 
 it is now proposed to found a new Academy, is within 
 the powers conferred on it by the charters of that Society. 
 I venture to give two extracts from the first charter granted 
 by King Charles II. which alone seem to establish this 
 conclusion. If you will permit me, I will reproduce 
 them here : — 
 
 Charles II., by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France 
 and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc., to all to whom these present 
 Letters shall come, greeting. 
 
 We have long and fully resolved with Ourself to extend not only the 
 boundaries of the Empire, but also the very arts and sciences. There- 
 fore we look with favour upon all forms of learning, but with particular 
 grace we encourage philosophical studies, especially those which by 
 actual experiment attempt either to shape out a new philosophy or to 
 perfect the old. In order, therefore, that such studies, which have not 
 hitherto been sufficiently brilliant in any part of the world, may shine 
 conspicuously amongst our people, and that at length the whole world 
 of letters may always recognise us not only as the Defender of the Faith, 
 but also as the universal lover and patron of every kind of truth : 
 Know ye, etc. 
 
 Of the " Fellows " it is written :— |H 
 
 The more eminently they are distinguished for the study of every 
 kind of learning and good letters, the more ardently they desire to pro- 
 mote the honour, studies and advantage of this society . . the more 
 we wish them to be especially deemed fitting and worthy of being 
 admitted into the number of the Fellows of the same Society. 
 
 Of course it would have been very much more satis- 
 factory if the committee, instead of enunciating pious 
 and legal opinions as to what the charters enabled the 
 Society to do, as abstractedly as if the Society had never 
 
THE ORGANISATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 143 
 
 existed, had, seeing that action under the charters had 
 been going on for nearly two centuries and a- half, told 
 us what the Society had really done year after year in 
 the matter of choosing men for election into the Society. 
 In this way sure proof could be obtained of the general 
 opinion of what the charters empowered and enjoined 
 the Society to do, not only at the time they were con- 
 ferred, but at subsequent dates. This course, which 
 obviously is the only satisfactory way of arriving at 
 a conclusion on the questions at issue, was, however, 
 not open to the committee ; because a complete list of the 
 officers. Fellows and foreign members elected in each 
 year from the foundation of the Society was not generally 
 available. 
 
 This gap in our knowledge of the actual life of the 
 Society has recently been filled, and we can now learn 
 the kind of work for which the Society considered itself 
 responsible by the men it elected to do it in its early 
 days, and especially by those who were elected to fill the 
 various offices. It will be obvious that a complete in- 
 quiry of this nature is a matter involving considerable 
 time and labour ; but in the present state of the ques- 
 tion raised by the proposition for a new British Academy 
 it is of such high importance to know the facts that I 
 have not hesitated to try to get at them, however im- 
 perfectly ; my inquiry being limited as much as possible. 
 This has been done by passing over all doubtful cases 
 and considering chiefly the first century of the life of the 
 Society, that is from 1663. 
 
 The general result of this limited inquiry may be stated 
 as follows : — 
 
 To begin with the presidents. Some were appointed 
 
144 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 on account of their rank, others on account of their con- 
 tributions to observational or experimental science, 
 among them Wren, Newton, the Earl of Macclesfield 
 and others. But besides these we have Sir John Hos- 
 kins, " a most learned virtuoso as well as a lawyer," 
 according to Evelyn ; Samuel Pepys, of diary fame ; 
 Martin Folkes, an antiquarian " under whom the meetings 
 were more literary than scientific ; " Sir James Burrow, 
 an antiquarian, also a lawyer ; and James West, another 
 antiquarian and collector of coins and given to " black 
 letter lore." If we pass the first century, we find Sir 
 John Pringle, a learned physician and professor of meta- 
 physics and moral philosophy, elected in 1772, and Davies 
 Gilbert in 1827, who, although addicted to science, was 
 chiefly an antiquarian and historian. 
 
 Among the treasurers we find Abraham Hill, one of the 
 first appointed, given as much to moral as to natural 
 philosophy ; Koger Gale, an archaeologist and numis- 
 matist ; and, again passing the first century, William 
 Marsden (1802), an Oriental scholar, and Samuel Lysons 
 (1810), an antiquarian and an artist. 
 
 We next come to the secretaries. The most remark- 
 able thing about these officers is that between 1663 and 
 1765, of the twenty-nine elected no less than sixteen 
 were doctors of divinity, medicine or law ; and, so far 
 as the inquiry has gone, the " Dictionary of National 
 Biography " shows that they were not merely profes- 
 sional men, but scholars first and writers afterwards. 
 The secretary elected in 1776 was Joseph Planta, the 
 librarian of the British Museum ; while in 1812 Humphry 
 Davy! was followed by Taylor Combe, an archaeologist 
 and numismatist. 
 
THE ORGANISATION OF KNOWLEDGE 
 
 145 
 
 The office of foreign secretary was created in 1723. 
 
 If the eight appointed down to 1772, four were doctors 
 rf medicine, and they were selected possibly for the 
 same reason as their colleagues among the secretaries. 
 Maty, who was elected in 1772, was the assistant libra- 
 rian in the British Museum. 
 
 The enormously wide area of knowledge from which 
 the officers of the Society were drawn during the first 
 century is in sharp antithesis to the narrow ground of 
 award of the Copley medal, which was first conferred in 
 1731. The grant of this medal is limited to the author 
 of the most important discovery or contribution to 
 science by experiment or otherwise ; and the greater the 
 divergence between the officers' and Copley medallists' 
 lists, the less, naturally, was the limitation of the Fellow- 
 ship to those interested alone in experiment or obser- 
 vation. 
 
 We next come to the Fellows of the Society. The 
 following lists are based upon a rapid reconnaissance of 
 those who occur early in the alphabetical order, using 
 Hole's " Brief Biographical Dictionary " as a means of 
 determining their identity. The names of many Fellows 
 are absent from Hole, and there are some incertitudes, 
 besides which Hole's definitions are very terse. The 
 lists, however, are given for what they are worth ; and 
 there can be little doubt that they will soon be replaced 
 by complete and authoritative lists officially complied. 
 It is important that the Lords of the Privy Council 
 should possess such documents to assist them in the 
 important inquiry with which they are charged ; and 
 we may hope that this eagerness to possess is only 
 equalled by the anxiety of the Royal Society to 
 
 K 
 
146 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 provide them if their compilation be in the interests of 
 
 truth : — 
 
 Archaeologists and Antiquarians. f| 
 
 Ames, Josh 1'74:3 
 
 Amyot, Thos. 1824 
 
 Ashmole, Elias 1663 
 
 Astle, T. 1766 
 
 Ayloffe, J. 1731 
 
 Baker, G. - - , 1762 
 
 Brander, G-. - - - 1754 
 
 Bridges, J. 1708 
 
 Churchill, Winston 1664 
 
 Gale,R. 1718 
 
 Gale,T. 1677 
 
 Writers. 
 
 Askew, Ant. 1749 
 
 Barrington, Daines 1767 
 
 Bathurst, Ralph 1663 
 
 Becket, Wm. 1718 
 
 Bentley, R. 1695 
 
 Birkenhead, J. 1663 
 
 Bowlden, T. 1781 
 
 Brocklesby, R 1746 
 
 Brown, R. 1811 
 
 Bruce, J. 1791 
 
 Burnet, T. 1748 
 
 Burney, C. (Music) 1773 
 
 Cadogan, W. 1752 
 
 Chandler, J. 1734 
 
 Edgeworth, R. L. 1781 
 
 Egerton, F. H. 1781 
 
 Farmer, R. 1791 
 
 ' Green, T. 1798 
 
 Historians, 
 
 Abel, Clarke 1819 
 
 Barnes, Joshua 1710 
 
 Bates, G. 1^63 
 
 Beaufort, Louis de - - - - - - - 1746 
 

 THK OROANISATION OF KNOWLEDGE. U7 
 
 Bernard, C. 1696 
 
 Birch, T. I734 
 
 Clarke, J. G. 1792 
 
 Coxe, W. 1782 
 
 Duclos, C. 1764 
 
 Edwards, B. I794 
 
 Ellis, G. A. 1816 
 
 Gillies, J. 1789 
 
 Pliilologists. 
 
 Colebrooke, H. T. 1816 
 
 Dickenson, E. - - 1677 
 
 Poets. 
 
 Akenside, Mark I753 
 
 Browne, J. H. 1749 
 
 Byron, Lord 1816 
 
 Denham 1663 
 
 Dryden,J. 1663 
 
 Ems,G. 1797 
 
 Travellers. 
 
 Bruce, James 1776 
 
 Brydone, P. 1773 
 
 Carteret, P. 1664 
 
 Chardin, J. 1682 
 
 Lawyers. 
 
 Adair, James 1788 
 
 Aland, J. F. 1711 
 
 Axden, R. P. 1788 
 
 Dalrymple, J. 1796 
 
 Although the matter has not as yet been inquired into, 
 there is already ample evidence that the foreign members 
 were selected with the same catholicity as the ordinary 
 Fellows. Thu«^ Sorbiere, an eminent French litterateur, 
 was elected in 1663 (the first year) ; the Italian historian 
 Gregorio Leti was elected in 1681 ; and the French his- 
 toran Michael Le Vassor in 1701. 
 
 K2 
 
148 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROaRESS. 
 
 It does not seem possible that any unprejudiced mind, 
 after a perusal of the above statements, limited though 
 they are to a point of time, and, in the case of the Fellows, 
 to a few letters of the alphabet, and inaccurate as they 
 may well be here and there, can deny that the reconnais- 
 sance affords valuable evidence that the action of the 
 Royal Society for the first century after it had received 
 its charters was as broad as the charters themselves. 
 The Society tried to do, and succeeded in doing, the duty 
 which the charters imposed upon it. 
 
 We learn from the above statements that for the period 
 over which my hasty inquiry has gone, Britain possessed 
 a general organisation of learning as complete, though 
 not so detailed, as that of the Institute of France or any 
 other foreign academy to-day. King Charles II. had, 
 in fact, in his charters, and the Royal Society had, in 
 fact, in its action upon them, anticipated the work of 
 Napoleon by very nearly a century and a half ; the por- 
 tals of the Royal Society and of the Institute of France 
 were equally wide, and wide enough to admit the most 
 illustrious men produced in each country. 
 
 If I have erred in any way in reading the facts or in 
 drawing conclusions from them, I sincerely trust that 
 someone with more leisure and knowledge than myself will 
 discover where I have gone wrong and at once put the 
 matter right. I am the more anxious that this should 
 be done because I gather from the petition of the Royal 
 Society Council to King Edward VII., which was printed 
 in the Times of February 27, that the condition of things 
 which the facts reveal is either unknown to the Council 
 or regarded by them as a matter not worth mentioning. 
 
 In that petition His Majesty is informed that the 
 
THE ORGA'NISATION OF KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 149 
 
 President and Council are of opinion that the studies 
 which it has been shown were fully provided for by King 
 Charles II. 's charters to the Royal Society, and " taken 
 care of " for, at all events, the first century to wh'ch my 
 inquiry was limited, " ought to be taken care of by some 
 academic organisation, and that this should be effected, 
 not by the Royal Society taking charge of these studies, 
 but by the establishment of some other body." 
 
 I submit, Sir, that the view that a complete inquiry 
 should be made before any step be taken towards creating 
 a new body to do what the charters of King Charles II. 
 enjoined and empowered the Royal Society to under- 
 take is vastly strengthened by the facts now brought 
 to light, which show us what the Royal Society actually 
 did. 
 
 This inquiry was thus referred to in the petition to 
 the King, dated February 14, which was signed by many 
 eminent representatives of the intellectual, industrial 
 ana other forces of the Kingdom : — 
 
 " We Your Petitioners humbly pray that Your Majesty may be gra- 
 ciously pleased to cause an inquiry to be made with a view of instituting 
 a general and formal organisation of all the studies depending upon 
 scientific method now carried on similar to that inaugurated for the 
 philosophical studies of the seventeenth century by the charters of His 
 Majesty, King Charles II. " 
 
 I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 J^^^^lj^ NOKMAN LOCKYER. 
 
 Athenaeum Club, March, 11. 
 
THE EDUCATION OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 
 
 (1903.) 
 
 The Board of Admiralty are to be entirely congratu- 
 lated upon their new scheme of entry, education and 
 training of officers. 
 
 The most important parts of it are that it shows that, 
 in the opinion of the Admiralty, for the naval service the 
 education obtained by studying things instead of books 
 is essential, and that the scheme set forth is sound and 
 broad in its educational details. The mere existence of it 
 for the purpose intended is certain in time, we believe, to 
 have a profound effect, not only upon the entrance 
 examinations to the Army and the Civil Service, but 
 upon secondary and university education generally. We 
 may go further and say that if the Council of Defence 
 were anything more than a name, the naval scheme 
 would have formed part of a more general one embracing 
 the whole armed service of the country. 
 
 Let us see what improvements are proposed upon the 
 present system. First of all, a battleship is to be made 
 more of a fighting unit than it is at present by having 
 all the officers educated alike up to a certain point, 
 whether navigating, gunnery, torpedo, engineer, and those 
 more numerous lieutenants whose duties are not specially 
 devoted to any particular branch, but excepting medical 
 officers and the accountant branch. The Army is a 
 
TTtE EDUcXtIOK of NAVAL OFFICERS. 
 
 m 
 
 non-scientific body with scientific corps ; the Navy is to 
 be a scientific body all round. 
 
 At present, the marine officers enter late after the often 
 soul-destroying training of the ordinary schools which 
 provide the officers of the Army. The engineer officers 
 enter earlier at a special naval engineering establishment. 
 The executive officers enter the Britannia at the age of 
 fourteen and a half to fifteen and a half for four terms, 
 and we believe the instruction given in the first three is 
 something like this : — 
 
 Mathematics, including Navigation and Chart 
 
 Work 
 
 30J hours a fortn 
 
 French 6 
 
 Steam 
 
 Mechanical Drawing 
 Instruments - 
 Physics - 
 Naval History- 
 Seamanship 
 
 4 
 
 3i 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1^ 
 6i 
 
 ght. 
 
 In the fourth term, the cadets are sent for a cruise 
 and are further instructed in practical navigation, instru- 
 ments and chart work, steam and seamanship. 
 
 It will readily be gathered, then, that on the present 
 system, in the schools which furnish the cadets, not much 
 attention need be paid to physical science and the mental 
 training that it brings, if one hour a fortnight is all that is 
 provided for it on the Britannia, 
 
 Under the new scheme, all the officers to whom refer- 
 ence has been made will enter the Britannia between the 
 ages of twelve and thirteen, thus saving some two years 
 of ordinary school training. As the age is so low. nomina- 
 tion and a limited competitive examination are preferred 
 to an open examination. This, we consider, is justified. 
 
152 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 but some alterations seem desirable with regard to the 
 nominations. 
 
 The scheme, in the first place, provides that these 
 nominations are to be limited generally to the First Lord, 
 with certain privileges, elaborately set out, conferred 
 upon individual members of the Board, secretaries, flag 
 officers, commodores and captains. This looks too much 
 as if the Navy were looked upon as an Admiralty 
 preserve. We can imagine, although Sir Michael Hicks- 
 Beach has so far made no revelations with regard to the 
 Navy, that the officers who have to look after promotions 
 may think, as we think, that the nominations should be 
 exclusively in the hands of the First Lord and of the 
 Prime Minister, for it is a question of the whole country 
 with all its interests. The principle of heredity may 
 be pushed too far, for captains will be admirals when 
 their nominees come up for promotion as commanders, 
 and this fact is quite enough, human nature being what it 
 is, to suggest how undesirable the so-called privileges are. 
 Then comes another point. The payment for each 
 cadet entered is 75L per annum, but the Lords of the 
 Admiralty reserve the power of reducing this to 40Z. in 
 the case ot sons of naval, army or marine officers, or of 
 the civilian staff at the Admiralty. 
 
 If the whole Navy and Army, why not the whole Civil 
 Service ? and, indeed, why limit the concession to the 
 public services when good cause can be shown for an 
 extension ? The more rigid the limitation the less certain 
 the capture of future Nelsons, and the more justification 
 will be given to a possible outcry that the Navy is being 
 made a close preserve for the well to do. 
 
 Were the limit extended, a natural sequel would be to 
 
THE EDUdATtON OF KAVAL OPFtCEKS. 
 
 153 
 
 mter originally for the Britannia a larger number of 
 )oys — say some 30 per cent. — than would be wanted 
 >r the service, admitting the required number of these 
 the service by strict open compstition at the end of 
 ^he Britannia period and rejecting the rest. In this 
 way, some objections to the nomination system at entry 
 will be met. If only a few are rejected under the 
 |^>roposed scheme it would be a stigma, whereas if the num- 
 Hber is larger it would only be considered a misfortune, and 
 the rejected would have had the best education in England, 
 one fitting them for any walk in life, as we shall show. 
 11^ We can have nothing but praise for the subjects chosen 
 nor the examination for entrance to the Britannia, which 
 ^^pre as follows : — 
 ■ Part I. 
 
 (1) English (including writing from dictation, simple composition 
 and reproduction of the gist of a short passage twice retid aloud to 
 the candidates). 
 
 (2) (a) History and (6) Geography — 
 (a) History (simple questions in EngUsh History and growth 
 
 of the British Empire). 
 
 (6) Geography (simple questions, with special reference to 
 the British Empire). 
 
 (3) French or German (importance will be attached to the oral 
 examination). 
 
 (4) (a) Arithmetic, and (6) Algebra — 
 {a) Arithmetic (elementary, including vulgar and decimal 
 
 fractions). 
 (6) Algebra to simple equations, with easy problems. 
 
 (5) Geometry (to include the subject-matter of the first book of 
 EucUd, or its equivalent in experimental geometry and mensuration. 
 The use of instruments and of algebraic.il methods will be allowed). 
 
 Part II. 
 (One only to be taken.) 
 
 (6) Latin (easy passages for translation from Latin into English 
 and from EngHsh into Latin, and simple grammatical questions). 
 
 (7) A second modern language (of which, if not French or German, 
 
154 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRES.^. 
 
 notice must be previously given), or an advanced examination in the 
 language selected under Part I. 
 
 (8) Experimental science (easy questions with the object of testing 
 practical knowledge and powers of observation). 
 
 The cadets are to remain four years in the Britannia, 
 the instruction comprising an extension of the present 
 course there, and we rejoice at the promise that the 
 present one hour a fortnight for physics is to be replaced by 
 a " thorough elementary instruction in physics and marine 
 engineering, including the use of tools and machines." 
 This, of course, means that there are to be laboratories 
 and practical work, for book- work alone in such subjects 
 is next to useless. Part of this instruction is also to be 
 carried out afloat. 
 
 Such a course as this must not only give the cadets 
 a good grounding in the subjects necessary to their 
 profession, but such a mental training as is sure to lead to 
 that brain-power which lies at the root of all good organisa- 
 tion and administration. 
 
 After these four years, the cadets will go to sea and 
 
 become midshipmen. We are told in Lord Selborne's 
 
 memorandum : — 
 
 " Special attention will then be paid to their instruction in mechanics 
 and the other applied sciences and to marine engineering. The instruc- 
 tion of the midshipmen in seamanship will be given, as at present, 
 by an executive officer deputed by the captain ; otherwise it will, 
 under the general responsibility of the captain, be supervised by the 
 engineer, gunnery, marine, navigating and torpedo lieutenants of 
 their respective ships ; they will be examined annually as to their 
 progress in seamanship, navigation and pilotage, gunnery, torpedo 
 work and engineering, all set papers being, as at present, sent from 
 the Admiralty." 
 
 At the end of three years, every midshipman who has 
 
 passed the qualifying standard at the last annual 
 
 examination and the final examination in seamanship will 
 
[fe EbucATloN OF N Wal om^Sf: 
 
 155 
 
 jcome an acting sub-lieutenant, and if abroad return to 
 England and proceed to the College at Greenwicli for a three 
 months' course of mathematics, navigation and pilotage, 
 followed by an examination. Afterwards he goes to Ports- 
 mouth for a six months' course in gunnery, torpedo work and 
 engineering, at the close of which he will be examined and 
 
 t passing out be confirmed in the rank of sub -lieutenant. 
 How the cadets are to be sent to sea is not yet settled. 
 Either they will serve for the whole three years as 
 midshipmen to battleships and cruisers, ordinarily 
 commissioned, or the first part of this period will be passed 
 in specially commissioned training ships. It is quite 
 decided that at whatever period they are posted to 
 ordinarily commissioned battleships and cruisers, com- 
 pulsory school on board these ships shall cease. 
 
 The young officers who will pass out of the college at 
 Portsmouth between the ages of nineteen and twenty 
 will all have received exactly the same scientific training, 
 and will have had opportunities of displaying their powers 
 of organisation and of dealing with men. 
 
 We are not yet told what the common training is 
 to be at Greenwich or at Portsmouth. We believe the 
 present course for sub -lieutenants is somewhat as follows: — 
 
 ^PART I. 
 Length of course 8 weeks 
 /rrigonometry,^ 
 ^. ^. Mechanics, 
 thematics - - — nr • j.- 
 ^iavigation, 
 .Instruments. 
 
 - 21 hours a week. 
 
 Steam 2 
 
 Fren(-h 2 
 
 Surveying 3 
 
 ^hysics 3 
 
 ai 
 
156 UDUCATlOK AISTD NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 Length of course 
 
 Mathematics 
 
 / Advanced Pure Maths., 
 Statics, 
 Hydrostatics, 
 Dynamics, 
 Navigation. 
 
 11 weeks. 
 
 Physics 
 
 Executive officers 
 
 27 hours a week. 
 
 1 hour lecture. 
 3 „ practical. 
 
 * 31 
 
 Pilotage. 
 
 Length of course 6 weeks 
 
 28 hours a week. 
 
 Now the differentiation begins. It seems to be as 
 
 follows : — 
 
 Special navigation, 
 „ gunnery, 
 „ torpedo, 
 Unspecialised, 
 Engineer officers, 
 Royal Marine officers, 
 
 and the object to be kept in view is stated to be to make 
 
 them fit to perform those specialised duties which are the 
 
 product of modern science ; nothing is said about those 
 
 officers who have no specialised duties. 
 
 The Executive Branch. 
 
 On this differentiation, all officers ranking as sub- 
 lieutenants will go to sea for two years. 
 
 The next phase is that after two years at sea all the 
 executive sub -lieutenants will be promoted to the rank 
 of lieutenant on gaining the same qualifying watch- 
 keeping certificate as at present. All those who have 
 passed their examinations exceptionally well will, as 
 now, receive accelerated promotion. Then comes a 
 selection by the Admiralty of those among them who are 
 
THE EDU0(\TION OF NAVAL OFFirERX 
 
 to be trained as specialists in gunnery, torpedo work, or 
 navigation ; these will go to the Royal Naval College 
 at Greenwich for special courses. We presume that this 
 " selection " for training as specialists represents a 
 promotion for those so selected. 
 
 After five years' seniority in the rank of lieutenant, all 
 officers will have to pass an examination for promotion to 
 the rank of commander in certain technical subjects. 
 
 These are : — 
 
 Court-martial procedure, 
 
 International law, 
 
 Knowledge of British and foreign warships, guns, torpedoes, &c., 
 
 Naval history, 
 
 Signals, 
 
 Strategy, 
 
 Tactics and battle formation. 
 
 This examination as it exists at present in the scheme 
 mfR to be undergone alike by those who are engaged in 
 the specialised scientific duties in the ship, with all their 
 responsibilities, and those — under existing practice a 
 much larger number — who have under the scheme no 
 specialised scientific duties. Now, it is obvious that these 
 latter will be under much better conditions for preparing 
 for an examination, and that the former will have no 
 opportunity of letting their specialised duties tell in the 
 examination, so that the effect of it will be to favour the 
 promotion of those who were not selected to perform 
 specialised duties. 
 
 The Engineer Branch. 
 
 On this differentiation, the engineer officers, sub- 
 lieutenants about the age of nineteen, instead of going 
 to sea for two years like the executive officers, will go to 
 the college at Keyham for a professional course, the 
 
158 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 exact duration of which will be subsequently determined. 
 At the expiration of this course a proportion will be 
 selected to go to Greenwich for a further course, while 
 the remainder go to sea. They will then, if found quali- 
 fied, all be promoted to be lieutenants under the same 
 conditions as the executives. The nature and duration of 
 the special course at Grrecawich will be very carefully 
 determined, and an opportunity will be afforded to those 
 officers selected for it to make themselves acquainted with 
 the latest developments of engineering science, not only at 
 Greenwich but at the great civil engineering establishments 
 and institutions which are to be found in the country. 
 
 The engineers are now to be put on an equality with 
 the executive officers, the ranks and uniform being as- 
 similated, but with a difference, for while the executive 
 officers specially trained for navigation (N), gunnery (G), 
 and torpedo (T) lose these letters when promoted to be 
 captains, the engineers are to retain the special (E) to 
 the rank of Rear- Admiral (E), and as a solatium for not 
 being allowed to command a ship are to receive higher 
 pay and are promised " high appointments." Whether 
 this arrangement will be carried out when the time comes, 
 some twenty years hence, the future will show. In all 
 the discussions on the complexity of the machinery of 
 the modern man-of-war, the, as great or greater, com- 
 plexity of the old sailing three-decker seems to have 
 been entirely lost sight of. 
 
 The Royal Marines, ^| 
 
 With regard to the sub -lieutenants drafted to the 
 Royal Marines, we read as follows : — 
 
 " ^fter his final examination as sub-lieutenant along with the future 
 
 I 
 
MION OF NAVAL OmOTRS. 
 
 159 
 
 [ecutive and engineer officer, the young Royal Marine officer will 
 receive his special miUtary training during the next two years partly 
 at the college at Greenwich and partly at the headquarters of divisions 
 the depot ; the training of all these officers will be extended so as 
 to correspond more closely to the training now received by the young 
 officers of the Royal Marine Artillery ; and after this two years' training, 
 ■file young Marine officer will receive the rank and pay of lieutenant of 
 ^narines so as to put him financially on an equality with the executive 
 sub-lieutenant. As in the case of the executive Ueutenants, specially 
 good officers will qualify as gunnery and torpedo Ueutenants, provided 
 that they have kept watch at sea for one year, have passed the test 
 examination for qualifying for gunnery and torpedo Ueutenants, and 
 have been specially selected and recommended. . . . The future 
 Royal Marine officer will thus become available for keeping watch at 
 sea and for general executive duties on board ship up to and including 
 the rank of captain of marines." 
 
 Such is a short abstract of a scheme which we believe 
 will be of the utmost value to the Naval Service. Edu- 
 cationally and scientifically, it has so much to recom- 
 L^jaend it that its authors, and chief among them. Lord 
 ^^Rosebery tells us, we must hold Sir John Fisher, are to 
 ^^be warmly congratulated. 
 
 H Only one conclusion can be drawn from the scheme as 
 V^m whole ; many of the anticipated difficulties will have 
 ' vanished before it comes into full operation some ten 
 years hence, and the effect of the practical work in pure 
 science now to be generally introduced for the first time, 
 and the opportunities the officers will have of becoming 
 acquainted and being responsible for every class of duty, 
 both scientific and administrative, will weld them into 
 a homogeneous body, each member of which should have 
 had his brain-power so thoroughly developed that the 
 greatest scientific skill will generally be combined with 
 the highest powers of organisation. At present, it would 
 seem, the very opposite is the case, for otherwise the 
 
~0 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROCURESS. H 
 
 present Admiralty system of promotions cannot be de- 
 fended. Nor is the difference in the treatment of the 
 various branches limited to the promotions. Certain 
 lieutenants are at present selected for certain specially 
 scientific duties ; this leaves a large residuum not so 
 selected. Special allowances are given to the navigating, 
 gunnery and torpedo lieutenants in a ship, but the first 
 lieutenant, who may be taken as the representative 
 of the large body of non-specialists, not only gets a 
 smaller allowance, but has to spend money in eking out 
 the Admiralty's meagre supply of paint. 
 
 The allowance paid to the navigating officer is the 
 highest, and it might be assumed, therefore, that his 
 duties are considered important ; but what happens to 
 him ? We are informed that of 187 commanders pro- 
 moted captains between June, 1892, and June, 1902, only 
 sixteen, that is one in eleven, have specially studied 
 navigation and all that navigation means, and had the 
 real handling of battleships in tactical exercises. Further, 
 that these sixteen have been promoted so late that none 
 of them, in ordinary circumstances, can become admirals 
 on the active list. 
 
 Kecent sad experiences both with fiag-ships and 
 smaller craft — 100 " accidents " to torpedo boats and 
 t.b.d.'s in two years — have taught us that the best admiral 
 and the best commander, even of a torpedo boat, will be 
 he who knows most about what ships can do in various 
 circumstances and how to make them do it. The most 
 instructed navigator will always be the safest tactician. 
 Leading a great fleet into action and drilling men in the 
 duties performed in a single ship are vastly different 
 affairs. 
 
'HE EDUCATION OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 161 
 
 The present system, however, as we have seen, bars 
 the promotion of a navigating officer to the higher ranks. 
 So that all the admirals, the future leaders of our battle 
 fleets, eventually to be selected from among the 187 
 captains to whom we have referred, will be the least 
 instructed and least practised in navigation and all that 
 navigation means in the way of handling ships. 
 
 We are told that information with regard to the promo- 
 tion of gunnery and torpedo officers is much more difficult 
 to obtain, but this is of little importance, as their functions 
 are necessarily limited to single ships and can have no 
 bearing on tactics or the leading of fleets into action. 
 
 To the plain man, this result seems curious. Other 
 reasons than that we have suggested have been given, 
 but whatever the reason may be — we are not concerned 
 either to attack or defend the Admiralty — we may hope 
 that under the new system the apparent paradox will 
 disappear, and it seems a pity to wait until then. 
 
 There is one part of the scheme of instruction which 
 calls for criticism in a scientific journal. We read of 
 special schools of gunnery, engineering and torpedo 
 vrork, but no school of navigation is referred to. 
 
 It is a question whether an officer who has been gene- 
 rally trained and has been six years at sea will derive 
 any benefit from going to a land college to learn naviga- 
 tion. What is really wanted to complete the scheme 
 on true scientific lines is a navigation school afloat at 
 tliis period of the officer's career where each member 
 of the batch could take charge, under proper supervision 
 of course, not only in tideways and strong currents, among 
 traffic and in entering and leaving harbours, but also in 
 the open Atlantic. 
 
162 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 This condition might be utilised by sending Marconi 
 ethergrams, which would not only enable the Meteoro- 
 logical Office vastly to improve its service, but would 
 give the young officers an interest in meteorology, a 
 science which is still important to those who go to sea, 
 though we find no reference to it in the memorandum. 
 
 Another important point that would be gained by this 
 method of procedure would be to teach the officer that 
 the roll of his ship will depend to some extent upon its 
 presentation to the sea running at the time, so that there 
 will be courses on which the fighting platform can be made 
 more stable than on others. With homogeneous fleets, 
 this may replace the " getting to windward " of old days 
 preparatory to a naval engagement. 
 
 When we pass from the criticism of the new arrange- 
 ments to the first steps actually taken to give effect to 
 them, the opinion is quite general that the Admiralty 
 is to be entirely congratulated. Prof. Ewing, who may 
 be looked upon as the creator of the admirable engineer- 
 ing school at Cambridge, thereby showing that his powers 
 of administration and organisation are on a par with his 
 scientific acquirements, has been selected to fill the post 
 of Director- General of Naval Instruction ; his duty, 
 we take it, will, to a large extent, be to do for the personnel 
 what the Director of Naval Construction does for the 
 materiel of the fleet. 
 
 We may be convinced not only that with such a 
 strong man as this at the helm the complete scientific 
 instruction of officers will be insisted upon, but that 
 practical laboratory instruction of the juniors in mathe- 
 matics and pure science will be secured. 
 
 Indeed, we may go further, and say that they have 
 
THE EDUCATION OF NAVAL OFFICERS. Ifi3 
 
 already been secured in most admirable fashion, for 
 
 Lord Selborne, in the speech to which we have already 
 
 referred, spoke as follows : — 
 
 " Without pledging myself to exact detail, I will give a general 
 sketch of the kind of education that will be given. It includes not only 
 that special education for which the school will exist, but that general 
 education which every officer and gentleman ought to have. History, 
 geography, physical geography, English and French will be taught. I 
 do not say that other modern languages will not be taught. Mathe- 
 matics, algebra, arithmetic, trigonometry, mechanics, physics, labor- 
 atory work, seamanship, drill and engineering will be taught. There 
 will be laboratories and workshops in which the boys will be accustomed 
 to the use of tools from the very commencement. There will be vessels 
 r.f all sorts for use and demonstration, from a launch to a battleship, 
 jind generally an effort will be made, while not neglecting the general 
 education of the boys, to start them from the moment of their entering 
 the college on the education of a naval officer." 
 
 When we compare this programme with the one hour 
 a fortnight in physics in the Britannia, and no laboratory 
 Avnthin sight, students of science well recognise that naval 
 education for the future will be conducted on business 
 ])rinciples, and we may again express our regret that 
 such a system, mutatis mutandis, is still a thing to hope 
 for in some dim distant future in the case of the Army. 
 
 It has already been pointed out how the subject 
 of navigation suffered generally from the absence of 
 a school afloat for practical work similar to those pro- 
 vided long ago for gunnery and torpedo work. Not 
 (mly is this defect in the system to disappear in the case 
 of the jimior officers, but as stated in the circular letter 
 to which we have referred, the regulations for the 
 instruction of navigating officers have been revised so 
 that a definite course of practical training may be given 
 them in a navigation school ship which is about to be 
 (established at Portsmouth, with a suitable staff of 
 
 L2 
 
164 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 instructors. The course of instruction while they are 
 attached to the school ship will last for ninety working 
 days, part of the time being spent at sea in the ship and 
 the remainder on shore. While going through the course 
 they will live on the school ship. 
 
 After the candidates have qualified in the school they 
 will serve for a short period in the large ships of the 
 Mediterranean, Home and Channel fleets, so as to obtain 
 experience under the navigating officers in the work 
 of a fleet in regard to navigating duties. 
 
 It would be difficult to overestimate the importance 
 of these new departures, about which very little has 
 been said in the various discussions of the new scheme, 
 although, in our opinion, they are precisely those by 
 which the greatest benefit to the service will be secured 
 in the future. 
 
 Leaving on one side the objections to the new scheme 
 which have been based on prejudice or a complete ignor- 
 ance of the changes in any naval service which the pro- 
 gress of science has rendered inevitable, we may say 
 that the question of the possible interchangeability of 
 the officers at some distant date has attracted most 
 attention in relation to the new training of the engineers. 
 On this point opinion has rapidly grown in favour of the 
 new scheme, since inquiry has shown what a large com- 
 mon basis of pure science underlies the proper perform- 
 ance of any one of the specialised duties. The objections, 
 in short, have been held by advocates of technical 
 education in its worst sense, that is, the rule-of-thumb 
 carrying out of practical processes without any inkling of 
 the scientific principles involved. 
 
 Although the new scheme provides for a system of 
 

 THE EDUCATION OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 165 
 
 intercliangeability when once it is in full working order, 
 the present practice is vastly different, and as we consider 
 this interchangeability of paramount importance from 
 the point of view of utilising to the utmost the results of 
 the complete scientific instruction of our naval officers 
 to be provided in future. It is important to return to 
 this subject in somewhat fuller detail to show the 
 important bearing of another part of the new circular. 
 
 We may begin by saying that our present naval officers, 
 so far as their scientific training goes, may be divided 
 into two categories, well trained and less trained ; these 
 are the equivalents of the " specialised " and " not 
 specialised " of the Admiralty memorandum setting 
 forth the scheme. 
 
 The well-trained or specialised officers have to deal 
 with (1) navigation (but so far without a navigating 
 school), (2) gunnery with a gunnery school, and (3) tor- 
 pedoes with a torpedo school. We may say that the 
 Jieutenants performing these specialised duties comprise 
 roughly about one-third of the total numbers. They get 
 special allowances for their special duties. 
 
 But it must at once be stated that there are many duties 
 on board ship for the proper performance of which special 
 training, not of a scientific character in the ordinary 
 acceptation of the word, is equally required, and, of course, 
 these duties have to be provided for. They are carried 
 on by the " unspecialised " lieutenants, who are roughly 
 twice as numerous as those who have received a full 
 scientific training. These are employed as watch keepers 
 and in connection with general ship duties. They are 
 " deck officers " as opposed to the scientific officers. The 
 less scientifically trained or deck officer gets little or no 
 
166 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 allowance ; on the other hand he is expected to spend 
 money in painting ship. We see then that under the 
 present system the officers performing each particular 
 piece of work, whether scientific or merely professional, 
 are for the most part in water-tight compartments ; 
 there are differences in the amount of special instruction 
 they receive, the kind of work they do and the allow- 
 ances they get. ' 
 
 According to the present practice the less scientifically 
 trained officers get the lion's share of promotion ; that, 
 in fact, the promotion has been in the inverse ratio of the 
 scientific nature of the work done. 
 
 It has been urged in defence of this practice that scien- 
 tific knowledge is of less value in the higher ranks than that 
 which is derived from a complete mastery of all the details 
 of a ship's general organisation, which can only be gained 
 by the constant performance of the " deck duties " to 
 which reference has been made. So that if we take the 
 navigator, the most important scientific officer, on the 
 one hand, and the first lieutenant, the most important 
 deck officer, on the other, the thing works out in this way. 
 The navigator, because his duties are so onerous and are 
 never changed, knows nothing of deck duties. The first 
 lieutenant, because his duties are never changed, is 
 unlikely ever to become a competent navigator. The 
 navigator, because he has not had an opportunity of 
 learning deck duties, has his promotion retarded so that 
 he can never get on the active list of admirals. The first 
 lieutenant, because he is necessarily familiar with deck 
 duties, is the first to be promoted, and is thus sure of 
 employment on the active list of admirals. 
 
 The baneful effects of such a system as this, which are 
 
I 
 
 NAVAL DFFKIERS, 
 
 twofold, have already been fully set out. The Admiralty 
 indicated its contempt for scientific as opposed to mere 
 j)rofessional training, and the admirals' list was swamped 
 by men who knew little of navigation, although this, of 
 course, finds one of its highest outcomes in handling ships 
 in tactical exercises and in order of battle. 
 
 It was next shown that while, as determined by the 
 scheme, the interchangeability of all ofiicers, including 
 the engineer ofiicers, must be secured ten years hence, 
 there were reasons why the interchangeability of at least 
 some of the duties of the existing executive ofiicers should 
 be commenced at once. We rejoice to learn from the new 
 circular that this also is to be done. 
 
 Lieutenants (N.) will in future be placed on exactly 
 the same footing as regards executive command and ship's 
 duty generally as gunnery and torpedo lieutenants, and are 
 not to be excused from any ship's duties except those 
 which interfere with the special duties pertaining to them. 
 They will be appointed and succeed to the position of 
 first lieutenant, if a vacancy occurs, in all ships where a 
 commander is borne exactly in the same manner as any 
 other specialist ofiicer. 
 
 In rendering the special report on the qualifications of a 
 navigating ofiicer, a further clause is to be added, dealing 
 with his capabilities as an executive officer. 
 
 Further, midshipmen who show special aptitude are, 
 whenever possible when the ship is under way, to be taken 
 of! other duties, and to navigate the ship independently 
 from the after bridge, fixing positions on the chart and 
 bringing the result of such work to the navigating officer. 
 
 Instead of one commissioned officer taking sights and 
 working the reckoning daily, arrangements are to be made, 
 
168 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 when practicable, for one junior lieutenant or sub -lieu- 
 tenant to be taken partially off watch-keeping so as to 
 work with the navigating officer for ten working days 
 under way. 
 
 The officer thus told off is to be on deck when coasting, 
 making the land, going in and out of harbour, etc., and 
 is to be in every way encouraged to get an insight into 
 navigating duties. If at the end of the ten days the 
 captain is satisfied with his work, he will be relieved 
 and another officer is to be told off for this duty. 
 
 These important changes can be urged on two grounds. 
 In the first place, there is the obvious benefit to the Service 
 which will be secured when all captains and admirals are 
 made equally acquainted with both their scientific and 
 professional duties by interchanging them while they are 
 lieutenants and commanders. In the second place, the 
 preparation and simplification of the carrying out of the 
 new scheme, by which another class of specialised officers, 
 the engineers, will be introduced in the future, will be 
 vastly facilitated by organising and testing the best way 
 of interchanging duties on a small scale over a limited 
 area. 
 
 We have referred chiefly to the navigator among the 
 scientific officers, and no doubt the Admiralty has dealt 
 with him first, because his duties are the most specialised ; 
 but if the interchange is advantageous in his case, the 
 other specialists will follow, and, speaking only from 
 the scientific side, knowing nothing of professional 
 difficulties to be surmounted, it seems to us that such a 
 preliminary experimental study of the problem which 
 awaits the Admiralty in the future, and which, if faced along 
 the whole line, at the same time, may prove of Herculeaa 
 
THE EDUCATION OF NAVAL OFFICERS. 160 
 
 proportions and be fraught with dangers of breakdowns, 
 must commend itself as a scientific method. Our view 
 of the wisdom of such an interchangeability among the 
 present officers is strengthened by information which has 
 been furnished us as to the procedure in the German Navy, 
 which enables us to compare the two systems, and in our 
 opinion fully justifies the policy of the new circular. 
 
 The distribution of duties amongst executive officers 
 of the German Navy is as follows. As in the British 
 Service every officer is educated in seamanship, naviga- 
 tion, gunnery and torpedo service. In the course of 
 their service the various qualifications of the officers are 
 carefully noted, and especially if they show superiority 
 in any one of the above-mentioned branches. Ships in 
 the German Navy are commissioned for two years. The 
 list of officers for any given ship is made out by the 
 Admiralty at Berlin. The next senior officer after the 
 captain becomes the executive officer. After him the 
 officer who is most proficient (according to the returns) 
 in navigation and pilotage is appointed as navigating 
 officer, without regard to seniority as lieutenant. He 
 who is most proficient in gunnery is appointed " artillery 
 officer," and so with the torpedo officer. Qualification 
 regulates the selection of each officer for special duties, 
 not his seniority as lieutenant: The specialisation of an 
 officer for any particular duty only lasts for the two years' 
 commission. In the next commission the navigating 
 officer may be artillery or torpedo officer, or an ordinary 
 watch keeper without special duty. It is exceedingly 
 rare for an officer to be appointed for navigating duties 
 for tnore than two years, as the Admiralty require every 
 officer to go through a probation as navigator in order 
 
170 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 to ensure that captains who are responsible for the navigation 
 of the ship shall know their work in that respect. An appar- 
 ently weak point in this system is that for a time after 
 the appointment of an officer to navigating duties ships 
 are not so well navigated as they might be, since for the 
 first few months of his time the navigator is really learning 
 his work. Gunnery and torpedo work may be learnt in 
 harbour, but navigating can only be learnt by actual 
 practice and experience at sea. But, on che other hand, 
 the strength of this system is that all officers have practical 
 training at sea as navigators with a captain who has gone 
 completely through the navigating mill and knows how to 
 detect any failure in the navigator which might endanger 
 the ship. For squadrons an officer who has shown good 
 ability as navigator in a single ship is selected as navigator. 
 On this system, whilst ability in any branch (N., G., 
 or T.) is recognised, an officer is not unduly specialised 
 to the detriment of his knowledge in other branches 
 of his profession. In the British Navy the gunnery 
 and torpedo officers are occupied with their special duties 
 nearly the whole of their time as lieutenants, but they 
 go to deck duties when promoted commander, although 
 their knowledge of navigation and the handling of the 
 larger ships is practically nil. But the navigator is 
 occupied in special duties when promoted commander 
 as well as during his service as lieutenant, some fifteen 
 years in all at least, and is allowed no practice in other 
 branches of a naval officer's profession, and because he 
 has not been allowed to have any such practice, he is 
 discharged to the coast guard, his naval career is broken, 
 and the service loses a man who has had the best possible 
 training for leading ships into action. 
 
THE EDUCATION OJ' NAVAL OFFICERS. 171 
 
 Surely this comparison shows that the question of 
 interchangeability has already been considered in 
 the German Navy on the lines which we indicated as 
 beneficial for our own ; and in this we see an additional 
 argument why the preliminary trial which we suggested 
 on scientific grounds in our own Navy, and to which 
 the Admiralty now stands committed, should at all 
 events be welcomed as a first step to the wider inter- 
 changeability to which the Admiralty is certain to be 
 forced in the future, for of the progress and need of 
 science in the armed service of a nation there will be no 
 end. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OP BRAIN-POWER ON 
 HISTORY.* 
 
 * 
 
 (1903.) 
 
 My first duty to-night is a sad one. I have to refer to a 
 great loss which this nation and this Association have 
 sustained. By the death of the great Englishman and 
 great statesman who has just passed away we members 
 of the British Association are deprived of one of the most 
 illustrious of our Past-Presidents. We have to mourn 
 the loss of an enthusiastic student of science. We re- 
 cognise that as Prime Minister he was mindful of the 
 interests of science, and that to him we owe a more general 
 recognition on the part of the State of the value to the 
 nation of the work of scientific men. On all these grounds 
 you will join in the expression of respectful sympathy 
 with Lord Salisbury's family in their great personal loss, 
 which your Council has embodied this morning in a 
 resolution of condolence. 
 
 Last year, when this friend of science ceased to be 
 Prime Minister, he was succeeded by another statesman 
 who also has g'ven many proofs of his devotion to philo- 
 sophical studies, and has shown in many utterances that 
 he has a clear understanding of the real place of science 
 
 * Presidential Address at the British Association Meeting at Southport 
 in 1903. 
 
FLUENCl 
 
 r-p( 
 
 01 
 
 ^ORY. 173 
 
 in modern civilisation. We, then, have good grounds for 
 hoping that the improvement in the position of science 
 in this country which we owe to the one will also be the 
 care of his successor, who has honoured the association 
 by accepting the unanimous nomination of your Council 
 to be your President next year, an acceptance which 
 adds a new lustre to this Chair. 
 
 On this we may congratulate ourselves all the more 
 because I think, although it is not generally recognised, 
 that the century into which we have now well entered 
 may be more momentous than any which has preceded 
 it, and that the present history of the world is being so 
 largely moulded by the influence of brain-power, which 
 in these modern days has to do with natural as well as 
 human forces and laws, that statesmen and politicians 
 will have in the future to pay more regard to education 
 and science as empire-builders and empire-guarders than 
 they have paid in the past. 
 
 The nineteenth century will ever be known as the one 
 in which the influences of science were first fully realised 
 in civilised communities ; the scientific progress was so 
 gigantic that it seems rash to predict that any of its 
 successors can be more important in the life of any nation. 
 
 Disraeli, in 1873, referring to the progress up to that 
 year, spoke as follows : — 
 
 " How much has happened in these fifty years — a period more 
 remarkable than any, I will venture to say, in the annals of mankind. 
 I am not thinking of the rise and fall of Empires, the change of dynasties, 
 the establishment of Governments. I am thinking of those revolutions 
 of science which have had much more effect than any political causes, 
 which have changed the position and prospects of m mkind more than all 
 the conquests and all the codes and all the legislators that ever lived."* 
 
 * Nature, November 27, 1873, vol. ix. p. 71. 
 
 OF THE *^ 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
174 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 The progress of science, indeed, brings in many con- 
 siderations wliicli are momentous in relation to the life of 
 any limited community — any one nation. One of these 
 considerations to which attention is now being greatly 
 drawn is that a relative decline in national wealth derived 
 from industries must follow a relative neglect of scientific 
 education. 
 
 It was the late Prince Consort who first emphasised this 
 when he oame here fresh from the University of Bonn. 
 Hence the " Prince Consort's Committee," which led 
 to the foundation of the College of Chemistry and after- 
 wards of the Science and Art Department. From 
 that time to this the warnings of our men of science have 
 become louder and more urgent in each succeeding year. 
 But this is not all ; the commercial output of one country 
 in one century as compared with another is not alone in 
 question ; the acquirement of the scientific spirit and a 
 knowledge and utilisation of the forces of Nature are very 
 much further reaching in their effects on the progress 
 and decline of nations than is generally imagined. 
 
 Britain in the middle of the last century was certainly 
 the country which gained most by the advent of science, 
 for she was then in full possession of those material gifts 
 of Nature, coal and iron, the combined winning and 
 utilisation of which, in the production of machinery and 
 in other ways, soon made her the richest country in the 
 world, the seat and throne of invention and manufacture, 
 as Mr. Carnegie has called her. Being the great producers 
 and exporters of all kinds of manufactured goods, we 
 became eventually, with our iron ships, the great carriers, 
 and hence the supremacy of our mercantile marine and 
 our present command of the sea. 
 
INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HTJ 
 
 The most fundamental change wrought by the early 
 applications of science was in relation to producing and 
 carrying power. With the winning of mineral wealth 
 and the production of machinery in other countries, 
 and cheap and rapid transit between nations, our superi- 
 ority as depending upon our first use of vast material 
 resources was reduced. Science, which is above all things 
 cosmopolitan — planetary, not national — internationalises 
 such resources at once. In every market of the world 
 
 " things of beauty, things of use, 
 Which one fair planet can produce. 
 Brought from under every star," 
 
 were soon to be found. 
 
 Hence the first great effect of the general progress of 
 science was relatively to diminish the initial supremacy 
 of Britain due to the first use of material resources, which 
 indeed was the real source of our national wealth and 
 place among the nations. 
 
 The unfortunate thing was that, while the foundations 
 of our superiority depending upon our material resources 
 were being thus sapped by a cause which was beyond our 
 control, our statesmen and our Universities were blind 
 leaders of the blind, and our other asset, our mental re- 
 sources, which was within our control, was culpably 
 neglected. 
 
 So little did the bulk of our statesmen know of the part 
 science was playing in the modern world and of the real 
 basis of the nation's activities that they imagined political 
 and fiscal problems to be the only matters of importance. 
 Nor, indeed, are we very much better off to-day. In the 
 important discussions recently raised by Mr. Chamber- 
 lain next to nothing has been said of the effect of the 
 
176 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 progress of science on prices. The whole course of the 
 modern world is attributed to the presence or absence 
 of taxes on certain commodities in certain countries. The 
 fact that the great fall in the price of food-stuffs in Eng- 
 land did not come till some thirty or forty years after the 
 removal of the corn duty between 1847 and 1849 gives 
 them no pause ; for them new inventions, railways and 
 steamships are negligible quantities ; the vast increase 
 in the world's wealth, in Free Trade and Protected coun- 
 tries alike, comes merely, according to them, in response 
 to some political shibboleth. 
 
 "We now know, from what has occurred in other States, 
 that if our Ministers had been more wise and our Univer- 
 sities more numerous and efficient, our mental resources 
 would have been developed by improvements in educa- 
 tional method, by the introduction of science into schools, 
 and, more important than all the rest, by the teaching 
 of science by experiment, observation and research, and 
 not from books. It is because this was not done that we 
 have fallen behind other nations in properly applying 
 science to industry, so that our applications of science to 
 industry are relatively less important than they were. 
 But this is by no means all ; we have lacked the strengthen- 
 ing of the national life produced by fostering the scientific 
 spirit among all classes and along all lines of the nation's 
 activity ; many of the responsible authorities know little 
 and care less about science ; we have not learned 
 that it is the duty of a State to organise its forces as 
 carefully for peace as for war ; that Universities and 
 other teaching centres are as important as battleships 
 or big battalions ; are, in fact, essential parts of a 
 modern State's machinery, and, as such, to be equally 
 
 I 
 
IXFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORY. 177 
 
 aided and as efficiently organised to secure its future 
 well-being. 
 
 Now the objects of the British Association as laid down 
 by its founders seventy -two years ago are " To give a 
 stronger impulse and a more systematic direction to 
 scientific inquiry — to promote the intercourse of those 
 who cultivate science in different parts of the British 
 Empire with one another and with foreign philosophers 
 — to obtain a more general attention to the objects of 
 science and a removal of any disadvantages of a public 
 kind which impede its progress." 
 
 In the main, my predecessors in this Chair, to which 
 you have done me the honour to call me, have dealt, and 
 
 twith great benefit to science, with the objects first-named. 
 But at a critical time like the present I find it impera- 
 tive to depart from the course so generally followed by 
 my predecessors and to deal with the last object named, 
 for unless by some means or other we " obtain a more 
 general attention to the objects of science and a removal 
 of any disadvantages of a public kind which impede its 
 progress," we shall suffer in competition with other com- 
 munities in which science is more generally utilised for 
 the purposes of the national life. 
 
 The Struggle for Existence in Modem Communities, 
 
 Some years ago, in discussing the relations of scientific 
 instruction to our industries, Huxley pointed out that 
 we were in presence of a new ** struggle for existence," 
 struggle which, once commenced, must go on until only 
 the fittest survives. 
 
 It is a struggle between organised species — nations — 
 uot between individuals or any class of individuals. It 
 
 M 
 
178 
 
 EDUOATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 is, moreover, a struggle in which science and brains take 
 the place of swords and sinews, on which depended the 
 result of those conflicts which, up to the present, have 
 determined the history and fate of nations. The school, 
 the University, the laboratory and the workshop are the 
 battlefields of this new warfare. 
 
 But it is evident that if this, or anything like it, be true, 
 our industries cannot be involved alone ; the scientific 
 spirit, brain-power, must not be limited to the workshop 
 if other nations utilise it in all branches of their administra- 
 tion and executive. 
 
 It is a question of an important change of front. It is 
 a question of finding a new basis of stability for the Empire 
 in face of new conditions. I am certain that those familiar 
 with the present state of things will acknowledge that the 
 Prince of Wales's call, ' Wake up,' applies quite as much 
 to the members of the Government as it does to the leaders 
 of industry. 
 
 What is wanted is a complete organisation of the re- 
 sources of the nation, so as to enable it best to face all the 
 new problems which the progress of science, combined 
 with the ebb and flow of population and other factors in 
 international competition, are ever bringing before us. 
 Every Minister, every public department, are involved ; 
 and this being so, it is the duty of the whole nation — 
 King, Lords and Commons — to do what is necessary 
 to place our scientific institutions on a proper footing in 
 order to enable us to " face the music," whatever the 
 future may bring. The idea that science is useful only 
 to our industries comes from want of thought. If any- 
 one is under the impression that Britain is only suffering at 
 present from the want of the scientific spirit among our 
 

 TNFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORY. 179 
 
 industrial classes, and that those employed in the State 
 service possess adequate brain-power and grip of the con- 
 ditions of the modern world into which science so largely 
 enters, let him read the Report of the Royal Commission 
 on the War in South Africa. There he will see how the 
 whole '* system " employed was, in Sir Henry Bra.cken- 
 bury's words applied to a part of it, *^ unsuited to the re- 
 quirements of an army which is maintained to enable us to 
 m^ke war'' Let him read also in the Address of the 
 President of the Society of Chemical Industry what 
 drastic steps had to be taken by Chambers of Commerce 
 and " a quarter of a million of working-men " to get the 
 Patent Law Amendment Act into proper shape in spite of 
 all the advisers and officials of the Board of Trade. Very 
 few people realise the immense number of scientific 
 problems the solution of which is required for the State 
 service. The nation itself is a gigantic workshop ; and the 
 more our rulers and legislators, administrators and execu- 
 tive officers possess the scientific spirit, the more the rule 
 of thumb is replaced in the State service by scientific 
 methods, the more able shall we be, thus armed at all 
 points, to compete successfully with other countries along 
 all lines of national as well as of commercial activity. 
 
 It is obvious that the power of a nation for war, in 
 men and arms and ships, is one thing ; its power in the 
 peace struggles to which I have referred is another. In 
 the latter the source and standard of national efficiency 
 are entirely changed. To meet war conditions, there must 
 be equality or superiority in battleships and army corps. 
 To meet the new peace conditions, there must be equality 
 or superiority in Universities, scientific organisation and 
 everything which conduces to greater brain-power. 
 
 M2 
 
180 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 Our Industries are Suffering in the Present International 
 
 Competition. 
 
 The present condition of the nation, so far as its in- 
 dustries are concerned, is as well known, not only to the 
 Prime Minister, but to other political leaders in and out 
 of the Cabinet, as it is to you and to me. Let me refer 
 to two speeches delivered by Lord Rosebery and Mr. 
 Chamberlain on two spiccessive days in January 1901. 
 
 Lord Rosebery spoke as follows : — 
 
 "... The war I regard with apprehension is the war of trade which 
 is unmistakably upon us. . . . When I look round me I cannot blind 
 my eyes to the fact that, so far as we can predict anything of the twen- 
 tieth century on which we have now entered, it is that it will be one of 
 acutest international conflict in point of trade. We were the first 
 nation of the modern world to discover that trade was an absolute 
 necessity. For that we were nicknamed a nation of shopkeepers ; but 
 now every nation wishes to be a nation of shopkeepers too, and I am 
 bound to say that when we look at the character of some of these 
 nations, and when we look at the intelligence of their preparations, 
 we may well feel that it behoves us not to fear, but to gird up our loins 
 in preparation for what is before us." 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain's views were stated in the following 
 words : — 
 
 " I do not think it is necessary for me to say anything as to the 
 urgency and necessity of scientific training. ... It is not too much to 
 say that the existence of this country, as the great commercial nation, 
 depends upon it. . . . It depends very much upon what we are doing 
 now, at the beginning of the twentieth century, whether at its end we 
 shall continue to maintain our supremacy or even equality with our 
 great commercial and manufacturing rivals." 
 
 All this refers to our industries. We are suffering 
 because trade no longer follows the flag as in the old days, 
 but because trade follows the brains, and our manu- 
 facturers are too apt to be careless in securing them. In 
 one chemical establishment in Germany 400 doctors of 
 
INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORY. 181 
 
 jience, the best the universities there can turn out, 
 ive been employed at different times in late years. In 
 the United States the most successful students in the 
 higher teaching centres are snapped up the moment they 
 have finished their course of training, and put into charge 
 of large concerns, so that the idea has got abroad that 
 youth is the password of success in American industry. 
 It has been forgotten that the latest product of the highest 
 scientific education must necessarily be young, and that 
 it IS the training and not the age which determines his 
 employment. In Britain, on the other hand, apprentices 
 who can pay high premiums are too often preferred to 
 those who are well educated, and the old rule-of-thumb 
 processes are preferred to new developments — a con- 
 IJBervatism too often depending upon the master's own 
 ■rant of knowledge. 
 
 » I should not be doing my duty if I did not point out 
 '^at the defeat of our industries one after another, con- 
 cerning which both Lord Rosebery and Mr. Chamberlain 
 express their anxiety, is by no means the only thing 
 jBre have to consider. The matter is not one which con- 
 ■erns our industrial classes only, for knowledge must be 
 pursued for its own sake ; and since the full life of a 
 nation with a constantly increasing complexity, not only 
 of industrial, but of high national aims, depends upon the 
 
 faiversal presence of the scientific spirit — in other words, 
 rain-power — our whole national life is involved. 
 he Necessity for a Body dealing with the Organisation of 
 Science, 
 
 The present awakening in relation to the nation's real 
 needs is largely due to the warnings of men of science. 
 
182 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 But Mr. Balfour's terrible Manchester picture of our 
 present educational condition* shows that the warning, 
 which has been going on now for more than fifty years, 
 has not been forcible enough ; but if my contention that 
 other reorganisations besides that of our education are 
 needed is well founded, and if men of science are to act the 
 part of good citizens in taking their share in endeavouring 
 to bring about a better state of things, the question arises, 
 Has the neglect of their warnings so far been due to the 
 way in which these have been given ? 
 
 Lord Kosebery, in the address to a Chamber of Com- 
 merce from which I have already quoted, expressed his 
 opinion that such bodies do not exercise so much 
 influence as might be expected of them. But if 
 commercial men do not use all the power their organisa- 
 tion provides, do they not by having built up such 
 an organisation put to shame us students of science, 
 who are still the most disorganised members of the 
 community ? 
 
 Here, in my opinion, we have the real reason why the 
 scientific needs of the nation fail to command the atten- 
 tion either of the public or of successive Governments. 
 At present, appeals on this or on that behalf are the 
 appeals of individuals ; science has no collective voice on 
 the larger national questions ; there is no organised body 
 which formulates her demands. 
 
 During many years it has been part of my duty to con- 
 sider such matters, and I have been driven to the con- 
 clusion that our great crying need is to bring about an 
 
 * " The existing educational system of tliis country is chaotic, is ineliectual, in 
 utterly behind the age, makes us the laughing-stock of every advanced nation in 
 Europe and America, puts us behind, not only our American cousins, but the 
 (Jerman and the Frenchman and the Italian." — The Times, October 15, 1902. 
 
INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HIS 
 
 )rgamsation of men of science and all interested in science 
 
 similar to those which prove so effective in other branches 
 
 ■gof human activity. For the last few years I have dreamt 
 
 of a Chamber, Guild, League, call it what you will, with 
 
 a wide and large membership, which should give us what, 
 
 1a my opinion, is so urgently needed. Quite recently I 
 iketched out such an organisation, but what was my 
 kstonishment to find that I had been forestalled, and by 
 he founders of the British Association. 
 The British Association such a Body. 
 At the commencement of this Address I pointed out 
 that one of the objects of the Association, as stated by 
 ■Its founders, was " to obtain a more general attention to 
 Khe objects of science and a removal of any disadvantages 
 of a public kind which impede its progress." 
 
 Everyone connected with the British Association from 
 
 its beginning may be congratulated upon the magnificent 
 
 ray in which the other objects of the Association have 
 
 jen carried out ; but as one familiar with the association 
 
 )r the last forty years I cannot but think that the object 
 
 which I have specially referred has been too much 
 
 overshadowed by the work done in connection with the 
 
 ^thers. 
 
 IP A careful study of the early history of the Association 
 leads me to the belief that the function I am now dwelling 
 on was strongly in the minds of the founders ; but be this 
 llgAs it may, let me point out how admirably the organisa- 
 tion is framed to enable men of science to influence public 
 opinion and so to bring pressure to bear upon Govern- 
 ments which follow public opinion. (1) Unlike all the 
 other chief metropolitan societies, its outlook is not limited 
 
184 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. ^^ 
 
 to any branch or branches of science. (2) We have 
 a wide and numerous fellowship, including both the 
 leaders and the lovers of science, in which all branches of 
 science are and always have been included with the utmost 
 catholicity — a condition which renders strong committees 
 possible on any subject. (3) An annual meeting at a 
 time when people can pay attention to the deliberations, 
 and when the newspapers can print reports. (4) The 
 possibility of beating up recruits and establishing local 
 committees in different localities, even in the King's 
 dominions beyond the seas, since the place of meeting 
 changes from year to year, and is not limited to these 
 islands. 
 
 We not only, then, have a scientific Parliament com- 
 petent to deal with all matters, including those of national 
 importance, relating to science, but machinery for in- 
 fluencing all new councils and committees dealing with 
 local matters, the functions of which are daily becoming 
 more important. 
 
 The machinery might consist of our Corresponding 
 Societies. We already have affiliated to us seventy 
 societies with a membership of 25,000. Were this num- 
 ber increased so as to include every scientific society 
 metropolitan and provincial, in the Empire, we might 
 eventually hope for a membership of half a million. 
 
 I am glad to know that the Council is fully alive to the 
 importance of giving a greater impetus to the work of the 
 corresponding societies. During this year a committee 
 was appointed to deal with the question ; and later still, 
 after this committee had reported, a conference was 
 held between this committee and the Corresponding 
 Societies' Committee to consider the suggestions made. 
 
 \ 
 
lOTLUENCE OF BRAIIT-POWER OK TIRTORY. l! 
 
 some of which will be gathered from the following ex- 
 tract : — 
 
 f" In view of the increasing importance of science to the nation at 
 large, your committee desire to call the attention of the Council to the 
 fact that in the corresponding societies the British Association has 
 gathered in the various centres represented by these societies practically 
 all the scientific activity of the provinces. The number of members 
 ► and associates at present on the list of the corresponding societies 
 approaches 25,000, and no organisation is in existence anywhere in the 
 country better adapted than the British Association for stimulating, 
 
 {encouraging and co-ordinating all the work being carried on by the 
 seventy societies at present enrolled. Your committee are of opinion 
 that further encouragement should be given to these societies and 
 their individual working members by every means within the power 
 of the Association ; and with the object of keeping the corresponding 
 Societies in more permanent touch with the Association they suggest 
 than an official invitation on behalf of the Council be addressed to the 
 societies, through the Corresponding Societies' Committee, asking them 
 to appoint standing British Association sub-committees, to be elected 
 by themselves, with the object of dealing with all those subjects of 
 investigation common to their societies and to the British Association 
 committees, and to look after the general interests of science and 
 scientific education throughout the provinces and provincial centres. . . 
 " Your committee desire to lay special emphasis on the necessity for 
 the extension of the scientific activity of the corresponding societies and 
 the expert knowledge of many of their members in the direction of 
 scientific education. They are of opinion that immense benefit would 
 accrue to the country if the corresponding societies would keep this 
 requirement especially in view with the object of securing adequate 
 representation for scientific education on the Education Committees 
 now being appointed under the new Act. The educational section of the 
 Association having been but recently added, the corresponding societies 
 have as yet not had much opportunity for taking part in this branch of 
 the Association's work ; and in view of the re-organisation in education 
 now going on all over the country your committee are of opinion that no 
 more opportune time is likely to occur for the influence of scientific 
 organisations to make itself felt as a real factor in national educa- 
 tion. . . ." 
 
 I believe that if these suggestions or anything like 
 
 them — for some better way may be found on inquiry — 
 
186 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 are accepted, great good to science throughout the Em- 
 pire will come. Rest assured that sooner or later such 
 a Guild will be formed, because it is needed. It is for 
 you to say whether it shall be, or form part of, the British 
 Association. We in this Empire certainly need to orga- 
 nise science as much as in Germany they find the need 
 to organise a navy. The German Navy League, which 
 has branches even in our Colonies, already has a member- 
 ship of 630,000 and its income is nearly £20,000 a year. 
 A British Science League of 500,000 with a sixpenny 
 subscription would give us £12,500 a year, quite enough 
 to begin with. 
 
 I for one believe that the British Association would 
 be a vast gainer by such an expansion of one of its 
 existing functions. Increased authority and prestige would 
 follow its increased utility. The meetings would possess 
 a new interest ; there would be new subjects for reports ; 
 missionary work less needed than formerly would be 
 replaced by efforts much more suited to the real wants 
 of the time. This magnificent, strong and complicated 
 organisation would become a living force, working 
 throughout the year instead of practically lying idle, 
 useless and rusting for fifty-one weeks out of the fifty- 
 two so far as its close association with its members is 
 concerned. 
 
 If this suggestion in any way commends itself to you, 
 then when you begin your work in your sections or 
 General Committee see to it that a body is appointed 
 to inquire how the thing can be done. Remember that 
 the British Association will be as much weakened by 
 the creation of a new body to do the work I have shown 
 to have been in the minds of its founders as I believe 
 
 1 
 
INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORY. 187 
 
 will be strengthened by becoming completely effec- 
 ive in every one of the directions they indicated, and 
 (or which effectiveness we, their successors, are indeed 
 responsible. The time is appropriate for such a rein- 
 forcement of one of the wings of our organisation, for 
 we have recently included Education among our sections. 
 There is another matter I should like to see referred 
 IBo the committee I have spoken of, if it please you to 
 [■appoint it. The British Association — which, as I have 
 Bilready pointed out, is now the chief body in the Empire 
 '^ivhich deals with the totality of science — is, I believe, 
 i^jthe only organisation of any consequence which is with- 
 iBbut a charter, and which has not His Majesty the King 
 as patron. 
 
 I 
 
 The First Work of such an Organisation, 
 
 I suppose it is my duty, after I have suggested the 
 need of organisation, to tell you my personal opinion as 
 to the matters where we suffer most in consequence of 
 our lack of organisation at the present time. 
 
 Our position as a nation, our success as merchants, 
 are in peril chiefly — dealing with preventable causes — 
 because of our lack of completely efficient Universities 
 and our neglect of research. This research has a double 
 end. A professor who is not learning cannot teach pro- 
 perly or arouse enthusiasm in his students ; while a 
 student of anything who is unfamiliar with research 
 methods and without that training which research brings, 
 will not be in the best position to apply his knowledge 
 in after-life. From neglect of research comes imperfect 
 education and a small output of new applications and 
 new knowledge to reinvigorate our industries. From 
 
188 EDUdAT'ION AND NATIONAL PROaRESS. 
 
 imperfect education comes the unconcern touching 
 scientific matters and the too frequent absence of the 
 scientific spirit in the nation generally, from the Court 
 to the Parish Council. 
 
 I propose to deal as briefly as I can with each of these 
 points. 
 
 Universities, 
 
 I have shown that, so far as our industries are con- 
 cerned, the cause of our failure has been run to earth ; 
 it is fully recognised that it arises from the insufiiciency 
 of our Universities both in numbers and efficiency, so 
 that not only our captains of industry, but those . em- 
 ployed in the nation's work generally, do not secure a 
 training similar to that afforded by other nations. No 
 additional endowment of primary, secondary or tech- 
 nical instruction will mend matters. This is not merely 
 the opinion of men of science ; our great towns know it, 
 our ministers know it. 
 
 It is sufiicient for me to quote Mr. Chamberlain : — 
 
 " It is not everyone who can, by any possibility, go forward into the 
 higher spheres of education ; but it is from those who do that we have to 
 look for the men who in the future will carry high the flag of this country 
 in commercial, scientific and economic competition with other nations. 
 At the present moment I believe there is nothing more important than to 
 s ipply the deficiencies which separate us from those with whom we are in 
 the closest competition. In Germany, in America, in our own colony of 
 Canada and in Australia, the higher education of the people has more 
 support from the Government, is carried further, than it is here in the 
 Old Country ; and the result is that in every profession, in every 
 industry, you find the places taken by men and by women who have had 
 a university education. And I would like to see the time in this country 
 when no man should have a chance for any occupation of the better 
 kind, either in our factories, our workshops or our counting-houses, 
 who could not show proof that in the course of his university career he 
 
I 
 
 INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON TLli 
 
 had deserved the position that was ofEered to him. What is it that 
 makes a country ? Of course you may say, and you would be quite 
 right, " The general qualities of the people, their resolution, their 
 intelligence, their pertinacity and many other good quahties." Yes ; 
 but that is not all, and it is not the main creative feature of a great 
 nation. The greatness of a nation is made by its greatest men. It is 
 those we want to educate. It is to those who are able to go, it may be, 
 from the very lowest steps in the ladder, to men who are able to devote 
 their time to higher education, that we have to look to continue the 
 position which we now occupy as at all events one of the greatest 
 nations on the face of the earth. And, feeUng as I do on these subjects, 
 you will not be surprised if I say that I think the time is coming when 
 Governments will give more attention to this matter, and perhaps find 
 a little more money to forward its interests.* 
 
 Our conception of a University has changed. Univer- 
 sity education is no longer regarded as the luxury of the 
 rich, which concerns only those who can afford to pay 
 heavily for it. The Prime Minister in a recent speech, 
 while properly pointing out that the collective effect of our 
 public and secondary schools upon British character 
 cannot be overrated, frankly acknowledged that the boys 
 of seventeen or eighteen who have to be educated in them 
 " do not care a tarthing about the world they live in except 
 in so far as it concerns the cricket-field or the football- 
 field or the river." On this ground they are not to be 
 taught science ; and hence, when they proceed to the 
 University, their curriculum is limited to subjects which 
 were better taught before the modern world existed, or 
 even Galileo was born. But the science which these 
 young gentlemen neglect, with the full approval of their 
 teachers, on their way through the school and the Univer- 
 sity to politics, the Civil Service or the management of 
 commercial concerns, is now one of the great necessities 
 of a nation ; and our Universities must become as much 
 
 ♦ The Times, J^oy ember 6, 1902, 
 
190 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PRdGRESS. 
 
 the insurers of the future progress as battleships are the 
 insurers of the present power of States. In other words, 
 University competition between States is now as potent 
 as competition in building battleships ; and it is on this 
 ground that our University conditions become of the 
 highest national concern, and therefore have to be referred 
 to here, and all the more because our industries are not 
 alone in question. 
 
 Why we have not more Universities, 
 
 Chief among the causes which have brought us to the 
 terrible condition of inferiority as compared with other 
 nations in which we find ourselves are our carelessness in 
 the matter of education and our false notions of the 
 limitations of State functions in relation to the conditions 
 of modern civilisation. 
 
 Time was when the Navy was largely a matter of private 
 and local effort. William the Conqueror gave privileges 
 to the Cinque Ports on the condition that they furnished 
 fifty-two ships when wanted. In the time of Edward III., 
 of 730 sail engaged in the siege of Calais 705 were ^' people's 
 ships." All this has passed away ; for our first line of 
 defence we no longer depend on private and local effort. 
 
 Time was when not a penny was spent by the State on 
 elementary education. Again, we no longer depend upon 
 private and local effort. The Navy and primary educa- 
 tion are now recoginsed as properly calling upon the 
 public for the necessary financial support. But when we 
 pass from primary to University education, instead of 
 State endowment we find State neglect ; we are in a 
 region where it is nobody's business to see that anything 
 is done. 
 

 ^ENCE 01 
 
 >R^ 
 
 191 
 
 We in Great Britain have thirteen Universities compet- 
 ing with 134 State and privately endowed in the United 
 States and twenty-two State endowed in Germany. I 
 leave other countries out of consideration for lack of time, 
 and I omit all reference to higher institutions for technical 
 training, of which Germany alone possesses nine of Uni- 
 versity rank, because they are less important ; they in- 
 struct rather than educate, and our want is education. 
 The German State gives to one University more than the 
 British Government allows to all the Universities and 
 University Colleges in England, Ireland, Scotland and 
 Wales put together. These are the conditions which 
 egulate the production of brain-power in the United 
 tates, Germany and Britain respectively, and the excuse 
 of the Government is that this is a matter for private 
 effort. Do not our Ministers of State know that other 
 civilised countries grant efl&cient State aid, and, further, 
 that private effort has provided in Great Britain less 
 than 10 per cent, of the sum thus furnished in the United 
 States in addition to State aid ? Are they content that 
 we should go under in the great struggle of the modern 
 world because the Ministries of other States are wiser, 
 and because the individual citizens of another country 
 are more generous, than our own ? 
 
 If we grant that there was some excuse for the State's 
 neglect so long as the h'gher teaching dealt only with words, 
 and books alone had to be provided (for the streets of 
 London and Paris have been used as class-rooms at a 
 pinch), it must not be forgotten that during the last 
 hundred years not only has knowledge been enormously 
 increased, but things have replaced words, and fully 
 ecjuipped laboratories must take the place of books and 
 
192 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 class-rooms if University training worthy of the name 
 is to be provided. There is much more difference in size 
 and kind between an old and a new University than there 
 is between the old caravel and a modern battleship, and 
 the endowments must follow suit. 
 
 What are the facts relating to private endowment in 
 this country ? In spite of the munificence displayed by 
 a small number of individuals in some localities, the truth 
 must be spoken. In depending in our country upon this 
 form of endowment we are trusting to a broken reed. If 
 we take the twelve English University Colleges, the fore- 
 runners of Universities unless we are to perish from lack of 
 knowledge, we find that private effort during sixty years has 
 found less than £4,000,000 ; that is, £2,000,000 for build- 
 ings, and £40,000 a year income. This gives us an average 
 of £166,000 for buildings, and £3,300 for yearly income. 
 
 What is the scale of private effort we have to compete 
 with in regard to the American Universities ? 
 
 In the United States, during the last few years. Univer- 
 sities and colleges have received more than £40,000,000 
 from this source alone ; private effort supplied nearly 
 £7,000,000 in the years 1898-1900. 
 
 Next consider the amount of State aid to Universities 
 afforded in Germany. The buildings of the new Univer- 
 sity of Strassburg have already cost nearly £1,000,000 ; 
 that is, about as much as has yet been found by private 
 effort for buildings in Manchester, Liverpool, Birming- 
 ham, Bristol, Newcastle and Sheffield. The Government 
 annual endowment of the same German University *s 
 more than £49,000. 
 
 This is what private endowment does for us in England^ 
 against State endowment in Germany. 
 

 ! 
 
 INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORY. 193 
 
 But the State does really concede the principle ; its 
 present contribution to our Universities and colleges 
 amounts to £155,600 a year. No capital sum, however, 
 is taken for buildings. The State endowment of the 
 University of Berlin in 1891-1892 amounted to £168,777. 
 
 When, then, we consider the large endowments of Uni- 
 versity education both in the United States and Germany, 
 it is obvious that State aid only can make any valid 
 competition possible with either. The more we study the 
 facts, the more statistics are gone into, the more do we 
 find that we, to a large extent, lack both of the sources 
 of endowment upon one or other, or both, of which other 
 nations depend. We are between two stools, and the 
 prospect is hopeless without some drastic changes. And 
 fi.rst among these, if we intend to get out of the present 
 Slough of Despond, must be the giving up of the idea of 
 relying upon private effort. 
 
 That we lose most where the State does least is known 
 to Mr. Chamberlain, for in his speech, to which I have 
 referred, on the University of Birmingham, he said : — 
 
 " As the importance of the aim we are pursuing becomes more and 
 more impressed upon the minds of the people, we may find that wo 
 shall be more generously treated by the State." 
 
 Later still, on the occasion of a visit to University 
 College School, Mr. Chamberlain spoke as follows : — 
 
 '* When we are spending, as we are, many millions — I think it is 
 13,000,000/. — a year on primary education, it certainly seems as if we 
 might add a little more, even a few tens of thousands, to what we give to 
 university and secondary education."* 
 
 To compete on equal grounds with other nations we 
 must have more Universities. But this is not all — we 
 
 The Times f November 6, 1902. 
 
194 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 want a far better endowment of all the existing ones, not 
 forgetting better opportunities for research on the part of 
 both professors and students. Another crying need is 
 that of more professors and better pay. Another is the 
 reduction of fees ; they should be reduced to the level 
 existing in those countries which are competing with us — 
 to, say, one-fifth of their present rates, so as to enable 
 more students in the secondary and technical schools to 
 complete their education. 
 
 In all these ways facilities would be afforded for 
 providing the highest instruction to a much greater 
 number of students. At present there are almost 
 as many professors and instructors in the Universities 
 and colleges of the United States as there are day 
 students in the Universities and colleges of the United 
 Kingdom. 
 
 Men of science, our leaders of industry and the chiefs 
 of our political parties all agree that our present want of 
 higher education — in other words, properly equipped 
 Universities — ^is heavily handicapping us in the present 
 race for commercial supremacy, because it provides a 
 relatively inferior brain-power, which is leading to a rela- 
 tively reduced national income. 
 
 The facts show that in this country we cannot depend 
 upon private effort to put matters right. How about local 
 effort ? t 
 
 Anyone who studies the statistics of modern munici- 
 palities will see that it is impossible for them to raise 
 rates for the building and upkeep of Universities. 
 
 The buildings of the most modern University in Ger- 
 many have cost £1,000,000. For upkeep the yearly sums 
 found, chiefly by the State, for German Universities of 
 
INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORY. 195 
 
 First Class 
 Second Class 
 
 Third Class 
 
 Fourth Class 
 
 different grades, taking the incomes of seven out of the 
 iwenty-two Universities as examples, are : — 
 
 £ 
 Berlin - - - 130,000 
 
 Sngen} " " " ^^^^^ 
 
 Sw/} ■ - - *«>«« 
 |HeidelbergJ . . . 3,^^ 
 
 Thus, if Leeds, which is to have a University, is content 
 with the fourth class German standard, a rate must be 
 levied of 7d. in the £ for yearly expenses, independent of 
 all buildings. But the facts are that our towns are already 
 at the breaking strain. During the last fifty years, in 
 spite of enormous increases in rateable values, the rates 
 IBbave gone up from about 2s. to about 7s. in the £ for real 
 ■ocaZ purposes. But no University can be a merely local 
 institution. 
 
 What, then, is to be done ? Fortunately, we have a 
 
 ecedent admirably in point, the consideration of which 
 
 ay help us to answer this question. 
 
 I have pointed out that in old days our Navy was chiefly 
 ^.ovided by local and private effort. Fortunately for us 
 those days have passed away ; but some twenty years 
 
 fo, in spite of a large expenditure, it began to be felt 
 \iy those who knew, that in consequence of the increase 
 rf foreign navies our sea-power was threatened, as now, 
 
 consequence of the increase of foreign Universities, our 
 >rain-power is threatened. 
 
 The nation slowly woke up to find that its enormous 
 
 >nimerce was no longer insured at sea, that in relation 
 
196 EDUCATION AND NATI(3NAL PROGRESS. 
 
 to foreign navies our own had been suffered to dwindle 
 to such an extent that it was no longer capable of doing 
 the duty which the nation expected of it even in times of 
 peace. At first this revelation was received with a shrug 
 of incredulity, and the peace-at-any-price party denied 
 that anything was needed ; but a great teacher arose ;* 
 as the facts were inquired into, the suspicion changed into 
 an alarm ; men of all^ parties saw that something must be 
 done. Later the nation was thoroughly aroused, and with 
 an universal agreement the principle was laid down that, 
 cost what it might to enforce our sea -power, our Navy 
 must be made and maintained of a strength greater than 
 those of any two possibly contending Powers. After 
 establishing this principle, the next thing to do was to 
 give effect to it. What did the nation do after full dis- 
 cussion and inquiry ? A Bill was brought in in 1888, 
 and a sum of £21,500,000 was voted in order, during the 
 next five years, to inaugurate a large ship-building pro- 
 gramme, so that Britain and Britain's commerce might 
 be guarded on the high seas in any event. 
 
 Since then we have spent £120,000,000 on new ships, 
 and this year we spend still more millions on still more 
 new ships. If these prove insufficient to safeguard our 
 sea-power, there is no doubt that the nation will increase 
 them, and I have not heard that anybody has suggested 
 an appeal to private effort. 
 
 How, then, do we stand with regard to Universities, 
 recognising them as the chief producers of brain-power 
 and therefore the equivalents of battleships in relation to 
 sea-power ? Do their numbers come up to the standard 
 
 * Captain Mahan, of the U.S. Navy, whose book, " On the Influence of Sea- 
 power on History," has suggested the title of my address. 
 
coJ 
 
 t TtTCk 
 
 INFLUENCE ov Brain-power on history, lo? 
 
 tablished by the Admiralty principle to which I have 
 
 ferred ? Let us attempt to get a rough-and-ready 
 
 timate of our educational position by counting Univer- 
 ties as the Admiralty counts battleships. I say rough- 
 and-ready, because we have other helps to greater brain 
 power to consider besides Universities, as the Admiralty 
 has other ships to consider besides ironclads. 
 I In the first place, let us inquire if they are equal in num- 
 ber to those of any two nations commercially competing 
 with us. 
 
 In the United Kingdom we had until quite recently 
 thirteen.* Of these, one is only three years old as a 
 teaching University, and another is still merely an examin- 
 ing board. 
 
 I In Germany there are twenty-two Universities ; in 
 France, under recent legislation, fifteen ; in Italy, twenty- 
 one. It is difficult to give the number in the United 
 States, because it is clear, from the tables given in the 
 Report of the Commissioner of Education, that some 
 colleges are more important than some Universities, and 
 
 th give the degree of Ph.D. But of Universities in title 
 we have 134. Among these, there are forty-six each with 
 more than fifty professors and instructors, and thirteen 
 of these with more than 150. I will take that figure. 
 
 Suppose we consider the United States and Germany, 
 our chief commercial competitors, and apply the Admiralty 
 principle. We should require, allowing for population, 
 eight additional Universities at the very lowest estimate. 
 
 We see, then, that instead of having Universities 
 
 * Thase are Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Victoria, Wales, Birniinghaiii, 
 London, St. Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen. Edinburgh, Dublin and Royal 
 University. 
 
198 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 equalling in number those of two of our chief competitors 
 together, they are by no means equal to those of either 
 of them singly. 
 
 After this statement of the facts, anyone who has belief 
 in the importance of higher education will have no difficulty 
 in understanding the origin of the present condition of 
 British industry and its constant decline, first in one 
 direction and then in another, since the tremendous efforts 
 made in the United States and Germany began to take 
 effect. 
 
 If, indeed, there be anything wrong about the compari- 
 son, the error can only arise from one of two sources — either 
 the Admiralty is thoughtlessly and wastefully spending 
 money, or there is no connection whatever between the 
 higher intelligence and the prosperity of a nation. I have 
 already referred to the views of Mr. Chamberlain and 
 Lord Rosebery on this point ; we know what Mr. Cham- 
 berlain has done at Birmingham ; we know the strenuous 
 efforts made by the commercial leaders of Manchester 
 and Liverpool ; we know, also, the opinion of men of 
 science. 
 
 If while we spend so freely to maintain our sea-power 
 our export of manufactured articles is relatively reduced 
 because our competitors beat us in the markets of the 
 world, what is the end of the vista thus opened up to us ? 
 A Navy growing stronger every year and requiring larger 
 votes to guard our commerce and communications, and 
 a vanishing quantity of commerce to guard — a reduced 
 national income to meet an increasing taxation ! 
 
 The pity is that our Government has considered sea- 
 power alone ; that while so completely guarding our 
 commerce it has given no thought to one of the main con- 
 
 ( 
 

 INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORY. 199 
 
 ditions on which its production and increase depend. A 
 glance could have shown that other countries were build- 
 ing Universities even faster than they were building 
 battleships ; were, in fact, considering brain-power first 
 and sea -power afterwards. 
 
 Surely it is my duty as your President to point out the 
 danger ahead, if such ignoring of the true situation should 
 be allowed to continue. May I express a hope that at last, 
 in Mr. Chamberlain's words, " The time is coming when 
 Governments will give more attention to this matter " ? 
 
 What will they cost ? 
 
 The comparison shows that we want eight new Univer- 
 sities, some of which, of course, will be colleges promoted 
 to University rank and fitted to carry on University work 
 Three of them are already named : Manchester, Liver- 
 pool, Leeds. 
 
 Let us take this number and deal with it on the battle- 
 ship condition, although a modern University on American 
 or German models will cost more to build than a battle- 
 ship. 
 
 If our present University shortage be dealt with on 
 
 battleship conditions, to correct it we should expend at 
 
 least £8,000,000 for new construction, and for the pay- 
 
 ^ sheet we should have to provide (8 x £50,000) £400,000 
 
 linearly for personnel and up-keep ; for it is of no use to 
 
 build either ships or Universities without manning them. 
 
 Itpiet us say, roughly, capitalising the yearly payment at 
 
 '2J per cent., £24,000,000. 
 |B At this stage it is important to inquire whether this 
 l^nim, arrived at by analogy merely, has any relation to our 
 real University needs. 
 
200 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 I have spent a year in making inquiries, as full as I could 
 make them, of friends conversant with the real present 
 needs of each of the Universities, old and new. I have 
 obtained statistics which would fill a volume, and person- 
 ally I believe that this sum at least is required to bring 
 our University system up to anything like the level which 
 is insisted upon both in the United States and in Grer- 
 many. Even Oxford, our oldest University, will still con- 
 tinue to be a mere bundle of colleges unless £3,000,000 
 are provided to enable the University, properly so called, 
 to take her place among her sisters of the modern world ; 
 and Sir Oliver Lodge, the Principal of our very youngest 
 University, Birmingham, has shown in detail how 
 £5,000,000 can be usefully and properly applied in that one 
 locality to utilise for the good of the nation the enthusiasm 
 and scientific capacity which are only waiting for ade- 
 quate opportunity of development. 
 
 How is this money to be raised ? I reply, without 
 hesitation. Duplicate the Navy Bill of 1888-1889 ; do at 
 once for brain-power what we so successfully did then for 
 sea-power. 
 
 Let £24,000,000 be set apart from one asset, our national 
 wealth, to increase the other, brain-power. Let it be 
 assigned and borrowed as it is wanted ; there will be a 
 capital sum for new buildings to be erected in the next 
 five or ten years, the interest of the remainder to go towards 
 increased annual endowments. 
 
 There need be no difficulty about allocating money to 
 the various institutions. Let each University make 
 up its mind as to which rank of the German Universi- 
 ties it wishes to emulate. When this claim has been 
 agreed to, the sums necessary to provide the buildings 
 
INFLUENCE OP BRAlN-POWER ON HISTORY. 201 
 
 ind teaching staff of that class of University should 
 >e granted without demur. 
 
 It is the case of battleships over again, and money need 
 lot be spent more freely in one case than in the other. 
 
 Let me at once say that this sum is not to be regarded 
 as practically gone when spent, as in the case of a short- 
 
 I lived ironclad. It is a loan which will bear a high rate of 
 Interest. This is not my opinion merely ; it is the opinion 
 bf those concerned in great industrial enterprises and fully 
 alive to the origin and effects of the present condition 
 |U)f things. 
 
 '" I have been careful to point out that the statement 
 ^^^hat our industries are suffering from our relative neglect 
 l^pf science does not rest on my authority. But if this 
 be true, then if our annual production is less by only 
 £2,000,000 than it might have been, having £2,000,000 
 less to divide would be equivalent to our having £40,000,000 
 or £50,000,000 less capital than we should have had if we 
 had been more scientific. 
 
 Sir John Brunner, in a speech connected with the Liver- 
 pool School of Tropical Medicine, stated recently that if 
 we as a nation were now to borrow £10,000,000 in 
 order to help science by putting up buildings and 
 endowing professors, we should get the money back in the 
 course of a generation a hundredfold. He added that there 
 was no better investment for a business man than the en- 
 couragement of science, and that every penny he possessed 
 had come from the application of science to commerce. 
 
 According to Sir Robert Giffen, the United Kingdom 
 as a going concern was in 1901 worth £16,000,000,000. 
 
 Were we to put aside £24,000,000 for gradually organ- 
 ising, building, and endowing new Universities, and making 
 
202 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 tlie existing ones more efficient we should still be worth 
 £15,976,000,000 — a property well worth defending by 
 all the means, and chief among these brain-power, we 
 can command. 
 
 If it be held that this, or anything like it, is too great 
 a price to pay for correcting past carelessness or stu- 
 pidity, the reply is that the £120,900,000 recently spent 
 on the Navy, a sum five times greater, has been spent 
 to correct a sleepy blunder, not one whit more inimical 
 to the future welfare of our country than that which has 
 brought about our present educational position. We 
 had not sufficiently recognised what other nations had 
 done in the way of ship -building, just as until now we 
 have not recognised what they have been doing in 
 University building. 
 
 Further, I am told that the sum of £24,000,000 is less 
 than half the amount by which Germany is yearly en- 
 riched by having improved upon our chemical indus- 
 tries, owing to our lack of scientific training. Many 
 other industries have been attacked in the same way 
 since ; but taking this one instance alone, if we had 
 spent this money fifty years ago, when the Prince Con- 
 sort first called attention to our backwardness, the 
 nation would now be much richer than it is, and would 
 have much less to fear from competition. 
 
 Suppose we were to set about putting our educational 
 house in order, so as to secure a higher quality and greater 
 quantity of brain-power, it would not be the first time 
 in history that this has been done. Both Prussia after 
 Jena and France after Sedan acted on the view : — 
 
 " When land is gone and money spent, 
 Then learning is most excellent." 
 
INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORY. 203 
 
 I 
 
 After Jena, which left Prussia a '' bleeding and lacerated 
 mass," the King and his wise counsellors, among them 
 men who had gained knowledge from Kant, determined, 
 as they put it, 'to supply the loss of territory by intellec- 
 tual effort." 
 
 What did they do ? In spite of universal poverty, 
 three Universities, to say nothing of observatories and 
 other institutions, were at once founded, secondary edu- 
 cation was developed, and in a few years the mental 
 resources were so well looked after that Lord Palmer- 
 ston defined the kingdom in question as " a country of 
 damned professors." 
 
 After Sedan— a battle, as Moltke told us, " won by 
 the schoolmaster " — France made even more strenuous 
 efforts. The old University of France, with its '* aca- 
 demies" in various places, was replaced by fifteen inde- 
 pendent Universities, in all of which are faculties of letters, 
 sciences, law and medicine. 
 
 The development of the University of Paris has been 
 truly marvellous. In 1897-8 there were 12,000 students, 
 and the cost was £200,000 a year. 
 
 But even more wonderful than these examples is the 
 " intellectual effort " made by Japan, not after a war, 
 but to prepare for one. 
 
 The question is. Shall we wait for a disaster 
 and then imitate Prussia and France ; or shall we 
 follow Japan and thoroughly prepare by '' intellec- 
 tual effort '' for the industrial struggle which lies 
 before us ? 
 
 Such an effort seems to me to be the first thing any 
 national or imperial scientific organisation should en- 
 deavour to bring about. 
 
204 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 Research. 
 
 When dealing with our Universities I referred to the 
 importance of research, as it is now generally acknow- 
 ledged to be the most powerful engine of education that 
 we possess. But education, after all, is but a means to 
 the end, which, from the national point of view, is the 
 application of old and the production of new knowledge. 
 
 Its national importance apart from education *s now 
 so generally recognised that in all civilised nations except 
 our own means of research are being daily more amply 
 provided for all students after they have passed through 
 their University career; and, more than this, for all 
 who can increase the country's renown or prosperity 
 by the making of new knowledge, upon which not only 
 commercial progress, but all intellectual advance must 
 depend. 
 
 I am so anxious that my statement of our pressing, 
 and indeed imperative, needs in this direction should 
 not be considered as resting upon the possibly interested 
 opinion of a student of science merely that I must trouble 
 you with still more quotations. 
 
 Listen to Mr. Balfour : — 
 
 " I do not believe that any man who looks round the equipment of our 
 universities or medical schools or other places of education can honestly 
 say in his heart that we have done enough to equip research with all the 
 costly armoury which research must have in these modern days. We, 
 the richest country in the world, lag behind Germany, France, Switzer- 
 land and Italy. Is it not disgraceful ? Are we too poor or are we too 
 stupid ? "* 
 
 It is imagined by many who have given no thought 
 to the matter that this research should be closely allied 
 with some application of science being utilised at the 
 
 * Nature, May 30, 1901. 
 
INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORY. 2^ 
 
 time. Nothing could be further from the truth ; nothing 
 could be more unwise than such a limitation. 
 
 Surely all the laws of Nature will be ultimately of 
 service, and therefore there is much more future help to 
 be got from a study of the unknown and the unused 
 than we can hope to obtain by continuing the study of 
 that which is pretty well known and utilised already. 
 It was a King of France, Louis XIV., who first com- 
 ^fcaended the study of the meme inutile. The history of 
 modern science shows us more and more as the years 
 roll on the necessity and advantage of such studies, and 
 therefore the importance of properly endowing them ; 
 for the production of new knowledge :s a costly and 
 unremunerative pursuit. 
 i Years ago we had Faraday apparently wasting his 
 energies and time in playing with needles ; electricity now 
 fills the world. To-day men of science in all lands are 
 studying the emanations of radium ; no research could be 
 more abstract ; but who knows what advance in human 
 thought may follow or what gigantic world-transforming 
 superstructure may eventually be raised on the minute 
 foundation they are laying ? 
 
 If we so organise our teaching forces that we can use them 
 at all stages, from the gutter to the University, to sift out 
 for us potential Faradays — to utilise the mental products 
 which otherwise would be wasted — it is only by enabling 
 such men to continue their learning after their teaching 
 is over that we shall be able to secure the greatest advan- 
 tage which any educational system can afford. 
 I It is now more than thirty years ago that my attention 
 ■ was specially drawn to this question of the endowment 
 
206 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 permanent secretary of the Academy of Sciences, who 
 honoured me by his friendship ; and, secondly, by my 
 association with Sir Benjamin Brodie and Dr. Appleton 
 in their endeavours to call attention to the matter in this 
 country. At that time a general scheme of endowment 
 suggested by Dumas was being carried out by Duruy. 
 This took the form of the " Ecole speciale des Hautes 
 Etudes " ; it was what our fellowship system was meant 
 to be — an endowment of the research of post-graduate 
 students in each seat of learning. The French effort did 
 not begin then. 
 
 I may here tell, as it was told me by Dumas, the story 
 of Leon Foucault, whose many discoveries shed a glory on 
 France and revived French industry in many directions.* 
 In 1851, when Prince Napoleon was President of the 
 Republic, he sent for Dumas and some of his colleagues, and 
 told them that during his stay in England, and afterwards 
 in his study of the Great Exhibition of that year, he had 
 found there a greater industrial development than in 
 France, and more applications of science, adding that he 
 wished to know how such a state of things could be at 
 once remedied. The answer was that new applications 
 depended upon new knowledge, and that therefore the 
 most direct and immediate way was to find and encourage 
 men who were likely by research in pure science to pro- 
 duce this new knowledge. The Prince -President at once 
 asked for names ; that of Leon Foucault was the only 
 one mentioned during the first interview. 
 
 Some time afterwards — to be exact, at about eleven in 
 the morning of December 2nd — Dumas's servant informed 
 him that there was a gentleman in the hall named 
 
 * See Proc. 11. S. vol. xvii. j). Ixxxiii, 
 
JN-POWER 
 
 'ORY. 2( 
 
 Foucault, who wished to see him, and he added that he 
 appeared to be very ill. When shown into the study, 
 Foucault was too agitated to speak, and was blind with 
 tears. His reply to Dumas's soothing questions was to take 
 from his pockets two rolls of banknotes, amounting to 
 200,000 francs, and place them on the table. Finally, he was 
 able to say that he had been with the Prince-President since 
 eight o'clock that morning, discussing the possible improve- 
 ment of French science and industry ; and that Napoleon had 
 finally given him the money, requesting him to do all in 
 his power to aid the State. Foucault ended by saying that, 
 on realising the greatness of the task thus imposed upon 
 him, his fears and feelings had got the better of him, for 
 the responsibility seemed more than he could bear.* 
 
 The movement in England to which I have referred 
 began in 1872, when a society for the organisation of 
 academical study was formed in connection with the 
 inquiry into the revenues of Oxford and Cambridge, and 
 there was a famous meeting at the Freemasons' Tavern, 
 Mark Pattison being in the chair. Brodie, Rolleston, 
 Carpenter, Burdon-Sanderson were among the speakers, 
 and the first resolution carried was, " That to have a class 
 of men whose lives are devoted to research is a national 
 object." The movement died in consequence of the want 
 of sympathy of the University authorities. f 
 
 In the year 1874 the subject was inquired into by the 
 
 * In order to show how history is written, what actually happened on a 
 fateful morning may he compared with tlio account given by Kinglakc : "Prince 
 Louis rode home and went in out of sight. Then for the most part he remained 
 close shut up in the Elysee. There, in an inner room, still decked in red 
 trousers, but with his back to the daylight, they say he sat bent over a fireplace 
 for hours and houi-s together resting his elbows on hia knees, and burying hia 
 face in his hands." — Crimean War, vol. i. p. 245. 
 
 t See Nature, November and December, 1871J. 
 
208 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 late Duke of Devonshire's Commission ; and after taking 
 much remarkable evidence, including that of Lord Salis- 
 bury, the Commission recommended to the Government 
 that the then grant of £1,000, which was expended, by 
 a committee appointed by the Royal Society, on instru- 
 ments needed in researches carried on by private 
 individuals, should be increased, so that personal grants 
 should be made. This recommendation was accepted and 
 acted on ; the grant was increased to £4,000, and finally 
 other societies were associated with the Royal Society 
 in its administration. The committee, however, was 
 timorous, possibly owing to the apathy of the Universities 
 and the general carelessness on such matters, and only one 
 personal grant was made ; the whole conception fell 
 through. 
 
 Meantime, however, opinion has become more educated 
 and alive to the extreme importance of research to the 
 nation, and in 1891 a suggestion was made ta the Royal 
 Commission which administers the proceeds of the 1851 
 Exhibition that a sum of about £6,000 a year available 
 for scholarships should be employed in encouraging post- 
 graduate research throughout the whole Empire. As 
 what happened is told in the Memoirs of Lord Playfair, 
 it is not indiscreet in me to state that when I proposed 
 this new form of the endowment of research it would not 
 have surprised me if the suggestion had been declined. 
 It was carried through by Lord Playfair' s enthusiastic 
 support. This system has been at work ever since, and the 
 good that has been done by it is now generally conceded. 
 
 It is a supreme satisfaction to me to know that in this 
 present year of grace the national importance of the study 
 pf the meme inutile is more generally recognised than it was 
 
INFLUENCE OF BRAINPOWER ON HISTORY. 209 
 
 * 
 
 during the times to which I have referred in my brief 
 
 survey ; and, indeed, we students are fortunate in having 
 
 An our side in this matter two members of His Majesty's 
 
 HSovernment, who two years ago spoke with no uncertain 
 
 sound upon this matter : — 
 
 " Do we lack the imagination required to show what these apparently 
 remote and abstract studies do for the happiness of mankind ? We can 
 (tppieciate that which obviously and directly ministers to human 
 Advancement and felicity, but seem, somehow or another, to be deficient 
 in that higher form of imagination, in that longer sight, which sees in 
 studies which have no obvious, necessary or immediate result the 
 foundation of the knowledge which shall give far greater happiness to 
 mankind than any immediate, material, industrial advancement can 
 possibly do ; and I fear, and greatly fear, that, lacking that imagination, 
 
 Pwe have allowed ourselves to lag in the glorious race run now by civilised 
 untries in pursuit of knowledge, and we have permitted ourselves 
 so far to too large an extent to depend upon others for those additions to 
 , ^ our knowledge which surely we might have made for ourselves."* 
 ^ " I would remind you that all history shows that progress — national 
 progress of every kind — depends upon certain individuals rather than 
 upon the mass. Whether you take religion, or literature, or political 
 government, or art, or commerce, the new ideas, the great steps, have 
 
 »5en made by individuals of superior quality and genius, who have, as it 
 ere, dragged the mass of the nation up one step to a higher level. So 
 it must be in regard to material progress. The position of the nation 
 ^-day is due to the efforts of men like Watt and Arkwright, or, in our 
 Swn time, to the Armstrongs, the Whitworths, the Kelvins and the 
 Siemenses. These are the men, who, by their discoveries, by their 
 
 ,._ remarkable genius, have produced the ideas upon which others have 
 
 jHcted and which have permeated the whole mass of the nation and 
 affected the whole of its proceedings. Therefore what we have to do, 
 
 i^nd this is our special task and object, is to produce more of these great 
 
 Ben."t 
 
 H I finally come to the political importance of research. 
 H. country's research is as important in the long run as its 
 t)attleships. The most eloquent teaching as to its national 
 
 * Mr. Balfour, Nature, May ;iO, 19(11. 
 
 t Mr. Cliamberlain The Times, January 18, 1901. 
 
 
 
210 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 value we owe to Mr. Carnegie, for he has given the sum 
 of £2,000,000 to found a system of endowments, his chief 
 purpose being, in his own words, '' to secure if possible for 
 the United States of America leadership in the domain 
 of discovery and the utilisation of new forces for the benefit 
 of man." 
 
 Here is a distinct challenge to Britain. Judging by 
 experience in this country, in spite of the magnificent 
 endowment of research by Mond and Lord Iveagh, the 
 only source of possible competition in the British interest 
 is the State, which certainly could not put the l/8,000th 
 part of the accumulated wealth of the country to better 
 use ; for without such help both our Universities and our 
 battleships will become of rapidly dwindling importance. 
 
 It is on this ground that I have included the importance 
 of endowing research among the chief points to which I 
 have been anxious to draw your attention. 
 
 The Need of a Scientific National Council, 
 
 In referring to the new struggle for existence among 
 civilised communities I pointed out that the solution of a 
 large number of scientific problems is now daily required 
 for the State service, and that in this and other ways the 
 source and standard of national efficiency have been 
 greatly changed. 
 
 Much evidence bearing upon the amount of scientific 
 knowledge required for the proper administration of the 
 public departments, and the amount of scientific work 
 done by and for the nation, was brought before the Royal 
 Commission on Science presided over by the late Duke of 
 Devonshire now more than a quarter of a century ago. 
 
 The Commission unanimously recommended that the 
 
t 
 
 INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORY. 211 
 
 State should be aided by a scientific council in facing the 
 new problems constantly arising. 
 
 But while the home Government has apparently made 
 up its mind to neglect the advice so seriously given, it 
 should be a source of gratification to us all to know that 
 the application of the resources of modern science to the 
 economic, industrial and agricultural development of 
 India has for many years engaged the earnest attention 
 of the Government of that country. The Famine Com- 
 missioners of 1878 laid much stress on the institution of 
 scientific inquiry and experiment designed to lead to the 
 gradual increase of the food-supply and to the greater 
 stability of agricultural outturn, while the experience of 
 recent years has indicated the increasing importance of the 
 study of the economic products and mineral-bearing tracts. 
 
 Lord Curzon has recently ordered the heads of the 
 various scientific departments to form a board, which shall 
 meet twice annually, to begin with, to formulate a 
 programme and to review past work. The board is also 
 to act as an advisory committee to the Government,* 
 providing among other matters for the proper co-ordina- 
 j||on of all matters of scientific inquiry affecting India's 
 welfare. 
 
 Lord Curzon is to be warmly congratulated upon the 
 step he has taken, which is certain to bring benefit to our 
 great Dependency. 
 
 The importance of such a board is many times greater 
 at home, with so many external as well as internal interests 
 to look after — problems common to peace and war, pro- 
 blem requiring the help of the economic as well as of the 
 physical sciences. 
 
 * Nature, September 4, 1902. 
 
 02 
 
212 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 It may be asked, What is done in Germany, where 
 science is fostered and utilised far more than here ? 
 
 The answer is, There is such a council. I fancy, very 
 much like what our Privy Council once was. It consists 
 of representatives of the Ministry, the universities, the 
 industries and agriculture. It is small, consisting of 
 about a dozen members, consultative, and it reports direct 
 to the Emperor. It does for industrial war what military 
 and so-called defence councils do for national armaments ; 
 it considers everything relating to the use of brain-power in 
 peace — from alterations in school regulations and the 
 organisation of the universities, to railway rates and 
 fiscal schemes, including the adjustment of duties. I am 
 informed that what this council advises, generally becomes 
 law. 
 
 It should be pretty obvious that a nation so provided 
 must have enormous chances in its favour. It is a ques- 
 tion of drilled battalions against an undisciplined army, 
 of the use of the scientific spirit as opposed to the hope 
 of " muddling through." 
 
 Mr. Haldane has recently reminded us that " the weapons 
 which science places in the hands of those who engage in 
 great rivalries of commerce leave those who are without 
 them, however brave, as badly off as were the dervishes 
 of Omdurman against the Maxims of Lord Kitchener." 
 
 Without such a machinery as this, how can our Ministers 
 and our rulers be kept completely informed on a thousand 
 things of vital importance ? Why should our position 
 and requirements as an industrial and thinking nation 
 receive less attention from the authorities than the head- 
 dress of the Guards ? How, in the words of Lord Curzon,* 
 
 " The Times, September 30, 1902, 
 

 rpLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORYl^fiF 
 
 can " the life and vigour of a nation be summed up before 
 the world in the person of its sovereign " if the national 
 organisation is so defective that it has no means of keeping 
 the head of the State informed on things touching the 
 most vital and lasting interests of the country ? We 
 seem to be still in the Palaeolithic Age in such matters, 
 the chief difference being that the sword has replaced the 
 flint implement. 
 
 Some may say that it is contrary to our habit to expect 
 the Government to interest itself too much or to spend 
 money on matters relating to peace ; that war dangers 
 are the only ones to be met or to be studied. 
 
 But this view leaves science and the progress of science 
 out of the question. Every scientific advance is now, and 
 will in the future be more and more, applied to war. It is 
 no longer a question of an armed force with scientific 
 corps ; it is a question of an armed force scientific from 
 top to bottom. Thank God the Navy has already found 
 this out. Science will ultimately rule all the operations 
 both of peace and war, and therefore the industrial and 
 the fighting population must both have a large common 
 ground of education. Already it is not looking too far 
 ahead to see that in a perfect State there will be a double 
 use of each citizen — a peace use and a war use ; and the 
 more science advances, the more the old difference 
 between the peaceful citizen and the man at arms will 
 disappear. The barrack, if it still exists, and the 
 workshop will be assimilated ; the land unit, like 
 the battleship, will become a school of applied science, 
 self-contained, in which the officers will be the efficient 
 teachers. 
 
 I do not think it is yet recognised how much the problem 
 
214 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 of national defence has thus become associated with that 
 with which we are now chiefly concerned. 
 
 These, then, are some of the reasons which compel me 
 to point out that a scientific council, which might be a 
 scientific committee of the Privy Council, in dealing 
 primarily with the national needs in times of peace, would 
 be a source of strength to the nation. 
 
 To sum up, then. My earnest appeal to you is to gird 
 up your loins and see to it that the science of the British 
 Empire shall no longer remain unorganised. I have 
 endeavoured to point out to you how the nation at present 
 suffers from the absence of a powerful, continuous, reasoned 
 expression of scientific opinion, urging in season and out 
 of season that we shall be armed, as other nations are, 
 with eflSicient universities and facilities for research to 
 uphold the flag of Britain in the domain of learning and 
 discovery, and what they alone can bring. 
 
 I have also endeavoured to show how, when this is 
 done, the nation will still be less strong than it need 
 be if there be not added to our many existing councils 
 another, to secure that even during peace the benefits 
 which a proper co-ordination of scientific effort in the 
 nation's interest can bring shall not be neglected as 
 they are at present. 
 
 Lest some of you may think that the scientific organisa- 
 tion which I trust you will determine to found would risk 
 success in working on such large lines, let me remind you 
 that in 1859, when the late Prince Consort occupied this 
 Chair, he referred to " impediments " to scientific progress, 
 and said, " they are often such as can only be successfully 
 dealt with by the powerful arm of the State or the long 
 purse of the nation." 
 
r 
 
 INFLUENCE OF BRAIN-POWER ON HISTORY. 215 
 
 If the Prince Consort had lived to continue his advocacy 
 of science, our position to-day would have been very 
 different. His early death was as bad for Britain as the 
 loss of a great campaign. If we cannot make up what we 
 have lost, matters cannot mend. 
 
 I I have done what I feel to be my duty in bringing the 
 present condition of things before you. It is now your 
 duty, if you agree with me, to see that it be put right. 
 You can if you will. 
 
THE NATIONAL NEED OF THE STATE 
 ENDOWMENT OF UNIVERSITIES.* 
 
 , (1904.) 
 
 (1) The British Association has taken action regarding 
 the State endowment of universities, because at the pre- 
 sent juncture the highest education and research is a 
 matter not merely of academic but of the gravest national 
 concern. 
 
 There is now a general opinion that Britain is in danger 
 of falling behind in the industrial competition now going 
 on between the most highly civilised States. 
 
 The university no less than the primary school is in 
 question, because we are in the midst of a struggle in 
 which science and brains take the place of swords and 
 sinews ; the school, the university, the laboratory and 
 the workshop are the battlefields of this new struggle, 
 and the scientific spirit must not be limited to the work- 
 shop, since other nations utilise it in all branches of their 
 administration and executive. 
 
 The more our legislators, administrators and execu- 
 tive officers possess the scientific spirit, and the more 
 the rule of thumb is replaced by scientific methods, the 
 
 * Statement prepared by the author as President of tlie llritish Association 
 and revised by a committee consisting of the Deputy Vice- Chancel lor of 
 Oxford, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Sir Oliver Lodge, 
 Principal of the University of Birmingham, Sir Michael Foster, M.P., and 
 Sir Henry lloscoe. 
 
STATE ENDOWMENT OF UNIVERSITIES. 217 
 
 lore able shall we be to compete successfully with other 
 countries along all lines of national as well as of commer- 
 cial activity. 
 ,-_ It is a question of an important change of front, of find- 
 IRng a new basis of stability for the Empire in face of new 
 conditions ; and since the full life of a nation with a 
 ll^onstantly increasing complexity, not only industrial 
 Hbut of high national aims, depends upon the universal 
 ^)resence of the scientific spirit, of brain-power, our whole 
 
 I"«».tional life is involved. 
 m Fur^i^ 0/ . Vni^r.U, in a ««*„ So,. 
 The men upon whom the nation must chiefly depend 
 r aid under the complex conditions of the modern world 
 must not be entirely untrained in the study of the nature 
 and causes of the things which surround them, or of the 
 forces which have to be utilised in our daily life ; their 
 training and education in humanities must also have 
 been of the widest. 
 
 Such men cannot be produced either by a university 
 which neglects science or by a technical college which 
 neglects the humanities. 
 
 I Hence the universities must be enabled to combine 
 hese two sides of a complete education, and they must 
 Iso be enabled to foster research along both lines, for 
 esearch is the highest and most important instrument 
 >f education, as well as its most valuable result. When 
 sicience and its applications were of less importance 
 than now the humanities sufficed and university re- 
 quirements were small ; rooms, books and a small 
 number of teachers of a small number of subjects 
 jomprised the essentials of the university. Modern 
 
218 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 university needs have been too much regarded from 
 this old standpoint. 
 
 All this is now changed. For instance, in the most 
 modern German university the buildings, all elaborate 
 and all differing from each other, have already cost a 
 million, and still the university is not complete. Books 
 have to be supplemented by expensive instrumental 
 equipments, which constantly have to be added to 
 or replaced, and by utilising this new material the 
 fruitful ramifications of learning have increased fifty- 
 fold, and the teachers naturally in even greater 
 proportion. 
 
 The extraordinary thing is not that a claim to meet 
 these new conditions is made now, but that we have 
 waited so long for it in this country while other countries 
 faced them long ago. 
 
 The Money, 
 
 Money is required at the present moment for : — 
 
 (1) Buildings and equipments for pure and applied 
 science in both old and new universities. 
 
 (2) Pay and pensions of an increased number of'Jpro- 
 fessors, demonstrators, etc., in pure and applied science 
 in both old and new universities. 
 
 (3) Strengthening of science teaching and research 
 in all, and of the humanities in the new universities. 
 
 (4) Reduction of fees, and the wide educational en- 
 franchisement of proved ability in all classes. 
 
 Hitherto universities have looked mainly to private 
 endowments. Universities have been regarded too 
 much as luxuries of the rich, and perhaps on this ground 
 higher education has been treated by the Government 
 
'ATE ENDOWMENT OF 
 
 IRSITIES. 
 
 219 
 
 as of trivial importance to the nation, as a thing it may 
 properly disregard. 
 
 Judging from the action taken in other countries it is 
 safe to say that private endowment has not produced more 
 than 10 per cent, of the money actually needed in Britain. 
 
 Nor can we rightly appeal to local rate-aid alone. It 
 would be unjust to expect certain restricted localities 
 to provide universities which, if we are to go on, must 
 be utilised by the whole Empire. 
 
 "We are driven then to the State. The other civilised 
 States largely endow their universities ; Germany, with 
 an aggregate income less than ours, spends roughly 
 £1,000,000 a year on its universities. The University of 
 Berlin alone received more than £168,000 from the State 
 in the year 1891-2. In the United States, in addition 
 to £200,000 a year received from the Government, the 
 States supply £700,000 in the aggregate and private 
 endowment £2,000,000. The University of Tokio 
 receives £130,000 a year from the Government of Japan. 
 
 These figures derive their chief importance from the 
 fact that these magnificently endowed and State-aided 
 universities are the institutions we are contending with 
 in the production of men to do the nation's work along 
 all the lines of its activities. 
 
 But the large sums available for the efficient working 
 of the German and American universities are not alone 
 in question. The number of universities in Germany 
 is nearly double that of the British universities. The 
 number of first-class universities in the United States 
 where, as Mr. Choate has told us, education is the chief 
 business of the nation, is nearly four times that of the 
 British universities. 
 
220 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS!^^^B 
 
 Can we Afford to Spend Money on Universities ? 
 
 Britain's great needs at the present moment are brain- 
 power to invigorate our commerce, among other things, 
 and sea-power to guard it, among other things. The 
 State has recently spent £120,000,000 to bring our Navy 
 up to date ; it has not yet spent a single million on our 
 universities. 
 
 Sir Robert Giffen has stated that the yearly income 
 of the people of the United Kingdom may be taken as 
 not less than 1650 millions,and their aggregate expend- 
 ture a few years ago was not less than £1,400,000,000., 
 including £30,000,000 for education, which is less than 
 2 per cent of the whole. The amount borne on the 
 estimates for education is about £13,000,000. 
 
 He writes : — 
 
 " The country should be spending 100 millions, where it now spends 
 thirty, or about 5 per cent. . . . Such sums are not really extravagant. 
 Extensive diffusion of education and scientific knowledge and training 
 are not only essential to the greater efficiency of labour and capital 
 by which the means of living are provided, but they are equally needed 
 for the conduct of life itself, for the health and comfort of the workers." 
 
 It cannot be doubted that the expenditure will be 
 quickly remunerative. More efficient workers will pro- 
 duce more. 
 
 Money so spent is seed from which a harvest can be 
 looked for; the plentifulness of the crop will depend 
 upon the seed and the way it is sown. 
 
 One of our manufacturers who has been most success- 
 ful in applying science to industry has stated that if we 
 were now to borrow £10,000,000 for university purposes 
 we should get the money back in the course of one genera- 
 tion a hundred- fold. 
 
STATE ENDOWMENT OF UNTVEKSITTES. 221 
 
 The recent recognition of the fact that we have too 
 few universities, and that those that we have are ineffi- 
 cient for want of funds, is similar to that awakening 
 which occurred in 1888 regarding the Navy. In both 
 cases we have to correct past mistakes lasting for years, 
 and seeing that university buildings, as well as annual 
 endowments, are required, some special provision should 
 be made for their early erection. 
 
 The Universities in Relation to Secondary Education, 
 
 Now that the primary and secondary schools through- 
 out the country are being co-ordinated, the time has 
 arrived for making our universities and university colleges 
 efficient. The teaching connected with the universities 
 must be of the highest, and the chief function of the 
 secondary schools should be to produce students pos- 
 sessing that general training in science and the humani- 
 ties which will ensure the success of their subsequent 
 careers, either inside or outside a university. 
 
 A system of leaving certificates and a reduction of fees 
 would at once get rid of the tyranny of merely qualifying 
 or selecting examinations which are the bane of educa- 
 tion, and would enable the training of the poorest to be 
 carried to the highest rung of an unbroken ladder. 
 
OPENING ADDRESS AT THE INAUGURATION 
 OF THE BRITISH SCIENCE GUILD.* 
 
 * (1905.) 
 
 My Lord Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, — My duty is to 
 present a very brief report of the action of the organising 
 committee of the Guild, which has led up to the present 
 meeting. The Royal Society permitted the first meet- 
 ing of the committee to be held in its rooms, in June of 
 last year ; officers were appointed and a Memorandum 
 was drawn up, sketching the objects and proposed organi- 
 sation of the guild, for circulation among those whose 
 sympathy and support were hoped for. The Memorandum 
 was circulated privately in the first instance. The re- 
 sponses received were so extremely satisfactory, that the 
 committee felt justified in their belief that a large number 
 of the most distinguished representatives of every branch 
 of national life and activity were in sympathy with the 
 movement, and eventually the Memorandum was circu- 
 lated to the members of both Houses of Parliament 
 and the Fellows of the Royal Society, and afterwards to 
 various technical societies, chambers of commerce and 
 similar organisations. Notices were also sent to the 
 Press. At a meeting held in last March, it was resolved 
 to advance beyond the general statement of objects, 
 which was all the organising committee was in a position 
 
 * At the Mansion House, October 30, 1905. 
 
OPENING ADDRESS AT BRITISH SCIENCE GUILD. 223 
 
 to formulate, and with this view to proceed to the forma- 
 tion of a larger committee, the members of which should 
 I be chosen to represent various localities and various in- 
 terests. In June a circular was issued to the members, 
 giving some account of the proceedings of the organising 
 committee, and defining further the aims of the guild. 
 This published statement of aims has been sent to all 
 Bnvited to this meeting. In the same month it was 
 IRlecided that the inauguration of the Guild should take 
 ■place in the autumn, and a sub-committee of three was 
 "'appointed to advise with regard to all necessary arrange- 
 ments. In July the report of this sub -committee was 
 cjonsidered ; the list of officers circulated to-day was taken 
 ^^■n hand, and, among other matters dealt with, I was 
 Brequested, my Lord Mayor, to ask you if you would allow 
 ^Bhe guild to be launched with becoming dignity, by con- 
 senting that the inaugural meeting should be held in this 
 historic hall under your presidency. The organising 
 committee is grateful for the consent you so readily 
 accorded. They feel that you have strengthened their 
 hands, and that under such auspices there is a hope, nay 
 a certainty, that the guild may do for British national 
 endeavour in the future what your ancient guilds, each 
 in its special line of action, were founded to do in the 
 long, long past. When my own views as to the import- 
 ance, nay the burning necessity, of such a movement as 
 this, throughout the land, among all classes, and in touch 
 with all employments, were expressed some time ago, I 
 suggested that it might be brought about by extending the 
 functions of some existing organisation, such for instance 
 as the British Association, but this, I was soon made to 
 
224 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 it was a question not merely of science and scientific men, 
 but a question of conducting all our national activities, 
 State services and private services, and what not, under 
 the best possible conditions and with the greatest amount 
 of brain power. It is not, I repeat, merely a question for 
 scientific men ; they are really not more concerned than 
 others. Let me just refer for one moment — and I will 
 only take one moment — to the question of education in 
 its most general aspect. I yield to none in respect for 
 those studies which embrace ancient civilisations and 
 their literatures, but they alone are as incapable of form- 
 ing the complete man fitted to cope with the problems pre- 
 sented by the world as it exists, as would be instruction 
 in the mere facts of science apart from the actual use of 
 the methods of observation and discovery. A complete 
 education must be based upon things and thinking as well 
 as upon words and memory ; we want one kind of edu- 
 cation for everybody — the best — and we want that educa- 
 tion to be carried as far as is possible in the case of each 
 individual, whether the time available for education is 
 long or short. No one should be stopped, save by his 
 own incapacity, from proceeding further down the fair 
 stream of education. A perfect scheme of education 
 should make the complete man, intellectually, morally 
 and physically. It must not be limited merely to in- 
 tellect ; and we want that stream freed from the impedi- 
 ments with which it is at present dammed — spell the 
 word as you will — impediments a great many of them 
 absolutely hurtful, and most of them unnecessary from 
 a large point of view. In a word, we want to revert to 
 the ideal of the original university, in the curriculum 
 of which natura rerum was never absent and the poor 
 
OPENING ADDRESS AT BRITISH SCIENCE GUILD. 225 
 
 5holar was always provided for. I will not take up your 
 le by attempting even to sketch the tremendous reflex 
 ition such an education as this may have upon national 
 affairs. I content myself by pointing out that the 
 Western World is now amazed at the sudden rising of 
 an Eastern people as a world-power, and is wondering at 
 the efficiency of both the Navy and Army of Japan. 
 There is really nothing to wonder at, and most of the 
 reasons suggested for it are, I hold, entirely wrong. If 
 the Japanese religion or the old civilisation of the country 
 were the factors, China would have followed suit. The 
 real reason is simply that the complete education I have 
 sketched has been at work in Japan for thirty years, 
 and during that time, everybody, from the Mikado to 
 the smallest boy and girl, have been taught to think. 
 They have been dealing with things as well as words 
 in their schools, and they represent at the present moment 
 the maximum of efficiency and brain power, as the result 
 of that treatment. Mr. Chamberlain, Lord Kosebery, 
 and others have referred to the relative advance — I 
 may say the great relative advance — of the commerce 
 and industry of Germany and the United States. Let me 
 again point out that these are ^par excellence the lands of 
 complete and numerous State-aided universities. Surely 
 it is more than a coincidence that we find in those lands, 
 the State service and all the national activities carried 
 on in the full light of modern science, by men who have 
 received a complete training both in science and the 
 humanities in close touch with the Governments. If the 
 guild helps in any way to improve our national position 
 in this respect, it will not have been founded in vain, 
 but there is certainly much for it to do along many lines. 
 
 p 
 
THE NEW RENAISSANCE.* 
 (1905.) 
 
 I should like to state that when I accepted the 
 responsibility of coming here to say a few words to you to- 
 night, I should not have done so unless I had had a previous 
 opportunity of examining into your methods of work, 
 into your laboratories, into the way in which your teachers 
 go to work, and the general lay of the land. I may say 
 that that opportunity impressed us just as favourably 
 as this evening has done touching the real, solid endeavour 
 that is being made here to do that piece of work which is 
 the most important which can be done in England at 
 the present moment. Those of you who know what you 
 are doing here and know what is being done in other places 
 must feel that we are at a very interesting, almost a 
 critical, time from an educational point of view. We 
 may be said, indeed, to be at the beginning of a new 
 renaissance — a new birth of learning, just in the same way 
 that our forebears, a.d. 1000 up to a.d. 1200, were in 
 the forefront of that first renaissance. But the trouble 
 is that the dark ages did not cease then, for we have had a 
 dark age since, and it is to correct this second dark age 
 that this new birth is necessary. Now what did the in- 
 habitants of Europe do at that first renaissance ? They 
 kept on the schools which had been brought down by the 
 
 * An address at the Borough Polytechnic Institution, December 4, 1905. 
 
 i 
 
THE NEW RENAISSANCE 227 
 
 different rulers, the different church authorities, from the 
 Rme of the Roman Empire. The Roman schools, judging 
 from what the Romans did from Scotland to the south 
 end of the Red Sea, must have dealt with the science of 
 the time, and that perhaps is the reason that the earliest 
 universities always included " the nature of things " in 
 their curricula. A modern public schoolmaster might not 
 think their education complete because Latin and Greek 
 
 l^ere the modern languages then, and the students were 
 taught no dead ones ; but, be this as it may, at the renais- 
 sance they insisted upon the teaching of Latin because 
 then everybody who was anybody spoke Latin — it was 
 the lingua franca of Europe — and not to speak Latin 
 
 |Nks to belong to the corps of the deaf and dumb. Secondly 
 they had to learn Greek, because the movers in the educa- 
 tional world at that time were chiefly doctors, and they 
 had learned all they could about doctoring and surgery 
 from bad Latin translations of bad Arabic translations 
 of the Greek authorities, so that when the Greek manu- 
 scripts became available all the world was agog to learn 
 Greek in order chiefly that they might learn medicine and 
 surgery. Now, I want to point out to you that in this 
 we had education founded absolutely and completely 
 upon the crying needs of the time. Very good. Then 
 if we are going to do anything like that in our new renais- 
 sance what ought we to do if we are to follow precedent ? 
 
 ^pTe must arrange our education in some way in relation 
 to the crying needs of the time. The least little dip into 
 the history of the old universities will prick the bubble of 
 
 classical education as it is presented to us to-day. Latin 
 
 "as not learned because it had the most magnificent 
 grammar of known languages. Greek was not learned in 
 
 P2 
 
228 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 consequence of the transcendental sublimity of ancient 
 Greek civilisation. Both these things were learned because 
 people had to learn them to get their daily bread, either 
 as theologians or doctors or lawyers, and while they learned 
 them the " nature of things " was not forgotten. 
 
 Now what is the problem of to-day ? We are in a 
 world which has been entirely changed by the advent 
 of modern science, modern nations, and modern industries, 
 and it is therefore perfectly obvious that if we wish to do 
 the best for our education it must be in some relation to 
 those three great changes which have come on the world 
 since the old days. Remember in the old days there was 
 no experimental philosophy, there was no steam, there was 
 little relation practically between the ordinary lives of the 
 people and the phenomena, or, at all events, the working, 
 of the world of nature around them. But with us all our 
 life, the poorest life, the richest life, the country life, the 
 town life, if it is to be lived properly and wholesomely, 
 has to be lived in the full light of modern science ; we have 
 to know exactly the best thing to do and why we should 
 do it. The problem before us to-day, if it be the same 
 problem that was before those old peoples, the problem, 
 that is to say, of learning everything we can from those 
 around us in other nations, must drive us to the study of 
 modern languages just as the modern world conditions 
 drive us to modern science ; so that there, I think, we have 
 an answer to those who may ask of us : What changes are 
 you going to make in modern education if you are going 
 to have the best possible education ? First of all, we have 
 the fact that we are bound, if we follow precedent, to deal 
 with those things which are of importance from the present 
 point of view. Latin is no longer the lingua franca of 
 
 1 
 
THE NEW RENAISSANCE. 
 
 229 
 
 lurope, and we have better guides in science and philo- 
 sophy than Aristotle. A question which arises when we 
 1^0 on to consider this matter is a very simple one : Is it 
 worth while bothering about education ? Is it worth 
 while troubling to inquire what the old renaissance did 
 or the new renaissance ought to do ? Now there we 
 
 tpproach a question in which the world is certainly very 
 luch wiser than it was a few years ago. Thirty or forty 
 'ears ago, I am sorry to say, in this country practically 
 nobody cared anything whatever about education, at all 
 events about the education of the people, and the trouble 
 with us now — the trouble that we shall have to take years 
 to get over — is that in Germany that question was settled 
 ■fi early as the time of Luther, who insisted that it was 
 Ifhe duty of all communities to look after the education 
 "of their children as well as the building of bridges and the 
 making of roads. Now I think it is generally accepted, 
 both in this country and in others, that whether the 
 tjitizens of a State are educated or not is a matter of 
 absolutely supreme importance — and when I say " edu- 
 cated " please understand that I mean educated morally 
 and physically as well as intellectually. It is no longer 
 merely the concern of the child or of the child's parent. 
 It is acknowledged to be the only true foundation for a 
 'Wtate's welfare and continued progress under conditions of 
 peace or under conditions of war. We must face the 
 applications of all the new sciences to every department 
 l||ff our much more complex national life, from the lowest 
 'employment to the highest fields of statecraft. Now 
 ^ou see if that is anything like true we have a great 
 jponsibility cast upon us when we talk about education, 
 id when we inquire into the conditions we are still more 
 
230 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 impressed by this strenuous necessity of looking the facts 
 straight in the face and seeing how this question affects us, 
 not merely as being in this Borough Polytechnic, but as 
 being Britons, as being members of a civilised community 
 in the twentieth century. I have already told you that 
 even so far back as the time of Luther the Germans insisted 
 that all their children should be educated ; there should 
 be no difference between the rich and the poor. What has 
 grown out of that ? The thing has gone on from strength 
 to strength, until now in Germany, to deal with the old 
 world, we find a country with the greatest number of 
 universities, with the greatest possible desire, from the 
 Kaiser down to the peasant, to do everything for Germany 
 that can be done by educating every child that is born in 
 the country. What did democracy do when democracy 
 had fair play in the United States of America ? The first 
 thing done was to apportion millions of acres for the future 
 endowment of education. The acres did not mean much 
 capitalised then, but they mean a great deal capitalised 
 now, so that in the Western States of America, where you 
 get the purest-voiced democracy that you can get, I think, 
 on the surface of the planet, the children of the citizens, 
 boys and girls, are educated from the age of six to the age 
 of six-and-twenty without any call upon the parents or 
 without any hesitation to carry as many as possible up to 
 the very highest form of education. And when does the 
 technical instruction come in there ? The technical 
 instruction is given only to those who have taken degrees 
 in the university. Japan is following on the same lines. 
 The educational system of Japan was started as near as 
 may be at the same time that the new educational policy 
 was begun here. The result of it has been that you have 
 
THE NEW RENAISSANCE. 
 
 231 
 
 in Japan now a completely trained nation, trained to think, 
 trained to do the best along any line that may turn up, 
 and the difference between the existence of such a training 
 and its opposite we have now in comparing the present 
 condition of Japan with the present condition of China. 
 Japan has become a world power with whom we are proud 
 to associate simply because the Japanese children have 
 been taught to think and to do for thirty years. That is 
 one of the most blessed things to think of, because it shows 
 that if any nation, even the British nation, ultimately 
 
 Iiinds that it is backward, some thirty years, or perhaps 
 feven twenty years, spent in Japanese fashion may put 
 everything right. But if that is so, then it is my duty 
 lo point out to you that we have a great deal to do. 
 I have said that our present system of education was 
 commenced, roughly, some thirty years ago, when the 
 apanese system was started, but at present our system 
 ,eals only with primary and secondary education. It is a 
 ost extraordinary thing, our Minister of Education 
 sn't anything to do with the most important part of 
 ucation. It is a situation truly British. Well, if we 
 ^^nd that it is necessary to imitate the action of other States 
 in having a department which shall include the top of 
 education as well as the bottom, it is right that I should 
 
 KbU you at once that this will cost a great deal of money 
 bove what we spend at present. If we take one German 
 Jniversity, Berlin — the equivalent of the University 
 f London^-the German State spends on it the sum of 
 , £169,000 a year. That is to say, it spent that sum in the 
 ^rear 1891-2. Whereas for our higher educational institu- 
 tions — all the universities and university colleges in Eng- 
 nd, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales — till quite recently, the 
 
2a2 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. * 
 
 British Government allowed a smaller sum. That, I 
 suppose, perhaps may be considered a fair estimate of the 
 importance of education in the eyes of the British Govern- 
 ment and in the eyes of the German Government. The 
 worst of all this is, it is not merely a question of money 
 and increasing taxation ; it is a question of the hampering 
 of all the industries of the country from top to bottom, 
 from John O'Groat's to the Land's End. In an official 
 document published by the United States Government 
 some four years ago, it was stated, as a result of consider- 
 able inquiry, that taking the day students in the United 
 States, in those colleges and universities where only day 
 students were considered, there were more teachers of 
 science in the United States than there were students of 
 science turned out from the English colleges. Now, if 
 that or anything like it is true, do you think that in any 
 continued competition along any line in connection with 
 any industry in the United States and here, that we are 
 likely to come out top ? It is absolutely impossible. Sir 
 William Mather, more recently, has given us some informa- 
 tion on this point. He spent four months in America 
 looking up the technical colleges and the conditions relat- 
 ing to the education of the industrial classes. He found 
 that ten years ago there were attending educational estab- 
 lishments, that is to say, universities and colleges, 32,000 
 day students ; all these were taking a three years' course. 
 To-day there are 65,000 students being educated at these 
 same colleges, and he says the spirit of America is so 
 completely aroused to the necessity of making science the 
 basis of all industry, it does not matter whichever it is, 
 however simple the undertaking, the whole tendency 
 and trend of thought and feeling is to educate large masses 
 
 I 
 
THE NEW RENAISSANCE. 
 
 of their young men so that they may take their part, not 
 only as managers, employers, and capitalists, but as fore- 
 men and chief workmen in their great industries, and he 
 ends by saying that it is necessary that we should urge 
 our Government, whether it be Liberal or Conservative, to 
 take care that there should be sufficient expenditure 
 provided to enable our young people throughout the 
 length and breadth of the land to possess equal advantages 
 to those of young people of Germany and America. 
 
 Well, then, if it is right that there should be this educa- 
 tion conferred upon the nation, these enormous advan- 
 ges, in considering the thing from the point of view 
 ither of the child or the child's parent, should there be 
 me State-aided education for the rich and another for 
 he poor ? That is to say, if education — the best education 
 — is worth all that is claimed for it, should the State 
 deliberately foster the artificial production of a breed of 
 second-rates ? How can every child have a fair chance ? 
 Some of the older ones among you may remember 
 Kingsley's " Saint's Tragedy." I will just quote two 
 verses, with a little alteration in one : — • 
 
 " The same piece of clay makes a tile, 
 A pitcher, a taw, or a brick ; 
 Dan Horace knew life — ^you may cut out a saint 
 Or a bench from the self-same stick. 
 
 " We fall on our legs in this world, 
 
 Blind kittens tossed in neck and heels ; 
 'Tis educaton that licks Nature's cubs into shape. 
 She's the mill-head if we are the wheels." 
 
 Surely then, if we must not differentiate education, 
 if we must not knowingly support second-rate edu- 
 cation, our duty is to find the best. Well, then we 
 come to the problem which I haven't the courage to 
 
 L 
 
234 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 bring before you now, because one might talk for a 
 week about it, and I have only twenty minutes left at 
 the outside, even if you will grant me as much as that. 
 What is the best education ? It has taken the world 
 a long time to find out what it already knows about it, 
 but I doubt whether even now the world has quite got to 
 the bottom of the problem. I think we may begin by 
 saying that the best education should teach us to learn 
 how to think and how to observe and how to use our hands 
 and eyes and brain ; how to exercise the body, how to 
 become good and useful citizens, and — ^this is my own 
 notion, perhaps you all will not agree to it — how to 
 bear arms. Now, if you have such an education as 
 that going on all over the United Kingdom, my idea 
 is that, whatever may happen to them afterwards, 
 whether the children become either archbishops or 
 ploughmen, they would not be harmed by such an educa- 
 tion, and, as a matter of fact, they could not have spent 
 their time better. Now, that is a very important thing 
 to bear in mind, because there are systems of so-called 
 education about which it could be shown in a moment 
 that those who have been put under them might have 
 spent their time very much better. We must discrimi- 
 nate really very much more carefully than is generally 
 done between education, which I will define as the power 
 of learning how to think, and instruction, which means 
 the accumulation of facts. Education may bring us into 
 contact with doing things by which money may be 
 earned, but that contact in education is used for mental 
 training. Useful knowledge may easily become the 
 bane of education. Instruction in doing things frankly 
 pursued for the purpose of earning a living is generally 
 
THE NEW RENAISSANCE. 
 
 lot so imparted that the power of thinking properly is 
 Lcreased and the general training carried on further. 
 If that is anyiihing like true, then we come to the 
 important consideration that the best teaching must 
 certainly include the teaching of doing things — we must 
 not merely cultivate the memory — and, above all things, 
 we must not stuff useful knowledge or stuff anything 
 else into those young minds with which we have to deal. 
 They are not Strassburg geese, and the more you attempt 
 to stuff them the worse it will be. What we have to do 
 is to train the mind as a delicate rapier, enabling it to 
 do anything it has to do in the most perfect manner — 
 to train the eye, the hands, the brain, to face anything 
 under the best possible conditions. The question here 
 arises, what sort of a code have we now for the edu- 
 cation of the young ? — ^this new code — ^the code for the 
 year 1905 for elementary schools. Well, for myself, 
 I thank God that we have such a document. It is an 
 enormous improvement upon everything, upon any- 
 thing, which has gone before it in our country. I re- 
 member some twenty years ago when the only conces- 
 sion made to the new knowledge was that some candidate, 
 if he liked, might say something of what he knew about 
 the common pump ; it hardly went further than the 
 common pump — but the new code goes very much 
 further than the common pump, and you may even 
 look at the stars if you like ; you may even observe 
 once or twice a year where the sun is or where the moon 
 rises. Having this official education for the young, how 
 are we to deal with it in relation to such an institution 
 as yours ? How are we to consider what should happen 
 to the young minds of boys and girls going up that 
 
236 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 educational ladder which Huxley pictured to us some years 
 ago — ^that educational ladder from the gutter to the 
 university. In considering such a ladder as this, of 
 course the end of the teaching, the end of the time spent, 
 in the primary school constitutes the first rung at which 
 the educational ladder may be left, and you have to con- 
 sider the certain number of boys and girls unfortunately 
 getting off the educational ladder when they leave the 
 elementary school. The question arises, Must every- 
 body when they leave the primary school — and that, I am 
 thankful to say, at a gradually increasing age— when 
 they have done with the official education, must they 
 have done with the instruction which will enable 
 them better to earn their daily bread, the instruc- 
 tion which should, if possible, be placed before them, 
 because really it is to tackle that instruction and to tackle 
 the life connected with it that they have been taught to 
 think. If you omit to give a higher education, or educa- 
 tion combined with instruction, to your boys and girls 
 after you have taught them to think, you have made a 
 good deal of that education ridiculous. Your Institute 
 proves that it is much better to give instruction to the 
 young in things that they have to do before you make 
 them absolutely face the music in the real contact with 
 the stern world of reality, which they will certainly have 
 to face sooner or later. When you consider, therefore, 
 the stepping- off places from the education ladder — I 
 have just referred to the first — and the necessity of getting 
 instruction, of putting instruction in the way of those 
 who have to step off the educational ladder, the impor- 
 tance, the enormous importance, of such an institution 
 as yours begins to force itself upon one. Take the child 
 
THE NE^ 
 
 an elementary school under the present regulations. 
 
 istead of going on to the secondary school and con- 
 tinuing still further on the elementary ladder, it can 
 go to a higher elementary school. That is a new idea in 
 England, and it is a very admirable one. When you ask, 
 Why does the child step off ? you find yourself confronted 
 chiefly with the dearness of education in this country, 
 and then with the supposed necessity for early employ- 
 ment. 
 
 But nowadays the university is not an absolutely pro- 
 hibited thing if those who have to do with the boys 
 and girls concerned are keen enough to take every ad- 
 vantage of every opportunity; in any case employers 
 of labour, at all events in other countries and I expect in 
 this, begin to see the advantage of getting supplied with 
 clerks and other assistants who have been taught to 
 think as opposed to getting their offices crowded with 
 people who have still to learn how to think. There are 
 several other questions connected with the Huxley edu- 
 cational ladder. One is that in leaving each rung we 
 have to acknowledge frankly that we have to face the 
 music of the struggle for existence. Not every boy 
 who enters a primary school can go of course to the 
 university, can go perhaps higher than a secondary 
 school ; some will even fail to get to a secondary school, 
 but what you have to consider, I think, generally in 
 relation to institutions like this is that if there is to be 
 any stepping off the ladder the change must be made 
 in the best possible way. The present system of allow- 
 ing these changes from rung to rung to take place by 
 examination by outsiders is, I think, absolutely and 
 completely indefensible. I would hold the teachers in 
 
238 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 every primary school absolutely responsible for saying 
 that such and such of their students will benefit by secon- 
 dary education and some of their students will not, and 
 if that be done then, in consequence of the recent action 
 of the London County Council, it seems to me that you 
 will have a rapidly-increasing number of the best Englisl? 
 boys and girls going on with their pure education, cer- 
 tainly well into the secondary stage. In this way you 
 will catch your potential Faradays. Now one of the 
 delightful things I found in that inspection here with Mr 
 Millis, to which I have referred, was that in all your 
 instruction, frankly so called, you make it as educational 
 as you possibly can, so that those who come to you at any 
 age after the age of the primary school may, if they 
 so choose, by taking advantage of one or other of your 
 organisations, not only get an immense amount of abso- 
 lately needed instruction for various walks of life, but 
 an education which will be practically as good as that 
 which could be got on the ordinary education ladder to 
 enable them later on to enter the universities. The 
 recent improvements in education are brought home 
 to us by the fact that Huxley's ladder by itself no longer 
 represents all the present possibilities. There are now 
 platforms at the chief stepping- off places, and ladders 
 from them also leading to the university for those who 
 do not fear to climb. These platforms are technical 
 schools and institutes, in which practical training in 
 science laboratories and literature must both find 
 place. 
 
 There is one word I should like to say with regard 
 to your day school. It is called a " Technical Day 
 School for Boys." I find that in the London County 
 
THE NEW RENAISSANCE. 
 
 239 
 
 I Council list, Appendix B, it is called a " secondary school." 
 Now are you a secondary school ? That is a point that 
 pi am not familiar with quite. What I understand is 
 that under the new regulations a school to be a secondary 
 school must make application to the Board of Educa- 
 tion to be reckoned as such, and if it is accepted then 
 you have this enormous advantage, or will have very 
 shortly, if you have not it now. Your students will 
 have the right to go to the university by passing the 
 leaving examination, which will ultimately be carried 
 on by the teachers in the secondary school or, at all 
 events, by teachers associated with the secondary 
 school. I think you will agree with me that the less 
 any education in any locality is fettered by examination 
 y outsiders the better for that education it will be. 
 you are a secondary school your students will be able 
 as a matter of course to enter the new university. Thank 
 God that in London, after centuries of the neglect of 
 education, we have a university ; we shall soon be as 
 Hjjrell off as a good many second-rate towns on the other 
 side of the water have been for hundreds of years. 
 I believe it is settled that your students can matricu- 
 late at the university, can become internal students 
 without the bugbear of Latin, if you look upon Latin 
 as a bugbear. Personally, I do not ; if you have time to 
 learn Latin, so much the better, but if the struggle for 
 existence is so great that it is science or nothing with 
 you, well with science you can new enter the London 
 University from a secondary school. You will then carry 
 your local students right up to the second rung, some 
 will go on to the university, and some will step off to your 
 evening classes. Voltaire, talking about education, said : 
 
 b 
 
240 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 On etudie les livres en attendant qu'on etudie les hommes 
 (" We study books before we have a chance of study- 
 ing men "). Well, we have got past that now ; we not 
 only study books but we study things, but whether we 
 study books or things our education will not be complete 
 until we study men, that is to say until we have varied 
 occasions of mingling with others who are thinking about 
 other things, so that we may exchange thoughts and 
 ideas and sympathies with other students of different 
 branches of knowledge. Now I want to point out what 
 a magnificent opportunity you have here for that kind of 
 collegiate education. You are practically a college, and 
 I believe strongly that this collegiate life, as we may 
 call it, this mixing with one's fellow men, is of the very 
 highest quality, that it is the absolute essential of a 
 complete course of education which should produce what 
 is called character. And let me remind you that people 
 are prepared to pay a great deal for character. I find, 
 for instance, that Mr. Balfour not very long ago said the 
 collective effect of our public school education on char- 
 acter could not be over-rated, but he thought the boys 
 of seventeen or eighteen who are educated in them do 
 not care a farthing about the world they live in except 
 so far as it concerned the cricket field, the football field, 
 or the river. You have the machinery to enable you 
 to care a great deal about the world you live in, to 
 know an immense deal about it, and you have also the 
 machinery for this formation of character. Now I 
 believe in the combination, and it is upon that ground 
 I hope some future day to see a strong secondary school 
 here. I believe it will be a very great boon to this part 
 of London, in fact, I feel so strongly on this that I should 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
THE NEW RBNATSSANCIE. 241 
 
 ^^■by your enormous advantages would be wasted if you did 
 ^HBot take some part in the general scheme of pure educa- 
 ^F tion, and that part is quite obvious ; you have to make 
 ^B your day school one of the best secondary schools it is 
 ^" possible to imagine. I should have hesitated to give 
 you my opinion on your proper place in education and 
 the excellence of your teaching staff and laboratories 
 if I had not had an opportunity of examining your in- 
 stitution, and, in concluding, I want again to thank 
 Mr. Millis for his very great kindness in showing me over 
 it the other day. 
 
 There is one little addition I should like to make to 
 my address. I told you I hoped our British schools in 
 
 ■Bfane would teach boys to bear arms. Now bearing 
 Kms, to my mind, means learning simple drill and handling 
 a rifle. I do not suppose that in the matter of the future 
 there will be any other arms than rifles, seeing that a rifle 
 can get rid of your adversary at a distance of 1,500 yards, 
 which is a very safe distance indeed, so that I think 
 we should teach all our children before they have passed 
 the fifth standard, " fours right " and " fours left," 
 and all that sort of thing you see people working at in 
 the barrack yards. This would get rid of a good deal 
 of the use of the barrack yard, and the sooner we get rid 
 of the use the better. With regard to the rifle drill, 
 ^HHbat, I take it, can be done by having in an institution 
 like this a little gallery, hall, or passage, or whatever 
 you like to call it, something like 25 yards long, and 
 the practice with the miniature rifles is so effective 
 that I heard of a case the other day in which a sixth 
 • form boy who had been made acquainted with the 
 
 Kndling of a rifle in this very miniature way, when his 
 ■ 
 
242 EDUOATTON AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 school went down to a real butt he put six shots at 600 
 yards into the bull's eye out of seven. Now that is quite 
 worth doing, and I should think it would be very interest- 
 ing if you could add this drill to your excellent system of 
 gymnastics. 
 
I 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 (1) 
 
 The German Universities.* 
 
 What Germany thinks of the place of the university in a modern 
 State can be readily gathered from the large and ever-increasing State 
 endowments of the numerous universities in Prussia and the other 
 constituent countries. 
 ' The university activity of Prussia itself dates from the time after 
 Jena, 1806, when the nation was, as Sir Rowland Blennerhassett has 
 told us, a bleeding and lacerated mass, so impoverished and shattered 
 that there seemed to be little future before it. King Frederick William 
 III. and his councillors, among them Wilhelm von Humboldt, founded 
 the University of Berlin, " to supply the loss of territory by intellectual 
 effort." Among the universal poverty, money was also found for the 
 Universities of Konigsberg and Breslau, and Bonn was founded in 1818. 
 Observatories and other scientific institutions were not forgotten. As 
 
 ^fresult of this policy, carried on persistently and continuously by suc- 
 essive Ministers, aided by wise councillors, many of them the products 
 of this policy, such a state of things was brought about that Palraerston, 
 a typical English statesman, is stated by Matthew Arnold to have 
 defined the Germany of his day as a country of " damned professors," 
 and so well have the damned professors done their work since that not 
 long ago M. Ferdinand Lot, one of the most distinguished educationists 
 of France, accorded to Germany " a supremacy in science comparable 
 to the supremacy of England at sea." 
 
 The whole history of Prussia since then constitutes indeed a magnifi- 
 cent object lesson on the influence of brain-power on history. There 
 can be no question that the Prussia of to-day, the leader of a united 
 
 ♦ Nature, March 12, 1903. 
 
 ^2 
 
-« 
 
 244 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 Germany, with its armed strength both for peace and war and craving 
 for a wider world dominion, is the direct outcome of the poHcy of 
 " intellectual effort " inaugurated in 1806. 
 
 The most remarkable thing about the German Universities in late 
 years is the constant addition of new departments, added to enable 
 them to meet and even to anticipate the demands made for labora- 
 tories in which each scientific subject, as it has been developed, 
 can be taught on Liebig's plan, that is by experiment, observation 
 and research. 
 
 It is in such State-aided institutions as these that the members of the 
 German Ministry and Parliament, and the leading industrials are 
 trained, while in our case, in consequence of the lack of funds for new 
 buildings at Oxford and Cambridge, and, until not many years ago, 
 the lack of other high-teaching centres, our leaders have had to be 
 content with curricula extant before Galileo was born, the teaching 
 being, perhaps, not so good and the desire to learn generally much 
 less. 
 
 No one will deny that the brain-power of a nation must, in the last 
 resort, depend upon the higher mental training obtainable in that 
 nation. It is well, therefore, to see how we stand in this matter. 
 
 The following tables will show what the German Government is doing 
 to provide brain-power in Germany. Those who know most about our 
 British conditions will see how we are likely to fare in any competition 
 with Germany in which brain-power comes in, if indeed there can be any 
 important sphere of activity undertaken by either King, Lords or 
 Commons in which brain-power does not come in. 
 
 We owe the first table giving the facts relating to the ordinary State 
 endowments of the twenty-two German universities to the kindness of 
 Mr. Alexander Siemens, who was good enough to obtain through 
 official sources an extract from the PreussiscJie Statistik containing an 
 article by Dr. Petersilie. This deals with 1891-2, the last year dealt 
 with by the statistical bureau. 
 
 In the second table are given the extraordinary expenses incurred 
 in the same year, also obtained from Dr. Petersilie' s article. There 
 have been added the State endowments for the years 1900-1 and 
 1902-3, so far as it has been possible to obtain them from Minerva, 
 in order that the considerable yearly increase in the endowments 
 may be noted. 
 
 It will be seen that those responsible for the continued well-being of 
 the German State are as busily employed in increasing the efficiency 
 of their Universities as they are in adding to their navy. 
 
 
PPENDIGE^ 
 
 245 
 
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246 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS 
 
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 1 
 
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 'A 
 
 w 
 
 5 ^ 
 
 Crt 
 
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 ^coait^(^oo^xio 
 
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 3,611 
 
 102,808 
 
 86,770 
 
 189,578 
 
 Salaries of 
 Teaching 
 Staff (in- 
 cluding 
 Lodging 
 Allowance). 
 
 «+i 
 
 coS^cboc^ocoSa 
 
 COOiO— 4COO>OOil:^ 
 
 TjT Tj? -h" t- CO CC co" '^ t- 
 
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 166,790 
 206,223 
 
 371,013 
 
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 335,581 
 373,098 
 
 708,679 
 
 Is 
 
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 CC »o CO -h" >o CC oT 
 
 3,917 
 
 80,880 
 148,863 
 
 229,743 
 
 Ordiuary 
 Total In- 
 come of 
 Universities. 
 
 5rt 
 
 t^Tt<(MI>"COX"<*'^'^ 
 
 OCNt^CCOOiOilT'O 
 
 49,750 
 
 417,133 
 521,911 
 
 939,044 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 Munich .... 
 
 VViu-zburg 
 
 Erlangen 
 
 Leipzig .... 
 
 Tubingen 
 
 Freibm-g - - - - 
 
 Heidelberg 
 
 Giessen .... 
 
 Rostock - - . - 
 
 Jena . . . . 
 
 Strassburg 
 
 Non-Prussian Universities 
 altogether, excluding 
 Jena .... 
 
 Prussian Universities 
 
 All the German Univer- 
 sities, excluding Jena 
 
 --'MCCT»*iOCOt'»OSO'-< 
 
 ^ ^ 1 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
 147 
 
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^48 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. ] 
 
 In Britain there is no concern shown by our Government and poli- 
 ticians in regard to the real sources of national brain-power, towards 
 which primary instruction, now well endowed, is but the first step. 
 Private endowment is still appealed to, though our present unfortunate 
 position comes from the fact that since the necessary introduction of 
 science into the curriculum of the higher teaching, private endowment 
 in the past has not been, nor in the future will it be, able to supply a tithe 
 of what is really wanted. 
 
 (2) 
 The Universities of the United States.* "^^ 
 
 Any consideration of what the nation has done for higher education 
 in the United States must be prefaced by a reference to two laws passed 
 in 1787 and 1862 respectively. The first Act, enacted for the Govern- 
 ment of the territory north of the Ohio, provided that not more than 
 two complete townshipsf were to be given to each State perpetually for 
 the purposes of a " University to be applied to the intended object by 
 the legislature of the State." In 1862 an Act was passed giving to each 
 State 30,000 acres of land for each senator and representative to which 
 the State was then entitled, for the purpose of founding " at least one 
 college, where the leading object shall be, without excluding other 
 scientific and practical studies, and including miUtary tactics, to teach 
 such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic 
 arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the States shall respectively 
 prescribe, in order to promote the liberal education of the industrial 
 classes in the several pursuits and professions of life."{ 
 
 A reference to Table i. below, showing the number of acres of land 
 in each of the States, the income, accruing from which is available for 
 University education, demonstrates more conclusively than any words 
 could do how very fully advantage has been taken throughout the 
 United States of the legislative enactments of 1787 and 1862. The 
 table is due to Dr. Frank W. Blackmar, and is contained in " The History 
 of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education in the United States," 
 published in Washington in 1890. 
 
 * Natme, May 14, 1903. 
 
 t In surveys of the public land of the United States, a division of territory 
 six miles square, containing thirty-six sections. 
 
 X " Report of the Commissiouer of Education for the Year 1890-7." Vol. ii., 
 p. 1U5. (Washington, 1898.) 
 
APPENDICES. 249 
 
 Table I. — IauuI Grants and Reservationa fur Universities, 
 
 States and Territories. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Dates uf Graut. 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Missouri 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 Florida 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 California 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Oregon 
 
 Kansas 
 
 Nevada 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Colorado 
 
 Washington 
 
 North Dakota \ 
 
 South Dakota / 
 
 Montana 
 
 Arizona Territory .... 
 
 Idaho Territory 
 
 Wyoming Territory .... 
 
 New Mexico Territory 
 
 Utah Territory 
 
 69,120 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 92,160 
 46,080 
 92, 1(H) 
 46,080 
 82,640 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 
 46,080 
 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 46,080 
 
 1792, 1803 
 
 1816, 1804 
 
 1804, 1818 
 
 1818, 1820 
 
 1818, 1819 
 
 1803, 1819 
 
 1806, 1811, 1827 
 
 1836 
 
 1836 
 
 1845 
 
 1845 
 
 1846, 1854 
 
 1853 
 
 1861, 1857, 1870 
 
 1859, 1861 
 
 1861 
 
 1866 
 
 1864 
 
 1875 
 
 1854, 1864 
 
 1881 
 
 1881 
 1881 
 1881 
 1881 
 1854 
 1855 
 
 Total 
 
 1,395,920 
 
 
 The grant of 1862 proved insufficient, and in 1890 an Act for the 
 " more complete endowment of the institutions called into being or en- 
 dowed by the Act of 1862 " was passed. 
 
 But these laud grants do not exhaust the means adopted by the 
 State to encourage higher education in the United States. In the 
 book to which reference has been made, Dr. Blackmar summarises 
 the principal ways in which the several States have aided higher educa- 
 tion. They are as follows : — 
 
 (1) By granting charters with privileges. 
 
 (2) By freeing officers and students of colleges and Universities 
 from mihtary duties. 
 
 (3) By exempting the persons and properties of the officers 
 and students from taxation. 
 
250 
 
 EDUCATION AND 
 
 ISS. 
 
 (4) By granting land endowments. 
 
 (5) By granting permanent money endowments by statute 
 law. 
 
 (6) By making special appropriations from funds raised by 
 taxation. 
 
 (7) By granting the benefits of lotteries. 
 
 (8) By special gifts of buildings and sites. 
 
 The result is, as Prof. Edward Delavan Perry, of Columbia University, 
 has said,* " At the present time, in each of the twenty-nine of the 
 States of the Union, there is maintained a single ' State University ' 
 supported exclusively or prevailingly from public funds, and managed 
 under the more or less direct control of the legislature and administra- 
 tive officers of the State. These States are the following : — Alabama, 
 CaUfornia, Colorado, Georgia, lUinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, 
 Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, 
 North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South 
 Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, 
 Wisconsin and Wyoming. 
 
 " The universal verdict of public opinion in the States where such 
 institutions are maintained is that they, as State organisations sup- 
 ported directly by public taxation from which no taxable individual 
 is exempt, should be open without distinction of sex, colour, or religion 
 to all who can profit by the instruction therein given." 
 
 The figures necessary to express how much university education in 
 the United States owes to the American Government are large, and 
 the total amount of the aid is enormous. The following table, drawn 
 up with the assistance of the report of the United States Commissioner 
 of Education for the year 1899-1900, will enable the reader to form 
 some idea of the splendid resources placed at the command of American 
 Universities. The grand totals under each heading will be found 
 in Tables v. and vi., so arranged as to show the proportion of each 
 total available for the University education of women. 
 
 The universities and colleges of the United States have another 
 source of income in addition to the generous provision made by the 
 State. Every year wealthy American citizens place large sums of 
 money at the disposal of the educational authorities for the purposes of 
 higher education and the encouragement of scientific research. During 
 the eleven years 1890-1901, the aniQunt of these donations reached 
 
 * See Prof. Nicholas Murray Butler's monographs on 
 United States," vol. i. 
 
 Education in tht 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
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 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
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APPENDICES. 
 
 the grand total of nearly 23,000,000^., as Table III., compiled by Prof. 
 Nicholas Murray Butler, shows : — 
 
 Table III. — ToUd amount of Benefactions * to Higher Education in the United 
 
 States. 
 
 Reported in 
 
 1890-91 
 
 1891-92 
 
 1892-93 
 
 1893-94 
 
 1894-9.^. 
 
 1895-90 
 
 £ 
 1,515,018 
 1,336,917 
 1,343,0-27 
 1.890,101 
 1,199,645 
 1,810,021 
 
 Reported in 
 1896-97 
 1897-98 
 1898-99 
 1899-1900 
 1900-01 
 
 £ 
 1,678,187 
 1,640,856 
 4,385,087 
 2,399,092 
 3.r)08.082 
 
 From 1871-1890, the total amount of benefactions for education of the 
 kind with which this article is concerned was, the annual reports of the 
 United States Bureau of Education show^, 16,285,000^., so that for the 
 years 1871-1901, the grand total of 40,000,000^. sterUng was raised by 
 private effort for American University education. 
 
 The question naturally presents itself. What has been done by private 
 ofTort in this country to assist University education during the same 
 period ? Compared with American munificence, the amounts given and 
 bequeathed here are very small. Take in the first place the University 
 Colleges, which are largely to be regarded as a growth of the years 
 under consideration. The financial statements contained in the " Re- 
 ports from University Colleges, 1901," pubUshed by the Board of 
 Education, reveal the fact that, including the 400,000^. raised for the 
 University of Birmingham, the benefactions to the fifteen University 
 Colleges in Great Britain amounted during 1870-1900 to a Uttle more 
 than £3,000,000. In the absence of systematic reports during the 
 same period of the financial resources of the older Universities of the 
 United Kingdom, it is difficult to estimate the amount of benefactions 
 received by them during the same thirty years. The parliamentary 
 returns which have been pubUshed since 1898, showing the revenue 
 of Scottish Universities, suggest that their benefactions in the same 
 time, excluding Mr. Carnegie's splendid gift, may be put at something 
 under £500,000, so that for the whole of the United Kingdom the 
 total amount of endowment from private sources raised in these years 
 may, without any risk of undor-estimatioii, bo said to bo considerably less 
 than i:5,0;)0,00li. 
 
 To give some idea of the result of the broad-mindetl policy of the 
 legislatures of the several States and of the treatment which higher 
 
 ♦ CkJinpiled by Prof. Nicholas Murray Butler, Columbia University, and pub. 
 lisbed in " Special Reports on Educational Subjects," vol. xi., part ii. 
 
254 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROaRESS. 
 
 education has received at the hands of American statesmen and men of 
 wealth, the following short summaries have been drawn up, with the 
 assistance of the Report of the Commissioner of Education of the United 
 States Bureau at Washington, published in 1901, for the year 1899-1900. 
 The first (Table IV.), shows the number of colleges having endowments 
 
 Table IV. — Classification of Colleges and Universities for Men and for both 
 Sexes, according to Amount of Endowment Fund. 
 
 £ £ 
 
 20,000 to 40,000 56 
 
 40,000 „ . 60,000 38 
 
 60,000 „ 80,000 13 
 
 80,000 „ 100,000 - - - - - 14 
 
 100,000 ,, 120,000 7 
 
 120,000 ,, 140,000 4 
 
 140,000 ,, 160,000 5 
 
 160,000 ,, 180,000 2 
 
 180,000 „ 200,000 1 
 
 200,000 ,, 250,000 8 
 
 250,000 „ 300,000 5 
 
 300,000 „ 400,000 3 
 
 400,000 ,, 600,000 4 
 
 600,000 ,, 800,000 4 
 
 800,000 ,, 1,000,000 ... 1 
 
 1,000,00«) ,, 1,500,000 2 
 
 1,500,000 ,, 2,000,000 — 
 
 Over 2,000,000 3 
 
 of certain specified amounts. The second summary (Table V.), shows 
 the total property of all American university colleges, tabulated under 
 the headings of fellowships and scholarships ; values of libraries, 
 apparatus, grounds and buildings ; and of their productive funds. The 
 next (Table VI.), shows the amounts of income of these colleges, and the 
 last (Table VII.), gives the total number of professors, instructors and 
 students in colleges of university standing. 
 
 It is interesting in this connection to compare the number of students 
 taking university courses in this country with those in Germany and the 
 United States. With this object in view, Table VIII. has been prepared, 
 but it should be pointed out that the number of students in our univer- 
 sity colleges includes all above the age of sixteen, which is probably 
 much lower than the age of these students included in the totals for 
 other countries. It is well to remember, too, that the number "of 
 American university students is probably too high for a fair comparison 
 with those of Germany. Many university students in the United States 
 are really students in higher branches of technology, and would in 
 Germany study in technical high schools, the students of which 
 ar^ not included in Germany's total in the table. To make the 
 
HCES. 
 
 255 
 
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256 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 comparisons as simple as possible the number of university students 
 per 10,000 of population has been calculated. 
 
 Table VTI. — Professors, Instructors and Students in Universities and 
 
 Colleges of United States. 
 
 Institutions. 
 
 Professors and Instructors.* 
 
 Men. 
 
 "Women. 
 
 For men and for both soxea (480 
 institutions) - . . - - 
 For women (141 institutions) - 
 
 12,664 
 
 697 
 
 1,816 
 1,744 
 
 
 students. 
 
 
 Men. 
 
 Women. 
 
 Total number of students in Univer- 
 sities and colleges ... - 
 
 61,800 
 
 35,300 
 
 Table Ylll.— Number of University Students per 10,000 of Population (1900). 
 
 Country. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Number of Students. 
 
 Number of 
 Students 
 per 10,000 
 
 of popula- 
 tion. 
 
 United Kingdom 
 
 41,164,000 
 
 Universities 
 University "i 
 Colleges j 
 
 Day. 
 12,000 
 
 8,500 
 
 Evening 
 5,000 
 
 4-98t 
 
 German Empire - 
 United States - 
 
 56,367,000 
 76,086,000 
 
 44,400 
 97,100 
 
 7-87 
 12-76 
 
 The statistics provided above make it possible to form a good estimate 
 of the comparative amounts of importance attached to higher education 
 in this country and in the United States. Table VI. shows that, 
 neglecting the income accruing from the State land grants, the legisla- 
 tures of individual States and the United States Government together 
 supplied about 900,000^. for university education during 1899-1900, 
 
 * Excluding duplicates, 
 t Excluding evening students of University Colleges, 
 
APPENDICES. 257 
 
 while the article in Nature for March 12, 1903, shows that the total 
 State aid to universities and colleges in the United Kingdom at present 
 amounts only to 155,6(X)^. Table VI. also brings out another important 
 principle ; it reveals the fact that during 1899-1900 private effort pro- 
 vided more than two and a quarter millions steriing for the colleges of the 
 United States, and thus leads to the conclusion, which is strengthened 
 by Table III., that interest on the part of the State in higher education 
 l^pads to a corresponding enthusiasm among men of wealth. 
 I^P A comparative study of this kind is of vital national interest ; our 
 very existence as a nation depends directly upon success in that indus- 
 trial warfare between the great countries of the world from which there 
 can be no peace. The last article in this series has shown the great 
 importance attached by German statesmen to the higher education of 
 the directors of German industries, and how greatly superior is the 
 provision made for this purpose in Germany to that in this country. 
 A similar conclusion is reached by studying the subject from the Ameri- 
 can point of view ; we are equally behind the United States. Unless 
 our Government, on one hand, and our men of wealth on the other, 
 take immediate steps, and make serious efforts to remedy these deficien- 
 cies in our higher education, British manufacturers cannot hope to hold 
 their own successfully with either German or American competitors. 
 The amount by which we fall short of the United States, the deficiency 
 which must be made good simply to bring us level with America in the 
 race for industrial supremacy, will be seen from the following deductions 
 from the above statistics : — 
 
 (1). The amount raised during 1871-1901 by private munificence for 
 higher education was, in the United States, more than eight times that 
 similarly provided in the United Kingdom. 
 
 (2). In addition to the large income from State land grants, the amount 
 provided by the State for higher education is, in the United States, six 
 times as much as the Government grant for the same purpose in the United 
 Kingdom, where there is nothing corresponding to the land grants. 
 
 (3). In the United States there are 170 colleges with an endowment 
 of more than 20,000/. ; forty-nine of these have endowments of more 
 than 100,000/., and three of more than two millions sterling. In the 
 United Kingdom there are thirteen universities and twenty other uni- 
 versity colleges. Four of the universities do Httle more than examine. 
 
 (4). In the United States nearly thirteen of every 10,000 inhabitants 
 are studying during the day at colleges of university status ; the 
 number in the United Kingdom is less than five. 
 
 (5). The value of the endowments of institutions of higher education 
 in the single State of New York exceeds the total amount of benefactions 
 
 R 
 
258 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 for similar purposes raised during thirty years in the whole of the 
 United Kingdom. The same is nearly true in the States of Massachu- 
 setts and of California. 
 
 (6). The number of professors and instructors at the Universities and 
 colleges included in the list of the United States Commissioner of 
 Education is 17,000. The number of day students in our Universities 
 and University Colleges is only about 20,500, so that there are almost as 
 many University teachers in the United States as there are University 
 students in the United Kingdom ! 
 
 A careful study of the tables here brought together will do more than 
 anything else to explain the success which has attended American 
 manufactures and commerce in recent years. America has learnt 
 that to energy and enterprise must be added trained intellect and a 
 familiarity with recent advances in science. Other things being equal, 
 that nation will be most successful in the competition for the markets 
 of the world which makes the most generous provision for the higher 
 education of its people. 
 
 (3) 
 
 The Requirements of the University of Birmingham.* 
 
 Among the many documents prepared by Principal Sir Oliver Lodge 
 in relation to the development of the University of Birmingham, there 
 are more than one of which the interest is by no means merely local. 
 Of these, the pamphlet entitled " Survey of the Sciences," which forms 
 an appendix to a paper on University Development, is of especial im- 
 portance at the present time, for we are glad to know that the beUef 
 that the weakness of our Universities must lead to national weakness in 
 several directions is growing with a rapidly accelerating pace. 
 
 It may be long in this slow-moving country before the influence of 
 brain-power on history is recognised as fully as the influence of sea-power 
 has been, thanks to Captain Mahan, but undoubtedly it will be bad for 
 our future if much more time is lost. 
 
 The paper on the " Survey of .the Sciences " begins as follows : — 
 
 " In a recent pamphlet I considered the question of the relation 
 of the University of Birmingham to its central and suburban sites, 
 with a view of determining what recommendations should be made 
 to the Council concerning the Departments which ought to migrate and 
 the Departments which ought to remain. I was able to arrive at some 
 judgment on the matter except in connection with the Faculty of Science, 
 
 * Nature, January 1, 1903. 
 
I 
 
 APPENDICES. ^^^ 259 
 
 and tliere the problem became so complicated that it was necessary 
 to make a survey of the sciences in order to get the material on which 
 ■p> form an opinion. This survey is now printed, not only as an appendix 
 to the former paper, but because it is hoped that it may be useful for 
 other purjDOses ; especially I hope that it may be of interest to those 
 who are able to help financially in the forthcoming great educational 
 development of the future, enabling them to reaUse the immensity of 
 the area which we attempt to cover, and the largeness of the sum which 
 could be properiy invested in suitable buildings and equipment and in 
 endowment of stal?. Our position is such that if some man of power 
 thought fit to exercise it by entrusting us with a sum of 5,000,000/. for 
 University development, it could be well and properiy employed ; 
 nor could such an investment fail to exercise an extraordinary influence 
 on the progress of the country. Hitherto the ideas of this country 
 in education and scientific research have been conceived on a wholly 
 inadequate scale, and without proper appreciation of the vast extent of 
 territory over which a modern University is called upon to preside.'* 
 
 After referring to the sciences already dealt with at Birmingham 
 and the collateral branches and practical appUcations, the pamphlet 
 concludes as follows : — 
 
 " In venturing to name such a sum as £5,000,000, I have had in view 
 certain considerations which it may be well to set forth. 
 
 " First, it has been found that the Carnegie donation to Scottish 
 universities is insufficient to attain its objects, and already it appears 
 likely that it may have to be doubled. 
 
 Next, it is well-known, and indeed painfully famihar to all who have 
 do with administration, that every new department started, and 
 ry new building erected, means an increase of current expenditure 
 and a drain upon resources. Expenditure is called for on behalf of 
 rates, portering and cleaning, heating and hghting, maintenance, 
 depreciation and supersession of equipment, and materials for experi- 
 ments and processes. There are also annual grants to be made to the 
 library, to the various laboratories and museums, and to departmental 
 libraries. Then there is a large disbursement for salaries of demon- 
 strators and curators and assistance and technical instructors. All 
 these expenses come out of revenue, and are probably best provided 
 for by the income derived from fees, and from the contemporary support 
 of county and other bodies, so as to preserve dependence on the interest 
 of the living generation. But it is highly desirable to keep fees low — 
 not by any means to aboHsh them, but to keep them low — so as to 
 bring higher education within reach of all who are able to make use of 
 it : a number which, with the improvement of schools, will probably be 
 
 R 2 
 
 k« 
 
260 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 rapidly increasing. Hence it is probable that the above-mentioned 
 items of annual expenditure will absorb the whole of the ordinary- 
 annual income and leave nothing for the payment of the chief professors 
 and lecturers. Everywhere it has been found essential that chairs 
 shall be endowed, so as to put them on a permanent and substantial 
 basis ; moreover it is vitally important to be able to attract the best 
 men, wherever they are to be found. At the present time it is not 
 usually possible to compete with other places for the best men unless we 
 can offer a sum comparable to £1,000 a year, and in some subjects more. 
 
 " An invested million will therefore on the average relieve the annual 
 income of the stipends for thirty principal chairs. There must be a 
 large number of lectureships, or subsidiary and supplemental chairs, and 
 sixty of these at £500 each could be provided with the second miUion. 
 
 " The buildings already in progress on the new site are to cost more 
 than a quarter of a milUon, and the remainder of what has been sketched 
 out and actually contemplated will cost the other three-quarters. 
 Another half a million at least will be needed to equip them properly. 
 
 " The older or central site will also need considerable enlargement 
 and fresh buildings should rise there. Half a million may be set aside 
 for ultimate building and equipment on and near the Mason College site. 
 " Four out of the five millions are thus accounted for ; the fifth is 
 intended for a real attempt at scientific research in all departments. 
 A fund by which men could be sent to any part of the world : to study 
 tropical diseases, or fisheries, or mining possibihties — to investigate 
 either nascent industries or injured industries of any kind ; a fund 
 which could equip research laboratories at home, and could defray the 
 expense of researches undertaken on a large or engineering scale, so as 
 to bring in rapidly some practical results. At present there are men who 
 perceive how many things could be reformed or improved, whether 
 n purification of the atmosphere, or in novel modes of locomotion, 
 or in many other ways ; but they lack the means to demonstrate their 
 plans or to try experiments. Manufacturers and municipalities some- 
 times try experiments on a very extensive scale indeed — a really com- 
 mercial scale — and in case of failure the resulting experience is over- 
 dear. The endowment would not allow experiments on such a scale 
 as that ; considering the variety of subject, the amount available for 
 each would permit of no extravagance. Some of the experiments 
 undertaken would undoubtedly fail, yet the success of a few would far 
 more than compensate for the failure of many, and the activity could 
 not but conduce to progress. 
 
 *' The fund would have to provide not only the necessary appliances 
 and assistance, but it would endow fellowships for post-graduate study 
 
26] 
 
 and would attract workers from many parts of the world, and certainly 
 from the Colonies. 
 
 " One Principal could not possibly supervise all the multifarious 
 activities which we have thus supposed may some day be called into 
 being. There would have to be a Research Principal (whatever he 
 might be called), to organise and superintend the scientific and post- 
 graduate study ; a Technical Director, in touch with all the technical 
 departments ; and an Educational or General Head, to supervise the 
 general scheme of the college in all its various avenues to a degree, and 
 to take a lead in whatever conduced to general culture. 
 
 " If the scheme is lavish it represents lavishness in the right place. 
 It is the kind of lavishness for which the nation is waitings-one of the 
 few kinds of which hitherto it has been afraid. 
 
 I^^_ " ' There is that scattereth but yet increaseth ; 
 
 ^^b There is that withholdeth more than is meet, but 
 
 ^^^ it tendeth to poverty.' 
 
 I " These lines refer not to individual wealth alone, but to national 
 wealth also. We have failed to make the most hitherto of the brains 
 and energy of our more able and specially-gifted youth, but have 
 cramped them by the necessity of earning a living : a process whole- 
 some enough for the individual, and right for 999 out of every thousand, 
 but for the remaining one far less repaying to the Commonwealth than 
 the special service which he could render, if set free and encouraged by 
 suitable surroundings for a few years of research, following on a thorough 
 educational preparation. Not all of these would justify their selection : 
 nine-tenths of them even might do only moderately well; but the 
 discoveries of the select tenth would be of incalculable value. The 
 world has been wasteful of its genius hitherto. It thinks too facilely 
 that people exceptionally endowed will struggle to the front somehow. 
 A few do, but a number do not ; the conditions are not favourable ; 
 and the struggle for existence, though doubtless a stimulating training 
 for the hardier and sturdy virtues, is not the right atmosphere for the 
 delicate plant called genius. Different kinds of treatment are suited 
 to different characters, and the hot- house plant will not thrive in bracing 
 arctic air. 
 
 " From the trust deed with which Mr. Carnegie has endowed a 
 research institution at Washington with 10,000,000 dollars, I extract the 
 following altogether admirable statement of ' aitns ' : — 
 
 " ' 1. — To promote original research : paying great attention thereto, 
 as one of the most important of all departments. 
 
 " * 2. — To discover the exceptional man in every department of 
 study, whenever and wherever found, inside or outside of schools ; 
 
262 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
 
 and to enable him to make the work for which he seems specially 
 designed his Hfe-work. 
 
 " ' 6. — To ensure the prompt publication and distribution of the 
 results of scientific investigation ; a field considered highly important. 
 
 . . . " ' The chief purpose of the founder being to secure if possible, 
 for the United States of America leadership in the domain of discovery, 
 and the utilisation of new forces for the benefit of man.' " 
 
 (4) 
 
 The Requirements of the Welsh University and Colleges.* 
 
 We saw that the great bulk of the endowments of the German univer- 
 sities was provided by the State, 81 per cent, of the total being so 
 provided in Prussia, and 74 per cent, in Germany as a whole. Wales, 
 happily or unhappily, possesses comparatively few men whose individual 
 possessions could enable them to take part in endowing her colleges in 
 any way commensurate with the need. Of the sums that have been 
 raised for buildings, a great part has been collected, at the cost of 
 healthy but disproportionate effort, from the shillings and pence of 
 artisans and small farmers or traders. It is not surprising, therefore, 
 to find that the colleges and the university depend already mainly 
 upon public funds. The county council grants to Cardiff and Aberyst- 
 wyth must in fairness be counted as fees, not endowments, since they are 
 given in return for teaching a definite class of students, and a change 
 of policy in the local authorities might at any time modify or even 
 divert their contributions. The figures are approximately! as follows, 
 reckoning the interest on investments, as heretofore, at 2 J per cent., 
 and including in the Government grants those devoted to special objects, 
 such as agriculture, and the training of primary teachers. 
 
 Present Endowment of University Education in Wales. 
 
 Income from 
 
 Private 
 Endowments. 
 
 £ 
 
 375 
 1,225 
 750:r 
 
 University College, Aberystwyth 
 University College, Bangor 
 University College, CardiflE 
 The University of Wales - 
 
 Totals - 
 Percentages 
 
 £2,350 
 10 
 
 Income from 
 
 Government 
 
 Grants. 
 
 £ 
 0,000 
 6,000 
 5,250 
 4,000 
 
 £21,250 
 90 
 
 * Nature, July 16, 1903. 
 t The exact figures vary slightly from year to year. 
 X Including the annual grant of £350 from the Drapers' Company for engineering. 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
 263 
 
 riifre is only one conclusion. In great cities like Liverpool and 
 Manchester there is accumulated wealth and an accumulated tradition 
 of culture to which their colleges have appealed with some success. In 
 Wales the culture has been for centuries remote from university life, 
 and the wealth, as we have seen, is non-existent. If, therefore, the 
 Government wishes that the £21,000 a year which it now spends in grants 
 to the colleges and the University of Wales shall not be wasted, it is 
 high time that it should face the question of what they really need. 
 
 RIn order to represent these needs in as concrete a form as possible, 
 ^e have made inquiries as to the sums which, in the opinion of re- 
 ponsible persons at each college, would suffice to place them in a position 
 o discharge their work with real efficiency. In each case we shall 
 mention two capital sums, the one that required to construct or com- 
 plete the buildings and equipment of the college, the other that required 
 as an endowment for maintenance, the interest in this latter case 
 being reckoned at 2J per cent. Aberystwyth has from the first been 
 the most fortunate of the three colleges in the matter of buildings, so 
 that its needs under this head are smaller ; similarly Bangor needs 
 sUghtly less towards maintenance as being possessed of somewhat larger 
 invested endowments, Cardiff and Aberystwyth having only very small 
 possessions of this kind ; trust-funds for scholarships are, of course, 
 disregarded altogether in the estimate. 
 
 The figures assume that the present Government grants will continue, 
 and under both heads state the sums needed in addition to all the re- 
 sources the colleges at present possess. 
 
 Funds needed for University Education in Wales, 
 
 
 A. For Buildings 
 and equipment. 
 
 B. For Endowment. 
 
 University College, Aberystwyth 
 University College, Bangor 
 University College, Cardiff 
 Tho University of Wales - 
 
 99,800 
 176,500 
 162,000 
 
 £ 
 1,071,500 
 
 960,400 
 1,176,400 
 
 288,400 
 
 Totals 
 
 £438,300 
 
 £3,496,700 
 
 Grand Total .... 
 
 £3,935,000 
 
 In round figures, therefore, we may say that university education 
 in Wales needs an endowment of £4,000,000 sterling to secure its 
 
264 
 
 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL PROaRESS. 
 
 efficiency. This will not be thought an extravagant figure when it is 
 remembered that the need of the Birmingham University was estimated 
 at £5,000,000, and that the Welsh colleges minister to the needs of a far 
 more diverse population. The agriculture, the manufactures, the 
 mining and the over-sea commerce of Wales all demand the enlighten- 
 ment and intelligence which can only be developed in universities 
 efficiently equipped for their work. 
 
INDEX 
 
 University College 
 
 Abelard, 82. 
 Aberystwyth, 
 
 of, 263. 
 
 Academies, International Associa- 
 tion of, 130. 
 Academy. British, 133. 
 Alcuin, 80 
 Appleton, Dr., 206. 
 Appolonius, of Perga, 119. 
 Aristotle, 77, 106. 
 Armstrong, Prof., 53. 
 Army, training of the, 4, 151. 
 Arnold, Matthew, 89. 
 Astronomy, advances in, 113. 
 
 benefits from study of, 114. 
 
 in Chaldea and Egypt, 76. 
 
 B. 
 
 aeon, Francis, 87, 107, 114. 
 Balfour, Mr. A. J., 182, 204, 209, 240. 
 Bangor, University College of, 263. 
 Beda, 79. 
 
 Berlin, University of, 231. 
 Birmingham, requirements of the 
 University or, 258. 
 science teaching in, 29. 
 Blackmar, Dr. Frank W., 248. 
 Blennerhasset, Sir Rowland, 243. 
 Brain-power, analogue of sea-power, 
 196. 
 an essential. 179. 
 decline of, in Britain, 194. 
 developed in Navy Scheme, 159. 
 influence of, 173. 
 in Prussia, 243. 
 
 in U.S.A., Germany and Britain, 
 191. 
 Britain, apathy of the Government 
 in, 232, 248. 
 decline of initi.ative in, 121. 
 ,, of brain-power in, 122. 
 ,, of natural resources of, 
 122. 
 lack of enthusiasm in, 257. 
 private munificence in, 253, 257. 
 starvation of Universities in, 220. 
 stultifying conservatism in, 181. 
 
 British Association, 216. 
 
 functions of the, 177, 183. 
 
 power of the, 185. 
 
 suggested extension of the, 184. 
 British Empire, growth of the, 120. 
 British Science Guild, 186, 222. 
 Brodie, Sir Benjamin, 206. 
 Brunner, Sir John, 201. 
 " Burgher Schools" in Holland, 32. 
 Butler, l*rof. N. M., 253. 
 
 Cambridge, curriculum, 244. 
 
 Cardiflf, University College of, 263. 
 
 Carnegie, Mr. Andrew, 210, 261. 
 
 Carnegie Institution of Washington, 
 261. 
 
 Chamberlain, Mr. J., 175, 180, 188, 
 193, 209. 
 
 Chemistry, decline of, in England, 
 92, 112. 
 developed in Germany, 72 . 
 
 Chemicals, German production of, 
 117. 
 
 Chrystal, Prof., 54. 
 
 City Guilds, endowment by the, 40. 
 
 Coal-tar, products of, made in Ger- 
 many, 122. 
 
 Code, the new Education (1905), 235. 
 
 Cole, Sir Henry, 44. 
 
 College de France, 85. 
 
 College des Trots Langucs, 86. 
 
 College Endowments, application 
 of, 8. 
 
 College of Chemistry, foundation 
 of, 93. 
 
 Commerce, and Science, in Germany, 
 126. 
 State neglect of here, 63. 
 
 Commission, The Duke of Devon- 
 shire's, 208. 
 
 Committee on Scientific Education, 
 2. 
 
 ''Cramming," evils of, 55, 235. 
 
 Curzon, Lord, his Scientific Council 
 211. 
 
 Darwin, Charles, 112, 123. 
 Derby, Lord, 45. 
 
266 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Devonshire. Duke of, 69. 
 Disraeli, Mr., 173. 
 Donnelly, Colonel, 29. 
 Drawing", importance of, 12, 25. 
 Dumas, 20<>. 
 
 ficole Xormale, foundation of the, 88. 
 
 value of the, 14. 
 ^cole speciale des Hautes EtudeSy 206. 
 Education, a State duty, 229. 
 
 beneficent effects of, 84. 
 
 cost of primary and secondary, 
 193. 
 
 essentials of a modern, 228. 
 
 for all classes, 233. 
 
 in Parliament, 46. 
 
 in politics, 46. 
 
 in the Navy, 150. 
 
 national importance of, 122. 
 
 neglect of, in Britain, 188. 
 
 origin of compulsorj', 84. 
 
 real basis of, 116. 
 
 results of imperfect, 188. 
 
 scientific, on the Continent, 3. 
 
 State neglect of higher, 191. 
 
 the ideal, 224. 
 
 the true aims of, 234. 
 
 What is the hest, 234. 
 Egypt, 106. 
 
 Electricity, application of, 110. 
 Endowments, private, in U.S.A. 
 
 and in Britain, 192. 
 England, decline of, 122, 123. 
 
 neglect of research in, 6. 
 Eudemus, 81. 
 Ewing, Prof., 162. 
 Examinations, evils of, 13, 16, 55, 
 237. 
 
 F. 
 
 Faraday, 205. 
 Fees, reduction of, 218. 
 Finance, of National Education, 201. 
 Fitzgerald, Prof., 68. 
 Foster, Mr., 48. 
 Foucault, Leon, 206. 
 France, educational renaissance aAiev 
 Sedan, 203, 207. 
 
 ippor 
 
 t of researcli in, 6. 
 
 Francis I., of France, 86. 
 
 Galileo, 107. 
 
 Geology, advantages reaped from 
 study of, 111. 
 
 Germany, Scientific Council in, 212. 
 commercial recognition of research 
 
 in, 73 
 enriched by our chemical dis- 
 coveries, 202. 
 financial statements of Univer- 
 sities in, 245. 
 ideal education in, 70. 
 knowledge valued in, 65. 
 organised science study in, 108. 
 reasons for advance of, 225. 
 results of research in, 126. 
 
 „ „ scientific training in, 117. 
 science appreciated in, 17, 181. 
 „ teaching commenced in, 
 88. 
 secondary education in, 31. 
 selection of naval officers in, 169. 
 State support of universities in, 
 
 191, 219. 
 true issue between England and, 
 
 117. 
 universities in, 35. 
 university courses in, 70. 
 „ incomes in, 195. 
 works chemists employed in, 125. 
 Giessen, practical teaching at, 91. 
 Giffen, Sir Kobert, 201, 220. 
 Gladstone, Mr., 46, 47. 
 Gottingen, technical research at, 74. 
 Government, apathy towards science 
 
 of the British, 127. 
 Government Grant Committee, 
 
 The, 208. 
 Grammar schools, 37. 
 Greece, science in ancient, 78. 
 Gree k and Latin, 227. 
 Gresham College, 87. 
 
 H. 
 
 Haldane, Mr., 212. 
 Handicraft, importance of, 25. 
 Hicks-Beach, Sir Michael, 152. 
 Hipparchus, 118. 
 Holland, secondary education in, 31, 
 
 32, 33. 
 Huxley, Prof., 11, 63, 115, 177, 237. 
 
 India, encouragement of science 
 
 211. 
 Indigo, German production of, 126. 
 Industries, causes of decline, 188. 
 " Industries Producing Council 
 
 need for, 67. 
 
 Pl 
 
INDEX. 
 
 267 
 
 Industry and Science, interdepen- 
 dence of, 115. 
 Intelligence versus Memory, 21. 
 
 Japan, advance of, 225, 231. 
 
 intellectual effort of, 203. 
 
 State-aitl to universities in, '219. 
 Jenkin, Prof. Fleemin^', 3. 
 Jenner, Sir William, 113. 
 Judd, Prof., 95. 
 
 K. 
 
 Karl the Great (Charlemagne), 80. 
 Kepler, 119. 
 
 Languages, modern, 41. 
 modern and dead, 228. 
 Latin and Greek, 227. 
 Leeds, University of, 195. 
 Leipzig, technical research at, 74. 
 Levy, M. Maurice, 118, 123. 
 Liebier, 90. 
 Lister, Lord, 113. 
 
 Literature, need for organising, 140. 
 Lodge, Sir Oliver, 200, 258. 
 London County Council, 238. 
 London, new University facilities in, 
 
 239. 
 Lot, M. Ferdinand, 243. 
 Louis XIV., and pure research, 205. 
 Luther, Martiu, 28, 84, 108, 229. 
 
 Magnetism, and solar phenomena, 
 
 110. 
 Mahan, Capt., U.S.N., 196. 
 Manufactures, treated scientifically 
 
 in (iermany, 73. 
 Mathematics, teaching of, 55. 
 Mather, Sir William, 232. 
 Mechanics, origin of modern, 119. 
 Meteorology, advantages reaped 
 
 from, 111. 
 Millis, Mr., 238. 
 Mining, dependent upoQ study of 
 
 geology, 112. 
 Minister of Science, need for, 68. 
 Minister of Public Instruction, 45. 
 Mond, Dr. Ludwig, 210. 
 Morley, Mr., 59. 
 Mundella, Mr., 3. 
 
 N. 
 
 Napoleon, Prince Louis, 206. 
 
 " National Scientific Council," need 
 
 for a, 210. 
 National Scholarships, 97. 
 National Physical Laboratory, 126. 
 Naval Architecture, School of, 95. 
 Navigation, importance of, in Navy, 
 
 161. 
 Navy, education in the, 150, 154. 
 entrance into the, 152. 
 promotion in the, 161, 166. 
 reorganisation of the, 196. 
 versus Universities, State support 
 of, 192. 
 Navy Bill, of 1888, 200. 
 Newton, 119. 
 Noble, Sir Andrew, 120. 
 Normal School, The, and London 
 University, 104. 
 
 O. 
 
 Ostwald, Prof., 66, 69. 
 Oxford curriculum, 244. 
 origin of University, 83. 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, 203, 243. 
 
 Paris, University of, 83, 203. 
 
 Parsons, Mr., 109. 
 
 Pasteur, 113. 
 
 Patent Fund, Application of the, 8. 
 
 " Patent Law Amendment Act," 179. 
 
 Peace, need of preparations for, 213. 
 
 the wars of, 117. 
 " Peace Council," need for a, 67. 
 Perkin, Sir W. H., 122. 
 Perry, Prof. Edward Delavan, 250. 
 Petersilie, Dr., 244. 
 Philosophy, and the Royal Society, 
 
 137. 
 Playfair, Lord, 50, 78, 208. 
 Pliny, 107. 
 Politicans, lamentable ignorance of 
 
 science among, 68. 
 Priestcraft) antagonistic to Science, 
 
 106. 
 Prince Consort, H.K.H. the, 51, 93, 
 
 108, 174, 214. 
 Production, of Industries, 67. 
 Prussia, founding of Universities in, 
 90. 
 importance of education recognised 
 
 in, 121. 
 rennissnuce of education in, 203, 
 243. 
 Privy Council, lack of scientific men 
 in, 64. 
 
268 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Railways, introduction of, 110. 
 Ramsay, Sir W., 65. 
 Realschulen, The, 88. 
 Reformation, influence of the, 84. 
 Reichsanstalt, foundation of the, 
 
 126. 
 Religion, and education, 85. 
 Research, as important as battle- 
 ships, 209. 
 at the Royal College of Science, 
 
 101. 
 discouraged by University authori- 
 ties, 207. 
 endowment of, 66. 
 importance of, 5, 115, 119, 204. 
 in Germany, 62, 73, 244. 
 necessity for State-aided, 7, 194. 
 neglect of, in Britain, 6, 187, 204. 
 Roberts- Austen, Prof., 95. 
 Rolland d'Erceville, 88. 
 Rome, science in ancient, 79, 107. 
 Roscoe, Sir Henry, 122. 
 Rosebery, Lord, 180. 
 Royal College of Science, attributes 
 
 of, 100. 
 Royal Exhibitions, 97. 
 Royal Society, The, abrogation of 
 the true functions of, 148. 
 birth of, 87. 
 
 classification of Fellows of, 146. 
 functions of, 137, 139. 
 literary and antiquarian Presi- 
 dents of, 144. 
 proposed subdivision of, 132. 
 
 Salerno, the first University, 81. 
 Salisbury, Marquess of, 172. 
 Samuelson, Sir Bernard, 18. 
 Scholarships, the 1851, 208. 
 School of Mines, foundation of, 93. 
 Science, a bar to naval promotion, 
 166. 
 a Government responsibility, 127. 
 and Art Department, 94. 
 „ Commerce, 115, 201. 
 „ „ in Germany, 126. 
 
 „ national wealth, 174. 
 „ Royalty, 58, 60. 
 Classes established, 96. 
 cosmopolitanism of, 118. 
 function of, 1. 
 Government need of, 179. 
 Government neglect of, 69, 128, 
 
 151, 175. 
 national, lack of organisation of, 
 
 182. 
 practical, in ancient Europe, 81. 
 
 Science {continued) — ji 
 
 results of neglect of, 176. 
 Teachers, 100. 
 
 Selborne, Lord, 163. 
 
 Sidgwick, Prof., 131. 
 
 Siemens, Sir William, 35. 
 
 Siemens, Mr. Alexander, 244. 
 
 State-aid, in Britain, Germany, 
 U.S.A., and Japan, 219. 
 in Holland, 33. 
 
 State endowment, of Universities, 
 191. 
 
 State Universities, in America, 250. 
 
 Strassburg, University of, 191, 192. 
 
 "Struggle for existence," during 
 peace, 124. 
 
 Summer Courses, for Science Teachers, 
 100. 
 
 Symmin^ton, applies steam to loco- 
 motion, 109. 
 
 Teachers, in Training, 99. -^ 
 
 Normal School for, 95. 
 Technical Education, defined, 12, 38. 
 
 fallacies concerning, 116. 
 Trade, follows brain-power, 180. 
 
 German replaces English, 62. 
 
 lack of State assistance to, 63. 
 Training, method of early, 117. 
 
 national dependence on scientific, 
 180. 
 Trevelyan, Sir George, 59. 
 " Two-Power Standard " The, 
 
 applied to Universities, 197. 
 Tycho Brahe, 119. 
 
 U. 
 
 United Kingdom, number of Univer- 
 sity students in the, compared 
 with U.S.A. and Germany, 256. 
 United States, and Britain, compared 
 educationally, 232, 256. 
 educational awakening in the, 232. 
 endowments for education, 219, 
 
 248, 249, 253, 254. 
 ideal education in Western, 230. 
 increase of Universities, 121. 
 land grants for Universities, 249. 
 number of University students, 
 professors, and instructors in 
 the, 256. 
 progress in the, 52, 225. 
 scientific training appreciated in 
 
 the, 181. 
 University property and incomes 
 in the, 255. 
 
 k 
 
INDEX. 
 
 269 
 
 TJniversity of Lomlon, 103, 239. 
 Universities, a State responsibility, 
 176, 19<). 
 complaints against the older, 68. 
 cost of required, 199. 
 function* of modern, 217. 
 in Germany, 73, 191, 245. 
 lack of, in Britain, 187, 190, 194, 
 
 197. 
 neglect of science in, 107, 189. 
 number of, in Britain, U.S.A., and 
 
 Germany, 191. 
 original purpose of, 9. 
 private endowment of in U.S.A. 
 
 and Britain, 191. 
 State neglect of, in Britain, 190. 
 192. 
 Usher, Archbishop, 111. 
 
 Vaccination, Ijeneficial results from, 
 
 113. 
 Voltaire, 125, 239. 
 
 W. 
 
 Wales, University of, 262, 263. 
 War, eflFects of, 2. 
 
 commercial, 180. 
 War Commission Report, 179. 
 Watt, 109. 
 
 William of (^hampeaux, 82 
 William of Malmesbury. 81. 
 Wren, yir Christopher, 87. 
 
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